shoppers couldn’t keep track of their movement on the website and therefore
felt out of control. This led to the opposite effect of one of the most important
advantages of e-retail, which is to empower consumers.
The apparent confusion created by the directionless website and array of
new windows was even magnified by the appearance of a window with Miss
Boo, the animated online style adviser and shopping assistant. While Miss
Boo commented on the clothes choices being made, four other windows were
popping up showing the range of clothes being chosen from, detailed image
of an item example with tools to spin and magnify the product, a Boo shop-
ping bag with the current selection and a mannequin dressed in the clothes
currently selected. In all of this, the shopper had no apparent control of what
was going on. It was too much and left shoppers bewildered and confused,
with no obvious direction of how to proceed with the rest of the shopping
(that is, if the pages managed to load).
After a few weeks of operations, boo.com identified these problems and
redesigned its website, replacing Miss Boo with a printable catalogue and
provisions for offline shopping. Other modifications included a simplification
of the bandwidth requirement for easy access and navigation and a no-graph-
ics version of the website. However, the majority of the damage had been done
by this time and the shoppers that previously had a negative experience with
the brand were gone for good and were spreading the bad news in the process.
Although the fashionable range of boo.com’s sports-oriented designer
clothing was initially appealing to consumers, the difficulty of purchasing
them online led consumers to seek other alternatives. The website’s failure
comes from the fact that the online store was incompatible with both Internet
users and their computers.
What could have saved boo.com?
The story of boo.com indicates that the company largely left its performance
to fate because of the high confidence and assumption of automatic success
in the new e-business sector. This is a major error that indicates a lack of
understanding of fundamental business issues.
Boo.com could have supported its business goals with identifying and
implementing feasible strategies and including these in a solid business
model. The company could also have put in place effective planning, moni-
toring and control of its budgeting and financial systems and assets. Other
supporting aspects of the business such as the internal organizational plan-
ning as well as the front-office and back-office systems could have been
better integrated and managed.
The e-business plan of boo.com was also poor and unrealistic with a focus
on design and advanced technology while ignoring usability and experience
enhancing features like e-CRM.
A look at Chapter 6 of this book will provide more insight into the e-retail
chapter 10 295case illustrations