Indigo Books & Music is asking publishers to send books directly to individual store locations for 10 weeks this fall while the company updates its distribution centre.
Indigo wrote to its vendors to explain that it is asking for the temporary measure in order to ensure a good supply of books in stores for the holiday season while it changes and updates its distribution centre. Indigo opened an online facility last year, has invested in the physical infrastructure, and it is adding a new software system, which will begin to be used in 2012. During this time, it expects that 85 per cent of its stock will be received directly from sources.
We will reduce or even remove the store-specific minimum order thresholds to ensure that we are outputting orders on a timely basis, the letter promised, and hope that you will not consolidate orders for more than one week to avoid stocking out at the store level.”
Earlier this month, Q&Q reported on Indigo’s new returns policy. The current industry standard allows publishers to refuse returns on orders less than 90 days old, but starting this fall, Indigo will be evaluating sales after 45 days. According to Publishers Weekly, the letter from Indigo told publishers to start expecting more returns:
We will be aiming over the coming weeks to return stock from our [distribution centre] of titles for which there is no longer active store demand, or for which we have high inventory levels relative to our requirements through [the] holiday.
Contact us via email
