New Retailers, New Exec Widen Wish.com's List

Brandweek,  Jan 31, 2000  by Susan Kuchinskas

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Gift-registry site Wish.com has implemented its distribution strategy, added new features and deepened its management team, the Campbell, Calif.-based company announced today.

The company's deal with Hifi.com, a Newton, Mass., home entertainment products e-tailer, illustrates the path it will take to provide its wish-list functions to other sites as well as being a shopping portal. "We will be the power behind the wish list on their site," Wish.com CEO Michael Mo said, "and they'll increase their distribution by being featured on our site."

The Wish.com site has added gift certificates from Giftpoint.com, based in Omaha, Neb., and lined up iGo.com of Reno, Nev., as the featured merchant for portable electronics on the home site. Giftpoint will provide co-branded certificates for merchandise from Wish.com's 450 retail partners, including food purveyor Hickory Farms, custom golf club service Chipshot.com and Planet Hollywood. Wish.com users also will be able to buy "flexible" certificates that let the recipient choose among all the Giftpoint merchants. IGo.com provides accessories such as batteries and adapters for laptops and cell phones.

On the management side, Steen Kantner has joined the company as executive vice president. Kantner brings heavy brickworld experience from a 22-year stint as president of IKEA US East, a division of the Humleback, Denmark furniture retailer, followed by two years as vice chairman and CEO of housewares chain Lechters and a stint as president and CEO of personal care products company Body Shop USA.

"Retailers are our customers," said Mo, "so we needed somebody with a tremendous amount of retail experience to help us tailor our product to meet retailers' needs." He hopes Kantner will bring some of IKEA's "absolutely amazing" merchandising techniques to benefit Wish.com's affiliates.

The core function of Wish.com lets consumers pick and choose from products to create a "wish list" they can share with potential gift-givers in various ways. Wish.com uses Inktomi's shopping-focused search technology to let users seek desired merchandise from its affiliate retailers. Analyst Seema Williams of Forrester Research, Cambridge, Mass., said wish lists were the "must-have" feature for e-commerce sites during the holiday shopping season.

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