VALUE BOOKS aims to circulate books. GMO-PG Remittance Service for Cost Savings and Automation

VALUE BOOKS Co., Ltd., which develops the purchase and sales service "VALUE BOOKS" for books and other products, has adopted GMO Payment Gateway, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as "GMO-PG") comprehensive online payment service "PG Multi-Payment Service" since 2020. We have introduced a new "GMO-PG Remittance Service" for remittances of purchase prices.

The company, whose mission is to "create an environment where people around the Japan and the world can freely read, learn, and enjoy books," spoke with Kazuyoshi Nakamura, a director, and Kyohei Osaka, who promoted the introduction of the service, about the background, results, and future prospects of introducing the GMO-PG Remittance Service following the payment. (Positions, information, etc. as of December 2024)

VALUE BOOKS purchases and sells books, etc.Various initiatives to realize a "better book circulation"

Founded in 2007, VALUE BOOKS Co., Ltd. is headquartered in Ueda City, Nagano Prefecture, and is a company that develops a wide range of book-related businesses, including "VALUE BOOKS" and "Vaboo", which mainly purchase and sell books, and "charibon", a platform for donations through books.

The company has a strong image of buying and selling books, but it has also engaged in many unique initiatives, and you can get a glimpse of its underlying mission of "creating an environment where people in Japan and around the world can freely read, learn, and enjoy books."

"What we value is to create a better book cycle," says director Kazuyoshi Nakamura. The company collects about 30,000 books every day, but due to various reasons such as the condition of the books and the imbalance between supply and demand in the Internet market, it is said that there is a current situation where about 15,000 books, which is half of them, cannot be priced and have to be used for waste paper collection.

VALUE BOOKS Co., Ltd. Director Kazuyoshi Nakamura

To address this challenge, the company has implemented various projects.
For example, the "BOOK GIFT" project, which donates books that could not be purchased mainly to elementary schools and childcare facilities, and the "Valuebooks Lab," which sells books at inexpensive prices at physical stores. We also develop and sell "notebooks that were books" that use these books to be reborn into notebooks. In addition, a project is underway to make paper products from newly disposed books. In addition, as a project called VALUEBOOKS ECOSYSTEM, we are working with publishers who publish books that are less likely to collapse, and we are also working to return a portion of the sales of used books to publishers.

A "notebook that was a book" made by reusing books that were scheduled to be collected from waste paper

Initiatives for the "Book Cycle" that has continued since our founding

"VALUE BOOKS started its business with a method called "sedori", in which the founder, Daiki Nakamura, made a living by collecting and selling used books. Therefore, at first, we did not have a big vision, but we faced each time through trial and error to find ways to solve the problems that would arise as the business grew. As a result, it is a company that has grown as a company while creating various initiatives related to the "book circulation".
The BOOK GIFT Project, which has been going on for more than 15 years, has delivered more than 60,000 books to nursery schools, elementary schools, and disaster-stricken areas since 2017, when it began counting."

The company also places great importance on organizational development and focuses on creating a comfortable working environment. In order to solidify the business foundation, efficiency has been emphasized, and free work styles such as part-time have been adopted. As a result, we are working to improve the gender gap, such as the presence of a large number of female employees but the majority of men in wages.
In October 2024, we obtained "B Corp Certification *"and are promoting the creation of a company that fulfills its social responsibilities not only in financial statements but also in B Corp indicators.

* B Corp certification: An international certification given to companies that value social and environmental considerations, transparent management, and responsibility to their employees and local communities. To be certified, a company must conduct a "B Impact Assessment" and score 80 points or more in more than 200 criteria after the audit, and be evaluated as a company aiming for a sustainable future through its business. As of December 2024, 49 companies in Japan have obtained certification.

About half of the purchase applications are repeat customers."Maybe you sympathize with the attitude of circulating books without throwing them away."

The company's core business, VALUE BOOKS, receives approximately 200,000 purchase applications per year, with an average of approximately 17,000 per month. About half of them are from repeat customers.
As of December 2024, the number of members is approximately 550,000, and approximately 400 new registrations are accepted every day.

The VALUE BOOKS website features interviews with users who have sold books many times. I am surprised by the number of books I gave up, but the voices are also attractive, and I get the impression that people who value books are using the service.

"I think there are many people who sympathize with and agree with our idea of 'making use of books as much as possible' and use them," says Mr. Kyohei Osaka, who has listened to and responded to the voices of users.

VALUE BOOKS Co., Ltd. Kyohei Osaka

The purchase of VALUE BOOKS is completed online.

