Barnes and Noble vs Amazon

Eve Dmochowska    Uncategorized     books, ecommerce, NYC

I love bookshops. Even the pathetic excuse-for-ones in Pretoria are my favourite hangouts. So when in New York, I feel as if I am in heaven. Here, the book shops seem to have every title imaginable, spanning multiple storeys of floor to ceiling shelves. I could get lost in one for days.

There is a 3 floor Barnes and Noble a couple of blocks from my hotel. I pass it often, and go in at least twice a day. There is a small Starbucks on the top floor, and I sit and read, while my feet take a well deserved break from all that walking. Mostly, I stumble on the books. (A cover sells the book, at least to me).

But someone tweeted a link to an excerpt of the latest Guy Kawasaki book, and I was intrigued to see it in full glory. Now, the quantity of books in the shop can be a drag when you want to buy something specific, because how do you actually find it? Barnes and Noble have a novel (ha! a pun!) idea: there are computers all over the place, and you search for the book you want much as you would on Amazon. When you find it “online”, you click on “Show me where” and the screen displays a map of the store, with the exact location of the book. You can even print the “map” if you want to.

Stunning. I found the book in no time, and it seemed to live up to all expectations. So you would think that by making the shopping experience as painless as possible, Barnes and Noble are gaining a new client, right?

Wrong.

The 5 books I chose today would have cost me $111.84 at Barnes and Noble. But guess what? At Amazon.com they only cost me $72.10. So with free shipping and next day delivery, I still save $40.

And because Amazon have this built in intelligence where they harness other people’s shopping patterns, they can recommend other titles to me too, and I will probably end up buying some before final checkout. So possibly the total profit for Amazon is still pretty much what it would have been for Barnes and Noble had I stuck with them.

I don’t think this spells the doom of bookshops, of course. But it does not bode well for them either.

(Note: Had I bought the books at Exclusive Books, I would have paid R1,890!!! That means I got them at 30% of the price!!! I’ll save comment on that for another blog post!)

(What have I bought so far? Click on title for Amazon page – no affiliate sales here, lol.

• Stumbling on Happiness
• Nudge
• The Art of the Start
• Reality Check
• How the Mighty Fall

)

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