PRINT THIS STORY:

CHANGE TEXT SIZE:

IKEA PREFERS STORES Ikea admits that its Web site (www.ikea.com) is clunky. Only a narrow selection of its store products is available on the site, placing an order can take several days, and the cost of shipping some of the items can more than double the price. Many of its products are simply too large to be shipped cheaply, Joseph Roth, a spokesman, told SCT. “The Ikea concept revolves around the shopping experience at our stores.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FOOD E-TAIL BIGGER AND BETTER

The online grocery store business continues to advance. Safeway.com, for instance, now serves seven urban areas in the West, while Albertsons.com is available in six. How are they avoiding the pitfalls of such dead forebears as Webvan? By a number of means, says a Michigan State University study. They don’t build massive warehouses. They pick densely populated urban markets packed with busy, two-working-parent families. And they charge for deliveries.



 

DOWNLOADING

Virgin Group and computer maker Hewlett-Packard have both announced that they are entering the increasingly crowded online music sales business. Others doing so include AOL, Apple, BuyMusic, Dell, Microsoft, MusicNow, Napster and Wal-Mart. “If you’re a retailer, by definition you have to get into this business,” Michael Goodman, an online music analyst at The Yankee Group, told the New York Post.

 

E-TAIL BETTER FOR THE BIGGER

Online retailers are following the cue of such mall chains as Hot Topic’s Torrid and Casual Corner Group’s August Max Woman by catering to Americans’ expanding girth. Products available online include a $999 sofa capable of supporting 550 pounds from www.fatcities.com and a 1,000-pound scale from www.amplestuff.com “It’s about time,” Miriam Berg, president of the Council on Size & Weight Discrimination, told the Albany, N.Y., Times Union.

SLICKER SHIPPERS

UPS delivered 1 million more packages this past holiday season than it did the previous year, and volume was up for FedEx too, thanks to the continued growth of online retail. But neither of them had to hire any more seasonal workers than they usually do, thanks to technological advances, such as the automatic creation of shipping labels when the customer places an order, Mark Hopkins, a vice president in UPS’ package process management division, told the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

JUST FOOD Imagine the delicious smells if this were a real mall. GourmetFoodMall.com offers more than 100 independent food purveyors on 40-plus product category “floors” selling a range of food and food-related products, from jalapeño corers to Cajun turkey. Though the merchants are independent, a visitor can go from one to another adding items to his shopping basket and then paying for everything at once.

 

 

 

 

TAX DODGE CITY

The residents of Nashville, Tenn., spend more on Internet purchases ($328.60 a month) than those of any other U.S. city, according to a survey by America Online. (Next, in declining order, are Los Angeles; Raleigh, N.C.; Baltimore; and San Francisco.) But state officials are not happy with the distinction. “This is a grave concern to us,” Loren Chumley, commissioner of the state’s revenue department, told The Associated Press, noting that online purchasing is “decimating” the state’s sales tax revenues.

© 2008 ICSC. All rights reserved. | Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy | Contact ICSC | ICSC Home |