Koodos - branded products at great prices

By Vivek | January 3rd, 2007 at 01:16 pm ET         

UK based startup Koodos wants to play the shopping game bit differently. Launched last month, Koodos makes available quality branded products to consumers in the form of Private Sales. Each product offered through Koodos is available in limited quantity and Koodos claims to offer significant cost savings as compared to retail prices. Koodos, a Atlas Venture funded company, is led by a management team(Miriam Lahage - CEO- previously of TJX) that has extensive experience in retail and online shopping.

Koodos is working on building partnerships with a number of top brands and retailers, as well as emerging fashion designers to overcome the common overstock problem and connecting that oversupply to consumers who are looking to buy quality branded products at lower prices. In addition to this, brand owners own their inventory, thus enabling them to maintain control of their pricing and maximizing their net yield. So while Koodos takes care of inventory glut, customers can take advantage of the special pricing offered. Looking at the UK online shopping market that accounted for half of retail growth in the UK last year, and forecast to grow at least 20% this year, Koodos does sound like good opportunity.

As for comparison purposes, Koodos might sound like Jellyfish Smack Deal of the Day or Woot, but differentiates itself by offering more than one high-end branded products at the same time. From the web site perspective, I think Koodos does need lot of work in terms of user experience and overall checkout process to bring it more in-tune with web20 world. Again till the time consumers are able attain significant savings, UI improvements can be put on back-burner.

Speaking of customer loyalty and brand relationships, I am eagerly waiting for the release of Eluma’s Brandable Desktop communities software that can let you stay connected with your brand community easily. Service like Koodos in conjunction with Eluma will be a great combination for building communities around brands and getting great deals on your favorite brands.

Links:
Koodos