Amazon will shut down its UK-based online book store Book Depository at the end of this month. 

Local sources say a thank-you email was sent to its suppliers and publishing partners outlining Book Depository’s impending closure and advising that orders would no longer be taken after April 26.

“We are sorry to let you know that Book Depository will be closing on 26 April,” the brand wrote in an official statement on its Facebook. 

“From all of us at Book Depository we want to say “thank you.” Delivering your favourite reads to you since 2007 has been a pleasure.” 

The closure comes after the parent firm of the retailer, Amazon, declared it would “eliminate” all 68 of its physical bookstores, Amazon 4-star, and Pop up stores across the US and UK, shifting its physical retail focus to the grocery businesses and new retail concepts. 

With the motto of “offering ‘less of more’ rather than ‘more of less’ ”, Book Depository, which was acquired by Amazon in 2011, was established in 2004 by Stuart Felton and Andrew Crawford, a former Amazon employee. 

It was widely used by retailers and individuals alike from all over the world to source books, especially those that were difficult to find in their respective home markets.