High Street giant zooms in on Web mall

Fashion Group, Arcadia, opened the doors to its new cyber mall this morning in a move that brings together a number of e-tailers all under one roof. There has been no shortage of hype surrounding the launch of Zoom, described in some quarters as the "largest e-commerce hub" in the UK. Stocked with Arcadia's own stores, including Principles, Top Shop and Burtons Menswear, the cybermall also contains other well-known brands such as HMV, Expedia and Interflora. The venture is the first of its kind in the UK to be established by a retailer and could give a welcomed fillip to e-tailing in the UK. High street banks, Natwest and Barlcays, have both tried similar schemes but these have both failed to deliver the goods, as it were. ®