Bye bye Blockbuster

Only last week we had the news that Jessops has gone into Administration and then yesterday HMV the entertainment retailer announced its plans to do the same.  I'm also pretty sure that some of you also had the conversation around "who's going to be next?" in some sort of retail Dead Pool.

However, I don't think anyone was expecting an announcement within 24 hours that another major retailer had gone the same way. But today it was announced that Blockbuster, the video and game rental chain has gone into Administration too, making that three large High Street operators already this month.

There's no doubt that Blockbuster faced increasing competition from Internet-based services such as LoveFilm, as well as the overall trend of downloading and streaming movies and even games via the Internet. Blockbuster did make in-roads into a streaming service, but this functionality was not  available outside the United States.
http://www.blockbuster.com/download

A lot of commentors will no-doubt mention that this result has been predicted for some while, but I think this episode from South Park a while back pretty much sums up the situation...

Let Jessops survive online

The retail world was again hit with more doom and gloom on Wednesday, as it was announced that the troubled photography chain Jessops had gone into Administration. Having managed to avoid a similar situation in 2009, when its bank HSBC swapped debt for equity, the Administrators were called in as Jessops became the first large retailer of 2013 to topple. However today things went from bad to worse as PWC closed all the stores and put the following holding message up on the website:

Customer Notice

The Jessop Group Limited (in Administration)
Edward Williams, Robert Jonathan Hunt and Matthew David Hammond of PwC were appointed as joint administrators of The Jessop Group Limited on 9 January 2013. With effect from 11 January 2013, Jessops online and retail stores have ceased trading.

A gloomy forecast for the year ahead, as well as increasing completion from online traders, has been given as the cause. But is there still life in the Jessops brand and proposition?

I hope so. As a previous customer in the store, I found it to be a really positive shopping experience, staffed with friendly and knowledgeable people.

As a Multi-channel retailer, with a presence on the High Street and online, it may well not survive. However as an online could surely be some possibility that it continue:

1. The brand still exists in the hearts and minds of its customers
2. The domain name still has a lot of clout online

As of today (according to alexa.com), the domain jessops.com had::

• A global ranking of: 17,441
• A GB ranking of: 472
• And 1,682 in-bound links

Although it may not be possible, the best thing to do right now to preserve the integrity of the online brand is to bring the website back. Shutting the eCommerce site has not only stopped visitors looking at the available products (you stopped being able to buy them on Wednesday) but is slowly ruining the online credibility of a once successful site.

Or to put it another way... even if the Administrators redirected the URL to the Cameras landing page on amazon.co.uk via an affiliate arrangement, they would still get around 5% of every subsequent sale!