"One major area of sales growth has been in pre-orders: each month, our online bestseller list is dominated by orders for forthcoming books...The platform offers everything we need but has been customized to suit us perfectly."
McGill-Queen’s University Press is a leading scholarly press with books that meet the highest editorial, design, and production standards. Our goal was to deliver a sophisticated and stylish interface for the new MQUP site which reflects the press’s commitment to outstanding design in all other aspects of its publishing and marketing efforts.
The Setup
The previous press website had been in place for some time and did not reflect the quality of the press’s publishing program. It was dated, not responsive for mobile devices, difficult to update and maintain, and did not support the press’ ecommerce goals. We prepared for a complex build that included a fully bilingual site, separate ecommerce stores for Canada and the US, and an elegant design with plenty of custom features.
“We had a long list of requirements when we started our website redesign project, but a few were of critical importance,” says Anna Del Col, Marketing Manager at MQUP. “First, we needed a true ecommerce site that would allow for pre-orders and a range of sales promotions and campaigns including discounting and bundling options. Second, because our press is based in both Ontario and Quebec, it was important for us to have a bilingual site. And third, we were eager to open new dimensions of discoverability: the redesigned site would need to offer the best in search and browse functionality while also finding unique ways to showcase our award-winning and beautifully designed books across all formats, subjects, series, and catalogues.”
The Plan
The MQUP team expressed a strong preference for a clean and elegant interface with lots of white space that puts an emphasis on the books and book jackets in particular. At the same time, the press had a well-stocked repository of rich metadata to display. Our designers and developers worked together to strike the balance, employing clever devices to hide and reveal content; smart layout choices; and a tidy full-width display that allowed the site content to breathe.
The Result
The result is a website that is refined and a pleasure to navigate. Users can take their time, viewing the site in either English or French with ecommerce options for Canada, US, and international customers. The quality of the MQUP list is palpable. Book jackets are large enough to enjoy but they don’t distract. Supplementary content is easy to find. The press’ vision, mission, and commitment is evident on every page.
“We could not be more thrilled with the end result and the collaborative nature of the redesign process,” says Anna. “ReaderBound allowed us to invite our own designers into the process while working with their top-notch design and development teams, which resulted in a site that looks and feels like us. The platform offers everything we need but has been customized to suit us perfectly.”
The Impact
Several months post-launch, we asked the press to reflect on how the site has changed how they market their books. “One major change has been an investment in pre-order sales campaigns. We can now run promotions, email campaigns, and social media campaigns in advance of a book's publication and have seen impressive results,” says Anna.
“We are also able to use the site to expand our investment in email marketing and to track our successes. In addition, we love that the site allows us to showcase the impact of our authors and their work, including several different ways to post reviews, interviews, earned media, and author talks. The site also makes it easy for us to communicate important information about our books such as accessibility details, open access links, and alternative formats.”
In terms of sales, the numbers speak for themselves. “We are already seeing improvements in our ecommerce sales and as we continue to invest in analytics we are excited to dig even deeper,” reveals Anna.
“One major area of sales growth has been in pre-orders: each month, our online bestseller list is dominated by orders for forthcoming books, driven primarily by email and social media campaigns—along with early author announcements.
"From January to June 2026, we saw a 38% increase in ecommerce sales over the same period the previous year. And we have also just had our best month of ecommerce sales yet, in June 2026, representing a 114% increase over the previous June.”
Take a guided tour
Want to see more? Visit the MQUP site to check out some of its distinct features. For example:
1. The site is fully available in both English and French, and it offers distinct shopping cart and checkout experiences to customers in Canada and the United States (with integrations to the press's distributor in each country). The site automatically detects user location and language preference and serves the correct language, pricing, tax and shipping calculations, and checkout experience to each user. But the user can also manually select either language or either storefront using the controls in the site header. Give it a try.
2. The system automatically relates editions of the same work with each other and presents the user with a consolidated listing with all available editions, including print, digital, and open access. Here is a good illustration of how nicely that works. You'll notice that, along with the focus on purchase and OA options, readers also have readily available links for requesting review copies and sending recommendations to their local or campus libraries.
3. MQUP has a large catalogue but the site includes a faceted search behaviour that allows users to easily filter results by language, subject, or series with just a couple of clicks.
4. The site also incorporates a substantial archive from MQUP's long-running blog. These news items, guest contributions, and curated lists now carry an elegant magazine-like stying with automated links back to related title listings.
5. In addition to the integrated search and the highlighted title selections throughout, the main "Books" menu offers users a number of thoughtful ways to explore the catalogue, including options to browse by series or subject (sidenote: the index you see there is a custom, three-level subject schema developed by the press). Other key elements of the list, such as award winners or open access editions, are also just a click away from any point on the site.