It’s been a steep learning curve, but the numbers speak for themselves. Online or off, Big Bad Wolf is a book-selling phenomenon like no other.
Starting tomorrow, November 11, Big Bad Wolf Malaysia will be running a four day flash sale via an exclusive partnership with e-commerce platform Shopee as the remaindered English-language books seller tries to keep up with demand.
As reported here in October, an online Big Bad Wolf Malaysia event had been set for November 4-11.
By now the Big Bad Wolf team have learned lessons from previous online incarnations in Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka, and as Malaysia is the operation’s home country this should prove a spectacular event.
Now comes news that the online sale is being extended with the Shopee partnership, running November 11-14, offering even more deals, having already attracted 1.5 million online buyers.
Big Bad Wolf co-founder Andrew Yap said in a press release:
With the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing movement restrictions, we believe Malaysians will be spending most of their time at home, shopping on e-commerce platforms. This partnership with Shopee allows two most loved brands to reach out to more Malaysians as well as inculcate a passion for reading, which reflects Big Bad Wolf Books’ mission as a passionate reading advocate organisation. Books are jam-packed with knowledge and allow readers to spark their imaginations, while also enabling them to see things in different perspectives and take into account their thought process and actions. This is the experience we aim to deliver to our readers and further spread the joy of reading.
For Shopee, Ian Ho, Regional Managing Director, said:
The Big Bad Wolf Book Sale has made its name as the most anticipated annual book fair. It is humbling to know that we have been chosen to house this book fair in order to reach the millions of customers that are on our platform. This is especially so as schools are closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and with our free shipping and integrated logistics services, parents and children are able to get books delivered right to their doorstep without having to leave their homes. More importantly, this is a good time to instil the habit of reading among our young ones with the wide assortment of genres that will spark creativity and knowledge-building. This is only the first chapter with Big Bad Wolf Books, and we look forward to penning many more chapters together.
Regulars at TNPS will know Malaysia-based Big Bad Wolf traditionally runs eleven-day 24-hour flash sales with English-language books stacked high in countries here mostly English is not the first or even second language.
Past events across 34 cities in 12 countries – Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, The Philippines, Cambodia, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Myanmar, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia – have lined up millions of books that attract crowds in the hundreds of thousands, but the pandemic has this year caused Big Bad Wolf to shift course and focus on online events.
Taking full advantage of the upsides of online selling, Big Bad Wolf has been lining up its virtual flash sales with 20 million books available at a time – four times the largest physical Big Bad Wolf sale (Jakarta, Indonesia, with 5.5 million books).
It’s been a steep learning curve, but the numbers speak for themselves. Online or off, Big Bad Wolf is a book-selling phenomenon like no other.
