ThriftBooks Holiday Hacks

How to get the most value out of your ThriftBooks shopping

If you are like me, it's hard to believe that the holidays are upon us! The year has flown by and now it is time to turn our attention to family, food, faith, and festivities! The ThriftBooks team has worked hard all year long to build a best-in-class shopping experience for our valued customers. To help you learn about what is new, and maximize the value you can have from ThriftBooks.com, I've put together this list of "Holiday Hacks" for you to reference as you begin your holiday shopping now and in the weeks ahead.

New and Notable

Shoppable Gift List

A couple of weeks ago we officially launched our Gift List feature. This feature enables you to build and share a gift list with your friends and family. Now they can shop directly from your gift list with the items purchased sent directly to the address you specified. Avoid receiving gifts you don't really want. Instead, build your Gift List and share away!

Tip: You can easily turn an existing Wish List into a Gift List with a simple click of the "Share list" link located above the wish list! Then select your preferred shipping address and share away!

Tip #2: Within Gift List you can use "configure options" to select the book condition you desire. It's a great place to specify "New" if you want a New version of the book!

New and Flexible Payment Options

We have added two payment methods to provide additional payment options at checkout. First, is Pay Later, PayPal's "Pay in 4" option. For all carts over $30, you can select Pay Later and pay for your purchase in 4 easy payments. The second option is Venmo, for a convenient, mobile phone payment experience.

Tip: Fill up your cart with books, DVDs, Vinyl, Video games, or our new giftable items. All our products can be purchased with Pay Pal's Pay Later.

Tip #2: Pay Later is the perfect payment option when shopping our Collectibles section of rare and vintage books. You'll find unique books for every type of book lover and every gift budget level!

Related Product Suggestions

As most of you know, we have many non-book items available for sale on ThriftBooks.com. From DVDs and Blu-ray under Movies & TV to Video Games to our new giftable items under Gifts, there are gifts for everyone. Our Holiday Gift Guide has a wonderful, curated assortment of items, but you can also find suggestions in our new "Explore More" section, based upon what specific item you're viewing, like this:

ThriftBooks 4 Teachers™

Calling all Educators! Homeschooler, Childcare workers, K-16 teachers and staff, if you haven't yet joined our educator program, ThriftBooks 4 Teachers™, now is the time to do so! Verify your credentials and join (for free) and receive Literati status in our ReadingRewards® program plus every 5th book is free (up to $7). All day, every day. ThriftBooks 4 Teachers™ is a great way to leverage your teacher benefits into holiday shopping benefits!

Package Delivery Notifications

Ease your holiday shipping worries with our new order shipment tracking communications. Emails and/or SMS will provide you with updates on your package from the moment it leaves our processing center to the moment it arrives at your house. You will also find relevant product recommendations and any new promotional offers in these messages as well. Of course, our award-winning Customer Service team is available with any questions you may have.

Self-Service Returns portal

If your book arrived damaged or wasn't what you ordered, our new self-service returns portal, complete with a free return label, is available via your My Account page. Simply select the order number associated with the book(s) you need to return and follow the prompts from there.

Regular Great ThriftBooks.com Features

In addition to all this newness we still have the core benefits of ThriftBooks.com. You can find more detail on most of these in my Holiday Helper blog from last year.

• The ThriftBooks.com App – All the features of ThriftBooks in the palm of your hand! Earn 100 ReadingRewards® points when you first download the app and enjoy book-satisfaction with every browse and purchase!
• ReadingRewards® – Earn points every time you shop! Redeem those points for free books. And who doesn't love free books?
• Holiday Gift Guides – These hand-curated guides are filled with gift inspiration across all genres and categories. With 20 guides, you are certain to find something for everyone on your list.
• New Books – Shopping ThriftBooks.com for New book purchases not only earns you ReadingRewards® points which you can redeem for free books, but you also save on high shipping fees that other online booksellers may charge because with us, you get free shipping on all US orders over $15 
• Collectible Books – Looking for truly unique and one-of-a-kind gifts for the book lovers in your life? Look no further than our selection of rare and vintage books. Our Collectibles Gift Guide is the perfect place to get started shopping for these memorable gift ideas.
• e-Gift Cards – Always the perfect gift for all ages. Our Gift Card Center enables you to shop for gift cards in a variety of holiday designs and send them to your recipients via email, text, or the OG way of print-it-out-and-wrap-it-up!
• #ShareBookLove™ – We love to share our love for books with all of you and we would love for you to share your love of ThriftBooks with your friends and family. Our #ShareBookLove™ Tell-a-Friend program is the perfect way to do so. Every time you refer a friend, and they make a purchase, you both are rewarded with a free book! So, share away and help us spread ShareBookLove far and wide!

We know you have many options for your book purchases. The ThriftBooks team works incredibly hard in our five processing centers across the U.S. and from our corporate office to provide each of you a personalized and best in class shopping experience. We strive to be the best alternative to shopping at large, faceless online booksellers. Our Best Customer Service and Best Online Shop awards mean we have your back from beginning to end and we hope our over 1 million 5-star reviews on Trustpilot provides you with confidence while shopping ThriftBooks.com.

We are not perfect, but we are passionate about being perfect so if you have any issues or concerns, please contact us and we'll do our best to set it all right.

Happy Shopping!

Read more by Barbara Hagen