New York, NY , MARCH 26, 1999 -- PubEasy.com
and Gardners Books Ltd. will announce at the London International Book Fair (March
28-April 1) that Gardners is to become the first wholesaler to participate in the
fast-growing global Internet ordering and inquiry service for the book trade. It is
anticipated that the Gardners PubEasy.com site will go live in the May/June time frame.
"Gardners’ endorsement is an important step towards realizing the full
potential of a worldwide, Internet-connected, business-to-business community within the
industry. This development will increase the level of bookseller usage and traffic even
beyond its current, successful level to the benefit of the entire community. We look
forward to the participation of all aspects of the supply chain, including both US and UK
wholesalers." Said Peter F. Clifton, Chief Executive Officer of PubEasy.com.
Bob Jackson, Commercial Director of Gardners, said: "Gardners Books has always
acknowledged the importance of supplying first class customer service to booksellers.
PubEasy.com has grown tremendously in the past year and is being used for Internet
ordering and inquiry by increasing numbers of booksellers around the world. Participating
in PubEasy.com recognizes our commitment to providing access via ‘open systems’
to our customers."
Gardners currently handles some 160,000 titles from 1650 publishers, with more than
four million books in stock. By August of 1999, the number of titles is expected to
increase to 200,000. The company sources and supplies any British book in print to
bookstores anywhere in the world. The launch of the Gardners PubEasy.com site complements
Gardners own Website and represents their commitment to expanding Internet trading options
for booksellers.
PubEasy.com is fast becoming the standard method of electronic commerce for the
bookselling industry, speeding the supply chain by providing information whenever it is
needed. More than 900 booksellers in the UK, Europe, North America and Asia are regularly
using the service for daily updates on title, price and availability, to place orders and
to check the status of their orders and dues, including TeleOrders at the Whitaker
PubEasy.com site. Booksellers can directly access any participating Affiliate site in the
network or the Whitaker UK bibliographic database via the PubEasy.com Global Service page.
The service is free to booksellers and is available via the Internet 24 hours a day,
7-days a week.
The service recently added its first US Affiliate, Broadman & Holman, trade
publishing subsidiary of LifeWay Christian Resources. Other US Affiliate sites scheduled
to launch include Von Holtzbrinck Publishing Services (Henry Holt, St. Martin's Press and
Farrar Straus & Giroux), and National Book Network (the second largest US book
distributor).
Macmillan Distribution Ltd., Marston Book Services, Exel Logistics, Bookpoint and
TBS/Grantham Book Services provided early support and endorsement of PubEasy.com.
Participation from the industry continues to grow, with recent Affiliate sites launched by
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. and Littlehampton Book Services. John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
and Penguin UK are scheduled to launch sites in Spring 99.
PubEasy.com is a subsidiary of VISTA Computer Services. The service was originally
developed in partnership with Whitaker who provide online access to the British Books in
Print database and TeleOrdering capability on PubEasy.com
