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B&N Draws up Plans for a Prototype Digital Store

9392935431_baca33eab0_hIn May 2012 B&N CEO Bill Lynch had the tech blogosphere abuzz when he hinted at plans to integrate NFC tech into Nooks and B&N stores so that readers could browse in a store and download a sample to their Nook simply by tapping it against a chip embedded into a book or shelf.

Those plans fell through after the Nook imploded the following holiday season and the CEO was Lynched, and this left B&N with no articulated vision for the future of its stores (aside from selling more pasta and 3d printers, and drowning their sorrows).

But now B&N CEO Ron Boire has revealed that B&N is developing a "digitally influenced prototype bookstore".

He wouldn’t say where the store was going to be located or when it will open, but InternetRetailer quotes him as saying that digital will play a part. “One of the challenges of that store is going to be the digital experience,” he said at the annual eTail West conference yesterday. “I don’t think until you’re fully connected—mobile, desktop and store—that you’re going to be providing the full experience. That’s our goal.”

That sounds a lot like the store the Amazon launched in Seattle last November (a second store is in the works for San Diego) but Boire won’t confirm the similarity. “We’re not talking specifics about the store right now except we are opening something in calendar 2016 and it will be different than the traditional Barnes & Noble store,” he said.

At 7,500 square feet, Amazon’s first bookstore is smaller than B&N’s stores, which typically run between 30,000 to 40,000 square feet. It also stocks fewer titles than you would find in indie stores its size, and carries only around 5,000 titles (all face out on the shelf) along with Amazon hardware like the Echo, Fire tablets, and Kindle ereaders.

B&N has several prototype stores around the country, including one near me. Those stores have different floor plans and a brighter color scheme than B&N’s 600 plus other stores, but the one I saw had the same general mix of stock (books, toys, magazines, Nook, a cafe, etc). It sounds like the new store might be something different.

Do you suppose B&N had this store in the works before Amazon Books opened, or do you think this is a galvanic response to Amazon?

If this is a response to the 7,400 square foot store Amazon opened last fall, then it’s an example of damned fast turnaround on the part of B&N. Amazon Books has only been open for about four months, and B&N hasn’t moved that fast since, well, ever.

image by Nicholas Eckhart

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Comments


puzzled February 24, 2016 um 3:05 pm

This is just an announcement, so it doesn’t really comprise fast turnaround on anyone’s part. We have no idea how far along the planning stages are, so this may actually represent B&N taking four months just to get the internal approval to investigate cloning the Amazon store.

Nate Hoffelder February 24, 2016 um 3:17 pm

If they actually launch something this year then yes, it would count as moving quickly.

It can take a couple years to lease retail space and fit it out, and when you’re developing a new concept it might take twice as long.

fjtorres February 24, 2016 um 6:24 pm

This is B&N, known for changing their minds three times in one year. So until they actually open the store it will be nothing but vapor.
Deeds,not words.

(Also, how long did it take them to open up their new website? Two years, right? And how long after that to get it fixed and working properly? I’m not holding my breath.)

Nate Hoffelder February 24, 2016 um 6:51 pm

Yes, it is most likely just hot air. But for all we know B&N was working on the store concept at the same time they worked on the new site. So there could be a store about to open.


Barnes & Noble plans ‘digital’ store, weekly game nights – TeleRead News: E-books, publishing, tech and beyond February 25, 2016 um 4:21 am

[…] search of some reason to keep its stores in operation. For starters, The Digital Reader reports on B&N CEO Ron Boire’s plans to create some kind of experimental “digital” store. But Boire is maddeningly vague on exactly how it will be “digital, talking about “the digital […]


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