Books.com.tw: From an Online Bookstore to the E-commerce Pioneer Defining "Quality Living" for Taiwan

30-Second Overview: Since its founding in late 1995 and official launch in 1996, Books.com.tw (Books.com.tw) has been not only Taiwan’s first online bookstore but has also gradually evolved into one of the largest online retail and knowledge platforms in the Chinese-speaking world. In the history of Taiwan’s publishing industry and digital retail evolution, Books.com.tw has played an extremely pivotal pioneer role. Through its innovative "7-ELEVEN pickup and pay-on-delivery" mechanism, it solved the biggest trust and logistics bottlenecks of early Taiwan e-commerce in one stroke; after joining the Uni-President Stores Group, it combined physical retail with a massive logistics network to establish its hegemony in the book and quality lifestyle markets. This article examines how it grew from a humble private online bookstore into the most indigenous "eldest son" in the Uni-President Group’s digital landscape, and how it seeks the next momentum for transformation amidst the white-hot competition in e-commerce.

On December 14, 2000, the board of directors of Uni-President Stores resolved to acquire 50.025% of Books.com.tw’s shares at NT$10 per share, for a total price of NT$140 million. When the news broke, Uni-President Stores’ public stance was that "the Uni-President Group would send executives to the Books.com.tw online bookstore to learn about operating virtual channels and logistics experience, and would not intervene in the website’s operational planning" ¹. A convenience store leader saying it would go learn from an online bookstore—back in those years when most traditional retail industries still treated the internet as an experiment—this statement itself was a signal. The dream of online book culture sown by founder Chang Tien-li would later become the unshakable anchor in the Uni-President Group’s digital landscape.

The Online Bookstore in the Wilderness and Chang Tien-li’s Bet

In December 1995, Taiwan’s internet was in the primordial era of dial-up connections. The public was accustomed to picking and flipping through books in physical bookstores (such as Kinokuniya and Eslite), harboring an instinctive skepticism toward "buying books in an invisible virtual world." Against this backdrop, founder Chang Tien-li established Books.com.tw Digital Technology, officially launching in 1996 as Taiwan’s first online bookstore ².

In the early days of extremely scarce resources, Books.com.tw had to contend with two major mountains: consumers’ distrust of online transaction security, and the high, inefficient costs of logistics delivery. At that time, there were no mature third-party payment systems, and the penetration rate of online credit card payments was extremely low. Additionally, postal home delivery often suffered from high return rates due to "recipients not being home." For several years, Books.com.tw struggled to survive, burning cash and摸索 (groping) its way forward, sustained only by its passion for books and its self-built logistics system.

Source: History of Books.com.tw Development and Analysis of Taiwan Retail Evolution

7-ELEVEN Pickup and Pay-on-Delivery: Untying the Knot of Taiwan E-commerce

The most decisive turning point in Books.com.tw’s development history occurred on June 1, 2000. From this day forward, Books.com.tw partnered with Uni-President Stores (7-ELEVEN) to launch the "Books.com.tw orders books, 7-ELEVEN pickup and pay" service mechanism ².

This innovation completely deconstructed and reshaped the online shopping behavior model of Taiwan’s consumers:

1. Resolving the Trust Crisis: Consumers no longer needed to provide any credit card or financial account information online. At the neighborhood convenience store, they handed over money and received goods simultaneously, eliminating anxiety about virtual transactions.
2. Opening the Last Mile: By using Taiwan’s dense network of 7-ELEVEN stores as pickup points, it completely solved the problems of undelivered packages and high shipping fees.
3. Building Channel Scale: When pickup became something you could do casually while walking into a convenience store, the threshold for online shopping was instantly leveled.

📝 Curator’s Note: Convenience store pickup and pay-on-delivery was not just a lifeline for Books.com.tw; it implicitly laid the foundation for the "last mile" infrastructure for Taiwan’s entire e-commerce market. When pickup became something you could do casually by walking into a neighborhood convenience store, the trust threshold for Taiwan’s online shopping was instantly leveled.

