With the improvement and growth of technology, there has been a shift in the trend of buying books from conventional stores.
According to a report by Ventures Africa, 33% of online shoppers bought books and CDs last year. This shows there are lots of people who buy books online. Bookmall has decided to join other players in the literature market to move physical bookstores online.
BookMall is an e-commerce platform where publishers and authors sell their books. It also create a directory for various bookstores and allows them list the books available in their conventional stores.
This helps the bookstores increase online presence, and widen their reach and accessibility.
Joseph Anya (Founder) and Oluchi Okere (CFO) saw the huge gap between authors, booksellers, and their readers.
They both launched BookMall on January 8, 2018 to create a community where individuals can conveniently get access to any book genre at any given time.
Users create an account by filling a form on the platform to become members of the community, which gives them access to shop/sell on the platform. BookMall generates its revenue by charging 5% on every sale.
Unlike its competitors, Jumia, Konga, and Okadabooks, BookMall claims to offer free shipping for every order above ₦20,000. And also rewards its clients with one point on every ₦20 spent, which accumulates and can be used to purchase books on the platform.