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From...
Industry Standard

Top 10 Net retailers

Image

November 30, 1999
Web posted at: 10:16 a.m. EST (1516 GMT)

by Bernhard Warner

(IDG) -- Few events have captured the imagination of so many so quickly as the notion of selling online, arguably the biggest development to hit retail since the invention of the cash register. Wall Street has rewarded Net-minded outfits with impressive stock run-ups. Suddenly, startups are on equal footing with the giants of retail, and the giants are scrambling to catch up.

The 10 companies on our list are those that have had the best online sales so far, as well as a few that haven't had a big impact yet but probably will over the next year or two. There are the brick-and-mortar players that get it: The Gap and Federated Department Stores. The brick-and-mortar that's vowed to get it: Wal-Mart. And the dot-com pure-plays – including Amazon.com, eBay, Buy.com, Webvan, Priceline.com and eToys – that were born getting it. Then there's Barnesandnoble.com, forced to get it: a pure-play that had to spin off or face extinction – and rose to the occasion with a May IPO that raised $486 million.

  ALSO
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  • Amazon.com: The first book Amazon.com sold in 1995 was about whether machines could be taught to think like humans. Perhaps it became required reading at the company.

  • Barnesandnoble.com: If success comes with time, then Barnesandnoble.com is a company whose time may have arrived.

  • Buy.com: Even before it ran a commercial during this year's Super Bowl depicting a man on all fours poised to sniff a dog's rear, no privately held company had been subjected to as much sheer scrutiny as Buy.com.

  • eBay: Ebay, the Internet's most prominent person-to-person auction site, has affirmed the notion that absolutely anything and everything has a price tag.

  • eToys: A new kid on the online block, eToys became the poster child for e-Christmas 1998. With a little help from a Visa ad campaign and service outages at Toysrus.com, eToys counted $23 million in sales in last year's fourth quarter. That was just enough for the site to vault over Macys.com.

  • Federated Department Stores: Federated Department Stores, the company that defined the notion of a large-scale shopping experience with its midtown Manhattan department stores, is thinking big online. Only this time, the plan doesn't involve attractive window displays.

  • The Gap: In the fall of 1997, when other apparel labels were worrying about channel conflicts, the Gap turned its Web site into its newest store.

  • Priceline.com: According to Jay Walker, Priceline.com's founder, the phrase "name your own price" is more than just a catchy ad slogan. It could mean the end of a centuries-old retail system that's based on seller-driven pricing.

  • Wal-Mart: It's only a few weeks until the most ballyhooed relaunch since John Glenn went back into space: The Wal-Mart Web site is to be recast as a legitimate e-commerce player.

  • Webvan: In the wacky math of the Internet Economy, few startups fret over logic. Just ask Webvan Group, the latest entrant into the ultracompetitive but unproven online grocery sector.


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