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Online retail: boo-shucks to the Internet nay-sayers

By Graham Hayday

Published: Tuesday 01 February 2000

Amazon.com sheds some staff. boo.com does the same. Suddenly, the whole Web retail space is in crisis.

According to the weekend national newspapers, the decisions made by these two companies is proof positive that the online bubble is about to burst.

Nonsense.

A whole gaggle of 'told-you-so' commentators were wheeled out to say these Internet companies are in crisis. But what, pray tell, is an Internet company?

When news of Marks & Spencers' troubles came to light, did those same lofty pundits look for knock-on effects in the book-selling market?

No, of course not. So why do the same thing with the Net?

boo.com's Web site was so un-user friendly that anyone trying to access it without the Shockwave plug-in and on a 28.8k modem would get a distinctly unwelcome reception. In fact, the whole site was so Shockwave-intensive that it simply didn't work without it (which is rather like turning the lights off in a 'real' shop and hoping people can still somehow find their way round). boo.com claims to be redesigning its site with the phrase 'lowest barrier to entry' higher up its agenda.

Amazon.com has grown faster than your average real-world company. And that's an understatement. How many of its non-virtual counterparts have had the same growing pains? As the only intelligent analyst quoted in one Guardian article at the weekend said, this really isn't that bad a sign. The people you need to set up a company are not the same people you need to see it through to profitability. Amazon.com is in that transitional phase and is taking the correct course of action.

The problem of online ignorance persists, especially in the city and in the mainstream press - and, therefore, among the wider business community.

boo.com's got its own problems. Amazon.com's got its own problems. So can we please ban the phrase 'Internet companies'?

If you hear anyone say these words, shame them publicly. Start extrapolating the business issues faced by your cornershop to those on the horizon for WH Smith. Refer to 'high-street companies' frequently while having this discussion with your friends and colleagues.

Humiliate these people. They deserve it.