How The Web Boomed John Lewis

There’s an interesting article in the Telegraph about how the web changed British upmarket retailer John Lewis:

John Lewis may be flying high today, but in 2001 life was a lot tougher. Within weeks of buying Buy.com, the partnership cut the annual bonus for the third year running as the retailer unveiled a 23pc drop in profits.

In the letters page of the staff magazine, The Gazette, partners raised concerns about the acquisition. “It was with surprise and a little dismay that I read of the purchase of Buy.com,” wrote one partner. “To buy when the market pundits are revising downwards the potential market share of dotcom concerns, and when dotcom share values are dropping rapidly, does seem questionable timing, to say the least.”

Despite the concerns of partners, six months later John Lewis announced plans to invest more than £30m over four years expanding the website to carry more than 5,000 products.

Six years after it bought Buy.com, John Lewis Direct now has a greater turnover than any John Lewis branch aside from its flagship Oxford Street store in London.Internet and catalogue retailing is fashionable once again. In hindsight the John Lewis management looks to have picked up a bargain.

Net is mouse that roared for John Lewis | Business | Money | Telegraph