|
Abebooks.com made inroads with the Hispanic book market last month by buying Iberlibro.com, the largest online bookselling network in Spain. According to Janice Wormald, Press and Publicity manager for Abe, this move is targeting the large Spanish speaking markets of Europe, North and Latin America.
"It's a huge market that's been untapped right now," she explained in a telephone interview. And though it is based in Spain, Iberlibro.com represented buyers and sellers of Spanish books throughout the world. Abe's press release states this adds 300 booksellers and millions of Spanish language books into the Abe inventory.
Further cementing their inroads into this market, Abe.com also acquired Casa Del Libro as a participant, a Spanish bookstore chain who adds a quarter of a million new books to the Abe list of titles.
This move, according to Wormald, allows millions of Hispanics in North America to be better served by the online bookselling community.
Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut visited us last year and said that Spain was a burgeoning market worth watching. He was impressed by the sophistication with which the country is approaching the Internet market and becoming an integral part of the global community.
But the Spanish market isn't the only plan Abe.com has to increase business for itself and its members. A two-week long television commercial ran on A&E, MSNBC, and other cable stations of note. "We did see some spikes in sales," Wormald reported. It is a marketing plan to attain brand recognition. No radio ads are planned as yet, though the student campaign Abe runs does utilize college radio stations.
The next logical step, Wormald said, is to follow up on the work Abe's done to increase business in New Zealand and Australia by advancing farther into the eastern hemisphere by targeting the vast market of Asia.
Janice Wormald has been with Abe.com for the past four months and we will keep in contact with her to see what else Abe may be doing to increase business for online sellers. In the meantime, this news may mean that some of the usual sellers can dust off foreign titles with the hope they'll soon find a home through Abe.
|
