Amazon: Early Data Shows Kindle Owners’ Lending Library Increases Sales

Amazon’s early data from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, which allows Amazon prime members who are also Kindle owners to borrow one free e-book per month, “suggests the possibility of an increase in customer purchasing,” Kindle content VP Russ Grandinetti said at Digital Book World.

Grandinetti said “we’re trying to be skeptical about this” but Amazon’s early data “suggests you can get people engaged in a book that they weren’t interested in otherwise.” Amazon compared two customer groups of Amazon Prime members who have owned an e-reading device for more than six months and have made at least one recent book purchase in the last 30 days. The members of one group used the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library and the members of the other group did not. Grandinetti said that after the average customer’s first borrow from the KOLL, he or she went on to purchase 30 percent more books.