In these fast-moving times, the idea of browsing a bookshelf can seem like a luxury. But what if that shelf was “magic” — tailor-made to reflect the visitor’s specific interests, with relevant recommendations and “I-hadn’t-thought-of-that” suggestions?

Thanks to a partnership between Borders Group and enterprise search solution provider Endeca, the virtual Magic Shelf is the first thing visitors to the bookstore’s website see. In addition to categories like “new music,” “new fiction” and “new for kids,” there are choices such as “picked for you” and “staff picks,” as well.

Kevin Ertell, senior vice president of e-business for Borders Group, has become a believer. His own Borders.com Magic Shelf was what turned him on to a tome called “The Art of Strategy: A Game Theorist’s Guide to Success in Business and Life.”

“In an office absolutely surrounded by books, I’ve found one there that I hadn’t even heard of,” he says. “It’s a niche thing, not something that would normally be promoted. But it showed up because of my interest in strategy. That’s very appealing to me, and I love it.”

In speaking with customers, Borders discovered that more than half of the people who walk into the bookstore don’t know what they want to buy. “They’re just looking for a new book,” Ertell says. But that’s not all: They’re also looking for a sense of “warmth, inspiration and discovery,” and want someone who knows what is available to make a good recommendation.

“We wanted to capture that and bring it online, too,” he says. “We wanted a much more browse-focused experience, something that allows people to explore. And we’ve been pleased to hear from our customers that they’ve had the same feeling online that they’ve had walking into one of our stores.”

Changing the strategy
Prior to teaming with Endeca, Borders had partnered with Amazon.com. That basically meant the retailer’s website was an Amazon site with a Borders logo, Ertell says, and it gave the company no effective way to differentiate itself online.

“We wanted to change our strategy,” he says. “We thought it was very important to have our own website and have control over it, as well as over the customer experience. We wanted to be able to integrate it in a cross-channel way with the store, and be able to incorporate things like our loyalty program.”

Online consumers expect e-commerce features to work easily and intuitively, with navigation tools that they don’t have to think too hard about. Grand plans for the new site were soon under way, and it was up and running by the end of May.

Jesse Goldman, Endeca’s global lead for the retail industry, says the idea of offering a consistent cross-channel experience is becoming “increasingly important.” In the case of Borders, one of the challenges was the number of SKUs involved – approximately three million books, CDs and DVDs are available online. The stores carry only a fraction of that total, but store kiosks – representing the next phase of the rollout – will afford in-store shoppers “all of the functionalities available in the online forum,” Ertell says.

“Think about customer reviews,” he says. “That’s a huge feature point on a lot of websites. With those, you’re able to hear from real people, who seem to have more credibility than experts these days.

“Let’s say you’re looking for travel books on Amsterdam. I was just doing that last week, and I looked up customer reviews — people who have used different books and gone to Amsterdam and talked about their experiences. If that’s available on a kiosk in the store, that can help you make a selection while you’re there.”

The kiosks also give consumers the ability to create wish lists online and access them in the store (although they’re not yet available for others to see without password access). “This is a really popular feature with customers, since they don’t have to have lists on paper jammed into their pockets with titles and authors,” Ertell says. “These are just some of the things we’re doing to try to bring together the channels.”

But what of store staff? They often provide a vast reservoir of experience, and “we want to take advantage of the knowledge of our 30,000 employees,” Ertell says. “The staff review feature on the site is a way to do that. We’re now able to leverage that expertise across the chain. It would be physically impossible to do that otherwise.”

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