Kindle Review – Kindle Fire Review, Kindle 4 Review

With the Nook and iPad now available in Best Buy and the Kindle about to arrive at Target it’s worth taking a quick look at each eReader’s retail reach. We’re focused on the physical stores each eReader is available in and limiting ourselves to retail presence in the USA.

The Kindle’s Retail Reach

To begin with Target is going to sell the Kindle at its flagship store in Minneapolis (one of my favorite cities) and 102 Target Stores in South Florida. ZD Net has a report on Target’s Kindle plans -

 Target will carry the Kindle at its flagship Minneapolis store where the retailer is based. In addition, Target will put the Kindle in 102 South Florida stores.

Later in the year Target will start selling the Kindle in additional stores. Check out this page for Target Stores’ Map Locations.

What retailing at Target means for the Kindle

There are a lot of implications -

1. For the first time ever we have the Kindle in physical stores.
2. Do note that it’s only after the pilot that we know whether Target expand the Kindle to its other stores – so the following advantages only kick in if that happens.
3. Target has a lot of stores so a ton of people will get to see and play around with the Kindle – There were 1488 Target stores by 2006 (at least 141 of which were SuperTarget stores).  In 2005 Target had said that it aims to add 600 more Target stores by 2010 and reach a total of over 2000 stores. In Washington State Target has 31 stores and in New York State it has 62 stores.
4. You have to think being located in a Target gets the Kindle much more exposure than a store like Best Buy would provide – just in terms of people going to a Target more often than they would to a BestBuy and lots more visitors.  
5. Also, the typical Target customer is a pretty good match for the Kindle -
   

   Target stores tend to attract younger and more educated and affluent customers than its competitors.

   Currently, the median Target shopper is 41 years old, which is the youngest of all major discount retailers that Target competes directly against.

   The median household income of Target’s customer base is roughly $63,000 USD. Roughly 76% of Target customers are female, and more than 45% have children at home.

   About 80% have attended college and 48% have completed college.

The only bigger retail partner Amazon could get is Wal-Mart with 4,307 stores by 2009 inside the US and 2,980 stores outside the US. Amazon and Wal-Mart are increasingly at odds so a Wal-Mart and Amazon partnership is unlikely to happen.

The typical Wal-Mart customer is probably not as likely to buy a Kindle as the typical Target customer so Target might be a better partner anyways.

All in all, being available at Target could be a huge win for Amazon - If Target decide to expand Kindle sales to more of its stores after the pilot then Amazon are well placed to dominate eReader sales in physical stores.

Is Kindle also coming to Best Buy?

At this point it’s a rumor. The benefits of being available in Best Buy for the Kindle would be much the same as for Barnes & Noble. Since the Kindle is hitting Target first it’s very similar to the Nook being available in B&N stores first and then reaching Best Buy.

Please read the Nook in Best Buy section below for more on Best Buy stores.

Overall, being available at Target Stores, and potentially at BestBuy, would be a huge win for Amazon.

The Nook’s Retail Reach

Barnes & Noble’s Nook had a big advantage over the Kindle because it was available in retail stores and more importantly it was available in book retail stores. It’s hard to overestimate the amount of damage B&N did to its Christmas 2009 Nook sales by having no Nooks available in stores.

They have now fixed that problem and further improved their retail presence by expanding to Best Buy.

Nook in Barnes & Noble Stores

B&N has strong retail presence -

1. 777 stores in the USA as of October 2009. Not all of these sell the Nook. 
2. 636 college bookstores.
3. Here’s a map of all Barnes & Noble stores in the USA.

That’s a lot of foot traffic of good intent. It’s an advantage Amazon can’t really match unless it teams up with or buys Borders.

Nook in Best Buy

There’s a lot to like about having the Nook available at BestBuy -

1. There were 1,010 Best Buy stores in the US and 191 BestBuy and FutureShop stores in Canada as of December 28th, 2008.
2. 19% of the consumer electronics sales in USA and Canada were through Best Buy.
3. BestBuy has pledged to add 500 stores to replace closed Circuit City stores. 
4. You get a lot of customers interested in gadgets and electronics and they are likely to be willing to give electronic readers a chance.
5. They are supposedly creating eReader sections which lets readers take a look at all the eReader options and makes them more likely to make a decision on the spot.

There are a few things to keep in mind – its electronics centric and not reading centric, you will have all the competing eReaders, it’s definitely not at the scale of Wal-Mart or Target, and it definitely won’t see the same frequency of visits from readers as those two or Barnes & Noble.

