After a trial run in select stores, Target Corporation announced plans this week to sell Amazon.com’s popular Kindle e-reader device at all 1,740 Target stores beginning this Sunday, June 6. The deal marks the first time Kindle will be available in a brick-and-mortar store – a move that goes against Amazon’s initial plan for Kindle to be sold only online and as an app through devices like the iPhone. Now, Amazon is taking its brand experience from the Web to retail, reaching a greater audience and keeping up with the competition.
The move to sell Kindle in stores is a response to the popularity of Apple’siPad and Barnes & Noble’s
Nook e-reader, which has been sold in Apple stores and B&N, respectively. stores since its debut in November 2009. Though Amazon’s Kindle is still the leader in e-readers with a rumored 1.5 million devices sold (Amazon has declined to supply exact sales figures for its e-reader). Kindle’s lack of availability in stores has put it at a disadvantage with the competition and the casual shopper. As PC World’s Jeff Bertolucci points out, “You can view the iPad’s colorful display from multiple angles, browse a Sony Reader e-book, or navigate the Nook’s clumsy interface. The Kindle? Well, a nifty online video isn’t quite the same as holding the device in your hands.” With the Kindle in stores, Amazon can entice users with an accessible user interface and concrete brand experience, just as its competitors do. For authors, a great resource for publishing on Kindle.
Previously, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos stated that the company wanted to market Kindle to its “serious reading households,” accounting for only 10 percent of Amazon’s entire market, as a whole. With Kindle now in stores, this strategy seems to be changing. While serious readers may seek out the Kindle at Target, it will also be easily accessible to more “casual” readers, most likely late adopters just now jumping in. Although Kindle has always been available online, customers who may not have known how to get it, or who are just looking for convenience, will most likely be Amazon’s biggest market at Target stores.
Until now, Amazon seemed to avoid brick-and-mortar stores for Kindle. Amazon’s original long-term strategy for the Kindle was to make it – or its technology – available on any device, negating the need for another outlet. With rising competition, Amazon sees the need to compete in the same way, and they’ve chosen the perfect partner in Target, the second largest discount retailer in the United States. With e-readers becoming more familiar to late adopters, Kindle could win these consumers over through brand recognition in stores, and digital accessibility. As long as Amazon continues its digital strategies for Kindle, it is well aligned to dominate the e-reader market for the coming years.
Related posts:
Comments
The Nook interface is not clumsy at all… the few glitches it did have disappeared after the last upgrade. I’ve got over a hundred books on it now and it’s fantastic. Quick and sharp!