6 alternative online bookstores to Book Depository: Selection, prices and shipping rates
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PUBLISHED ONApril 14, 2023 2:20 AMByVanessa Nah
Dobby in Harry Potter. Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby. Heck, even Charlotte in Charlotte’s Web. These were some of the characters we loved and eventually mourned, as they perished tragically within the pages of our beloved books.
On April 5, 2023, book lovers all over the island were grieving a different kind of book death, but one just as woeful: Amazon announced that it’ll be closing down online bookstore Book Depository. Its last day is April 26, 2023, giving us all less than a month to grieve and place our last orders with the dependable, affordable, well-loved online bookstore.
It’s said that every goodbye makes the next hello closer. As we bid Book Depository a forlorn farewell, it’s time to turn our attention to alternative online book sellers that could fill the Book Depository-shaped voids in our hearts. Here are 6 alternative online bookstores for the cheapest book buys and lowest delivery fees (or even none!).
1. Book Depository — The standard to beat?
Is Book Depository the best online bookstore out there? And if it is, what’s the next best thing? We put online bookstores to the test by comparing the prices, delivery fees, and expected delivery date of three books selected from Book Depository’s “Bestsellers” page:
Here are our three bestseller picks (all paperback editions) that we’ll be comparing across various online bookstores:
1. Fiction: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (Paperback, March 3, 2023)
Sitting at the very top of Book Depository’s bestseller list, Lessons in Chemistry follows Elizabeth Zott, a sharp-witted chemist, reluctant cooking show host, and beacon of women empowerment in 1960s America. It also happens to be a book I just finished reading last week, so I can say from personal experience that it deserves the top spot.
On Book Depository, you’ll pay $16.39 for the book with free shipping, and receive it in 11-16 business days.
2. Non-fiction: The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel (Paperback, Sept 8, 2020)
The Psychology of Money is a personal finance book that offers “timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness” via 19 short stories exploring our complicated relationship with money.
On Book Depository, you’ll pay $28.68 for the book with free shipping, and receive it in 11-16 business days.
3. Manga: Spy x Family, Vol. 9 by Tatsuya Endo (Paperback, March 30, 2023)
Spy x Family, Vol. 9 is the the latest instalment in the Spy x Family action-comedy manga series, which follows a spy who marries an assassin and adopts a telepath daughter. You might also have seen the anime adaptation on Netflix.
On Book Depository, you’ll pay $22.15 for the book with free shipping, and receive it in 15-20 business days.
Here’s a summary of the prices and expected delivery dates of our 3 books.
| Books on Book Depository | Price of book | Cost of shipping | Expected delivery |
| Fiction: Lessons in Chemistry | $16.39 | Free | 11-16 business days |
| Non-fiction: The Psychology of Money | $28.68 | Free | 11-16 business days |
| Manga: Spy x Family, Vol. 9 | $22.15 | Free | 15-20 business days |
Now that we have our books and know the standard to beat, let’s take a look at how other online bookstores compare.
2. Wordery — Most affordable
Wordery might be one of the best alternatives to Book Depository — if not the best. Its virtual shelves are stocked with over 10 million books. While that’s only half of Book Depository’s vast literacy expanse, it’s still very decent. And the best part about Wordery is that they provide free delivery to over 100 countries.
| Books on Wordery | Price of book | Cost of shipping | Expected delivery |
| Fiction: Lessons in Chemistry | $13.78 | Free | 19-34 business days |
| Non-fiction: The Psychology of Money | $18.27 | Free | 19-34 business days |
| Manga: Spy x Family, Vol. 9 | $9.99 | Free | 19-34 business days |
Wordery vs Book Depository — which has lower book prices?
This really surprised me, but Wordery has lower prices on all titles I searched for. Lessons in Chemistry was $2.61 cheaper, The Psychology of Money was $10.41 cheaper, and Spy x Family was a mindblowing $12.16 cheaper — that’s 55 per cent less expensive than Book Depository!
