Several users of PubEasy.com attested to the
usefulness of the system, which has more than 1500 registered booksellers from 60
countries and more than 1660 U.K. publishers and imprints and some 290 U.S. publishers and
imprints. Arild Jacobsen of the Olaf Norlis Bookstore in Oslo, Norway, the country's
largest bookstore, said that 25% of the store's business is import orders--it places some
50,000 orders a year, about a third of which are customer orders.
One of the largest users of PubEasy.com, Olaf Norlis Bookstore has,
over the past 15 years, dramatically reduced ordering and delivery times, in large part
because of PubEasy, he continued. While in 1985, the store ordered books from abroad by
mail, with the average delivery time from the U.S. taking three months by sea, it now has
orders fulfilled from the U.S. in 9-21 days by air.
"PubEasy has improved the business, saved lots of time and sped
up delivery," Jacobsen said. He also asked for certain improvements to be made,
particularly the ability to place orders centrally, handle backorders, track orders, give
discount information, offer shipping options and give e-mail confirmation of orders.
Speaking for Little, Brown U.K., Charlie Viney said that PubEasy.com
was an "ideal tool for customers to place orders.
