Barnes & Noble Ranked #1 in the Top 20 Most Powerful "Back-to-School" Retail Brands Study

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Barnes & Noble, Inc. BKS, the nation's largest retail bookseller and a leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products, today announced that it was named the number 1 retailer in a Tenet Partners study of the Top 20 Most powerful "back-to-school" retail brands. Tenet Partners is a leading brand innovation and marketing firm, and its annual study of approximately 10,000 consumers and business decision-makers found that Barnes & Noble has the highest familiarity (degree of awareness) and favorability (positive perception) scores among leading back-to-school retailers. Barnes & Noble offers a broad assortment of products that are perfect for students of all ages at its nearly 650 stores nationwide, as well as online at BN.com.

"Barnes & Noble is proud to be named the number 1 retailer for back-to-school shopping and we believe it's a reflection on our unique offering of products for students of all ages," said Jaime Carey, Chief Operating Officer at Barnes & Noble. "From books, to science and math products, to school supplies and so much more, no other retailer can match the carefully curated selection that Barnes & Noble offers customers during the back-to-school season, and throughout the year."

Trending Back-to-School Categories at Barnes & Noble

Science and math are two product categories that are showing strong growth at Barnes & Noble, fueled not only by the classroom, but also by a strong interest in supplemental education products at home. Barnes & Noble has rolled out an expanded Science Center at select stores nationwide with a focus on math and science, as well as the growing trends in coding, circuitry and robotics, covering a curriculum from Kindergarten through Grade 8. Key products include the Math Dice Junior, Magic School Bus Chemistry Lab, Snap Circuits Arcade, Littlebits Deluxe Kit and much more. Visit BN.com or your nearest Barnes & Noble store for more details.

Top Books for the Back-to-School Season

Barnes & Noble is the only destination for customers to get all of their back-to-school books, including a great selection of workbooks for students in grades Pre-K through Grade 6. These workbooks supplement students' learning in the classroom at home and are great tools for both students and parents to engage with. The hottest trending workbooks currently are math and complete curriculum workbooks, including Spectrum Math Workbook, Grade 5 and Complete Curriculum: Grade 5 (Flash Kids Complete Curriculum Series).

Kids & Teens are also stocking up on reference books essential for the school year library and Barnes & Noble offers the leading collection, including Merriam-Webster Children's Dictionary, National Geographic Kids United States Atlas, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens and much more. Additionally, math and science books outside of workbooks are also trending with customers, including Kitchen Science Lab for Kids: 52 Family Friendly Experiments from Around the House and Bedtime Math.

To help ease the littlest ones' transition from home to school, parents and kids love stories that get them ready for the big day, including The Kissing Hand and First Day Jitters. Always popular with students are stories that take place in school and Barnes & Noble has a huge selection including bestsellers like The Isle of the Lost (Descendants Series) and Looking for Alaska.

And for kids that are gearing up for after-school activities, sports, crafting, coding and cooking are among the most popular themes, with books and products at Barnes & Noble including Sports Illustrated Kids Big Book of Who Basketball, Complete Book of Art Ideas, DK Workbooks: Computer Coding, Williams-Sonoma The Cookbook for Kids: Great Recipes for Kids Who Love to Cook and more.

As college-bound students come to Barnes & Noble for resources to find the best college and to excel academically, they are often looking for books that address questions on the entire college experience. Popular titles in that area include The Naked Roommate, 6E: And 107 Other Issues You Might Run Into in College, Secrets of Top Students: Tips, Tools, and Techniques for Acing High School and College and The Her Campus Guide to College Life: How to Manage Relationships, Stay Safe and Healthy, Handle Stress, and Have the Best Years of Your Life.

Unique Back-to-School Supplies and Gifts

Barnes & Noble offers a unique and practical assortment of back-to-school supplies and gift items. A consistent favorite with students is Barnes & Noble's leading offering of more than 200 Moleskine notebooks and journals. Boasting bold colors and classic designs, this selection meets every student's journaling needs.

Other customer favorites include a great selection of durable and lightweight backpacks and messenger bags for all ages, and a selection of lap desks that provide maximum stability and superior comfort. And Barnes & Noble is constantly looking to bring cool new trends to its stores, with this Back-to-School season featuring Ban.dō products that help students stay organized with fun and functional essentials, as well as tools for reading and studying including a Mark-My-Time Assorted Color Digital Bookmark with LED Book Light and a White Electronic Dictionary Bookmark.

Reading, Learning and Entertainment with NOOK^®

The perfect back-to-school companion device, the 7-inch NOOK by Samsung tablet is available for the great low price of only $149.99, in-store and online, and comes with a free Kimono sleeve and a 16GB memory card through August 22 (www.nook.com). The NOOK Store^® provides access to a wealth of reading, learning and entertainment content, including more than 4 million books, a curated NOOK Apps store with a focus on learning apps for kids, as well as movies, TV shows, magazines, newspapers and more.

Member Program Adds Extra Value During the Back-to-School Season

For even greater value, customers are invited to join the Barnes & Noble Member program, which gives Members 40% off the list price of all hardcover bestsellers in-store every day and 10% off the Barnes & Noble price of virtually everything else in-store throughout the year. Members also benefit from free express shipping on all online purchases at BN.com and receive exclusive savings offers throughout the year. The annual fee is only $25.

For more information on Barnes & Noble's complete back-to-school offering, visit any of the company's nearly 650 stores nationwide, or go online at BN.com.

About Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. BKS is a Fortune 500 company, the nation's largest retail bookseller, and a leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products. The Company operates 648 Barnes & Noble bookstores in 50 states, and one of the Web's premier e-commerce sites, BN.com (www.bn.com). The Nook Digital business offers a lineup of popular NOOK^® tablets and eReaders and an expansive collection of digital reading and entertainment content through the NOOK Store^®. The NOOK Store features more than 4 million digital books in the US (www.nook.com) and UK (www.nook.co.uk), plus periodicals, comics, apps, movies and TV shows, and offers the ability to enjoy content across a wide array of popular devices through Free NOOK Reading Apps^™ available for Android^™, iOS^® and Windows^®.

General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained by visiting the Company's corporate website at www.barnesandnobleinc.com.

Barnes & Noble^®, Barnes & Noble Booksellers^® and Barnes & Noble.com^® are trademarks of Barnes & Noble, Inc. or its affiliates. NOOK^® and the NOOK logos are trademarks of Nook Digital, LLC or its affiliates.

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