Indigo Books & Music Inc.

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.

Inventory is the biggest investment of the business and the performance of the inventory can determine whether the store succeeds or fails. We have chosen a different supply strategy as a method to save on cost. This method will require our publishers to ship books directly to the store which will save on our shipping expenses.

Barnes & Noble was created by Charles Barnes and opened the first store in 1917 in New York City. Barnes & Noble is the largest retail bookseller and a leading retailer of digital media and educational products. The company operates 640 bookstores in 50 states. Barnes & Noble’s mission statement is to “operate the best omni-channel specialty retail business in America, helping both our customers and booksellers reach their aspirations, while being a credit to the communities we serve (Booksellers, 2012).

Due to economic strains our company is under more pressure than ever to deliver value and cannot afford to compromise productivity and efficiency. Our goal is to reduce the total cost and maximize efficiency within our office. We are continually seeking to maintain and improve our productivity and effectiveness in order to keep us from downsizing any department. Our task forces are implementing different processes that can help us find the less expensive way to meet our goal. Below we will discuss the possible risks and the recommendations to mitigate or eliminate those potential risks.

They take the constructive feedback they receive from customers and apply it to future enhancements. A unique feature is, they hand-pick their books; these books consists of Canadian small presses, national publishers, and international imprints as they echo the diversity of their customer’s interests (BryanPrinceBookseller, 2015). One of the main reasons why this bookstore has been so successful is because of the passion held within the business. The owners are all enthusiastic readers and highly value the art and heritage behind literature. In addition they are always happy to discuss what they are currently reading and are capable of making

The first challenge is the concentration in retail market, where the English-Canadian market only has one national bookstore chain, which is Chapters/Indigo. This was not an issue in the past, where in comparison to 1985, there were three national bookstore chains. The concentration in retail markets provides lower prices for consumers, but for competition it implies that there are less traditional bookstores available. One benefit of having a concentration in retail market would be the expression of chain and non-traditional sectors are more of an opportunity for publishers, seeing that retails have expanded the national retail space for books and thus having attracted new customers for books.

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.

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

Indigo Books and Music Inc’s purpose is to “to provide our customers with the most inspiring retail and digital environments in the world for books and life-enriching products and experiences.” (Indigo). In this report will be the analysis of Indigo’s financial condition and progression throughout the years 2016, 2015, 2014. Indigo’s headquarters is presently located at 468 King Street West, Suite 500 in Toronto, Ontario on January 9, 2017. From February 4, 2001 to present time, the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the board of directors of Indigo Books and Music Inc is Heather Reisman. Furthermore, Heather Reisman is the founder of Indigo when it was created in 1997. In addition, Heather Reisman is the current president of Indigo Books

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.

However, Amazon compete with them very well. Also, due to wide variety of products, their competitors ranges from retailers, merchandise retailers, online internet retailers,etc. In the late 1990's it provide competition to the bookselling industry and forced Barnes & Noble to launch their online website. Barnes and Noble offers books, DVDs, and CDs, which directly competes with Amazon.com's media segment. Amazon.com competes against all competitors on selection, convenience, and customer experience as well as price. Barnes & Noble had not been successful in online business and they decided to partner with Amazon.com

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