Which is the Most Affordable Online Bookstore in Singapore? We Compared 6 to Find Out

I’ve always had a soft spot for browsing books in person, so I was pretty excited to hear that Books Kinokuniya is opening a new outlet at Raffles City this Aug 2025. It’s especially welcome news after they downsized their main store at Takashimaya—worrying news at first, because how many precious physical bookstores do we have left in Singapore?

Still, as much as I love the experience of a physical bookstore, I know there’s a time and place for buying books online too. Whether it’s tracking down obscure titles, comparing prices, or just avoiding delivery fees, I have to admit that online bookstores offer convenience and savings to every book lover.

So if you’re like me—someone who treasures the in-store experience but also loves a good book bargain from the comfort of your home—this guide is for you. Here are 6 online bookstores with the cheapest book buys and lowest delivery fees (or even none!) for readers in Singapore.

 

Best online bookstores that ship to Singapore 2025

1. How we’re judging our online bookstores
2. Summary of prices and delivery details
3. Wordery—most affordable
4. Awesome Books—widest range of books
5. AbeBooks—best marketplace for books and more
6. Blackwell’s—best for rare/signed books
7. OpenTrolley Bookstore—fast local delivery (6 – 9 days)
8. Kinokuniya—fastest local delivery (3 – 5 days)
9. So, which is the best online bookstore in Singapore?

 

1. How we’re judging our online bookstores

To compare our online bookstores, we need to standardise 2 things:

1. The same books to search across all online bookstores
2. The same metrics to judge the bookstores by

Books

I’m simply going to Kinokuniya’s website (they are the biggest physical book retailer in Singapore after all) and grabbing one title each from the top fiction, non-fiction, and children’s bestseller lists.

I decided to take the title from the #2 spot for each. Here they are:

1. Fiction: The Vegetarian by Han Kang [Paperback] (Winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature!)
2. Non-fiction: The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins [Hardcover]
3. Children: Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins [Hardcover]

Metrics

We’ll put our online bookstores to the test by trying to order our 3 titles and comparing their:

• Prices
• Delivery fees
• Expected delivery date

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2. Summary of prices and delivery details 

Here’s a summary of the prices and delivery details of our 3 books.

Price comparison

In the table below, I’ve listed out the prices for each of the books at each online bookstore. Within each book, I’ve also ranked the bookstores from lowest to highest price, then added up the total number of rank points for each bookstore.

Online bookstore	Fiction: The Vegetarian by Han Kang [Paperback]	Non-fiction: The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins [Hardcover]	Children: Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins [Hardcover]	Total rank points
Wordery	$11.70 Rank #1	$27.61 Rank #2	$28.76 Rank #2	5
Awesome Books	$15.17 (£8.70) Rank #3	$29.87 (£17.13) Rank #3	$24.08 (£13.81) Rank #1	7
AbeBooks	$20.35 (US$15.50) Rank #5	$15.43 (US$11.75) Rank #1	$30.33 (US$23.10) Rank #3	9
Blackwell’s	$14.99 Rank #2	$34.40 Rank #4	$35.23 Rank #4	10
OpenTrolley	$26.47 Rank #6	$48.63 Rank #5	$44.22 Rank #5	16
Kinokuniya (online)	$19.30 ($17.37 with Kinokuniya Privilege Card*) Rank #4	$52.12 ($46.91 with Kinokuniya Privilege Card*) Rank #6	$45.32 ($40.79 with Kinokuniya Privilege Card*) Rank #6	18

* The Kinokuniya Privilege Card gives you a 10% discount at Kinokuniya. These are the membership fees:

• $24 for a 1-year membership
• $42 for a 2-year membership
• $58 for a 3-year membership

Here’s the information in a chart if you’re a more visual person:

Wordery and Awesome Books came up on top as the most affordable online bookstores. In particular, Wordery had the cheapest option for our fiction pick and was the second cheapest option for the other 2 books—pretty impressive.