Please Note that Best Buy stocks iPad and Nook and Sony Reader and a few other ereader brands. Rumors are circulating that it’ll start stocking Kindle on April 28th, 2010.

Overall, Nook has pretty strong retail presence and just needs to add one or more of WalMart, Target, and CostCo to have an extremely compelling retail presence.

Sony Reader’s Retail Reach

Sony has been pretty busy lining up retail presence for the Sony Reader -

1. There are 55 Sony Style stores in the USA.
2. Borders sells the Sony Reader at its 517 Borders Stores and perhaps at its 466 Waldenbooks stores.
3. Best Buy sells the Sony Reader at its stores.
4. Fry’s sells the Sony Reader at its 34 locations.
5. Costco sells it at some of its 563 locations.
6. Target sells the Sony Reader.

Update: Thanks to JRenshaw and Sathyan for pointing out that Sony Readers are already available at Target.

That’s a very impressive line-up and it’s a surprise to realize that Sony are so far ahead of everyone – although Kindle coming to Target cuts into its lead a bit.

Has Sony’s extensive retail presence paid big dividends?

Given that Sony announced a 300,00 units sold figure in end 2008 (or perhaps it was in January 2009) and since then has refused to disclose sales figures there are some interesting possibilities -

1. Sony is doing very well thanks to its extensive retail presence and international availability. We’re talking figures that put 300,00 to shame.
2. It’s been growing steadily and sales are decent. 
3. It’s been losing out to Kindle and Nook.

Sony have put a lot of investment into the Sony Reader including Peyton Manning TV ads and this extensive retail presence – Has it paid dividends?

Overall, Sony have done an impressive job and their strong retail presence highlights Amazon’s mistake in not making the Kindle available in physical stores until now.

iPad’s Retail Reach

The iPad is available to play around with at the Apple Store and at Best Buy.

iPad at the Apple Store

A few interesting things here -

1. 222 Apple Stores in the US.  
2. Customers are usually in love with Apple and pretty affluent. 
3. Not that many readers and lots of gadget lovers.
4. It does give anyone interested a chance to go try out the iPad.
5. The sales reps are smart, if not totally forthright. When asked about eye strain they say things like – You work on your computer every day, don’t you?

It’s a paradox – The Apple Store is very important for Apple to spread the iPad amongst Apple users. It’s not that important a retail channel in terms of readers.

However, it’s there and available for people who are curious.

iPad is a better fit at Best Buy than dedicated eReaders

We’ve already covered Best Buy above – an important thing to add is that Best Buy foot traffic is more gadget centric and will probably find the iPad more appealing than Nook or Sony Reader.

As opposed to a book store, where the customers are likelier to pick a dedicated eReader, or Target, where customers would be pretty neutral, at a Best Buy there would be a strong preference towards a device that is more electronics than book.

Overall, Apple’s retail presence is the most dangerous as both Apple Store and Best Buy reach the iPad’s target customers. It’s interesting that Apple has only gone with electronics stores so far (Amazon.com and WalMart don’t sell iPads yet).

Comparing eReader Retail Reach

Let’s look at various dimensions -

1. Access to customers of best intent – Nook due to Barnes & Noble Stores.
2. Largest Access to Customers - Sony Reader.
3. Best access to Customers with high incomes – iPad due to Apple Store. Although if you factor in the much larger reach of Target, and its relatively affluent customer base, then Kindle would win if Target decides to expand Kindle sales to all or most Target stores.
4. Strongest online retail presence – Kindle thanks to Amazon.
5. Best International Retail Presence – Sony Reader. If Kobo’s ambitious plans work out then it might be Kobo in a couple of years.

An ideal retail footprint for an eReader would be -

Amazon.com for online readers.

Barnes & Noble and Borders for readers in stores.

Best Buy and Fry’s for Electronics Lovers.

WalMart, Target, and CostCo. Target for educated, affluent customers. WalMart for sheer numbers.

Amazon is unlikely to get a foothold in B&N or Borders and B&N is unlikely to get a foothold in Amazon so it leaves each with only 3 out of the 4 important retail channels. Kindle is also unlikely to get access to WalMart so we may very well see -

• Kindle at Amazon.com, Target, and Best Buy.
• Nook at Barnes & Noble, WalMart, and Best Buy.
• iPad at Apple Store, WalMart, and Best Buy.  
• Sony Reader at Sony Store, Target, WalMart, CostCo, Fry’s, Borders, and Best Buy.

The eReader retail wars are almost as muddled up as the ebook format wars – though Sony have a strong lead.

Filed under: availability Tagged: | ereader retail presence, ereader strategy, kindle availability