My understanding is that their business model was to offer a really wide selection of titles, instead of the "top 10" type offering Amazon is mostly about. I think that's a significant part of it.
> The Gloucester-based bookseller was founded in 2004 by Stuart Felton and Andrew Crawford, a former Amazon employee, with the mantra of “selling ‘less of more’ rather than ‘more of less’”. It aimed to sell 6m titles covering a wide variety of genres and topics, as opposed to focusing solely on bestsellers. [0]
Seeing as Book Depository later became a subsidiary of Amazon, it's fair to question whether that model held true. I don't have enough insight into Amazon's catalogue to say either way. Also, I can't remember to which degree Amazon relied on "other sellers" back in 2004 or if that came later ("other sellers" being a way to offer a wider selection than what one carries oneself in retail).
To answer your question for an example of a title Amazon doesn't have; I recently found myself recently looking for "Hur svårt kan det va'" by Eva Bodfäldt, which may admittedly be a contrived example, although Amazon does carry another title in Swedish by the same author [1] (though used and from a third party). As it happens, Book Depository has the title... alas, it's not available for delivery anymore.
[0] - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/apr/04/amazon-to-clos... [1] - https://a.co/d/bIEwL9W [2] - https://www.bookdepository.com/Hur-svårt-kan-det-va-en-liten...
I think there needs to be more info than just "They are not Amazon". Otherwise all shops in the list would be the same. Except Amazon :)
Which of the 3 you mentioned would you buy from for your next book order?
World of Books is a second-hand book retailer with free shipping in the UK. They don't have every possible book in stock, but you can usually find what you need there.
I buy pretty much every book from them now.
Search aggregator of a rare book websites. Useful for identifying reputable dealers and beginning a book search.
You select a local bookstore you want to support, they can curate collections of books and they get some portion of what you spend.
I love audio books. I wish there was a store that sells them for download without DRM. Just like as if you bought the CD, but without the CD.
awesomebooks is free delivery for UK, but their international delivery is reasonable at £2.99 (+ £1.00 to £4.00 additional items: https://www.awesomebooks.com/help/shipping)
I am surprised that there still is variety. Is there a reason an independent bookstore lists their books on one marketplace but not on another?
Sometimes I've been able to get a better deal going directly to the site of the bookseller. Biblio will have a lower price but higher shipping than on the seller's site. Not always though
https://www.gnod.com/search/books
Adding Bookshop.org now.
If anybody here is buying online from a store that is not on the list, let me know. (With a short description of what makes it special.)