HarperCollins has just unveiled a redesigned website this afternoon. The publisher is putting an emphasis on recommending compelling new reads with an interactive tool called Book Finder.
Book Finder is the crown jewel of the new HarperCollins website. It is designed to present a series of genres and give you what a sense of what the book is about by merely hovering the mouse over the cover art. Once you find something you want to purchase, you can add it to your cart and have the physical mailed out. There are no e-book options, so it looks like HC wants to sell print directly, bypassing retail stores such as Barnes and Noble or Waterstones.
HarperCollins as also added lots of interactive and social content to their main landing page. You can view videos or check out their Instagram Feed.
Speaking to the new site, HC chief marketing officer Angela Tribelli said the goal was “to ensure that hc.com featured the best on behalf of our authors.” Tribelli continued: “New is always nice, but relevant is even better, and we know how to deliver what readers want.” She then added that after the site’s last redesign, traffic and sales increased “significantly” over the following year. “We’re looking to continue that trend.”
The new site only sells and ships books to residents of United Kingdom and the United States. Apparently they do not ship to Canada and other major markets, which means Amazon continues to be the most viable option to buy print or digital.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
