Executive Summary
Barnes and Noble is the market leader in the bookstore industry. They have grown their business during tough economic times and have adapted well to the changing consumer demands as technology has advanced. By continuing to enhance their competitive strategy to align themselves with market demands, Barnes and Noble, with its multi-channel distribution platform, will continue to have success in the coming years as competition will feel the pressures of increasing digital mediums and decreasing hard copy book demand. This internal analysis of Barnes and Noble will examine their competitive position with regards to their value chain and strategic issues, as well as examine strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and
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Customer service is an area in the value chain where Barnes and Noble creates a lot of value to their customers. Because of the multi-channel distribution system, customers can ask questions online or in person at one of their stores. The service at the retail locations is great for older, less tech-savvy individuals who enjoy hands on assistance in finding the right book and paying with cash. Online shoppers enjoy the speedy checkout that online sales offers from the comfort of their home or office.
The main support activity that adds value to the customer is the development of the computerized support systems, software development, and process designs of the online businesses. Allocating resources to develop the eBook business and make the online store easy to use are key contributors to maintaining customers and gaining new ones. Designing an infrastructure to provide their customers with wireless access to digital content also enables customers to access their store with ease, which makes today’s efficient customer happy.
To analyze the success of this value chain, it is wise to compare to the value chain of a competitor. Books-a-million is a very similar book store in the sense that they have brick and mortar operations as well as an online operation. They have 204 superstores and 53 traditional stores across the
Barnes and Noble is dedicated to providing "the best specialty retail business in America. " B&N certainly delivers on its promise, offering over 1 million book titles on demand with unmatched customer service. The B&N dedication to providing superb service with an unmatched number of options serves as an example for industry competitors on how to operate successfully with the customer in mind. Let's examine the specifics of the Barnes and Noble mission statement.
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.
Three key challenges facing the Canadian book publishing industry are the concentration in retail market, the competition for multinationals, and the cost of adapting to new technologies and entering the export market. Policy source 14, Summative Evaluation of the Book Publishing Industry Development Industry Program discusses these challenges.
However, Amazon.com made this chain or supply useless. At amazon.com, unlike traditional bookstores, there are no bookshelves to browse. All contact with the costomer is either through its web site or by email. At the firm’s web site, customers can search for a specific book, topic and etc. Customers can browse, fill up a virtual shopping basket, and then complete the sale by
The company I have chosen to investigate for this assignment is Barnes & Noble, Inc. Originally founded in Illinois, USA, in 1873, this business has risen to become a Fortune 500 company. This bookstore chain boasts over 600 physical locations (cite source) in the United States, as well as a strong online presence. The success of its stores, and of its subsequent web and mobile applications, is proof of its dedication to offering a wide range of quality products and providing an excellent customer experience at all times.
In this case, the traditional bookseller’s niche is overlapped the Big box retailers’. Because of the limited resources: only certain amount of people demand for popular books, they have to compete for the market of popular books. However, scale difference generates selection pressures. Obviously traditional booksellers have smaller scale and less purchasing power to compete with “Big box” retailers. When the electronic books came out, traditional booksellers struggle more. Although all booksellers were affected, “Big box”
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
After visiting the websites of Amazon and Barnes and Noble, it is clear that both companies have done an exceptional job at designing sites that effectively communicate their brand along with specific products they want to sell. Amazon achieves 29 billion in revenue per year generating a profit of 1 billion and producing a whopping ROE of 24%. In contrast to this, Barnes and Noble achieves 6 billion in revenue per year generating a loss of 40 million (last year’s results) and produces an ROE of -4.5%. It is important to note that Amazon sells exclusively from a web-based environment, while Barnes and Noble
This is investigates success of three online book websites and how or if they have expanded their markets. Amazon.com is the largest online book retailer and now is the largest online retailer.
Barnes & Noble are taking different tacks with regard to agreements with authors agents, and publishers. Amazon is pulling content off the market and padlocking it to their Kindle. In response, Barnes & Noble is refusing to stock Amazon published titles in its brick-and-mortar stores. Barnes & Nobles' investment in the well-received, well-reviewed Nook appears to have been a solid business decision, the ripples of which will continue to be felt for some time. In fact, the Nook is the proverbial finger in the dike as the waters of Amazon continue to threaten the very infrastructure of the publishing business by eroding the relationship between publishers and bricks-and-mortar stores.
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
With the proliferation of communication and information technology, particularly the Internet, most business organizations have been at the forefront to join the e-commerce platform. Amazon is considered as one of the existing and largest e-business platform in the world. This report outlines Amazon’s strategic intent and key resources and capabilities. In addition, the report will also include an analysis of the company 's assets and capabilities that have provided it a sustainable competitive edge as well as, the recommended future strategy of the giant online organization. Amazon defines its line of business operations based on product and service sales, fulfillment, digital content subscriptions, publishing, and co-branded cards. The company 's line of business is defined as an online store, Internet service provision, and the Kindle ecosystem. This project will explore the truth that has made the online company to be considered as the top online retailer, which mainly focuses on strategy. This report also outlines how inventories play a fundamental role in the organization 's business or corporate strategy. The other issues covered in the report include the approach used by the online company deal with the supply chain and the reason behind fast shipping fast. The paper will outline the finance statute of the company and whether the finance effect will bar the organization from developing in future. In order to achieve the answer to the questions