Borders continues to reach out to online shoppers this holiday season. After announcing a partnership with ShopRunner, an online shopping program that gives members free two-day shipping, and making free shipping a centerpiece of its Borders Rewards and Borders Rewards Plus programs, on Sunday it launched a revamped Web site with more products and more discounted books. Borders.com, which had been in beta for much of last week, “grand opened” via e-mail to all 40 million people who have signed up for its Rewards programs. To drive traffic, Borders offered free shipping across the board to all shoppers yesterday and today.
According to Borders spokesperson Mary Davis, Borders’s new site is also discounting more books, and has marked down over 100,000 titles. Some hardcover New York Times bestsellers like Portia de Rossi’s Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain are discounted 50% off; Jeff Kinney’s The Ugly Truth is 40% off, while many discounted titles are 20% off. The discounts are not necessarily the same as in Borders's bricks-and-mortar store. According to Davis, "We make independent pricing decisions."
There is also more information on each book. Through a partnership with PowerReviews it is providing more reviews. And it is tapping its 19,000 employees for reviews.
In addition to books and e-books, the new site also sells several e-readers and is taking preorders for Velocity Micro Cruz’s Tablet. There are also more nonbook items, including posters, craft supplies, and scrapbooking items, along with music, movies, and TV.
