Review (August 2025)
Shop for new, used, and rare books online and in-person at powell's books, the world's largest independent bookstore, based in portland, oregon. we sell new and used books and gifts. read powell's blog, browse staff picks, and find your next read today!
10k
Estimated Revenue
848.42k
Website Visitors
2.8/5
Trustpilot Score
What are the monthly traffic metrics for Powells?
6/mo Traffic Growth
8.30%
All Time Traffic Growth
Create Free Account
Monthly Hits
848k
Time on Site
1.6Mins
Pages per Visit
3.0
Bounce Rate
63%
How fast is Powells growing?
Powells has grown by 7.0% in the last 6 months according to SimilarWeb.
How do people interact with Powells?
Last month, Powells received 848k visitors who spent an average of 1.6 minutes on the website and visited 3.0 different pages per session. Overall, 63% of people bounce on the first visit.
How do people find Powells?
272.1k people (32%) visit Powells directly. 518.4k (61%) people search for them in Google. Whereas, 12k (1%) discover Powells through Facebook, Reddit, and YouTube. 8k (1%) visitors come from Powells's email newsletters. Finally, 279.9 (0.0%) people come from affiliates and or paid referrals.
Who uses Powells?
Powells's top market is the United States and they receive 621k (73.2%) people.Then the 2nd is Canada with 20.9k (2.5%).The 3rd is is India with 20.6k (2.4%).
Traffic Growth (last 6 months)
What do Powells's customers say about them?
Review Score
2.8/5
Total Reviews
31
Info
Powell's Books5 Star
30.0%
4 Star
5.0%
3 Star
20.0%
2 Star
0.0%
1 Star
45.0%
Read reviews that mention
Tom Kepler
I sell A LOT of books....I mean…
Reviewed on 2021-05-12T05:18:38
I sell A LOT of books....I mean literally TONS of books! Until about 8 months ago Powell's was great to work with.Then, something changed and now their website is pure crap....and they're not doing a thing about it. Input books to sell, accept the offer....and the site "times out". Re-input the same books and now the site will only take about 2/3 of them...accept anyways (just to salvage your time) and the site times out. Re-input for the third time (same reason as before) and ANOTHER 1/3 is rejected.........and it times out.
Until Powell's gets out of the stone ages and upgrades/fixes their site......I'm not working with them.
I'd advise anybody not to waste their time here!
read more
stephen
at one point the site used to be really…
Reviewed on 2021-04-28T17:18:42
at one point the site used to be really good - great/friendly customer service, excellent quality items& reasonable prices.
what came next within the last year or so at least (should i speculate whether this has been a blatant attempt to maintain maximum profits during 'covid'?), standards COMPLETELY dropped.
items in such poor condition they would not even make a charity store being sent (severely water damaged books at times, books looking like a dog has eaten them, books with loose pages/binding, books with significant creasing, etc)!
to make matters worse, these books have usually been listed in their 'standard' condition (which appears to be akin to 'good or very good') while they SHOULD'VE been correctly listed as 'less than standard' (a condition the site claims to have).
refunds have been reluctantly/grudgingly given in cases like this - seemingly with no genuine understanding of the inconvenience of then needing to source these same books elsewhere - which can be made infinitely harder if a 'rare' book!
in fact, customer service staff (usually higher staff members such as 'ashley' their 'customer care MANAGER'), attempt to remain tactful, while coldly 'polite' - without actual empathy/understanding/humanity - only profit motive.
wouldn't it be thought that a GENUINE, HONEST & ETHICAL business of ANY kind not only 'own up' to their own slipped standards & poor customer service but also adhere to THEIR 'guarantee' (listed prominently on their site)?
no, instead, i had a newer order cancelled, ALL blame put on me for the 'increase' in refunded items (not ONCE addressing the MASSIVE, worrying drop in quality of items).
laughably, i was told:
"...it's become clear that we're unable to meet your condition needs. Due to this, and the fact that such a high rate of refunds has become cost-prohibitive for us, we're unable to continue shipping orders to you."
