Barnes & Noble, the world's largest bookseller, is counting down to its arrival on the Web with a glitzy "soiree" Monday night at New York's Science, Industry and Business Library. Although the company's site won't be fully operational until the end of the month, clearly it's taking no chances.
One reason is because rival Amazon.com will be offering its shares to the public by the middle of next week, says underwriter Hambrecht & Quist, and will inevitably garner a good deal of media attention on the viability of online book sales. Barnes & Noble, which has been peddling its wares on America Online since March, seems determined not to let its competitor steal too much thunder.
"We plan to grab up market share very quickly," said Susan Boster, the company's director of marketing. "We're taking a brand that a lot of people know and trust and love, and putting it on their desktop."
Such brand awareness is a key part of Barnes & Noble's Web strategy. The company hopes shoppers will be comfortable buying online because they've had a pleasant enough experience at one of its superstores. Another key component of that strategy is speed: Barnes & Noble claims it will be able to have a book delivered to buyers by the next business day.
The company's "preview" Web site, already up, claims visitors will have access to the superstore's full range of 1 million available titles. However, Boster said Barnes & Noble at first will offer only some 100,000 titles available at a central distribution center, rising to about 400,000 titles by the fall.
Along these lines, Barnes & Noble filed suit against Amazon.com Monday for claiming to be "the world's largest bookstore." In fact, Amazon.com does not physically possess most of the books it lists, the suit says, and must order them from publishers.
While online sales represent just a fraction of the company's turnover, analysts say Barnes & Noble has no choice but to pursue every possible distribution channel. The company has 439 standalone stores throughout the United States, and about 570 other outlets in shopping malls.
Also Monday, Barnes & Noble announced partnerships with Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft, and expanded its relationship with filter-software leader Firefly Network. Using the trio's technology, Barnes & Noble hopes to provide a level of online service in keeping with the user-friendly environment of its retail outlets.
Kay Dangaard, a spokeswoman for Amazon.com, said her company is unable to comment on its hefty new competitor because of the "quiet period" that precedes an initial stock offering. That silence will undoubtedly change to a very vocal rivalry in the weeks ahead.
