Fortune 500 company Barnes & Noble has reported lower loss during the first quarter. The largest retail bookseller in the United States has improved the margins in several key segments. On Tuesday, the company reported a smaller first-quarter loss, thanks to large cost cutting done but despite this the country's biggest bookseller could not deflect a 7% decline in sales.

The declined sales are the result of the strong competition by online retail and e-book market. Since long, Barnes & Noble is struggling to compete in the online retail market after its Nook e-reader started opting for more popular devices from Amazon and Apple.

The current market conditions have created a very challenging environment for Barnes & Noble, the last major national bookstore chain remaining after Borders closed in 2011.

Michael P. Huseby, Barnes & Noble's chief executive, held a conference call with investors and analysts. He said that the chain was making progress by undertaking new school contracts. For its college business, it has opened 705 bookstores at colleges and universities. Besides, the company is keen about its new partnerships and initiatives like its co-branded Samsung device.

Along with all these contracts, Barnes & Noble has also been experimenting with ways to expand the company's retail reach. For this, the company is making all possible efforts to maintain its footing at a tumultuous moment for the book business, as it faces constant pressure from its biggest competitor, Amazon.

In one such effort, Barnes & Noble teamed up with Google this August so as to test the market for same-day delivery of books and other products from its brick-and-mortar stores in Los Angeles, New York and the San Francisco Bay. This move was a direct aim against Amazon's delivery service.

It is largely uncertain whether all these efforts put forward by the company will be beneficial at securing their future or not.

Mitchell S. Klipper, the chief executive of the company's retail group, said the declines at the stores were smaller than expected. To this, James L. McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research said, "If your store sales are perpetually declining, even if it's by a small percentage every year, that doesn't bode well for the future".