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Find the book a customer half-remembers with ChatGPT, and ask it which new releases you may have missed
Anja Urbschat, owner of localbook.shop, an independent bookshop in Düsseldorf's Carlstadt district, Germany, in Börsenblatt, the German book trade magazine
ChatGPT sits open next to the shop's bibliographic databases for title research on customer requests. When a customer called who had read a newspaper review and only remembered that the book was blue and roughly what it was about, ChatGPT found the title. She also asked it which new books in January and February mattered; besides titles she had already ordered, its list included Sofi Oksanen's book on Putin's war against women, which she had missed and then noted for ordering.
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ChatGPT
The problem
Customers ask for books they only half remember, and the trade's bibliographic search tools need precise search terms.
What happened
Self-reported (our translation from German): she says the shop now works less with the book trade's search engines because ChatGPT doesn't need the search narrowed down as precisely. She also says ChatGPT sometimes hallucinates, so checking is essential. No time figures are given. The interview is from February 2024, so today's tools work differently.
Quoted in the source: Anja Urbschat, owner, localbook.shop. Source: Börsenblatt: "Chat GPT ist mein Sparringspartner" (Sabine Cronau; interview with Anja Urbschat, in German) (2024-02-07) · Added 2026-10-21.
How to set it up yourself
- What localbook.shop does: staff keep ChatGPT open beside the bibliographic database and describe a half-remembered book in plain words to find the title, and the owner asks it which new releases matter as a check on her own ordering.
- When a customer can't remember a title, type everything they remember (cover colour, where they saw the review, rough plot, the author's country) into ChatGPT with the prompt below.
- Look up each suggested title in your wholesaler or bibliographic database to confirm it exists and check the cover and edition; only then tell the customer or order it.
- Once a season, ask it which notable new titles come out in the next two months in your sections, and compare the list with what you've already ordered.
Copy-paste prompt
A customer is looking for a book. What they remember: {DETAILS: cover, where they heard of it, plot, author, when}. Suggest up to 5 possible titles with author, publisher and year, and one line on why each fits. Say how sure you are about each. If none fits well, say so and tell me which detail to ask the customer about. Don't invent titles; I will check each one in our database.We set up one AI automation in your tools, live within 48 hours of getting access, for $197. No call needed. Founding price for our first 10 customers (regular $297).
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Tools used
ChatGPT
General AI assistant for writing, research, brainstorming and analysis.
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Checked prices: ChatGPT: from Free $0; Go $8/mo; Plus $20/mo; Pro $100/mo (verified 2026-10-20)
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