1. Prospective buyers (sellers) register and apply for membership on the site
2. Pickup by the shipping company
3. Unpack and evaluate the purchased items that arrive, and notify the seller of the results
4. The seller accepts the purchase details
5. Transfer of purchase money

In particular, the appraisal work takes a lot of time and effort, and it is said that 1,000 to 1,300 boxes are assessed every day.
The average purchase amount per purchase request is about 3,362 yen, the average number of boxes is 1.7 boxes, and the number of books is about 50.
"Appraisal work is a process that involves a lot of mental and physical burden, and we have 30~40 staff members. This process requires the most man-hours."

What is the value of choosing VALUE BOOKS from many services?

Among the many used books, books, etc. purchase and sales services, what is the reason why VALUE BOOKS is chosen?

Customers feel differently, but Mr. Nakamura analyzes it as follows.
"I think the main points are as follows.

• Ease of use
• High purchase price and full of coupons
• Reasonable selling price

In addition, based on the philosophy of "book circulation", it is a big difference from other services that it does not stop at simply buying and selling, but also deepens the connection between readers and books.
While other companies that develop similar businesses are increasing sales by developing comprehensive reuse and expanding their product lineup, we provide detailed services that enhance the reading experience by specializing in books.

We are also particular about how we can create new encounters from the limited number of inventory. For example, if you use ​VALUE BOOKS' unique book age search function, which narrows down the book age by the age of the book with the publication date set to 0 years old, you can find long-selling books that you don't know about yet. We have also developed and released ​our own book selection AI that introduces recommended books just by entering your interests and keywords."

"In terms of ease of use, we also offer other useful features such as 'bookshelf scanning' and 'library'. Bookshelf scanning recognizes the information of the bookshelf taken with a smartphone and displays the price at which it can be sold. Since you can easily grasp the selling price of a book, you may be thinking of selling it casually.

There is still a trend of selling used books in the CtoC market, but it takes time and effort to sell them for the number of books. On the other hand, I think that the ease of sending a purchase service like ours in bulk is also attractive from the customer's point of view."

The unique ideas that are born from the environment specializing in books are also demonstrated in the way they attract customers.

"Recently, more and more people are becoming interested in books through media such as YouTube and podcasts. For example, it seems that many people are inspired by the content of programs such as "Yuru Linguistics Radio" and "Koten Radio," which focus on language and history, and then pick up a book. Our company sponsors these programs and sells the books introduced on VALUE BOOKS, which helps promote book purchases. We then return the profits we make to the media. We feel that this method is more efficient and creates a cycle than advertising.
Furthermore, at VALUE BOOKS we are also putting effort into creating better connections between people and books, starting with YouTube channels such as the Tsundoku Channel and the Book Channel," says Nakamura.

The unique functions and initiatives of VALUE BOOKS are highly evaluated by users.

"I have previously heard the voice of our customers through a questionnaire. At that time, the number of books that could be offered was not as large as it is now, but it received positive reviews.

What was particularly impressive was the "library function". This feature records the books you send to VALUE BOOKS. You can look back at books you owned in the past and rediscover memorable books. You can also purchase from the library, so it is a system that meets the needs of people who want to put books that have been given away again.
We received many comments from customers that it was convenient and very good. Furthermore, by promoting collaboration with social media, we believe that we can further enhance the effectiveness of this function."

Some say that VALUE BOOKS' services have inspired people to let go of books by promoting the circulation of books. "I am very happy that we are able to use the service with sympathy from our customers," says Mr. Aisaka.

A deep love for books is special for many people, and the company's services play a role in passing on that thought to the next owner. The number of users of VALUE BOOKS continues to expand due to people who sympathize with the idea of the circulation of books and value books.

The company's physical store "Book and Tea NABO" has also started an initiative to open it as a reading room for those who want to concentrate on reading books

Introduced Credit card payment through GMO-PG payment services since 2020

When VALUE BOOKS opened its own sales website in 2020, it adopted the Credit card payment of GMO-PG's comprehensive online payment service "PG Multi-Payment Service".

"At the time of introduction, the person in charge compared multiple payment services, and as a result, the low fees and the sense of stability due to high visibility were the key points, so we decided on GMO-PG.

PG Multi-Payment Service was the first payment service used by the company, so it is difficult to compare it with other companies after it was put into operation, but in addition to being able to operate without any problems so far, we can use it with confidence because it can quickly respond to cyberattacks such as large-scale attacks."

