EasyGroup in e-shops move

By JIM ARMITAGE
Updated:

 

Greek millionaire Stelios Haji-Ioannou's easyGroup is planning an internet business offering services from branded e-mail and auctions to games and shopping online. Key to the move is the concept of a 'robot shopper', able to surf online retailers for the best prices worldwide on goods usually bought on the High Street.

Products could range from sports equipment to financial services. 'You may find yourself buying a tennis racket from Bombay on easy.com if that's the cheapest place,' said a spokesman.

Plans for the new business emerged days after the demise of online sportswear retailer boo.com, which collapsed after spending too much on development and creating an over-complex website.

Haji-Ioannou, who has appointed advisers for an autumn flotation of his easyJet airline, is turning Camden-based easyGroup into an incubator for start-up businesses which are then spun off separately. EasyEverything, the internet cafes business launched last year, has already moved its headquarters to Tottenham Court Road in central London and essentially operates as a stand-alone business.

Easy.com is seen as a natural progression from the rapid expansion of easyEverything, which last week added to its five central London sites with another in Edinburgh. Next month will see new stores open in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Barcelona, while another store goes live in Madrid in the autumn. The plan has always been for easyEvery-thing outlets to be used more as a conduit for online shopping than simply as a cheap place to send and receive e-mails.

Haji-Ioannou's advisers are consulting retailers and financial groups to assess which types of business will work best with easy.com. The launch is planned for the end of the year.

While the company wants to offer pensions, life insurance and mortgages through easy.com, a number of regulatory hurdles remain to be crossed. EasyRentacar, the company launched by easyGroup at Easter, is operating at full capacity. Its 1,100-strong hire car fleet is based at London Bridge, Glasgow Airport and Barcelona.

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