Fashionmall CEO says Boo.com will rise again -- but with big changes

From...

by Carol Silwa

(IDG) -- At the eTail 2000 conference in New York last week, New York-based Fashionmall.com Inc. detailed plans to launch a revamped version of the Boo.com Web site in phases starting this fall. Fashionmall bought the Boo.com domain name and other assets last spring, after Boo.com's investors pulled the plug on the global online fashion retailer.

But the new Boo.com will operate differently than the original London-based retailer did. Fashionmall executives said at this week's conference that instead of carrying its own inventory, the new Web site will function as a portal that links online shoppers directly to specific products being sold via the Internet by manufacturers and retailers.

In a follow-up interview with Computerworld's Carol Sliwa, Ben Narasin, the 34-year-old president and CEO of Fashionmall, discussed the company's plans for Boo.com in greater detail.

MORE COMPUTING INTELLIGENCE

IDG.net home page

Computerworld's home page

Christmas in July

Pottermania strains the supply chain

The dog days of e-commerce

Reviews & in-depth info at IDG.net

E-BusinessWorld

TechInformer

Questions about computers? Let IDG.net's editors help you

Subscribe to IDG.net's free daily newsletter for IT leaders

Search IDG.net in 12 languages

News Radio

Fusion audio primers

Computerworld Minute

Q: BrightStation PLC acquired Boo.com's technology. What did you buy?

A: We bought everything else. It was great for us because we wanted Boo, but we didn't want Boo to be a retailer anymore. And we didn't want to be saddled with [its technology] infrastructure. I mean, we just had zero interest in that. As a non-retailer, as a portal, we get no value. So we bought . . . all the trademarks, all the URLs, all the content. In our business model, the back end is fulfilled by our clients, not by us. Our job is to introduce you to the person [who] has the product [and] can send it to you.

Q: Are you trying to build a fashion mall with the Boo name?

A: That was the initial thought, but I think that Boo goes a lot further than that. I think it means a lot more [to people]. See, FashionMall puts walls on its growth because of the words "fashion" and "mall." Boo doesn't do that. We've got Boo skateboards in the office -- they made custom-made Boo skateboards. [Boo.com] is our tool to go global. But it's also our tool to extend in a lot of different ways.

Q: What kind of companies do you plan to try to sign deals with for the products that will be available through the new Boo.com site?

A: We can have a deal with the vendor that manufactured the merchandise, or with the retailer that carries the merchandise, or with [a] catalog, or with anybody else that's going to legitimately be able to offer that merchandise up. We don't have to have vendor status. We have to have a relationship with somebody that has vendor status.

Q: Will you provide links to their Web sites?

A: That's a core question. Our business has always been predicated on linking to sites. [But] the Boo model will be about linking to products. You may have [an online] store that carries a lot of things, of which 2% are relevant to [our] audience. It is not our mission to send the Boo consumer into the store so they can get lost in the other 98%.

Q: If customers order five different products from five different manufacturers or retailers, will they get five different boxes in the mail?

A: Yes. The average order is two products. So generally speaking, we know that's a concern. Statistically, it doesn't happen that often. It's not the general way that people shop . . . [But] going forward, at some point in the future, would it make sense not just to aggregate demand and vendors but to have a centralized distribution structure? Perhaps.

Q: What was the biggest mistake that Boo.com made?

A: The biggest lesson I've ever learned, and I think it's the same thing they also suffered from, is [that] you've got to be willing to be wrong, and you've got to be willing to be wrong really quickly. We used to have a universal shopping basket of our own, . . . and we redesigned it. It took about six or seven months, . . . [and] it encompassed everything we ever dreamed of. We rolled it out, and the day we rolled it out, sales dropped by 50%. We left it up for one week to make sure it wasn't an anomaly, and then we threw it away and took our lessons from it. But the thing here is we didn't get married to this product because we'd invested in it. That's a mistake that a lot of people make.

Buyer beware: Online retailers dropping like flies
July 21, 2000
Integrating online shopping with brick-and-mortar stores
July 18, 2000
Not all e-commerce sites are losing money
May 15, 2000
How the e-shopping experience could be better
February 14, 2000
Wearable PCs offer function, not fashion
December 27, 1999

Life after Boo
(The Industry Standard)
Seven online retailers fined for late product deliveries
(Computerworld)
Funding dries up for European e-commerce sites
(Computerworld)
IT departments frazzled at cash-short dot-coms
(Computerworld)
The dog days of e-commerce
(The Industry Standard)
German online retailers dispute pricing
(IDG.net)
Bricks vs. clicks
(The Industry Standard)
Online buying booms
(InfoWorld)

fashionmall.com
boo.com

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.