Alibris is an online store that sells new books, used book

Used book

A used book or secondhand book is a book which has been owned before by an owner other than the publisher or retailer, usually by an individual or library....

s, out-of-print book

Out-of-print book

An out-of-print book is a book that is no longer being published. Out-of-print books are often rare, and may be difficult to acquire.A publisher will usually create a print run of a fixed number of copies of a new book. These books can be ordered in bulk by booksellers, and when all the...

s, rare books, and other media through an online network of independent booksellers

Independent bookstore

An independent bookstore is a retail bookstore which is independently owned.-Literary and countercultural history:Author events at independent bookstores sometimes take the role of literary salons. The bookstores themselves, "have historically supported and cultivated the work of independent...

.

Alibris was founded in 1997 by Martin Manley

Martin Manley

Martin Manley is a former US Assistant Secretary of Labor, developer of a US government agency, entrepreneur and founder of online bookseller Alibris.-Early career:...

 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

Private equity firm

A private equity firm is an investment manager that makes investments in the private equity of operating companies through a variety of loosely affiliated investment strategies including leveraged buyout, venture capital, and growth capital...

.

Booksellers list their inventories on Alibris which in turn offers the books on its retail website

Website

A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...

, a separate library services site, and business to business partners such as Barnes & Noble

Barnes & Noble

Barnes & Noble, Inc. is the largest book retailer in the United States, operating mainly through its Barnes & Noble Booksellers chain of bookstores headquartered at 122 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District in Manhattan in New York City. Barnes & Noble also operated the chain of small B. Dalton...

, Borders Books, Books-A-Million

Books-A-Million

Books-A-Million, Inc., also known as BAM!, is a company that owns the second largest U.S. bookstore chain and is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. The company operates over 200 stores in the South, Midwest, Northeast...

, and Chapters Indigo

Chapters

Chapters is a Canadian big box bookstore banner owned by Indigo Books and Music. Formerly a company in its own right competing with Indigo, the combined company has continued to operate both banners since their merger in 2001.-History:...

. It offers more than 70 million books from a network of over 10,000 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

Sparks, Nevada

Sparks is a city in Washoe County, Nevada, United States, located east of Reno, Nevada. The 2010 U.S. Census Bureau population count was 90,264. Sparks is often referred to as half of a twin city .-Geography and Climate:...

. Alibris also has a similar network for music (albums, cassette tapes, and CDs

CDS

-Computing and electronics:* Cadence Design Systems, American Electronic Design Automation software company* Chromatography data system, software to control chromatography instruments* Cockpit display system* Compact Discs...

) and movies (VHS

VHS

The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....

 or DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

).

Alibris lets a customer sell and buy at the same time. It charges a starting fee that varies based on what is being sold and what kind of commission they charge.

The domain alibris.com attracted at least 15 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com

Compete.com

Compete.com is a web traffic analysis service of Compete, Inc. which operates in the United States and publishes the approximate number of global visitors to the top 1,000,000 web sites in the world...

 survey.

Alibris was revealed as a charter member of the Google eBooks service when it was announced by Google on December 6, 2010.

Based on the Better Business Bureau

Better Business Bureau

The Better Business Bureau , founded in 1912, is a corporation consisting of several private business franchises of local BBB organizations based in the United States and Canada, which work through their parent corporation, the Council of Better Business Bureaus .The Better Business Bureau, through...

(BBB) files, this company has an "A+" rating.

External links

• "Putting A Face on Faceless Venues: An Interview with Alibris' A.J. Kohn" by Catherine Petruccione
• SEC filings