A clever initiative to sell e-books

The Read- Booksellers NZ - 20 Dec 2012       

A clever initiative by The Children’s Bookshop, Christchurch has created a two-way deal with the local Noel Leeming store to jointly benefit from selling Kobo e-books and e-readers.
Office Manager and Chair of Booksellers NZ Mary Sangster told The Read that The Children’s Bookshop had decided not to sell Kobo e-readers but would service their customers who wanted to buy e-books through their website.
Noel Leeming on the other hand sell Kobo e-readers but do not act as an on-seller of Kobo e-books.
“I made up a little coupon offering $5 cash back. said Mary.
“It's just business card size and Noel Leemings are going to print it.  They will give one to every customer who purchases a Kobo device.  I've also added another page to our website, particularly for Noel Leeming customers.
“This gives us two places that the customer can get to the Kobo site from.  Anyone just browsing is bound to find one of them.  We will alter the original page pointing customers in the direction of Noel Leeming if they are after a device.

“The idea is that in order to get the $5 cash back, the customer will have to physically come into our shop.  We can register them here and give them the money straight away, or they can do it themselves and bring in the verification email.  Either way, they have to darken our door and give us the chance to sell them something.

“The $5 is just a carrot.  It could cost us, but we would have to redeem nearly 80 coupons to have spent as much as an ad in the paper.

“We have posters up in the shop advertising that we sell e-books and if customers enquire about hardware we send them round to Noel Leeming.  Hopefully it's win win.”
Mary will keep The Read  posted as to the success of this venture, but it certainly is an example of positive marketing for e-books