I’ve just spotted (well, I knew it was happening for a while, but I’ve finally got round to checking it out) that Waterstone’s has, at long last, launched a proper website.
For the last five years, Waterstones.com was operated by Amazon, with Waterstone’s contributing a certain amount of editorial content each month and getting a pitiful amount of commision for each sale. Bizarrely, this is exactly the same arrangement that Borders / Books etc still uses – which means that the three biggest players in the UK book market (excluding WH Smiths, who don’t count, and the supermarkets, who do, I suppose) were sharing a e-commerce platform. A ridiculous business position, frankly. The fact the prices and availability on the old site were Amazon’s, as opposed to Waterstone’s, caused huge amounts of confusion in stores.
This new site was being developed when I was still working there at Christmas, so it’s taken them a while to launch… but it’s certainly been worth the wait. From the looks of things, it has been developed from the old Ottakars site (one of the only British “real” booksellers that even tried to challenge Amazon) and HMV‘s e-commerce engine. The content is pretty impressive – not just fairly detailed editorial reviews, but general industry news (Yossarian’s column has been kept from Ottakars.co.uk) and even individual pages for each store (here’s mine). Golly, Waterstone’s has even got itself a blog. Whatever next?
One of the more exciting things – in my view, anyway – is that you can now order online and have your books delivered to your nearest store for free (like Amazon does with certain partners in the US). I’ve been saying for years that Waterstone’s should have been doing something like that – converting online customers into “real” customers, with all the benefits of physical sales.
Another interesting bit is the “Ask a Bookseller” section, which allows you to email a bookseller for recommendations or advice on what to read next. Waterstone’s staff has always been its strong point (he says, modestly), especially now it can’t hope to compete price-wise with Amazon or the supermarkets, so it makes perfect sense to retain this presence online. I only hope that the help does come from real, front-line booksellers, not Brentford head office chappies – I’m rather tempted to send in a request for recommendations, just to see how well it works.
So – when I’m back in the UK, I’ll be trying out the service from the new website… for pick up in store, obviously!
