Collins Booksellers, a 50+ store strong bookstore chain, just announced that they would soon be Kobo’s latest retail partner.
Starting in September, ebook fans will be able to find the Kobo Wifi in all Collins stores across Australia. They’ll also be able buy ebooks on the Collins website. The new ebook offering is timed to coincide with the relaunch of the Collins website, which is being rebuilt with the help of Seek Media, an online bookseller that Collins purchased back in April.
Collins have also made other recent moves to expand their share of the book market. They recently closed a deal to add a group of former A&R franchisees to their network of franchise partners, and the final count should be around 70 stores. Collins also announced back in April that their franchisees will earn a percentage of the revenue of all online sales sold to customers within their assigned store territory. This is going to apply to both the books and ebooks sold online, as well as any eReader sold online.
Interesting. I’d been told by someone at Kobo a few weeks back that something would be happening in the AUS/NZ book market, and that I should stay tuned. So I guess this means that Kobo won’t just be signing a single partner in some markets; now they will have Collins competing for the same ebook sales as Pearson, who recently bought the rights to the REDgroup website (including Kobo ebook sales).
There’s no word yet on when the Kobo Touch will hit the shelves down in Australia.
via BookBee
RSS
Email
Facebook
Twitter
iOS Reading App Roundup - The Digital Reader // Jul 25, 2011 at 8:19 am
[...] an important detail itself). On a related note, Kobo signed a new Australian retail partner late Sunday night (early Monday in [...]
Kobo, down but not out, adds Collins booksellers as its second Aussie licensee // Jul 25, 2011 at 5:31 pm
[...] has appointed a second Australian licensee for its ebookstore, adding to Pearson which picked up a Kobo-powered ebook store when it bought the [...]
Officeworks, Collins, & JB HiFi to Carry the Kobo Touch in Australia - The Digital Reader // Oct 25, 2011 at 9:39 pm
[...] up and running this week or the next. This is a 60+ chain of franchise and corporate stores. They announced their partnership with Kobo back in July, and while 5 months might seem to be a long delay to launch an ebookstore, Collins were also [...]
Friday « Green Light // Oct 27, 2011 at 5:03 pm
[...] the need to comment on. First of all Kobo has been busy tying up deals with retailers in the UK and Australia but also it would seem finalising plans to become a publisher. Amazon, it would seem has become [...]