The bookstore chain Hugendubel is starting to buy back used books in cooperation with the British start-up Zeercle. Customers can exchange books they don’t want to keep for vouchers, as Hugendubel announced on Thursday. The Munich-based company, with over 90 branches in Germany, claims to be the first bookseller in Germany to start such a buyback program. Zeercle then wants to sell the second-hand books again via its own online sales channels.
So far, Zeercle has cooperated with, among others, the British bookstore chain WH Smith. Purchasing portals for used books such as Medimops have been around in Germany for years, but they usually buy their goods from private sellers, not from booksellers. The US group Amazon also has a strong market position with the online marketplaces Abebooks and ZVAB for antiquarian bookstores.