Str/581-Strategic Plan Essay

The bookstore chain has been decreasing in profit in the US over the past 20 years. Most of the books retailers are shutting down their operations and only a few are still operating in the country. Barnes and Noble has become the largest bookseller in the book retailers industry. The firm has integrated its business philosophy into web presence though eBook marketplace. This business strategy assisted the firm to be able to reach a large scale customers and remain as a strongest competitor in the book retailing market.

In this case, the traditional bookseller’s niche is overlapped the Big box retailers’. Because of the limited resources: only certain amount of people demand for popular books, they have to compete for the market of popular books. However, scale difference generates selection pressures. Obviously traditional booksellers have smaller scale and less purchasing power to compete with “Big box” retailers. When the electronic books came out, traditional booksellers struggle more. Although all booksellers were affected, “Big box”

Brenner states in his article, “No Borders”, how “bookstores are victims of changing times, technologies, and economics.” In the literary, economic world, there had been two national bookstores that competed in the nation, Borders and Barnes & Noble. Sadly Borders, Barnes & Noble’s largest competitor, went bankrupt and was forced to close, due to the national recession being at its highest in 2010. Since then it has become more and more difficult for bookstores to even make it since for, “You can surf the web for a book on Amazon and probably get a better deal” (Brenner, 81). Despite this, Barnes & Noble has successfully survived in the dying literature market and has become, “One of the largest booksellers in the US” ("Barnes & Noble, Inc. SWOT Analysis", 3). Booksellers around the world are becoming rarer in our technological advance society, as these shops seem to die out

1-In order for Barnes and Nobles to use the Value Chain and Competitive Force Models they needed to be ingenious with their tactics. First, publishers are on B&N side and they are doing everything to make sure that B&N stay at float because they are basically their “bread and butter”. So B&N is securing supplier intimacy with the publishing companies which will lead to strengthening its loyalty relationship with its customer in the store and digitally. Second they are securing their niche in the market, they are doing this by having the stores advertise and communicate to their customer that a there is a specific book that “is a big deal” and B&N is offering an extensive inventory of physical books and it enhance its core competency. Microsoft announced in 2012 that they would be investing $300 million in B&N Nook tablet, e-reader business and its college division. This will enable them to included Windows 8 operating system in Nooks application; this is a space where it will have a product differentiate.

Furthermore, Barnes & Noble had the power to position their own books in areas of the store with the highest traffic. Electronic publishing was also one of the most salient threats to Random House’s business. Several authors started to self-publish their own manuscripts online avoiding the whole process of bypassing the publishers, distributors and retailers. The emergence of ebooks benefitted both the author and the final consumer. Self-publishing implied a more rapid process for publications and allowed customers to pay lower prices.

Adaption of Physical Stores: From the erosion of physical book sales, the company aims to reduce the floor space allocated to books. This strategy allows Indigo to adjust and expand its product mix and focus its growth on the lifestyle, paper and toy categories (Annual Report 2014, 2014).

Still, the company has been facing many external environmental issues in the recent years which have caused financial net losses of 27.2 million for quarter three of 2016 and closed more than 70 stores around the country as shown in Appendix A). Barnes & Nobles has always been known for its mega bookstores, so changing brad identities will be difficult to do. Starting in Fall 2016, Barnes & Noble is introducing a new store concept in several locations across the country featuring a contemporary aesthetic where books remain the hero, an expanded food and beverage offering, including wine and beer, and a major commitment to hospitality featuring table-side service. The new stores will also include a special mobile experience for both booksellers

In the 2015 annual report, the company stated their multiple distribution centers “enable it to maximize available discounts and enhance its ability to create marketing programs with many of its vendors” (“Barnes & Noble Inc.”, 2015, p.12). That is crucial as Barnes & Noble has around 600 publishers. The company also has extensive marketing capabilities to connect with their customers. They created partnerships with Samsung, the producer of the NOOK, to increase marketing funds and be able to customize emails to consumers (“Barnes & Noble Inc.”, 2015, p.16). Therefore, they are capable of reaching a large audience of book readers and enticing them to purchase more items.

After analyzing the Barnes and Noble Inc. financial statement, I found out that the financial of this company is declining. The management creates a business plan that includes new innovative and creative ideas to attract customers, and increase their finance. Barnes and Noble seems to run the risk to have its equity decrease, by looking at the income statements we could determine a net income decrease of $24,446 in a year period. After analyzing this I realized that Barnes and Noble might be force to closed their business between five to seven years.

People are going to buy at the cheapest store, regardless. That's what the masses have done forever and will continue to. I loved my local hardware and I supported them but they closed due to Home Depot. Now it is so much cheaper to shop for books at Amazon why go elsewhere? Plus almost free shipping and no sales tax.

Barnes and Noble has made headlines this month with a 34.9 million reported in loss, causing a 30% drop in stock. Though it has slowly crept up, many fear for the future of the company. Despite the dismal predicament corporate bookstores find themselves in, the independent bookstores miraculously are thriving.

Based on the amount of press coverage the company is receiving, you might think that the company is rolling in money. In fact, despite the changes I made five years ago, the opposite is true: minimal profits and negative cash flow. I know we need yet another new publishing strategy to succeed in the future: publish fewer books in fewer segments and focus more resources on differentiating those books in the marketplace.

387-395). The large number of bookstores is competing with each other for similar products with similar price. In addition, the Japanese retail bookselling industry has already become an oversaturated market nowadays (Peng 2009, p. 391). Therefore, the rivalry among retail bookstores becomes fairly intense under this circumstance.

Furthermore it would help to make sure that their website’s design is functional and effective for their viewers. They would need to do some marketing research and survey many consumers to see maybe what they are looking for and approximately at what cost. This will probably show how low prices, availability, and expedient delivery are very important factors to consumers. Maybe Barnes and Noble will need to look at creating a new innovation to aid in recapturing its online market share.

In the united sates’ book retailing industry is an advanced industry and borders group have acknowledged