How Bookshop.org Empowers Independent Bookstores

Bookshop.org, the online marketplace launched in 2020 to support independent bookstores, has returned nearly $28 million to its retail partners while positioning itself as a socially conscious alternative to Amazon.

The platform works with 1,890 bookstores and roughly 60,000 affiliate members, about 9,000 of whom do consistent business, yet it still accounts for an estimated 1 percent of active online book buyers.

Its revenue has slipped from $60 million in 2020 to $54 million in 2021 and $45 million in 2022, with founder Andy Hunter projecting about $50 million for 2023.

Hunter said the company wants to move beyond the socially conscious shopper and reach mainstream buyers who currently rely on Amazon, noting that its bestseller list already differs from its rival's.

To broaden its appeal, Bookshop.org began beta testing an ebook platform in November 2023, targeting public sales in early 2024 across Apple, Android, and the web, with talks underway about a dedicated reading device.

The company also published Lydia Davis's story collection Our Strangers with a 10,000 copy first printing on October 3, 2023, aiming to prove that authors can succeed without selling through Amazon.

The cause looked like charity in 2023; three years on it is a business. Bookshop.org took $68 million in revenue in 2025, founder Andy Hunter expects $80 million this year, and the running total handed to bookstores passed $50 million in August, up from the $28 million that impressed Publishers Weekly, per Modern Retail. The trade grew with it: 3,783 independent bookstore locations in 2025 against 3,281 a year earlier. The catch is scale. Amazon holds more than half of print, and Hunter admits he has converted about 2 percent of its customers. Kobo e-reader support, promised for 2025 and slipped twice, is now due later this year, per TechCrunch; watch whether it ships before the holiday season.