Trading books and DVDs on websites has recently become popular as a friendly and fun alternative to online selling. Bookins.com is a leading trading community for book and movie lovers. Launched in 2005, Bookins was one of the first to use Endicia’s Label Server API. Bookins makes swap-ping easy for members largely by allowing them to print pre-paid shipping labels directly from their website.

Background. Historically, consumers have been reluctant to get involved in online trading due to the time and effort required. Mitchell Silverman, Bookins founder, wanted to make things easier. After studying other trading sites, he concluded that it was the postage and shipping part of the transaction that users struggled with the most. Once a trade was initiated, all the work would be left up to the traders. They’d have to contact each other to get addresses, figure out the postage, and make a trip to the post office to ship the items. Mitchell decided to solve this problem by creating the most convenient swapping site he could imagine– Bookins.com.

“It’s more than just a swapping site, it’s a community where people can share their great reads with others, while giving very little thought to the logistical process of the actual trades,” Mitchell says.

His vision was to make trading less complicated by having users print pre-paid, pre-calculated, pre-validated, and trackable USPS shipping labels from the comfort of their own homes. To further simplify the process he wanted the labels to be considered metered mail so that, unlike regular stamped packages that had to be presented at the counter of a Post Office, they could be handed over to mail carriers or simply dropped into a mailbox.

Endicia’s Role. Mitchell contacted Endicia and found out they had just released a new web-based service for USPS integrated shipping labels. This

Case Study

BookinsMaking online trading simple, fair, and fun

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service, called Endicia Label Server, would allow him to build the functionality he dreamed about directly into Bookins’ application. This label service turned something that was once very complicated into something non-technical. He immediately signed up and became one of Endicia’s early adopters of the Label Server.

Over the last three years, tens of thousands of book lovers have joined Bookins. They continue to stick with it because it’s easy-to-use and fun. Here’s how it works: You list books you have that you want to trade by simply entering the ISBN number that is assigned to each book. Bookins adds all the details like the title, cover image, author, and reviews. Then, select books you’d like to receive.

Once you’ve compiled your lists, Bookins and Endicia do most of the work for you. Bookins notifies you when one of your books is wanted. Simply click a link and you immedi-ately have an Endicia shipping label on-demand! The label includes either first class or media mail postage, your return address, the recipient’s address, and delivery confirmation. Meanwhile, Bookins is working in the background to find members with books you want and having them ship those books to you.

“A big part of Bookins’ success comes from the convenience our members have with printing shipping labels at home,” says Mitchell. He feels that without Endicia’s Label Server API, the amount of work and effort that needed to trade would outweigh the benefit. It would also make it less enjoyable.

The Future. Bookins has recently given its members the ability to trade DVDs. They’re also taking the idea of a trading community one step farther, giving members the ability to post their trade lists on social networking sites.

“Endicia’s Label Server API has played a pivotal role in every shipment since we launched. As we grow from hundreds of thousands of transactions to millions, I’m very happy to know we can rely on Endicia for consistent uptime, scalabil-ity, and outstanding customer service.” says Mitchell.

To learn more about Bookins, visit www.bookins.com.

To learn more about Label Server, visit www.endicia.com/Developers/LabelServer.

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