Internet Retailer reports that Safeway.com and Vons.com have grown within a year to 320 communities in California, Oregon and Washington by avoiding certain key mistakes that were made by Webvan.com in many of those same markets.
Among the keys cited by the magazine:
•Patience…taking the time to improve both the online and fulfillment experiences.
•Store picking…with “professional pickers” fulfilling orders in-store, and not using expensive centralized and high maintenance warehouses.
•Having a good partner…in this case, having 35 percent of its online business owned by Tesco, which has built a successful and profitable online business in the UK.
Among the keys cited by the magazine:
•Patience…taking the time to improve both the online and fulfillment experiences.
•Store picking…with “professional pickers” fulfilling orders in-store, and not using expensive centralized and high maintenance warehouses.
•Having a good partner…in this case, having 35 percent of its online business owned by Tesco, which has built a successful and profitable online business in the UK.
- KC's View:
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Safeway must love these kinds of stories, since its been getting so much negative press from its Dominick’s and Genuardi’s dealings.
But maybe there is a larger lesson to be learned here. Maybe the way it has used Tesco to educate itself about the online business is actually the way it should have used the existing managements of Dominick’s and Genuardi’s to learn about their specific businesses and local consumer desires. Maybe if it had done that, it wouldn’t be facing problems in Chicago and Pennsylvania.
Maybe.
In related news, Internet Retailer announced its top 50 websites for the year. What they have in common, according to the publication, is that “they use the web in innovative ways and, among the vast majority of merchants, to link together multi-channel offerings.”
Linkage is incredibly important, in our view, because it does what retailers need to do -- provide the products the shopper needs, when, where and how she wants them and at a price she considered to be acceptable or a “value.”
In alphabetical order, here are the sites:
1. 1-800-Flowers
2. Albertson’s
3. Altrec
4. Amazon
5. American Greetings
6. BackcountryStore
7. Barewalls
8. Bellacor
9. Best Buy
10. Blue Nile
11. Bombay Co.
12. Buckle
13. Buy.com
14. Cabela’s
15. Camping World
16. Cooking.com
17. Crate & Barrel
18. Crutchfield
19. Dell
20. Drugstore
21. eBags
22. eBay
23. FAO Schwarz
24. Fortunoff
25. Guild
26. Hanna Andersson
27. Harry & David
28. HPShopping
29. Ice.com
30. Igo.com
31. J. Crew
32. J.C. Whitney
33. Lands’ End
34. Lowe’s
35. MLB.com/Shop
36. Office Depot
37. Omaha Steaks
38. Oriental Trading
39. QVC
40. RadioShack
41. Red Envelope
42. ReturnBuy
43. Safeway
44. Sharper Image
45. SmartBargains
46. Starbucks
47. Target
48. TechnoScout
49. Tower Records
50. Undergear
We haven’t been to all of them yet. But we do have some holiday shopping to do (though we may skip Undergear.com)…
