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The arrival of blinkbox books, Tesco’s e-book site which launched this week (25th March), has been welcomed by publishers, with analysts giving it the “best chance yet” of breaking Amazon’s e-book market monopoly.
Gavin Sathianathan (pictured), m.d. of blinkbox books, told The Bookseller it was focused on Tesco’s 20 million-strong customer base. “We have tons of data about people who shop in Tesco, and for me it seems sensible to focus on those customers—but that’s 20 million people regularly coming through those stores,” he said, adding jokingly: “If we could convert all those people into readers of e-books, that would be a great thing—maybe after that we can go after Amazon’s customers!”
Sathianathan described the site as “a website with that human touch that will enable customers to have a deeper connection to the authors they love.” Blinkbox books positions its offer in the same range as Tesco’s stores, with around 30% discount off titles’ r.r.p.
The website also enables customers to read a small section of a book for free before deciding whether to buy it, which Sathianathan said was designed to replicate the experience of browsing in a bookshop, a feature developed after market research into what customers wanted.
The site will be hooked up to Tesco’s Clubcard points scheme. “With the Tesco Clubcard, the more customers read, the more points they earn,” said Sathianathan. “For many Tesco customers who already love reading, this is a new service for them.”
Around half a million Tesco Hudl tablets have been sold to date, and over the Christmas period like-for-like sales on blinkbox music and film increased by 245%. These factors have led some in the industry to believe Tesco has the makings of a legitimate counter to Amazon’s e-book offer.
Enders analyst Douglas McCabe said: “Tesco has the best chance of making some inroads [into Amazon’s dominance] for two reasons: it has an integrated ecosystem, and a distinct market position.” However, McCabe said that “if anything, Amazon’s grip
on the market has tightened over the past year as other companies such as Barnes & Noble’s Nook failed to live up to expectations in the UK.”
McCabe said Tesco was right to go after their own customers, but he argued that the e-book retail domain was a “winner-takes-all market”. McCabe concluded that Tesco’s share would be “likely to remain relatively small overall: Amazon’s extraordinary market leadership will remain unchallenged.”
Matt Piner, commercial director of retail analyst Conlumino, said: “Tesco is looking at trying to tie itself up as the place to go for digital entertainment; a place customers can get music and film and books and also buy the Hudl.”
Publishers welcomed a new force in the e-book market. Michael Bhaskar, digital publishing director at Profile Books, said: “When a new e-book player comes with the backing of Britain’s largest retailer, you have to take notice. The e-book market is phenomenally competitive though, and for anyone to succeed it takes a huge amount of commitment and long-term thinking. Blinkbox looks like it might have both.”
Matt Oldfield, digital sales executive at Canongate, said that using Clubcard points and tying e-book purchasing into the main supermarket experience was “a great opportunity”. Supermarkets have the power to compete in the space, Oldfield said, because of their sizeable market share in physical retail.
Richard Kitson, commercial director at Hachette UK, said the company had a long history of working successfully with Tesco, and was “delighted” with the e-book expansion.