"retailers" entries

EBay Wants You to Buy It Now

EBay is moving into Amazon's territory. Citing reduced consumer interest in online auctions, eBay is refocusing on fixed-price "Buy It Now" products. From the New York Times: Among the changes being announced Wednesday [8/20/08] is a new pricing plan for sellers who offer fixed-price items in eBay's "Buy It Now" format. Starting in mid-September, sellers will pay only 35…

News Roundup: B&N Won't Buy Borders, Kindle Roadblocks and Sightings, Pirates Convince Game Developer to Drop DRM

Report: No Borders Bid for Barnes & Noble It looks like Barnes & Noble won't acquire Borders after all. The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) says B&N is changing course from earlier this year and will not submit a bid for Borders. Kindle Projections, Roadblocks and Sightings Theresa Poletti from MarketWatch comments on the relative absence of Kindle sightings, particularly…

Report: No Borders Bid for Barnes & Noble

It looks like Barnes & Noble won't acquire Borders after all. The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) says B&N is changing course from earlier this year and will not submit a bid for Borders. Related Stories: B&N Considering Borders Acquisition BN.com Redesign Nets Significant Traffic Increase Borders Goes Solo on New Web Site Amazon Growth Fuels Online's Book Market Share…

Reinventing the Book and Killing It are Separate Things

Columnist Richard Cohen is overestimating the threat of digital books.

A Broad View of Amazon's Influence

Neil Denny looks at Amazon's positive and negative influences on book publishing's constituencies. From The Bookseller: The web, if not Amazon, can't be uninvented: retailers and publishers need to find ways to make it work for them or they will face an increasingly difficult future. Related Stories: Publishers Beware: Amazon has you in their sights Which Game is the…

Mobile Barcode Scanners and Retail Stores on Collision Course

Ilya Vedrashko points out a near-term future scenario in which retail sites are going to have to entirely rethink what integration into online services means: The obvious future of in-store experience: you find something you like, reach into your pocket for a small device, scan the barcode, and the device tells you whether and where the same product is…

Indiana's "Explicit" Law Struck Down

An Indiana law requiring retailers who sell explicit material to register with the state was struck down by a U.S. Federal Court on First Amendment grounds. From the Indianapolis Star: The law would have required anyone who intended to sell sexually explicit materials — which plaintiffs say could have included classic literature, as well as pornography — to register…

Amazon's Road to Profitability: Toll Booths on Your Road to Readers

Profitability pressures are pushing Amazon to become the toll booth that every publisher must go through to get to readers.

Borders Cuts 274 Positions

Borders is cutting 274 jobs, with most of the hit being absorbed by corporate groups within the company's Ann Arbor, Mich. headquarters. From Publishers Weekly: Borders stressed that with a few exceptions none of the cuts came at the store level and a spokesperson said there are no plans to reduce the number of store employees. The cuts represented…

Borders Goes Solo on New Web Site

Borders has separated its e-commerce offerings from Amazon and opened its own Web site. From the New York Times: The new Borders site offers plenty to like, such as the Flash video-based "magic shelf" on the main page that recreates the experience of browsing the tables of new books at the entrance to stores. The site also ties in…