When you’re a brick-and-mortar retailer competing against the best of the best of online businesses, such as Amazon and Netflix, you need to fortify your click-and-mortar presence with a number of strategic partnerships.
Book, music and movie retail chain Barnes & Noble, Inc., boasting nearly 800 locations in all 50 states, knows this all too well, as its chief virtual competitors don’t have to worry about paying someone to clean the bathrooms or stock the employee break room – at least for its customer-facing operation.
That’s why a recent partnership with MapQuest Inc., the Net’s original provider of free directions from point A to point B, has Barnes & Noble pointed in the right direction. Leveraging proven technology from respected brands is much cheaper than hiring your own in-house team to replicate a technology from scratch.
The MapQuest platform will allow visitors to the entertainment chain’s BN.com website to not only find the locations nearest them, but to also learn about book and writers groups, storytimes for the kids, as well as author visits and signings. You can even subscribe to RSS feeds to keep you updated about what’s happening at your neighborhood bookstore. Other companies that have partnered with MapQuests enterprise solutions include Hilton Hotels and Smarter Agent, Inc.
So turn the page on thinking that dusty old bookstores don’t have the high-tech moxy to help you find what you need. That philosophy is as antiquated as the Dewey Decimal System.
