In an effort or “re-engage customers as a serious bookseller,” Borders is offering free Wi-Fi powered by Verizon in over 500 stores. Fair enough. Might be a nice little treat for those dudes who sit in the anime aisle reading book after book or the weird guy who is totally angry at the latest of Atlantic Monthly and willing to tell everyone about it near the cafe. It will, in short, make the Borders experience just that more varied and magical.
ANN ARBOR, Mich., Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ — Borders Group (NYSE: BGP) today announced that it has signed an agreement with Verizon to provide free Wi-Fi service in virtually all of its more than 500 Borders stores nationwide. Borders and Verizon are well underway in the process of equipping stores to offer free Wi-Fi, with service expected to be available by mid-October.
“Re-engaging with customers as a serious bookseller is one of our strategic priorities,” said Borders Group Chief Executive Officer Ron Marshall. “By offering free Wi-Fi, we are extending the open atmosphere of exploration that is at the core of every great bookstore experience and furthering the sense of community we have always fostered at Borders.”
Verizon’s platform will allow Borders to create a splash page that customers first experience when they log on to the free Wi-Fi service, giving Borders the opportunity to feature compelling content such as news of hot titles, special discounts and the opportunity to join Borders Rewards((R)), the retailer’s free customer loyalty program that has 34 million members. Among other benefits, Borders Rewards members earn $5 in “Borders Bucks” for every $150 of annual qualifying purchases made both in store and at Borders.com.
This agreement builds on an existing relationship between Borders and Verizon that encompasses a number of advanced communications and IT services, including wide area networking and voice-over-IP services, Internet connectivity and e-commerce operations support.
Free wifi is a good thing, but how it engages the customer as a “serious bookseller” is beyond me. Aren’t they really just admitting that our entire economy is now driven by selling coffee to people who are looking for free wifi?
kind of, yes.
This is just one way of getting the customer into the store. It’s not reducing them down to just coffee drinkers. That said, free wi-fi isn’t going to get me into the store, but if I’m there, I’ll whip out the iPhone and take advantage of it.
While I don’t really know how it will engage more booksellers, I applaud Borders for further differentiating itself from the B&N model of “charge for WiFi at Starbucks.” I’ll definitely be stopping by and be able to add Borders to my “places on the go” for quick business meetings.
I don’t know where you are getting your information from, but B&N has been offering Free WiFi in their stores for over a month now. This new Borders announcement seems like it’s just following suit and trying to keep up.
Yeah, because finding a McDonalds or Panera or (insert name of local coffee house here) is just too time consuming.
i dont know how adding free wi-fi will make borders a more serious bookseller than the thousands of books it has easy access to but i am deffinately looking forward to it.
As a student, WiFi is a huge bonus for me. With WiFi and coffee, Borders is now an excellent public place to do homework (Starbucks loses my business by charging for WiFi). Also, haven’t you ever been at Borders and thought a book looked good, but just couldn’t get yourself to buy it until you could go home and check out the reviews online? Well, now with in-store WiFi, you can just check the reviews while you’re still at Borders, which saves a trip home and a trip back. Sure, you could do that on your phone as long as you have a data plan, but as a student who goes to a school with campus-wide WiFi, it’s unreasonable for me to pay $30 for a data plan. So, for those who bash on the WiFi and call it pointless, consider that it isn’t just the “anime reader” or the “guy who’s angry at the latest issue of the Atlantic” who will take advantage of it. This is great news for students everywhere.