Strengths
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 (1). 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 was successful on releasing the NOOK tablets, which responsible for major contribution to the company’s digital book sales. These tablets helped to eliminate the physical copy of book to the customers. This product was favorable with store services and offering. Since the company was successful with digital book strategy, as the result Barnes & Noble continued to expand, innovate, and invest heavily into NOOK tablets. Black and white NOOK was released in 2009, and followed by NOOK Color in 2010. Barnes & Noble stayed active in innovating the NOOK tables. The firm introduced a new and fresh NOOK in 2011, which was associate with its existing products line; a Simple Touch with Glow Light, NOOK HD and HD+ in 2012. Recently, NOOK Glowlight was released into the marketplace. Barnes & Noble reconstructed its business strategy by joining business adventure with Microsoft in October 2012. The partnership business adventure has helped the organize move forward with digital eBook to hundreds of millions of its customers. The firm also made a decision to partner up with Pearson which was the world well-known for online learning company. Pearson alone, invested approximate $90 million in cash to...
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...nes & Noble a good payment terms. Since the firm did not have a long term business relationship with these suppliers, in contrast there was no vendor and customer relationship between them. These supplier could collect payments early from Barnes & Noble, which had a major impact on its financial condition matters. Since Barnes & Noble’s sales decreased in year round and kept losing the profit (2).
1) Milliot, Jim. "Tracking 20 Years The Bookstore Chain Scene Has Changed Dramatically in Two Decades." Academic Search Premier (2011): 1-2. Print.
2)http://advantage.marketline.com/Product?pid=2DF5CC23-1DF9-4E80-B63B-42766EF52483
3)Milliot, Jim. "Three-Way Tie for Romance." Academic Search Premier (2013): 1-2. Print.
4) Merced, Michael J.De La. "Losing Ground on Nook, Barnes & Noble Ceases Its Own Manufacture of Color Versions." The New York Times (2013): 1-3. Print.
The most obvious technological advance that helped Amazon, and the one that launched the company, was the internet (Parnell, 2014). Jeff Bezos knew that he wanted to open an online business and decided to start with a bookstore due to low pricing and an existing worldwide demand (”Amazon.com, Inc. History”, n.d.). After deciding on a model, he chose Seattle as a home for his business due to its proximity to high tech workers and a large book distributor. The website opened with a database of more than one million titles, whereas many competitors only stocked 2,000, and the orders went directly to wholesalers. Amazon quickly expanded their database to 1.5 million books and started offering deep discounts which attracted many new customers.
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS) is a Fortune 500 company, the nation’s largest retail bookseller and the leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products. Barnes & Noble provides customers easy and convenient access to books, magazines, newspapers and other content across its multi-channel distribution platform. Barnes & Noble, Inc. is a publicly traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “BKS.” After a series of mergers and bankruptcies in the American bookstore industry since the 1990s, Barnes & Noble stands as United States ' last remaining national bookstore chain. Previously, Barnes and Noble operated the chain of small B. Dalton Book stores in malls until they announced the
Moreover, despite the presence of some large chains, specialty retail markets are highly fragmented. Barnes & Noble, for example, with over 900 stores, is the largest US bookseller but has a market share of only 15 percent. With increasing transportation costs and tighter margins, there is a possibility that some large specialty retail players will consolidate assets, knowledge and outsourcing capabilities in order to generate economies of scale and scope. Key Opportunities High-end and niche merchandise: With rising disposable incomes, the demand for high-end goods is increasing, which can best be catered by specialty retail stores.
Is Amazon a bubble waiting to burst? The following discussions in this research paper will explore several key issues from its birth to its debatable future. Amazon is not a stranger to arguments revolving around questions of its longevity and success. When the systemic bubble of 1999 arrived Amazon’s corporate goal was to get big, to do it fast, and to establish a hold of new markets before any other competitor. During this time frame Amazon began branching out and selling anything and everything. With the burst of the internet bubble in 2000 and 2001, Amazon changed its goal from growth to aggressively making profits in all areas of their business. In 2001, Amazon’s founder and CEO stated in a Wall Street Journal article “We’ll ferociously manage the products we carry so that we sell only products that are profitable. The thirty-pound box of nails isn’t long for our world” (Elmer-DeWitt, 2001).