Implemented Remittance Service to reduce fees and automate deposits.Significantly reduced costs and man-hours of approximately 700,000 yen

On the other hand, I have been using Bank transfer for depositing purchase money for a long time, but a few years ago I introduced a certain Remittance Service to reduce fees. However, the Remittance Service was terminated and I was reverting back to Bank transfer.
Seeing the increasing number of transfer operations and fees due to the strong increase in users, Mr. Osaka decided to review the Remittance Service again and finally adopted GMO-PG Remittance Service.

"The deciding factors for choosing GMO-PG Remittance Service compared to several services were:

・Low fees
・Response to automation
・Trust and fastness as a company

Currently, there are nearly 20,000 transactions per month, so even a small fee difference can be expected to reduce significant costs. Cost reduction through fees was the biggest deciding factor, but Mr. Hamada of GMO-PG carefully listened to the number and amount of payments, and made a proposal that I was satisfied with."

GMO-PG Sales Sho Hamada

It is said that there are some things that need to be kept in mind when purchasing online.

"In the case of used book purchases, "three-point agreement" is required as a rule of the Secondhand Goods Business Act. The name and address on the identity verification document must match the pickup information and the name of the transfer account.

For example, other cashless payment methods also have money transfer capabilities, but some of them don't fit into these rules and currently can't be supported by anything other than Bank transfer. Being able to support transfer was a must in the selection of services.

Our main goal was to reduce costs while continuing to use Bank transfer, but since the introduction of GMO-PG Remittance Service, we have succeeded in reducing costs by about 700,000 yen per month."

The transfer process takes about one-third of the time.Realizing an environment that is not affected by busy seasons

Mr. Osaka said that the introduction of GMO-PG Remittance Service has led to an increase in automation response, and the improvement of reducing labor man-hours and manual labor risks is also in line with expectations.

"We believed that reducing human error was a key issue, especially in critical operations that dealt with money, and that automation needed to be proactive.

Since the introduction of GMO-PG Remittance Service, we have been able to work with a small number of people with plenty of time thanks to efficiency even during busy times. It's hard to control the waves of busyness, but it's easier to make a business outlook.
Towards the year-end and New Year holidays, the number of people who clean up for general cleaning increases, so it is a time when purchase requests increase every year. However, even if there is a vacancy, we are happy that we are able to respond without feeling a shortage of personnel."

GMO-PG Remittance Service Now that it has already been a few months since it was launched, are there any issues that you have seen?

"I had trust in GMO-PG because I was originally using it for payment, but it was very helpful because they responded quickly to my questions about the development of Remittance Service.

When I actually used it, it was very good that I was able to use it stably without any problems. There is no inconvenience and it is operated smoothly. In the previous Remittance Service, the authentication process took another time, so that has been improved and helped."

"Currently, the first transfer can be fully automated, but there are still situations where errors caused by the customer's own registration mistake or if a re-transfer is required, it is still done manually.If full automation progresses, we can shorten the time required for transfer work from about 30~40 minutes to less than 10 minutes, and we believe that we can significantly reduce the work."

A vision that expands with the aim of better circulation of books.Utilizing AI to realize a variety of ideas

VALUE BOOKS is actively working on the use of AI within our company. There are many functions that have already been implemented, such as book selection AI and book audio commentary.

"In the future, we would like to aim to standardize and speed up customer service, which is often handled manually, by incorporating AI.

In addition, we are looking at examples of cyber attacks from other companies and thinking that we need to strengthen our own preparedness. I would like GMO-PG to continue to provide explanations and explanations of the mechanism to improve the safety of the site.

In addition to improving operational efficiency, such as cashless purchases during on-site purchases, we hope that you will be able to make even more flexible proposals based on ideas that will lead to improved convenience and customer satisfaction."

(From left) GMO-PG Hamada, VALUE BOOKS Mr. Osaka and Mr. Nakamura

Finally, we asked Mr. Nakamura about the future that VALUE BOOKS Co., Ltd. thinks.

"We aim for a "better circulation" of books so that the relationship between books and people can be enriched," says Nakamura.

"We are still working on projects with various partners, but we hope to expand the scale further in the future and allow us to play a role as a "hub" for the industry.Specifically, we are not limited to simply buying and selling books, but also facing the problems of mass production and mass consumption. I would like to aim to create new value through books."

The company started in 2017 as a book bus project to deliver books to all over Japan, mainly in bookstore-free areas

As a partner in supporting companies like VALUE BOOKS Co., Ltd., which are actively working to create a sustainable society and aiming to transform the industry, GMO-PG will provide services that grow together and promote change, and open up the future together.

Click here for GMO-PG Remittance Service, which is convenient for purchase deposits, refund, etc.