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View Poll Results: How do you shop for books?
In bookshelf mode 10 21.28%
In Amazon mode 37 78.72%
Voters: 47. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 06-03-2008, 10:19 AM   #1
Alexander Turcic
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Borders revives online shop - gets flashy with Magic Shelf

Last week, Borders jumped back into online retailing with the official launch of their new Borders.com online store, which has been under development for the past 18 months. Previously, the bookseller redirected their online customers to Amazon as a partner site.

Perhaps one of the most unique features is the flash-based Magic Shelf, which is supposed to enable you to browse and discover titles much the same way you would look for books in a neighborhood brick-and-mortar store.

But is this enough to compete with Amazon, the dominating player in the online book-selling market?

A question for you: When you consider buying a book today, does your mind work in the "bookshelf mode", guided by serendipity where you grab for a book whose title or cover you find most intriguing? Or do you work in the newer "Amazon mode", where you think in categories and browse by ranking and recommendations?

[via AP and Techdirt]
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Old 06-03-2008, 11:17 AM   #2
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Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic View Post
A question for you: When you consider buying a book today, does your mind work in the "bookshelf mode", guided by serendipity where you grab for a book whose title or cover you find most intriguing? Or do you work in the newer "Amazon mode", where you think in categories and browse by ranking and recommendations?
It's a very good question. Most books I buy are from authors I know. I have about 40-50 maybe more that I at least consider their books with maybe 20-30 on the buy on publication list - the list is of course changeable with authors getting in and sometimes though rarer out. Then I have the forum/blogs recommendations and I discovered a lot of authors/books that way. I rarely use Amazon recommendations or any kind of rankings because they are not useful for me since author's style is the determining factor once I found a book even remotely interesting, and no recommendations system I saw is able to take that into account meaningfully.

I saw lots of books blurbing "like Dickens" (I dislike Dickens immensely) that I loved, "like GRRM" (love ASOIAF) and could not go beyond page 1 to avoid wasting time on any ranking based on what you bought or ranked recommendations.


But there is the serendipity factor, walking in Borders or B&N and browsing the new releases, finding several remotely interesting based on cover/blurb and once in a while discovering an extraordinary book I would have not found about otherwise.

The problem with Borders.com is just that Amazon is so much cheaper that I do not think they stand a chance competing unless they match Amazon prices.
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Old 06-03-2008, 11:30 AM   #3
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Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic View Post
Last week, Borders jumped back into online retailing with the official launch of their new Borders.com online store, which has been under development for the past 18 months. Previously, the bookseller redirected their online customers to Amazon as a partner site.

Perhaps one of the most unique features is the flash-based Magic Shelf, which is supposed to enable you to browse and discover titles much the same way you would look for books in a neighborhood brick-and-mortar store.

But is this enough to compete with Amazon, the dominating player in the online book-selling market?

A question for you: When you consider buying a book today, does your mind work in the "bookshelf mode", guided by serendipity where you grab for a book whose title or cover you find most intriguing? Or do you work in the newer "Amazon mode", where you think in categories and browse by ranking and recommendations?

[via AP and Techdirt]

Right now? Amazon mode. I've seen something similar with the way Netflix now displays their new (and 'recommended') releases. It *SUX*!!! Now, with Netflix, I can never find the new titles I want unless I can specifically remember them or who stars in them because the damned *shelves* never show the one's I'm interested in!

I wouldn't mind a 'shelf mode' as long as I could switch back and forth between the two. Mabye you could add a choice for both?

Derek
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Old 06-03-2008, 04:13 PM   #4
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I voted for "Amazon mode", mainly because the Border website is such a mess and so hard to navigate.

Maybe Borders ARE trying to make their website like the exasperating experience of going into one of their real stores - messy, little islands of "specials", little islands of "new non-fiction" which means the latest cookbook and latest diet book lumped with the latest political biography. Other islands of messy rubbish stationery. More islands of "two for the price of one" books. Dishevelled racks of magazines. And when you get through to the proper book shelves - they are often messed up by cutomers and haven't been straightened out for days. The books are in the wrong place alphabetically or in the wrong category entirely. And their range seems to be shallow, not much better than an airport bookshop.

