Lauren Indvik reported this afternoon, "Beginning Monday, shoppers will be able to use Google’s Local Availability feature to locate books and other products at their local Borders, as well as look up how many items are in stock, prices and store directions . . ."

Then here’s a key point: Google’s "Local availability" tool only became available four days ago, and Indvik stated that this is "a feature no other book retailer offers yet."

So, at least on a temporary basis, Google seems to have given Borders one advantage over its competitors, and as we head into the holiday shopping season – when some people are making lots of real-world shopping trips and are afraid to trust delivery schedules – it could be an important one.

It should be interesting to see if the two companies pair up in any other ways in the future.

Finally, on a slightly different subject, Indvik reported, "Borders has also announced a partnership with Meetup to promote its book signings and other store events."

The Marketplace features more than 1.4 million titles including a selection of used textbooks at a savings of up to 90 percent. Users can also earn cash via the site’s used textbook buyback option.

"College students spend nearly $1,000 each year on textbooks according to some estimates. That’s a sizable financial burden for students and families, especially in this challenging economic climate," said Borders CEO Mike Edwards.

"As a retailer that provides education and inspiration to millions of customers on a daily basis, we couldn’t be more pleased to offer a huge array of textbooks at great prices to help students advance their education." 

Borders says the Marketplace was created in partnership with online book retailer Alibris and features college, high school, middle and elementary school textbooks as well as other titles often used in classrooms. The site also features textbooks for home schooled children. Books are searchable by title, author, subject and ISBNs.
 

The company says its goal is to capture 17 percent of the eBook market by July of 2011. Borders’ eBook store launches with more than 1.5 million titles, available in a number of formats, including ePub, mobile and PDF.

"The race to emerge as a retail leader within the digital category is just starting," said Mike Edwards, Chief Executive Officer for Borders, Inc.

"During the past several months, we’ve been carefully crafting a digital strategy, one that has great content and a device-neutral philosophy backed by the Borders brand as its cornerstones. We believe we are very well positioned to come out strong and to ultimately claim about a 17 percent eBook market share by this time next year."

Borders has also launched eReading applications for BlackBerry and Android, also powered by Kobo. The company says anyone who downloads the free apps from July 9-11 will receive 5 free bestselling books. The titles include "Frankenstein" by Dean Koontz, "One Shot" by Lee Child, "The Alchemyst" by Michael Scott, Julia Child’s "Kitchen Wisdom" and "Master your Metabolism" by Jillian Michaels.

Borders entry into the eBook market is somewhat late as rival Amazon launched its eBook store and Kindle eReader in 2007 and Barnes & Noble along with Sony introduced their own stores and devices in 2009. Unlike its rivals, Borders did not get into the eReader device making game, allowing the company to keep its focus on being a bookseller and avoiding the recent price wars between Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
 

Borders is now taking pre-orders for the Kobo eReader, which retails for $149 and will be available on June 17. The eReader will come preloaded with 100 classic books.

The upcoming Borders eBook store will carry over a million titles and will allow consumers to purchase books through its website and via free Borders apps available for the iPhone, Blackberry, Android, as well as the iPad and PCs.

"We’re excited to offer the Kobo eReader to our customers, the first of what will be a wide selection of eReaders we’ll sell, along with an online store that supports a variety of devices, giving consumers freedom in the eBook world at the best possible value," said Borders Group Interim President and Chief Executive Officer Mike Edwards.

"We are giving consumers the flexibility to read the content they want on a variety of devices of their choosing. The Borders eBook store will be positioned as a device-agnostic, content-focused destination with expertise from decades of deep book knowledge and experience. We’ll also have a strong in-store digital presence through our Area-e boutiques, which will launch in August." 
 

Borders said its working with Bazaarvoice because it helps create a "Compelling and interactive online experience."

"When you walk through a Borders store, you quickly realize that customer conversations are an essential part of the shopping experience," said Kevin Ertell, senior vice president of e-business for Borders Group, Inc.

