Borders Relaunches Online Store

Posted on May 27, 2008

Borders is returning to the world of online bookselling with a newly launched Borders.com website. For seven years Borders.com was powered by Amazon.com. Borders went ahead with the launch of the new website even though the company has put itself up for sale. Barnes & Noble is even looking at the possibility of whether or not they can acquire Borders.

The homepage of the new Borders.com website includes a Flash-powered "Magic Shelf" which shows the covers of the latest books, CDs and DVDs. Borders CEO George Jones told the Associated Press that they aren't trying to "out-Amazon Amazon." Jones also says they expect the online store will be independently profitable by 2009. There will also be Borders.com kiosks in Borders stores.

Kevin Ertell, the vice president for e-business at Borders, told Bits that things have changed since Amazon powered its online bookstore. Ertell says it now makes more sense for them to run their own ecommerce website "and to tie into stores and really connect with our customers in a way we could not do in a partnership with another company."