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 manag ...

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, and ...

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 continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

. 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 A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a ...

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 ...

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, as ...

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

had purchased dabs.com for an estimated £30m and that the business would become a wholly owned

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 France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

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 the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. ...

and the end of consumer-oriented sales there on the same date.

References

External links

BT Business Direct (formally dabs4work.com) official website for businesses

Unified communications provided by BT Business Direct

dabs4work.ie official website for businesses in Ireland

dabs.com reviews

{{BT Group Online retailers of the United Kingdom Consumer electronics retailers of the United Kingdom BT Group