Quote:
Originally Posted by CommanderROR
Well, I'm a big Amazon fan and have been for many years, however, I voted for "Bookshelf mode" here because I still like to go out to a bookstore to find new reading material. I often don't buy it there then for the simply reason that I can't get that many english books in bookstores here, but to find new authors and interesting books it's mostly better to stroll into a "real" shop.
These days I only buy ebooks, I still pay visits to the local bookstores from time to time looking for inspiration, but I have also managed to find interesting new autors through the BooksonBoard online shop. It's not quite on the level of a brick-and-mortar store yet, but its' getting there.
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I'm the same way, which is why I take slight exception to a previous comment about Borders still thinking like a brick-and-mortar business. I think that's exactly how they
should think. That's what they
are. Rather than trying to shoehorn a brick-and-mortar feel to an online "shop" through Flash animations, focus instead on integrating online shopping and e-book delivery TO the existing stores.
Why can't I go into a Borders store, browse around, find a book I like, and see immediately if it's available as an e-book? Scan the ISBN at a kiosk, for example? And if it is, then let be BUY it, then and there immediately. Give me options, such as placing the book in my online Borders/Sony "account", or even better, let me plug an SD card into the kiosk and load the book immediately.
Give me free wifi with a default homepage for THAT store. Upcoming events. A store map. Inventory search. Today's specials. Interactive games. Social networking (is one of your "buddies" in the store? No, but LitChick69 is, view her profile now). Let me buy the books. When I place an order, send your clerks scurrying to collect my purchases and have them at the register within an hour. I'll likely spend that hour in the store. Talk about "customer entanglement"! Time to go to the café inside the store and try one of those new drinks. And once again, integrated real-time e-book delivery if I'm shopping online while in the store.
This half-assed attempt at an online "virtual store" with Sony crudely patched on for e-book shopping is a major missed opportunity, and does nothing to leverage Border's existing strength and major investment: their brick-and-mortar stores.
How do I like to shop for books? At a book store.