In the wake of Amazon.com's announcement it was acquiring Abebooks.com, Alibris issued a press release touting the fact it was independently owned and operated and recapping new services designed to help book and media sellers increase sales.

"As a privately owned business itself, Alibris is committed to helping independent sellers grow their own businesses," said Brian Elliott, President & CEO of Alibris. "We've driven sales growth of more than 25% to our sellers this year. In a tough economic climate, we are bolstering impressive sales numbers by delivering superior value to sellers through new services, new business partners, and lower fees."

Elliott said the company's most recent enhancements were focused on three areas - collectibles, integration, and seller storefronts. It has created a set of standardized, XML-based Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allows online retailers to search through its sellers' inventories and offer Alibris items for sale on their ecommerce sites.

Seller storefronts enable buyers on Alibris's branded Web sites (www.alibris.com and Alibris U.K. at www.alibris.co.uk) to find more items from each independent seller, and to save on shipping and handling charges. Storefronts allow sellers to also merchandise items to their buyers, to describe and personalize their businesses better, and to gain more direct access to buyers.

"Alibris seller storefronts are part of an ongoing evolution this year at Alibris," said Elliott. "We are very focused on improved services that make our marketplace experience better and allow sellers to connect directly with buyers more regularly."

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