Barnes & Noble

Author: Kalicia Bateman

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The Good

• Affordable prices
• Great website
• Nook devices

Of the ten New York Times bestselling books we used to compare the selections of online bookstores, Barnes & Noble carried each title in print and ebook versions, and all but one in audio. Barnes & Noble also ranked right behind Amazon for lowest prices, making it our second-place contender in this category. In addition to new and collectible print books, Barnes & Noble also offers magazines, music, movies, tv shows and an affiliated used-book marketplace on its site, as well as large libraries of ebooks and audio books. It also offers students the option to buy new or used textbooks and sell back old textbooks. Barnes & Noble's site is well-organized and easy-to-use. There are features for basic and advanced searches, browsing by category and saving a wishlist. Barnes & Noble also features a distinct benefit of having 658 brick-and-mortar stores nationwide: you can locate and reserve a book at a store near you, then simply go pick it up instead of waiting for it to arrive in the mail. For the reader who likes to research before buying, Barnes & Noble offers ample editorial and user reviews of its titles, as well as a section of tabs called More About This Book. This section includes information such as the suggested reader's age, related categories to browse, a profile of the author, interviews with the author, excerpts of the book and more. The information Barnes & Noble includes about each title and author is much more thorough than what we found on any other online bookstore we reviewed. For the avid ebook reader, Barnes & Noble manufactures a line of NOOK devices and over one million ebook titles, including a massive section of under-$5 titles as well as Book Bundles, which are series of books that can be purchased as packages in order to save money. Barnes & Noble also offers an inexpensive membership program with lots of perks. For a $25 annual fee, Barnes & Noble Members receive 40% off hardcover bestsellers, 10% off other items, free express shipping with no minimum purchase required and member-exclusive coupons. In terms of the cost-to-benefit ratio, this is the best membership package we saw during our review process. Barnes & Noble supports charitable causes by sponsoring and donating to a variety of literary, arts and educational organizations at the local and national levels. Barnes & Noble's 2013 Holiday Book Drive succeeded in collecting over 1.5 million books that were distributed to children in need through local charities across America. Its Summer Reading Program "fosters literacy and puts more than one million books in the hands of children each year." Barnes & Noble also participates in local book fairs, supplies local libraries with books and invites children to visit its store locations for free storytimes and activities.

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The Bad

• Convert files
• Issues with advanced search

As with the Kindle, the NOOK is primarily intended to support NOOK books. If you'd like to read a file format other than a PDB, PRC or ePub on your NOOK, you'll need to either convert the file or download another app to read it on. This can be a hassle for readers who have acquired an extensive ebook collection from other sources. While Barnes & Noble's basic search function worked pretty well, sometimes it's necessary to conduct a more advanced search - but you'll have a hard time finding where to click to do so. We found the Advanced Search option at the very bottom of the site under the internal footer links. This is a minor gripe but it could cause some serious frustration if you're in a hurry and find yourself having to ironically search for the Advanced Search.

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The Bottom Line

Barnes & Noble provides a large selection of reading materials and decision-making tools to the reader, has a rich history in the bookselling industry and has managed to stay afloat despite Amazon's ability to take a sizable bite out of the bookselling marketplace. In addition, Barnes & Noble may have an advantage in being the only bookstore powerhouse that is also able to provide personal, face-to-face interactions and the convenience of being able to run over to the local shop; it can engage both online and offline consumers, which is something Amazon can't do. Ebook sales still make up only 30% of the book-buying market, and the print book could make a comeback, indeed: Barnes & Nobles' 2013 profits were its highest in four years. So feel free to head over to Barnes & Noble, whether online or just up the street.