Textbooks.com Merged Into B&N.com

John Mutter and Edward Nawotka |

Aug 21, 2000

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Textbooks.com Merged Into B&N.com John Mutter and Edward Nawotka -- 8/21/00 *Textbooks.com has apparently closed down and become part of its parent site.* Textbooks.com, the Barnes & Noble College Stores site that launched in February 1999, has apparently closed down and become part of the B&N.com site. B&N.com announced this week that it is creating a College Store area on its site. But it appears to be the old textbook.com site; the URL www.textbooks. com reroutes users to B&N. com's new textbook page. The two sites used to offer links to each other although textbooks. com made no mention of being a part of B&N College Stores, which has a separate corporate structure from B&N or B&N. com. B&N is a publicly owned company. B&N.com is 40% owned by B&N, 40% owned by Bertelsmann and 20% owned by the public. B&N College is privately owned, mainly by B&N chairman Len Riggio and family. The new B&N.com College Store sells both new and used textbooks at discounts up to 25%. It is unclear how integrated the textbook operation and B&N.com will be. Textbooks.com was created last year, following the launch of VarsityBooks.com and BigWords.com. At the time, traditional college text retailers feared that a vast number of textbook sales would be lost to online-only competitors. Other campus bookstore-leasing companies, such as Follett and Wallace's, also set up Web sites. And Amazon.com, the dominant online bookstore, began selling textbooks. Although it had refrained from advertising this feature of its site, Amazon now has a "University Store" as part of its book tab. The University Store offers textbooks, of course, as well as links to campus wear, dorm room products, music and DVDs. During the past year, however, the online text retailing model faltered, in part because of logistical problems (wrong editions of texts, difficulties returning books) and because traditional college retailers were energized to compete and promote their advantages. Another possible reason for the apparent permanent disappearance of textbooks.com: B&N.com has frequently been knocked for not leveraging B&N stores. In the case of textbooks.com, the company didn't even use its own name, let alone try to leverage it. B&N.com representatives were unavailable for comment.

News

Textbooks.com Merged Into B&N.com
John Mutter and Edward Nawotka -- 8/21/00
Textbooks.com has apparently closed down and become part of its parent site.

Textbooks.com, the Barnes & Noble College Stores site that launched in February 1999, has apparently closed down and become part of the B&N.com site.

B&N.com announced this week that it is creating a College Store area on its site. But it appears to be the old textbook.com site; the URL www.textbooks. com reroutes users to B&N. com's new textbook page. The two sites used to offer links to each other although textbooks. com made no mention of being a part of B&N College Stores, which has a separate corporate structure from B&N or B&N. com. B&N is a publicly owned company. B&N.com is 40% owned by B&N, 40% owned by Bertelsmann and 20% owned by the public. B&N College is privately owned, mainly by B&N chairman Len Riggio and family.

The new B&N.com College Store sells both new and used textbooks at discounts up to 25%. It is unclear how integrated the textbook operation and B&N.com will be.

Textbooks.com was created last year, following the launch of VarsityBooks.com and BigWords.com. At the time, traditional college text retailers feared that a vast number of textbook sales would be lost to online-only competitors. Other campus bookstore-leasing companies, such as Follett and Wallace's, also set up Web sites. And Amazon.com, the dominant online bookstore, began selling textbooks. Although it had refrained from advertising this feature of its site, Amazon now has a "University Store" as part of its book tab. The University Store offers textbooks, of course, as well as links to campus wear, dorm room products, music and DVDs.

During the past year, however, the online text retailing model faltered, in part because of logistical problems (wrong editions of texts, difficulties returning books) and because traditional college retailers were energized to compete and promote their advantages.

Another possible reason for the apparent permanent disappearance of textbooks.com: B&N.com has frequently been knocked for not leveraging B&N stores. In the case of textbooks.com, the company didn't even use its own name, let alone try to leverage it.

B&N.com representatives were unavailable for comment.

A version of this article appeared in the 08/21/2000 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: