Standards Compliance
e4books
e4books is a project initiated by Book Industry Communication (BIC) with the objective of encouraging the wider use of e-commerce in the UK book trade. The project aims to demystify e-commerce and provide practical help to those who are deterred from adopting it by its perceived cost or technical complexity.
Sponsored by VISTA, the Booksellers Association, Publishers Association, Nielsen BookNet and PubEasy, and Waterstones, the project findings will encourage smaller publishers to adopt e-commerce practices and take advantage of the substantial benefits to be gained from trading electronically. Chief among these recommendations is the proposal that the industry should work towards 1 May 2008 as its E-day, the date by which all trading partners should be capable of exchanging basic electronic messages with their trading partners.
According to BIC, the objectives of the project are to:
- Provide practical recommendations for e-commerce implementation among smaller publishers and booksellers
- Define the minimum requirements for electronic trading in the publishing and bookselling sectors
- Envisage how a ‘wired’ book trade might work in the future
- Give clear guidance on standard procedures and best practice
To learn more about the e4books project, visit www.e4books.org.
