year in review 2023 (2)

In 2023, we focused on improving and extending the core Edelweiss service to make book professionals' workflow smoother, faster, and more efficient.

We made significant technology upgrades to improve the reliability and flexibility of the Edelweiss platform while releasing thoughtful new features to support retailers' email marketing and title discovery efforts. With the expansion of our Client Success team, we have also increased our investment in user education, part of our commitment to promote rewarding and successful experiences for everyone who comes to the site. In addition, we have continued to put resources towards broadening our international reach. In 2023, our growing International team onboarded and trained an enthusiastic legion of UK booksellers and publisher partners on the platform.

It has been a joy working with all the retailers who use Edelweiss to do their jobs, and we remain dedicated to nurturing the health and impact of the indie sales market. Check out some highlights from the past year below!

members of the edelweiss community

The number of users active on Edelweiss continues to grow year after year. Up from 2022, the number of unique users on the site has increased by 10%. And, 59 additional U.S. indie bookstores began sending in their POS data this year—bringing the total number of U.S. Trade Analytics Stores to 661 in Q3 of 2023.

Total Edelweiss Users
Booksellers
Publishers, Distributors, & Sales Reps
Librarians
Academics
Reviewers, readers, & other book lovers
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Technology Upgrades for Increased Speed & Reliability

In 2023, we devoted resources to migrating elements of the Edelweiss site to faster, more stable technology that boosts the speed and reliability of our tools. As part of this effort, we updated one of the most visited pages on Edelweiss, the Catalog Title List View. Currently in beta, our new List View is redesigned to address common retailer feedback and improve the efficiency of the buying process on our site. We moved some of the most-used buying functions of the catalog view to be more visible and accessible, while adding additional features to better support retailers' needs (like adding titles to collaborative lists from title listings on Edelweiss!).

Following a pilot with select booksellers this summer and intensive workshops at fall trade shows, we have invited all retail buyers on Edelweiss to test out and provide feedback on the proposed changes. After buyer feedback is collected and implemented, we will invite sales reps and other publisher users to participate in the beta and contribute to the development of a new List View that improves the experience of all users on our site. 

explore the new edelweiss list view

Release Statistics

We are invested in adding features and tools in response to user feedback and in catching any bugs before they effect your workflow. Find detailed release notes here and bookmark this page to stay on top of changes, fixes, and enhancements!

Bug Fixes
Features & Enhancements
Performance Related Releases
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new tools and features to support bookselling

In addition to upgrading our site technology, we have integrated retailer feedback into updates to our email marketing platform for booksellers, Edelweiss360. We developed Edelweiss360 to make the work of impactful outreach quick and painless for busy booksellers. With the increased adoption of the tool since its release in 2020, we continue to make changes and add features based on retailers' needs.

In particular, this year we made it simpler than ever for stores to build their 360 customer email lists. Subscribers to 360 can now share a signup link with their customers, which enables those interested to subscribe to emails themselves rather than being added by the store manually or via their POS. We also redesigned the Staff Reviews lane of the 360 homepage to make it easy to find reviews to feature in campaigns. Edelweiss360 users can now explore reviews by specific staff members or by publication date and quickly add those titles to their emails.

And, we are proud to have added a new POS to the list of Edelweiss360 compatible systems. For the stores using it, Bookmanager can now automatically send along their customer-linked, daily sales activity for use on the platform.

reclaim your time with smart email marketing

Edelweiss has always been the place for booksellers to learn more about the industry's most exciting titles, browse catalogs of favorite publishers, and explore new review copies. This year, we worked to redesign our weekly newsletter to reduce noise and better serve these goals. Relaunched this summer, the new Weekly Greeting emphasizes new catalogs, filters recent review copies by genre, and identifies titles releasing that week.

Towards a similar end, we also launched Edelweiss Book Lists in 2023. Each month, the Edelweiss Book Lists project gathers titles around a designated theme or subject to share with retailers. Open for submissions from all Edelweiss publishers, these lists have been a vehicle to shine some extra light on underrepresented voices as well as on books from small presses. And, we took care to time the publication of these lists around bookstore buying seasons to help stores more easily make relevant titles available to their communities.

subscribe to our bookseller communications

edelweiss360 statistics

As the only email marketing tool created for booksellers exclusively, Edelweiss360 was developed to combat the unique obstacles indie booksellers face. And, it is free for retailers with an Edelweiss Analytics subscription. More and more booksellers are giving the tool a try and having great results.

Retailers Using 360
Over
Customers Emailed in 2023
%
increase in total 360 emails from 2022

2023 indie bestsellers on edelweiss

It was exciting to see the strength of backlist titles represented in the best-selling books of the retail community on Edelweiss. Click in to explore the top ten books from the past year—titles sold and stocked by the greatest percentage of indie bookstores.

