Lesson From
Flops
Background Information of
Company
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Worlds first online global sports and fashion
retail site
European company founded in 1998 and
operating out of a London head office
Founded by three Swedish entrepreneurs
Previous experience in online business:
bookstore, bokus.com, which in 1997 became
the world’s third largest book e-retailer behind
Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Company Details
Business Idea
 Become
the world-leading Internet-based
retailer of prestigious brand leisure and
sportswear names
 Listed brands such as Polo Ralph Lauren,
Tommy Hilfiger, Nike, Fila, Lacoste and
Adidas
 At launch it would open its virtual doors in
both Europe and America with a view to
‘amazoning the sector’
SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis
 Media
savvy
 Good Marketing Strategies
 Innovativeness : State of the art
technology
 Good networking skills
 Big resources and funding available
SWOT Analysis
 Liability
of newness, lack of track record ,
lack of experience in the industry, lack of
management skills
 Poor financials, careless with spending,
high overhead
 Too ambitious, expand too fast
 Did not understand customers
SWOT Analysis
 They
had a global market
 First to come up with virtual fitting
 World wide branding
 Economies of scale opportunities
SWOT Analysis
 Conflict
with retailer interest
 Low adoption of technology by users
 High expectations from stakeholders and
customers to deliver
Timeline
(Plan to give interactive timeline, from
founded, money expenditure, bankrupt,
liquidated)
Reasons For Failure
 Aggressive
growth plan
 Timing of technology
 Lack of management, poor planning
 Did not do proper customer survey
 Too much hype and expectations for
boo.com
 Did not do risk management – delay in
delivery of website
 Tight timeline
Lessons To Draw For Our Group
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Start small, expand in an appropriate manner
Experience needed in the industry in order to
understand customers, suppliers
Poor user experience. No matter how good
your backend systems are, the users will only
remember your front end. Fail there and you
will fail
Lots of money != success.
Importance of making your customer happy
but not at expense of the company e.g.
goods return policy
Aftermath of boo.com
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Fashionmall.com bought the remains of boo.com
which included brand, Web address and advertising
materials but this deal did not include any physical
assets, software or distribution channels
The deal also included the Miss Boo character. Boo's
main assets, its software and technology, was sold to
Bright Station for $250,000. Boo.com had purchased
this technology for $70 million.
Less than $2 million was earned by selling all Boo's
remaining assets.
In August 2010, the similarly-named UK online fashion
outlet boohoo.com was launched, possibly a name
inspired by the earlier website.