28 July 2012
“ HIS methods do work in some weird sense,” says BookXcess co-founder, Jacqueline Ng, of her partner in business and in life Andrew Yap.
The comment may be a little off-hand, but it is also strangely in character with the bubbly, thirty-something husband-and-wife team who are attempting this year to break their own record for the world's largest book sale.
They are remarkably frank about what makes BookXcess, the venture they founded to sell cheap books only six years ago, a runaway success.
It seems it takes a heady cocktail of extremes of thrift and prudence on the one hand, and almost mindless risk-taking on the other. And apparently a liking for reading books doesn't figure in the equation.
BookXcess co-founders Andrew Yap and Jacqueline Ng.
How did they start the business?
“We had a small shop selling magazines in AmCorp Mall in Petaling Jaya and there we learned about the reading habits of people,” Yap says.
“It became apparent to us that books were rather expensive in Malaysia, and many people just couldn't afford to buy them.
“When we went overseas, we saw a lot of stores selling remainder books. These are essentially overruns or overprinted copies, and they are sold at a substantial discount when compared to prices quoted in regular bookshops.
“So we thought this could work here.”
In November 2006, Yap and Ng rented a 500 sq ft outlet opposite their magazine store to sell remainder books.
“When we started, we really didn't know the market. We just brought in a batch of books and gave it a go. We gave ourselves six months to make it or close shop,” Yap says.
They had limited capital and couldn't pick and choose the books they bought from their suppliers.
“It was a rojak thing we had to buy books in pre-determined batches of 800 books, and didn't know what we would find in each batch.”
In any case, choosing titles could also have been tricky for another reason, Yap says. “Until then, I had never finished reading a novel!”
The early days of BookXcess were “a short, sharp learning curve,” Ng says. “But we were truly encouraged when we saw how excited our customers were. Some of them would be calling from the shop to tell all their friends about this place'. It was all word-of-mouth we had a zero budget for advertising.”
Barely eight months later, the company moved to larger premises in the same building. That, she says, was when the business really took off. More and more people visited the shop. Many became regulars and unpaid marketers for BookXcess, raving to their friends about “this incredible place where you can get real value for your money.”
“The growth in customer support also led us to develop a membership scheme that offered further discounts to the store's regular customers.”
As sales soared and cash flow improved, the budding entrepreneurs were able to buy their stock in bulk and this allowed them to be more selective.
Ng recalls: “Back in those days, neither of us was drawing a salary. Whatever we made was ploughed back into the company. We had a limited budget and were very thrifty.”
The company kept a skimpy advertising and promotion budget and continued to rely on word-of-mouth and the odd article in a local newspaper for publicity.
“This (lack of funds) sparked off a lot of creative ideas on how to get publicity,” says Andrew. “That was how the Big Bad Wolf sale was born.”
In 2009, the husband and wife team took a gamble by bringing in 120,000 books for the first of what became a series of annual book fairs. Books at the fair are sold at a steep discount of between 75% and 95% off their recommended retail prices.
Big Bad Wolf has turned out to be a brilliant marketing strategy. Last year, the duo imported 1.5 million books for sale at the fair. More than 300,000 visitors thronged the ten-day event at the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park in Serdang. Ninety per cent of the books were sold.
“They came with boxes and suitcases to take home their purchases,” Ng says. “Young and old, men and women, people of all races. Who said that Malays are not interested in reading? More than 50% of the people who visited the fair were Malays.”
Big Bad Wolf 2011 is in the record books as the largest book sale in the world.
This year's BBW will be even bigger and more exciting, the two bosses say.
If they pull it off and the duo has a remarkably good record of making things happen it is expected to be another world first.
Sourcing for books for the fair to be held during the end of year school holiday period has already started.
The two founders are the key buyers, with Yap deciding on non-fiction titles and Ng specialising in fiction and children's books. The partners spend two weeks at a time at the six major trade fairs they visit each year.
Being overseas for large parts of the year also means relying on others to manage the store while they are away.
In that respect, “we have been very fortunate,” Yap says. “Many people have been attracted to join us because of the way we run our business. Big Bad Wolf has also given us a lot of publicity and enhanced our reputation.
“The business has expanded very fast and has gone beyond the limits of what just the both of us can do. We are now building a team to help plan and manage our future.”
BookXcess now has some 40 staff. Nearly half of them are based at its spacious 12,000 sq ft outlet at the top floor of AmCorp Mall. The location of what was formerly a cineplex has been the new home of the bookstore since March 2010.
BookXcess' bookshop is pleasantly laid-out and is as inviting as those of any other large chain book stores like MPH, Popular or Borders.
So how different is his business compared to these?
“For starters, there is the price difference, of course. Our discounts are massive and unmatchable.
“But you don't get newly-launched books here. Also, our list of titles may not be as extensive in some sections.
“But this has never been a source of customer complaints for us. People appreciate the huge discounts we are giving them. In any case, our range of titles is increasing all the time,” Yap says.
How are the large regular book stores taking to his growing presence in the market place?
“Well, they hate us,” says Ng, with a laugh. “Actually, we are not direct competitors. But at the same time we are not going to disappear from the scene,” she asserts.
Yap adds: “In any case, it doesn't make sense for the chain bookstores to offer the same sorts of steep discounts because that would be like shooting themselves in the foot.”
There are no plans to open BookXcess stores in other parts of the country at the moment. “We are just one store but many things are happening here. We just rented a big warehouse nearby but have to start looking for another one right away because the business is expanding so fast,” Yap says.
Is business expansion constrained by a lack of funds?
Yap says they have received many offers to buy into BookXcess or enter into franchise agreements, but he is skeptical about some of these proposals. “Prospective partners are interested mainly in profits, but may not share our vision for the future or run the business the way we do.”
“From the outset, our goal has always been clear: to increase readership and improve customer experience. We have stuck to our mission and we are having a great time,” says Ng.
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