Stores Magazine - October 2007 - (Page F6) 31 Newegg.com 3 Wal-Mart.com 35 Zappos.com 2 eBay.com to do what they do.” What once seemed like a short-term gimmick is now a large (2006 sales of just under $6 billion) and profitable (net income a hair under 18 percent of sales) business. The site continues to attract both business and attention; the SUV driven by James Gandolfini’s title character in the recently-concluded HBO series “The Sopranos” was recently up for auction. “The interior,” according to the listing, “still smells slightly of cigar smoke.” Third on the list is Wal-Mart, whose presence indicates that even the biggest bricks-and-mortar retailer can play in this space — and do well. Wal-Mart is no slouch at innovation itself: Having rattled the cage of Whole Foods (and others) with a well-publicized foray into organic foods and cosmetics, the company has also set up a program to purchase and distribute fresh produce from local farmers. Like practically everything else Wal-Mart does, the e-commerce continued on page F10 WWW.STORES.ORG in y is the business, for example, and continues to eBa ays set the pace for online customer-relaew t, tions marketing. The company recently som ild Wes ere announced second-quarter revenue of W e wh h $2.89 billion, up 35 percent from the same ac a pl tty muc es period a year ago, and net income grew 350 pre ing go percent to $79 million. Both figures were well th ahead of what Wall Street was expecting, entiany tling founder and CEO Jeff Bezos to say, in effect, “I told you so.” In second place is eBay, the website retailers (and others) love to hate. If Amazon is a brilliantly planned community, eBay is in some ways the Wild West, a place where pretty much anything goes, including the resale of a certain amount of product procured via organized retail crime. eBay management, which includes a lot of old retail hands, is aware of this and says it is trying to get it under control. However, the company’s philosophy basically remains, “this is an open space, and people are going F6 STORES / OCTOBER 2007 http://Newegg.com http://Wal-Mart.com http://Zappos.com http://eBay.com http://WWW.STORES.ORG
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