Egghead.com, the struggling computer retailer that closed its stores and moved whole-hog onto the Internet nearly a year ago, has retooled its online presence to combine its three disparate sites into one.
In announcing the move Monday, the company said the new site will allow the company to offer a greater range of products to more customers, with the ability to process as many as 10,000 orders a day.
"We believe that the new site will enable Egghead.com to increase merchandise revenues, improve the management of gross margin, expand into new product categories, add revenue from advertising, and lower our operating expense ratios," chairman and CEO George Orban said in a statement.
The new site is made up of four of what the company calls "buying venues" -- Computer, Software, SuperplusDirect, and Auctions. The Auctions area reflects Egghead.com's ambition to move beyond computer-related merchandise. On Monday, for example, Auctions was taking bids on Wisconsin holiday hams, a 28-inch Mrs. Santa Claus doll that plays Christmas tunes, and Magnavox personal CD players -- in addition to PCs, printers, and notebook computers.
In the early '90s Egghead had some 250 retail stores. But before adding the ".com" to its name in February, the company had suffered through a long string of losing years and was down to 83 retail outlets.
In the quarter ended in late September, Egghead.com reported a net loss of 30 cents per share, compared with a loss of 24 cents per share for the same period last year. Still, its online sales have been rising and its stock (EGGS) has benefited from the pre-holiday surge in interest in e-commerce ventures. In early October it was trading down around US$5 before beginning to rise steadily. Then last Friday it shot up 48 percent to close at $31.63.
Egghead.com's visibility has also spiked, following a multimedia advertising campaign -- reportedly costing the company upwards of $3 million -- that it began earlier this month.
