The onslaught into retail and the high street started with the Amazon Price Check app. The idea was to enable shoppers to scan and compare products and then buy through Amazon at a discount.  In this specific case Bezos used the shopper as an intelligence network that would enable Amazon to create pricing data for retailer product.  It is telling that this happened in 2011 and if one looks back it was the beginning of their challenge to retailers in the US.

On Dec. 10, Amazon promoted a new “Price Check” mobile phone app by offering shoppers a 5% discount—valid only for that one day—on items they found in brick-and-mortar stores, but purchased online through Amazon instead. The app enables in-store shoppers to scan or snap a photo of a product. It then immediately compares prices with Amazon’s. The app is prompting an outcry from small retailers, who say the site is using their independent stores as its own showroom.

“The goal of the Price Check app is to make it as easy as possible for customers to access product information, pricing information, and customer reviews, just as they would on the Web, while shopping in a major retail chain store,” he said.

If one is honest then this is the beginning of the “showrooming” culture that persists these days that retailers are trying to combat. Best Buy has had to shrink their stores to deal with the after effects of being a show room for Amazon.

Internet retailers, especially Amazon.com, benefit when consumers visit a Best Buy store, check out an item like a TV or home theater system, maybe ask the salesperson some questions about features or performance, then go home and buy it online for a few bucks less.

This practice of “showrooming,” as it’s been dubbed by analysts, doesn’t just affect Best Buy; Sears also said its first-quarter earnings were hurt by weaker electronics sales. But as the nation’s biggest electronics retailer and one that’s been virtually without an equivalent brick-and-mortar competitor since Circuit City’s 2008 bankruptcy, Best Buy has the most to lose from this practice.

So commerce behemoth Amazon wants to be a competitor for retail, what would be the next logical are to put a stake down? Grocery shopping, yes buying groceries online.

Enter Amazon

“After your free 90-day trial, your membership will automatically upgrade from a Prime membership to a Prime Fresh membership and you will be charged $299 for the next year and annually after that. This includes all the benefits of Prime, plus access to AmazonFresh. Your current Prime membership will be refunded on a pro-rated basis when you upgrade to Prime Fresh.”

The above should scare any retailer beyond their cash registers. One, Amazon has now moved out of Seattle with AmazonFresh thus they have after  6 years of testing finally have a scalable operation. That in it self should concern any retailer as Amazon has internal technology at their disposal that many retailers and commerce businesses can only dream of. I think we will see in the next 3 years Amazon growing this business aggressively and adding to this offering.

Source: RetailNet Group Slideshare

About 6 weeks ago, I found a great resource on AmazonFresh and it being a trojan horse for the Seattle behemoth done by the RetailNet Group. They broke this news way before Reuters etc and did a sterling job in terms of in-depth research. Have a look at this slideshare for more information.

On April 12, they broke the news:

Though nothing has been formally announced, RNG DIGITAL strongly expects that Amazon will expand its AmazonFresh full-basket (and general merchandise) delivery service to Los Angeles by June 1, 2013 and San Francisco (October 2013). The expansion has implications for the grocery and CPG market online and offline, but could also be Amazon’s Trojan horse for same-day delivery in the US.

I have a feeling that AmazonFresh is the testbed for the ever elusive someday shipping for Prime users and Amazon users in the US. Notice that the newly created AmazonFresh in Los Angeles has a newly created Prime membership class. Prime is the value and revenue for Amazon, the value being seen at the consumer side and the revenue side being seen on Amazon’s end.

I think in the coming years in the US, Amazon will be offering same day shipping, but the execution will be unlike we all expect. Research firm Retail Net Group estimates Amazon generated $66 million in revenue from grocery deliveries in 2012 in only one location (Seattle).

The longer-term promise of same-day shipping is that it will bring the same revolution to groceries that Amazon once brought to books and music. That advantage is remarkable selection. At supermarkets, shelf space is finite and expensive, which is why you can rarely find everything you need at a single store.

