Inventory Management Independent Study

Our Inventory Management Course is here to teach owners and book buyers all of the ins and outs of ordering, buying, restocking, returning, curating, and budgeting, plus tips and systems to increase the bottom line and make the job easier.

Entire Course

This course is designed for those who are employed by or who own a retail bookstore (this includes a mobile or pop-up shop) that has been in existence for at least 1 year and has 25%+ new book inventory; the skills and strategies taught in the course are designed for the new book trade. The course is not intended for used-only stores or online-only stores.

The Self-Study track is available to all booksellers who are members of their Regional Trade Association and/or the ABA.

For the Certification track, booksellers must be owners/buyers of stores that have been open at least one year.

Inventory Management Course for Self -Study

Access to all class recordings, training videos, and handouts for six months. $295

Inventory Management Course for Certification

Access to all class recordings, training videos, and handouts, a Discord server for questions and discussion, and working with a PBS instructor to do the homework assignments and final project to become certified. To complete the certification program, booksellers will need to be buyers in stores that been open for at least one year. You'll have access for six months. $395

Individual Classes/Topics

Classes are $65, with access granted for 30 days.

Buying Criteria - You can’t stock everything! Reduce decision fatigue, unconscious bias, etc. by creating buying criteria in advance and fine-tuning them over time. 

Buying to Constraints - Buying books is fundamental to running a bookstore, so you'll need a plan to keep purchases within your budget goals is vital. Learn strategies from successful buyers, as well as tips and tools for considering time and other non-monetary concerns.

Frontlist Buying Through Edelweiss - This class is designed to help book buyers learn to improve discounts and margins by shifting frontlist buying directly to publishers using Edelweiss in conjunction with a publisher rep. It includes Edelweiss terminology, using markup catalogs, and how to create Edelweiss export rules.

The Power of Ingram - This class shows book buyers all the ins-and-outs of ordering through Ingram. You'll learn Ingram terminology, Ingram Publisher Services, how to choose primary and secondary warehouses, and strategies to meet the minimum requirement for reduced shipping.

Restocking, Events, and Pubeasy - How do you decide what to restock and what to let go?  Are you taking advantage of the myriad publisher backlist promos to stock titles for your upcoming seasonal displays or backlist books for your upcoming author events at an extra discount? This session will include a presentation on Pubeasy by MVB, the company that operates the Pubeasy and Pubnet services, which enable booksellers to efficiently place electronic orders directly with publishers.

Returns - Doing timely returns is absolutely vital to a store's bottom line, but too often the tasks of identifying, packaging, and mailing books means returns don't happen. And then there are the credit slips and invoices, and waiting for credits to be applied. This class from Inventory Management will help you learn to establish criteria for what to return, and when, and walk you through the necessary steps.

Sidelines - This class considers everything you might sell other than trade books: used books, gifts, textbooks, remainders, and adding a cafe.

Special Orders, Pre-Orders, and Website Fulfillment - Taking, ordering, receiving, and selling special orders is vital to a healthy, thriving bookstore! This class will you build a solid system for processing special orders, pre-orders, and web orders in a way that is clear to staff and will get the books your customers want into their hands as quickly as possible. 

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