Mainstream FAILS AGAIN! Christmas Online Still not Ready for Primetime?

Morning Folks!!


17 Christmas Seasons online and I am still waiting for mainstream to get it right. Whether it was eToys.com that could not figure out that when people had to put in the http:// they would lose a lot of business. You type in etoys.com and got a 404 error. GENIUS!


Where are we and where are we going? Well this Christmas season was a giant step BACKWARDS! Retailers are now forcing their own workers to work on the one holiday a year few work. Most restaurants are closed but the waiters that do work make 3X the tips they normally do. But retail?? What happened to pointing them to your website on Thanksgiving? I mean this is just desperation at the worst because their remedy just may backfire.


The one day a year that your website should be carrying the load. Sales won’t necessarily increase because of the move, just change the dates the $$$ go into the register. I think they must have been consulting the o.co guys in this flawed decision. Sure, you will hear how much business they did, but who cares?


It just shows they STILL don’t get it.


Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

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13 thoughts on “Mainstream FAILS AGAIN! Christmas Online Still not Ready for Primetime?

  1. Sideliner

    For a huge part of the population, shopping and seeing the product firsthand, then getting their instant gratification to buy and have immediately at brick and mortar stores isn’t going away. Shopping is a social phenomena. A necessity for all, a passion for some, and a dangerous”disease” for others. Times are tough, margins are thin and retailers are using every opportunity to make money including selling on Thanksgiving day.

    Reply
  2. Leonard Britt

    Yes, it is really sad to see traditional holidays disappear. If you decide to open at 10AM the Friday after Thanksgiving instead of 10AM OK, but is being open on Thanksgiving day really going to generate additional business? How many of your employees really want to work on Thanksgiving? How does that affect employee morale?

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  3. Scott Alliy

    Surprised? Don’t be the answer my friend isn’t blowing in the wind it is instead like a cold wind in our face.
    The reason for a 17 year coma about the internet (anything beyond google, facebook, twitter, email, and sex sites) and the solution to creating more commerce on and real use of the internet is available but only to those who can see. Allow me to explain
    We have teachers out of work
    We have empty buildings that could be used for classrooms
    We are paying millions (some good money) not to work
    Instead we
    Waste education by not allowing teachers to work
    Waste taxpayers dollars paying people not to work
    Miss an opportunity to stimulate the economy and put people to work buying and selling computer equipment and teaching internet classes.
    Why not
    rent the emty buildings that we all have heard about and in doing so provide income to tax paying businesses.
    purchase computers for the classrooms and in the process stimulate businesses and the economy.
    Use the talents of teachers who want to teach but can’t find a job
    Put the people who aren’t working anyway into the classrooms and educate (truly educate) them about the Internet and how to use it.
    Nah
    Ain’t that America something to see ..John Cougar Mellancamp
    Some things will never change … Bruce Hornsby and the range
    This is the part where the compassionate left will try to rip me a new one for being so non compassionate.
    Save it… I am blind in one eye and have no college education and created multi million dollar businesses on yes the Internet. If I can do it millions of others should find it a cinch.
    You don’t have to do everything every day… you just have to do something and it starts with dropping the bon bon getting off the couch and educating yourself to the point you realize the true value each of us posseses.

    Reply
  4. Yan Huang

    Yep, it is sad that the Best Buys and Targets keep their employees so they stay”competitive” (Target exec) and not fully utilize their websites, especially when their websites are already well known to so many.

    Reply
  5. Kevin Davis

    I have seen Mobile Shopping Walls with QR Codes in airports so you can buy that toy/product on the go.I wonder how big that campaign will be.Happy Thanksgiving Rick and all who read this,K

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  6. Theo

    i guess they got the message.
    etoys.com resolves , least in chrome.
    But you are right there are alot of companies who setup their dns wrong.

    Reply
  7. Sideliner

    http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/why-retailers-still-care-black-friday-183425646.html
    Below quote that retailers make 50% of their EPS in Q4, in particular the last 5 weeks of the year explains some of this strategy. No doubt times are tough for retailers many may not make it to next x-mas.
    “At least the perception of earlier promotions was imaginary until 2011 when Toys R Us became the first major retailer with the audacity to start Black Friday on Thanksgiving evening. Beyond wondering if creating life endangering stampedes is worth the publicity to a retailer the question remains: Why is such emphasis placed on a single day of the retail calender when it’s simply the symbolic beginning of a month-long national retail binge?
    Michelle Clark, retail analyst for Morgan Stanley has a few good reasons. Speaking of department stores in particular, Clark notes”over the last five years on average they generate more than 30% of annual revenues in the fourth quarter and more than 50% of EPS.” For most retailers November is the first month of the fiscal fourth-quarter and nearly 1/3 of the revenues for the month come during the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday following Thanksgiving.”

    Reply
  8. George

    Rick,
    They probably ran like crazy to fix it…
    I typed”etoys.com” with and without 3w and got the site.
    George

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  9. Rick Schwartz

    I must have not been clear. This was in 1999 when I owned like 2MM shares of their stock and I was ripping my hair out as they kept doing commercials during the Thanksgiving Day Parades but at that time when you typed in etoys.com it would not resolve. I called up the company that day trying to reach anyone that could understand and was unsuccessful. That tiny little mistake may have cost them everything. You can’t make a mistake like that and expect to survive. Especially when you dont even know it was a mistake. :-(

    Reply

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