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Shopping Centers Today -> September 2001
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DISCOUNTERS BUY OUT ONLINE PARTNERS
An era in which some retailers have appeared to treat their Internet
entities as illegitimate children — supporting them with cash
but keeping them at arm’s length — appears to be drawing
to a close. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has bought out its minority partner
in Walmart.com, and at press time Kmart was attempting to do the
same with Bluelight, its online affiliate. “This move will
allow much closer integration,” Bill Dreher, a senior retail
analyst with Robertson Stephens, told SCT.
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PLASTIC PARANOIA
Worries about credit card security overshadowed Internet retail
from the beginning, and they continue to inhibit purchasers today,
according to a Brigham Young University study. Some 38.3% of respondents
in a survey of 1,738 households said they did not want to give their
credit card numbers to a computer, and another 25% expressed varying
degrees of concern about it. “Credit card fear is the biggest
stumbling block,” Bill Swinyard, professor of business management
at the university’s Marriott School of Management, told SCT,
adding that e-commerce sites should do more to reassure customers
about security.
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JUST LOOKING
Nearly 90% of kids age 13-17 have never made an online purchase
— most do not have credit cards — but almost one-third
of teens buy at stores after researching products online, according
to a study by Jupiter Media Metrix, the New York City-based technology
analysis company. Therefore, instead of just focusing on making
an online sale, retailers and marketers should pay as much attention
to the Web’s potential as a marketing tool to teens and others,
Jupiter advises.
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REI.COM’S HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Recreational Equipment Inc.’s (REI) online division is celebrating
its fifth birthday this year and, thanks to an integrated clicks-and-bricks
strategy, can boast that three of those years have been profitable.
REI.com was launched in 1996 with six employees, $250,000 in seed
money and 580 products — today there are 78,000 items listed
— and by 1998 was turning a profit with sales of $12.2 million.
By last year sales were at $92 million, and had reached $55 million
by the middle of this year. The secret? Integration of the company’s
store, catalog and Internet operations, Jennifer Lind, a company
spokeswoman, told SCT.
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WEBVAN TOTALED
“Will Webvan Flatten $500 Billion Grocery Industry?” read
a July, 14, 1999, headline in E-Commerce Times. Apparently not.
Investors had one thing to celebrate, however: The company’s
demise derailed the severance deal — $375,000 a year for life
— negotiated in May by former CEO George Shaheen. And investors
were not left entirely empty-handed, either: Collectors of defunct
e-tailer memorabilia were scrambling for Webvan flotsam on eBay,
the online auction site, bidding as high as $51 for the company’s
stock certificates. That’s close to the stock’s $34 peak
during happier days.
MALL-TO-MALL MARKETING
Crown American Realty Trust has signed a deal to allow JP Realty
to use its Web site software, fulfilling Crown American’s longtime
ambition to get other developers to use the technology. Crown American
has a site for each of its malls that alerts shoppers to sales at
their favorite stores. “If enough malls are using the same
system, then we could start getting information directly from retailers’
corporate offices rather than from individual stores,” Christine
Menna, CMD, a Crown American spokeswoman, told SCT.
 | Current Issue December 2008 |