I have 2 disclaimers to point out for AbeBooks and Blackwell’s. For the former, which functions like a book marketplace, prices and delivery details can vary greatly depending on where in the world your book is being dispatched from. For the latter, Blackwell’s may have prices on the slightly higher side, but they also include all delivery costs in their book prices already. 

The last 2 places belonged to OpenTrolley and Kinokuniya, which we’ll see in the next section are also the ones with the fastest delivery dates. 

Delivery fees and waiting time comparison

Looking at both cost and speed, here’s a summary of the general shipping fees and how long you can expect to wait for your book. Once again, I’ve ranked each bookstore from lowest to highest shipping costs as well as lowest to highest waiting time for delivery. 

Online bookstore	Shipping costs	Expected delivery	Total rank points
Kinokuniya (online)	$4.80 Rank #2	5 – 7 business days Rank #1	3
Blackwell’s	Free (already included in book price) Rank #1	11 – 18 business days Rank #3	4
Wordery	Free Rank #1	12 – 27 business days Rank #4	5
OpenTrolley	$4.90 Rank #3	6 – 9 business days Rank #2	5
Awesome Books	S$5.21 (£2.99) Rank #4	14 – 28 business days Rank #5	9
AbeBooks	From $2.98 to as high as $19.38 –	20 – 30 business days –	–

Kinokuniya may be the most expensive bookstore to get your books from on this list, but it’s the clear winner when it comes to fast delivery. After all, they aren’t shipping to Singapore so much as within it. OpenTrolley is a close second for the same reason.

Even if you consider the shipping fee too, Kinokuniya comes up on top. Blackwell’s and Wordery rank high overall too because their shipping is free—although it can take up to 18 to 27 business days respectively for your book to reach you.

I decided not to rank AbeBooks because of the nature of its marketplace system. Depending on where in the world you’re buying your book from, you could be paying as little as $2.98 or as much as $20 or for shipping.

Shipping times also vary by how far the country is from Singapore. US shipments can take up to 30 business days to fulfil, which is a long time. If we factor in that the 30 working days don’t include weekends, you could be waiting over 1 month (or more) just for one book. Not to mention, that will cost you up to 20 bucks in shipping fees! Choose books from countries in Asia to save money and time.

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3. Wordery—most affordable

Wordery’s virtual shelves are stocked with over 10 million books. But the best part about Wordery? They provide free delivery to over 100 countries with every order.

Books on Wordery	Price of book	Cost of shipping	Expected delivery
Fiction: The Vegetarian [Paperback]	$11.70	Free	14 – 27 business days
Non-fiction: The Let Them Theory [Hardcover]	$27.61	Free	14 – 24 business days
Children: Sunrise on the Reaping [Hardcover]	$28.76	Free	12 – 18 business days

Wordery book prices

This really surprised me, but Wordery has some of the lowest prices on all titles I searched for. A brand new edition of The Vegetarian costs just $11.70 on Wordery, the lowest on our list. The prices for the other two titles were the second lowest on our list. If you’re looking for affordability in online bookstores, Wordery is a great option.

Wordery shipping fees

Wordery offers free delivery on all their books. Yup, no minimum spends!Back to top

Wordery delivery time

Alas, this is Wordery’s Achilles’ heel. If you order a book on Wordery today (24 Apr 2025), you’ll only get it sometime between 12 May 2025 and 2 Jun 2025. That’s 12 to 27 business days or roughly 3 to 6 waiting in total. 

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4. Awesome Books—widest range of books

Not gonna lie, my first thought when I heard about this bookseller was that awesomebooks.com could be a pretty convincing scam website. Thankfully, it turns out Awesome Books is a reputable online global book retailer, processing over 250,000 books a day. They started off in 2003 selling books saved from landfills, and have offered new books since 2011.

Today, Awesome Books is home to a whopping 5 million used books and over 20 million new ones—that’s the widest range among all the bookstores on this list! They also contribute to a social cause, donating one book for every book purchased from their site. So far, so good.