If one takes the above into consideration then AmazonFresh is a big deal and will down the line play a big role for Amazon. This event is a monumental one as retailers have been placed on notice about Amazon’s urge to be a grocery commerce business as well.. Over the Atlantic a retailer Ocado is to be seen as a reminder that Amazon is taking a risk in getting into online grocery retailing. The point is AmazonFresh is going to be something to keep an eye on, as the long awaited  expansion has now occurred.

I would like to thank Keith Anderson from RetailNet Group for his assistance on the above.

Related posts:

1. The Bing and Shopping.com partnership

CPCStrategy whom also has had a huge change in terms of the look and feel of their website recently wrote a cheeky article on the The 5 Best Ecommerce Articles In The History Of The Internet. Let me be honest for a moment, these articles and videos are some of the better content found on ecommerce but it points a very limited picture of the ecosystem.

In terms of a solution I thought about doing a top 10 of e-commerce posts. (These are my favorite posts written by some of the sharpest minds in the industry. Also note that I am going to post them in no particular order as the content should be read, bookmarked and returned to. That for me is the mark of good content.

1. Ecommerce startups written by Chris Dixon. Dixon, is in my book one of the most progressive thinkers in digital and has a knack of really breaking things down to the nuts and bolts. The comments on this article is also a must read.
2. eBay vs Amazon: decentralized vs centralized e-commerce also written by Chris Dixon. This post was written before eBay acquired Hunch where Dixon was a co-founder.
3. Andreessen predicts the death of traditional retail. Yes: Absolute death This was written by Sarah Lacy and in short Marc Andreessen is someone I would love to meet. His thoughts are clear and have serious weight behind them. Andreessen Horowitz has an amazing ecommerce portfolio which needs highlights that they are on the pulse of ecommerce.
4. All Markets Are Not Created Equal: 10 Factors To Consider When Evaluating Digital Marketplaces written by Bill Gurley. Let me be blunt for a minute. Finding decent content on marketplace ecommerce is difficult yet Gurley makes a great case on how to look for marketplaces and what to consider.
5. A Rake Too Far: Optimal Platform Pricing Strategy also written by Bill Gurley. In retail and commerce what is one of the biggest variables? pricing. This article is one that I have reread a few times.
6. Rethinking marketplaces for mobile written by Ariel Seidman. Mobile is the big opportunity that everyone is trying to figure out. Mobile is a disruptor as big as China that will need careful thought and strategy.
7. Omni-Channel Retail: A Term So Confusing, Even Those Doing it Best Don’t Know What it Means written by Sally Mackenzie. Mackenzie is a thought leader in ecommerce whom does a great job explaining omnichannel ecommerce.
8. Who Will Displace Amazon? One Of These 3 Will written by Suchurita Mulpuru. Mulpuru and her colleague Brian Walker (prior to his departure to hybris) were in my mind the most progressive thinkers on Amazon.com. Mulpuru writes less these days but I consult her Forrester blog often when in need of thoughts.
9. What U.S. E-Commerce Can Learn from Its Global Copycats written by Ken Calhoon. Calhoon is someone I found 6 months ago and I thoroughly enjoy his content. He will be a huge asset for Forrester Research.
10. The 3rd Wave of E-Commerce Disruption: Emotional Commerce written by Jason Goldberg. Goldberg is one of the few ecommerce CEO’s that has a fairly active blog. His long form posts are a gold mine for data and insight.
11. E-Commerce is a Bear written by Andy Dunn. This is a candidate for ecommerce post of the first part of 2013.  A must read for anyone in the ecommerce industry.

Onwards..

No related posts.

Just to be clear flash sales is not the same thing as curated commerce. Flash sales boils down to selling high value merchandise at deeply discounted  price. Flash sales is an industry that I keep an eye on as I believe it is a good measure of where apparel online retail is at.  Curated commerce is ecommerce with a editorial angle to it (beautiful images, content that is more related to the person buying the item) .

