There are two important news stories for Australian book lovers, and that includes all formats, but particularly the old fashioned physical ones.
- Pearson has acquired the ecommerce operations of RED Group, that’s the owner of Borders Australia and Angus & Robertson who went into administration earlier this year. (full article)
- Amazon has acquired Book Depository, the UK based e-tailer of books with free shipping worldwide and the place where Australians in the know bought their books at reasonable prices. (full article)
Why is this important? Well, it means that there are major players out there who still believe in the potential of old fashioned books. It also means that the Australian market remains attractive to global players.
Many stories have been written about how Australian ecommerce is poised to explode in the next few years as many household names begin to effectively use web and mobile to deliver shopping experiences. This is exciting for the Australian consumer and for the digital industry that will support a new retail boom.
Let’s just hope that Amazon retains free shipping to Australia as the owner of Book Depository. Otherwise, we’ll be back to artificially high prices or a switch to Kindle.
