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Bookpages

UK-based online bookstore
Amazon Cemetery

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GENERAL INFORMATION
Category:
Education
Started:
1996
BUSINESS FAILURE
Cause:
Acquisition Flu
Closed:
1998

Successful brands value customer experience and smart founders use PartnerHero to up-level their CX without breaking the bank. Invest in flexible, affordable outsourced customer ops to grow your startup.

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Description

Bookpages was one of the largest online bookstores operating in the UK with a selection of over 1.2 million books. The online bookseller was aspiring to become as big as Amazon for its UK customers.

In its heyday, the online bookseller was garnering up to 28% growth each month and was moving ahead of other brick and mortar bookstores in the UK. The service claimed that it was expanding its reach with promotional efforts such as free delivery, unique search engine features, and discounts.

In 1998, the online bookstore Bookpages caught the attention of Seattle-based e-commerce giant Amazon. Amazon, which was already making waves in the US, aimed to gain a market share in Europe and provide the same quality of services to European users.

The acquisition was received with a lot of excitement by Bookpages as its managing director expressed that it was great news for the company. They hoped to combine Amazon’s resources with Bookpages market knowledge.

Amazon acquired Bookpages with two other European-based internet companies, thinking that this would allow them to successfully penetrate the European market.

Cause of Failure

Since the acquisition, Bookpages was merged with Amazon. It made no sense for Amazon to keep operations under the Bookpages brand and websites. The Bookpages website currently redirects to Amazon’s online bookstore.

References

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