Sell books online

Start, run, and grow your book business

Get the training, tools, and support you need to build the book business you’ve always wanted.

Try Shopify free for 3 days, no credit card required. By entering your email, you agree to receive marketing emails from Shopify.

How to sell books online in just 5 steps

illustration for creating an online store with an image of white sneakers

Everything you need to sell books

Free resources

Learn at your own pace with on-demand courses from Shopify Academy, and with other business owners on the Shopify Community forums. Find answers to your questions on the Shopify blog, or in our comprehensive guides.

Professional tools

Create an online book store that reflects your unique brand with over 70 customizable and responsive themes. Efficiently manage your inventory and process customer orders all from one unified dashboard.

Smart marketing

Grab your customers’ attention with targeted marketing campaigns on social media and Google. Make sure customers can find your book store by using Shopify’s built-in SEO tools and integrated blogging.

Award-winning support

Shopify support is available 24/7, no matter which plan you're on. You'll also have access to help docs, webinars, blog posts, and online courses to guide you along the way for your book business encounters.

Explore your options

Apps that help you sell books

Some popular apps other merchants use

  • Buy Button channel

    Buy Button channel

    By Shopify

    Sell your products on any website or blog.

    3.7(343)

    Free

  • Google & YouTube

    Google & YouTube

    By Shopify

    Reach shoppers and get discovered across Google.

    4.2(5320)

    Free to install

  • Shopify Email

    Shopify Email

    By Shopify

    Email marketing made for commerce

    4.4(896)

    Free to install

See more recommended apps

Learn more about selling books

  • To sell books online, begin by identifying the types of books you want to sell. Your store could sell a variety of books, or you could sell books centred around a specific topic like used books, textbooks, and even antique books. You can then use a Shopify theme to easily start a store and upload pictures and descriptions of your books in minutes.

  • Shopify is an excellent place to sell books online, as you’ll have complete control over your brand, marketing, and customer experience. Shopify can even help integrate with social media platforms like Facebook Marketplace to help drive additional sales.

  • Yes, many book store owners trust Shopify to power their online stores. With Shopify, merchants can benefit from over 6,000 Shopify apps to help modernize book shopping experiences. That includes offering your customers personalized book recommendations, running a store-linked email newsletter, and more.

  • The best way to price your books is to look at what your competition is charging for the same books or similar books. You can then decide on whether your pricing strategy will seek to undercut your competition, or sell at a higher price. You’ll also need to factor in shipping costs, particularly when dealing with heavier books.

  • Launched in 2013, The Lifted Brow is an example of a Shopify-powered company selling its own magazines. They use cart abandonment apps from the Shopify app store to increase sales and have even used the Shopify POS app to sell magazine issues at in-person events.

Powerful apps

Showcase your books with professionally edited photos or build customer loyalty with rewards programs. With over 6000 options in the Shopify App Store, you can customize your store experience and test for success.

Sell everywhere

Sell your books online, in-person, and wherever your customers are. Quickly accept payments, view sales, fulfill orders, and track inventory with the Shopify POS app—no matter where you sell.

Scalable pricing plans

For book businesses at every stage and size

Show Plan Prices as Pay yearly (save 25%)* Subscription Rate

$1 for your first month

Basic

Most Popular

For solo entrepreneurs

Yearly subscription price $38 CAD per month

Card rates starting at

  • 2.9% + 30¢ CAD online
  • 2.7% + 0¢ CAD in person
  • 2% 3rd-party payment providers
$1 for your first month

Shopify

For small teams

Yearly subscription price $99 CAD per month

Card rates starting at

  • 2.7% + 30¢ CAD online
  • 2.6% + 0¢ CAD in person
  • 1% 3rd-party payment providers
$1 for your first month

Advanced

As your business scales

Yearly subscription price $389 CAD per month

Card rates starting at

  • 2.4% + 30¢ CAD online
  • 2.4% + 0¢ CAD in person
  • 0.6% 3rd-party payment providers

Start your book business with Shopify today

Try Shopify free for 3 days, and explore all the tools and services you need to start, run, and grow your business.

Try Shopify free for 3 days, no credit card required. By entering your email, you agree to receive marketing emails from Shopify.

Discover how Shopify can help you do more with your business—no matter what you sell.