As an answer to fast-growing Shopify, Amazon plans to launch what is effectively “Amazon as a Service,” which they are calling Buy with Prime. The pitch is to allow merchants the “shopping benefits of Prime…whether they sell in Amazon’s store or beyond.” The service will bundle Amazon’s Prime delivery service (and returns management) along with […]
New Models
Reese’s Book Club Explores A Subscription Box
Content platform Hello Sunshine, home of Reese Witherspoon’s wildly successful book club, is considering a subscription box offering. Tech Crunch was the first to notice that a survey sent to Hello Sunshine’s email list April 16 included several box-focused questions. The 43-question survey, appropriately incentivized with a contest to win a book box, asks readers […]
Barnes & Noble Opens New Store In Maryland
After a long gap, Barnes & Noble opens another concept store — their sixth — in the mall in Columbia, MD today. The 17,000-square-foot store features a new design for their cafe, now at the front of the store without any walls or barriers, and the cookbook section is right next to it. As the […]
Ish No More; Bookish.com Is Live
After years of development, three ceos, eight figures of funding and the challenges of operating a start-up joint venture after the founding partners negotiated settlements with the Department of Justice over alleged collusion, Bookish.com officially launched to the public on Monday evening. (As HBG ceo David Young told the AP, “We received clearance for Bookish, […]
At Kepler’s Conference, Participants Pledge to Raise More Capital
Ron Charles at the Washington Post filed three blog reports from the weekend’s gathering of approximately 80 “publishers, philanthropists, entrepreneurs and authors,” designed to help envision the new Kepler’s bookstore and plot the role of a community bookstore going forward. Perhaps most importantly, though, “members of this conference pledged to raise another $250,000” for the […]
Tattered Cover One Step Away from Airport Stores; Politics & Prose Travels
A Denver City Council committee unanimously sent to the mayor and full council for approval the proposal to give the Tattered Cover the concession for four bookstores under their own name and one combined store paired with Hudson News at the Denver International Airport. The stores would open in early 2014. Washington, DC’s Politics & Prose bookstore […]