2. "An online portal for buying and selling old used books "

3.  In India, there are many people who are fond of reading books.
However, not many of them are regular in reading books because
the new books are costly.
 Inspite of the presence of some big players in the Indian Online
book selling market, there is no one big name which deals in
selling and buying old books of a varied genre.
 Academic books is one section of the market which has not been
properly explored by any 1 company, and is still governed by
small shops in the vicinity of schools and colleges.
 Presently, people have limited option with some very rare old
book stores within a city where they live.
 Due to time constraints, not many people are able to visit
traditional old book markets (like Daryaganj market and Nayi
Sadak in Delhi). Even if they do, it involves a lot of hassles, and
bargaining, which we believe the modern urban population
would like to avoid.

4.  People are comfortable with reading old books (the ones already
read by someone else). Our idea revolves around providing all
such people who would like to read their favorite titles in 2nd
hand or 'old used books', an online portal where they can order
books.
 Our platform will also provide an opportunity to people who
normally buy new books but would like to sell them after they
have read them.
 Along with maintaining an inventory of all these 2nd hand books,
we would also offer an unique feature of matching customers
with book-stores near their homes, who have that title.
 We also plan to create a library of these second-hand books
which can be borrowed and then returned after a specified
period of time for a specified sum.

5.  Eliminating the cost of courier – To a large extent we would be able
to avoid the use of courier service and hence save on costs, because
the books asked for will be delivered by the book-stores nearest to
the customer themselves. They will get a certain commission for
that.
 Eliminating Local Competition – To a large extent we will be able to
eliminate the threat by local shopkeepers, by making them our
partners in the business. The shopkeepers will get more business,
and besides we are not eating their profit margin rather increasing it
(albeit by a very small percentage)
 Offering a platform to sell – People can sell their books to us.
Interesting schemes like, sell your book and exchange it with a book
of similar price, no exchange of money (the slight difference in cost
will be shown in his account as change, b/w Rs. 0-9).

6.  We would connect with the major book sellers in all the major cities of
India and form a network of book sellers. Our value proposition will be that
they will get more customers, a national presence and a commission on
every book they deliver to a customer near them.
 The customers will make their order as well as payment on our website. The
‘price’ listed on our website will be equal to ‘our price’ plus the commission
that we are offering to the shopkeepers (which will be in the bracket of 1-3
%). As such, the shopkeeper wouldn’t have to do anything out of ordinary
and he does get more orders for books and hence more commission.
 We will keep an inventory of books, buyed :
 in bulk from such second-hand book vendors who wouldn’t want to become a
part of our network
 from people registering on our website (by paying them cash or giving them
books in return)
 from major traditional book vendors like Daryaganj market (carefully selected)
 by conducting online drives, on Social Media, to give old books in return for
cash (we can get very good variety at very low price, through this medium) .

7.  An online survey was conducted in 3 different cities –
Delhi, Bangalore and Pune (by our respective team
members).
 The survey questions can be seen here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHk2S1p1ZGVRb2I4N2FyMk5MSERj
TGc6MQ#gid=0
 The survey re-affirmed our belief that the customer do
need such a service. The results of the survey can be seen
here: http://www.slideshare.net/fullscreen/amitpandey1986/venture-lab-oap-
value-proposition-testing/1
 The summary of survey is this:
 77% of the respondents would like to read old used books.
 67 % of consumers who would like to read ‘used books’ will
also like to buy them through an online portal.

8.  Since the idea is to sell used old books, some customers might be
apprehensive about the quality of books. It would be better if the
website shows 3-4 snapshots of the real book from all sides (and
not only the thumbnail image of the Title as given by
publisher). This will lead to improved user experience.
 The customers thought that buying 2nd hand academic books
made sense because they are replaced after every semester or
year and old books came with useful notes in them. (What if we
had a textbook with notes from a prestigious school in it? Would
this increase the value?)
 While a few big players definitely have captured the market, we
could gain a certain advantage by making the experience more
personal. (Maybe a social element on what their friends or
people similar to them are reading? Something like an app,
where they could ask for reviews from their close friends, who
too are subscribed to us.)

9.  Market size for ‘online book shopping’ in India is
expected to be between Rs. 20-25 crore for 2007-2008.
Market size of whole of book industry in India is estimated
at 4000 crores and is growing at a very quick pace.
 With the literacy rate of India increasing at a steady
rate, publishers predict that India will become the world's
largest market for English books within the next 10 years.
 Second Hand Books constitute a major portion of the book
retail market. The size of the Indian book retail industry is
pegged at Rs. 3000 crore of which organized book retail
constitutes only 7 %. The industry is expected to grow by
approximately 15 % a year. Almost 50% of the orders come
from the top eight cities and the remaining come from B &
C class towns.

10.  Low literacy rates (less number of readers)
 Lack of knowledge of operating internet/computer
 Internet usage/penetration is low
 Competition from unorganized market
 Time lag due to lack of proper inventory
 Low credit card penetration
 Customer not very open to paying online
 ALL OF THIS IS CHANGING.
 Literacy rate improves (it rose from 52 per cent to 68 per cent between
1991 and 2008)
 Internet penetration is increasing.
 E-Commerce market is set to boom.
 Online payment is being widely adopted (hint: Indian railways online
booking record!)

11.  The Indian market is being led by the following big players:
 Indian online companies:
 Flipkart
 Infibeam
 Indiaplaza.in
 Bookadda.com
 Brick and Mortar companies with an online presence:
 Landmark
 Crossword
 Foreign companies in india:
 Junglee – a service by Amazon
 Half.com – a service by eBay
 No company offers services proposed by us.
 Most of the foreign companies have very limited penetration in India. Their supply chain
model in india is not that strong to capture the market (proof – Dominance of Flipkart, a
5 year old Indian company)
 Expansion of Brick and Mortar companies online – vey less market share – no threat.