US bookseller Barnes & Noble has announced its partnership with UK retailers Dixons Retail, Sainsbury‘s and Waitrose as it continues its UK expansion.
Offering it‘s award-winning Nook products, Curry‘s and PC World are to sell the goods, including the Nook Simple Touch and Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight, across its 600 stores nationwide as well as online.
While the Simple Touch is a lightweight device with extra-long battery life and a paper-like display, the Nook Simple Touch Glowlight also features an evenly distributed and adjustable light for night-time reading.
Available from next month, the partnerships highlight Barnes & Noble‘s commitment to providing quality e-readers and tablets to the UK market, competing with pure-play e-tailer Amazon which has led the e-book market for some time.
The partnership also seeks to improve Sainsbury‘s reach in the market, following news earlier this year that the grocer acquired a controlling stake of online e-book retailer Anobii which was purchased from floundering retailer HMV.
“We aim to offer our customers new and exciting products,” said Lindsay Evans, Sainsbury‘s New Technology Buyer.
“The Nook provides avid readers with a portable, easy way to consume literature. General merchandise represents a significant part of our business‘ growth and it was critically important to us we found a device partner who understands the specific needs of our customers.”
Meanwhile, competitor Waitrose is also partnering with the company, which is the world‘s largest bookseller, selling its portfolio of products across selected stores.
Last month, department store John Lewis was the first to launch Barnes & Noble‘s Nook e-reader in stores, making it the first retailer outside the US to distribute the device and Waitrose will offer products to a number of branches as part of its partnership with the retailer.
“We have enormous respect for Waitrose as great established company in the UK and think it is a perfect brand fit for Nook,” said Jamie Iannone, President of Digital Products at Barnes & Noble.
“We look forward to joining forces with them to bring our award winning eReading and tablet products to their millions of discerning customers.”
