(This is the Online column, written for The Southland Times)
I suppose it should come as no surprise to anyone that Telecom’s great white hope in the online trading stakes has shut up shop.
Telecom announced the closure of Ferrit in an email to registered users on Tuesday morning and the site closed its doors or whatever it is they close online at 5 o’clock last night
Ferrit was launched with much fanfare and even more money just three years ago but never really seemed a serious contender. Apart from the incredibly irritating advertising (featuring the guy who I suspect was supposed to be quirky but really just seemed creepy), the name itself was far too random. I mean come on, Ferrit? Really? Sure, that makes me think of buying things online. I’ll bet Sam Morgan wishes he’d thought of it first.
Yes folks, that was sarcasm.
I’m sure there are many reasons that could be put forward for why Ferrit was flushed but Telecom CEO Paul Reynolds has made the right move. Instead of pumping more money and resources into something that was not much more than a glorified online junk mail catalogue, the company can now focus on looking after its core business: phones and internet (hmm, more sarcasm).
The sad part of the closure is that 37 jobs have been lost although, some of those staff will be redeployed elsewhere in the Telecom family.
Telecom left its run for online retailing too late and launched its site before it was fully ready for customers to do all the things customers tend to want to do, like buy from multiple retailers in one hit.
It took a while until that was up and running and I’m sure many other potential users were like me, and decided it wasn’t worth the hassle.
Apart from that, there is the whole Trade Me effect. It really is the hub of New Zealand’s online trading and for Telecom to have any sort of impact, it was always going to have to come up with something special.
Unfortunately, it fell short.