Going by the book on the Internet

The website,which became functional in August,is the brainchild of Vibhor Gupta,Ashish Goyal and Mohit Bansal — three engineering graduates from the Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology (NSIT),Dwarka.

Though the venture caters mostly to class XI,XII,and university students looking for textbooks,you can also order novels and books in French and German.

“It was sometime in February 2010 when I came up with this idea and shared it with my friend Ashish. We had a discussion about it and he spoke to another friend,Mohit. We conceptualised the idea but had to decide how to implement it. Being students we could relate to the hassles that students go through while buying textbooks for college. You have to go to Nai Sadak in old Delhi to buy books and wait in long queues for hours. We thought about all this and how we could offer the best possible solution,which is pocket- friendly at the same time,” says Vibhor Gupta,an associate software engineer with a firm in Noida.

Being engineers,designing the website was not tough,but there were other challenges such as market research. Says Ashish Goyal,“In the beginning it was not easy to persuade publishers,book sellers and distributors. They used to be rude to us sometimes. The distributors usually sell the books in bulk and we just needed the books according to our requirements. It was difficult initially but we had to do it and somehow we managed.”

There are no online transactions; the books are delivered against cash payments. “ Since our focus is on providing convenient and pocket friendly options,we decided to go for the cash payment mode instead of online. We have to cater to students,and we know many of them don’t have credit cards,” says Gupta. “The books are available at a discounted rate. Students can also take a textbook on rent for the period of one year/semester,” he adds.

At present,the three operate from Gupta’s home near Mukherjee Nagar in north Delhi. “We have about six employees at the moment. There is a shortage of manpower. We would like to have more creative people onboard with us,” says Gupta.

The response has been good so far. “It is a tough job which requires commitment,initiative,patience and creative thinking. We are thinking of taking it forward. We are also thinking of expanding it beyond Delhi and having a bigger catalogue of books.”