But let’s get down to the meat of our investigation: how are their prices and delivery times? Here’s how our 3 books fared:

Books on Awesome Books	Price of book	Cost of shipping	Expected delivery
Fiction: The Vegetarian [Paperback]	£8.70 / S$15.17	£2.99 / S$5.21	14 – 28 business days
Non-fiction: The Let Them Theory [Hardcover]	£17.13 / S$29.87
Children: Sunrise on the Reaping [Hardcover]	£13.81 / S$24.08

Note: Awesome Books doesn’t currently have a SGD currency option, so you’ll have to do some converting as you navigate the site.

Awesome Books book prices

Awesome Books is where I found the lowest price for our children’s title, Sunrise on the Reaping. These are very small sample sizes, so I can’t say Awesome Books always has awesome prices for Children’s titles. However, the other 2 fiction and non-fiction titles were also reasonably priced; Awesome Books was the third most affordable option for both compared to other online bookstores. Safe to say Awesome Books has decent prices—just beware you’ll need to convert currencies since the website doesn’t display prices in SGD (yet).

Awesome Books shipping fees

Shipping on Awesome Books will cost you £2.99 / S$5.21 per item. Nope, no flat shipping rates or free delivery with $X spend here. It’s not the worst, but a far cry from Wordery’s free shipping promise.

Awesome Books delivery time

On Awesome Books, delivery to Singapore will take 14 to 28 business days. Yup, you could wait over a month for your book to reach you—not a good option if you need a book fast.

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5. AbeBooks—best marketplace for books and more

Like Awesome Books, AbeBooks sells both new and secondhand books. And like Blackwell’s, AbeBooks also sells rare finds, including first editions, signed and inscribed copies, and out-of-print titles. But a big difference between AbeBooks and practically every other bookstore on this list is that AbeBooks works like a marketplace. You’re buying a book not from AbeBooks, but from a seller via AbeBooks.

Don’t be fooled by the name—AbeBooks sells more than just books. Think vintage photographs, original sheet music, and rare maps also adorn their site. But how does AbeBooks fare as a bookseller? Let’s take a look:

Books on AbeBooks	Price of book	Cost of shipping	Expected delivery
Fiction: The Vegetarian [Paperback]	US$15.50 / S$20.35	US$2.27 / S$2.98	20 – 30 business days (shipping from USA)
Non-fiction: The Let Them Theory [Hardcover]	US$11.75 / S$ 15.43	US$14.76 / S$19.38	20 – 25 business days (shipping from India)
Children: Sunrise on the Reaping [Hardcover]	US$23.10 / S$30.33	US$2.27 / S$2.98	20 – 30 business days (shipping from USA)

Since AbeBooks is more like a marketplace for books, you get many options at different prices and varying book conditions. In the table above, I chose new books as far as possible and listed the lowest prices inclusive of shipping fee.

AbeBooks book prices

 books can be shipped to you from anywhere. Generally, choosing countries nearby mean lower delivery costs and waiting times.

AbeBooks delivery time

To see a book’s shipping information, you have to click on the listing > select “Destination, rates & speeds” under the price of the book > choose Singapore as your destination country.

Expected delivery dates on AbeBooks vary a lot. Books can be shipped to you from anywhere, and generally, choosing countries nearby mean lower delivery costs and waiting times. Generally—surprisingly, shipping a book from the USA and India both take a minimum of 20 business days. It seems it takes quite a lengthy shipping time even for nearby countries.

AbeBooks shipping fees

One glance at the table above and you’ll realise that the scariest price component on AbeBooks by far is the shipping fee. You’d be mad to order The Let Them Theory on AbeBooks if you live in Singapore—the shipping fees are more than the cost of the book itself! 

AbeBooks boasts that it’s been “helping buyers and sellers since 1996”. What that means for you as a prospective book buyer is that you may have to sift through several listings of the same book from different sellers to get the cheapest rate. This can be a long, painful process, so here are some tips to save you some time.

