How did the idea for creating the Bukinist.al platform come about?

Bukinist.al online bookstore was established in July 2016, as part of a large online sales company in Albania, with at least five other platforms for selling products of different types and categories. The market for online book sales was at extremely low level at the time.

The name “Bukinist” is borrowed from the bookmaker Mendel, the famous character of the novel of the same title, written by the famous writer Stefan Zvajg. We have aimed to embody the philosophy of this bookmaker, with the aim of recommending books and providing solutions to the needs of our readers.

The book is one of the most essential tools that helps us to understand the world better, to be informed and to be entertained. In this aspect, Bukinist.al follows the philosophy of fulfilling the needs, desires and passions of its readers as best as possible.

Now, after more than six years on the market, we are happy to share with you the fact that Bukinist.al has in its portfolio the largest community of readers in Albania and is one of the two largest book market operators in place. This has been made possible thanks to the 11-year experience of the Aladini Trade Partner company and its dedicated staff in the field of e-commerce, being a leader with its four platforms: Bukinist.al, Aladini.al, Beba.al and Idedhuratash.al, as well as thanks to the extraordinary passion of Bukinist.al staff to build a professional platform for book management and marketing. Here I want to single out the maximum support that has been given since the beginning of Bukinist, even the head of our company, Valer Pinderi, who is one of the most diligent promoters of the book to help the business.

Is it difficult to sell books online in Albania?

The journey of Bukinist.al proves the best that it is possible to sell online in Albania, especially when it comes to books. We initially aimed to provide services to those categories of readers who did not have access to bookstores in the cities and villages where they lived, and to the Albanian diaspora, which was unable to buy Albanian books. This is where we focused at the beginning of our work, but then we realized that the book cannot be sold only by bookstores, even online ones. For this reason, we have also invited Albanian publishing houses, readers’ groups, the library network and other partners who are part of the book ecosystem to cooperate. Undoubtedly, the book has a diverse ecosystem because of its power to change our lives. Bukinist.al has known so far to connect all these partners with each other and to offer the best service for the marketing and distribution of the book in Albania.

One of the most favorable moments for Bukinist.al was the period of the pandemic, where for several weeks our platform was the only possibility to order the book, due to the closure of the network of physical bookstores in Albania. We were the one stop destination to buy books and during that period managed to quadruple the number of orders and readers within a short period.

We are happy to say that these readers we met during that difficult period, today return to us regularly, take our recommendations into consideration and refer us to their friends. Thanks to the professionals we have in our company, Bukinist.al has become the number one destination for Albanian book information and this is a fantastic opportunity for us to increase online sales. Also, we have kept the community of readers very close; we have created reader loyalty policies, through differentiated reader statuses such as “Friend of Bukinist”, – a “prime” service for readers, as well as we have worked with schools, universities and private businesses, – especially Albanian corporations, enabling you buying books in dedicated offers and recommending books that help them in their daily work.

We have clear plans to promote the book, authors and publishers, which are part of a well-thought-out strategy: From the beginning we have also built award mechanisms for the best books of the year in the categories: children’s book, poetry Albanian, Albanian novel, translated novel, non-fiction book and business and personal development book. And who better than a bookstore knows the values ​​of the book and knows how to convey the book to the reader. For this reason, I think that booksellers are much more than service providers. They are the managers of the human mind and spirit, and in this respect, I see that the role of the librarian has so far been undervalued in our societies; moreover, there have been no policies to support it, as there have been for authors, publishers, translators, libraries or readers.

Can you tell us something about the products you have online?

The Bukinist.al platform has over 13 thousand books online, where the vast majority are books in the Albanian language. We have children’s books, art books, non-fiction books, magazines and partially school, university and professional publications. The Albanian book market has recently been enriched with titles, which are bestsellers in world markets and come translated in a faster time than before. Two years ago we introduced the book in English, mainly focusing on business books, personal development and bestsellers. Currently, we aim to increase the diversity of categories and titles in the English language and therefore we have contracted the largest distributors in the world market to work in this direction. At Bukinist.al, we have created the opportunity for readers to receive gift cards and other products, such as gifts, bookmarks, and other bookish products, although we have a lot of work to do in this market. Here we are in the first steps and we are exploring the possibility of making the reading process more enjoyable for our readers, turning it into a pleasant “lifestyle”.

What are your future plans?

The world is in an extraordinary dynamic, with unpredictable events. The only constant that each of us faces is change. Without a strong education, without building a system of “continuing education” through reading, we find it very difficult to adapt to the environment that surrounds us. For this reason, we will be very focused on books that transform people’s lives, – on those books that help people to face the challenges of everyday life, on publications that equip readers with those “soft skills ”, which are not received in traditional education systems. For this reason, we remain a platform with recommending power and this is where our “secret” is found. In the near future we will aggressively enrich our portfolio of products and services. We will expand the markets with our services, especially in neighboring countries such as Kosovo, Macedonia, Greece and Montenegro. For this, we are working with our distribution partners, with whom we will aim to provide the service at the cheapest cost to our readers outside Albania. Due to the expansion of our company in physical retail, we have combined online sales at Bukinist with sales in physical markets, aiming to promote Bukinist.al as best as possible. Also, we intend to further enrich our ecosystem, working harder with partners from the world of business, education and other fields. The constant growth of sales and the portfolio of our readers over the past six years has created other spaces for us and encouraged us to make other plans in the following years because we now have the way open to be the largest market operator of book in Albania.