Waterstones partner with Amazon for in-store Kindle services

Necronomicon

About a week or so late with this but haven't seen it posted anywhere else. Not many details have been made available, but seemingly Waterstones will be facilitating Kindle purchases through free Wi-Fi in their stores. Meanwhile, Easons are set to develop a similar model but instead of partnering with Amazon they're developing their own e-reading format and hardware, much like Barnes & Noble have done in the US.

A significant step towards e-book ubiquity? Or somewhat superfluous given how ridiculously simple it is to buy books on Amazon with the click of a button?

EASONS and Hodge Figgis will soon begin offering rival devices to buy e-books, it emerged yesterday.

UK-based Waterstones said yesterday that it would set up dedicated Amazon e-book selling areas in its four Irish bookstores, including the flagship Hodges Figgis store in Dublin's Dawson Street.

In a move which surprised observers in the UK, Waterstones managing director James Daunt announced the deal with Amazon as being "as good as the Kindle -- because it is Kindle".

Mr Daunt, who along with the rest of the traditional book retail industry has long regarded Amazon as a potential nemesis, just months ago labelled the company "a ruthless, money-making devil".

Waterstones' Irish outlets will be rolling out Apple Store-style Kindle areas and offering free wi-fi to enable customers to download books from Amazon.

"Our plans are to launch in all Waterstones this autumn and that includes Ireland, where we have Hodges Figgis and our stores in DCU, Cork and Drogheda. More details will be revealed closer to the launch," Waterstones executive Jon Howells said yesterday.

Meantime, Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder and CEO, said: "Waterstones is the premier high-street bookseller and is passionate about books and readers -- a dedication that we share deeply. We could never hope for a better partner to bring together digital reading and the physical bookstore."

Ireland's largest book retailer, Easons, revealed plans yesterday to enter the market as well. "We are not getting into bed with Amazon, that is for certain," a spokesman said.

"But as part of a €20m plan to modernise our entire chain, we will be providing live wi-fi in our stores from this summer and dedicated e-book areas which will permit customers to download e-books from our website. The next phase of this process is to launch our own Easons branded e-reader."

Rival

This means that the Irish market leader will follow in the steps of the US market leader, Barnes and Noble, which has already developed its own digital reading device to rival the Amazon one.

There is a growing perception in both traditional and online book industries that traditional stores can benefit from e-book sales and vice versa using the successful Apple Store model which sees high-street buyers walking into shops to acquire online products in a shop where advice is available.

While Amazon gets business online, its model is hard to promote offline and it may now see the benefit of a Waterstones-style outlet. The chain is well known for its staff advice to customers and its review system whereby staff members recommend books to customers.

- Mark Keenan

Irish Independent

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/hodges-figgis-and-easons-to-sell-rival-ebooks-3116916.html

judgefudge

I don't really understand why they would bother... one of the main advantages of e-Readers in my opinion is that you can download books instantly without having to go to a bookstore. If I was going to bother to go down to a bookstore to purchase a book I would more than likely buy a paperback version, because with Amazon anyway there is often not a big difference on price (with bestsellers anyway).

jam_mac_jam

It can only be good that Amazon have some competition for sales of books

Toby Take a Bow

jam_mac_jam wrote: »

It can only be good that Amazon have some competition for sales of books

The main thing about them partnering with Waterstone's is the exact opposite of that: one more nail in the coffin of competition when it comes to ebooks.

Waterstone's were always playing catch-up on ereaders as well as selling ebooks on their website. Actually, their whole online presence was a badly run catch up job. This smacks of getting as much money as possible in the short term without really thinking of the long term.

Having said that, when working in a bookshop, a lot of people *did* comment on how they would like to be able to buy ebooks in the store, were that possible. Now, maybe they were just saying it to make conversation, but they did seem genuine.

I don't know much about Eason, but, judging from navigating around their website, I wouldn't hold out much hope on their venture being a roaring success.

ixoy

Easons are launching their own e-Reader? That's insanity - they're far too small to develop it. I'm guessing that they'll probably just be branded versions of something like a Sony e-Reader?
As to a format - they can't possibly think they can convert loads of books themselves at a cost that's in any way going to be able to give them a foothold. It'll have to be .epub format, like all the rivals. Anything else is doomed to failure.

As it stands I nearly only see people with Kindle devices in Ireland. I can't see how they're going to break that stranglehold and be competitive.

MagicMarker

Erm, hate to state the obvious, but if I want to buy an ebook, why would I leave my house to do so? Do these people not realise what the 'e' stands for?

This would be the equivalent of Xtravision setting up PCs in their stores so customers can watch netflix.

ixoy

MagicMarker wrote: »

Erm, hate to state the obvious, but if I want to buy an ebook, why would I leave my house to do so? Do these people not realise what the 'e' stands for?

I'm guessing that the idea would be people would browse the paperback / hardback version and, if they liked it, they could then get the e-Book version straight away. It's not quite like the Amazon sample either as the customer would be able to peruse the whole book.

Manach

For a major chain, I've always found the staff at Waterstones knowledgeable about interesting releases and have good recommendations. So going through them to get an ebook would not be a stretch and perhaps would be holding action against the retreat of highstreet bookshops.

Toby Take a Bow

Manach wrote: »

For a major chain, I've always found the staff at Waterstones knowledgeable about interesting releases and have good recommendations. So going through them to get an ebook would not be a stretch and perhaps would be holding action against the retreat of highstreet bookshops.

I'd agree with this. I used to work in a bookshop and we had lots of ereading type people suggesting the above. Not everyone likes the way of shopping in Amazon, some people like discovering books in bookshops and to have the option of then downloading (hopefully through the online version of the bookshop you're in) is definitely something that should be offered. It will also promote the online alternative to people in the shop.

Sulla Felix

I think it could work. I have a Kindle but still buy a decent amount of hardcopy for a variety of reasons, licensing being one of them, the shininess of hardbacks being another.
Like the person above, I've always found Waterstones staff to be pretty good at what they do, I was put onto several authors I wouldn't otherwise have ventured into because of their advice. So long as the standard keeps up, no real reason that whether I buy the ebook or paper version should make a difference.