Chapter 277: Play the Beauty Card to See if You Can Keep or Cooperate

Finally, after a brainstorming session with Li Xiaofan and several others, everyone felt that it should be feasible to try out online bookstores in Singapore. After analysis, there are probably the following advantages:

The first is that Singapore is a small country with full urbanization. Once Li Xiaofan and his Pacific Online Bookstore are established, the delivery of book orders will be very convenient. Generally, starting from any place in Singapore, if there is no traffic jam, you can basically reach any residential community on the island within an hour and a half by car. In the future, if there is stock in the warehouse in Singapore, the orders received from the online bookstore can be delivered to the home on the same day without any unexpected circumstances.

The second is that Singapore has a registered population of 3.5 million, and basically everyone speaks English. Singaporean locals like to read and buy English books, and each household spends a lot on buying books every year.

The third is that the largest Ingram Book Company in the United States, the largest and most famous British book wholesalers Bertrams and Gardners, and the famous German Bertelsmann Bookstore all have branches in Singapore. There is no worry about the supply of books.

Li Xiaofan then appointed his blonde assistant, Desha, to connect with Ingram Books and Bertrams, and other European and American book wholesalers, to try to play the "beauty card".

Desha's relationship with these book wholesalers was generally satisfactory. Ingram Books and British book wholesalers Bertrams and Gardners were all interested in cooperating.

And Germany's Bertelsmann Bookstore may be a potential competitor. Because Bertelsmann is very strategic and has already laid out the multimedia and Internet industries in advance. Earlier this year, Bertelsmann had cooperated with AOL to establish AOL Europe, and acquired Pixar Park, the leader in German multimedia. Currently, it is planning to participate in the establishment of MediaWays, the second largest network supplier in Germany, and Bertelsmann is preparing to enter the European Internet field with great ambition...

Because of the relationship with the British colony before, two old British book wholesalers Bertrams and Gardners have established relatively large book storage and logistics centers in Singapore, and Singapore is the Asia-Pacific headquarters of the two companies.

From the survey, everyone thinks that setting up this "Pacific Online Bookstore" in Singapore is really the right time, right place and right people!

At present, according to Li Xiaofan's idea, he wants to let his "Pacific Online Bookstore" go through the development path of Amazon in the previous life again.

In the previous life, the success story of Amazon has basically become one of the must-read cases for every EMBA class. Li Xiaofan has also read it.

In the early stage of Amazon, in order to make Amazon stand firm in the competitive pressure of traditional bookstores, Jeff Bezos spent 1 year to build the website and database.

He spent a lot of money to humanize the website interface, giving customers a comfortable visual effect and providing online users with a very convenient book selection service.

The millions of optional books on the Amazon website are a highlight. To this end, Jeff Bezos spent a lot of energy on developing the database of Amazon Bookstore. At the beginning of 1995, they spent three months testing the database software of Amazon Online Bookstore. Later results proved that Jeff Bezos's approach was extremely correct. With these advantages, in July 1995, Amazon Online Bookstore officially went online and opened for business, and the business was very prosperous.

However, since the establishment of Amazon, Amazon Online Bookstore has faced many challenges, the most powerful of which is the competition from Barnes and Noble, the largest traditional American chain bookstore. At that time, Barnes and Noble was the largest chain bookstore enterprise in the United States and the world. This bookstore has a history of 100 years and has thousands of bookstores and video game and entertainment software stores. It is also the largest game software retailer in the United States. Barnes and Noble has branches all over the United States. This old bookstore is rich in resources and strong.

Barnes & Noble also has the largest university bookstore chain in the United States: Barnes & Noble University Bookstore, which serves more than 400 universities across the United States.

After the establishment of Amazon Online Bookstore, it immediately formed a fierce competition with the traditional Barnes & Noble Bookstore. In a sense, this is a business war between tradition and modernity.

Finally, in the competition for the market, the advantages of Amazon Online Bookstore gradually emerged.

First of all, Amazon Online Bookstore was one of the cheapest bookstores in the United States at that time. It offered discounts on its website every day and provided the biggest discounts. On the Amazon website, there are more than 300,000 books that can be purchased at a discount.

The emerging Amazon Online Bookstore is not like the traditional bookstore business. It has fewer middlemen to exploit, which makes the books or other goods sold on the Amazon website have a more affordable price. Another point is that it has a much more convenient and faster service than traditional bookstores, and a more complete catalog.

When buying books on Amazon, because of the powerful database and search technology support, you can usually get a response within three seconds. It greatly saves customers' time.

Compared to Barnes & Noble, which can only have 250,000 different books, Amazon can offer 2.5 million books online.

Efficiency is also reflected in the update of inventory. Amazon has almost no inventory except for 200 best-selling books.

Finally, Amazon won the competition with Barnes & Noble! Later, in March 1997, Barnes & Noble had to transform and open an online bookstore, becoming the second largest online bookstore in the United States, behind Amazon.

…

Li Xiaofan and Desha also conducted research on the bookstore market in Singapore.

They finished this research work in one day. The largest chain bookstore in Singapore is called Popular Bookstore. The most high-end bookstore is Kinokuniya, located on the top floor of Takashimaya Department Store in Ngee Ann City, Orchard Road, with Japanese capital background.

Popular Bookstore is a famous retail bookstore and publisher in Singapore with a long history. It has branches in Malaysia and Indonesia, and the group also has a branch in Canada. Its main publishing peer is Commercial Press.

Unlike Kinokuniya's elite route, Popular Bookstore, which is spread across various living areas in the island, is just like its name, facing the general public. Popular Bookstore is generally opened in places with convenient transportation and dense population, usually in subway stations, major shopping malls and shopping centers.

Popular Bookstore is diversified, and its products include English books and some traditional Chinese books from Taiwan and Hong Kong, as well as teaching materials, stationery, audio-visual products, multimedia products, etc.

When Li Xiaofan saw Popular Bookstore, he thought of the long-established Thambi magazine store in Holland Village. In the future, will his "Pacific Online Bookstore" compete with Popular Bookstore and Thambi magazine store, or cooperate with them?

"Daisy, do you think it is better for our Pacific Online Bookstore to eliminate century-old stores like Popular Bookstore and Thambi magazine, or to cooperate and retain them?" Li Xiaofan asked.