The best of 'Reader Comments': Letsbuyit.gone?

Since Letsbuyit bought it, we have received a record number of reader comments. Here are a few from our mixed bag. (http://www.silicon.com/a41790 )

--No sympathy
From: Jim Byrne

This is the company that delivered Xmas trees in January and spent a fortune buying up all possible domain names like letsbuyshit.com, letsbuyitsucks.com, so no-one could complain about their dismal performance. My heart bleeds.

--Back to basics
From: Philip Steedman

Is everyone going to jump off the bandwagon as quickly as they got on now they realise that it's about core competencies and being good at business, and its not as easy as moneygrowsontrees.com.

--Harsh words for CEO Coles
From: David Moore

Given that the business model was OK, the facts are that it was an appalling site - it did not work well and if by chance you managed to order something, the fulfilment side didn't! The company deserved to die and Martin Coles must take the blame - he is clearly not a good commercial manager.

--Too early to market?
From: David Aldridge

An innovative idea, but it was too early in the market - ie it lacked the mass volumes (that would in turn drive prices down further) and with small volumes their model was floored. As I understand it, it takes all the goods in, and reships to the customer - this is too costly!

It has scope, with its pan-European coverage, and once the user base is there, it has the opportunity to attack the market, but would do best if it shipped the goods immediately (by the manufacturer) and then managed the excess inventory if there was any remaining from their 'committed buy'.

Perhaps there's opportunity for a major distributor to support the team that's left?

--A wider warning?
From: Malcolm Cartledge

I am sorry to see Letsbuyit go. The idea of a broad range supplier offering bargain prices is clearly an attractive one. Their site was well laid out, reasonably simple to use and generally quite helpful. I am also quite sad to see them go because they have taken several hundred pounds of mine with them. However, perhaps their collapse was inevitable.

Throughout life, the adage of their being no free meal ticket is proven true again and again. The internet, it seems, is no exception.

Whatever the underlying reasons for the collapse, the outlook for the industry looks bleaker for everyone involved. This is yet another major blow to consumer confidence in internet buying. I can only hope that the internet outlets for bricks and mortar companies will do better, else 2001 may be the first dark age of ecommerce.

--Not a flawed concept
From: Anon.

From what I can see the business was totally overstaffed and mismanaged from day one, given reports of 500 staff losing their jobs.

The business model seemed sound as long as a manufacturer could move, say, 500 video cameras in one go. I suspect that blue chip manufacturers were unwilling to sell goods cheaply to letsbuyit as it would upset the likes of Dixons, PC World , B&Q etc. But the economics of shipping, say, 150 cameras, pre-sold and pre-paid to one point seem very appealing.

As far as I can see, LBI would need to employ at the most 20-50 staff including techies. All the rest of the logistics could have been handled by third party distributors who would only be charged when there was something to distribute.

I certainly would not write off the concept of co-operative buying on the basis of Letsbuyit's demise.

--Gutted they're gone
From: Dom Smith

Despite waiting over a month to get a minidisk player from these guys just before Christmas, I wasn't in the least bit dissatisfied with their service. I think the idea was an excellent one - new, fresh, innovative and really harnessing the power of the internet to link far-off people.

I'm really gutted they're going to fold. I thought their site was excellently designed and that the cross-sells they tried to set up (for example, after I bought the minidisk player I was offered to join a co-buy for minidisk accessories) were good too.

I do recognise however that the waiting - in terms of for the auction to end and for the goods to arrive - may not be for everyone.

And finally, here are some wise words about the cyber-safety. (http://www.silicon.com/a41756 )

--Safety first
From: Anon.
Comment Title : security policy: legal perspective
Comment Text :-
In this day and age, CIOs should ensure they have both security policies and procedures in place. Why? Insurance litigation. Inadequate IT security can interrupt business or, worse, result in corporate resources being used in a DDOS (dedicated denial of service attacks) on others. Insurance claims will result in questions about what reasonable measures were undertaken by risk managers and executives. Having a security policy and following specific security procedures provides evidence of such measures.

There`s nothing so embarrassing as explaining to non-IT people (your lawyer, for example) why you didn`t do something that seems to them an obvious IT thing to do.