Comparison between Borders Books and Amazon.com Books

Increase the fame among the readers, students and researchers by keeping a maximum amount of books, textbooks, magazines and newspapers available and offer a high quality customer services.

Strategic planning is a critical element of an organization’s annual business plan. A strategic plan consists of a number of components. In addition to analyzing a company’s strengths and weaknesses, a strategic plan also includes implementation and control techniques. While this may seem easy enough, implementing a strategic plan into an organization can be challenging. Barnes and Noble, like a number of corporations are seeking ways to improve productivity and profitability. This essay will identify business alternatives for the bookseller which will enable them to diversify their product offerings.

Since it founded in 1995 Amazon.com has become one of the world’s largest online retailers. Even during a period when most .com companies were falling apart Amazon.com managed to stay a cut above and survive successfully. Amazon.com is currently the 11th most searched site in the world (Amazon.com, 2015). Amazon business is built around cost leadership ensuring that they maintain an ability to sell bestselling books at a reduced rate of 30 to 40 percent off what other retailers are selling. Over the years Amazon.com has moved from selling strictly books to many unrelated items such as kitchen appliances, games, DVDs and even herbal supplements.

Throughout this past decade Globalization and technology have drastically impacted the sales of Barnes & Noble. In the recent past Barnes and Noble was faced with its biggest challenge it has faced in its history, trying to keep up with Amazon’s fire tablet. This was definitely a new challenge because unlike Barnes and Nobles past competitors such as Borders book store they were now in current competition with a specific product of a company. The Amazon tablet was like nothing consumers had seen before.

Better World Books (BWB) was founded in 2002 as a B corporation, meaning it targets successful performance in three fundamental areas: financial, social, and environmental endeavors. BWB has grown successfully since its creation as a small, socially motivated firm to one of the larger, more successful corporations of its kind. Despite the impressive and inspiring performance and growth through creative expansions, BWB acknowledges the changing conditions of the used book marketplace and is pleased to outline a brief review of current strategy and recommendations for supporting operations moving forward.

Barnes & Noble is a key player in the Book Retail Industry. This mature industry has been experiencing slow growth over the last several years, much slower than overall retail sales. Barriers to entry into this industry are quite high, and suppliers have modest influence over booksellers. The introduction of the Internet has brought about many changes to this industry. It has increased rivalry, buyer power, and substitutes. Spending time "surfing the net" is one of many substitutes to reading books nowadays. Other technological advances, such as VCR 's and video games, have replaced time otherwise spent reading. Buyers have greater influence over the industry, because they

Indigo’s objective to enrich Canadian lives through books has taken a turn due to the growing influence of the digital era. The company is reforming their corporate strategy to adapt to the new realities of the market place. Indigo addresses their new ambition to “create a cultural department store;” their strategy is evolving to meet the emerging needs of the customers. The company strives to increase physical book sales by adjusting their merchandise mix, in order to maximize profits. As a part of their strategy reformation, Indigo is shifting their primary focus away from the core offering of books and is instead emphasizing on the customer experience within the store. Indigo now offers a wide variety of products that compliment the readers

When it comes to a person wanting to choose an outlet that they can use to buy or rent books there are a few key factors that come into play. Chris McMullen gave an insight of how authors get their books to sell. He explains that when it comes to customers wanting to buy a book there are certain actions that need to be taken and can potentially help with online business that sell books. Two key point questions that McMullen asked were, “1. What cause(s) people to buy books? And 2. Who is your specific target audience?” (McMullen, 2013). He explains that if knowing the answers can have a great impact when trying to attract customers. When it comes to shopping online the method that is used more than any other, is the 100 bestseller lists. The reason why this method is used the most is because customers look to see what’s popular and trending.

