Second Hand Novels Business Plan
Second Hand Novels Business Plan
Second Hand Novels Business Plan Overview
This Second Hand Novels Business Plan refers to the business of selling second hand novels, general interest and children books informally and semi formally. Informally on the streets and semi formally in market structures. The business does not include proper textbooks as used in schools or sold in bookshops.
The business targets the mass market with books selling at an average of Kshs.100 irrespective of the title and quality. However the price often ranges between Kshs. 50 to Kshs.300.
There are two main groups of second hand novels dealers in Nairobi. Permanent Stand and Hawkers who are on the move. Nowadays the permanent second hand book sellers are found almost on every street while hawkers may pop in anywhere, sell and disappear as soon as necessary.
However the number of ‘on the move hawkers’ selling novels has reduced when compared to 2012. This is because of the relative bulk of second hand books which does not allow quick escape when the county askari strikes. Again compared to other ‘hawker’ items books do not move as fast and are not as profitable. There are now only a handful of hawkers specializing in
books.
How It Works
The chain from the first owner to the consumer in Kenya can take any of these two forms:
- First Book Owner – Charity Shop – Exporter – Importer – Wholesaler – Retailer –Kenyan Consumer
- First Book Owner – Charity Shop – Exporter – Importer – Retailer – Kenyan Consumer
Most second hand novels sold in Kenya are largely imported from Europe with UK being a favorite. There are some from the US too. The importers are independent second hand good dealers. Some are general wholesalers who import books among other things while others specialize in books.
Second hand books as sold in Kenya are first collected by charity organizations either directly or through donations at charity shops. The charity shops will sell the donated books but more often the find themselves with more books than they can offload to walk in consumers buying a few books each. Sometimes they want to sell the books in bulk so as to quickly raise money for some cause.
That is where second hand book exporters come in; they buy books by the tonnes from the charity shops, sort, pack and export to different countries. Among the common classifications of the books are :children’s; coffee table; mass market paperback, mixed books and premium mass market where customers specify which authors they are looking for. Once sorted the books are then packaged in pallets, then 20ft or 40 ft containers.
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