E-books, and therefore e-commerce, create a new revenue stream for publishers. Global e-book sales are more profitable due to the variety of e-book readers such as the Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader, and Infibeam Pi. The International Digital Publishing Forum says e-book sales revenues for the United States reached $60 million in the first quarter of 2010. Publishers who use electronic commerce can profit from this revolution through formatting their books for the various readers and selling these as part of their e-commerce strategy.
Publishers can reach international audiences through e-commerce. E-commerce makes it possible to reach other markets that are far from the publisher's geographical location. It was more difficult in a world without the Internet, to advertise to potential customers. The Internet and e-commerce facilitates an immediate medium for advertising that does not require shipping or finding advertisement printers in a foreign country. However, marketing to an international audience often means having books, and e-commerce advertising in translation for the targeted audience.
E-commerce ties in with social media such as Facebook and MySpace. Placing graphic links to a Twitter, Facebook or other social media campaigns on an e-commerce site is helpful as another advertising tool for a publishing company. Social media groups offer forums for the publisher to pitch the latest books or events connected to the company. Publishers also feature their book selling sites on literary social media sites. BookRabbit and WeRead are two sites where publishers can connect with readers and authors.
Publishers can track sales with greater accuracy if they are using e-commerce. Electronic accounting of inventory and revenue quickly shows publishers which books have the most readership. A publishing company needs to understand its audience to make editorial decisions about the books it publishes. Publishers also need to know which books are popular for further printing or what books with poor sales to pull from the inventory.
Publishers are able to cut shipping costs when they can mail specific books to customers. Publishers, instead of wasting money by hiring a truck to ship to a brick and mortar store, can send both paper books or e-books directly to customers without the extra gasoline and labor costs.The cost of delivery is specific with e-commerce when publishers target shipping to those customers who want certain books, and publishers can lower the cost of printing for the books that readers will actually read instead of producing manuscripts that will be shelf waste. The publisher can print more of a popular book at less cost while cutting back those titles that do not sell.