Flash sale businesses have steadily been pivoting to full price commerce as the flash sales businesses is in the decline in mature markets (Ventee-Privee and Markafoni being the exception to the general trend) . Flash sales also faced stern competition for attention and inbox space from daily deals (Groupon, LivingSocial). Ultimately companies who are succeeding in ecommerce are those who have built deep relationships with their customers based on being customer centric, logistics focused and ensuring that joy is created post transaction.

Enter the upstart

I have been following the journey of Fab.com pretty closely as I believe that they are part of a new wave of ecommerce businesses. Jason Goldberg is someone I deeply respect as he is transparent (his blog is a must read for any one in ecommerce) but they are like Amazon as they fret the little stuff. The business is unique and making lots of noise and have gone through a variety of pivots. Pivot has a serious misdirection in this case as Goldberg and co-founder Bradford Shellhammer have refocused their business 5 times. The 5th being the most ambitious I have seen from a startup (more on that later).

What is the mission?

Goldberg’s blog has the company’s mission as:

Fab’s mission is to help people better their lives with design. Millions of people around the world use Fab to discover everyday design products at great prices, to connect with the world’s most exciting designers, and to share their favorite design inspirations. Smile, you’re designed to.

Design is slowly becoming a must have for any digital business. Apple have always executed it unlike any other business and slowly others have done so in terms of UI design. The point is, finding proper designed clothing and merchandise is nothing short of a nightmare. So there is scope for a digital business to make the niche theirs and make millions of dollars for investors. However, I think we all need to be cognizant of a few things.

Compare apples with apples

I have a problem with Goldberg’s constant mention of the fact that they want to become the “Amazon.com of design”. Amazon is a unique case and in most likelihood wont be replicated. The Seattle business has scale, a huge variety of revenue making opportunities (I don’t think anyone in ecommerce has as many chances to make revenue from a customer as Amazon does) and has 25% of all global internet traffic coming to their various businesses. I might be over reacting but I think Fab.com has a long way to go to even be mentioned in the same conversation on ecommerce.

I believe their direct comparison is IKEA. Another small company that has many millions in revenue, that has been in operation for 70 years. IKEA is a juggernaut that operates 338 stores in 40 countries worldwide. The point I am trying to make is that Fab.com is trying to be seen with companies that have history, has made millions of dollars and Euros in revenue and are both juggernauts. Yet, Fab has only been around for 18 months.The

Pivot number 5

Let me be clear when I say that ecommerce businesses going into physical retail is an activity into the unknown. The really big ecommerce players (Amazon, Alibaba.com, Rakuten etc) have all stayed away from this transformation as it ultimately downgrades a huge advantage online shopping has over bricks and mortar.No store rental, no additional logistics to the retail store etc.

The 5th pivot as seen in detail below is very ambitious.

The announcements are:

1. A major pivot, redesign, relaunch of Fab as the World’s #1 Design Store. The New Fab – redesigned from the ground up — is now live on Fab.com in the U.S. and it will be live in Europe as well in the coming weeks.

2. The introduction of 3 types of Exclusively Fab products: Products Designed by Fab, Designer Collaborations, and Products Found by Fab.

3. The launch of Fab in France, now giving us coverage into 99% of the European Union.

4. The acquisition of MassivKonzept, the leading startup in online customized furniture, which is now being relaunched as Fab Designed By You.

5. The launch of Fab’s first physical retail concept.

Fab.com acquiring MassivKonzept is in my mind the direct connection to their move towards becoming the digital IKEA. “Online furniture retail is ripe for disruption. We think it’s possible to bring fun, modern, quirky products to people on a large scale,” Goldberg said. Fab.com making IKEA like furniture available to their countries of operation is interesting as now suddenly a whole new skill set will be needed for Fab.com to hire. Retail is a tough business currently being disrupted by mobile and I personally feel the move towards a retail presence is a rushed one. It might make sense for them but the implications might be only seen in the long term.