Wordery vs Book Depository — which has lower shipping fees?
It’s a tie. Both have free shipping to Singapore for these three titles. Wordery actually offers free delivery on all their books.
Wordery vs Book Depository — which has shorter delivery time?
Alas, this is Wordery’s Achilles’ heel. If you order a book on Wordery today (April 11, 2023), you’ll only get it sometime between May 8, 2023 and June 29, 2023. That’s 19 to 34 business days or 27-45 days of waiting in total. It’s a far cry from Book Depository’s 11-20 business days, but with free delivery and lower book prices, we can’t really complain.
3. Blackwell’s — Affordable and best for rare/signed books
All the book nerds I know headed straight to UK-based bookseller Blackwell’s when their early pre-orders on Book Depository got cancelled due to its imminent closure. Makes sense, since Blackwell’s virtual shelves contain 18 million titles—a decent number against Book Depository’s 20 million.
Here are the prices and delivery details of our 3 titles on Blackwell’s:
| Books on Blackwell’s | Price of book | Cost of shipping | Expected delivery |
| Fiction: Lessons in Chemistry | $17.71 | Free! Blackwell’s delivery costs are included in the price of the book. | 17 to 22 business days (7 days to dispatch + 10 to 15 days to deliver) |
| Non-fiction: The Psychology of Money | $22.00 | ||
| Manga: Spy x Family, Vol. 9 | $12.81 |
Blackwell’s vs Book Depository — which has lower book prices?
Surprisingly, Blackwell’s. In terms of the price of the books, two out of three of the titles we looked at were priced lower on Blackwell’s. In fact, Spy x Family was 42 per cent more affordable on Blackwell’s than Book Depository. Only our fiction pick was more expensive on Blackwell’s, and even then only by $1.32.
Blackwell’s vs Book Depository — which has shorter delivery time?
Book Depository has the upper hand here. According to Blackwell’s delivery information, delivery to anywhere outside the UK currently takes 10-15 business days from the dispatch date. Blackwell’s stated that the 3 titles we looked at usually dispatch within seven days, putting the total wait time for your book between 17 and 22 days.
On the other hand, Book Depository reported 11-16 business days for our fiction and non-fiction books, and 15-20 days for our manga title. So assuming both booksellers stick to their word, you’ll probably have to wait longer to get your book from Blackwell’s compared to Book Depository.
What are Blackwell’s Signed and Rare sections?
One interesting thing you might have noticed about Blackwell’s is their Signed category. Yup, exactly as it sounds — these are books that have been signed by the author. Will they come with exorbitantly jacked up price tags? From the looks of it, these books are actually quite reasonably priced.
For example, a copy of The Little Prince (Hardback, March 30, 2023) signed by the illustrator will cost you $44.71, while an unsigned copy (also hardback, March 30, 2023) is priced at $42.72. So if you’re a superfan of a particular book, Blackwell’s “Signed” section is worth checking out — just be warned that it’s a pretty small, selected range of titles.
And if you’re an avid collector of rare first editions, private press or antiquarian books, Blackwell’s also has a Rare Bookshop you can check out online (or fly to Oxford to get lost in if you’re a hardcore book nerd). From their online catalogue, we see the first edition of Tolkien’s The Hobbit going for £60,000 (S$99,000), and a complete set of the James Bond novels, first edition, going for a cool £50,000. I am shook, not stirred.
4. OpenTrolley Bookstore — Fast local delivery (6-9 days)
This online bookstore has one of the fastest delivery lead times in Singapore. OpenTrolley promises one-week local delivery, which is free with a minimum purchase of $60. It has some 15 million titles on their shelves, so they’ve also got a huge range for you to choose from.
| Books on OpenTrolley | Price of book | Cost of shipping | Expected delivery |
| Fiction: Lessons in Chemistry (2022 Paperback edition*) | $47.19 | Free with $60 minimum spend; otherwise $4.90 for delivery via Ninjavan, or $2.49 for self-pick up at a PICK locker. | 6-9 working days |
| Non-fiction: The Psychology of Money | $32.01 | 6-9 working days | |
| Manga: Spy x Family, Vol. 9 | $15.50 | 6-9 working days |
* Despite the alleged 15 million titles OpenTrolley stocks, I couldn’t find the 2023 Paperback edition of Lessons in Chemistry I was looking for. In fact, I could only find 1 paperback edition in English; the others were in Korean or Spanish.
