Barnes & Noble will ship its Nook electronic readers to 2 500 Walmart stores this month to reach more shoppers ahead of the holiday season.
The devices will hit Walmart shelves as soon as 24 October, and will also be available on the discount chain's Web site, the world's largest bookstore chain said in a statement on Thursday.
Many bookstores have suffered as readers buy more of their books online, or in electronic form.
Among adults who do not have an eReader, just more than 12% said they were likely to get one in the next six months, according to a recent online poll of 2 775 adults surveyed by Harris Interactive.
Walmart will offer two Nook models - Nook 3G, which offers free AT&T 3G wireless and WiFi connectivity, as well as Nook WiFi, a WiFi-only model.
Both will give buyers access to shop the Barnes & Noble eBookstore with more than 1 million eBooks, magazines and newspapers, mostly priced at $9.99 or less, and more than 500 000 free titles.
Barnes & Noble has managed to quickly garner a 20% share of the e-books market and has forecast online sales rising 75% to $1 billion this fiscal year.
Separately, e-reader maker Kobo, which has a deal to co-brand devices with Borders Group, the number two US bookstore chain, said on its Web site that its wireless e-readers would be available for sale at 2 500 US Walmart stores starting next week.
Share