Into the Future at San Diego Technical Books
A Team O'Reilly Bookstore Profile

Imagine a well-stocked technical bookstore where the bookcases are packed with the latest computer, biotechnology, manufacturing, forensic science, psychology, and engineering titles; a place where customers have free Wi-Fi over a T1 line, and access to the store's databases through convenient workstations on the sales floor. Something out of the future? You can experience it now at San Diego Technical Books, Inc. in San Diego, California.

San Diego Technical Books is in its 20th year providing hard-to-find books for the professional communities in the southwest United States. The founder, Susan Hensley, started the business in 1982 as an order fulfillment service from a spare bedroom. She solicited purchase orders from corporations and government agencies, ordered the titles, and shipped them when the order was complete. The demand for this service was strong and Susan soon moved into a 1,000 square-foot warehouse in San Diego's Golden Triangle, the high-tech neighborhood of a high-tech city.

After moving twice more to accommodate growth, the store remains in the Golden Triangle with 6,200 square feet in a prime shopping center. Retail sales have grown faster than order fulfillment, and they're now about 70 percent of the business. Computer-related titles comprise 50 percent of total sales, while sales to professionals in building, biotechnology, manufacturing, forensic science, psychology, engineering, and many other disciplines make up the rest. This diversity has helped the store weather economic ups and downs over the past two decades.

San Diego Technical Books has had a web site (www.booksmatter.com) since 1996. It was completely revamped in 1999 with a new database, real-time interaction with a Point-of-Sale system, and an improved interface. Web sales are strongest with corporations and government entities because of the efficiency of the ordering process. Specialized tools allow corporate buyers to review current and past orders and help balance corporate purchasing cards. One feature that all web customers mention over and over is the ability to call the store's 800 number and talk to the person processing their order. This eliminates the frustrations so many web shoppers encounter: when the process works perfectly, it's perfect; when something goes awry, it's a nightmare. With real people on the phone at booksmatter.com, questions, order changes, clarifications, and problems are dealt with immediately.

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Use O'Reilly's convenient Select-a-Store feature on any oreilly.com catalog page to order directly from San Diego Technical Books. Try it.

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How was such a dynamic and efficient company created? Susan Hensley has been in the book business since the mid sixties. Her first job was at Scott Foresman Educational Publishers, followed by a stint at Aztec Shops, Inc., the campus bookstore at San Diego State University. Immediately before starting San Diego Technical Books, she opened and ran the HBJ Bookstore in San Diego.

Susan has also been active in the American Booksellers Association (ABA), a professional organization of book retailers. She was an instructor at their Bookseller's Schools, served on the ABA Task Force for Scientific, Technical, and Professional Bookselling, and on the ABA's Publisher Relations Committee. Susan was also an advisor to the ABA's Scientific & Technical Bookselling Committee.

Sales at San Diego Technical Books have continued to increase each year, bucking the trend at other technical bookstores. When asked why, Susan responded, "As much as Internet buying is here to stay, our customers love to have the books in their hands before purchasing. When the book is in front of them, they make the right choice among expensive alternatives. We also listen to our customers, and we try to stock what they need."

An example of listening to customers is the bookstore's practice of displaying all the O'Reilly titles together, rather than sorting them by subject. Susan says, "This is the way our customers frequently ask for books: 'Can you show me the O'Reilly book on . . . ?' With this kind of publisher awareness, it made sense to put all the O'Reilly books together, which is quite a display since we stock every book O'Reilly publishes."

When asked how the growth of the Internet has affected her store, Susan's response was immediate:

"Dramatically! Every aspect of the store has changed. Our inventory is larger because of the greater demand for Internet-related titles, and we provide even better service because of Internet tools. Our internal systems are constantly improved to keep up. Who would have thought a few years ago that a bookstore would need four servers with two different operating systems?

"We now provide customers with workstations on the sales floor with access to our databases," Susan said. "This includes a feature that shows exactly where in the store a book is. We have free Wi-Fi over a T1 line. Any day you can see customers using their own laptops and wireless PDAs while they're in the store or in the parking lot. For some, the Internet access here is faster than at work or home.

"The Internet has also helped the administrative end of the store's operations," Susan explained. "Online access to publishers' web sites, electronic ordering, and online access to our bank accounts has improved our level of service, our efficiency, and our cash flow management, all at the same time."

Acknowledged to be one of America's most important technical bookstores in terms of selection and service, Susan Hensley believes the best is yet to come, and intends to make sure that San Diego Technical Books remains both a resource and an inspiration to the technical community she serves.

All Team O'Reilly Bookstores stock a large selection of O'Reilly's latest and greatest titles. Find the Team O'Reilly Bookstore near you. For information on joining Team O'Reilly, please contact Mike Leonard.