Barnes and Noble Case Solution

2. Important Characteristics of Barnes and Noble

Barnes and Noble, Inc. is the market leader in the physical bookselling facilities. Its website boasts of around three million products in its lap (Barnes & Noble, 2014). Interestingly, the Barnes and Noble (B&N), in an attempt to fulfill the entertainment need of its customers, added Starbucks Cafe, DVD and music selection. It is also selling successfully the toys and games to children (Prati, 2010). It is the only company among the booksellers that adopt multi-channel strategy of physical retail concept and online shop including B. Dalton bookstores. The company has its own publishing facilities which allow it to publish books not found elsewhere at the reasonable prices. The company is competing in the market with its legacy business and has framed its own eReader device unlike other competitors (Frasca, Genszler and Mackintosh, 2010).

3. Strategies of Barnes and Noble

Due to the influx of digital technology in reading and learning, the B&N has been forced to revise its strategic objectives and the underlying tactics. The detailed appraisal is as under:

i. Strategy 1: Expansion into the eBook and eReader market

The B&N strives to invest more in the digital business to promote Nook and capture the maximum market share. It is increasingly popular device, and Amazon, Sony and others have framed a device like this. Nook allows downloading the books from available stock of B&N. Since its introduction, there has been an increase in sales by 20% and is set to gain more in digital reading (Prati, 2010).

ii. Strategy 2: Management of B&N College bookstores

In 2009, B&N set up more than 650 college bookstores which not only supplied the textbooks, study material but also gifts, dorm supplies and café items to the students at their convenience. They can buy new and used books and also digital textbooks through Nook Study application. The B&N is currently working on providing textbooks to the student on cheap rental price. This will increase the profits of the B&N (Prati, 2010). 

iii. Strategy 3: Impressive environment for customers

The B&N strives to provide a comfortable and home-like ambience to its customers. To pursue this, the B&N has added café services to its retail stores. Comfortable couches and chairs have been placed to facilitate the book and magazine reading before choosing that to buy. The company also offers free Wi-Fi service to its customers (Prati, 2010).

iv. Strategy 4: Multi-channel distribution

With the development of innovative technological features, the B&N is arranging for strategic partnerships with hardware and software companies and other retail stores to expand the customer base (Frasca, Genszler and Mackintosh, 2010).