5 Ways to Give Your Pango Shop Some Personality

by PangoBooks on September 14th, 2022

If you’ve listed any books on the PangoBooks app, then you already know that it’s a super quick and easy process. Once you list a handful of books, your shop page starts taking on a life of its own, and before long, it feels like you’re running your own little bookstore.

For sellers who want to take this feeling a bit further, the next step is to start thinking about your shop as its own entity with its own personality and style. Doing so is an excellent way to stand out in the market and earn more sales. It’s also just a lot of fun.

Read on for our tips on bringing some character to your Pango shop and taking your bookselling to the next level.

Give Some Thought To Your Shop Name

By default when you start selling on Pango, your shop page will display your name up top. However, by going to your menu on your account and selecting “Edit Profile” you can change the display name to anything you want. This is a great space to spice up your profile right out of the gate. One approach is to make your shop name reflect the specific type of books you're selling— think “Dan’s Fantasy Favorites” or “Dan’s $1 Book Bargains.” Or it could just be a fun brand name you think reflects your style and approach, or maybe a reference to a book you love like “The Heart of Gold Bookshop” or “Kilgore Trout’s Corner.” It’s super open-ended and a space where you can definitely be creative.

Expand Your Bio

Much like the title of your shop page, the bio (which can be edited by going to “My Settings” under your account menu) is a great place to let potential buyers know a bit about you and the books you have to offer. Some people use this space to tell a bit about their background or motivations for selling. Some folks use it to talk about the books they love or share some recent picks. It’s a totally open field, but generally, people appreciate when there’s some sense of the person behind the inventory on display. It helps communicate to potential buyers that you’re invested in delivering a quality experience as a seller.

Develop a Unique Photo Style

Perhaps the most impactful way to develop a personal style on PangoBooks is through the photos on your listings. We have a whole blog post about this you can check out for more specifics, but the general summary is to aim for bright, even lighting on your book photos, and to keep your style consistent across all your listings. This can entail the use of a consistent background or even a few mood-setting props or other elements around the edges. However you decide to style your photos, keeping the images consistent from one listing to the next is a crucial way to develop a personal shop style. These sorts of listings look outstanding when lined up next to each other on your shop page, and will also become your trademark as folks see your listings on the Pango Feed or in various search results.

Pango seller @shelfshocked gets creative with a background of book pages.

Pango seller @haysbookshelf uses an outdoor background for their listings.

Don’t Ignore Book Descriptions

While photos are the most important way to catch someone’s eye, the description on a book listing is equally important when turning a book viewer into a book buyer. Certainly every book that you list doesn’t need a full summary or a five paragraph book report on its story and literary merits. But adding some details on what you liked about the book if you read it, or simply a more in-depth description of the condition of the book will go a long way. Consciously or not, when people look at a listing that they think was created by someone who takes time and care with the process, they recognize that it’s someone who will do the same when it comes time to package and ship the book. Thoughtful descriptions (along with ample hashtagging) on your listings can go a long way here.

Build a Social Media Following

Within PangoBooks directly, interacting with other folks through the Threads section of the app or via private message can earn your shop more followers, and these folks will get alerted when you add new listings. Thinking outside of just the PangoBooks app, creating a social media presence for your shop is a key strategy to taking your bookselling to the next level. This could be as simple as resharing your new listings to your existing Instagram or other social media account. If you want to go the extra mile it could mean launching a dedicated account on one or multiple social media platforms to support your Pango shop.

Of course, explaining all the trends and intricacies of how to be successful on #booktok and #bookstagram is a bit beyond the scope of this blog post, but even just a simple account where you reuse the excellent photos from your listings as posts, is a good start. Some folks also opt to make videos via TikTok or Instagram Reels to show them making new Pango listings or packaging up books going out the door. Be sure to include info on how to find your Pango shop on your social account bio, and as you start to earn followers and interact with other book people, some of them will find their way over to your Pango shop and the books you have for sale.

Some Pango sellers create reels to share the books they're selling, like these videos by @caffeinatedpagesnyc, @thebooksiveloved, and @readwithcarly.

With these tips in mind, you’ll be able to transform your Pango account from a spartan profile with some listings to a full-on bookselling operation with its own brand and character in no time at all. Stay tuned for more tips like these from the Pango team here on our blog, and if you haven’t started selling yet, it’s as easy as installing our app, tapping “sell” and following our super quick and easy process.