Hay On Wye is a town known for the book shops in Wales. Maybe this is the business model that you need to look into.
What Hay on Wye is known for is a literary festival. So there was a pivot to this a few decades ago that has worked.
This is the guy that started it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Booth
Note the way it started, buying library stock from America that was available due to libraries closing.
Some of the Hay book shops are really good, there is a former cinema that you could get lost for hours in. Some other book shops are more like 'extras'. They might have books in cases on the pavement with prices being pennies. This stuff could be fairly pulped, but, collectively it gives the whole town this aura of literature that is way beyond what the local sheep farmers necessarily go in for.
Now if a tourist visits Hay for the festival then they spend £££ on books but they also spend a lot more on cups of tea, admission fees to see performances, accommodation and whatever else. A given tourist might spend pennies on books but in so doing spend many pounds in the town. They might not even read the books purchased, they might become more souvenir value, and far from generic souvenirs.
The reputation from the festival is enough to bring a respectable amount of tourists to Hay throughout the rest of the year.
It also works with a sponsor, normally the Hay festival works with people who have a vested interest in it being successful, so you get a lot of coverage on BBC's Radio 4.
Hay also has splendid scenery going for it as well as it being in Wales, proper. There are towns nearby that are just as pretty with similar scenic backdrops but nobody remembers the names of those places. The books thing - which is the effort and inspiration of one man - has put the place on the map, literally.
So, rather than the high tech solution, maybe the preinternet solution has some pointers. Get some local store fronts that are closed premises to become book shops. Segment the collection so that some shops are more specialist than others. Have some shops in less prime locations so that collectively there is the same thing going on as with Hay on Wye. Create a fake literary hub and then make it into a real literary hub by putting on the ten day festival.
If you get the council and local businesses in on the act then you might be able to get the whole thing started. Build it and they will come works for Hay even though it is the middle of nowhere with just sheep for local population.
Trying to shift the product online for a pittance is no fun at all, the festival and tourist location thing could be much more exciting. Try and twin the town with Hay to get started...