Tell us about Bookends
Bookends is a marketplace for buying and selling pre-loved books. We have books for all ages and genres. Currently we have about 15000 books in 12 different languages. Customers can browse through the website and place their orders and we deliver across the UAE. People can also become a seller with us, and use their sale credit to buy other books from the platform. Bookends is also working with 2 animal shelters and selling books on their behalf. People can donate books to us which will be sold under the animal shelter accounts and the proceeds will go towards their initiatives.
A little bit about the Founder / story of how you started out
This UAE startup was founded by mompreneurs, Grace and Somia.
Grace is a mother of two enthusiastic readers, Omar and Adam. Somia is also a mother of two avid readers, Zoha and Abdullah. As their kids were growing up, they struggled to refresh their book collections at affordable prices to keep up with their children’s appetite. The kids would outgrow the books quickly and were often ready for a new batch.
This was a consistent topic of conversations at the coffee mornings after school drop offs. That is when the concept of Bookends came into being.
What impact is Bookends trying to make?
We want to bring back the love of reading by making books more affordable and we want to save the world one book at a time by reusing them.
What sets Bookends apart?
Bookends is a marketplace, and we are trying to build a community of book lovers. In just a year, we have around 500 sellers on our platform. Our prices and the idea of reusing the books over and over again have its own appeal. Our customer can buy books from us, and once they are done reading can bring those books back to us to sell and use the credit to buy other books.
We want the same book to keep coming back on our platform over and over again for as many people to read until it is ready to recycle.
As a new company, where do you aspire to be in 5 years?
We want Bookends to be your first choice when considering buying a book in the UAE. Bookends want to connect with coffee shops around UAE to be their drop off and pickup locations for their preloved books. By having many locations across the country, we will be able to eliminate the delivery charges for the customers which will make our books even more affordable and cheaper than any other vendor.
Bookends also plans to expand into Saudi Arabia and other neighbouring countries where there is a large population of expats.