Rip van Winkle descendants go into e-commerce

The last couple of weeks have seen the primetime advertising slots on UK television channels plastered with advertisements for a new online service, MemoriseThis.com.

Initially, I didn`t believe the site stood a snowball`s chance in hell of making enough money and landing enough customers to break even, let alone show a profit.

Basheera Khan, London contributor, ITWeb

As its name suggests, MemoriseThis provides a free e-mail reminder service for special occasions, and a gift-finding service for those who need to provide presents to someone special on that particular occasion.

But it`s not just any gift-finding service. The Web site claims, with what one presumes is a straight face, that it "uses the world`s most advanced gift matching system to find perfect gifts for each person you want to buy for (sic). And not just ordinary gifts. MemoriseThis has thousands of unusual and original gift ideas that people love!"

Of course, one has to register on the site`s user database to make use of the complete search functionality, but there is a teaser search on the home page, which, once used and seen to be just the thing to solve those gift-giving blues, presumably provides the last of the arm-twisting needed to get the more reluctant consumers to sign on.

There are several worrying aspects to a service like this. Firstly, and top of mind for anyone vaguely interested in the mechanics of wealth creation, is how on earth do they make money out of it?

There are some obvious possible means; taking a cut of all sales facilitated via the Web site seems the most likely, but there is the chance of making money through selling customer demographic details and buying pattern research to retailers, without necessarily requiring customers to opt out to stay within its own data protection rights.

The driving force behind MemoriseThis is comprised of a number of seasoned businesspeople, including Gary Goodman, a solicitor turned product marketer, brand manager and new business developer. Not that I mean to cast aspersions, but doesn`t that just get the alarm bells ringing?

All lawyer jokes aside, Goodman has an impressive track record, according to the CVlet supplied on the site; he has worked for McCann Erickson, The Rank Organisation and Colgate Palmolive.

His colleagues and co-founders of MemoriseThis have pooled intellectual capital relating to the mail order, customer service, advertising, brand development and management, and cataloguing industries, to mention but a few.

Initially, I didn`t believe the site stood a snowball`s chance in hell of making enough money and landing enough customers to break even, let alone show a profit. Time may yet prove that instinctive reaction to be correct.

Having seen some of the site`s product offerings, and the credentials of those behind it, it does seem possible that with enough consumer buy-in, MemoriseThis may well become the stuff of the Internet Explorer Favourites folders. However, everything that MemoriseThis can do, Amazon can and has done better. Without even an option for reminders via SMS, it`s hard to see what differentiates MemoriseThis from any other reminder and/or gifting service out there.

Now, there are some commercial Web sites which have survived the dot-com slump in the UK, primarily because they provide a worthy service to a distinct consumer market. Jamjar.com, for example, makes its money selling cars sourced from the Continent to buyers in the UK, generally saving the consumer several thousand pounds a go.

Then there`s BlushingBuyer.co.uk, which is the kind of Web site that is successful not because it saves its patrons pennies, but rather, acute embarrassment. No, we`re not talking lacy lingerie or saucy sex toys but those rather more pedestrian products which some find difficult to buy over the counter; anything from condoms and haemorrhoid cream, to shoe deodorizers and hair growth retardants.

MemoriseThis.com is slightly more glamorous than BlushingBuyer, but one wonders if the site will have as much success as the latter in finding and keeping a regular customer base.