With a goal of growing overall retail sales 66% to $1 billion as quickly as possible, The Bombay Co. is relying on surging growth in its online sales to reach that target, Matt Corey, vice president and e-commerce and marketing, tells Internet Retailer. To do that, Bombay realized it needed to sign on to the stable and scalable e-commerce platform provided by Amazon.com Inc., he adds.
"We want our direct business to grow exponentially, so we had to take a serious look at our current technology and what could take us to the next level," Corey says. "Amazon has the best web site in the world, and since we can use their technology at lower cost than other options, the decision was easy." Bombay and Amazon announced the deal just days after one of Amazon’s major e-commerce platform clients, ToysRUs.com, sued Amazon for breach of contract, arguing that Amazon.com is going against an exclusivity clause in its contract by selling competing toy products. Amazon has denied any wrongdoing.
Corey says Bombay expects its sites -- Bombaycompany.com, BombayKids.com and BombayOutlet.com – to go live on the Amazon platform in time for this year’s Christmas shopping season. Its contract with Amazon Services Inc., the e-commerce services arm of Amazon, is designed as a "pay-for-performance" deal that requires little up-front investment and shares revenue with Amazon as sales are processed, he adds. Amazon will build and maintain the Bombay sites’ infrastructure, including common Amazon features like 1-Click shopping, personalization and wish lists, but Bombay will retain control of merchandising.
Mark Stabingas, senior vice president of Amazon Services, says Amazon will provide web-administration tools that will let non-technical merchandise managers and others at Bombay to manage site content and pricing without having to rely on web technicians. "That’s an important part of our proposition for our partners, to let them make site changes quickly without being a web technician," he says.
Corey, however, says he looks forward to leveraging the expertise of Amazon’s broad team of web developers to continue perfecting his sites. "Amazon has 600 programmers, and I’m going to use everyone of those guys," he says.
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