UK newsagent chain WH Smith has announced it will roll out a shop within a shop concept for the Kobo e-reader. Kobo has enjoyed considerable success around the world and the WH Smith move is on the back of a successful trial.
I was in a WH Smith store in London a few weeks ago and noticed the Kobo units in-store, an the entrance to the book department. They were promoting them as a Mother’s Day gift. My first reaction was what about theft. But a look around showed the shop as being pretty secure.
The roll out of the Kobo store within a store is a good indication of the sales success they have had already not only with the devices but with e-book downloads.
Because I travel so much I already have an ereader. I use a proxy to buy books from W H Smith in UK. This is around 60% of the price of books in on line stores in Australia (eg A & R , Borders). There are a lot of good things about an e reader. The online purchasing experience is not, repeat not, one of them. It’s ok if you know specifically what you want but the browsing experience of a real book store cannot be replaced in terms of convenience or enjoyment. Compared to iTunes the downoad process (WH Smith defaults to Kobo) is awkward and not at all seamless.
All very interesting but from a user perspective they’ve a long way to go before they are offering a killer expereince.