- Joined
- Dec 22, 2005
- Messages
- 205
- Reaction score
- 14
I'm not sure this is the best forum for this, but I think it's relevant to PA because of their claim they are the wave of the future. I've also read on the PA board the myth that Amazon and its ilk are the future of book sales along with the mistaken belief that online sales have a bigger share of the market than they in fact do.
Yesterday, the NY Times had this article: "Online Sales Lose Steam"
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/17/technology/17ecom.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
(It's free but you have to register)
The article makes this observation:
But PA is cut out of this brick-and-click model. Express in-store pickup, as they call it, is available only for books physically in stock at a designated Borders store.
Yesterday, the NY Times had this article: "Online Sales Lose Steam"
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/17/technology/17ecom.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
(It's free but you have to register)
The article makes this observation:
Forrester Research, a market research company, projects that online book sales will rise 11 percent this year, compared with nearly 40 percent last year.
I think online book sales are only 5 percent of the market, anyway, and this looks like it's going to shrink. This is actually below the share of online sales for all merchandise, which will reach 7 percent only by 2011. Among the reasons for the online slowdown for books and everything else:
Nancy F. Koehn, a professor at Harvard Business School who studies retailing and consumer habits, said that the leveling off of e-commerce reflected the practical and psychological limitations of shopping online. She said that as physical stores have made the in-person buying experience more pleasurable, online stores have continued to give shoppers a blasé experience. In addition, online shopping, because it involves a computer, feels like work.
“It’s not like you go onto Amazon and think: ‘I’m a little depressed. I’ll go onto this site and get transported,’ ” she said, noting that online shopping is more a chore than an escape.
But Ms. Koehn and others say that online shopping is running into practical problems, too. For one, Ms. Koehn noted, online sellers have been steadily raising their shipping fees to bolster profits or make up for their low prices.
To meet the need for a more brick and mortar experience, stores like Borders are allowing customers to order books online and pick them up in the store. Research indicates that when you go into a store to pick up an online order, you might buy something else.“It’s not like you go onto Amazon and think: ‘I’m a little depressed. I’ll go onto this site and get transported,’ ” she said, noting that online shopping is more a chore than an escape.
But Ms. Koehn and others say that online shopping is running into practical problems, too. For one, Ms. Koehn noted, online sellers have been steadily raising their shipping fees to bolster profits or make up for their low prices.
But PA is cut out of this brick-and-click model. Express in-store pickup, as they call it, is available only for books physically in stock at a designated Borders store.