Interested in accessing POS data like best-selling titles from our community of over 650 indie booksellers? Learn more about Edelweiss Analytics here.

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expanded client support & education

As part of our ongoing commitment to enhance the experience of users on our site, we have recently restructured our internal Client Success team to center education and further a holistic understanding of our products and their benefits. Over the past year, this team has worked to build and fortify industry partnerships, ensuring that key Edelweiss initiatives remain in alignment with the objectives of our partners and their members. With the exponential growth in indie booksellers over the last few years, we made it a priority to attend and provide impactful education at as many industry shows as possible over 2023. This year we were able to attend and offer sessions at Winter Institute, Children’s Institute, and all the regional fall shows. 

In order to help users better leverage the full potential of Edelweiss, all our teams have collaborated this year to develop a more strategic approach towards sharing information about product enhancements and new tools. This work is in-process and, in addition to educational webinars and a new website, we are currently building in-site learning modules for our products. These will bring our documentation and videos directly to you as you are learning and relearning features throughout the site.

share your feedback with us

User Activity Over the Last 12 Months

User engagement grows year after year across many of our activity metrics. Of particular note are user reviews, which are up 26% from 2022, and DRC downloads—we saw 133,400 more advanced copies downloaded from our site this year than last year.

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Orders
Downloads
Reviews
Tags
Shelves
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Increased International Reach

We have expanded our International Team this year, reflecting exciting growth in this area. Not only have we seen an increase in international users but also, and more importantly, an increase in the level of engagement and enthusiasm from UK booksellers on the platform. We have trained a large number of shops in a variety of Edelweiss functions—from buying to email marketing with Edelweiss360 to inventory management with Edelweiss Analytics (with over 320 UK shops now currently sharing Analytics data!).

At the same time, more UK publisher partners have joined the fold, which is helping realize the benefits of a "single platform" solution for selling and buying that we have long seen in the US. We are also working with industry partners in Australia to build on a foundation there as well. Finally, this year also saw the launch of the UK Weekly Greeting email, which shares new title releases and new DRCs in a fresh and engaging format that offers a marketing vehicle for partner publishers.

learn more about edelweiss abroad

International User Activity

We are excited about the engagement we've seen among U.K. users over 2023! The amount of UK booksellers ordering on Edelweiss (and the order volume!) is growing steadily over the past two years to reach new highs.

UK Orgs Ordering
£
UK Order Volume
UK Markup Notes
year in review 2023 (1)
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Our Plans for 2024

Retailers should keep an eye out for these developments in 2024!

New Edelweiss360 Features and Improvements

Retailers can look forward to the 2024 release of additional customization options that will make designing beautiful emails in Edewleiss360 even easier and more flexible. In addition, one of our goals for the coming year is increased publisher participation in the Edelweiss360 Collaborative Consumer Marketing (CCM) program. We plan to devote time to reevaluating the CCM program and identifying areas of improvement, and we highly encourage all booksellers who have found the CCM program valuable to communicate with their publisher reps and suggest that they participate.

And, to better serve stores new to Edelweiss360, we are developing an Edelweiss360 Onboarding Wizard, which will streamline and simplify the process of getting started.

Increased Investment in User Education and Experience

In an effort to nurture sustainable use of our services, we are hard at work on a new, in-site educational program for Edelweiss users. This program will make available learning modules specific to a user's role and based on fundamental Edelweiss skills (such as "Buying," "Event Grids," "Title Discovery," and more). The program will break each skill down into smaller “Milestones,” representing a central element within the identified area, and help users find their way to relevant resources to master that area.

Developed with feedback from a pilot with select booksellers this summer, this program will provide users a more structured way to learn (or relearn!) about Edelweiss and to better integrate our help documentation into the site. We also plan to include the ability for users to test and check their knowledge with short quizzes on Edelweiss topics.

Continued International Market Growth

In 2024, we will continue nurturing the UK Edelweiss ecosystem from both the retailer and publisher sides. In addition, we know that the Spanish-language market is an area of growth and interest for many in the book world, and, to this end, we are devoting resources to better support Spanish-language publishers as well as the retailers and readers seeking these books. We are exploring the addition of a Global Spanish Market in which Edelweiss publishers can make their titles available. A translation of the Edelweiss site for Spanish-speaking users is currently in-progress as well. 

2024 most anticipated titles

We can't wait for all the new titles on their way in 2024—from hotly anticipated literary fiction to the next installment of beloved series to groundbreaking nonfiction. Click in to explore the top ten titles coming in 2024 most-ordered by the most bookshops on Edelweiss.

Interested in accessing POS data like on-order information from our community of over 650 indie booksellers? Learn more about Edelweiss Analytics here.
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