The agreement last week between Mattel Inc.’s Barbie.com and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s WalMart.com benefits both sides of the deal, says Rob Leathern, consumer packaged goods analyst at Jupiter Media Matrix.
Barbie.com is an information site about the popular doll that attracts 5 million visitors a month. With the agreement, visitors who want to buy Barbie merchandise online will be able to click on a link from Barbie.com to WalMart.com’s Barbie boutique.
Barbie.com relieves retailers of the expense of providing lots of content about Barbie and its products while it gives Mattel control over Barbie content on the web. “Consumers often research at one retail site then buy at another site that can offer lower prices because it doesn’t have the expense of providing content,” Leathern says. “This takes the onus off retailers to provide that information.”
The agreement also clearly defines the manufacturer-retailer relationship, he says. “The retailer handles the product distribution and the customer service while the manufacturer has control over the content,” he says.
Leathern also notes that the deal takes the friction out of having the manufacturer deal directly with the consumer. “Going around retailers is not the best approach for manufacturers,” he says. This agreement addresses that problem and adds a further benefit in that it allows manufacturers to create much more specific deals with retail partners. “The Internet makes it possible to direct traffic to different partners at different times, depending on the needs of each,” he says.
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