Borders Bookstore faces challenges from online retailers and e-readers. To increase foot traffic and sales, Borders focuses on in-store events like book signings and poetry nights. Borders also aims to strengthen its ebook business by expanding its ebook catalog and platforms supported. A proposed strategy is to build incentives for people who download ebooks to visit stores for extras, while using social media to promote events. This could encourage spending on items while using the store as a place for readers to interact.

1. Borders Bookstore

2. Business Core Book store with a local tradition Large selection of books, magazine Book reading events Poetry nights Book signing events Drink bar (Coffee, Juice, Expresso, Desserts)

3. Competition Local Schuler Barnes and Noble Online Amazon Apple iBook

4. Contributing reasons to the downfall of Borders’s current business model Economic downturn of 2008 Cutback on book spending (discretionary spending) Prominence of online based book stores Amazon Emergence of Electronic Reader Electronic readers have matures to provide a genuine reading experience on screen

5. Saving grace of Borders local stores Book signing events Poetry nights Brings people into the store Likeliness of spending on drinks or magazine Book reading events Volunteer readers Likeliness of spending on drinks Closing of other local competitions

6. Cost reduction efforts Reduce the size of management team Strategically close stores that have not performed well in the past Strengthen incentives for people to come into the stores that are doing well Promote Border’s own ebook business model On demand book downloads to personal ebook devices Create larger collection of eBooks than competition (currently 2.3 million eBooks available for download)

7. Proposed strategy to raise profitability Social network allows instant updates to events happening within Borders store Build incentives for people who primarily download the books to come into the store Extra content for instore retrieval to people who download eBook version of same book Art work

8. Continuation Create prizes for people who follow Borders on social networking sites Twitter Facebook Google+

9. Strategy #2 Profitability comes from people spending time in the store and actually purchase items People can come into store to use free wifi service to interact with other readers Book review Content ideas Errors found in content Character discussion

10. Continuation Books will eventually reside in digital form in the future 10 years? unlikely 30 years? probably 50 years? Eventuality is certain Borders will need to strengthen it’s online eBook presence, expanding eBook reading capability to other mobile platforms (windows mobile, Android) Allow for more interactivity for people using Ebooks to make it interesting for readers