Glyde.com Looks to Ice GameStop's (GME) Profit - Barron's
GameStop (NYSE: GME) could be in serious trouble if new website, Glyde.com, picks up market share, a Barron’s article reports today.
Glyde.com is a website designed by seven-year eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) veteran, Simon Rothman. The website basically acts like a stock market for pricing, calculates shipping, sends the seller a pre-paid envelope based on what their shipping, and takes about a 10% profit for doing this.
What’s more is that Glyde.com is incredibly simple to use. Instead of taking from 30 – 60 minutes to list an item, it takes about 1 minute. Real-time pricing is established by Google-esque algorithms, so there’s nothing that should be over or underpriced, and you don’t have to spend time researching of what a fair price for your item should be. It’s almost like a Kelly Blue Book for the rest of us, you might say.
Rothman tested the website for two years before introducing it. He used “middle-aged Soccer moms” who didn’t use eBay.
The article says that GameStop would be the most vulnerable because they rely heavily on secondary sales. Though the retailer’s new game sales rose 9.4% for Q309, their used game sales rocketed 19.4% to $507.7 million.
An example of the challenge GameStop will face points to a trial sale of NCAA Football ’10 by Electronic Arts. GameStop listed the XBOX 360 version for $49.99, while Glyde.com had it for $28.81, which included shipping and fees.
GameStop has the resources and talent to evolve with the times,, but the question is will it be able to do it soon enough? Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) saw NetFlix (NASDAQ: NFLX) coming, but couldn’t adjust quick enough, and now BBI is trading at about $0.6315, down from about $10 five years ago.
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