Looks.com (A): Building Asia's First Health, Beauty and Fashion e-Tailer

Looks.com is an Asian e-commerce site for brand name cosmetics, fragrances, skin care products and fashions. It has been well received among investors; the site had a viable business strategy and a solid first-mover advantage. The founder and managing director is ready to launch looks.com within weeks to capitalize on the upcoming Christmas shopping rush and the intense "dot.com" fever that caught Hong Kong in late 1999. The biggest challenge the company now faces is persuading brand name cosmetic manufacturers to list their products for sale on the site. Look.com's managing director and buyer are finding that manufacturers' concerns about cannibalizing their existing sales channels and antagonizing their licensed distributors are dampening their enthusiasm for dealing with looks.com. The challenge to the company is to develop strategies to convince manufacturers that using this alternative distribution channel can increase their revenue and the profile of their brands in Asia, with little impact on their current distribution network. This case has universal appeal, given that similar concerns have developed around the world as the Internet becomes an increasingly viable alternative distribution channel.