Barnes & Noble Inc. is in recovery mode online. The bookseller on Thursday reported an increase to its web business for the second quarter in a row and its first annual web sales increase since 2013.
Online sales grew 2.9% in the fourth quarter and 3.7% for the full year, which Barnes & Noble, No. 54 in the Internet Retailer 2017 Top 1000, attributed to unspecified website improvements and increased promotional activity. This follows 14% and 15% declines for the past two years.
Web gains were not sufficient to offset big declines in stores, however, as comparable-store sales decreased 6.3% for the year. During the year, the retailer closed 10 stores and opened three.
Barnes & Noble appears to have dug out from some recent problems spurred by the June 2015 rollout of a new website. In its 2016 fiscal year, Barnes & Noble experienced a $49.0 million drop—or 14.4%–in online sales. E-commerce revenue was impacted by “challenges” including declining traffic and conversion rates following the June 2015 launch of its new e-commerce site, Barnes & Noble says.
Barnes & Noble’s business has struggled both online and offline in recent years amid competition from web leader Amazon.com Inc. (No. 1), which dominates book sales online. Amazon has been slowly moving into bricks-and-mortar retailing, as it opened its first bookstore in Seattle in November 2015 and has since opened locations in Chicago, San Diego and Portland, Ore. The online giant is also testing Amazon Go, a convenience store that eliminates traditional checkout lanes, in Seattle. On June 16, Amazon announced it would buy grocer Whole Foods Market Inc. for $13.7 billion.
For the fiscal year ended April 29, Barnes & Noble reported:
- Total sales of $3.89 billion, a 6.5% decline from $4.16 billion
- Retail sales, which include e-commerce, of $3.78 billion—down 6.2% from $4.03 billion.