2022 Year in Review
In 2022, we focused on improving and growing our core Edelweiss service. We added new features and tools to better support book professionals in their work while also hosting educational and engagement opportunities to help users get the most out of our platform.
It has been a pleasure working with all the publishers who rely on Edelweiss to do their jobs, and we remain committed to serving you at every stage of the book's journey. Check out some highlights from the past year below!
Members of the Edelweiss Community
232,101
23,910
Publishers, Distributors, and Sales Reps
37,901
Booksellers
31,866
Librarians
13,536
Academics
124,888
Reviewers, readers, or other book lovers
Creation of Edelweiss Designer
Edelweiss Designer is a new subscription add-on that expands the potential of Edelweiss as a sales and marketing tool.
Powerful yet user-friendly, Designer enables publishers to build beautiful, fully custom export templates for everything from sell sheets and order forms to print-ready catalogs.
With Designer, publisher can export to PDF or PowerPoint, generate a direct link to a presentation that doesn't require being logged into Edelweiss to view, add custom data elements that we may not receive in current feeds, and so much more!
Read more about the creation of Designer and our collaboration with its publisher beta-testers on our company blog, EdelVoice.
User activity over the last 12 months
842,897
Downloads
179,901
Reviews
240,426
Shelves
760,132
Tags
$185,358,477
Orders
Launch of Edelweiss Reader
Developed in response to bookseller and librarian feedback, Edelweiss Reader removes barriers in accessing digital review copies (DRCs) while adding enhanced security features for publishers!
This mobile-friendly services allows readers to open a DRC immediately within their web browser, eliminating the need for downloading to a device or setting up a new app. And, since Edelweiss Reader is tied to users' accounts, they can read across multiple devices without losing their place. Because users never leave Edelweiss, Edelweiss Reader also allows readers to move directly from reading DRCs to leaving reviews, creating orders, etc.
Edelweiss Reader was developed with content protection front of mind and has features that prevent copying, downloading, and printing.
37,901
Booksellers
6,600
Verified ABA Members
5,510
Verified Barnes & Noble Members
Additional Resources for Booksellers
We continue to invest in growing bookseller usage of the Edelweiss platform. This year, we hired a Retail Success Manager whose focus is bookseller engagement and internal advocacy for platform improvements aimed at bookseller satisfaction and usage. We also have facilitated the adoption of Edelweiss as a core buying tool by Barnes & Noble, with the site used by its Merchandise Group to make buying decisions.
In addition, we have increased trade show presence, focused on relationship building, found new ways to gauge bookseller contentment, and allotted resources to bookseller products old and new.
Education
This year, we furthered our evergreen commitment to user education via the launch of our first webinar series, Summer Sessions! These sessions were aimed at helping various user groups on the platform learn more about best practices and getting the most out of their accounts. Links to publisher-aimed sessions are listed below for reference.
We also devoted resources both to the ongoing development of Edelweiss University and the expansion of our database of help documentation. We added pages for new features, created helpful demo videos, and updated older entries to ensure the most up to date information is available.
User Feedback
We directly align the work we're doing with feedback from our users. This year we sent out a record number of surveys to our users and added a feedback widget to our homepage to encourage more user communication as well as gauge interest around development projects.
The feedback widget - a remarkably simple prompt that is always accessible on the site - asks the simple question, "How has your experience on Edelweiss been today?". Users can provide more details to help us better understand what's working and what's not.
Database Migration
This year, we saw the completion of a two-year project to update the core software and hardware behind Edelweiss - one of the most significant investments in the technology behind our platform since its inception.
The database is the heart of the Edelweiss platform, and we updated the software behind it while also migrating to new cloud database architecture. We cutover to this new platform in August very seamlessly, and the end result is better performance and greater flexibility for scaling up and using new functionality. Ultimately, Edelweiss is now significantly more stable and secure and performs better in all areas of the application.
Release Statistics
124
Bug Fixes
72
Features / Enhancements
9
Performance Related Releases
Additional Advertising Opportunities
This year we launched several new promotion options for publishers aimed to meet various advertising goals on the platform. These new options include:
Targeted Newsletter Advertising: The ability for publishers to reach readers and buyers of specific genres (i.e. Fiction, YA Romance) or book professional groups (i.e. ABA members/IndieNext, public librarians/LibraryReads, B&N employees) by promoting titles to Edelweiss user communities.
Promotion Packages: Budget for the upcoming year and try new advertising avenues by pre-paying for discounted packages.
We plan to continue to introduce more advertising options in the coming year and to launch our new, self-service advertising center that will enable publishers to more easily schedule and track promotions.
Continued International Growth
The number of non-US booksellers and publishers using Edelweiss in various markets continues to grow. We've updated various pieces of the platform to cater to the different use cases and requirements needed in other markets. Some larger highlights include implementing Thema subject categories for UK market users, addition of a weekly email with promotional options for UK users modeled on the US weekly newsletter, development work on order export updates based on publisher need, and more! Additionally, international usage on the platform was a huge driver for prioritizing the creation of Edelweiss Designer.
Coming Soon
Improved List View
This year, we dedicated a significant amount of development time into improving the title list view experience for reps and buyers. These performance improvements were undertaken in response to feedback we received over the last year and from the new feedback widget.
In addition, we have undertaken a significant re-write of the underlying list view using the latest technology. The re-write is intended to improve list view performance, make it easier to maintain, and incrementally improve the user experience. The new list view will be offered in beta mode for selected users starting in early 2023.
Advertising Center
Finally, we are working on a publisher advertising center that will make booking and tracking promotions much easier. This new ad center is currently in testing with plans to release it to all publishers in the coming weeks.