Borders May Make Online Play
A Detroit news brief mentions the possibility of Borders dropping or revising its weak online play with Amazon. I’ve encouraged Borders to do this on this blog for some time (see: Without an online presence Borders will Stagnate and Borders still in the red). The online play is one of the strongest moves an established brick and mortar store can make. Borders maintains enough brand awareness to leverage a successful independent website and needs to do so while it still can. As it looks to differentiate itself from Barnes and Noble, the site can make its online play doubly profitable and strong by opening a featured used marketplace of third party sellers. By complementing its impressive stock list of new titles with the competitively priced used marketplace, Borders can quickly amass an impressive following of loyal customers.
The bookseller will find that this triple-offering of online new books, a well highlighted used marketplace, and a well known brick and mortar store, if properly executed, can create returns unthinkable during its time with Amazon. It is this full market bookselling, new online, used online, and B&M, that will offer the company the best chance at success in the future.
