The biggest advantage that online bookstores offer is that of price and convenience. Online bookstores because of their lower operational costs and lower costs of inventory often sell books at as much as 20%-60% less than the price you would expect to pay at a regular bookstore. They are also highly convenient as you can shop any time of the day and you don’t need to physically go to the bookstore to shop. The range of books available is also huge. This works out to be a great advantage as no matter where you live, you can get the book you want.

In fact online bookstores offer other services as well that endear them to regular users. Amazon.com, for instance, offers bestsellers list by sub-genres, recommendation lists on the basis of your past purchases and those of people who have bought books similar to the ones you bought and most importantly, customer reviews. These features help readers evaluate which books they want to buy and may frequently encourage them to pick up a book that they may not have otherwise considered. Online textbook stores offer services like listing by the course number, a service which students greatly appreciate.

Not everyone is a great fan of online bookstores though. One of the things about a regular bookstore that readers miss is the entire experience of browsing through books and the ambience of the store itself. Online shopping is also more impersonal. This is something that traditional bookstores are trying their best to exploit in order to lure their customers back.