The Uni-President Family’s Integration and the Birth of the Eldest Son

As the "convenience store pickup and pay-on-delivery" model demonstrated explosive power, Uni-President Stores keenly perceived the strategic value of this online bookstore. Half a year after the pickup service went live, in December 2000, the board of directors of Uni-President Stores resolved to invest in Books.com.tw, acquiring a majority stake of 50.025% for a total price of NT$140 million. The transaction was completed in 2001, followed by a gradual deepening of shareholding ²¹. Negotiations between the two parties had begun as early as May 2000 ¹.

The addition of Uni-President Stores injected a stable financial backer and powerful group resources into Books.com.tw. Through the management and support of professional logistics teams such as Uni-President Group’s Dazhitong Cultural Marketing, Books.com.tw’s warehousing and distribution efficiency leaped forward, officially upgrading from an independent startup to a key digital fleet under a large retail group.

From "Buying Books" to "Quality Living": The 6:4 Dual-Engine Philosophy

As an online bookstore that started with books, Books.com.tw knew that relying solely on book sales would face a market ceiling. With the changing structure of Taiwan’s publishing market and fluctuations in the total reading population, Books.com.tw made a key strategic pivot in 2006—officially entering the department store and lifestyle goods market ³.

This transformation precisely positioned itself as a promoter of "Quality Living." Leveraging its long-accumulated customer base with artistic and knowledge attributes, Books.com.tw extended consumers’ taste for "reading a good book" to the pursuit of lifestyle selections, aesthetic stationery, and quality home decor.

By 2010, Books.com.tw’s revenue reached NT$4 billion, with sales of books and department store goods accounting for a 6:4 ratio. The annual growth rate was approximately 30%, and profits also grew by 40% ³. This dual-engine operational model of "books as the core, department stores as the wing" not only effectively raised the average order value for members but also gave the platform stronger financial resilience when facing the dilemma of low margins in traditional book sales.

The Collision of E-commerce Giants and the Squeeze of the Attention Era

Entering the 2020s, the competitive landscape of Taiwan’s e-commerce market had become unrecognizable. Large comprehensive e-commerce platforms like momo and PChome, along with cross-border and powerful capital platforms like Shopee and Coupang, pressed in, dividing up the huge online shopping pie. Meanwhile, digital media, social media, and short videos continued to erode the public’s reading time and focus. When large e-commerce platforms included books as promotional categories, price comparison became easier, and Books.com.tw’s book moat also became shallower ⁴.

Facing structural challenges, Books.com.tw, as the leading brand of Taiwan’s online bookstores, is actively seeking new breakthrough points. How to balance between the low-price slaughter of comprehensive e-commerce and its own positioning in books and knowledge tests the wisdom of the management team.

Source: Taiwan Retail Market Competition Analysis

From Online to Physical: Books.com.tw’s Omnichannel New Game

In recent years, the Uni-President Group has actively broken down the barriers between online and offline channels, and Books.com.tw has continued to deepen its e-book and digital content services. More notably, in July 2025, Books.com.tw opened its first physical bookstore at Uni-President Times (DREAM PLAZA) in Taipei’s Xinyi District ², symbolizing its advance from a purely online channel to an omnichannel experience. This step was not without controversy—founder Chang Tien-li himself was skeptical ⁴.

📝 Curator’s Note: When e-commerce dividends peaked and physical bookstores continued to close, Books.com.tw chose to open physical stores against the trend. This is both a call to readers’ memories of physical touch and a move by the Uni-President Group in its retail layout for "virtual-real integration."

Conclusion: The Digital Eldest Son Guarding the Foundation of Knowledge

The history of Books.com.tw is almost a microcosm of Taiwan’s internet and digital retail development. Starting from a civilian dream of book culture, it untied the trust deadlock of Taiwan’s e-commerce through the innovative "convenience store pickup" model. Later, through deep integration with Uni-President Stores, it wrote a classic business case of integrating physical and virtual channels. In the rapidly changing digital wave, whether Books.com.tw can continue to guard the reading heritage of the Chinese-speaking world and polish its unique cultural selection signboard in the omnichannel era will be the most compelling indicator for observing the direction of Taiwan’s knowledge economy and retail ecology.

Further Reading

• Taiwan Enterprise: Uni-President Enterprises — The strategic layout of the Uni-President Group integrating Taiwan’s retail landscape
• PCCW Wellness Center — The channel competition from welfare office to retail king
• [Shopping Design](/culture/Shopping Design) — The media practice of turning design into daily consumption and lifestyle

References