people shopping online are doing it mainly for price reasons, and so will always then buy at the cheapeast place.. maybe with a little bit of loyalty thrown in.

Amazon has brand dominance online, despite the affection for Waterstones as a high street brand. The perception is, that Amazon is faster, cheaper, and has more books of all kinds, including ebooks. Pricing is a big barrier for me, on Waterstones website. Example: The Payback by Simon Kernick, ebook is £9.49 (!) on Waterstones,and £5.84 on Amazon.

Over at Futurebook today you can see the latest ebook bestseller chart and the prices at various online retailers.

Of the top ten, Waterstones only carry seven titles, while Amazon carry them all. Furthemore, only two of the top ten are the same price in both stores; the remaining five titles carried by Waterstones are being sold by Amazon for less than half Waterstones' price.

So in fact for 80% of the top ten ebooks, you would have to be crazy to shop at Waterstones instead of Amazon. WHSmith is marginally better; Amazon is only 40% cheaper instead of more than 50%.

It's amusing that the digital marketing guys are saying this is all about digital marketing. It's about price.

THEY ARE BUYING MORE FROM WHOLESALERS MID SIZED

I buy thousands of books from around the world. I only use Amazon as a last resort. ABEbooks.com is my favorite closely followed by BookFinder.com.
But lately I find myself buying more books from Book Depository even in Australia booksellers cannot compete against Book Depository we have no hope when you look at the costs of postage that we have to pay.

3 for 2 doesn't work in all situations. If your dealing with publishers who don't give the best discounts, you end up in the negative each sale. It certainly drives sales though, and with the big publishers, the scenario works well. But overall if your giving away a third of all your stock per day, the profits that Waterstones needs so badly, would be far far slower to gain. Cutting back on useless costs, like the much talked about POS insanity, and the leaflets etc etc produced en-mass, could be the better solution. It's like many things in the small w. So many wasted costs, that staff are the first to spot, yet HQ are always on the war path with the next attack wave of money wasted. Publishers and fairer cost cuts, penny pinching a bit more, and maybe the tides would turn, and book cost could be discounted further. But Amazon for all the corporate evils, are I've found a good company to buy from. Many more obscure titles, or foreign imports are usually got at far quicker than from Watersones stores, or the website. It's a shame, because like many, I do want to support my local book shop, but if I can get my books far quicker, and cheaper online, then why would I shop out of poket, just to be loyal?

I think the majority of books can be ordered into Waterstone's stores within 48 hours but, obviously, that means a customer has to go to the shop to place the order and then return a day or two later to pick it up... I can see why, when faced with this choice, most choose to order online.
As for 3-4-2 and other promotions, I think you're right; it works for big publishers but smaller titles and lesser-known authors may lose out in the long run.

Choclit, anyone?
No?
I'll get me coat...

even indie bookstores use amazon and book depository for supply, the publishers and Wholesalers offer such poor discounts on so many products (anything currently in a promo, like WBN or R & J book club then 50% at amazon most times), book depository delivery is a lot slower than amazon, but often quicker than a purchase direct from a publisher. And publishers want to deal more and more direct with schools, offering extra % and promotions, so indies are being cut out of that supply to. gardners and Bertrams offer Guiness world records at 45% if u buy 10 @ firm sale when it comes out. Asda / amazon offer the same firm sale - from 1+ copies @ £9 55% off. Gardners offered them again the other week for £10. they were £7 on amazon - yet their reps want to know why your not buying as much...... ermmmm no customers and not enough discount. never ending circle, till theres nothing left.