2 Compare the quality of the online customer experience of dabs.com by visiting the site and those of its competitors such as www.ebuyer.com and www.euroffice.com. Explain the categories of criteria you have used to make your assessment. This case study highlights the importance placed on web site design as part of the customer experience by dabs.com which is one of the UK’s leading Internet retailers of IT and technology products from manufacturers such as Sony, Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba and Microsoft.

Company background and history Dabs.com was originally created by entrepreneur David Atherton in partnership with writer Bruce Smith (the name

‘dabs’ comes from the combined initials of their two names). Their first venture, Dabs Press was a publisher of technology books. Although David and Bruce remain firm friends, Dabs has been 100% owned by David since 1990.

Dabs Direct was launched in 1990, as a mail-order firm which mainly promoted itself through ads in home technology magazines such as Personal Computer World and Computer Shopper.

Dabs.com was launched in 1999 at the height of the dotcom boom, but unlike many dot-com start-up businesses, dabs.com was based on an existing offline business.

In its first year, dabs.com was loss-making with £1.2 million lost in 2000–1; this was partly due to including free delivery as part of the proposition to acquire new customers.

In 2003, the company opened its first ‘bricks and mortar’ store at Liverpool John Lennon Airport and it has also opened an operation in France (www.dabs.fr). The French site remains, but the retail strategy has now ended since margins were too low, despite a positive effect in building awareness of the brand in retail locations.

Strategy The importance that dabs.com owners place on customer experience and usability is suggested by their mission statement, which places customer experience at its core together with choice and price. Dabs.com’s mission is:

to provide customers with a quick and easy way of buying the products they want, at the most competitive prices around, delivered directly to their door.

Growth has been conservatively managed, since as a privately held company dabs.com has to grow profitably rather than take on debts. Dabs.com has reviewed the potential of other European countries for distribution and may select a country where broadband access is high such as Sweden or the Netherlands. Countries such as Italy where consumers traditionally prefer face-to-face sales would not be early candidates to target for an opening.

In terms of products, dabs.com has focused on computers and related products, but is considering expanding into new categories or even ranges. Initially these will be related to what computer users need while they are working.