Shopping Centers Today -> July 2003
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ON TOP OF THEIR GAME
Discounters and giant toy chains such as Wal-Mart and Toys “R”
Us might dominate the toy and board game market, but don’t tell
Erik and Kristi Szabo that there’s no competing with them. In
January 2000 the couple set up an online board game store —
www.boardgamesexpress.com
— as a home job for Kristi after their first child was born,
according to
The (Allentown, Pa.)
Morning Call. Last
year the company posted sales of $300,000. This year it will do at
least $2 million, says Erik, adding that the startup was receiving
150 to 200 orders a day during the past holiday shopping season. Needless
to say, he has quit his day job.
BALANCING THE BOOKS
Facing budget cuts, the Woodland (Calif.) Public Library launched
an online mall —
www.shopforthelibrary.net — in April and is inviting
customers to “shop for the library.” Every time someone
buys from one of the site’s more than 200 merchants, which
include Amazon.com and Wal-Mart, the library receives a commission
of 4 to 7 percent, the project’s manager, Dan Theobald, told
SCT.
TECHNO-MOMS
Mothers are among the most avid users of the Internet when it comes
to research and shopping, says a study by
Bizrate.com,
which rates online retail sites and conducts market research. The
study of 1,755 mothers hooked up to the Internet shows that 57 percent
use the Web each week for retail research, and 23 percent make purchases.
GOING OFFLINE
Online retailers continue to diversify offline.
Novica.com,
a Web site that sells arts and crafts made in developing countries,
is beginning to distribute its wares to conventional retail stores,
while its online rival, Eziba, is setting up stores,
The New
York Times reported. These off-beat companies are following
the precedent set by such mainstream fashion retailers as J. Jill,
which began as an Internet and catalog retailer and started moving
into malls in late 1999. Meanwhile, online vendor and auction house
eBay is striving to set up a television show, the
Times says.
ONLINE SPECTACLES
Operators of eyeglass stores probably haven’t lost any sleep
over the Internet, figuring that everyone wants to try on eyeglass
frames before they buy. But
eyeglasses.com
now lets customers download a digital picture of themselves so that
they can see what they look like wearing any one of scores of frames.
The site also offers a “live chat” customer-service helpline.
So far, however, customers still can’t get their eyes tested
over the Internet.
SARS AND WEB SALES
Online sales soared in Hong Kong during the SARS (severe acute
respiratory syndrome) scare this past spring, the South China
Morning Post reported. Supermarket chain ParknShop said sales
jumped 30 percent in the middle of April over the previous month,
while Yahoo! Hong Kong reported a 112 percent increase in transaction
volumes. “Because people are scared of catching SARS in crowded
places, an increasing number are now doing their shopping online,”
a spokeswoman for ParknShop told the paper.
OUCH!
One in three items bought online in the European Union is never
delivered, claims a study by 13 European Community Centers. The
centers, which the EU set up to take consumer complaints, say
they ordered 114 items from Web sites in the EU, of which only
75 turned up. But the study does not show whether the purchases
are representative of online acquisitions made by the public at large.