Massivkonzept by the numbers:

• 7000 customers

• $1000 average shopping cart, with largest customization orders reaching up to $100,000

• Over 10% sales are B2B: office owners, architects and carpenters buy from us

• 900,000 people have used the configuration tools online.

• 10% of sales in 2 years are from repeat buyers

We’re excited to now relaunch MassivKonzept as Fab, Designed By You, also known as Fab DBY.

Fab.com’s future concerns

It is pretty clear that Fab is backed by an all-star cast of investors but with this last pivot I would not be surprised if they raise some capital in the coming months. They have no other option as I think they need to grow considerably in terms of customers and sales in order to be sustainable.

Fab now serves more than 11 million members across 26 countries. Fab grew sales by more than 500% in 2012, one-third of which comes from users of the Fab mobile apps for iPad, iPhone, and Android devices. In February 2013 Fab was named the #5 most innovative company in the World by Fast Company. Fab won the award for Best E-Commerce Company of The Year at The Crunchies in both 2012 and 2011. It’s all very humbling and inspiring. The truth is we celebrate our challenges more than our successes at Fab and we’re really still just getting started.

Fab has always mentioned percentages when sales are given to the media but I believe they are spending a lot in terms of customer acquisition costs. A third of the sales come from mobile – interesting but if you look clearly then you would see in your inbox that at the end of a quarter then mobile app promotions are done to get transactions on the platforms. Note no mention of return customers nor percentage of international sales.

From the outside my other big concern is the ability to scale this business. Curation is driven by humans and Bradford Shellhammer seems to have a big say in terms of merchandise selection. I might be wrong but that element would make acquisitions and future growth a very difficult proposition.

I have no problem with ambitious goals for commerce companies, however Fab has gone “all-in” in trying to become an IKEA. Does this end badly for Fab or are they onto something?

No related posts.

However an online venture builder and accelerator from Germany entered into this race about 18 months ago and have in a very short period of time created quite a few market changing moments across the globe.

I want to define what is an emerging market in my own mind before we continue with the fascinating race seen in emerging market ecommerce.

An emerging market is one that geographic area which is inhabited by customers whom have means to pay for products but are unsure of new technology to ensure a transaction occurs on the Internet between the customer and a commerce business. The markets also faces barriers for foreign businesses which deem the market to be heavy for investment thus the investment is taken to another country or region. Barriers are: credit card penetration, Internet connectivity and logistics to deliver the bought item to the user.

Early emerging markets

There are 3 countries whom qualify for this in my mind. China, Brazil and Eastern Europe (Poland) were the early battlegrounds for investors to get early acquisitions. China and Brazil both contain some of the highest Internet penetration percentage seen anywhere in the world thus savvy investors wanted to acquire businesses. Millions of dollars were spent on acquiring businesses to ensure that no competitor could get term sheets and contracts signed with businesses.  These 3 markets are at the moment in my own opinion get close to being called matured ecommerce markets as the traditional global heavyweights (Amazon, eBay, Walmart and more recently Google).

When emerging markets 1.0 left investors without investments focused in market intelligence. Suddenly investment banks started focusing on China, Brazil, more parts of Eastern Europe and then Russia. These are geographically large areas in which many competitors could have businesses and investors could make returns on early investments. Russia has since become a difficult market to enter thorough infrastructure and regulatory challenges.

Fast Forward to today

Three brothers from Berlin saw the opportunity that the emerging markets would provide to investors. However, the Samwers realised that for them to be an “investors dream opportunity” they needed to do the whole business formation process seen in startups completely differently.

The basic idea, in the crudest sense, is that one of these “clone factories” sees a popular new startup doing well, recruits a team to quickly replicate the business model for a currently non-existing market, and then rides the popularity of the site until it sells for millions.

As I mentioned in my previous post about Rocket Internet, the business model boils down to personal choice and I will not debate here. The Samwers have made their success with Rocket Internet through taking successful ideas and making businesses out of them in new (emerging) markets.