OpenTrolley vs Book Depository — which has lower book prices?
This was very interesting to compare. OpenTrolley is charging its customers exorbitantly for our fiction book, Lessons in Chemistry. What cost $16.39 on Book Depository got jacked up to a whopping $47.19 on OpenTrolley — and that’s for an older edition! Looks like that $60 minimum spend for free delivery is going to be no trouble hitting with book prices like that.
However, the price jump wasn’t as great for The Psychology of Money ($3+ more on OpenTrolley), and Spy x Family Vol. 9 was $6.65 cheaper on OpenTrolley compared to Book Depository. With our small sample size, it’s unfair to say one is cheaper. However, I will say that Book Depository seems to have more consistent pricing, while you might find an overpriced, almost $50 paperback on OpenTrolley.
OpenTrolley vs Book Depository — which has lower shipping fees?
Book Depository delivers these titles for free, while OpenTrolley gives free shipping only if you spend $60 or more. If you don’t hit that expenditure, you can pay $4.90 per order for delivery via Ninjavan, or $2.49 per order for self-pick up at a PICK locker.
OpenTrolley vs Book Depository — which has shorter delivery time?
As mentioned earlier, OpenTrolley has one of the fastest delivery times on this list, at 6-9 working days. Comparatively, our 3 titles would take 11-20 business days to reach us on Book Depository.
ALSO READ: Where to buy books in Singapore (without going broke or leaving your house)
5. AwesomeBooks — widest range of books…allegedly?
Not gonna lie, my first thought when I heard about this bookseller was that awesomebooks.com could be a pretty convincing scam website. Thankfully, it turns out AwesomeBooks is a reputable online global book retailer, processing over 250,000 books a day. They started off in 2003 selling books saved from landfills, and have offered new books since 2011. Today, AwesomeBooks is home to a whopping 5 million used books and over 20 million new ones—that’s the widest range among all the bookstores on this list!
AwesomeBooks also contributes to a social cause, donating one book for every book purchased from their site. So far, so good. But let’s get down to the meat of our investigation: how do their prices and delivery times compare with Book Depository’s? Here are the details:
| Books on AwesomeBooks | Price of book | Cost of shipping | Expected delivery |
| Fiction: Lessons in Chemistry (Hardback, 5 Apr 2022) | £11.99 / SGD 19.85 | £2.99 / SGD 4.95 | 14-28 business days |
| Non-fiction: The Psychology of Money | £11.99 / SGD 19.85 | £2.99 / SGD 4.95 | 14-28 business days |
| Manga: Spy x Family, Vol. 9 | NA | NA | NA |
Note: AwesomeBooks doesn’t currently have a SGD currency option, so you’ll have to do some converting as you navigate the site.
AwesomeBooks — the not so awesome range of new releases
At AwesomeBooks, I encountered two problems with the two newer titles I was looking for. One, they don’t stock our manga title, Spy x Family, Vol. 9. As of April 11, 2023, they stock volumes 1, 2, 4-8, and even a pre-order option for volume 10 — but not the 9th volume I was looking for:
The second problem was with our fiction title. So far, we’ve been comparing the prices for the paperback, 3 Mar 2023 edition of Lessons in Chemistry. As of April 11, 2023, AwesomeBooks doesn’t stock this edition. They only had the April 5, 2022 hardback (£11.99) and April 12, 2022 paperback (£20.98) editions available on their site. Other than these, all I got were actual lessons in chemistry:
I decided to go with the cheaper edition (for some reason, the hardback one was priced lower than the paperback). This is also the edition whose cover art looks like the cover art of the exact edition I was looking for.
