Borders and Sony Launch Co-Branded Online E-Book Store
Borders has launched a co-branded online store with support from Sony, offering digital downloads of more than 25,000 e-books. Customers who purchase a Reader Digital Book at a Borders superstore are given a promotion code and a customized version of the eBook Library software to access the new co-branded site, allowing them to immediately begin purchasing e-book downloads of titles written by bestselling authors such as Dean Koontz, Khaled Hosseini and Michael Connelly, among thousands of others. Through its expanded agreement with Sony, Borders is also now selling the Reader in virtually all of its Borders superstores nationwide, doubling the number of locations that had been selling the Reader since last year. Additionally, Borders customers who are also T-Mobile HotSpot customers can access the co-branded site while in a Borders superstore via the T-Mobile HotSpot network. "With the rollout of the Reader in our Borders superstores nationwide, we are seeing sales increase chain-wide, and customer interest in this exciting technology is growing," says Kevin Ertell, Borders Group's vice president of e-business. "By adding the opportunity through the co-branded online store to purchase e-book downloads, we are now meeting our customers' needs fully, from device to a vast array of titles. Clearly with this commitment and offering to customers, Borders is embracing this technology, which we firmly believe will emerge over time as important to our business."