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Weisshouse owner, friends make a wish upon the Net
Tuesday, October 12, 1999 By Teresa F. Lindeman, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Guess not enough people wanted to see Las Vegas weddings shown over the Web. The weisswedding.com site that was Shadyside retailer Louis Weiss' first attempt to get his brand onto the Internet has been shoved to the back of the closet.
Today the home furnishings retailer who made his name the old-fashioned way, in a bricks-and-mortar store on Walnut Street, will take a second shot at cyberspace in an entirely new role.
Instead of trying to sell furniture online, he sees an opportunity in organizing all those other products already out there.
"We are the middleman," said Weiss, almost gleefully, as he explained how his new online gift registry, Wishbox.com, will try to carve out its own role in the black hole between e-consumers and e-retailers.
The concept seems a bit, well, convoluted.
The gift registry won't sell any products of its own. It will target a group of consumers who can't shop online because they don't have MasterCards. And it will encourage these shoppers to take the high road by wishing for things that no one can buy such as, say, world peace.
"That part makes my hair stand up on end," said company chairman Weiss, who seems to be having a wonderful time blending traditional marketing techniques with the bells and whistles that can only be achieved on the Web.
Weiss has been working on the idea for months with other people who also seem to think this will work. Wishbox.com's president and CEO Jim Busis came over from Booz-Allen & Hamilton. The company's chief marketing strategist, Dan Droz, is an adjunct professor of design management at Carnegie Mellon University. Sandbox Advanced Development, a software firm founded by former CMU faculty, designed much of the site.
Anyone can wander onto the Wishbox site, set up a box complete with direct links to things he wants and then e-mail the information to friends, relatives or rich uncles.
The requests can be for anything. Want a $250 leather peacoat from the Gap? Put it in the box. How about a $29 pair of fuzzy Steve Madden slippers? Wishbox.com slurps up the link and adds in to the wish box.
The site aspires to be more than a training ground for the next Me Generation. "We want people wishing for better grades in school," insisted Weiss. Parents who see that plea might hire a tutor for their teen.
Wishbox.com is counting on three revenue streams. The company will receive money from purchases made via links on its site.
The company is also negotiating deals with businesses like online music store CDNow in return for recommending that wish-filling shoppers look there first. Even charities may give up a percentage of the donations in return for prime space on the site.
Finally, Wishbox.com will try to match up wishes with retailers. If a store has a pile of FUBU jeans to get rid of at a discount, the site could work out a deal to notify the people who have those in their Wishbox.
Gift registries have been popping up all over the Web, especially bridal ones like the original Weiss wedding site, which included a Las Vegas Web cam. That's why the Wishbox.com creators really want to capture the imagination of Gen Y.
Marketing studies showed 65 percent of Americans between the ages of 10 and 20 use the Internet. Less than 1 percent can shop there. "They don't have any credit on the Internet," said Droz.
But those same Visa-deprived consumers have parents and grandparents. And these Gen Y-types love e-mail. "Teenagers have no compunction sending their wishes to their friends," said Droz.
Every kid who gets an e-mail from another Wishboxer will get the virus, so to speak.
He learns about the site and may set up his own box, shipping it off to even more people.
To build its audience, Wishbox.com is using one of the older tricks in the marketing handbook.
The company is ready to make good on at least one wish for each of the first 100,000 people who register after Nov. 1.
Wishes granted will range between $14 and $5,000, but those chosen will be up to the company's executives. "We do want to not lose our shirts," said Weiss, with a laugh.
"Chances are it may be a CD. But that's still $18 you didn't have," he added.
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