Barnes & Noble

    Barnes & Noble SWOT & PESTLE

    • Report

    • ID: 530411
    • 20 Pages
    • January 2022
    • Region: North America
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    About Barnes & Noble

    Barnes & Noble is an American book retailer. It's a Fortune 1000 corporation. It primarily operates through its Barnes & Noble Booksellers bookstore chain. The company's headquarters are located at 122 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. In 1886, Barnes & Noble was founded as Arthur Hinds & Company, and the name was changed to Barnes & Noble in 1917. Customers recognize the brand for its huge retail locations, many of which include a café that serves Starbucks coffee and other refreshments. Books, periodicals, newspapers, DVDs, graphic novels, presents, games, toys, music, and Nook e-readers and tablets are all sold in the majority of stores. In addition to its retail locations and other businesses, Barnes & Noble has a publishing division as well. The company also provides several comprehensive, user-friendly stores, such as Audiobooks, Award Winners, Libros en Espaol, and Bargain Books. This American book retailer has a huge selection of books. B&N Studio has hundreds of video author interviews, Emmy-winning documentaries, and its weekly book show popular as Tagged! In recent years, the company has added additional product lines, growing its online Toys & Games store, as well as a Magazines store with thousands of subscriptions to rare and hard-to-find titles. In September 2021, the firm announced the reopening of a new store in Peoria.

Barnes & Noble's USP lies in it being the largest bookseller in the United States with the most retail locations, and it has a dominant position in the media sector. The mission statement of the company reads, "To operate the best omni-channel specialty retail business in America, helping both our customers and booksellers reach their aspirations while being a credit to the communities we serve"

    Business Sector

    E-Commerce

    Operating Geography

    United States, North America, Global

    Revenue

    $1,433.9 million - FY ending 31st March 2020 (y-o-y growth -22.5%)

    $1,851.1 million - FY ending 31st March 2019

    SWOT

    SWOT Matrix for Barnes & Noble

    Strength

    Weakness
    1. Strong retail presence across North America
    2. Globally recognized brand with good customer loyalty
    3. Good performance on Corporate Equality Index
    4. B&N Cafes have high sales volumes and footfall
    1. Failed to successfully compete with e-commerce giants
    2. Unimpressive performance of separately traded B&N Education
    3. Consistently falling revenues and poor financial performance

    Opportunity

    Threat
    1. Expand Digital segment offerings and customer base
    2. Enter into strategic partnerships with universities and colleges
    3. Capture e-commerce market through new e-commerce platform
    1. Disruptions in educational calendar due to COVID-19
    2. Loss of revenues from piracy of digital and print materials
    3. B&N Education business is highly seasonal

    Detailed SWOT Analysis of Barnes & Noble

    The detailed SWOT analysis for Barnes & Noble is presented below:

    Strength

     
    1. Globally recognized brand with good customer loyalty: Barnes & Noble is today’s largest retail bookseller in the world. It is also a prominent retailer of digital content, media and various educational products. It has approximately 4.5 million eBooks for sale. The firm has over 600 brick and mortar stores across all 50 states in the US and carries out retail operations through its website i.e. BN.com. Its digital business offers a variety of Nook tablets and e-readers along with an ever expanding collection of digital reading material available on its Nook store. It sells approximately 155 million physical books per year via its retail operations in store and online. It is also the second largest magazine retailer in the US with 5,500 magazine titles and about 1,000 newspaper titles. This is a clear indication of the firm’s popularity globally.
    2. Strong retail presence across North America: Barnes and Noble has a rich history that can be traced back to 1873 although it officially became Barnes and Noble in 1971 when bookseller Leonard Riggio acquired it and opened the first flagship Barnes and Noble store in Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, New York. Soon Barnes and Noble became the largest retail bookseller in the world. As of 2021, the company operates more than 699 bookstores across 50 states and they also own one of the world’s leading e-commerce book sites, BN.com. Between their retail bookstores and online platform, Barnes and Noble sells approximately 155 million physical books every year. They are also America’s second largest retailer of magazines, selling over 5,500 magazine titles and 1,000 newspapers. Barnes and Noble Education also has operations in India where they sell study materials, educational content, both physical and online. India’s thriving educational atmosphere is good for sales and raising profits.

