Acknowledging that barnesandnoble.com is a mouthful, and a lot of typing, the online bookseller has given shoppers a shortcut – bn.com.
“We wanted to make sure the customer could find us as quickly as possible,” said spokesman Ben Boyd.
Online shoppers can still get to the website the long way around. But remembering to switch the “&” from the Barnes & Noble land-based stores to “and” when buying online, was apparently creating some confusion.
The switch to the shorter URL is part of the barnesandnoble.com’s push to be more customer-friendly.
It has also just added a “my account” section that lets shoppers see and change their e-mail and billing addresses. They can also request news via e-mail about types of books they like.
Adding those features is crucial for barnesandnoble.com, because most established online retailers have already done that – and more.
Online book industry leader Amazon.com and others now let customers check the status of their orders, as well as a list of their past orders.
Amazon.com has outpaced barnesandnoble.com in other ways, selling $450 million of books in the United States last year, while barnesandnoble.com sold about $70 million, according to Forrester Research.
Although Barnes & Noble Chairman Leonard Riggio has said there is plenty of room on the web for his company and Amazon.com, some industry analysts have criticized him for not moving fast enough to catch Amazon.com.
Others have said Amazon.com’s move into so many other businesses will distract them, and give barnesandnoble.com a chance to catch up.