Barnes & Noble reported a decrease in sales of 8.5% reaching $1.3 billion for its first quarter 2013, compared to last year, according to a press release.
The digital portion of Barnes & Noble, which it calls NOOK saw revenues of $153 million for the quarter, a decrease of 20.2% from last year. The decline in NOOK sales was due to lower unit selling volume.
Digital content sales were $69 million for the first quarter, a decline of 15.8% compared to last year. This was due in part to lower device unit sales as well as the comparison to “The Hunger Games” and “Fifty Shades of Grey” trilogies. Without these two titles, digital content sales decreased 6.9%.
The retail segment of Barnes & Noble, which includes BN.com saw sales of $1.0 billion for the quarter, a decrease of 9.9% from last year. This is attributed to a comparable store sales decrease of 9.1% for the quarter, store closures and lower online sales.