Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Saturday, Jul 21, 2007
ePaper
Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Saturday, Jul 21, 2007 ePaper |
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Marketing
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Online Marketing Variety - Books Online stores optimistic about Potter book sales
Preethi J Bangalore, July 20 Retailers are flocking to Platform 9 3/4, to catch the Hogwart’s Express. Online sellers Sifymall, eBay, Rediff and Fabmall as well as bookstores such as Crossword and Landmark are excited despite negative reviews of the final Harry Potter book. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is being sold at discounted rates at the online stores. Rediff Shopping is selling it for Rs 780, eBay for Rs 975, Sify Mall for Rs 699 and Fabmall for Rs 634. The original price of the book is Rs 9 75. One of Crossword’s Bangalore stores will open at 5.30 a.m. and has already seen a pre-book order of 1,000 copies. “Our store has a stock of 2,500 copies and we expect them to be sold out in two days,” said Mr Rajan Das, General Manager, Crossword. About 15,000 copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be shipped by Fabmall on July 21 to Muggle fans all over India. “This will definitely be more than any physical store can sell on the first day,” said Mr V aitheeswaran, COO, Fabmall.com. “It will be the first book to have such a record,” he added. Sify Mall and Rediff Shopping are wooing readers with PC games and e-vouchers. At Crossword, Potter parties will be held. Rediff also has a discussion forum where questions (such as one regarding Potter’s surmised death in the final series) and opinions are being exchanged. The Harry Potter book will displace Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code as the highest selling book on Fabmall, and by a huge margin — only 5,000 copies of Da Vinci Code were sold the day it was launched. The pr evious book in the Potter series — Half Blood Prince — saw a first day pre-order sales of 1,800 copies on Fabmall. At Crossword, pre-book copies were at 400 but it finally sold 1,000. Sifymall has seen demand doubling this year for Potter books. Older books in the Potter series are being sold for between Rs 300 and Rs 80 online. “Usually prices of the books drop after a few months. Publishers bring out a paperback edition, the price of which is half the hardback edition,” said Mr Vaitheeswaran. Hence, they expect to sell most number of books in the week of the launch. Rumours of the Potter book being pirated and available online are not expected to affect sales. Mr Vaitheeswaran said, “True fans of Harry Potter will want to read the book, and will pay for it.” No cancellations of the booked copies have been reported at the stores.
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