dabs.com was an
e-commerce
E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain mana ...
retailer
Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, an ...
in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
. It was one of the UK's largest internet retailers of
IT and technology products. From 2006 until its closure in 2016, it was a
subsidiary of
BT Group
BT Group plc ( trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-line, bro ...
.
History
As an independent company
Originally Dabs Press, from 1987 to 1990, and Dabs Direct, it primarily sold its products via advertisements in IT related magazines.
dabs.com was founded in
Bolton
Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish weavers settled in the area in the 14th ce ...
by David Atherton and Bruce Smith in 1987;
Dabs is an
acronym
An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in '' NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, a ...
of the initials of the founders' names. It subsequently grew to employ more than 200 people, with annual revenue of
£200m from 5000 transactions daily.
Dabs.com was a
shirt sponsor of
Fulham FC
Fulham Football Club is an English professional football club based in Fulham, London, which compete in the . They have played home games at Craven Cottage since 1896, other than a two-year period spent at Loftus Road whilst Craven Cottage unde ...
for the 2003–04 and 2004–05 seasons.
BT takeover
In April 2006, it was announced that
BT Group
BT Group plc ( trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-line, bro ...
had purchased dabs.com for an estimated £30m and that the business would become a wholly owned
subsidiary of BT.
The company's operations in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...
were subsequently closed at the end of May 2006.
Closure
In April 2016 the dabs.com brand was phased out in favour of the BT Shop brand (for consumers) and BT Business Direct (for business customers).
This included the closure of the dabs.ie website for the
Republic of Ireland
Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...
and the end of consumer-oriented sales there on the same date.
References
External links
BT Business Direct (formally dabs4work.com) official website for businessesUnified communications provided by BT Business Directdabs4work.ie official website for businesses in Irelanddabs.com reviews
{{BT Group
Online retailers of the United Kingdom
Consumer electronics retailers of the United Kingdom
BT Group