Amazon vs. Barnes & Noble: Book Distribution Conflicts

In contrast to Borders Group, Barnes & Noble which is a leading bookstore in the US recorded an 11% increase in their share value in the past year with the introduction of their e-book reader “Nook”. It is clear that Barnes & Noble were not “Myopic” in their approach and were able to retain and even grow their customers as well as profits by embracing a new product.

The bookstore chain has been decreasing in profit in the US over the past 20 years. Most of the books retailers are shutting down their operations and only a few are still operating in the country. Barnes and Noble has become the largest bookseller in the book retailers industry. The firm has integrated its business philosophy into web presence though eBook marketplace. This business strategy assisted the firm to be able to reach a large scale customers and remain as a strongest competitor in the book retailing market.

Barnes & Noble does business -- big business -- by the book. As the #1 bookseller in the US, it operates about 650 superstores throughout 49 states and the District of Columbia under the banners Barnes & Noble, Bookstop, and Bookstar, as well as about 200 mall stores using the names B. Dalton, Doubleday, and Scribner's. The company's GameStop subsidiary is the #1 US video game retailer with about 1,500 stores under the names Babbage's Etc., GameStop, and FuncoLand. Barnes & Noble owned about 75% of online book seller barnesandnoble.com after purchasing Bertelsmann's interest in 2003; Barnes & Noble then purchased all remaining shares and took the company private in May 2004.

While value is a competitive advantage for Barnes and Noble’s retention of market share, their prices are not low enough to impose a low cost strategy.

The Kindle website (https://kindle.amazon.com/) and the competing Nook website (http://nook.barnesandnoble.com/u) are both trying to get you to do one thing: go digital. Technology is an ever-changing area, and it has somehow made its way into almost every aspect of our lives. Improvements have been made to make it possible to read thousands of books on one device. The only catch? There are multiple companies who are competing for the consumer’s purchase of their version of the device.

Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer that was launched in 1995 (Rouse, 2014). Amazon was mainly a book selling company that has enlarged its’ business by selling a variety of goods. The company sells all types of technology devices such as cell phones, games, televisions, movies, cameras, computers,

Some of the retail bookstores fail to appreciate the significant thereat threat that digital book publishing continues to pose.

Their inception in the book-selling world began with textbooks and other materials at discounted prices for the struggling student. The company established itself as college bookstores, which it still does today, on campuses like Harvard and New York University. In 1971, the business was purchased by Leonard Riggio, a bookseller himself, who decided to employ the idea of discounted books, but expand their demographic past college students. Leonard Riggio aimed to open the business more to the everyday shopper, and as such began offering best-selling fiction and nonfiction books to the general public. Throughout the 1970’s, Barnes and Nobles continued to open over a dozen larger retail discount stores, starting their own publishing house, and even starting their own catalogue, thus expanding their business to all over America. In 1974, Barnes and Noble was identified as the largest bookseller in the world. Leonard Riggio stated “As booksellers we are determined to be the very best in our business, regardless of the size, pedigree or inclinations of our competitors. We will continue to bring our industry nuances of style and approaches to bookselling which are consistent with our evolving aspirations.” In the 1980’s, Barnes and Noble began selling books online, and began their own book review website. In 2009, Barnes and Nobles staked their claim in the digital era by announcing the

Barnes and Nobles is one of the biggest bookstores that has a brick-and-mortal store concept. In the past they were know as a “big bully” that drove small book stores to close down because of their aggressive tactics to have competetetive advantage over them. Nonetheless, with the evolving circle of technology they have had a hard time in keeping up with the E-book era. In 2014 E-books increased its reader subscription by 28% compared to 23% in 2013. This number will continue increasing because 50% off American’s have access to devices that are either an e-reader or a tablet. B&N changed its business model to adjust to this new setting before it suffered a

When amazon was founded in 1996, the company began as a small online book retailer but has since transformed into a retailing giant that is able to compete in a highly competitive market. Although amazon competed predominantly with other e-retailers during the information technology boom that took place in the 90s, with an aggressive business and supply chain management strategy, amazon was propelled among the ranks of other industry leaders. Amazon has created a reputation that is characterized by its innovation, supply chain management strategies, and the use of disruptive technologies.

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Amazon.com: The Brink of Bankruptcy Jeffrey Bezos, formerly a senior vice president for D. E. Shaw & Company, founded Amazon.com in 1994. D. E. Shaw is a Wall Street-based investment bank, and Mr. Bezoswas assigned to find good Internet companies in which to invest. During the summer of 1994, he stumbled across a Web site that showed the number of Internet users was growing by 2,300 percent per month. He quickly realized the vast potential of the Internet, and began putting together a list of possible products that he could sell on the World Wide Web. He eventually narrowed his list to music products and books. Although music products and books both had enormous potential, he eventually selected books because he believed that he could

Barnes & Noble, Inc. operates as a content, commerce, and technology company in the United States. It provides access to books, magazines, newspapers, and other content through its multi-channel distribution platform. The company sells its products directly to customers through its bookstores and on barnesandnoble.com. Barnes & Noble conducts its online business through Barnes & Noble.com, one of the Web’s largest e-commerce sites, which also features more than 3 million titles in its eBookstore.  Through Barnes & Noble’s NOOK eReading product offering, customers can buy and read eBooks on the widest range of platforms, including NOOK eBook

Amazon is a company that sells many open product categories online by allowing customers to take the time to search and shop through the product offerings. Many product categories that are offered on Amazon may include device accessories, kindle devices, beauty, books, electronics, health & personal care, etc. The foremost product category that can offer the greatest advantage compared with a retail store chain is most definitely the books category. Reason to this is that the company has expanded the customer’s online shopping experience by offering such a wide range of physical and electronic books, depending on the preference of the customers. They are able to search for the top-rated selling

Amazon is a relatively small player in the bookstore industry, and its main competitors are Barnes & Noble and Borders. Despite the difference in scale, the company shows great promise, because its business model overcomes many of the competitors’ drawbacks.