Online Book Rentals

Reading has always been done with 2 primary motives, for recreation and for getting knowledge. Though I am seeing the reading culture dip around me (this is just my experience and not based on any facts), I still feel that this model might make sense even today.

Setting up an online book rental service, where customers can rent books online which gets delivered to their homes, can be done in 2 ways.

Hyperlocal Way – Here the fulfillment of orders is done by tying up with local libraries and picking up the book from the closest one and delivering it to the customer.

Benefits: No capital for inventory, faster fulfillment of orders, can be replicated for other products (a ‘Grofers for Rentals’)

Concerns: Profitability is a concern, limited variety for customers, Scalability

Inventory Model – Stock of books is kept at own warehouse and orders are fulfilled from there.

Benefits: Control over supply chain, Better margins, Scalable

Concerns: Capital investment, More wear and tear due to courier involvement

Other than the operations, we also need to look at which revenue model to use.

Monthly Subscription – Users are charged a monthly fee for borrowing x number of books per month.

Individual Rentals – Charging per book rented out.

Book reading is still passion for many. However, I am not sure about the size of the market to build a startup in. Do your research before starting up in this space.