Shopping Centers Today -> March 2003
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CLICKS, BRICKS AND WINDOWS
A 14th-century English church is adopting 21st-century tactics to
help raise badly needed maintenance funds. St. Mary’s, in the
village of Earl Soham, Suffolk, has launched an online mall (
http://stmarys-at.biz-epeople.com),
featuring 63 retailers, including such Main Street stores as Dixons,
Marks & Spencer and WH Smith. The church needs to raise £60,000
($98,350) — no small feat for a village of only 400 people
— to relead its windows and arrest damage caused by dampness.
The Web site generates for St. Mary’s a commission of between
2 percent and 20 percent per item sold. The Rev. Clare Sanders,
the church’s vicar, told
SCT that she believes St. Mary’s
is the first church to set up an Internet shopping center.
BIENVENIDO A OFFICE DEPOT
Office Depot has launched an all-Spanish Web site
(
http://espanol.officedepot.com),
one of the first U.S. nationwide retailers to do so. About 12 percent
of America’s population is Hispanic, and bilingual people prefer
to read about high-ticket items in their native tongue, according
to company research. The company said it used Spanish-speaking employees
to build the site and did not have to employ any additional staff.
BIG DROP, HUGE OCEAN
Consumers will spend more than $51 billion on purchases — excluding
travel and auctions — over the Internet this year, according
to New York City-based Jupiter Research, which tracks the market.
This marks a significant increase over last year, when shoppers
bought $40.4 billion worth of merchandise through their computers.
Online spending is increasing as more Americans get hooked up to
the Internet, Jupiter said, reporting that 156 million U.S. residents
(54 percent of the population) were connected last year, up from
141 million in 2001. But mall landlords need hardly panic yet, it
appears: Online retail still represents only 1 percent of total
sales, Jupiter reported.
MONEY WELL SPENT
Free shipping on orders over $25 cost Amazon.com $30 million in
the fourth quarter, but it paid off — the company reported
a profit for the quarter, the second in its history, CFO Tom Szkutak
told reporters in a telephone news conference in January. Amazon
reported fourth-quarter net income of $2.7 million on revenue of
$1.43 billion. Now the retailer is extending free shipping to shoppers
on its British site.
STOP THAT CART
Technology firm Divine has sued several online retailers, claiming
their electronic shopping-cart technology violates its patent. Meanwhile,
Pangea Intellectual Properties says it owns the rights to interactive
technology, meaning that any company processing information input
by a customer could be at risk. More than 150 companies have settled
with Pangea, reports
Computerworld magazine.
VEGAS REMATCH: VONS VS. ALBERTSONS
Vons has introduced an online shopping service to the Las Vegas
region, providing yet another battleground for its rivalry with
Albertsons. Albertsons, which has 39 stores in the area, launched
an online delivery service in November, reports the
Las Vegas
Review-Journal. The two compete in other markets as well,
such as California’s San Fernando Valley. Vons charges customers
$9.95 for home delivery of orders worth $150 or less, and $4.95
for purchases exceeding that amount. The chain, which operates
23 stores around Las Vegas, hired 10 new employees to operate
the service, the newspaper reported.
