Objectives of knowledge management

Examples of e-commerce failures
We can learn from examples of failure. They’re not written up that commonly since naturally 
those involved don’t want to share their failures.
Boo.com is an interesting case of the potential and pitfalls of an e‑commerce start‑up and 
criteria for success, or one could say of ‘how not to do it’. The boo.com site was launched 
in November 1999 following two significant delays in launching and in January 2000 it was 
reported that 100 of its 400 employees had been made redundant due to disappointing initial 
revenues of about £60,000 in the Christmas period. Boo faced a high ‘
burn rate
’ because 
of the imbalance between promotion and site development costs and revenues. As a con‑
sequence, it appeared to change its strategy by offering discounts of up to 40 per cent on 
fashions from the previous season. Closure followed in mid‑ 2000 and the boo.com brand 
was purchased by an American entrepreneur who still continues to use the brand. (Boo.com 
features as a case study in Chapter 5.) Investors provided a reported £74 million in capital. 
This enthusiasm is partly based on the experience of two of the founders in creating bokus.
com, a relatively successful online bookseller.
Burn rate
The speed at which dot‑ 
coms spent investors’ 
money.
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Chapter 2
Marketplace analysis for e‑commerce
Case Study 2.1
i‑to‑i – a global marketplace for a start‑up company
This case is about a specialist travel and education com‑
pany, focussing on its online TEFL (Teaching English as 
a Foreign Language) courses. The case illustrates the 
importance of marketplace analysis.