BIG problem is, they don't even meet THEIR OWN 'condition' standards - not specifically MINE!!
here's their general condition that they claim to have/follow:
"Standard
What does "Standard" condition mean at Powell's? Books in good or better condition, free of writing or other markings in the text (with the possible exception of a previous owner's name in the front). The great majority of the books in our stock fall into this category. In short, when a book is listed as "Standard," you can expect it to be a high quality copy."
"All our new, used, and out-of-print books are in good reading condition — guaranteed.
We recognize that ordering used books on the Web, sight unseen, requires trust. If you've ever tried to sell us your old books, you know firsthand how tough our standards are (haha - we wish!!). By enforcing strict quality guidelines, we can guarantee that every book we sell, new or used, is a good reading copy."
A LOT of FALSE/FRAUDULENT/DISHONEST claims made on their website - insult to injury, one of the worst is:
"We're nothing without our customers. Powell's would not be the destination it is now without its loyal customers." - CLEARLY COMPLETELY FALSE, unless you're a customer who is fine with near throw-away/give-away items amongst ones that DO fit their (meaningless) 'standards'.
based on the proud history of this store displayed on the website, personally, i'd say the store's founder/s would be rolling in their graves to see just how their 'family business' is being conducted AND how their 'loyal customers' are treated!
STAY WELL AWAY!!
read more
Karolina Stepkowski
Powells is one of my favorite things…
Reviewed on 2021-04-06T21:59:23
Powells is one of my favorite things about living in Portland. Used to love getting lost for hours among the endless bookshelves.Now, during the lockdown, love the fact that I can order reading material on their website, and (almost completely) avoid Amazon. Getting ready to place another order today!
read more
KK
Great Customer Service
Reviewed on 2021-03-09T23:32:56
Great customer service! Had a problem, because of a delivery issue--our fault--and Powels made itright!
read more
Mark
Terrible business practices
Reviewed on 2021-02-26T19:36:45
Terrible business practices.
I recognize that in order to make money selling used books you need to get them for a decent price.However, this place is a gold mine. It's not just that they pay insultingly low prices for your books, it's that they're rude to you while they're doing it. They truly act like they're doing you a favor, and forget that without you selling back your books, they would be out of business.
What's worse is that they have aggressively put every other mom-and-pop bookstore in the area out of business. Portland used to have a thriving used bookstore presence but Powell's has driven their competition completely out of existence.
And they ripped off their customers with a contemptuous eye-roll while doing it.
There are alternatives, albeit mostly online (Thanks in part to the business practices of companies like Powell's). I get that there is a thrill in hunting through thousands of books in order to find a diamond in the rough, but for ethical reasons, I will be going elsewhere in the future. Don't waste your time.
read more
Powell Samuel
The best part of book buying is…
Reviewed on 2021-02-03T04:44:39
The best part of book buying is wandering but since it's closed I can't do that. The online ordering functioned well and I was able to pick it up curbside so I have no complaints.I did hear about them not carrying a certain book because of twitter-verse pressure. That's not cool.
read more
Ozzie K
The best part of book buying is…
Reviewed on 2021-02-03T02:40:33
The best part of book buying is wandering but since it's closed I can't do that. The online ordering functioned well and I was able to pick it up curbside so I have no complaints.I did hear about them not carrying a certain book because of twitter-verse pressure. That's not cool.
read more
Tracy Mclean
Powell’s is taking the middle ground by…
Reviewed on 2021-01-14T15:59:02
Powell’s is taking the middle ground by selling Ngo’s book online and not in the stores.I support their decision to compromise in a polarized environment.
read more
You May Also Find These Company Reviews Interesting
Bhphotovideo
Shop digital cameras, 35mm camera equipment, photography, photo printers, computers, home theater, authorized dealer canon, sony, nikon, apple, olympus, panasonic, kodak, jbl... More
Category
Computers Electronics and Technology