TheNile founders ‘stumbled into books’

The Read had it figured out: the Nile was probably the second biggest river in the world next to the Amazon, so that’s why the guys founding TheNile.co.nz clicks-and-mortar bookselling site found the name. Wrong – twice over. The Nile is actually the longest river in the world but the Amazon’s water volume actually makes it the biggest river in the world.

Sad to tell, the guys founding TheNile just liked the sound of it better than any alternative names they were throwing around at the time!

Jethro Marks and Mark Taylor founded the company as an e-commerce venture in 2004. Unromantically, the object was to sell online anything they could put in a box for easy distribution, and they tried about 12 product lines including sheepskins, jewellery, games… and books. “Books were the area where we got serious traction,” says Marks. “We sort of stumbled into books.”

[Picking books off the shelves and processing orders at TheNile]

It did not take long for TheNile.co.nz to pick itself up and start running. They launched as e-commerce booksellers in New Zealand in 2006 with customer order taking facilities and a warehouse in Auckland.

Only a year later in 2007, Marks and colleagues extended the operation by opening an Australian office and warehousing in Sydney’s Artarmon area. Since then it has been warp speed on both sides of the Tasman.

Currently www.thenile.co.nz and www.thenile.com.au offer a selection of 4.5 million titles online and promise delivery within two weeks, but in most cases delivery is much speedier. “Price is huge in e-commerce,” says Marks “We look at titles we can offer a fantastic deal on.”

Marks believes that the expectation is to get a good deal online. “There is a perception that buying online will translate into savings for the customer, and for this reason we endeavour to ensure that our pricing is aggressive and below most of our competitors.”

Each of TheNile sites looks the same but is different; the current Australian top 10 shares only two titles with its New Zealand equivalent: Bree Tanner and Dead in the Family. Aussies seem cooking and diet focused (Masterchef there created a huge demand for cook books says Marks), while the Kiwi list opts for a diet free weightloss program. New Zealand’s current promotion is a list of 20 percent discounted cookbooks, with an added single prize of $200 worth of bestselling cookbooks. Australians meanwhile can get 20 percent off all Popular Penguins.

The other two factors for online book shopping are availability and convenience. TheNile.co.nz makes it a priority for books to reach customers within two weeks of ordering and then exceed that with faster-than-expected delivery. “By that and having well priced books and a huge selection we build customer loyalty.”

[A member of the phone-support team; members of the dispatch crew]

Online shopping is available 24/7 – all you have to do is open your computer and you can shop. TheNile.co.nz has one major point of difference: they have a phone line to answer any queries as an alternative to filling in the form and pressing send.

“We see phone support as a key differentiator from other online sellers,” says Marks. “Buying from the US or UK can often mean a highly impersonal experience, and difficulties if something goes wrong. TheNile.co.nz has an 0800 number where real customer services staff can be reached. While the vast majority of customers are happy to order over the website, they like having the ability to reach a real person at any point.”

TheNile.co.nz offers free shipping on all orders over $45. “Subsidising shipping allows us to remain competitive with our overseas counterparts,” says Marks.

“To do this successfully, we have to be very efficient and automate as many of our processes as possible. We invest considerably in our IT, with a team of programmers working continuously to improve our systems.”

Competition for TheNile is different in each of its markets. In New Zealand, the competitor is Fishpond. In Australia, it is Amazon, with recent REDgroup initiatives also making progress in e-marketing. “A year ago they weren’t on our radar screen,” comments Marks.

TheNile doesn’t yet offer an e-book service. “We’re coming on line with e-books shortly, certainly before the end of the year. We’ve had the technology lined up for over 12 months, but there was no point in launching it until the Kobo, iPad and other readers were available.”

While they’ve been waiting, ‘p-book’ sales have grown exponentially; they have doubled sales in New Zealand over the last year and increased sales five fold over the same period in Australia. Text books have been stocked since the beginning, and are an important part of the offer.

Marks has discovered that most online shoppers are looking for a particular title as opposed to making three or four purchases at the one time. “We try to up sell the one title customer and our site redevelopments will be putting an emphasis on that.”

Surprisingly, TheNile also does some business with retail booksellers. “We can often source titles other overseas suppliers cannot. We want to support independent booksellers, they are the ones that have a relationship with their customers.”

So too the publisher supply situation that can frustrate bricks and mortar booksellers. What is its impact on clicks and mortar e-commerce at TheNile?
“There has been a vast improvement in the level of support we get from publishers in the last two to three years, especially in New Zealand. Kiwi publishers have been very good at being able to deliver titles to us with very quick turnaround times. Overall, they generally outperform their Australian counterparts in delivery times.”

When it comes to his own tastes in reading, Jethro Marks says he is ‘fairly boring’ and tends to stick to non-fiction. “However within our team there is an endless stream of discussion on all books and genres. This is reflected in our staff picks section of the website: http://www.thenile.co.nz/static/staffpicks.html

TheNile’s proudest achievement? “We have built a fantastic range of the most interesting books imaginable. And we can deliver any of these books to customers within two weeks, though most are delivered in far less time than that, some overnight.”