Bookworld Engages in Book Battle with Amazon

Fans of JK Rowling looking to crack open her latest work,The Casual Vacancy, may do so sooner – and for less money – than Amazon via Australian retailer Bookworld, The Australian reported today.

On Bookworld.com.au, the book retails for $27.99 and guarantees 2-3 day delivery (and no shipping costs, to boot), while Amazon UK offered the same title for $28.15 and estimates delivery in 8-12 working days.

They’re so driven to beat the online retailer, in fact, that Bookworld is offering a 10 per cent discount on any book found for a lower price on Amazon.

"This is the first time a local online book retailer has directly competed with the major international online players,'' Bookworld CEO James Webber told The Australian.

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It’s a courageous strategy to implement in Australia’s competitive book market, where delivery and GST often drive up costs and thus send shoppers to big-name websites such as Amazon and Book Depository.

"With the increasing strength of the Australian dollar prices of Australian books have become very expensive compared with directly sourcing them from the UK and US,” Webber acknowledged, adding that around 90 per cent of Bookworld’s titles compete directly with Amazon’s offerings.

Bookworld, whose parent company is the international publisher Pearson, acquired the online sectors of Borders and Angus and Robertson when the chains went out of business last year. In addition to free nationwide shipping, Bookworld offers 5-10 per cent discounts on various items to members of its ‘Citizenship’ program.