Blockbuster Videoís New Web Site Launches

Blockbuster Video has ""re-launched"" its Blockbuster.com Web site. The new site premiered on November 22 and is first in a series of moves the company hopes will position the chain as videoís dominant player in the e-commerce arena.Blockbuster Chairman and CEO John Antioco said the re-launched site will offer new VHS and DVD product for sale and will also become an extension of its bricks-and-mortar rental business. Antioco said that customers who purchase product from Blockbuster.com will be offered free movie and game rentals in Blockbuster stores.Antioco said that Blockbuster has a 65 million-name database (40 million in the U.S.) that will save Blockbuster millions in ""customer acquisition"" costs that other Web retailers starting at scratch are challenged with.Antioco said that Blockbuster will integrate the Web site and its existing bricks-and-mortar operations. The plan is to let customers check the availability of a movie in their local Blockbuster outlet, ""rent"" it online with a credit card, then pick it up at the store on the way home where the movies will be waiting, bagged and ready to go.For anyone competing with Blockbuster the ""rent online"" is a scary scenario. Such a digitally enabled video rental business of immediate presence bricks-and-mortar outlets integrated with online Internet ordering is a potent business model and one that could hold its own against the electronic delivery of movies into the home. Even so Blockbuster is exploring means to become active in the electronic delivery of movies to the home, should that develop into a significant business.