User talk:Ylfcynn/Sandbox Talk

Bookbyte is an e-commerce company based in Salem, OR with a business focus of buying, renting, and selling used and new textbooks. The company was founded in 1999 in the closet of its founder's home and now runs out of a 70,000-square-foot warehouse where the business ships up to 15,000 books a day internationally.

Products and services
Bookbyte rents, sells, and buys back new and used textbooks. Customers search for textbooks via Bookbyte’s website, iOS app, or Android app, with textbook prices being determined by condition and demand.

Bookbyte also has a wholesale textbook business, BookbyteDIRECT, that buys textbooks from and sells to college bookstores in the United States.

Bookbyte directors, Jason Harra and Bryan Hockett, launched SellerActive in 2011, an inventory and order management SaaS (software as a system) for e-commerce businesses using the inventory management software and tools created for Bookbyte.

History
Bookbyte has been in operation since 1999, originating as a home business of entrepreneur Steven Gross. Seeing the huge number of textbooks being marked as "zero value" by college bookstores, Gross saw the wastefulness that came from discarding thousands of useful books after just one semester.

In 1999, Gross began stocking used textbooks in a closet and selling them on eBay under the name ‘BookMart’, later expanding into his garage and operating under the name 'Norwest Textbooks'. As the business grew, Gross moved the business into a series of successively larger facilities and rebranded it as ‘Bookbyte.'

In 2001, Bookbyte unveiled its e-commerce website and in 2003 Bookbyte debuted its textbook buyback program, which commenced web-based buyback transactions with its customers.

In 2010 Bookbyte was selected by the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce as the Employer of the Year.

In 2011, the company launched its Guaranteed Buyback Program[6], similar to a textbook rental, but paying customers a cash rebate upon returning the book. This was later re-branded as simply a rental program, though the program remains functionally the same.

In 2014, Bookbyte rose to No. 79 from No. 115 on Oregon Business's list of 150 Private Businesses in Oregon.

Culture
Bookbyte's order fulfillment center and professional offices are located in one warehouse building with a large gym, in-house deli, and community garden.

Because of Gross's interest in whole-food, plant-based dietary choices as well as health and spiritual wellness, he instituted the Lifebyte program, a corporate program designed to enhance and reward the health and wellbeing of the Bookbyte community. Employees can participate in a number of free fitness activities and wellness groups.

Charity
Bookbyte participates in the Rotary Books for the World project, a Rotary International Club which donates textbooks to underprivileged schools in countries around the world such as Belize, Thailand, and Uganda. Bookbyte also contributes to the project by facilitating the sorting, storing, and palletizing of donated books. Bookbyte has also donated books to the United Way. Bookbyte has supported other charities, some of which include Garten, Marion Polk Food Share, the March of Dimes, and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Media Coverage
Bookbyte was featured on an episode of [| Designing Spaces] in 2009. The segment discussed how students and parents could save money on college textbooks on Bookbyte.com.