New York-based online bookseller BarnesandNoble.com this week launched its same-day delivery service in the New York borough of Manhattan.
The new service — which was tested in a pilot project in Manhattan last year — enables customers who place orders by 11 a.m. for books and merchandise on the company's Web site, www.bn.com, to receive their merchandise by 7 p.m. that day.
The service includes residential and business addresses and costs the same as the company's standard shipping service — $3.99, with additional books ordered at the same time costing 95 cents each to deliver.
Standard delivery usually takes three to seven days.
BarnesandNoble.com contracted with CitySprint 1-800-Deliver in Manhattan for its same-day service.
CitySprint picks up boxed orders from the company's warehouse in Dayton, NJ, twice each day. The trucks transport the orders to CitySprint's delivery operation. Orders then are distributed among individual messengers who deliver them by foot, bicycle or van.
With this new service, BarnesandNoble.com is the first online bookseller to deliver books and music on the same day they are ordered.
“Our same-day delivery service brings a range of book titles to our customers' doorsteps within hours,” said Steve Riggio, vice chairman at BarnesandNoble.com, in a prepared statement.
Gus Carlson, a spokesman for BarnesandNoble.com, did not comment when asked about plans to expand the service.
“We are going to wait and see how the Manhattan experience works,” he said.
