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"Collector€NZ" <> wrote in message
news:496ac992$...
> Long live the Ferrit, bout time they put that miserable vermin down.
>
> http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/n...ectid=10551507
>
> But man what a spin doctor yarn the press release is. They cant admit that
> they got it wrong and the market wasnt there for an over priced piece of
> **** shopping mall on the net. best part no more ferrit adds on TV.



Never doubted it would struggle.
Portals like that only work when the solve issues like distance or
availability for the customer.
For most customers all it added was another layer and it's attendant costs.
From what I've seen most of the product was available in normal retail
stores where the customer could go and 'kick the tyres' & 'do their own
deal' and probably find it had a cheaper ticket price anyway. The few
products that were different were so grossly overpriced or so gimmicky it
makes one wonder just how stooooooopid they though the average customer was.

There are successful retail websites in NZ.
Successful because they provide a 'simple' solution to the tyrannies of
distance or availability I mentioned before.
Two examples I can think of:

IQtoys.co.nz.
Provide quality toys for overseas clients delivered for less than the cost
of buying and freighting them from UK/Aussy/USA.
A lot of the toys were also unique & not available in the normal retail
shops here in NZ.

Ascent.co.nz
Very wide range of product, excellent ordering and delivery.
Probably more to the point they have a lot of detail on their website about
each product.
Try finding out about a product on Hardly Normals website!
(mind you their sales droids are no better)

I also see Ferrit was a pet project of the late unloved Theresa Gattung.
That was one CEO that seriously didn't 'get it'

RIP

Rant over
Paul.

PeeCee wrote:

> There are successful retail websites in NZ.
> Successful because they provide a 'simple' solution to the tyrannies of
> distance or availability I mentioned before.
> Two examples I can think of:
>
> IQtoys.co.nz.
> Provide quality toys for overseas clients delivered for less than the
> cost of buying and freighting them from UK/Aussy/USA.
> A lot of the toys were also unique & not available in the normal retail
> shops here in NZ.
>
> Ascent.co.nz
> Very wide range of product, excellent ordering and delivery.
> Probably more to the point they have a lot of detail on their website
> about each product.
> Try finding out about a product on Hardly Normals website!
> (mind you their sales droids are no better)

Also oneday, firstin, offtheback to cater to peoples desire to get a
perceived bargain that others may miss out on - a powerful selling tool.

There's torpedo 7, which is doing very well. Pricespy sort of do what
ferrit tried to do but is actually useful.

Ferrit just listed the normal prices for the finance retailers who have
to build that cost into their shop prices so are not competitive when
looking online. They also had a bitch of a navigation to deal with, slow
site load times and inconsistent navigation and catagorization with a
useless search tool.

[nicz1]

See also new gadget sites like Freeviewshop.co.nz great shop for all the Freeview gear, PVRs..