As I reflect back on the first four weeks of Book Hero, I’m proud of what we’ve achieved as a team and I’m super optimistic for the future.
Book Hero is a tiny company with big dreams to reach a lot of Kiwi readers. We started four weeks ago with no customers, and today we have over 1,000. I’m really encouraged by this, and that 10% of customers have already gone on to place their second order (and some, their third, fourth and one their sixth!). I think that’s pretty good going after only four weeks. If you’re reading this and you’re one of our first customers — thank you for trusting us and supporting us — I really appreciate it. When you’re as small as we are — every order counts and we take nothing for granted.
We're four weeks old, and every order counts - we appreciate all customers who are supporting us on our journey.
As happy as I am, I would love for more people to find out about Book Hero — and I think we’re ready. I’m a big believer in thorough testing, paying attention to every detail, dotting every I and crossing every T — and making the experience as smooth and perfect as possible for customers from Day One. Everything matters! I couldn’t be prouder of what the team has achieved with such limited resources (and such little sleep). The website has performed flawlessly and our warehouse pick/pack operation has held up to our early volumes and every single book has been dispatched to customers at the promised time — yay! We will work hard to keep this standard over what we hope to be a busy Christmas period.
I’m also really blown away by the diverse range of books that we’re able to sell. Titles from The Pohutukawa Tree, Mom I want to Hear Your Story, Escape from Freedom, Dragon Ball Complete Box Set, The Tyranny of Merit, Dear Moko, Meditations, The Pumpkin Spice Cafe, Stolen Focus, The Landmark Julius Caesar, Alice in Wonderland and absolutely everything in between. Books is a truly long-tail business with millions of titles available and it’s extremely satisfying seeing the diversity of our in-stock title selection being rewarded with sales and happy customers. We have some great books on the shelves — and customers agree.
It's been awesome watching our customers order so many books from our long-tail - there are so many great books to read!
Which I guess leads me to the main point of this blog post. I love books — but building a website and a service that customers love, that book people love, is what really sparks joy for me. Over a decade ago I read a book called Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh which speaks to how putting your customers first will serve you well in any business. I took this message to heart and try to live it every day with Book Hero — so knowing our customers are finding amazing books and being able to deliver them to all corners of New Zealand fills me with a deep sense of personal satisfaction. As well as customers in all the main centres, we have customers in Whangarei, Thames, Hastings, Queenstown, Cape Saunders and everywhere in between — many of them without a local bookshop of their own. Improving the availability and accessibility of these books is awesome.
At the other end of the spectrum we’re also getting a thrill much closer to home with the warm reception of our Pick Ups service in Hobsonville. I was unsure how popular it would be, and whether we’d be able to support it properly with such a small team, but it’s been a real highlight of turning up to work each day — and worth the effort. We absolutely love meeting our local customers who come and collect their books in person — and when it’s quiet, we enjoy letting them browse the warehouse shelves and answer questions around why we don’t order books using the dewey decimal system! We even have an elderly gentleman from a local care home who prints his order on A4 and visits us every week — we love him, and it fuels our desire to someday open a bricks-and-mortar bookstore so we’re better setup to help customers who prefer a more tactile browsing experience.
We love meeting our Pick Up customers (and young readers!) who visit our warehouse in Hobsonville.
Our Gift Wrap service is equally joyful — we hand write all the cards, so get to see the personalised messages that customers are writing for their loved ones. Many of them bring a tear to our eye as we see the careful thought given to the choice of books and what they’ll mean to the recipient.
"Happy 2nd Birthday! We hope you like the adventures of hairy Maclary and Zachary Quack as much as we do! Lots of love Grandma & Grandpa xx"
"I wish you the best always! I hope this book can help you to see how amazing you are ❤️ Love you"
"Well done darling, carry on with the good work reading. Hope you enjoy this book. Love Grandpa and Grandma"
We love gift-wrapping books for customers and taking the time to hand-write the cards.
No business can survive without customers and sales — so we’re focused on growth and building ourselves up to a sustainable position. But it’s the feedback from customers that’s fuelling me — I love getting the push notification to my phone every time a customer writes a review. When sales are feeling slow and it feels like we’re struggling to get the word out — it’s little messages and reviews from customers that reassure me we’re on the right path and the snowball is building. I’m confident that customers who find us are having a great experience and if we do our job improving our range we should see people coming back for more books in the future.
“I recently bought a book from Book Hero and couldn't be happier with the experience. With a wider selection than any other store I've found, Book Hero has quickly become my go-to bookstore, offering both an impressive range of titles and dependable service.”
- Nidhi
“10/10 product and customer service. I made an error in the delivery address which was dealt with kindly and efficiently. Great option for gifts. Highly recommend.”
- Lauren
“Best bookshop ever. Received shipping information right away and book the very next day. Will buy more in the future.”
- Riana
“I am loving buying books from Book Hero. It's so nice to have a trustworthy place in my own backyard.”
- Phill
“I love Book Hero and will definitely be buying more Christmas gifts from them. It was so easy to buy online from a really impressive range of books - and I love the option to either pick up - which I did because I live nearby - or have my order shipped to me. Lovely, helpful people and a great business! Can't wait to revisit.”
- Lesley
“Amazing service! Book Hero had a book we wanted, that on other websites was going to be 4–8 weeks away. Book Hero had it in stock and we received it three days later and we live rural. They are certainly living up to their name. Highly recommended.”
- Kylie
“I visited the Book Hero store in Hobsonville today. I was greeted & welcomed by a very kind staff member who went by the name Jeremy. He helped me find a book I was interested in & even gave me a better price than it was listed for. It's awesome to have a local Kiwi bookstore with a huge inventory & a variety of books. Thank you so much. I will be visiting again soon!”
- Gabriel
Happy customers help me push through the painful never-ending grind of starting a new business — the delays securing replenishment stock, the inevitable buying mistakes (bare with us as our stock and range continues to improve), the bookkeeping admin and bills to pay, learning how to use social media again, the steep learning curve whenever you’re trying to learn new software or do something (well) for the very first time. In times like this I often think about the opening line from one of my favourite books, The Road Less Travelled — “Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths.” This book had a major impact on me when I was younger, and it’s a great reminder that anything worth doing is rarely easy. The past few months have been exhausting, with many sleepless nights — but boy is it worth it.
We're all going the extra mile to learn new skills and do what it takes to get a business off the ground. Some days the exhaustion takes it's toll…
Thank you for coming on our Book Hero journey with us. Your support means the world and if you think we’re on the right path, and you’d like to see us continue to grow — please keep telling your friends!
