Re: 7/14/00 - [GONT] Fortune: What's the Big Deal?
July 14, 2000
What's the Big Deal?
So you've got a Web site and you're selling stuff on it. That's the good news. The bad news is that so is everyone else. And since your offerings aren't particularly different from those of dozens of other Web sites, attracting attention and e-shoppers isn't easy. Signing a big deal with a big-name company sure might help. That could maybe get you some ink. Then people would read about you and perhaps check out your site.
That would be nice, wouldn't it? The only problem is, you don't have a big deal with a heavyweight company. So why not just act like you do? That, it seems, is what ShopGoOnline.com has been doing. Hey, the Web is all about rewriting the rules.
Go to the site and you'll find a press release about a deal the company signed with Cisco on April 10, 2000. This was news to people at Cisco. A senior sales executive at Cisco who first pointed out the press release to me says that he's never heard of ShopGoOnline and that Cisco certainly doesn't have a deal with them.
As it turns out, ShopGoOnline, a "cybermall" that sells a whole motley assortment of goods, does actually have a deal with Cisco, only it's not the sort of deal you'd imagine from reading the release. They call it a "distribution authorization agreement." What it means is that ShopGoOnline is simply reselling Cisco routers and hubs on its site.
Matthew Herman, vice president of information technology at ShopGoOnline.com, says this is an arrangement that came about through calling up a low-level sales rep in Cisco's reseller division. The salesperson he talked to, whose name he can't recall, just happened to cover ShopGoOnline's region. Cisco is not even supplying products directly to ShopGoOnline; the e-tailer is too small. The products are coming from Ingram Micro, which supplies ShopGoOnline with other computer equipment.
A Cisco spokesperson says the company never approved a release with ShopGoOnline and that the company doesn't have anything called a "distribution authorization agreement." (No one at Cisco is quoted in the release.) Indeed, Cisco might not have been excited to advertise that its routers are being sold alongside such items as "disco days" tank tops, cell-phone radios (which are radios that look like cell phones), garden stake ornaments and motorized scooters.
ShopGoOnline, which is based in Chico, Calif., also has a similar release citing Amazon, touting what looks like a deal it signed earlier this week with the company's Z-Shops division. An Amazon spokesperson says that despite what the release implies, ShopGoOnline is not a partner of Amazon's. ShopGoLine is only a vendor on Z-Shops, which is something just about any e-commerce site can become. "It's nothing special," says Amazon's spokesperson, who adds that the release, which was written by ShopGoOnline, had to be significantly toned down before Amazon approved it.
So who is ShopGoOnline? The Web site of its parent company, GoOnline Networks, says it offers services such as Web hosting, Web design, e-commerce consulting and software development. A brief video on the site describes how GoOnline can help you "create and maintain your eWorld." It's also a public company. Sort of. GoOnline Networks is listed on what's known as the OTC Bulletin Boards, which is typically the domain of penny stocks. ShopGoOnline's Herman says that that the company is "working to grow and evolve beyond a penny stock." GONT is currently trading around $0.22. To go legit and trade on NASDAQ it needs to get to $5.00. Somehow you can't help but think that pumping out cheesy releases isn't going to help them get there.
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