Fred Wilson summarised it best for me:

It’s a free market out there. People can do what they want. That’s even more true globally. If you are successful, you will be cloned. That’s life. In fact, it’s a sign that you’ve made it when clones of your website, mobile app, and business start cropping up.

The Predictive Theory on Rocket Internet

Yesterday, Thomas Baldwin wrote an interesting piece on whether Rocket Internet is good for emerging markets.

First, Have a look at the Rocket Internet homepage:

What do you notice?

The businesses mentioned are all those whom have received funding in the last 12 months and are found in the 4 verticals that are inline with customer demand in various geographies. Fashion / Apparel, Electronics, Home goods and Food deliveries.

Thomas makes a few good points but I think he missed a few:

1. If you look really close at these markets that Rocket Internet entered, then there is almost no competition for the Rocket Internet businesses. The lack of competition in the verticals ensured that inside 12 months market leader status was achieved. After market leadership was attained then Rocket Internet approached the various investors for investment.
2. Rocket Internet, entered mature emerging markets later and in some cases closed businesses down. One country that comes to mind is the dismal results that Turkey provided that lead to complete exit from the country.
3. In quantitative terms Thomas does not mention how many business were started initially and what the total closures of businesses are over any period of time. In certain markets, they closed up to 80% of their businesses inside 12 months.
4. Predicatively one could argue that over the long term Rocket Internet was only on the road to success. I cannot think of any regions in which extra investment did not happen. Maybe North America, but Mexico counters that idea.
5. I have not been able to determine how much research Rocket Internet does about a country prior to entry. I have been waiting for them to aggressively enter Columbia, Mexico and Indonesia. Only over the last 2 weeks have news been made public on more focus on Columbia and Mexico…
6. Rocket Internet has also started going horizontal. Initially the idea was to launch multiple businesses in different verticals and then manage them. However after the success of Lazada in South East Asia consolidation occured. In Nigeria, Rocket started with Sabunta and Kasuwa and then merged them into Jumia which then became a multi-country platform (Morocco, Egypt, Nigeria and more recently Kenya)
7. I will also argue the point on supply chain / logistics development. In some countries they have provided the opportunity to use the Rocket Internet infrastructure. I am aware of Jablong provided something akin to “Fulfillment by Amazon” in India but in no other regions is it public knowledge that logistics development has occured.
8. The one major negative that is not mentioned in Thomas’s post is staff turnover. Rocket Internet has ensured the interns are now more widely used in emerging market. The extremely high staff turnover that happens a few times per year ensures that in my mind Rocket Internet does not get top ecommerce talent from more mature local businesses.
9. I have noticed something like a recurring theme with Rocket staff across the globe. Many of them start venture capital business to fund new businesses or they create accelerators inside their own businesses. I believe strongly that this is due to the conditioning that is received while being a Rocket Internet employee. Thus going into corporates or traditional bootstrapped or venture funded startups seldomly occur.
10. The lack of long term results. Rocket Internet has been operational since 2007 but there are limited examples of them exiting businesses that are created inside the emerging markets that they have entered. However, the business has raised over a Billion dollars and are at the moment in a period of limbo as it will take at least another 2 years to determine the success rate on the first class of funded businesses.

Final thoughts

Rocket Internet is going into an interesting period of time. Two of the Samwer brothers are part of a new venture fund called Global Founders Capital where does that leave them with Rocket Internet? Also is Rocket Internet around in 5 years time?

Related posts:

1. Rocket Internet to IPO?

It is April fools day which leads to a complete lack of trust in news today. Readers, my post today is what was news last week and no funny stuff. Last week was an interesting week and I think is a precursor to where the rest of the year is leading to. Google has unveiled their Shopping Express service in San Francisco and surprise surprise the first merchants listed are all retailers that have been burned by Amazon. I think this is a stake in the ground moment for ecommerce. North American ecommerce is clearly Amazon vs Google but the interesting tidbit is that Jeff Bezos was an early investor in Google.  Amazon Prime is the gold standard in terms of logistics and I wonder how many millions of dollars Amazon has spent on it over the years? Yes, I think Google is now a player but they still have considerable work to do to catch up to Amazon.

