On the other hand, they might not send me *any* email. I generally like Amazon, mostly because I live in a small town, the nearest big box bookstore is 20-25 minutes away and the only bookstore in my town is really only a used book store. Most of my purchases don’t fit the inventory profile of that store.
Amazon has a lot to like, even if you own an independent bookstore. You can sell the stuff that isn’t moving, and try and flatten out your cash flow. And of course, there are the systems. Michael Gerber (of E-Myth fame) is likely impressed with Amazon’s systems, as he should be.
He, as I, would suggest that local bookstores could and should implement many of the same systems, even if the implementation is not the same as Amazon’s.
One of Amazon’s more obvious systems analyzes your purchases and occasionally sends you emails about books that you might like. The books are chosen based on what they know about the buying patterns of folks who also bought the book(s) you bought. It’s not a bad system. In fact, sometimes it opens new doors to me. I like it.
Of course, it sometimes suggests rather odd things. This one I found a tad boring (see the image above), and unlike anything I’ve ever bought from them.
“Proceedings and lecture notes from Practical aspects of declarative languages“???
I can’t imagine how exciting a read that’ll be:)
What systems does your favorite local independent bookstore have?
Ever wonder why Borders and Barnes and Noble don’t email you with suggestions like Amazon does?
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