Two Competing Book Selling Websites

¶ … biggest online book retailers based in the United States are Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com, although the latter retains a major retail store presence. The websites of these two retailers are similarly organized, and prices are comparable. The following list of books will illustrate that Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com offer similar discounts on their products. I Am Charlotte Simmons is a brand new release by author Tom Wolfe. Amazon.com states the list price as $28.95; their discounted price as $19.69.

Also, the book is "eligible for free super saver shipping." The same book sells at BarnesandNoble.com for $20.26, less than a dollar more than the Amazon.com price, which is 32% below list. Similarly, Joyce Carol Oates' latest novel, The Falls, is priced 32% below publisher's list, at $18.33 by Amazon.com and is 30% below list at Barnes and Noble, at $18.86. The Plot Against America, a new novel by Philip Roth, is listed at $26.00; in this case, both Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble sell the book for $15.60, a full 40% below list price.

Another brand new release by author T. Coraghessan Boyle entitled The Inner Circle is listed as $29.95. As with the other brand new releases, Amazon.com offers its customers a 32% discount, selling the Boyle book for $17.65. Barnes and Noble only offers a 30% savings, which comes out to $18.16, insignificantly less expensive than the Amazon.com price. John Updike's latest, Villages, sells for $17.50, 30% below list, on both websites, so there is no discernable pattern to Amazon.com's ability to occasionally offer slightly more savings on books that have yet to hit the shelves.

Bestsellers are also priced nearly identically by the two vendors. Jon Stewart and the writers of The Daily Show enjoy top ranking on the best seller list. Their non-fiction work with the lengthy title, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America the Book: A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction, sells for the same price on both Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble: $14.97. Second on the best seller list is Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo's He's Just Not that Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys.

The book lists at $19.95 and sells for $11.97 on both websites. Maya Angelou's book Hallelujah! The Welcome Table lists for $29.95, but this time Amazon.com offers their 32% discount for a total of $20.37, whereas the book is $20.96, 30% below list, at Barnes and Noble. The book The Polar Express by Chris van Allsburg is listed at $18.95. Interestingly, although both Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble offer a 30% discount, the book comes out to a penny more at Barnes and Noble: $13.26 versus $13.25 at Amazon.com.

Finally, a Martha Beck book entitled Finding Your North Star lists at $14.95. Amazon.com sells this book for $10.47, 30% off, whereas Barnes and Noble only offers its customers 10% off: the book is $13.95 with them. Therefore, occasionally the two book vendors stray from an otherwise predictable pricing strategy. Generally, a 30% discount on the list price is offered by both websites to their customers on new releases. However, occasionally Amazon.com does undercut Barnes and Noble.

With this brief examination of ten books sold by both vendors, Amazon.com is generally cheaper than its competitor. Both websites offer free shipping on purchases of $25 or more. Barnes and Noble does offer a.