E-business Analysis
[pic]
1. Value Proposition
Barnes & Noble, Inc. operates as a content, commerce, and technology company in the United States. It provides access to books, magazines, newspapers, and other content through its multi-channel distribution platform. The company sells its products directly to customers through its bookstores and on barnesandnoble.com. Barnes & Noble conducts its online business through Barnes & Noble.com, one of the Web’s largest e-commerce sites, which also features more than 3 million titles in its eBookstore. Through Barnes & Noble’s NOOK eReading product offering, customers can buy and read eBooks on the widest range of platforms, including NOOK eBook
…show more content…
Market Strategy
The Company 's strategy is to increase its share of the consumer book market, as well as to increase the size of the market. The operating strategy is focused on increasing its customer base and rapidly extending its brand. B&N.com has pursued a strategy of focusing on the sale of a broad range of knowledge, information, education and entertainment related products. To be consistent with the goal to be recognized as the most innovative and customer-focused of e-commerce merchants, the web site has been designed for simplicity and to reflect the completeness of its product selection while providing personal and gratifying experiences for customers. In addition, meticulous efforts are directed at strengthening and expanding strategic alliances with third-party websites and content providers to attract users to its online stores. Marketing agreements with major Web portals and content sites, such as America Online ("AOL"), Microsoft and Lycos, have extended brand and consumer exposure to its online stores. Using the network of over 500 Barnes & Noble retail superstores and its relationship with Bertelsmann, one of the largest integrated media companies in the world, will help bn.com gain a significant advantage in cross-marketing and co-promotion programs, as well as, negotiating with online portals, distribution partners and media companies. Recently,
Barnes and Noble is dedicated to providing "the best specialty retail business in America. " B&N certainly delivers on its promise, offering over 1 million book titles on demand with unmatched customer service. The B&N dedication to providing superb service with an unmatched number of options serves as an example for industry competitors on how to operate successfully with the customer in mind. Let's examine the specifics of the Barnes and Noble mission statement.
In contrast to Borders Group, Barnes & Noble which is a leading bookstore in the US recorded an 11% increase in their share value in the past year with the introduction of their e-book reader “Nook”. It is clear that Barnes & Noble were not “Myopic” in their approach and were able to retain and even grow their customers as well as profits by embracing a new product.
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. 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.
So, by 2004, it became clear the Company was so early that the market. From re-launching our eBookstore just over 6 years ago, every metric the company’s track in the digital business is exceeding expectations of the market. The company went from zero share to capture over 20% of the digital trade book market, which got a higher share than the 18%, these eBook sales have been driving the growth of BN.com business, generating over 50% year over year as a comparative revenue. As the early success in this emerging market could be primarily attributed to a few
Strategic planning is a critical element of an organization’s annual business plan. A strategic plan consists of a number of components. In addition to analyzing a company’s strengths and weaknesses, a strategic plan also includes implementation and control techniques. While this may seem easy enough, implementing a strategic plan into an organization can be challenging. Barnes and Noble, like a number of corporations are seeking ways to improve productivity and profitability. This essay will identify business alternatives for the bookseller which will enable them to diversify their product offerings.
The Kindle website (https://kindle.amazon.com/) and the competing Nook website (http://nook.barnesandnoble.com/u) are both trying to get you to do one thing: go digital. Technology is an ever-changing area, and it has somehow made its way into almost every aspect of our lives. Improvements have been made to make it possible to read thousands of books on one device. The only catch? There are multiple companies who are competing for the consumer’s purchase of their version of the device.
Proprietary e-Reader NOOK and NOOK tablet have decent 15% market share among all tablets and e-Readers (Greenfield********)
Barnes and Noble is the market leader in the bookstore industry. They have grown their business during tough economic times and have adapted well to the changing consumer demands as technology has advanced. By continuing to enhance their competitive strategy to align themselves with market demands, Barnes and Noble, with its multi-channel distribution platform, will continue to have success in the coming years as competition will feel the pressures of increasing digital mediums and decreasing hard copy book demand. This internal analysis of Barnes and Noble will examine their competitive position with regards to their value chain and strategic issues, as well as examine strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and
Throughout this past decade Globalization and technology have drastically impacted the sales of Barnes & Noble. In the recent past Barnes and Noble was faced with its biggest challenge it has faced in its history, trying to keep up with Amazon’s fire tablet. This was definitely a new challenge because unlike Barnes and Nobles past competitors such as Borders book store they were now in current competition with a specific product of a company. The Amazon tablet was like nothing consumers had seen before.
Barnes & Noble is a key player in the Book Retail Industry. This mature industry has been experiencing slow growth over the last several years, much slower than overall retail sales. Barriers to entry into this industry are quite high, and suppliers have modest influence over booksellers. The introduction of the Internet has brought about many changes to this industry. It has increased rivalry, buyer power, and substitutes. Spending time "surfing the net" is one of many substitutes to reading books nowadays. Other technological advances, such as VCR 's and video games, have replaced time otherwise spent reading. Buyers have greater influence over the industry, because they
First, Barnes and Noble’s aim and objectives must not be mixed with strategy. As we have clearly learned from the video, how these two are very separate things.
Some of the unique aspects of Barnes & Noble’s situation are that the bookseller was once the top competitor bookstore, pushing other small bookstores out of the market. It is currently the only bookstore chain in the nation. Recently with the development of e-readers and e-books Barnes & Noble has struggled to stay afloat. Typically companies can see improvement in business as technology advances but, Barnes & Noble has experienced the opposite effect. The bookstore kept up with the e-book demand and invested in an e-reader, the “Nook”. However because of this exact investment needed to promote the product Barnes & Nobles has incurred losses in 2011. According to the text there is still more profit in printed books that in e-books. “Customers
Barnes and Noble is a company that targets certain channels at different demographic divisions of the market or at different socio-economic sets of consumers. Multichannel marketing allows Barnes and Noble to reach its prospective or current customer in a channel of their liking. The current management activities of Barnes and Noble have a matrix structure.
It’s common knowledge that Barnes & Noble hasn't been stuggling to get its digital act together.A well reknowned New York based national bookstore chain, it made a daring attempt to innovate its Nook hardware and e-book business, but hasn't been able to perform very well and the market savvy that has pushed Amazon's Kindle or even other tablet competitors.It yet has to learn how to play the e-book pricing game and as a result is just getting pummeled.
In the age of modern technology, brick-and-mortar businesses are struggling to compete with the convenience of the internet. These companies must adapt and evolve to stay relevant in tomorrow's marketplace. For instance, according to Hall & Gupta (2010), Barnes & Noble, once known as the largest seller of books around the globe, has faced similar challenges. The internet phenomenon, significantly weakened the company's competitive stronghold over their competition. Barnes & Noble (B&N) must join forces to survive the pendulum swing in the book industry. This paper will apply the Grand Strategy Matrix (GSM) and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Matrix to identify grand strategies that Barnes and Noble should follow.