Books and the people who sell them — inside BusinessLeague and beyond

Half of the Top 10 best-selling books through BusinessLeague over the past two and a half years are fiction. I wasn’t specifically looking for that detail, which made it an even better surprise. Titles like "As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow", "The Silent Patient", "Fearless", and "The Housemaid" appeared across more than 11,000 online orders registered across 10+ online bookstores.

The rest of the top 10 is rounded out by books on nutrition, personal finance, and self-development. In a conversation with Ionuț Radu (Librex.ro), one of the main themes was this market diversification — which shatters the old myth that "Romanians don't read".

"Young people read a lot — they discover books through BookTok, Bookstagram, and online communities, bringing a whole new rhythm to the market. Online bookstores and dedicated book festivals make reading more accessible and visible than ever." — Ionuț Radu, Librex.ro

The Books Category Whitepaper (2024–2026)

Throughout August, our category focus was Books — a vertical that is both commercially rewarding for affiliates and merchants and fascinating to analyze. We aggregated BusinessLeague.com data from January 1, 2024 to July 31, 2026 covering:

• 1,236,336 unique orders
• €29.8 million in generated sales value
• 450,623 unique products sold
• 43 active online bookstores
• 25,282,395 affiliate clicks generated
• 3,453 active affiliates (minimum 1 click), including 1,058 productive affiliates (minimum 1 validated sale)

You can read and download the complete report below:

Alongside Unicorn and Company affiliates, a great example of the diverse ways books can be promoted through BusinessLeague is the work of Alexandra Bardici, whom we met at our Shopify Meetup. Alex creates BookTok content, and her playbook is a model for any content creator:

"With over a thousand book-loving followers on TikTok, I decided to combine passion with performance. Why not partner with publishers and bookstores if I’m already recommending the books I read? The most important thing is to genuinely believe in the product you recommend and review it authentically."

Key Takeaways from our Books Category Webinar

Thank you to everyone who joined our category webinar hosted by Dorin, Gabi, and Tudor. Here are the sharpest tactical insights from the discussion:

• Program closures create market share opportunities: Recent program closures by legacy players opened massive space for growing bookstores like Cărturești and Libris.
• Influencers aren't "last-click" in Books: Creators spark demand rather than capturing the final click, which often passes through Google or a price comparison tool. Practical recommendation: combine CPA commissions with fixed campaign bonuses for awareness.
• Evergreen content compounds: Research put into a social group post has a lifespan of ~15 minutes, whereas the same effort published in an evergreen blog review or reading list drives steady affiliate conversions for years.
• ISBN (GTIN) is the technical key: Product feeds missing accurate ISBN codes can lose up to ~20% of potential clicks and conversions in price comparison engines and Google Shopping CSS.

Community Milestone & Autumn Meetups

Last week we also celebrated 1.5 million sales and prepared our simultaneous community meetups in Bucharest and Dublin — relaxed evenings in two European capitals where e-commerce operators and affiliates talk performance over a pint. Ready? Sell!