Borders sales site launching tomorrow
The much-anticipated Borders e-commerce site will launch tomorrow, but will be in "preview" mode for the summer, a source says.
Access today to the full-fledged Borders.com site, in preview mode, was spotty across the Net because of the time lag between mounting a new site and propagating it throughout the thousands of Net servers. But by tomorrow, the site--which will offer chat and localized content as well as music, books, and videos for sale--should be fully functional, a source close to the company said.
Analysts and competitors have been anticipating this day with mixed feelings. Books are among the Net's hottest consumer e-commerce. Amazon has built one of the best-known brands on the Net with its online bookstore. But bookstore giant Barnes & Noble has been giving Amazon a run for its money.
Like its competitors, the Borders site will be fully searchable and offer amenities such as recommendations. It also will offer chat through a partnership with Talk City, the source said.
The site will emulate the physical stores, which have cafes, with community features. The other sections will be books, music, video, children, computer books, and the Net cafe, where there will be chat and threaded discussions. Salon, the popular online culture magazine, will play a role in the site. (Borders has an equity stake in Salon.)
"We want to offer our own customers the opportunity to buy online from us," he said.