I had no problem finding the 2020 paperback edition of The Psychology of Money, so it looks like AwesomeBooks might only have a limited range of new releases. Having said that, they were taking pre-orders for Spy x Family Vol. 10 set for release this Nov 2023…strange.
AwesomeBooks vs Book Depository — which has lower book prices?
Of the two books I did manage to find on AwesomeBooks, one cost more than it did on Book Depository, while the other cost less. Lessons in Chemistry cost 21per cent more on AwesomeBooks, while The Psychology of Money cost 44 per cent more on Book Depository. This is a small sample size, so we can’t draw any conclusions, but safe to say it’s not super clear which the cheaper bookseller is right off the bat.
AwesomeBooks vs Book Depository — which has lower shipping fees?
Now this one has a clear winner. A large number of titles on Book Depository have free shipping, while shipping on AwesomeBooks will cost you £2.99 / SGD 4.95 per item. Nope, no flat shipping rates or free delivery with $X spend here.
AwesomeBooks vs Book Depository — which has shorter delivery time?
On AwesomeBooks, delivery to Singapore will take 14-28 business days. Comparatively, our three titles would take 11-20 days to reach us on Book Depository. Once again, Book Depository is the winner.
6. AbeBooks — Best marketplace for books and more
Like AwesomeBooks, AbeBooks sells both new and secondhand books. And like Blackwell’s, AbeBooks also sells rare finds, including first editions, signed and inscribed copies, and out-of-print titles. But a big difference between AbeBooks and practically every other bookstore on this list is that AbeBooks works like a marketplace. You’re buying a book not from AbeBooks, but from a seller via AbeBooks.
Don’t be fooled by the name—AbeBooks sells more than just books. Vintage photographs, original sheet music, and rare maps also adorn their site. But how does AbeBooks fare as a bookseller? Let’s take a look:
| Books on AbeBooks | Price of book | Cost of shipping | Expected delivery |
| Fiction: Lessons in Chemistry | US$ 12.47 / S$ 16.59 | US$ 6.20 / S$ 8.26 | 7-14 business days (shipping from UK) |
| Non-fiction: The Psychology of Money (shipping from USA, India) | US$ 13.33 / S$ 17.74 | US$ 30.00 / S$ 39.96 | 6-12 business days (shipping from USA) |
| US$ 12.65 / S$ 16.83 | $0 | 10-25 business days (shipping from India) | |
| Manga: Spy x Family, Vol. 9 (shipping from USA, UK, Australia) | US$ 12.15 / S$ 16.17 | US$ 75.00 / S$ 99.89 | 55-60 business days (shipping from USA) |
| US$ 16.58 / S$ 22.06 | US$ 46.00 / S$ 61.26 | 7-60 business days (shipping from UK) | |
| US$ 20.42 / S$ 27.17 | US$ 48.00 / S$ 63.93 | 54-60 business days (shipping from Australia) |
AbeBooks vs Book Depository — which has lower book prices?
Looking at the prices of the books alone, AbeBooks isn’t too shabby compared to Book Depository. Our fiction pick is almost the same price (just S$ 0.20 more on AbeBooks), our non-fiction title is over S$10 cheaper on AbeBooks, and our manga book can be found about $4 cheaper. But that’s where the good news ends.
AbeBooks vs Book Depository — which has shorter delivery time?
Expected delivery dates on AbeBooks vary a lot. Our fiction and non-fiction books might be able to reach us within 6-14 business days (we say “might” because AbeBooks writes “Shipping speeds are estimates based on the carriers’ delivery times and cannot be guaranteed.”). But our manga book Spy x Family, Vol. 9 apparently might take anywhere between 7-60 business days to reach us! Even if it took only seven days, the uncertainty of how long the delivery will take is something some might find hard to swallow.
AbeBooks vs Book Depository — which has lower shipping fees?
