Industry Retail (Specialty) Revenue $100M (as of 8/15/13) Founder Martin Manley Type of business Private | Key people Tommaso Trionfi, CEO Website www.alibris.com Number of employees 120 | |
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Products Used books, out-of-print books, rare books. Also features used or collectible games, music and movies (albums, cassette tapes, compact discs, DVDs) Owner Oak Hill Capital Partners Monsoon Commerce Headquarters Emeryville, California, United States Founded 1997, Emeryville, California, United States Profiles | ||
Alibris is an online store that sells new books, used books, out-of-print books, rare books, and other media through an online network of independent booksellers.
Contents
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History
Alibris was founded in 1997 by Martin Manley and incorporated in 1998. It grew out of Interloc, an online company founded by antiquarian bookseller Richard Weatherford in 1994. Interloc was one of the earliest successful efforts to centralize used book data online. It remained a private network until 1996, when the company launched its website. The company was backed by venture capital until 2006, when it was purchased by Oak Hill Capital Partners, a private equity firm. In February 2010 Oak Hill Capital Partners bought Monsoon and merged it with Alibris with Monsoon Commerce owning Alibris.
Company
Booksellers list their inventories on Alibris which in turn offers the books on its retail website, a separate library services site, and business-to-business partners such as Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, and Chapters Indigo. It also offers services in the UK with the Waterstones market place. It offers more than 150 million books from a network of over 15,000 booksellers in 65 countries.
Most sales made through Alibris are fulfilled by the bookseller directly to the end customer. Sales to libraries or other institutions or books needing transoceanic shipping are consolidated in a distribution center in Sparks, Nevada. Alibris also has a similar network for music (albums, cassette tapes, and CDs) and movies (VHS or DVD).
Alibris allows customers to buy and sell at the same time. Alibris charges a starting fee that varies based on what is being sold and what kind of commission is charged.
Alibris was a charter member of the Google eBooks service when it was announced by Google on December 6, 2010.
In 2014, Alibris began posting book recommendations, news and more on The Alibris Blog to keep their customers and community updated.