AbeBooks—Tips for getting the lowest shipping rates

Pro tip: Select the “Asia” option under the “Seller Location” filter when you search for books, as shipping from Asia will mean lower shipping costs. However, note that you may not always be able to apply this Asia filter. If the sellers for some books are all from the likes of UK, US or Australia, the filter will return nothing.

AbeBooks—Tips for converting currencies easily

Here’s another pro tip: Be prepared to convert currencies as you explore AbeBooks’ selection. Like Awesome Books, the AbeBooks website is also not optimised for Singapore customers. You can click on “Convert Currency” beneath the price of the book to see its SGD price.

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6. Blackwell’s—best for rare/signed books

All the book nerds I know headed straight to UK-based bookseller Blackwell’s when their early pre-orders on Book Depository got cancelled in 2023 due to its imminent closure. Makes sense, since Blackwell’s virtual shelves contain 18 million titles—a decent number against Book Depository’s (then) 20 million (RIP).

Here are the prices and delivery details of our 3 titles on Blackwell’s:

Books on Blackwell’s	Price of book	Cost of shipping	Expected delivery
Fiction: The Vegetarian [Paperback]	$14.99	Free! Blackwell’s delivery costs are included in the price of the book.	11 to 18 business days (1 to 7 days to dispatch + 10 to 25 days to deliver)
Non-fiction: The Let Them Theory [Hardcover]	$34.40
Children: Sunrise on the Reaping [Hardcover]	$35.23

Blackwell’s book prices

Blackwell’s prices are decent/average. It had the second cheapest copy of The Vegetarian compared to other bookstores on our list, but you could find a more affordable option for the other 2 titles elsewhere. Both Wordery and Awesome Books were selling The Let Them Theory and Sunrise on the Reaping for under $30 each.

Blackwell’s delivery time

According to Blackwell’s delivery information, delivery to anywhere outside the UK currently takes 10-15 business days from the dispatch date. Blackwell’s stated that the 3 titles we looked at usually dispatch within 2 to 7 days but their FAQ section says dispatch can happen as fast as within 24 hours. All in all, the total wait time for your book is between 11 and 18 days. 

What are Blackwell’s “Signed” and “Rare” sections?

One interesting thing you might have noticed about Blackwell’s is their “Signed” category. Yup, exactly as it sounds—these are books that have been signed by the author. Will they come with exorbitantly jacked up price tags? From the looks of it, these books are actually quite reasonably priced.

For example, a signed copy of the memoir A Different Kind of Power (hardback, pre-order, 3 Jun 2025) by 40th Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Arden will cost you $47.08, while an unsigned copy is priced at $45.19.

So if you’re a superfan of a particular book, Blackwell’s “Signed” section is worth checking out—just be warned that it’s a pretty small, selected range of titles.

And if you’re an avid collector of rare first editions, private press or antiquarian books, Blackwell’s also has a Rare Bookshop you can check out online (or fly to Oxford to get lost in if you’re a hardcore book nerd). From their online catalogue, “newer” books categorised as “Modern Firsts” cost a few hundred dollars, while I’ve previously seen the first edition of Tolkien’s The Hobbit going for £60,000 (S$104,781), and a complete set of the James Bond novels, first edition, going for a cool £50,000 (S$87,319). I am shook, not stirred. 

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7. OpenTrolley Bookstore—fast local delivery (6 – 9 days)

This Singapore-based online bookstore has one of the fastest delivery lead times on the island. OpenTrolley also has presence in Indonesia and Malaysia, and here in Singapore promises one-week local delivery—free with a minimum purchase of $60. It has some 15 million titles on their shelves, which they boast is the widest range in Singapore.

Books on OpenTrolley	Price of book	Cost of shipping	Expected delivery
Fiction: The Vegetarian [Paperback]	$26.47	Free with $60 minimum spend; otherwise $4.90 delivery fee per order	6 – 9 working days
Non-fiction: The Let Them Theory [Hardcover]	$48.63
Children: Sunrise on the Reaping [Hardcover]	$44.22

OpenTrolley book prices

OpenTrolley is not the best choice if price is your top consideration. The books we looked at were all more expensive on OpenTrolley compared to others—for example, The Vegetarian cost $26.47 on OpenTrolley and just $11.70 and $15.17 at Wordery and Awesome Books respectively.