One glance at the table above and you’ll realise that the scariest price component on AbeBooks by far is the shipping fee. You’d be mad to order Spy x Family Vol. 9 on AbeBooks if you live in Singapore—the shipping fees are several times the cost of the book itself! Book Depository’s $0 shipping cost feels a world away.
AbeBooks boasts that it’s been “helping buyers and sellers since 1996”. What that means for you as a prospective book buyer is that you may have to sift through several listings of the same book from different sellers to get the cheapest rate. This can be a long, painful process, so here are some tips to save you some time.
AbeBooks — Tips for getting the lowest shipping rates
A good example is The Psychology of Money in the table above. The book itself was cheaper from a US seller, but shipping would have cost over 2 times the cost of the book. I felt cheated by this — AbeBooks wouldn’t let me set my country and advertised a listing that would come with free shipping, assuming I live in the US. Once I was on that listing’s page and clicked on “Destination, rates & speeds” to see the shipping fee to Singapore, I was slapped with an unholy US$ 30.00 / S$ 39.96 fee.
Pro tip: Select the “Asia” option under the “Seller Location” filter when you search for books, as shipping from Asia will mean lower shipping costs. However, note that you may not always be able to apply this Asia filter. I wasn’t able to for Spy x Family, Vol. 9 — turns out all the sellers were from the UK, US or Australia.
Even if you filter out sellers outside of Asia, selecting your destination as Singapore is, at least for now, a tedious and manual process. To see the shipping fees and estimated delivery date to Singapore, you have to click on the listing > select “Destination, rates & speeds” under the price of the book > choose Singapore as your destination country.
In the end, I found a cheaper listing from a seller in India, with free shipping to Singapore. That same listing would cost US$ 2.18 to ship from India to the US.
AbeBooks—Tips for converting currencies easily
Here’s another pro tip: Be prepared to convert currencies as you explore AbeBooks’ selection. Like AwesomeBooks, the AbeBooks website is also not optimised for Singapore customers. You can click on “Convert Currency” beneath the price of the book to see its SGD price.
7. Kinokuniya—fastest local delivery (3-5 days)
One of the few physical bookstores left in Singapore, Kinokuniya sells books both in their physical stores and online. Online prices and in-store retail prices differ, and today we’ll just be checking out the online ones.
| Books on Kinokuniya | Price of book | Cost of shipping | Expected delivery |
| Fiction: Lessons in Chemistry | $21.60 | S$4.80 for orders below S$50 (Free delivery above $50) | 3-5 working days |
| Non-fiction: The Psychology of Money | $32.40 | ||
| Manga: Spy x Family, Vol. 9 | $17.69 |
Note: Kinokuniya Privilege Card Members get 10 per cent off the book price. Membership costs $21.60 for a year, $38.90 for two years, or $56.20 for three years.
Kinokuniya vs Book Depository — which has lower book prices?
Assuming you aren’t a Kinokuniya member and pay the full online price, our fiction and non-fiction picks were cheaper on Book Depository by 24 per cent and 11.5 per cent respectively. On the other hand, our manga cost 20 per cent less on Kinokuniya’s online store than Book Depository. While this small selection isn’t enough to draw a definitive conclusion, it’s possible that at least some mangas or graphic novels may be more affordable on Kinokuniya.
Kinokuniya vs Book Depository — which has lower shipping fees?
Kinojuniya offers free delivery with $50 spend, otherwise pay $4.80 for orders below $50. So if you aren’t buying two or three books and don’t hit the $50 minimum, Book Depository’s free delivery wins out.
Kinokuniya vs Book Depository — which has shorter delivery time?
Kinokuniya is the bookstore with the fastest delivery on this list, at three to five working days. That makes sense, since Kinokuniya ships books out to you from their local stocks. Of course, if they don’t currently have stock of the book you want, you may have to wait longer. But if you need a book in less than a week, Kinokuniya is your best bet, and it may be worth it to fork out a little bit more for a book on their site.