    Weakness

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    Opportunity

    This section is available only in the 'Complete Report' on purchase.

    Threat

    This section is available only in the 'Complete Report' on purchase.

    PESTLE

    PESTLE Matrix for Barnes & Noble

    Political

    Economic
    1. New US visa rules affecting inflow of foreign students
    1. Fall in consumer discretionary purchases
    2. Supply chain disruptions due to pandemic

    Social

    Technological
    1. Increasing shift to e-books over physical copies
    2. Influence of social media on the book industry
    3. Rise in popularity of audio books
    1. New technologies improving promotions of new books
    2. Rapid digitalization leading to ease in self-publishing

    Legal

    ENVIRONMENTAL
    1. Marketing restrictions under TCPA and CAN-SPAM acts
    2. Data collection restrictions under stricter data privacy laws
    1. Using recycled paper to increase sustainability of operations

    Detailed PESTLE Analysis of Barnes & Noble

    The detailed PESTLE analysis for Barnes & Noble is presented below:

    POLITICAL

    1. New US visa rules affecting inflow of foreign students: In 2020, U.S authorities proposed a new rule in which the visa of international students will be fixed for four-year term, and for those who want to extend their stay has to apply for an extension. For students who are from a country with visa overstay rate of above 10% or from a country that is listed in the U.S State Department’s State Sponsor of Terrorism list, the visa is limited to a fixed two-year term. Extension will only be permitted to students with compelling academic reasons such as documented medical illness or medical condition, or for situation which are not under the control of a student. Students can only stay in U.S as long as they are enrolled in some academic institutions and abide by their immigration rules. According to the rules, this step will provide the Immigration Department with additional protection as well as strengthen the nation’s immigration laws, and protect the integrity of the nonimmigrant programs. However, this step will adversely impact the inflow of international students as students who want to opt for jobs in the country will not be able to apply because of the visa limitation. This could impact Barnes and Noble as their will be less student on the campus to buy textbooks.

    ECONOMIC

    This section is available only in the 'Complete Report' on purchase.

    SOCIAL

    This section is available only in the 'Complete Report' on purchase.

    TECHNOLOGICAL

    This section is available only in the 'Complete Report' on purchase.

    LEGAL

    This section is available only in the 'Complete Report' on purchase.

    ENVIRONMENTAL

    1. Using recycled paper to increase sustainability of operations:  Book publishing is the third largest industrial greenhouse emitter. In U.S, the publishing industry cuts down around 32 million trees to make books and emit around 40 million metric tons of CO2 to produce books each year. Publishing companies are trying to reduce their environmental impact by developing environmental policies and signing the Book Industry Treatise on Environmentally Responsible Publishing. Along with its partners and peers, Barnes and Noble is trying to reduce the negative impact on the environment by promoting responsible environmental practices.

    More Info

    Major Competitors

    • Cengage Learning
    • McGraw-Hill
    • Wiley
    • Amazon
    • Books-A-Million
    • Costco
    • Target

    Major Brands

    • NOOK Digital
    • SparkNotes
    • Paper Source
    • Sterling Publishing
    • Tikatok LLC
    • FuncoLand

    Table of Contents

    • Company Overview
      • 1.1 About the Company
      • 1.2 Business Sector
      • 1.3 Operating Geography
      • 1.4 Revenue
    • SWOT Analysis
      • 2.1 SWOT Table/ SWOT Matrix
      • 2.2 SWOT Overview
      • 2.3 Detailed SWOT Analysis
      • 2.4 Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat
    • PESTLE Analysis
      • 3.1 PESTLE Table/ PESTLE Matrix
      • 3.2 PESTLE Overview
      • 3.3 Detailed PESTLE Analysis
      • 3.4 Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental
    • Appendix
      • 4.1 Major Competitors
      • 4.2 Business Sectors / Diversification
      • 4.3 References used to prepare this reports
    • Conclusion
      • 5.1 Closing thoughts
      • 5.2 Methodology used to prepare this report
      • 5.3 Copyrights and Disclaimer

      References and Copyright

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