"Our goal with the new Borders.com is to bring the bookstore experience to life online, and Bazaarvoice plays a key role by allowing us to infuse the voices of our customers and our staff throughout the site via customer, staff and expert reviews."

Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews and Ask & Answer programs are designed to create a more interactive Web site for visitors, and to use user-generated content as a way to drive traffic to a site.

Other features on the Borders site include users ability to link their product reviews to their own social networking profile on MySpace or Facebook. Users can also upload photos and videos to their reviews.

Borders is promoting the new ratings and reviews features through a new splash page that offers tips on writing reviews. The company said ratings and reviews will also be available in Borders physical locations where customers can access them via computer kiosks.
 

Once upon a time, all Amazon did was sell books. They did so at a discount, a vast change from the full-retail pricing of the brick-and-mortar shops like Borders. Amazon was a godsend for people who like to read.

Their dominance led to partnerships with other retailers, in and out of bookselling. Target is still a partner, while Toys ‘R’ Us ended its Amazon relationship on a bitter note.

Count Borders as an ex-partner too, though if they’re unhappy with Amazon for some reason, they haven’t disclosed it. Borders chose to focus on the positive as they stepped back into retailing on the Web.

As Yahoo News noted, Borders executives belief they can offer a compelling experience in the face of Amazon’s dominance. We like competition; consumers end up with better choices when rivals clash.

Unfortunately for Borders, the clash looks one-sided. A quick search for the next James Patterson thriller, Sail, coming out on June 9^th, showed the big difference between Borders and Amazon. While Borders has the book listed at a full $27.99 price tag, Amazon has it for $18.47 with a promise to provide the best possible pre-order price.

Borders, a Magic Shelf isn’t going to overcome a difference of over $11 these days, not with oil traders rolling out prices of $4 per gallon at the pump.

The new site will allow customers to shop online and will also be available on in-store kiosks for people to use while they shop.

"By creatively combining the assets of our new online channel with the many advantages of our stores and vice versa, we’re giving customers an elevated experience that we believe they’ll find more satisfying than anything else in bookselling today," Borders CEO George Jones told the Free Press.

One of the new features at Borders.com is the Magic shelf. Borders says it gives customers the feeling of shopping in one of its stores. Customers can browse the virtual bookshelf and click on a title to get more information along with the option to make a purchase. Users can customize the shelf and it can display 20 shelves of titles.

"We wanted a real bookstore online," said Kevin Ertell, senior vice president for e-business at Borders. "What we did to capture that bookstore feel was putting the Magic Shelf on the sign-in page."

Borders said last year it would end its relationship with Amazon.com, which had been operating Border’s ecommerce transactions since 2001.

For the first time, 26 million Borders Rewards members will be able to redeem coupons and other incentives online.

The site will offer more than an online shopping experience, Jones said. "It is a source of information and entertainment that brings a real bookstore experience to life online," he said.
 

Currently the book and music chain is testing "mix and burn," with in-store customers creating their own CDs.

Comments

Previously Amazon had operated Borders online site and borders received a portion of the sales from the site.  The new site is in beta and Borders began testing it late last year. "We really want it to feel comfortable for people who love to come into book stores," Kevin Ertell, vice president of e-business for Borders told Reuters.

Users of the site cannot yet purchase items from the site but over the holiday period one feature that proved popular was being able to check to see if an item online was in stock at a local store. Customers could then reserve the item online and pick it up at their local store.

Rob Gruen, executive vice president of merchandising and marketing at Borders said it will be competitive on price. "We probably won’t be the lowest price consistently out there, but we really believe that the customer comes to us for a broader experience than just our price and it’s just up to us to make sure we deliver on that promise."

The company says it will allow its 23.5 million customers enrolled in its "Borders Rewards" program earn rewards for shopping online on the new site. Borders also may offer MP3 music downloads. Currently it is testing "mix and burn," where customers can come into its stores and create their own CDs.

"We know that the customer is downloading music," Gruen said. "We’re looking at how do we incorporate that into the whole process."