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 Amazon Pay checkout, running from merchants’ own websites. Significantly, merchant will also “receive shopper order information, including email addresses, which they can use to provide excellent customer service, and build direct relationships with shoppers.” The initial launch invites are limited to merchants using Fulfillment by […]
Bookstores
Shelve Under Business, Thriller, Mystery or Romance? The NYT Proclaims Barnes & Noble A Hero
The NYT celebrated Passover and Easter with a charming if tortured fable about Barnes & Noble that somehow hinges on a movie from 1998 and a lot of myth making. On a factual basis, the story is a modest update to a similar story from the New York Post that ran last September and in a crazy coincidence that surely has nothing to do with a $50 billion hedge fund looking to prepare the ground for an exit is paralleled by a story in the Financial Times. Barnes & Noble says its store sales “were up 3 percent last year […]
Bookselling: B&N Cheyenne to Move to Unknown Location
The Barnes & Noble in Cheyenne, WY will move to a temporary location in Frontier Mall this Spring, and a permanent location next year. The last day at its current address is May 15, and store manager Gage Nix told Cap City News that the store doesn’t yet know where in the mall the temporary location will be. In a letter posted throughout the current location, the store said, “the landlord has made the decision to redevelop the space and has opted not to renew our lease.” As with other B&N moves, the letter asks for location ideas to be emailed […]
Bookselling: Barnes & Noble Opens Temporary Store In Bismarck, ND
Barnes & Noble has opened a temporary location in the Kirkwood Mall in Bismarck, ND. The store is run by the same team who ran the store at Southridge Center, which closed February 20. The company expects to find a new location and build out a new store for opening some time in 2023.
Canadian Government Allocates $32 Million to Support Online Bookselling
Minister of Canadian Heritage the Honorable Pablo Rodriguez announced The Support for Booksellers initiative, intended to help Canadian bookstores increase their ability to sell books online as a result of the pandemic. Part of the Canada Book Fund, which supports books by Canadian authors, the initiative will give $32.1 million to bookstores over two years, “for expenses related to online book sales and to help these bookstores improve their online business models.” “During the pandemic, Canadians bought more Canadian books, proving that our authors and publishers are more important than ever in sharing our stories,” Rodriguez said. “Our government is proud to […]
At ABA Snow Days, Booksellers Imagine the Future
In the opening keynote at ABA’s virtual bookselling conference Snow Days, How to Imagine the Future of Bookselling, booksellers engaged in “mental time travel” to practice imaging the future of the industry. Jane McGonigal, author of Imaginable: How to See the Future Coming and Feel Ready for Anything—Even Things that Seem Impossible Today, discussed the benefits of imagining the future, recognized that previously unthinkable things have happened, and explained how imagining the future contributes to mental well-being and can help people “plan and prepare” what’s coming. McGonigle also walked viewers through exercises in mental time travel. In one, attendees were […]