Borders Expands Sony Reader Outlets, Will Start Store

by Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 9/19/2007 8:09:00 AM

Borders is expanding its relationship with Sony, adding the technology company’s e-book reader to over 200 more of its superstores, while also agreeing to develop a co-branded store to facilitate e-book sales. Borders has been selling the Sony Reader in 270 of its superstore since last November and will now offer it for sale in more than 500 outlets. “We have been doing very well with it,” Borders spokesperson Anne Roman said of the Reader. The rollout to additional stores will begin in October.

Also starting next month, Borders will team with Sony to launch a new e-bookstore. Currently, e-book titles for the Reader can only be downloaded through Sony’s Connect online store. According to Roman, the co-branded site will have a separate URL from either the Borders or Sony sites when it launches, but the store will eventually become part of the retailer’s e-commerce site, Borders.com, when that goes live early next year. Borders.com is currently undergoing beta tests. Borders’ outlets that now carry the Reader only have a demo unit in the store, and Roman said it was too early to say if stores will offer a way to directly order e-books from a store. She wouldn’t comment on whether the prototype stores now under development will enable customers to buy an e-book from the store, although such a feature seems likely.

To increase the selection of e-books, Borders’ merchandise team will encourage large publisher to put more of their backlist in e-book format, and also urge mid-sized and small publishers to add e-books. Roman hopes that Borders’ support of the e-book market will convince publishers who have hesitated about getting into the format to get into the business.