Booksellers Find Big Advantages in Publishers’ Rapid Replenishment Programs

Major publishers are offering expedited order fulfillment programs this holiday season and booksellers who have utilized similar programs in the past say they offer big benefits that all stores should consider.

“The rapid replenishment programs that many of our publishing partners have offered us this year are something that every bookseller ought to take advantage of. We certainly do at BookPeople,” said Steve Bercu, owner of BookPeople in Austin, Texas.

Rapid replenishment programs “allow us to buy directly from publishers until much later in the season — like now. Of course, the added margin positively impacts our bottom line. Over the last several years, nothing has had an impact like rapid replenishment does on our overall financial health,” said Bercu, noting that it generally amounts to a one percent increase in the store’s margin.

Erin Barker, the buyer and manager at Hooray for Books! in Alexandria, Virginia, said the announcement of this year’s rapid replenishment offers has helped her pin down a streamlined buying schedule. “The thing that I find most beneficial is knowing the schedule, knowing if I get orders in by this date, I’ll have books in this week. It made it really easy for me to rearrange my schedule and speed up when stock comes in,” said Barker.

For Barker, rapid replenishment programs also offer the confidence of knowing orders will arrive quickly, especially when it comes to special orders. “The volume of special orders goes up this time of year, and it’s easy for me to say to a customer that it should be here within the week.” And as the holiday season continues, Barker said she is making a concerted effort to continue stocking the store directly through publishers “to help the bottom line.”

Old Firehouse Books in Fort Collins, Colorado, has also found rapid replenishment programs to be of assistance when it comes to special orders and restocking during the holidays. “All indies should be taking full advantage of publishers’ rapid replenishment programs this season,” said Allison Senecal, who manages the receiving and reorders for the bookstore. “With business up for the holidays, minimums are super easy to meet, especially if you’re ordering your bestsellers and winter catalog titles in fives and tens.”

This year, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, Perseus, and Simon & Schuster are offering expedited shipping programs for indie bookstores during the holidays and, in some cases, beyond. Here’s a look at the previously announced programs:

Hachette Book Group

Hachette’s rapid replenishment program is available to independent retailers in good standing within the continental U.S. through 2016.

Orders received by 3:00 p.m. EST on Mondays will be entered, picked, packed, and guaranteed to arrive at bookstores no later than Friday of the same week. Orders placed Tuesday through Friday will be entered, picked, and packed within 24 hours and shipped standard method. This includes orders received into the Hachette system via electronic ordering platforms such as Edelweiss. Normal pack, stock availability, and freight rules apply.

All Hachette Book Group divisions are participating in the program, including Grand Central Publishing; Hachette Audio; Hachette Books/Black Dog & Leventhal; Hachette Nashville; Little, Brown & Co.; Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; Orbit; and Yen.

Several of Hachette’s distribution clients are also participating: Abrams, Chronicle, Disney, Gildan Media, Marvel, Octopus, Paula Deen Ventures, Peterson’s, Phaidon, Quarto, Quercus, and Time Inc. (including Liberty Street and Oxmoor House).

HarperCollins

HarperCollins’ Holiday Express Shipping Program is available to independent booksellers in the U.S. through Friday, January 15, 2016.

All qualifying orders received by 3:00 p.m. EST will ship out the next business day, provided the titles are in stock and the account is in good credit standing. In most cases, orders will be delivered in two business days.

The minimum for a single order is 30 units. If the minimum order is not reached because HarperCollins is out of stock on any of the titles and the customer allows backorders, HarperCollins will still ship the order free freight. If the out-of-stock titles become available within the program’s time frame, the balance of the order will be expedited at no extra charge.

All reorders of HarperCollins titles are eligible for the expedited shipping program. New title laydowns will continue to ship by their established on-sale dates. Harlequin titles are not part of the holiday program.

All qualifying orders placed during the Holiday Express Shipping Program will receive the special handling. Accounts should place their orders in the same way they always have; no special instructions are needed.

Questions about the program should be addressed to a store’s HarperCollins sales rep.

Macmillan Publishers

For the holiday season, Macmillan is expediting all Western region independent retail reorders for Macmillan trade products, including distributed publishers.

Through December 24, any independent retailer shipments for trade products with a retail list value greater than $100 will be dispatched via a two-day air expedited service. These qualifying shipments will continue to receive free freight terms. There is no need to mark or input orders any differently than normal; Macmillan has adapted its systems to arrange the upgrade automatically.

Retailers on Macmillan’s returnable retail schedule in the following states will receive the two-day air expedited service for the holiday season: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

New release orders will be dispatched as per Macmillan’s normal schedule to ensure availability ahead of the publication date. Shipments of orders at less than $100 retail list value and gratis will be dispatched via the standard freight service.

Independent retailers in other regions will continue on their current daily shipping schedule for reorders.

Penguin Random House

For the first time, Penguin adult and children’s print new releases, frontlist, and backlist are part of Penguin Random House’s annual Two-Day Transit holiday shipping program. The initiative also includes titles from Crown Publishing Group, Random House, Knopf Doubleday, Random House Children’s Books, and Penguin Random House Audio titles, across all physical formats, as well as titles from all Penguin Random House Publisher Services (PRHPS) clients.

Through January 31, 2016, orders received in the Penguin Random House order system by 3:00 p.m. EST will ship no later than the following business day, with transit time, barring inclement weather, of no more than two days. Titles will ship from PRH’s Westminster, Maryland, and Crawfordsville, Indiana, distribution centers. Both have added weekend shifts so that title orders received on Friday and Saturday throughout the pre-holiday and year-end periods can be fulfilled by their staffs more quickly than in previous years.

Perseus Books Group

Just in time for the holiday season, Perseus announced an agreement with FedEx to significantly improve shipments to bookstores and other outlets across the U.S. Under the agreement, which went into effect on October 19, books will arrive at stores within an average of two days of shipping from the Perseus Distribution Center in Jackson, Tennessee.

Most orders received electronically by 12:00 p.m. EST via services such as Pubnet and PubEasy will ship the next business day.

Perseus Books Group publishes through its own imprints, including Basic Books, PublicAffairs, Da Capo Press, Running Press, and Avalon. It is also a provider of distribution services, via Consortium, Legato, Perseus Distribution, Perseus Academic, and Publishers Group West.

Perseus member publishing programs include Avalon Travel, Basic Books, Basic Civitas, Da Capo Press, Da Capo Lifelong Books, PublicAffairs, Running Press, Seal Press, and Westview Press, as well as partnerships with The Nation Institute and The Weinstein Company.

Simon & Schuster

Since the fall of 2014, Simon & Schuster has been offering two-day shipping to its accounts in California, Arizona, Idaho, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington.