Bookshop Data within Edelweiss
We at Edelweiss understand your bookshop data is important. Edelweiss holds a unique position in the book industry as a community and point of connection between Bookshop and Publishers/Reps. We take this position very seriously. This is why we have documents to outline how the data on Edelweiss is used and how we restrict its use in our terms of service with clients.
Bookshops in the US, France, and UK and Ireland submit their point-of-sale data to Edelweiss in the form of daily files, usually automatically via their point-of-sales systems. This is always processed by Edelweiss on an opt-in basis with a requirement for the Bookshop to agree to our Terms of Service.
With this data we provide 3 key services to booksellers and publishers. These are:
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Edelweiss Analytics – There are different levels of Analytics but all UK market users in Edelweiss were given free access to the top tier, “Summit”. A decision made at the launch of Edelweiss in the UK many years ago to help Bookseller adoption of the platform. The Charge to US Booksellers starts at $55 per month
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Edelweiss 360 – The data helps suggest books to add to emails
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Buying enhancement
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​Aggregated data analytics from peers about titles being considered
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On Hand and On Order from the shop doing the buying to ensure no duplicates
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The display of sales history of comparable titles from the shop doing the buying.
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Commonly Asked Questions
Q. Does Edelweiss sell this data to 3rd Parties?
A. We do have the right to combine User’s POS Data with data from other users to create the aggregate data disclosed or distributed to other users and third parties. The presentation of this aggregate data does not and will not identify individual Edelweiss Analytics users.
Publishers that subscribe to Edelweiss Analytics have access to their own titles as an aggregate for the market, and in detail for shops they are connected to, in an interface similar to one a bookshop would have, but for their titles only.
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Q. Is our data at risk within Edelweiss from website scraping?
A. We monitor for and respond to activities like scraping and hacker attacks. To have visibility of your individual shop data would require the web scraper to use a login from your shop. We have stopped web scraping efforts before, but they have been attempting to scrape bibliographic data, not store data.
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Q. Why do you allow publishers to add comparable titles from another publishers? This potentially exposes sales for another publishers’ title at a shop.
A. This is functionality for both parties that enables fast and educated buying decisions. Where an author has switched to a different publisher, for example, it is important for both parties to be free to see the relevant backlist titles for that author. We believe there are more accessible sources of competitive data in the book industry. This information cannot be extracted into a file or otherwise be accessed other than looking up one title at a time and seeing sales for one shop at a time.
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Q. If a rep also has family connections to a bookshop, could they misuse Analytics to gain an advantage?
A. We have strict Terms of Use Policies to cover this. So, while it is possible, it is in violation of the terms of service agreed to by that publisher client.
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Q. My rep once had another bookshop’s account open when they shared their screen – what is to stop reps from sharing my information in the same way?
A. Much like you would hide your emails or anything that might reveal commercially sensitive information about another party, we always advise reps during training that they need take care to avoid this, and that it violates their terms of service with us. If you have any concerns that your reps are doing this consistently please raise it with Edelweiss.
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Q. A publisher can see how many of a book I have sold and how many books I have ordered from them. Wouldn’t that mean that they know how many books I have bought from a wholesaler?
A. True. This would be true in other scenarios, for instance where a POS system is provided by a wholesaler as has often been the case in the UK.
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Q. I don’t want my data to be used on the Edelweiss platform at all. What can I do?
A. If you already have an Analytics account and we’re already processing your data, drop an email to support@abovethetreeline.com and we will turn off all processing of the data and remove Analytics, 360 and Comps from your account.
If you do not have an Analytics account, you do not need to do anything. We never process data without the go-ahead from the bookshop. Please note that you can still use Edelweiss as your buying platform and discovery tool.
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Q. I would like to opt out of sharing data with publishers, but still use Analytics. Do you have an option for that?
A. Yes, you can do this with a paid subscription. Contact us for the costs at support@abovethetreeline.com.