Barnes & Noble Search Pay Off
August 21, 2009
I noted the article “Second Quarter Web Sales Rise Slightly for Barnes & Noble.” On one hand, the increase in Web sales may suggest that the company’s ecommerce service is reflecting an uptick in the dismal financial climate. In my archive of search vendor information which my son had me dig through this afternoon for a particular item I wrote four years ago I noted that Endeca listed Barnes & Noble as a customer. The item I noticed by sheer happenstance was this comment in an Endeca news release dated March 2009. The question that raced through my mind: “Was the Endeca system responsible for the uptick?” I hope it was because search vendors have a devil of a time “proving” return on investment. Large scale installations can easily hit $2.0 million before the client realizes that search is indeed an application that requires significant resources. Here are some highlights from the write up in Internet Retailer:
- Q2 web sales of $102 million, an increase of 2.2% from $99.8 million in the second quarter of 2008.
- For the first six months of the year: E-commerce revenue decreased 2.2% to $195 million from $199.4 million.
Okay.
I am not going to draw any conclusions or make any goose like sounds. I am no MBA, but it seems as if the time value of money for ecommerce search could make an interesting business school project for someone.
Stephen Arnold, August 21, 2009
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