

Hah PetFlow Raises $5 Million To Sell Pet Food Online - citizenkeys
http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/09/petflow-raises-5-million-to-sell-pet-food-online/

======
answerly
These guys are the founders of Azoogle (now Epic Advertising) which is a very
large CPA marketing network. They are not only very successful entrepreneurs
but understand customer acquisition, LTV, etc. Pets.com jokes aside, these are
very analytical guys and are well positioned to make something like this work.

~~~
citizenkeys
As recently demonstrated by diapers.com, staple goods like diapers, paper
towels, and dog food are all perfect markets for big online retailers.

The Internet is ideal for turning inefficient markets into efficient markets
that create value simply by saving people money.

Companies like this could've easily succeeded even 10 years ago if the old-
school dot-com companies hadn't blown all their capital on super bowl ads and
aeron chairs.

~~~
answerly
>Companies like this could've easily succeeded even 10 years ago if the old-
school dot-com companies hadn't blown all their capital on super bowl ads and
aeron chairs.

Maybe. There have been a lot of innovations in the consumer Internet business
that have enabled the successes of businesses like diapers.com...

1) Internet adoption rate is 2-3x higher now than it was in 1998. Companies
like Pets.com weren't just building their own brands, but also educating
everyday people about the Internet.

2) There were no self-serve distribution channels like SEM or affiliate
marketings that had any scale. Google was founded the same year as Pets.com
and Adwords didn't surface for a few years after that. The only ads you could
buy were CPM banners, integrated sponsorship deals (AOL bankrupted several
companies with these types of deals) and offline media like TV commercials.
Additionally, media buys were a lot less accountable. I was selling online ads
at this time and some of my clients weren't even tracking registrations by
source let alone sales on their website.

3) Businesses like Amazon and Zappos have helped create a completely different
model for logistics that simply didn't exist 10-12 years ago. There is a
reason that Pets.com had to spend tens to hundreds of millions on
infrastructure for warehouses, etc.

------
citizenkeys
This can only mean one thing, people... THE NEW BUBBLE IS ON!

LETS PARTY LIKE IT'S 1999!

