UKNM: boo's demise/ bots schmots

[Ian Tester]

Ben wrote: (Hello ben!)


"When price information is available at almost no cost (even ignoring

Hyperlink's (sorry Asda's) Valuemad shopbots) no one is ever going to make

large profits selling goods online."


Unfortunately, this only works for a very few product categories, as there

are very few cross-industry product databases available. Certainly not

clothing, where the entire industry works on a style/colour/size combo, and

there's therefore no unique identifier for the bots to latch on to. Go find

a trainer described identically on any 2 websites, or any 2 stores for that

matter, or find shoppers that want to compare on a 13 digit UPC/EAN code. .

.  The reason why it is easy to sell books and CDs is that all the hard work

has already been done for you, and you can buy your product database on a CD

rom. . . b2b exchanges should tidy up this process over the next few years,

but it's a job of mental complexity in pretty well every industry. Then

you'll get shopbots that work.


Neil wrote:


"Does boo.com have any postive value in its brand?"


Like it or not, we have the most robust e-comm platform and fulfilment in

the world - and fantastic customer service, and  great merchandise, and a

lot of it (i.e more than 3 pairs, choice of colours, sizes, gosh!). Credit

Suisse First Boston survey for the first statement, and a glove firmly on

the ground to anyone else that wants to check it. . . (any owners of

"shopping comparison" sites, and "mystery shopper" types, do take note ;-0 )


Aidan wrote:


"As we have several of you boo.com folk on the list, can you give us any

unofficial feedback on the "For Sale: Boo.com" story that's cropped up

today?"


Not if i want a job later in the week - and i've got my options to think of

;-0


Robin wrote:


"Now the comparison engines are truly here, does anyone

have any thoughts on how Amazon et al will survive (other than simply

spending a bit less on advertising...)"


- consolidation and superior customer service (blackstar!) these things only

work for a few categories, so if you're selling wine, put your feet up and

light the pipe. . . .


"Yup, but clearly depends on how one defines a complete flop."


and it depends who's defining the flop. . . staff?/the industry?/the

media?/the investment community? the posited trade sale (and i know nothing

about this, so don't quote me, i'm rehashing what i read in the papers here)

may actually prove a fresh shot of life, depending on the potential buyer. .

.


"Very few mags

were predicting this when boo.com was announced. By the time it launched,

maybe, but not when it was announced."


the best thing is that everybody will be able to say "i told you so" and *be

right* (hires private eye to trawl reuters to see who did actually say i

told you so, compares against list of those who claim to have told everybody

so. . . )


right, i'm off to list hibernation. . .


;-0


i (no prizes for the best pun on my sig)


Ian Tester, Strategic Marketing Analyst, boo.com

****Visit http://www.boo.com/  - brands to set your pulse racing ****

boo.com Group Limited, 136 Regent Street, London W1R 6HJ, UK

T + 44 (0)20 7959 4445 M +44 (0)7880 557692 F +44 (0)20 7950 0951 E

ian [dot] testeruk [dot] boo [dot] com

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