But that's their "real" bookstores. Why would they try to make the online store the same? I much prefer Amazon's easy-to-navigate site.
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Old 06-03-2008, 05:48 PM   #5
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amazon is much easier to use than this borders "magic shelf". the borders "shelves" only allow me to mouse over one row of books at a time. that's a slow way to go. also some of the covers are harder to read than others. i think it's too much flash (and i don't mean adobe flash) over function. it doesn't allow browsers who read quickly to get to the most titles quickly and easily.

if borders wants to compete, a very easy to use website with less colors, graphics and features would be more likely to get me there. also some good sale prices. and once they achieved that, they need to get known - and yes, that probably means advertising. it also means doing something different enough to make the news and lots of book blogs and other places for press releases, etc. lots of people automatically go to amazon now, so they'd need to make their name come to the mind of potential users quickly - a massive sale could do that, but even better would be a serious branding campaign.

but not as long as the site is designed more as eye candy than a place serious readers can easily browse.
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Old 06-03-2008, 05:53 PM   #6
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Borders has flubbed their launch by revealing their site in bits and broken pieces. That has left at least one Border's fan (me) with a bad impression of the site's functionality. Also, since we're all about e-books here, when you click the Books | ebooks link, you are dumped unceremoniously onto a Sony page, where all you can do is Download the eBook Library software.

In other words, Amazon offers a fully integrated shopping experience. A Book is a Book, and you pick the "edition" you want, including the Kindle edition.

Borders doesn't offer such an experience. You want an ebook, do you? Talk to Sony. And once you do, you aren't really shopping at Borders, you're shopping at Sony, whose site sucks swamp water through a striped straw. Nor can you use Border's Bucks or coupons at Sony. The above makes the Border's site completely irrelevant to e-book buyers.

I could not vote on the Poll. I need the following option:

I determine what I want to read by word of mouth and/or by browsing at a brick and mortar bookstore where I can speak with literate store clerks - then I come home and fight through the various e-book sites until I find what I want, or more often, don't.

Which brings me back to the "death of the bookstore" paranoia. I don't think I'm alone. Give me a real bookstore that SELLS EBOOKS, and I'm there sister!

Last edited by Taylor514ce; 06-03-2008 at 06:01 PM.
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Old 06-03-2008, 05:57 PM   #7
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I guess they would need to use a dedicated software for their bookshelf. It makes everything so much easier - HTTP was never meant for stuff like this.
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Old 06-03-2008, 06:04 PM   #8
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i decided to send borders an email about their site and this thread. after plenty of typing, i discovered that their online form doesn't work at the moment. i tried it a second time, and then decided to call their home office. after listening to their recorded options, i chose to simply hold and was disconnected - twice. so finally i emailed customercare AT borders.com, and while that doesn't seem like the appropriate email address, there didn't seem to be a lot of options.

i hate to see a bookstore in trouble, and even more when they seem to be spending lots of money to find that trouble. i wish them luck, but talking to the reading public and getting continual feedback would help them a lot more than talking to general marketing firms, designers and programmers.
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Old 06-03-2008, 06:15 PM   #9
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Yes, their "Contact Us" form is broken. Of course, you don't know that it's broken until you get to the very end of the process.

An email address that works is: rewards@bordersstores.com. Works in the sense that you can send to it from your own email client rather than a broken Contact Us HTML form, and works in that you will eventually get a reply. It does NOT work in the sense that you will get a satisfactory or even on-topic reply. Tell "Skully" I said "hello" and that I'm still waiting.
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Old 06-03-2008, 06:20 PM   #10
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Bit of both. Amazon is easier when you're dealing with authors you know and categories you are comfortable with. Bookstore style incents me to explore outside my comfort zone. BUT .... bottom line: 1) I want an integrated, seamless transition. Not this amazingly complex jigsaw that Borders has now, and, 2) lower cost, which allows me to experiment. In fact, like music, I discovered several interesting authors and genres in the bargain basement!
Imperative that their website is designed by a librarian or a book enthusiast and not a tech wiz.
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Old 06-03-2008, 06:43 PM   #11
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i'd say that a collection of book enthusiasts AND librarians who could help them fine-tune and alpha test an entire store would be best - multiple groups from several reading forums. and let's face it, most of us would do it for free.

their site shows that borders is still thinking like a brick and mortar-type store trying to impress users online rather than thinking like an online store where content - and the easy, fast browsing and searching of it - is king.
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Old 06-03-2008, 06:46 PM   #12
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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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Old 06-03-2008, 06:47 PM   #13
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actually they could easily use a couple different programs i know of like gossamer links, which could work if heavily adapted by the programmers or there may be a cart made to include reviews, ratings and all that good stuff. i've run across several review site scripts that include shopping cart features. or they could get something custom programmed. obviously they need a very robust system plus regular daily - if not hourly - backups.

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I guess they would need to use a dedicated software for their bookshelf. It makes everything so much easier - HTTP was never meant for stuff like this.
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Old 06-03-2008, 07:44 PM   #14
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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.
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.

Last edited by Taylor514ce; 06-03-2008 at 07:48 PM.
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Old 06-04-2008, 05:38 AM   #15
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Amazon style only for almost 10 years.
Used to buy at amazon only as well, although nowdays I move towards ebooks and almost don't buy paper books except new relases for series I have already started to collect.
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