Talking about Amazon, the Seattle business has acquired Goodreads for $150 million if AllthingsD has it correct. The question is why did it take so long? I think Amazon will continue to buy businesses that can compliment their Kindle ecosystem. I have a feeling that this was also done as a defensive move to ensure that none of the competitors could acquire Goodreads. I always come back to the fact that books and content is key to Amazon’s future. Readmill, you better be ready, Amazon may come knocking soon.

It seems eBay is looking more at the emerging ecommerce markets. Today’s news that they have played a role in the new round of funding in Snapdeal does not surprise me one bit. The BRICS will play a very big role in ecommerce over the coming years. I wonder how eBay is going to approach Russia as that seems their next target.

Without a further ado, the news that caught my attention last week:

1. Amazon’s Mobile Strategy Is for You to Buy Something in 30 Seconds – One of the few times I have read about Sam Hall. Hall was tight lipped over Amazon’s strategy but a few things became clear. Speed and getting the user to his desired item is very important for Amazon.
2. New stats: Amazon, Apple have biggest proportion of mobile users – Among the top 10 companies on this list, both Apple and Amazon had the largest percentage of mobile-only (smartphone or tablet) users in comparison with their entire digital reach according to comScore. The point is mobile plays a big role for both Amazon and Apple, note that eBay is not mentioned in the same breath which makes me wonder about all the stats that they give to us. Is mobile really so big for eBay?
3. Retail brick and mortar may not die completely, but it’s dying as we know it – Retail obviously did something to Pandodaily as this theme has gotten lots of airtime via Andreessen etc. Let me clear, I don’t think retail will die completely remember Webvan etc in the 90′s? Yes, retail has a lot of challenges – mobile, change in economic conditions etc but retail will always be there for those that want to shop in a store. The point is that ecommerce is slowly becoming an extension of commerce.
4. Brisbane Shopkeeper Charges Customers $5 Just Looking Fee – An entrance fee to view a shops products? This is an extreme solution to guard against show rooming. Needless to say this shop will be losing a lot of business due to asking an entrance fee as it seems that customer interactions did not lead to sales. Retail bounce rate = no sales but lots of feet through the door.
5. Tencent Streamlines Its EComm Businesses – Am I the only person wondering whether Chinese ecommerce is about to become Alibaba vs Tencent? Tencent is playing catch up to Alibaba’s ecommerce achievements. This is going to be interesting to follow in May when Jack Ma is no longer CEO of Alibaba.
6. Wal-Mart steps up its online game with help from stores – It is clear that Walmart has great ambitions to be a real competitor to ecommerce businesses. The biggest thing that hampers Walmart in my opinion is the fact that they are all facing union issues etc. Brick and click solution if executed correctly could add a huge amount of value for Walmart customers.
7. Kreditmart Lets Indonesians Purchase Goods in Installments Without Credit Cards – Kreditmart is clearly trying to create an opportunity for customers whom don’t have credit cards. I think it is a great idea but the issue with these services normally are that they are way more expensive than compared to other Indonesian ecommerce businesses. The only issue for me is that it seems that Kreditmart has some lofty ideas which could harm their growth.
8. Amazon’s confused foray into fashion tries to please too many women. Will it please any? – Amazon has a problem with fashion. It lead to them spending a Billion dollars to acquire Zappos. The issue is pretty clear in my mind – fashion is select vertical and trying to play the margin game as Amazon does will ensure that they cannot provide products for all customers whom browse the various fashion categories. Fashion / Apparel ecommerce is one which makes profit due to the margins associated with the items. Bezos clearly wants to have Amazon providing fashion related items to customers but the execution at the moment is a bit confused.
9. OZON Group reached $492 million GMV and $250 million net sales in 2012 – Ozon is a business whom I believe is on the road to becoming a massive commerce based business. The press release includes a great amount of stats on the group’s performance in 2012. 24 million visitors a month, COD preferred payment method and they have 2.2 million SKU’s. eSolutions the newly created b2b service is an interesting proposition.
10. Digital Bosphorus: The State of Turkish eCommerce 2013 – Sina Afra might not be well known but he is one of the emerging markets most inspiring ecommerce CEO’s. A great post full of good data.

