An example of an e-commerce failure and its causes

The internet has lead lots of e-commerce success like Amozon, ebay ,Dell. But there are also some failed e-commerce.

Pets.com is an example of the e-commerce failure. Pets.com founded in 1998, an online retailer of pet products, information and resources direct to consumers over the world wide web. It gained high national attention by advertising at the variety of media such as megazine, TV, radio and etc. The famous featured sock-dog "spokespuppet" which was voted the fifth most popular spot in USA and the slogan "because pets can't drive" made the Pets.com became the well known company in USA.

Although the sales rose dramatically due to the high attention from the consumer, it still went from Initial Publishing Offering to liquidation in a mere nine months because of the dot-com bust just like others dot-com.

There were some reasons that cause the Pets.com failed and defunct in 2000. First, the Pets.com was lacked of workable business plan because they spent more than their earned revenue. Overestimated the potential market was also one of the failure reason. Pets.com spent million on the warehouse space and tried to obtain the online pet market. however, there wasn't large enough market and the growth wasn't rapid as their estimated. The other main reason was they had poor customer position.They offered discount and shipment to attract customers, but never think why should a customer purchase online rather than just buy at the nearer pet accessories store.Thus, these are the reasons how the well known online business can shut down in the short time.