Bp To Enter Collaboration With E-tailer
The Age
Wednesday June 28, 2000
Petroleum and chemicals giant BP unveiled an alliance with wishlist.com.au yesterday, and was quick to declare that its $2.5 million investment in the e-tailer was not a rescue package for a "lame duck" Internet company.
Tagged by BP as an online-meets-offline collaboration, BP will deliver wishlist.com.au access to its extensive network of BP Express service stations, which notch up more than 150 million customer visits each year.
wishlist.com.au will have exclusive access to 250 stations for the use of pick-up, return and payments of goods, plus use of BP service stations to display the wishlist.com.au brand.
Importantly for wishlist.com.au, the deal delivers it a bricks-and-mortar retail network that will help boost its link with customers and cut transport costs.
Under the terms of the deal, BP will be able to take a stake of as much as 20per cent in wishlist.com.au if wishlist meets performance standards.
BP director of retail Gerry Hueston declined to comment on the exact size of the stake the group would eventually take but said it would be between 5 and 20per cent.
BP had undertaken an extensive due diligence process in the e-tailing sector, bypassing dstore and other companies to choose wishlist.com.au as its e-commerce partner, Mr Hueston said.
wishlist.com.au's co-founder and chief executive officer, Huy Truong, said online customers needed a 24-hour/seven-day-a-week solution that would accompany them from the order through to pick-up and return.
``BP is the perfect partner for us and we expect to go a long way in making this a strong partnership.
``We will be able to control the whole fulfilment process, ensuring a quality experience for our customers," Mr Truong said.
BP's investment in wishlist.com.au was a world first, Mr Hueston said, with space set aside in 250 hand-picked BP Express stations for the e-tailer's products. ``This is a value proposition and it's all about the new customers we can bring to each other."
Mr Hueston and Mr Truong said there would be joint marketing programs, including fly-buy points and special offers, with the first offers to become available in August.
In March, wishlist.com.au announced a successful $15 million second-round capital-raising, snaring blue-chip investors such as J.P. Morgan, Allen & Buckeridge, Hambos-Grantham and the Smorgon and Besen families.
Mr Truong yesterday declined to quantify wishlist.com.au's cash-burn rate but said it was ``commensurate" with the industry average.
Apart from the traditional e-tailing services, wishlist.com.au specialises in offering gift organiser searches by age, gender, interests and other key measures.
The unlisted group claims to have delivered gifts to more than 50,000 Australians since launching its service in July last year.
© 2000 The Age