Bennett branches out with web reseller site

Steve Bennett, managing director of Software Warehouse, is due to launch a web-only reseller called Jungle Online.

The internet-only operation will officially open on 18 August. The website has already been established, although there is no public information on the trader's sales focus. The firm was incorporated on 3 June at Companies House.

The managing director of the startup will be Clive Bryant, head of internal technical support at Software Warehouse. The other directors listed are Christopher Alekandre and Steve Bennett. Bryant is also a director of Bennett's consultancy operation, Software Warehouse Bespoke.

A source close to Bennett revealed that the venture had received a multi-million pound financing deal from an unnamed venture capital company.

Graham Taylor, senior ecommerce analyst at Gartner Dataquest, said: "Those people who have experience of the off-the-page model have a head start in this kind of operation - generally they have all dabbled in it for a couple of years anyway. They know how an efficient supply chain works and they improve it using the web."

But he added that the main issues the public had with such operations were security and trust. "Trust is easily built through brand. Choosing not to brand it as an arm of Software Warehouse, with the trust that adds, could be an issue."

The web-only retail model has steadily gained momentum in the UK. The first to launch was WStore on 15 July as exclusively revealed in PC Dealer (30 June).