Booksellers received notification on Thursday that Textbookrush.com and Bookstores.com are downsizing their marketplaces due to a restructuring. We’ve sent Bookstores.com an email asking for more information and to determine if they planned to close their marketplaces to all third-party sellers.
One reader told EcommerceBytes, “Minor marketplace for us, but still disappointing to see another marketplace go away.”
It’s a difficult time for sellers of textbooks thanks to a coalition of publishers called the Educational Publishers Enforcement Group (EPEG) that is aggressively moving to fight counterfeit textbooks.
In December, CNBC wrote about a bizarre sting Amazon reportedly conducted to crackdown on textbook sellers (“The mysterious Clara Dufour”) that may or may not have been prompted by pressure from EPEG.
Yesterday’s letter to some (or possibly all) Textbookrush.com and Bookstores.com sellers was as follows:
Subject: TextbookRush.com and Bookstores.com Marketplace Restructuring
From: TextbookRush
Date: Thu, February 28, 2019
TextbookRush + Bookstores.com
Dear (redacted),
TextbookRush.com and Bookstores.com are restructuring to accommodate new organizational goals. Due to this restructuring, both Marketplaces will be sizing down. As a result, your marketplace seller account under the name (redacted) will be closed as of Thursday, February 28, 2019. Starting on that date, your marketplace listings will no longer be displayed and you will not receive further marketplace orders from TextbookRush.com or Bookstores.com.
There is no action required on your part. All accounts will be reviewed to determine if payments are due. If no payment is due, your seller account will simply be closed. If there is an amount due to you, payments will be processed no later than 90 days from February 28, 2019 using the preferred payment method designated in your seller account.
Thank you for being a seller on our marketplace. Whether you’ve been with us for a short while or many years, we value the time you’ve spent with us and appreciate your hard work to fill orders and provide a valuable service to the visitors of our sites.
If you have any questions, please email seller-support@bookstores.com.
Sincerely,
George Tompkins
Seller Support Director
TextbookRush.com | Bookstores.com
According to the websites, they charged sellers zero listing fees and a 15% commission on sales (or 15 cents per item, whichever was larger).
We’ll bring you more information if we learn more, please feel free to comment below or reach out to the editor via ina@ecommercebytes.com to let us know if and how this affects you.
