Bigwords.com bids farewell despite great college appeal

By Bethany Tang
Daily Bruin Contributor

Big problems caused Bigwords.com to go out of business last
month, leaving some students looking for a new place to buy
books.

The company, which sold textbooks online, did not specify a
reason for its fall, but its Web site stated officials didn’t
think the financial community was ready to support their
business.

“Bigwords.com succumbed Friday, Oct. 20 to the powers that
be,” read the Bigwords Web site.

Students used Bigwords to buy books, return used books, buy
clothing and CDs for the lower prices it sometimes offered.

Overall, Bigwords.com earned $14 million in sales and had
800,000 visitors per month, according to the company’s
closing address.

The online company going out of business will not affect sales
at the Associated Students of UCLA textbook store, said Doug Hahn,
textbook logistics manager at the store.

“Internet competition was negligible,” Hahn said.
“There was no difference in the textbook sales even when
online competition came in.”

This year alone, Internet sales for the UCLA textbook store more
than doubled, he added.

“Students will not be affected by them going out of
business because there are other Internet businesses out there, and
it was only one source out of many,” Hahn said.

One reason Bigwords.com went out of business may be because of
recent trends in e-commerce, according to Robert Foster, professor
of high technology at the Anderson School at UCLA.

“Just because you know how to write a Web site does not
mean you know how to operate a business,” said Foster, who is
also director for the Center for Management in Information
Economy.

Some students said they were disappointed that Bigwords.com went
out of business.

“You find the book right away and there’s no waiting
in lines,” said Alvin Lee a fourth-year computer science
student. “It is a lot less hassle if you don’t mind
waiting the extra few days for shipping.”

Others liked the buyback policy at Bigwords.com better than
other competitors.

“They bought back used books for a better price than the
UCLA store did,” said Irene Chen, a third-year psychology
student. “I will have to find another way to resell my books
now.”

But not all students will be affected by the company’s
fall.

“Even at a bargain price, the shipping costs and lack of
reliability is enough for me to stick to the student store,”
said Bruce Woo, fourth-year computer science engineering student.
“I’ve heard horror stories of my friends not getting
their books on time, or not getting their books at all.”

The UCLA textbook store will buy back textbooks that a student
needs to return to Bigwords.

“We did not want our students to get hurt or ripped
off,” Hahn said.

Another reason the company may have fallen was because campus
bookstores were still racking up sales like usual according to the
U.S. News and World Report.

“The results for the Internet stores were disappointing if
the goal is to offer students an attractive match of lower prices
and convenient shopping,” U.S. News reported in its Sept. 20,
1999 issue.

The end of Bigwords.com, according to Foster, illustrates some
of the problems e-startups are facing now that they are becoming
more mainstream.

“Amazon.com is the number one seller in e-commerce right
now, but they tried to get into the toy business by themselves and
did not do well,” Foster said. “But when they combined
with Toys ‘R’ Us who did the marketing and inventory
for the toys, while Amazon did the shipping and distributing, they
sold.”

In addition, the increase in online competition also made things
more difficult, Foster said.

“There are too many Web sites competing in the same
markets, and not that many buyers of that one product,” he
said.