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Boo.Com: Will The Tears Stop?
Industry specialists say that a revival of the collapsed on-line clothing and shoe retailer Boo.com is nearby. The company's liquidators KMPG believe that Boo's "infrastructure has a huge capacity - this represents a real point of interest for potential buyers." KPMG reveals that it has already received 30 offers so far. Boo's on-line rivals are poised to snatch its 200-360 staff facing redundancy, because of their specialist skills and knowledge of e-commerce. The company collapsed after failing to find a further £20 million on top of the £80 million given by investors last year. Boo's Web site is also one of the most sophisticated on-line retail outlets in Europe. However, this also contributed to the company's downfall. Boo was forced to redesign its graphics-heavy site in January after complaints that too many windows opened automatically, and customers have been frustrated by slow download times. On-line shoppers needed fairly high-powered computers and fast modems to quickly access Boo.com. In Europe only 1% of European PC users have high speed modems, according to Therese Torris, technology analyst at Forrester Research. Boo's initial launch was postponed last May, because Apple Mac users couldn't see the site. Graphic designers and media companies use Apple Macs, representing a key market for Boo. These are the types of on-line customers that would buy Boo's trendy clothing and footwear range. Benetton was amongst the brands sold by Boo. Users also found that Boo.com was a difficult site to navigate. The site also uses Flash animation software, which most users didn't have on their computers last year. The company also faced logistical problems, as the site targeted 18 European countries. It had to create an international infrastructure that could cope with the different national currencies, and one that required some consolidation to make sure that customers' orders were taken and their goods received on time. A lot of companies have also stopped their staff downloading Internet browser plug-ins to protect their systems from computer viruses. Graham Brown, managing director of IT consultancy, Neaman-Bond said Boo made a critical mistake by presuming that: "..customers were as sexy in terms of technology" as Boo itself. Mr. Brown argues that Boo should scale back the level of technology it uses, so that more customers can see the site. Experts also said that new sites should be tested with the last two previous versions of the Internet browsers available on the market. The early experiences of Boo's customers scared many of them away, and they returned to the more traditional High Street shopping. Even so surveys produced by consultants Ernst and Young, suggest that spending on the Internet is to increase by 10% over the next two years. It trebled last year, inspiring the rise in dot-com companies launching themselves onto the financial markets. At first, like with lastminute.com, these companies' shares boomed. They have since had a rougher time. In fact lastminute.com's shares halved in value within days of appearing on the stockmarket. Channel 4 news last night suggested that Boo forgot that traditional marketing still applies to e-commerce. There were clear suggestions of mismanagement by Boo's Swedish founders Kajsa Leander and Ernst Malmsten. Critics have argued that they were the wrong people to run the company, and that perhaps e-commerce company owners should not be e-commerce managers. |
More
e-Commerce crashes Audio:
"Still a great deal of money around," says Mike
Whittaker,
BBC News
Online: BBC News Online: Boo. Gone - January 2000 On-line
Record EMAP: e-Commerce Marketing On-line Travel at Lastminute.com Prime Minister Tony Blair: Speech on e-Commerce e-Commerce in Scotland |
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