Former Powells.com Exec Forms Online Retail Consultancy
September 19, 2002
Portland Business Journal — View Original Article
The executive who led Powell's Books' move into cyberspace and later helped Djangos.com become a success online has formed an internet retail consulting firm.
Kanth Gopalpur, who helped Powells.com become one of the nation's leading online booksellers, has launched Monsoon Retail Development Systems (http://www.monsoonretail.com) to help small to medium-sized retailers sell online. "We believe that the internet is a vibrant new retail neighborhood for small businesses, and we have the know-how and experience to help smaller stores succeed side-by-side with big-box retailers such as Amazon, Best Buy and Wal-Mart," Gopalpur said.
Through Monsoon, which has three employees who worked with Gopalpur at both Powells.com and Djangos, he hopes to help traditional retailers, who have been "rightly skeptical of the internet," he said, to explore the benefits of e-commerce in a low-impact, cost-effective way. "We will work with any retailer who we think has a unique product to sell," he said. Monsoon already has five clients, only one of which is in the Portland area.