Jon, I have to agree ...
You said <<They will also need to push to get revenue streams from those customers who choose to shop directly with each store in the future, though I think this is going to be difficult.>>
There are at least three classes of customer who will shop through BFL:
(1) Those who have previously visited one of the client stores, such as Barnes & Noble ... there is no way that B&N will pay BFL for their future purchases at B&N, other than those made directly from the BFL site.
(2) Those who have never visited B&N directly, but would have on their own, deliberately or accidentally, in the coming weeks or months ... B&N will not want to allocate any portion of future revenues from these folks to BFL, and why should they?
(3) Those who have never visited B&N directly, and never would have in the near future ... yes, I guess B&N should pay downstream revenue for these few folks, but who are they, and how would you ever identify them ... they comprise inlaws of BFL executives, and an odd few others. (I could see the downstream revenue model working for establishing commercial relationships with, say, an overseas bookstore that you never would have ordered from (ie original foreign language books) but you can't run a mall on micro-niches)
And so the question really is. Having made one shopping trip, and assuming your "bookmarks" or "favourites" buttons have not been disabled, why not just create your own Brandsforme Mall in a folder on the desktop? ... navigation is also a single keystroke, the best merchants will keep a pre-filled form for you, and you can place the best comparison-shopped sites to your tastes in your own mall rather than ones chosen by BFL using their own economic parameters ...
So, one visit or maybe two, repeats only by semi-sentients ...
P.S. Two weeks ago I ordered a book from Amazon.com ... I forget what the title was, I really do, and wonder if when it finally comes I will still be as keen to read it? In the meantime, I have made several car trips to the local bookstore and made substantial purchases ... of course, before going, I extensively researched my purchases, capuccino in hand, on the free and superb Amazon site!
Middle men will have to be infinitely more worthy to get my cash! Heck, I won't even give it to genuine on-line merchants at this point. |
