This feature is finally ready for general use! It's been on our todo list for almost 4 years now and it's satisfying to publicize.
There are two parts:
1. SPECIAL ORDER ON YOUR WEBSITE!
Bookhead syncs your local inventory to your website, but what happens when you don't have the title on hand? With Bookhead, a customer can search your Shopify inventory, and if the title isn't on hand, the search will fallback to Ingram's catalog, allowing you to sell their 13+ million titles available from the distribution centers. We don't create all 13 million titles on your website because that doesn't help your SEO (in our opinion) and also nobody is buying all those titles anyway -- it's a waste to have all that on your website.
2. Bibliographic metadata
Bookhead can use Ingram's bibliographic metadata to create rich product listings. In Shopify, we create author pages if an author in your inventory has more than two titles on hand to help your SEO. The metadata is also structured in a way on your Shopify store so you can create richer content.
With Bookhead's new special order widget, this is no longer a problem. Note that this only works for Shopify now, but we are working on a widget for Squarespace and Wix, as well.
How to use
This is a Bookhead Connect-tier feature. Contact support@bookhead.net if you want to upgrade your account.
Not a Bookhead user but want to try it out? Sign up here.