Kenny’s Bookshop in Liosbán is set to challenge the dominance of Amazon with a new website and on-line book buying experience that could make it one of the leading cyber bookshops in the world.
When a person clicks onto www.kennys.ie, they will see images of many bookcovers, an ‘add to basket’ label and icons for different genres of literature, for sale through Kenny’s site.
Kenny’s has been in negotiations with its business partners in Britain and America and it now has anything up to 6.5 million titles for sale on the website.
“If you are interested in sci-fi, racism, Vietnam, or anything, you can search our website and be able to find major volumes on that subject matter,” says Des Kenny.
An advantage that Kenny’s will have over other on-line competitors will be the fact that there will be no extra costs imposed on buyers for the purchase of the books.
“If you want to send a book to Australia it will be sent free of charge,” says Des. “The price you pay is the price you see on the screen when you first click on the book, not a cent more.”
The site will also have discounts available and Kenny’s will also accept Laser cards for purchases throughout the site. Any problems which may arise will also be dealt with by the staff.
“We will be answerable to people if there are any problems. There will always be somebody at the end of the phone to talk to,” says Des.
The public will still be able to browse in and buy books at the bookshop in Liosbán, but anything not in stock can be ordered from the website.
Kenny’s is excited about its new venture and confident of its success.
“Karen Golden and Conor Kenny have been the driving force behind this,” says Des. “We are a small bookshop in the west of Ireland, but this is a major thing we are doing.”
For Des Kenny, the new on-line initiative is the culmination of a four-year journey.
“This didn’t happen overnight,” he says. “It’s a coming to fruition of a journey we started from when we closed the bookshop on High Street in 2006. We want to combine our expertise and personal service and marry that to cyber bookselling, and this new venture will be the result of that.”
