Boo.com was an internet company that intended to sell branded fashion wear over the internet, founded by Ernst Malmsten, Kajsa Leander and Patrik Hedelin in 1998. The market for clothing in this area was viewed as very large, so the thought was that capture of only a small part of this market was required for boo.com to be successful. But it later flopped after having to liquidate and was placed into receivership in 18 May 2000. In June 2008, CNET hailed Boo.com as one of the greatest defunct websites in history.
Firstly, poor design of the website has contributed to the failure of Boo.com. The website was heavily relied on JavaScript and Flash technology to display pseudo-3D views. The public criticized that vast majority of users have to wait for minutes for the site to load as the home page alone was several hundred kilobytes and broadband technology were not widely available at the time. Besides that, the site only provides limited space to display product information to the customer because the complicated design required the site to be displayed in a fixed size window.
As a result, costs were increased due to poor management and a lack of communication between departments. The effectiveness of an attention-grabbing (and expensive) ad campaign was limited because the website wasn't ready in time, resulting in curious visitors being greeted with a holding page.
Staff and contractors were recruited in large numbers, and one contractor was reputed to be earning over £100 an hour. Boo.com even asked them to put off holidays by offering 5-star hotels and first class flights.
Related Links
http://www.dabechaffey.com/E-commerce-Internet-marketing-case-studies/Boo.com-case-study
www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2005/may/16/media.business
No comments:
Post a Comment