Bookloop: The Vinted Of Books Has Arrived

4 months ago

Here’s how to swap your old books for new

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How do you offload your used and unwanted books? Dropping them off at a charity shop is probably the most righteous thing to do – but many are overloaded with books and turn you away at the door. There’s also eBay, but that takes a lot of effort. Luckily for us, Bookshop.org has answered our prayers. Here’s everything you need to know about Bookloop, a brand new circular model that’s the book equivalent of Vinted or Depop for individual sellers, but has a wider concurrent impact on indie bookshops, too.

Bookloop: Everything You Need To Know

It’s the model we’ve all been waiting for: Bookloop allows readers to trade their unwanted books for credits which can be spent on Bookshop.org – basically swapping your old books for new. It’s a groundbreaking free-to-use buy-back service, with sales on the site coming back around to support independent bookshops in the UK and authors across the globe.

‘We are very excited to launch Bookloop by Bookshop.org, powered by our new partnership with Zeercle,’ says Nicole Vanderbilt, Managing Director of Bookshop.org UK. ‘While as a platform we carry exclusively new books, we are keen to offer the opportunity to our customers to exchange their pre-owned books for credit to use on our website. This will still bring a benefit to independent booksellers, boosting sales that will help them gain extra commissions, as well as authors via the arrangement with ALCS and the Society of Authors, while ensuring the second-hand books don’t end up on Amazon.’

The news follows Bookshop.org’s B Corp certification in March 2022, just two years after the business launched in January 2020 (in the US, launching in the UK later in the year). Eco-consciousness has been ingrained in the brand from the very beginning, with all deliveries carbon offset and benefits for independent booksellers ingrained in the model. To date, Bookshop.org has 550 independent bookshops and over 11,000 affiliates using the platform. In the UK, the brand has generated £3 million for independent bookshops since it launched in November 2020.

The newly launched Bookloop is the first example of independent bookshops and authors benefitting directly from an online circular economy, spreading the rise of virtual second-hand shopping to the book industry.

How Does Bookloop Work?

Bookloop by Bookshop.org is a new buy-back book service. Powered by Zeercle, all customers have to do is scan their books’ barcodes, and the titles will be collected from their front door. Then, you will be sent tokens to be spent on new books on Bookshop.org.

Your unwanted books will be valued, before being resold or donated after Zeercle has collected them – Bookshop.org will not be selling them on its website, continuing to sell exclusively new books. Zeercle will sell the traded titles through online marketplaces; as part of this partnership with Bookshop.org, this will explicitly exclude Amazon-owned and operated websites.

Best of all, even with your tokens, every purchase made from Bookshop.org supports independent bookshops, with 30 percent of the cover price from each sale donated to indies across the UK.

‘We are incredibly excited to partner with Bookshop.org to launch the Bookloop service in the UK,’ says Eric Gagnaire, Co-Founder and CEO of Zeercle. ‘At Zeercle, our mission is to promote sustainability in the retail industry, and this service aligns perfectly with our goals. By giving books a second life, we are not only reducing waste but also fostering a community of readers who value sustainability and support independent bookshops. This initiative is a win-win for both the environment and the local economy.’

How Does It Help Authors?

Authors benefit from royalties, and many people fear authors are being left in the dust when they shop second hand. However, author benefits are ingrained in the Bookloop model, with all royalties accumulated from second-hand book sales (after they have been sent to Bookloop) redistributed via a shared author fund managed by the Society of Authors and the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS), called ‘Bookloop by Bookshop.org for Authors’.

‘We’re thrilled to support the launch of Bookloop by Bookshop.org in the UK, and it’s great to see the thoughtful way Zeercle and Bookshop.org have brought their win-win approach to the second hand book market,’ says Anna Ganley, Chief Executive of the Society of Authors. ‘At a time when authors, like independent bookshops, are under so much pressure through technology and changes in the way books are bought and sold, we’re excited to see how authors will benefit, and hope it will strengthen the connection between authors and bookshops.’