Barnes & Noble.com Ranks Number One in Customer Satisfaction among All

    Business Editors

    NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 16, 2005--Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS), the world's largest bookseller, announced that Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com), was number one in customer satisfaction on the American Customer Satisfaction Index in the latest annual e-commerce report on consumer attitudes by the University of Michigan. Barnes & Noble.com topped hundreds of other online retailers, including Amazon and eBay.
    Barnes & Noble.com's rating increased over the prior year's rating, one of the few increases in customer satisfaction among e-retail companies. The report said, "Barnes & Noble stayed true to its business model and product offering and has been rewarded for it. Since last year, Barnes & Noble.com has seen its satisfaction score increase 1.2 percent to 87, which puts it at the top of the e-retail category for the first time."
    "We're proud of all that we have accomplished this past year in our commitment to customer satisfaction," said Marie Toulantis, chief executive officer of Barnes & Noble.com. "Delivering satisfaction to our customers is our number one priority and we're pleased to be recognized for it."

    About Barnes & Noble, Inc.

    Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 839 bookstores in 50 states. For the third year in a row, the company is the nation's top retail brand for quality, according to the EquiTrend(R) Brand Study by Harris Interactive(R). Barnes & Noble conducts its online business through Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com), one of the Web's largest e-commerce sites and the number-one brand among e-commerce companies, according to the latest EquiTrend survey. In addition to its retail operations, Barnes & Noble is one of the largest book publishers in the world. Its subsidiary, Sterling Publishing, publishes over 1,100 new titles a year and has an active list of over 5,000 titles.
    General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained via the Internet by visiting the company's corporate Web site: http://www.barnesandnobleinc.com.

--30--DJL/cl*

CONTACT: Barnes & Noble, Inc. Mary Ellen Keating, 212-633-3323 Senior Vice President Corporate Communications

KEYWORD: MICHIGAN NEW YORK INDUSTRY KEYWORD: PUBLISHING RETAIL CONSUMER/HOUSEHOLD INTERNET E-COMMERCE SOURCE: Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Copyright Business Wire 2005