How many web-only brands can you quote quickly?

[SilverShine]

I was thinking yesterday about how many web-only shopping brands I can quote and which are in the common consciousness.

I came up with only 3.

Amazon
Ebay
Paypal

If you are honest, how many others can you come up with off the top of your head?

I am wondering therefore how hard it must be to create a recognizable/well known brand with a web-only business?

[JackieBlue]

Buy.com
Overstock.com
Musiciansfriend.com
ZZsounds.com
Americanmusical.com
Bonanza.com
Etsy.com

The problem comes when you try to define "well known". There are lots of web-only niche brands that may only have a few hundred thousand people who have heard of them- but still generate signficant business.

[Propools]

Didn't Justin Bieber start as a web-only brand/business?

[SilverShine]

I will accept Overstock.com but I would say none of the others really qualify as brands. I know of buy.com but only because it was in the news some time ago about the domain name not the business.
The others I've never heard of at all, but maybe I don't get out much!.

Perhaps this lack of brand recognition is because not having a street/mall presence keeps a name out of mind & away from regular name reinforcement and getting a recognizable brand needs that presence?

Also, none of the well known web-only brands advertise at all or very much on national media, which is a big factor in brand recognition I am sure.

[SilverShine]

who is Justin Beeber?

[StoutFiles]

Buy, Overstock, NewEgg, CircuitCity, Craigslist...

Could go on forever if I start naming smaller niche markets.

[digitsix]

definitely newegg +1

[SilverShine]

Buy, Newegg are names, not Brands and that few people could easily name.
Circuit City was a store first (but also went out of business).
Craigslist is not a shopping brand. Its just an advertising site.

Its not as easy as it seems.

[StoutFiles]

If you have a trademark, you have a brand. All those websites have their company name trademarked, so they are all a brand.

It is as easy as it seems.

[SilverShine]

But how many are well known that the public can readily quote?
That's really what I was getting at, not people in the business of e-commerce.

[rachel123]

Add Zappos to the list

The vast majority of "public" that I know would be able to list at least

Amazon
Ebay
Etsy
Zappos
Overstock
NewEgg
Buy.com
Plus a couple niche sites that they frequent.

I'm confused about why you accept PayPal but not Craigslist?

Anyway, if you're looking for more traditional "brand" names like Sylvania or Kleenex, of course you won't find many exclusive to online - what manufacturer would self-limit their sales channels?

[piatkow]

Depends on the country
In the UK I think most people would come up with a list of insurance comparison sites.
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