(2018-08-22) Walmarts Ebookstore Is Launching Today The Digital Reader

Walmart's eBookstore is Launching Today. Walmart is going to be selling ebooks both on its site and in stores. The ebookstore will be located at http://www.walmart.com/ebooks when it goes live, and it will be managed by Kobo and supported via a subdomain on Kobo's website.

Walmart will sell just one Kobo model in stores at launch, the $99 Kobo Aura.

Walmart used a similar ebook gift car system for its ebookstore in Canada, but shut that down in 2016. I was told by Walmart's tech partner that the program ended after the market dried up. That partner later sold off its tech to a 3rd party. Also, Target partnered with Livrada to sell ebook gift cards in stores in 2012, and Amazon ran a similar pilot in drug stores in 2016. Both programs were shut down for unknown reasons. To put it simply, Walmart is now reviving a sales model that has failed three times in the past 6 years. Do you think they're going to get it right this time, or are they repeating the same mistake as before?