Speedy and cheap delivery of books: this is the very niche in which major companies have been eyeing to become the key player.
Book enthusiasts in the major cities of San Francisco, Manhattan, and West Los Angeles currently now have access to Google Shopping Express, according to a report by the New York Times.
Google Shopping Express is Google's delivery service that was launched in 2013 to facilitate book order delivery within the day. Google Shopping enables online shoppers to place orders from stores such as Staples, Costco, and Target and have them delivered to their homes in just a few hours.
Amazon, meanwhile, currently dominates the same-day delivery service for American consumers.
In an effort to topple this, Google and Barnes & Noble are preparing a partnership to deliver books within hours of orders in select areas.
At a glance, the partnership seems to come out of the blue. Barnes & Noble is widely known for its brick and mortar business model that has been practically wiped out by digital marketing revolutions such as e-commerce, reported Wired.com. Google, on the other hand, is recognized as the foundation of virtually everything online.
Michael Huseby, head of Barnes & Noble, a key player in book selling industry who has been experiencing slow sales in recent years, told the New York Times that the partnership is a "test."
The partnership, Huseby said, is part of their "attempt to link the digital and physical," he told them.
For years now, Amazon has been a major threat to Google and Barnes & Noble. Its success has been attributed to the fact that it was able to get hold of the massive gap left by Barnes & Noble in areas of efficient delivery of products.
The race to offer faster delivery has been on the spotlight in recent times as marketers, retailers, and service providers alike are cramming up to get a piece of e-commerce industry.
