@Dana thanks for your feedback
In our current MVP there’s no difference 
We are starting with basic features, testing them, and making sure they are working properly (we have begun working on a simple web app)
Currently it is similar to zomato, but you look for bookshops selling the book you are looking for
For the future there will be interesting things as ordering a book you want to learn from the app to your doorstep. Watch this space 
@mahmoud_trabulsi it’s a good space. A friend of mine is the founder of Jamalon! His story is very interesting.
As a young budding entrepreneur, he translated Harry Potters to Arabic and put it online. Little did he know it was illegal. It got one million downloads. Whoa.
J.K. Rowling was not happy and she was very very close to suing him. He apologized (big time), she forgave him. Using his experience from connecting with one million users, he started Jamalon and now, is fully aware of all legal implications. They have a wonderful selection. The delivery costs to Lebanon are a little high from my own experience!
@Dana I guess I heard about Jamalon before.
Delivery costs is one of the things we want to tackle, so when we add the delivery option, it would be convenient and efficient. So currently I am trying to collect contact information for delivery service companies/startups.
Ha! Hilarious video and introductions. 
As you folks know, I love the idea, and the potential of linking local bookstores to a tech solution, hopefully helping both the small shops, and the users/clients.
Have you thought about any ways of launching/testing in a simplified way, and getting a few bookshops actually using the tool the soonest? A sort of very early MVP? Best if this could be tried with ZERO coding / development … but just using some kind of online shop-builder, etc. …?
Maybe? I think there could be some ways of doing that, and potentially even getting revenue before you build the full site / tool.
Thoughts?
Cheers!
@DMN we are currently developing a hybrid web app to test with
It should be done in about 3 months, we will start testing it
Personally, I prefer to have something that we code because that will make what we offer easily customize-able for the bookshops, as we are trying for example to let their smartphone cameras act as an ISBN scanner so that they can create their stock easily.
well this service is more suitable for a person creating a store, and the pricing is a bit not good as the number of items will be huge for 1-2 bookshops.
and one more thing @DMN , I guess that we need to give the bookshops a free trial to test our product (as we are using the hook-in technique to let customers stay with us)
anyway, I’ll see if I can find any solutions that I can start with
Libanpost, Aramex, Wakilni and i think UPS
You can also try shopify if relevant
I do prefer that too my friend.
Thanks @fadi.hasrouni for these suggestions, well I have added these options to my data file, but I’d prefer to work with a small business/new start-up that deals with delivery, I would like that my whole business is centered around helping small and promising businesses
Thanks for this too, I’ll do some research about it
I love this!
@mahmoud_trabulsi you should try Wakilni.
Local delivery startup, theyve been in the market for quite a while and the guys are hardcore hustlers.
I add my voice to @razan . we’re working with Wakilini. Seamless integration. you don’t even have to lift a finger.
@mahmoud_trabulsi @ghidamouazen
How will you compare to virgin megastore, Librairie Antoine ( i know they’re working on something pretty big and so you should hurry up and enter the market)? Also, there is the star emerging in the Lebanese market: Hicart.com. they have a books section, it’s huge!
Have you considered adding school books or hand-offs?
Linking small to medium book stores is a great initiative but is it sustainable?
Coding from scratch isn’t always the best option. That’s just my opinion.
if you’re going for ecommerce i would suggest Woocommerce (if you’re a beginner coder)which is built on top of Wordpress. it has a lot of resources and support.
And if you’re an expert in PHP and web development you can check out Magento which is a pure ecommerce platform. Also with tones of support and online resources.
Best,
@rabih thanks for your feedback
what we are thinking about is the connection of the readers with various bookshops, and as I used to work at Virgin in the books section, I know that it is almost impossible that a single bookshop (even in the size of virgin, Maliks, Antoine) can have any book a reader is looking for, I guess giving the readers more than one bookshop to search from is an added value for them, and the bookshops having some books exclusively can make them benefit from the app (there are several examples).
Concerning the coding from scratch, we were given a fund from Nawaya (where we started) to develop something, and thus we are doing so.
Is it possible to use the fund for anything other than directly paying developers. Perhaps you can save the fund for later as I believe in @rabih’s suggestions that there might be cheaper / easier ways to get your foot in the market’s door. I challenge you to write 10 different ways you can prototype the experience without writing the full final phone application. Are there simpler bits of code that use pictures, could you manually build the database for instance… I want to see at least 10. If you get stuck writing at 7, write whatever comes to mind till you get 10.
Warmly,
+BG
@bilal concerning the funds, we signed some papers that we will use the funds for app development, and we were given the fund after giving them some quotations, and when we made deals with the developer and the graphic designer, we were given the money (they required that they should start working to give us the fund)
and concerning the 10 ways I’ll do some research
@mahmoud_trabulsi - The ten ideas is a practice I have that I’ve borrowed from here. Instead of doing research, start typing, see what you can come up with. Of course having some background knowledge/research helps, although I’m sure you have plenty to start writing the first 10 right now!
+BG
@bilal I am searching for option to develop easily online
Here are some options I found, the major disadvantage is that I can’t implement a cam scanner linked to ISBN database (when using such solutions I can’t work with API’s)
1- zoho: this website can help you build a database (it is not that cheaper, it might save time, having a good price will impose some limitations)
2- bubble: this website can help us build an app without coding, as a price it is good, but not that cheap (around 750$/year)
3- devhub: a cheap solution, but not efficient for database design
4- treeline: a great solution, it is not a solution with zero-coding, but it can be help gather small pieces of code to get your app, they’re still in beta phase, and I’ll do more research about them.
5- tilda: another good option, but has a very limited storage
6- appypie: the best solution for me but it costs almost as the cost of developing an app
7- We can create a database on Microsoft access(I have to have some tutorials- 3 days at most-), buy a cloud storage service, start working on the bookshops side, while creating a small search page for readers for testing
8- We can go extremely basic as a first step (might even be excel sheets), but this is unfavorable option.
9- We can go for a coding approach by using open source codes, but we will have a very limited resources although this is a zero-cost option.
10- We can create an online shop with lots of branches (earlier suggestion), the only challenge is the extremely limited number of items that we can have
This is an awesome list!
Another option which is a Relational Database which has a great UI for including forms which will make inserting the book information more easily is Air Table.
Another thing you might consider is using something that will make it easy to do a concierge service:
This can help you get the ISBN’s: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.leontec.realcodescan.isbnreader
If that doesn’t work, look for another or try this: https://www.appszoom.com/android_applications/tools/isbn-scanner_lrad.html
Then use https://www.librarything.com/ to catalog the library. You can then export the CSV (which you can import into your database) here https://www.librarything.com/export-csv
This is just one way you can try it. The most important thing is to find a customer who’s willing to try and to give them a great experience! Even if you’re doing it all by hand and have to spend two days typing them!
Warmly,
+BG
@bilal wow… this seems interesting
I have gone through everything you sent briefly, I’ll go deeper into details ASAP
Thank you