Some of the unique aspects of Barnes & Noble’s situation are that the bookseller was once the top competitor bookstore, pushing other small bookstores out of the market. It is currently the only bookstore chain in the nation. Recently with the development of e-readers and e-books Barnes & Noble has struggled to stay afloat. Typically companies can see improvement in business as technology advances but, Barnes & Noble has experienced the opposite effect. The bookstore kept up with the e-book demand and invested in an e-reader, the “Nook”. However because of this exact investment needed to promote the product Barnes & Nobles has incurred losses in 2011. According to the text there is still more profit in printed books that in e-books. “Customers

Barnes & Noble's beginnings can be traced to 1873, when Charles M. Barnes started a book business from his home in Wheaton, Illinois. In 1917, his son, William, went to New York to join G. Clifford Noble in establishing Barnes & Noble. During the height of the Great Depression, what later became the Barnes & Noble flagship store was opened on Fifth Avenue at 18th Street in New York City. This store developed a worldwide reputation for excellence by serving millions of customers with its comprehensive selection of general trade books, academic titles and textbooks, and medical books. Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS) is a Fortune 500 company, the nation’s largest retail bookseller and a leading retailer of content, digital media and educational

Barnes & Noble is now the leading bookstore in the United States with over 1,200 retail bookstores and over 35,000 employees. Both B&N and Borders sold a wide variety of products including books, music, DVDs, CDs, magazines, toys and etc. However, B&N marketed themselves to a broader audience by selling college text books and sold their products at affordable prices which attracted more customers. B&N also gained competitive advantage over Borders for partnering with Starbucks to deliver in-house cafés.

Professor Harry Lindsol noticed a trend in regards to how the Internet had taken over the purchasing habits of individuals, particularly in college students. Dr. Lindsol observed students’ purchasing habits regarding college textbooks and how constantly the students are connected to the Internet. Lindsol recognized a potential business opportunity by questioning if student’s textbooks were available on their electronic devices, would an online company prosper? Dr. Lindsol analyzed the textbook industry for the possibility to start-up a potential eBook company. Lindsol examined the publishers’ business models of traditional textbooks and etextbooks, the competitors in the industry, and the advantages and disadvantages of a strictly-eBook publishing company.

Why shouldn’t we judge a book by its cover? As the country’s leading brick-and-mortar bookseller, Barnes & Noble (B&N) needs to transform its super store appearance and atmosphere instead of cutting into markets with well-established competition, such as ebooks and campus bookstores. Along with the rising trend of the “buy local” movement, people prefer the atmosphere of a local bookstore to that of a large retailer, and if B&N wants to avoid Borders’ fate, we have to adopt the look and feel of a more community-connected, local store.

Barnes & Noble is a well-respected name among book publishers and sellers. Prior to 1992, Barnes & Noble was a private firm. It printed, dispersed, and sold books in 68 Barnes & Noble superstores, over seven hundred B. Dalton bookstores, and other smaller bookstore chains that it attained. In 1992, to raise capital CEO Leonard Riggio decided sell stock in Barnes & Noble in an initial public offering. He wanted to use the money acquired to increase growth, reduce debt and achieve the greatest s expansion program in the bookstore business” (Cox, 1992).

Eventually, it cited its expansion strategy as problematic in its February 2011 Bankruptcy filing. It had signed number of 15-20 years leases which made it harder for Borders to close it stores in unprofitable locations. Borders decided to liquidate and closed 399 stores, and lay off 10,700 employees. It closed three outlets in Manhattan, 35 in California, and 15 stores in Chicago metropolitan area. Another reason given in the article “Readers without Borders” is the outsourcing of its online sales to Amazon. Basically it channeled its online investment to its in-store platform. Borders revenue dropped as iTunes, Netflix, and file sharing network became popular. The last time Borders made profit was 2006. From 2007-2011, its annual income dropped by $1 billion. In March 2007, the company ended it marketing alliance with Amazon, and planned to launch its own online business. Within one year, the company announced to sell the chain because of economic barriers. The economic situation became worse when Borders borrowed $42.5 million USD from Pershing Square Capital Management which was a company major stockholder to keep the company alive. The loan was taken at very high interest rate of