Bookshop’s eCommerce Innovations Take Fast Company Small & Mighty Award

Brooklyn-based Bookshop.org has shattered expectations with a $51-million first year in business, as disillusionment with Amazon combined with worldwide COVID-19 lockdowns drove unprecedented demand for independent bookselling online.

For its virtuous cycle-thinking, unique profit-sharing affiliate program, and anti-disruptive business stance, Bookshop has been recognized as one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies 2021. Bookshop joins nine other organizations in Fast Company’s brand-new Small and Mighty category, for small, agile companies who have produced game-changing impacts with less than fifty staff on the payroll.

As the design and engineering firm behind Bookshop’s initial release, HFC took on the challenge of quickly developing an Amazon-competitive experience that small independent bookstores could benefit from, under unique business model requirements. As a certified B-Corp, Bookshop’s business model is designed around distributing profits to affiliated independent booksellers. Unlike venture-funded startups, Bookshop’s model necessitated restraint and focus to stay on budget for its initial release. To implement Bookshop CEO Andy Hunter’s innovative turnkey eCommerce solution for booksellers, HFC had to meet the brief with an equally nimble, deliberate engineering approach, thoughtfully planning work that integrated with the needs of established industry partners at scale. And that scale came sooner than anyone expected, with traffic reaching over 2M visitors per month after just a few months.

Bookshop’s Big Idea is its affiliate program. By distributing a generous share of its sales to affiliates, Bookshop could provide a simple buying experience and still support independent retailers and industry influencers, while taking a minimal fee for itself. This program had to perform equitably on launch to maximize uptake in an industry skeptical of outside solutions. Bookshop’s mission to fortify small retailers put the spotlight on transparency and fairness, and it was crucial that we delivered solutions that bolstered that trust.

In launching Bookshop, our constraints really did drive innovation. The generalist software competencies our team has developed from experience with diverse client verticals let us think about Bookshop’s complex engineering requirements from all angles, and a professional enthusiasm for solving problems saw them through.

Bookshop’s ambitious launch required big-picture thinking, reliability, and an appreciation for balancing complex priorities. It also required a firm belief in the power of partnerships. We applaud our partners for their vision and the immeasurable hard work that went into making year one of Bookshop bloom into what Fast Company called “a happy alternative” to Amazon, with expansions into the UK and Spain now in the world.

HFC is hugely proud to have done our part in helping to launch a solution readers and booksellers feared couldn’t be done — and turning limitations into creative solutions with impact.