Google battles Amazon over books

Google teamed up with Barnes & Noble to offer same-day delivery of books, undercutting Amazon in shipping fees, according to the New York Times. Fred Katayama reports.

Published

6 months ago

Categories

Finance, Technology

Topics

Finance, Internet

People

Fred Katayama

Places

Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco

Companies

Google, Barnes & Noble, Amazon

Transcript

Google is taking on Amazon over its turf, express delivery of cheap books, and it's hooking up with Barnes & Noble to do so. The New York Times reports the pair launched same-day delivery today in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The tie-up adds another offering to Google's online delivery service, Google Shopping Express. That service delivers goods from retail partners like Costco and Target on the same day they're ordered. Working with Google could help Barnes & Noble goose sales of its books online AND at its stores. That's because unlike Amazon, which ships from warehouses, Google will have couriers pick up the books from Barnes & Noble stores and deliver them. Google is undercutting Amazon in price, according to the Times. It's charging its Shopping Express members $6 less than Amazon Prime and non-subscribers $5 less. But Amazon maintains the lead in same-day shipping. It just expanded that service yesterday to six more cities. Investors added shares of Barnes & Noble to their shopping carts in early trading, but skipped on Google and Amazon. Separately, cyber shoppers concerned about security could welcome Google's other move. The Wall Street Journal reports it'll reward encrypted websites by ranking them higher in search results.