8degrees of vaughan rowsell

Can Ferrit pull one out of its…

December 19, 2006 at 9:15 pm In Rants, e-commerce, 3 Comments

It’s shopping on the Internet. Now with an actual shopping cart so you can actually shop!

What is Ferrit? Urban Dictionary defines the word Ferrit as:

An overrated over advertised website which is only designed to make people buy expensive crap they don’t want.

Now there have been a lot of people quick to knock ferrit.co.nz, and I have been one of them, but has Telecom turned it around? Unfortunately I think they might have. Not because Ferrit is a good idea, in fact Ferrit has already changed its business model after one year of operation which would suggest they got it wrong first time (no, really). Now they actually have e-commerce, yes a shopping cart, 12 months late and only 2 weeks before xmas.

Telecom has let the world know they have spent 12 million already on Ferrit and was planning another 12 in the next year. I have seen money spent better and got more in return, but by all accounts it seems the majority of the cash has been hosed into the now infamous ad agency that tried to convince the world Ferrit was the uber review site for toasters.

So what are the compelling reasons that justify Ferrits existence? Why will Ferrit work, why will it succeed?

A unified shopping cart? I am not convinced shopping on the Internet is like mall shopping where in one visit you want to get as much as you can to save gas. It’s the Internet, its always there and always on, unless you are on ADSL broadband of course. I guess there is some convenience if you are on the hunt for 2 or more things, but still a lot of the Ferrit retailers funnel the actual purchase to their own websites with their own shopping carts. Not Ferrits. Until the unified cart is unified it is just not useful.

Free shipping? Until xmas! no.

Reviews? That toaster does look good mind you, but no.

Price comparisons? The majority of products are from one retailer only which makes comparison somewhat usless but I bet the pricing is competitive! Nup.

The search! A search for a new Nintendo Wii actually found the console on page 5 of the results. Surely they have thought to weight the relevance of search results.

The ads? Yes the ads. As long as Telecom have the cash tap twisted all the way to full squirt, the promotion of the site will be what wins it in the end. Hell they can’t spend the whole 24 million on product development. As long as the punter is hammered with banner ads, msn ads, tv ads, ads, ads, and ads, they will come and they will shop. Three months ago I asked everyone I knew if they knew what Ferrit was. It was no surprise to find that most had no idea (except its some kind of rodent). Today someone in the office suggested looking on Ferrit for something they couldn’t find in the stores. The message is getting out there and to be honest there is no competition. So whether I like it or not, Telecom will get there in the end.