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Interesting project! I'm in charge of all things technical at the book store I work at, so this piqued my interest. We've solved for ourselves many of the probl

by joemi 1y ago

Interesting project! I'm in charge of all things technical at the book store I work at, so this piqued my interest. We've solved for ourselves many of the problems that Bookhead solves since we've been open for a few decades, so this doesn't seem like something we'd want to switch to, but I'm still bookmarking it and keeping my eye on it. Also I hope you don't mind me offering some suggestions/observations... - If you're _not_ using AWS, I'd explicitly mention that somewhere. I know there are a lot of indie bookstores who care about avoiding Amazon and any Amazon services. If you _are_ using AWS, well, you might find that you get more business from indie booksellers by not using it. - I'd add an explicit list of supported POS systems in the Overview of the docs. This was one of the very first things I wanted to check. (My store's POS isn't supported, btw.) - I'd add an explicit list of supported channels in Overview of the docs, as well. This was also one of the very first things I wanted to check. - I'd focus on adding Square as a supported POS. From what I see in the ABA forums, this kind of thing might appeal to the bookstores using Square as a POS. Especially if you can load the book data you have into their POS, possibly based on SKU? Maybe that actually would warrant a separate product you could offer (or that someone else could make).

greenie_beans 1y ago
yes!! love all this. what POS do you use? i have a chicken and egg problem with POS providers. i've had to reverse engineer the ETL to accept FTP files, making the sync generic since nobody will let me develop on their system without a customer who wants it. i've been waiting two weeks for basil to add the integration for our first customer. and about to start with ibidie for a test customer. and yes 100% on not using amazon. i was indoctrinated against them as an indie bookseller. i've even avoided using free amazon credits. the docs feedback is great. thank you!!! and square is next step after i finish shopify. i will use that to sell my books at pop-up events and it would be a great little starter system for a small bookstore. then i'll add ingram integration with ordering etc. going towards "the brains of your bookstore". sort of a newer take on POS that integrates with everything, and the basis is the inventory system.
- joemi 1y ago
  We use Wordstock as our POS, our website is an IndieCommerce site (I'm quite adept at pushing IC to the limits), and we list on a couple marketplaces doing manual uploads of exports from our POS that were processed by scripts I've written. The "brains of your bookstore" goal sounds great. If/when Bookhead becomes a full POS, then my store might consider switching, but until then, we've got 20+ years of history in Wordstock the product and with Wordstock the company, so Bookhead would need to be significantly better than our current system in order to be worth switching to. WS isn't perfect but we're used to it, and they've modified it in many ways as per our requests. And Jeff in their support department is the best customer support person I've ever dealt with anywhere for any reason.
  - greenie_beans 1y ago
    this information is so valuable to me, thank you! > but until then, we've got 20+ years of history in Wordstock the product and with Wordstock the company, so Bookhead would need to be significantly better than our current system in order to be worth switching to. i have a hard hill to climb. but i'm glad to know there are other book-ish technologists who understand the value of this and what i'm trying to do. at the very least, i'm working towards some features that could complement what you're doing with wordstock, instead of replacing it, but it sounds like you have the skills where you wouldn't need anything like that. thank you so much for commenting. if you ever wanna work together, hit me up at sam@bookhead.net.

by joemi 1y ago

greenie_beans 1y ago

yes!! love all this. what POS do you use? i have a chicken and egg problem with POS providers. i've had to reverse engineer the ETL to accept FTP files, making the sync generic since nobody will let me develop on their system without a customer who wants it. i've been waiting two weeks for basil to add the integration for our first customer. and about to start with ibidie for a test customer. and yes 100% on not using amazon. i was indoctrinated against them as an indie bookseller. i've even avoided using free amazon credits. the docs feedback is great. thank you!!! and square is next step after i finish shopify. i will use that to sell my books at pop-up events and it would be a great little starter system for a small bookstore. then i'll add ingram integration with ordering etc. going towards "the brains of your bookstore". sort of a newer take on POS that integrates with everything, and the basis is the inventory system.

joemi 1y ago
We use Wordstock as our POS, our website is an IndieCommerce site (I'm quite adept at pushing IC to the limits), and we list on a couple marketplaces doing manual uploads of exports from our POS that were processed by scripts I've written. The "brains of your bookstore" goal sounds great. If/when Bookhead becomes a full POS, then my store might consider switching, but until then, we've got 20+ years of history in Wordstock the product and with Wordstock the company, so Bookhead would need to be significantly better than our current system in order to be worth switching to. WS isn't perfect but we're used to it, and they've modified it in many ways as per our requests. And Jeff in their support department is the best customer support person I've ever dealt with anywhere for any reason.
- greenie_beans 1y ago
  this information is so valuable to me, thank you! > but until then, we've got 20+ years of history in Wordstock the product and with Wordstock the company, so Bookhead would need to be significantly better than our current system in order to be worth switching to. i have a hard hill to climb. but i'm glad to know there are other book-ish technologists who understand the value of this and what i'm trying to do. at the very least, i'm working towards some features that could complement what you're doing with wordstock, instead of replacing it, but it sounds like you have the skills where you wouldn't need anything like that. thank you so much for commenting. if you ever wanna work together, hit me up at sam@bookhead.net.