Sunday, June 22, 2008

Online Bookstores Reviewed: Find Best Book Deals in Singapore

Find the best book deals online. In this blog post, I review several reputable online bookstores that are based or ship to Singapore. This list will be periodically updated.

Books Kinokuniya (http://www.kinokuniya.com.sg)
One of Singapore’s largest bookstores (the other one being Borders) sells its entire inventory online at normal price. Meaning that you cannot find any bargain here, however you can still do some price checkings here before you come down to its store and make purchase.

Amazon (http://www.amazon.com)
World’s largest book retailer recently offered low-cost international shipping at only US$5 per order plus US$5 per book. However this low-cost option delivers books in 18-32 working days. That’s up to 6 months. Alternatively, you can use forwarders such as Vpost to reduce shipping time and cost. Book prices are competitive (if shipping cost is not considered) and the range of books is unbelievably comprehensive.

OpenTrolley (http://opentrolley.com.sg)
Claimed to be Singapore’s largest online bookstore, OpenTrolley sells more than 1 million books at big discount everyday. No membership required. You can find many good bargains here except that textbooks’ prices are higher than local versions.

Berkshire Business Books (http://www.berkshire.sg)
This online business bookstore operates solely online in Singapore. There are many good bargains for business books and I personally like the idea of self-collecting books at some of its partner retailers islandwide.

Select Books (http://www.selectbooks.com.sg)
The only online bookstore (and perhaps physical bookstore) that sells all books related to South East Asia. Cannot really decide how cheap the books are since there are no other online bookstores selling the same products.

Atcross (http://www.atcross.com.sg)
Atcross sells Christian books and music, and recently sells baby products too. Prices are normal but they offer free shipping to Singapore.

Wellsprings (http://www.wellsprings.com.sg)
Asia’s largest online catholic bookstore has 13,000 catholic books on offer.