Citing problems with its e-commerce contractor, the American Booksellers Association announced last week that it would not go live with Booksense.com before the holiday season, and that it wasn't sure when in fact the launch would take place.
Len Vlahos, director of Booksense.com, told PW that he realized about 10 days ago that unanticipated delays on the part of iXL, the high-end Web firm that is handling Booksense.com's e-commerce component, would force a postponement. "There were expectations created by the development firm," Vlahos said. Originally slated to debut in August, Booksense.com's launch has been delayed several times. At the fall regionals, ABA representatives expressed confidence that the site would be ready by Thanksgiving, in time for the beginning of booksellers' busiest period. According to Vlahos, the dates given to booksellers were based on information from iXL, which was supplying target dates to the ABA. At press time, iXL had not returned PW's call asking for comment.
The delay has raised the possibility of a different schedule for the Booksense.com rollout. "We're reevaluating what specifically we're going to be able to launch and when," Vlahos said, declining to commit to specific dates. He didn't comment on speculation that Phase 1 (the basic e-commerce operation) and Phase 2 (which allows ordering from Ingram and K n, and, perhaps more importantly, makes it possible for stores to fulfill directly) would be merged.
Booksellers, about 130 of whom have signed up for the program, were nearly unanimous in their support for the ABA decision. Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association executive director Thom Chambliss observed, "The first consumer impression is the most important one, and if our potential customers who have tried the big boy sites decide to give ours a try and run into any kind of problems, the chance of winning them back is minuscule." He did say that his members were "disappointed" but "not surprised," given the complexity of arranging fulfillment mechanisms for more than 100 stores. One bookseller, however, noted that while the delay may have been caused by iXL, it was ABA's slowness in enacting a program that put booksellers at risk for another online-free holiday season.
But if most booksellers were encouraging, Dick Harte was more skeptical. The Booksite founder, who said he d sn't think he'll benefit from the delay because the client bases for his venture and for the ABA's are different, told PW, "I take no joy in this. But I am shocked and flabbergasted, because the system that they're talking about [Phase 1], we did in 1995 with a college kid in three months." He added: "I feel bad for those booksellers who believe the solution to the Internet is to turn it over to some wizard behind the curtain to solve. My kind of people want to run their own business." Harte said that Booksite has 150 members, and he expects to continue adding them at a pace of 10-15 per month.
Vlahos said that, per conversations with Booksense.com signees, he was "not concerned" that booksellers would embark on independent Web initiatives or sign on with Harte.
