Book Publishers are Competitors to Amazon?

Barely a footnote at the end of a Publishers Weekly column about market share for online retailers versus bricks-and-mortar booksellers was this:
“With Amazon’s growing power in book sales, it’s understandable that publishers may be a bit anxious on learning that in Amazon’s 10-k filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company lists among its [...]

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The Best Retailers in the Whole Wide World

The World Retail Awards are being held in Barcelona April 10th.  Did you know there were awards given for best retailer in the world?  Me neither.
I’ve enjoyed looking over the finalists to see who made it from the U.S., and to see who the finest in the rest of the world are.  I’m anxious to find [...]

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Apple is #2 at Something Again

You know, I’ve long maintained that the most amazing thing Apple has pulled out of its hat isn’t any of its lovely desktop or laptop computers, not it’s operating system, not any of the nonstop stream of iPods, not the Apple Stores, and not the iPhone.

It’s iTunes.  ‘Twas announced today that iTunes is now the [...]

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“Multi-Channel Shopping” (Circuit City’s $1 billion online business)

 I know, I know.  Circuit City?  $1 billion in online sales in a year?  Seriously?  Heck yeah, $1.4 billion actually.
It appears congratulations are in order.  Circuit City CEO Philip Schoonover cited a “massive shift” towards “multi-channel shopping” during a speech to the National Retail Federations’ conference in late 2008.
What Schoonover is referring to is something much like [...]

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iDig iStorez!

Every once in a while I learn of a site, check it out, and know instantly that it’s something that will stick with me. Or at least that I’ll see its value immediately and feel the need to share it with others.  iStorez just did both for me. 
iStorez rounds up thousands of newsletters from online stores [...]

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Hot or Not Sites of 2007

What does a site have to do to increase its number of hits by 31,689%?
Or, what causes a site to lose 90%
Compete’s “Fastest Moving Sites” provides a look at the sites who gained, or lost, the most hits in 2007.
http://blog.compete.com/2008/01/17/2006-vs-2007-top-moving-sites/

I think I’ll be geeking out on Compete a lot in the future.  Here goes my [...]

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Subscribe & Save (Both Money & Time)

Amazon innovates yet again with the launch of Subscribe & Save, a new program which allows you to sign up for delivery (free, flexible delivery) of an evolving selection of products, mostly staples.
Initial featured categories include Baby & Child Care, Food & Snacks, Health & Wellness, Household Supplies, and Personal Care & Beauty.  They also [...]

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Barnes & Noble + Borders + Amazon = 53% (Is This Domination?)

Publishers Weekly recently ran the headline Chains, Internet Dominate Bookselling. I clicked over, not expecting this to be news to me.  We (book publishing people) all know that Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Borders are our 3 big fish.  We love them, they love us.
The first thing I learned was that Bowker launched a new [...]

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