By Pia Heikkila, 15 June 2000 00:20
NEWS UK retail group Kingfisher, which owns household names such as Woolworth's and Comet, predicts it will achieve sales of £1.5bn in the European online retailing market by 2004 - the company's online revenue in 1999 was £15m. But some industry pundits claim the figure is optimistic, as the whole online UK market is only predicted to be worth around £14bn by 2004, according to analyst firm Verdict. Kingfisher said its calculations are heavily reliant on online investments with companies such as Superdrug, and its own ventures, such as DIY site Screwfix.co.uk. But Mike Godliman, director of Verdict, claimed Kingfisher's products are not a winning recipe for success on the Internet. He said: "The online food and drink market will expand rapidly, but in areas such as DIY and toys, it will be hard to create consumer interest. The toy market, for instance, is traditionally family-orientated and shopping together is part of the experience." However, according to Hasnain Merali, senior ecommerce analyst at consultancy Datamonitor, the growth rate of the company is in line with analyst predictions. He told silicon.com: "Customers will be used to shopping online by then. Being a bricks-and-mortar company, Kingfisher already has customers relying on its brands and it also has online presence with ventures such as its stake at the French free ISP LibertySurf." But Merali agrees that the £1.5bn figure is too high. He said: "The cost of entry into B2C ecommerce is extremely high and online presence is all about creating a brand name. The company will have to spend millions in marketing its brands before it will achieve trust amongst consumers." A spokesman for Kingfisher said the figures are estimates based on research conducted by the Forrester Research, Henley Centre, IDC, NOP Research and US Cencus Bureau Research.
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