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Non-Tech : Borders Group (BGP)
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To: Satellite Mike who wrote (251)3/11/1999 11:45:00 AM
From: The Philosopher  Read Replies (1) of 411
 
I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict that NO bookseller will make profits from online trading for the next five years, which is my investment timeline. It looks to me as though the companies that are (and will be over the next several years) making money off the net have one of several characteristics: a) they have no inventory and no shipping costs (for example: stock brokers, auction houses, travel sites), b) they are selling a product that they can mark up exhorbitantly (sex products), c) they are charging a fee for needed and valueable services (legal publishing, specialty newsletters), or d) they have very large numbers of hits daily which will support a premium price for banner ads and/or can charge for giving other sites premium placement (Yahoo). Even Dell doesn't actually make money off their web sales; many of their sales still come over the phone, but customers have gotten the basic information from the web site. That makes it valuable, but not independently profitable.

This is a long answer (longer than I intended) to say that I really don't want to see Borders trying to go head-do-head with Amazon on the net. I think a Borders site is necessary as an adjunct to the stores (sort of like the Dell site), but the stores are where the money is being and will be made.

IMO!!!
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