WH Smith steps up Internet war

By TEENA LYONS
Updated:

 

The bookselling war in cyberspace is hotting up.

More price cuts are on the way from W. H. Smith Online, the retailer's Internet shop.

From today, the company will halve the cost of another 200 titles for the summer, and will follow up with heavy discounts on games, CDs and videos on its Website from next week.

The promotion follows aggressive price moves from W. H. Smith Online last week when it began offering 40 bestsellers at half price.

Online rival Amazon.com immediately matched the discounts and began an Internet price war. Rival bookseller uk.bol.com has also been discounting.

Rick Latham, managing director of W. H. Smith Online, said: 'This sort of price promotion is just the sort of thing Amazon did in the States, but in the UK we want to be in front and see them chase our coat-tails.'

Latham denies that a Web price war will hit sales at Smith's High Street stores. The group would lose customers to other online bookstores if it did not offer a competitive alternative, he said.

In a separate cyberspace initiative, music giant EMI is close to signing another deal with an Internet music company. It is talking to New York-based MCY Music World, which will launch its service on June 22.

This will enable customers to download album tracks directly from the Internet.

Last week EMI announced that it will provide a section of its catalogue to a company called musicmaker.com in exchange for a 50% stake.

Musicmaker.com customers can pick their favourite tacks which the company will turn into compilation CDs and post to them.

EMI's latest move will go one step further by allowing its artists' records to be bought directly from the Internet and downloaded instantly for a fraction of the usual cost.

MCY Music World has developed technology that makes it impossible to copy songs when they have been downloaded, so preventing illegal duplication. The company claims it will quickly become the world's top distributor of music over the Internet.

EMI had not yet decided on the terms of the deal. It could take a stake in MCY or simply share the revenues.

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