8. Summary of online bookstores — prices, shipping and more
In the tables below, we rank the best online bookstores for each book in terms of the total cost of the book + shipping fees. We assumed you have no special member discounts, are shipping the book to Singapore, and are only buying that single book (and so are unlikely to hit the $50-60 minimum spend for free delivery).
It’s also worth noting that our fiction and manga picks are both relatively new releases (Mar 2023 editions), while our non-fiction title’s edition was published in Sep 2020. That’s one reason why not every bookstore stocked those two books, and is also telling of which bookstores move fast when it comes to new titles or new editions.
As much as we all love Book Depository, you might be surprised to learn that in terms of the total cost of ordering a book online, they don’t always come out on top.
Fiction: Lessons in Chemistry — Prices, shipping fees, expected delivery
All prices (SGD) are for the March 3, 2023 Paperback edition unless otherwise stated (i.e. the bookstore let us down and didn’t have the edition we wanted. Looking at you, OpenTrolley and AwesomeBooks).
| Online bookstore | Price of book | Cost of shipping | Total cost | Expected delivery |
| 1. Wordery | $13.78 | Free | $13.78 | 19-34 business days |
| 2. Book Depository | $16.39 | Free | $16.39 | 11-16 business days |
| 3. Blackwell’s | $17.71 | Free | $17.71 | 17-22 business days |
| 4. AwesomeBooks (Hardback, 5 Apr 2022) | $19.85 | $4.95 | $24.80 | 14-28 business days |
| 5. AbeBooks | $16.59 | $8.26 | $24.85 | 7-14 business days (shipping from UK) |
| 6. Kinokuniya | $21.60 | $4.80 (free with $50 spend) | $26.40 | 3-5 business days |
| 7. OpenTrolley (2022 Paperback edition) | $47.19 | $4.90 (free with $60 spend) | $52.09 | 6-9 business days |
Non-fiction: The Psychology of Money — Prices, shipping fees, expected delivery
All prices are in SGD and are for the Sept 8, 2020 Paperback edition — all the bookstores on this list had the edition we wanted.
| Online bookstore | Price of book | Cost of shipping | Total cost | Expected delivery |
| 1. AbeBooks | $16.83 | Free | $16.83 | 10-25 business days (shipping from India) |
| 2. Wordery | $18.27 | Free | $18.27 | 19-34 business days |
| 3. AwesomeBooks | $19.85 | $4.95 | $24.80 | 14-28 business days |
| 4. Blackwell’s | $22.00 | Free | $22.00 | 17-22 business days |
| 5. Book Depository | $28.68 | Free | $28.68 | 11-16 business days |
| 6. OpenTrolley | $32.01 | $4.90 (free with $60 spend) | $36.91 | 6-9 business days |
| 7. Kinokuniya | $32.40 | $4.80 (free with $50 spend) | $37.20 | 3-5 business days |
Important note on the winner for our non-fiction category: AbeBooks works kinda like Shopee, but for books. Meaning, the price and shipping fees of your book depend on the seller and which country they live in.
So while it’s great that you can get a copy of The Psychology of Money for such a low cost on AbeBooks now, you may not always be able to, and certainly not for every book. Just look at how AbeBooks fared for Spy x Family Vol. 9 below to see what I mean.
Manga: Spy x Family, Vol. 9 — Prices, shipping fees, expected delivery
All prices are in SGD and are for the 30 Mar 2023 paperback edition. Unfortunately, not all the bookstores on this list carried this title.