OpenTrolley shipping fees

OpenTrolley gives free shipping only if you spend $60 or more. If you don’t hit that expenditure, you can pay $4.90 per order for delivery.

OpenTrolley delivery time

OpenTrolley has one of the fastest delivery times on this list. They advertise “1-week local delivery”, while the individual book pages state 6-9 working days. I think you can take the 1-week promise as a ballpark figure; either way, OpenTrolley is still one of the fastest way to get your hands on a book if you’re ordering online.

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8. Kinokuniya—fastest local delivery (3 – 5 days)

 

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One of the few physical bookstores left in Singapore, Kinokuniya sells books both in their physical stores and online. Online prices and in-store retail prices differ, and today we’ll just be checking out the online ones.

Books on Kinokuniya	Price of book	Cost of shipping	Expected delivery
Fiction: The Vegetarian [Paperback]	$19.30 ($17.37 with Kinokuniya Privilege Card*)	$4.80 for orders below $50 (Free delivery above $50)	5 – 7 working days
Non-fiction: The Let Them Theory [Hardcover]	$52.12 ($46.91 with Kinokuniya Privilege Card*)
Children: Sunrise on the Reaping [Hardcover]	$45.32 ($40.79 with Kinokuniya Privilege Card*)

*Note: Kinokuniya Privilege Card Members get 10% off the book price. Membership costs:

• $24 for a 1-year membership
• $42 for a 2-year membership
• $58 for a 3-year membership

Kinokuniya book prices

Assuming you aren’t a Kinokuniya member and you have to pay the full online price, Kinokuniya is unfortunately one of the most expensive options on our list. It was the only one for which The Let Them Theory crossed the $50 mark. That said, The Vegetarian was much more affordable on Kinokuniya ($19.30) than OpenTrolley ($26.47).

Kinokuniya shipping fees

Kinokuniya offers free delivery with $50 spend, otherwise pay $4.80 for orders below $50. It’s a relatively low shipping fee, although Blackwell’s and Wordery offer free shipping.

Kinokuniya delivery time

Kinokuniya is the bookstore with the fastest delivery on this list, at 3 to 5 working days. That makes sense, since Kinokuniya ships books out to you from their local stocks. Of course, if they don’t currently have stock of the book you want, you may have to wait longer. But if you need a book in less than a week, Kinokuniya is your best bet, and it may be worth it to fork out a little bit more for a book on their site. 

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9. So, which is the best online bookstore in Singapore?

Interestingly, our 2 online bookstores with the lowest prices also take the longest time to ship to Singapore. So at the end of the day, it’s a trade-off between cost and speed of delivery.

For the lowest prices

To buy books for the lowest cost, visit Wordery or Awesome Books. Just be sure you can wait 12 – 27 or 14 – 28 business days respectively for your book to arrive.

For the fastest shipping

Kinokuniya and OpenTrolley should be your go-tos. Just be warned that books are gonna cost more on these platforms, and delivery is only free if you hit $50 or $60 spend for each respective bookstore.

For obscure reads, rare books, or signed copies

You have a few options. For obscure books, you could try Awesome Books for their wide range of 25 million books (though our tests in this article show they may not stock the newest releases). With its large marketplace, AbeBooks might have a seller or two selling the book you want. And finally, Blackwell’s “Signed” and “Rare” sections are worth checking out.

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About the author

Vanessa Nah likes her finance articles the way she likes her sitcoms—light-hearted, entertaining, and leaving people knowing a little more about life. She believes money—like life—should be made simple. Outside of work, you’ll find Vanessa attending dance classes, fingerpicking a guitar, and fulfilling her life mission to make her one-eyed cat the most spoiled kitty in the world.