Saturday, March 3, 2012

E-Commerce India - Renting books and just books


If I am a book lover, I would want to browse through a bookstore - online or offline - and buy the ones I like. Sites like http://flipkart.com, http://infibean.com and http://indiaplaza.com help me with that. On the other hand, if I want to sell books, I can chose to sell them online on sites like http://olx.in. What If I want to rent books online? An old but eternal concept of book library has been brought online as http://justbooksclc.com.

It follows a hybrid model with a combination of online and offline store fronts. There are physical outlets open in south India in places like Bangalore, Mysore and Hyderabad. Each book is tagged using RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), which looks like a sticker pasted on either ends of the cover. There would be a kiosk, which can be self operated, in each outlet. Once I take a membership, I am issued an RFID card, which represents my identify and helps issue or return books at the kiosk.

The best part is that I can borrow in any of the outlets of JustBooks in any of the locations, and also return them in any other JustBooks outlet. Is this not called 'convenience'? I can even browse the catalog online and request books to be delivered home? Can we call this 'heights of convenience'? I can check-out book reviews, know who is reading what and even suggest books to be bought by JustBooks! If you are keen, you can apply for JustBooks franchise also.

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