Welcome to Borders beta web site http://beta.bordersstores.com/online/store/Home. It looks clean and fresh and the navigation also looks good.
I liked the ‘checkout the availability for store pickup’ as you can select your book and pick it up at the airport – smart. The bookshelf and record copy layout looks good but not so sure about the search which maybe is a bit clunky. But I did find it interesting as it told me that in music they have 293K compact discs, 300 DVD audio, 5 box sets, 355 dual discs and 98 super audio CDs but no downloads. Again I soon got the bug and discovered that they have; 390K hardbacks, 797K paperbacks, 24K audiobooks, 76 box sets and 2K board books and even listed some special features with 3 braille books 522K illustrated, 6K abridged and what everyone wants to hear 187K bestsellers and even the split of number of titles within each price band!
The lack of inside views on books and audio samples was a little surprising given that it is becoming accepted that they are a must and the music sample were there and well presented.
It is clear that the chains and retailers are now taking on Amazon but that they are still the ones pushing the envelope.
