The relatively brief history of the Internet is littered with stories of dot-com flameouts -- companies that blew through an incredible number of dollars in Venture Capital funding before riding off to the bankruptcy sunset. Most notable of these failed companies were the online retailers who bragged about their Super Bowl ads, but generated little sales from their monumental branding campaigns. Here's several selections from the hall of shame https://www.bandf.ie/.
Pets.com
One of the trademark stories from the crash of the very first Internet bubble, Pets.com appeared as if a positive thing. Plenty of cash, a Super Bowl and an unforgettable sock-puppet mascot all placed this pet food delivery service to the minds of an incredible number of Americans. The issue was, nobody stopped to consider whether or not the business model was sound. Works out, it wasn't, as people didn't really want to wait for the pet food and supplies to arrive via UPS. The organization went under after just a year and a half in business.
Webvan.com
In 1999, Webvan.com was the darling of the Internet world. The web grocer raised almost 400 million dollars within just 6 months and looked to be on its way to Internet success. But an interesting thing happened along the way -- people just didn't warm up to the thought of shopping for grocery essentials online. The grocery business has very thin margins to start with, so each time Webvan used a special offer to entice customers, it fell very much deeper into debt. The organization closed with little fanfare in 2001 https://www.complasinternational.ie/.
eToys.com
Although eToys.com was eventually reborn after being purchased by KayBee Toys, the very first iteration of your website experienced one of the very spectacular flame-outs in web history. In other words, the company used the bulk of its $150 million is start-up capital to advertise and build the brand. When the customers didn't come, the stock price sank to nine cents a share. Closure soon followed https://earsense.ie/.
MVP.com
How could a sporting goods and apparel site backed by athletic luminaries such as John Elway, Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky fail? Easy, in the event that you don't have any significant sales growth and can't pay back your loan/investment from partner CBS. Despite a lot of initial PR and almost a $100 million in VC capital, MVP.com closed up go shopping for good after a single year in business.
Boo.com
The women's clothing company Boo.com was ahead of its time...but not in a great way. The website used Flash and JavaScript heavily at a time when not many people had high-speed Internet connections. As a result, shoppers became frustrated and turn far from your website in droves. Boo.com posted a loss of $160 million dollars before it had been liquidated in 2000 https://www.outsourcesupport.ie/.
Why Online Shopping Gets in Right in 2009
The Web 2.0 era has been the scene of more online retailer success stories because now, innovative thinking and real customer growth has replaced "pie in the sky" big ideas that generate no money. Auction houses, overstock companies and deal of the afternoon websites are enjoying success in 2009 since they're smart business models that go easy on the "bells and whistles" and instead deliver no-frills discount shopping to a military of consumers. The web has come a long way because these dot-com-busts, and therefore, online shoppers are now actually treated to more secure websites with better selections and more incredible savings.
