Borders lays foundation for solo web venture

Bookshop chain prepares to break from Amazon's online services

Borders is to launch its own web site

High-street bookshop chain Borders is installing order management software to serve as the order fulfilment foundation of its web site when it launches Borders.com early next year.

The company is developing the site to replace its existing e-commerce activities which it shares with Amazon.com and wanted a best-of-breed order fulfilment capability.

The technology is vital to ensure efficient order processing and a good customer experience, says Borders executive vice president Rick Vanzura.

‘We chose Sterling Order Management software from Sterling Commerce because it offers speed of deployment and best-of-breed capabilities that meets our aggressive implementation timeline,’ he said.

The software will allow Borders to process customer orders on its web site, to and from its stock fulfilment warehouses, and provide ship-to-store functionality.

Sterling Commerce’s software is also based on a service-oriented architecture (SOA) to enable ease of data integration and enhance adaptability for future change.