Comments on: Who is the biggest bookstore of them all?

By: frank

frank — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 02:25:13 +0000

You need fishpond because Kindle a) is not in New Zealand and b) when it does arrive in NZ it will be just like it is in Australia, where it has to (and does) respect territorial copyright law, and drastically reduces the number of titles you are able to download to the several hundred thousand (as opposed to the 5m + books in existance).

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 02:22:49 +0000

I highly recommend the book depository, free shipping worldwide, which often means they come out cheaper than amazon. Also – http://www.booko.com.au is a comparison engine that finds the cheapest online price to get a book or DVD in Australia (taking into account shipping), useful for comparisons between the online stores. Unfortunately there is no NZ version, but you can usually make assumptions from the aussie price.

By: qwertycode

qwertycode — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 23:55:37 +0000

It happens because “ships within 24 hours” means, it will ship from their warehouse or their suppliers warehouse within 24hrs. If you order multiple books in many cases they are from different suppliers, and if suppliers offer drop shipping it is a lot faster to ship direct from the supplier (doesn’t have to pass through two warehouses).

In some cases, books are packaged in USA/AU/UK bulk shipped to NZ and then dispatched.

By: sue

sue — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 07:50:30 +0000

what i find strange is when i order multiple books that ship in 24hrs

but they all arrive separately
I’ve always wondered why that happens

By: Glen Barnes

Glen Barnes — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 23:54:04 +0000

@todd I wouldn’t trust HitWise or Aleza data at all. If the companies could show their Google Analytics, Quantcast (Quantified) or Nielsen Online data then you might get some better comparisons.

By: todd

todd — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:42:36 +0000

And I posted an old report for the Fishpond overtaking amazon. Here it is, q3 2009.

http://www.firstrate.co.nz/resources/industry_reports/documents/NZMarketShareOnline-books-and-authors-2009.pdf

By: todd

todd — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:41:08 +0000

First – you are using the wrong statistic. Go to fishpond.co.nz or fishpond.com.au and you’ll see Fishpond has:
2,484,805 Books · 24,228 DVDs · 2,227 Games
as of 11 December. The ‘what is fishpond’ page you quoted is obviously out of date.

So yes, Fishpond is the biggest online bookstore in Australasia, and and website rankings support this and can be verified through hitwise statistics and alexa statistics. Also, FirstRate did a paper on this and I’ve hyperlinked the research.

Fishpond #1 in NZ – Hitwise
http://www.hitwise.com/awards/popup.html?market=nz&sDomain=www.fishpond.co.nz&iDate=200902&iCatnum=503&Cal=&semi=1

Fishpond #1 in AU – Hitwise
http://www.hitwise.com/awards/popup.html?market=au&sDomain=www.fishpond.com.au&iDate=200902&iCatnum=503&Cal=&semi=1

Hitwise top ten AU websites:
http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2009/09/13314/

Fishpond Marketshare Overtaking Amazons
http://www.firstrate.co.nz/resources/industry_reports/documents/FirstRateReport-Whitcoulls-Vs-Fishpond.pdf

Alexa Global Website Rankings (the lower the better) –
go to alexa.com and type in various websites – you’ll see that the nile has VERY VERY low ranking, and fishpond is higher than everyone elses (note: fishpond.com.au and fishpond.co.nz are separate websites)

I think this is all pretty hard to disagree with.

By: bowmast

bowmast — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:39:59 +0000

Hi Lance.
Nice montage.
Biggest and Best claims seem old fashioned these days …
With choice abound and size not always equating to quality of service .. It’s time for a new differentiator online.

Credibility, trust, easy to use interface, smooth transaction, reliable delivery, a feeling that someone is there to help. .. and of course word of mouth recommendation are some attributes which customers use to measure their experience of online retailers.

Don’t you think it’s in combination, rather than isolation that these factors need to work hard to define a ‘best’ player?

By: Australian Bookshop

Australian Bookshop — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 03:03:26 +0000

I find it quite funny when i hear some of these ‘online’ bookshops claim to be the biggest in Australia or the biggest in NZ because it’s irrelevant. what’s the point of having 2 million or 3 million books on your database if only between 60 and 80% of them are actually available. books, especially Australian printed books, go out of stock fairly quickly these days because publishers have fairly small print runs. Once the title is out of stock at the publisher they keep taking back orders and if there is sufficient demand they will do another print run. If not then tough. If the title is printed overseas a similar rule applies. The publisher will import a certain number and when they are gone then will again take back orders until they decide if they want to import another bulk lot. I think these online store can rightfully claim to have the biggest database but it’s my opinion that to claim to be the biggest shop they actually need to have a shop with stock.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 01:37:14 +0000

Puffery is everywhere and a part of life – so that is fine. Biggest, best, fastest – a myriad a companies across all manner of industries make absurd statements about their products all the time and that’s just marketing. Sure, TheNile may wish to hold Fishpond to account on this but really the only winners out of that will be the lawyers.

But what is ridiculous is some chump’s idea to trademark that sentence. I noticed it a few weeks back when I went to see the fishpond site to see how it was faring up against the new MightyApe. The first thing that I noticed was the stupid little “TM” next to that sentence. Who knows, maybe someone liked the way those little letters looked. You trademark something that symbolises your business.. “just do it”, “the real thing”. If IPONZ rubber stamp this application then there’s something inherently wrong with the system.