Furniture.com: another casualty in the virtual world

Furniture.com recently joined countless other dotcoms in closing its virtual doors. Despite reporting $22 million in net revenue between January and September this year, the leading online retailer of furniture and home furnishings discontinued operations on Nov. 6.

After its founding in January 1999, the Framingham, Mass.-based company quickly became a very popular Web site. Widely viewed as having one of the more promising Web-retailing concepts, Furniture.com was featured in the Monitor last summer as a star site for furniture consumers. But an inability to raise enough money from investors to keep up with increasing consumer demand drove the firm out of business.

Furniture.com blames the drying up of capital markets for its demise. Other analysts however, claim the company was unable to meet the overwhelming increase in customer-service inquiries from buyers. Facing complaints from customers about late deliveries, the online retailer couldn't satisfy the growing demand it had generated.

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