| Online bookstore | Price of book | Cost of shipping | Total cost | Expected delivery |
| 1. Wordery | $9.99 | Free | $9.99 | 19-34 business days |
| 2. Blackwell’s | $12.81 | Free | $12.81 | 17-22 business days |
| 3. OpenTrolley | $15.50 | $4.90 (free with $60 spend) | $20.40 | 6-9 business days |
| 4. Book Depository | $22.15 | Free | $22.15 | 15-20 business days |
| 5. Kinokuniya | $17.69 | $4.80 (free with $50 spend) | $22.49 | 3-5 business days |
| 6. AbeBooks | $16.17 – $27.17 | $61.26 – $99.89 | From $83.32 | 7-60 business days (shipping from USA/UK/Australia) |
| 7. AwesomeBooks | AwesomeBooks didn’t have this book. Not so awesome. | |||
9. Which is the most affordable online bookstore across all titles?
Looking just at the cost of the book + shipping, Wordery is your best bet to buy a book affordably online. This was followed by Blackwell’s, and then Book Depository in third place. I hate to say it, but if you’re just looking to purchase books at the lowest cost and have no customer loyalty to Book Depository, you won’t even miss everyone’s favourite bookstore.
Here are all the prices summarised in a table with their rankings. “Rank #1” denotes that that particular bookstore was the most affordable choice for that book, “Rank #2” means it was the second lowest price, and so on.
| Online bookstore | Fiction: Lessons in Chemistry | Non-fiction: The Psychology of Money | Manga: Spy x Family, Vol. 9 |
| Wordery | $13.78 (Rank #1) | $18.27 (Rank #2) | $9.99 (Rank #1) |
| Blackwell’s | $17.71 (Rank #3) | $22.00 (Rank #4) | $12.81 (Rank #2) |
| Book Depository | $16.39 (Rank #2) | $28.68 (Rank #5) | $22.15 (Rank #4) |
| AbeBooks | $24.85 (Rank #5) | $16.83 (Rank #1) | From $83.32 (Rank #6) |
| AwesomeBooks | $24.80 (Rank #4) | $24.80 (Rank #3) | NA (Rank #7) |
| OpenTrolley | $52.09 (Rank #7) | $36.91 (Rank #6) | $20.40 (Rank #3) |
| Kinokuniya | $26.40 (Rank #6) | $37.20 (Rank #7) | $22.49 (Rank #5) |
10. Which online bookstore has the fastest and cheapest shipping to Singapore?
Kinokuniya may be the most expensive bookstore to get your books from on this list, but it’s the clear winner when it comes to fast delivery. After all, they aren’t shipping to Singapore so much as within it. OpenTrolley is a close second for the same reason.
On the other end of the spectrum is AbeBooks, which can ship from all over the world, but which US/UK/Australia shipments can take up to 60 business days to fulfil. If we factor in that the 60 working days don’t include weekends, you could be waiting 3 months just for one book. Not to mention, that will cost you about $60-$90+ in shipping fees!
| Online bookstore | Expected delivery within | Shipping fees |
| Kinokuniya | 3-5 business days | $4.80 (free with $50 spend) |
| OpenTrolley | 6-9 business days | $4.90 (free with $60 spend) |
| AwesomeBooks | 14-28 business days | $4.95 |
| Book Depository | 15-20 business days | Free |
| Blackwell’s | 17-22 business days | Free |
| Wordery | 19-34 business days | Free |
| AbeBooks |
Depends on seller location. Estimates based on our three books:
|
Depends on where the book is being shipped from. Estimates based on our three books:
|
11. So, which is the best online bookstore in Singapore?
Interestingly, our two online bookstores with the lowest prices also take the longest time to ship to Singapore. So at the end of the day, it’s a trade-off between cost and speed of delivery.
For the lowest prices
To buy books for the lowest cost including shipping, visit Wordery or Blackwell’s. Just be sure you can wait 19-34 business days or 17-22 business days respectively for your book to arrive.
For the fastest shipping
Kinokuniya and OpenTrolley should be your go-tos. Just be warned that books are gonna cost more on these platforms, and delivery is only free if you hit $50 or $60 spend for each respective bookstore.
For obscure reads, rare books, or signed copies
You have a few options. You could try AwesomeBooks for their wide range of 25 million books (though our tests in this article show they may not stock the newest releases). With its large marketplace, AbeBooks might have a seller or two selling the book you want. And finally, Blackwell’s Signed and Rare sections are worth checking out.
This article was first published in MoneySmart.