Barnes & Noble has a crappy Christmas


Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS) reported some pretty lousy holiday sales results yesterday, but they were good enough to send the stock up 12%. Ah the glory of low expectations! Overall sales were down 5.2% and comparable store sales fell 7.7%.

That's not so bad given the trouble that retailers and the book industry at large are facing, but the 11.0% decline in BN.com sales is more of a cause for concern.

In the press release, the company added that it had "experienced diminished traffic, and as a result, diminished sales, due to the unprecedented fall-off of retail shopping during the last quarter of the year. After a slow start to the holiday season, our store performance improved and we were able to post comparable store sales increases during the last two weeks of the season, enabling us to meet our sales guidance for the period to date."

But what about the internet sales? Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) reported record sales and according to data gathered by Geezeo's Main Street Spending Index (MSSI), a 17% increase in per customer sales.

Given that the future growth in the bookselling industry seems likely to focus on e-commerce, Barnes & Noble is going to have to do a lot better online.

Luckily, the company seems to recognize that: On the same day it released its holiday results, it named former HSN.com boss William J. Lynch president of Barnes & Noble.com.

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