Better World Books Rocks the Holidays

by Nathaniel Whittemore · 2009-01-09 10:00:00 UTC
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One of the coolest orgs out there (mentioned in this 2009 Trend post) is Better World Books, who sell used books that would otherwise end up at a landfill and reinvest a big chunk of the profits in literacy programs around the world. In the few years they've been around, they've saved 8,000+ tons of waste from going to landfills, raised more than $5 million for literacy programs. Oh, and they're a for-profit company that's kicking the market's butt in a recession.

Yesterday, BWB got a great write-up on TechCrunch about a really successful holiday season. According to TechCrunch:

Better World Books reports that its overall traffic increased 131% during the holiday rush, and that they saw a 500%+ increase in gift certificate sales over the previous holiday season. That translated into 194% revenue growth for the site in December 2008 (up until Christmas), compared to the year before.

We asked for some more details, and got some absolute numbers for the holiday sales: December revenues grew to $2.1 million and revenue for this month is expected to top $4.5 million (apparently January is always the best month for BW thanks to textbook sales). The company says it’s on target for $31 million in revenues this fiscal year, which ends June 2009.

Can a mission-driven company be not only financial successful but beat the hell out of the market? Yes it can.

Follow Better World Books on Twitter: @bwbooks and @bwbxavier

Nathaniel Whittemore is the founder of Assetmap. Previously he was the founding director of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement.
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