Annual book sale goes digital this year

THE Big Bad Wolf Book Sale (BBWBS) will debut its e-commerce platform to readers in Malaysia with a whopping catalogue of over 40,000 book titles.

The latest instalment of the series, which has since been to 34 cities in 12 countries, will have more than 20 million books on sale at discounts of up to 90% off retail pricing.

This year’s sale, accessible via bigbadwolfbooks.com/my, will start at midnight on Nov 4 and end at 11.59pm on Nov 11.

While not offering the sensory experience of attending the “world’s biggest book sale” where visitors can see, smell and feel the books, the online sale will still offer book lovers an expansive selection, but without leaving the comfort of their own home.

BBWBS co-founder Jacqueline Ng said throughout its 11 years, their mission to “change the world, one book at a time” had remained.

“It is about making books affordable and accessible to everyone, ” she said.

“Unfortunately, we cannot have a physical sale because of the pandemic, so instead of the regional sales we usually have, we are using this as an opportunity to reach out to more Malaysians.

“We don’t want it to hamper our ongoing mission to build a new generation of readers and spread the joy of reading.

“With our new e-commerce platform, everyone in Malaysia can buy books at this year’s BBWBS safely, no matter where they are, ” she added.

Ng said BBWBS would return as a physical book sale as soon as it was possible and safe to do so.

Andrew Yap, who is also BBWBS co-founder, said plans to take the book sale online was always on the table but felt that the timing was not quite right.

“Covid-19 accelerated all our future plans to have an online sale.

“Also, the strong feedback from customers who asked us to hold it earlier because of the movement control order, led us to hold it earlier than usual, ” he said.

Yap added that the team had to overcome many technical challenges to prepare the site for a deluge of visitors during the sale.

They also expect at least 30% to 40% of the visitors who usually attend the physical sale to participate in the online sale.

BBWBS is having various promotions to encourage more people to rediscover the joy of reading. These include free shipping within peninsular Malaysia for orders above RM180, with customers in Sabah and Sarawak eligible for 30% off shipping fees at no minimum spend.

Offers of RM5 off with a minimum purchase of RM80 or 10% off the total bill with a minimum purchase of RM300 are also available.

Other promotions are available across collections such as Horrible Books and White Star Classic Fairy Tales.