Toys R Us ventured into a partnership with Amazon.com to improve the e-commerce division of their business. Internet retailing was cutting into the profits and the market share of Toys R Us. This financial effect was the reason they the needed to improve and establish themselves in the Internet market. This Internet market was clearly the way the trend was going, as indicated by the growth of retailers such as eToys.com and SmarterKids.com. Toys R Us needed to establish itself in this market, since bricks and mortar retai...
Another acquisition would occur in March of 2013 when Amazon would announce its intentions to purchase the book social networking website Goodreads.com. While the amount Amazon paid for the deal was not disclosed it adds a new layer to Amazon’s e-book services. The Goodreads website allows its 16 million members to review and catalogue books and creates a social environment in which book lovers can interact. Like many of the other social networking sites users can create friends lis...
Since the creation of Amazon in 1995, it has been a reference of adopting a successful strategy which has preserved over time; being the largest online store in the world nowadays. In addition, i...
Saunders. R (2001) Amazon.com way – Secrets of the world’s most astonishing web business, Capstone
Amazon has recorded a magnificent success in its business throughout the years that it has been in operation. It has attracted almost all people to use it when necessary. Amazon has built its success in business methodically and slowly. Amazon has made much success because of its ability to read market trends and diversify its operations. It started as an online book selling company. However, it changed its operations and started selling other products. Currently, many large retail shops use Amazon to host and power their websites, for instance, sears and virgin megastores. Amazon now attracts over fifty million visitors in a period of one month. Amazon has tried to make their services fit each individual user. It has based its services on the end user. It has shipping discounts, customer product reviews and a credit card with bonuses. It also has prime membership, product forums and 1-click ordering system among other services. The company has tried to make a remarkable experience for customers and visitors (Thomas, 2006).
The key managerial problem which John Fahey is facing is to decide as to whom the e-commerce head should report, in the current organizational structure of NGS, so that the new position gives him enough freedom to leverage the growth opportunities of the e-commerce platform efficiently. How much span of control for the new head is required to cope with declining print media sales and build the right balance between allocating investments and revenue allocations across different product units of the organisation? He should also have enough exposure to build strong customer relationships and brand loyalty by improving the membership program using e-commerce.
There are many things that B&N and its book publishers can do to stimulate more business. The best strategy in my opinion would be to make more deals with large companies like Apple and Samsung. These companies are at the height of every competitive market in electronics, from cell-phones to televisions, and hold some of the most loyal customers in the market (Surowiecki, 2013). If B&N wants the Nook to stay in the competition, they have to market their product to be appealing in today’s society. To do this they have to factor in competitive prices, capabilities, and other features that can compete with top sellers. Joining up with larger companies will not only increase exposure, but also put B&N and book publishers on the same platforms as their competitors.
The company started as an online book seller, which then rapidly expanded into music and movies, and finally into electronics and households.
One of the greatest opportunities for Amazon is an Online Payment System. The online system allows the company to reduce transaction fees and increase ease of use for their customers. Internet sales are increasing at a fast pace. This is a product of increased fuel prices, which make driving to a store less likely, and foreign purchases. This development allows foreign purchases to buy clothing as it becomes more popular abroad. Amazon’s biggest competitors can include retail stores that online stores such as Target, Best Buy, and Walmart among others, these can be considered the most dangerous for them since they have strong market share and can be a direct competitor since they attack the same market. Amazon wish to compete in prices, offering
...y discardable, but has an advantage of changing font size and page brightness. With this exception, print books are going to survive. To quote British actor and writer Stephen Fry, "Kindles are no more likely to replace books than escalators are going to replace stairs“ (9). Works cited: Fry, Stephen. The Fry Chronicles: An Autobiography. New York: Overlook Press, 2012. Print. Polanka, Sue, ed. No Shelf Required 2: Use and Management of Electronic Books. Chicago: American Library Association, 2012 Pratchett, Terry and Stephen Baxter. The Long War. London: Haper Voyager, 2013. Print.
The Internet is currently the third most shopped channel; brands are pushed to keep up with the trend of building an online shopping option for their consumers and this is evident through the increase in retailers offering online options for their consumers (Valerio). With solely digital stores like Net-A-Porter, Amazon and eBay, competition among digital stores and physical stores are tight. Retailers are pushed to keep up with the rise of digital shopping whether they want to or not. There are several retail implications with the rise of digital shopping, retailers are turning to multi-channel retai...