NINETEEN-year-old Reuben Lee???s bedroom in his parents??? five-room Housing Board flat in Toa Payoh looks like that of any typical teenage boy, except perhaps for the wide array of business books on his shelf.
30 BOOKS A DAY: Reuben Lee operates his online bookstore from his bedroom in his parents' Toa Payoh flat.
But it is here that Lee, who graduated last year from Hwa Chong Institution and is waiting to serve his national service, sells books through his one- man online bookstore, Zakoola.com.
Working with two distributors in the United States, he has an inventory of over a million English-language books, and he sells around 30 a day.
From young entrepreneurs like him to big book chains, buying books online in Singapore has never been easier. However, online booksellers LifeStyle spoke to say sales through the Internet for local addresses are scanty.
This is despite the fact that ordering books online can be cheaper. In Lee's case, his prices are cheaper for Singapore residents than those of US-based Amazon.com since he saves on overseas shipping by ordering in bulk. He can also keep costs low because he does not need a warehouse to keep inventory but ships books in bulk from the US every day.
This week's Hot Off The Press featured book, Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped Box, costs $31.54 at Zakoola.com compared to $37.80 at local book chain Books Kinokuniya, though Kinokuniya card holders get 20 per cent off.
However, Lee, who launched his website just last month, says business has been picking up "steadily, though unfortunately not exponentially".
Though it is hard to estimate how many Singaporeans get their books online, some major bookstores here have already tried cyber sales - and some have been burnt.
MPH went online in 1999 but pulled the plug after two years. Mr Rahim Awang, MPH Singapore???s general manager, says the online venture folded for several reasons, not least poor business.
"In Singapore, there are so many stores in town. It is a small country and there is not much online demand for books," he says, adding that MPH still sells books online in Malaysia.
'Singapore is a small country and there is not much online demand for books' - Mr Rahim Awang, MPH Singapore's general manager
Other big bookstore chains which still have a cyberspace presence say their online sales do not significantly affect their in-store business.
Books Kinokuniya's online department manager Kazuhide Momi says the Japanese chain carries more than 500,000 titles every month in Singapore, all of which are available at www.kinokuniya.com.sg at the same prices as in its shops.
He says profit is "much less than our Bugis store", which is the smallest outlet.
Other local stores say their online presence serves mainly to reach customers outside the country.
Popular bookstore spokesman Lynn Lee says the chain has received requests for assessment books and other educational titles from Indonesia, Taiwan and Australia.
"The most convenient and hassle- free way was to start our own virtual store," she says, adding that www.popular.com.sg, established in 2001, carries about 20 per cent of the total titles sold at Popular stores in Singapore.
"As purchases made online are given a 10 per cent discount, the online sales and profit are not substantial as compared to our 50 physical stores."
However, one retailer thriving in cyberspace is pioneering local online bookstore Acmamall.com, which was established in July 2000 to serve Singapore and Malaysia, and which now also operates in Brunei, Thailand, Indonesia and Hong Kong.
It uses a US-based distributor and does not keep inventory in stock, although it has an office in each country where it sorts books for delivery.
The online store sells 5,000 to 15,000 books per month in the region, including Singapore.
Executive director Christopher Quek says Acmamall.com's strength is its inventory of over a million titles.
"Acmamall.com is known in the region to be a source of hard-to-find titles, when customers are unable to find them in the retail bookstores," he says, adding that self-improvement, business and children's titles are popular.
Eager readers can even get titles not yet available in local stores. For example, the hot debut novel Then We Came To The End by American writer Joshua Ferris, already creating a buzz on literary blogs, can be bought at both Acmamall.com and Zakoola.com, though it hits stores here only late next month.
Still, some bookworms prefer to browse before they buy.
"I would still go to a physical bookstore because, being quite fastidious about my books, I like choosing my own copy of a particular title," says biotechnology researcher Li Huiling, 28.
