In Singapore, book loans fell by 11.32 mil and web traffic to online shopping platforms increased by 35% in 2020. Alas, Singaporeans were spending less time borrowing books and more time online shopping. How do we then redirect their love for eCommerce into reading and encourage readership?

In Singapore, book loans fell by 11.32 mil and web traffic to online shopping platforms increased by 35% in 2020. Alas, Singaporeans were spending less time borrowing books and more time online shopping. How do we then redirect their love for eCommerce into reading and encourage readership?

Simple — we used online shopping to sell people on reading by partnering with Carousell, one of Asia’s largest e-marketplaces. We turned it into an online library for a month by hiding books behind over 30 fake listings featuring fake, controversial items like perfumes made with humans, haunted tricycles, and invisibility jewellery.

When curious shoppers clicked to view the item, they discovered the real story behind the listing. An original book cover was designed for each item. With a simple click of a button on the item’s Carousell page, shoppers were able to borrow the book via NLB’s app.

According to GlobalWebIndex and Statistica, Singaporean eCommerce shoppers spend an average of more than US$1,000 each on online purchases of consumer goods — almost 4 times greater than the global average.

At the same time, Carousell saw extreme growth among older consumers, with shoppers aged 45 and above growing six-fold in 2020. The app's largest demographic, 25-34 year olds, also grew significantly at 4.5x over the previous year. Clearly, more Singaporeans are spending a lot of money and time on eCommerce sites like Carousell.

With this in mind, we knew by using Carousell, we could target the right demographics and a sizeable number of Singaporean shoppers.

If "a book is a device to ignite the imagination", why shouldn't its book cover be equally imaginative?

We collaborated with Andres Moncayo, an illustrator currently based in New York City, to create 31 original book covers. Each cover captured the essence of each story and featured an iconic character or moment from the book. Moreover, in line with the controversy behind each Carousell listening, the illustrations took on a more mysterious tone.

We then collaborated with Carousell to customise the shopping experience for users.

At first glance, it looks like a typical seller's page — albeit with strange, mysterious items. But once a shopper clicks on an item, they see that the item's page is anything but typical.

The strange item's principal image is gone and, in its place, we see an original book cover and a story teaser. Instead of the usual 'chat' button that appears on an item's page, we replaced it with a 'borrow' button. This easily leads shoppers to the same book on NLB's app or site.

We engaged with over 30,000 people, increased app downloads, eBook borrowings and made Singaporeans read a whole lot more.