CEO George Shaheen resigned on April 13, after a sharp plunge in share values that ended with the company being asked to de-list its stock from the Nasdaq. But instead of backing off from the idea of fast delivery, Webvan is actually ramping up its plans. It's now testing a same-day delivery service in Atlanta. In Webvan's case, surely part of the motivation has to do with the fact that they're delivering perishable goods. But it's equally likely that they've hit on a key characteristic of their market.
Online shoppers crave instant gratification like no others.
Webvan seems to know what its cutomers want, but the company's prospects look bleak nonetheless. It's still short a chief executive, and it's due to run out of cash before the end of 2001. For a while we've been promised a Holy Grail in the form of converged media. Interactive TV programming, we are told, will eventually allow viewers to order advertised products just by touching the screen, even during the show itself. Another frontier is wireless connectivity.