Bonus links for the week:

• hybris First to Power All Channels from Single Commerce Platform – Hybris is steadily building momentum through their offering to merchants. Definitely a business to watch for ecommerce solutions.
• Customers Flee Wal-Mart Empty Shelves for Target, Costco – This is potentially a huge issue for Walmart. I have experienced this and it needs to be resolved. Is Walmart’s history of dealing with staff issues beginning to adversely effect their business?
• Apple retail vs. Amazon retail – Horace Dediu is one of my favorite analysts. It seems that he is going in the direction of a show down between Apple and Amazon. My opinion on that is here.
• Is Vancl Giving Up the Dream and Becoming Just Another E-Commerce Platform? – It seems that Vancl is in the middle of a transition. This I think is due to the effect of Taobao and to a lesser degree 360buy.
• Shopster grocery list app learns what you like and where you shop – Shopster is an interesting service as it brings in location to the good old shopping list. Location for me is the next big commerce feature..
• Global Founders Capital and Rocket Internet: healthy distance or too close for comfort? – I must say Global Founder Capital is a bit of a mystery at the moment. However, the relationship it has to Rocket Internet can be seen as a potential conflict of interest. How will the relationship work?
• China’s Alibaba Refocuses its AliExpress Site as a Global Shopping Marketplace – AliExpress is a vital cog for Alibaba’s future. If they execute this marketplace then global domination is on the cards.
• How Twitter Got Nigerian Online Store A Multi Million Dollar Investment – Customer centric ecommerce behavior is a must have for businesses. If you have it it adds a lot of value to your business. Have you asked your team how they handle customer requests and issues? I enjoyed reading this article as it highlights that African ecommerce exists.
• The robots are coming: Swisslog shows the US ecommerce crowd its automated fulfillment tech – Robots are now a part of ecommerce logistics and will lead to unemployment. This is a developing vertical inside logistics.
• eBay CEO: Same-day shipping will be everywhere – John Donahoe is trying to convince an entire industry that he wants to compete with a ground strategy that is making FedEx and UPS billions annually. I still dont see a solution to this for any ecommerce business to do this without investing billions into facilities etc.
• The Winding Tech Road of Lebanon and Its Region – Ecommerce in the Middle East has a few challenges. The solutions will be that businesses like Souq.com are going to have to build their own logistics networks to solve the delivery challenge eretailers face in MENA. The region reminds me of a very early Russian ecommerce market full of challenges but full of opportunity.

Onwards..

Related posts:

1. The 10 e-commerce stories for the week ending 22 March 2013
2. The 10 e-commerce stories for the week ending 8 March 2013
3. The 10 e-commerce stories for the week ending 15 March 2013

Is Rocket Internet going to be around in 5 years time? That is the question I have had on my mind for the last few weeks. Internet businesses is a funny thing, the movement in the markets can mean that irrelevance happens quickly. Groupon is a great example of this.

Thus the news that Manuel Koser is moving away from being MD of Zando is indicative of an entrepreneur who is moving on to a new venture and not one being sidestepped by investors. Rocket Internet has a recipe that works and their staff are some of the most efficient individuals I have met.

Emerging market ecommerce is a high stakes game full of risk, trust and lots of work. Will Rocket Internet IPO? As time goes on, I am leaning more towards one of their vehicles (Big Foot 1 or Big Foot 2) being made the investment opportunity.

Bigfoot I, in which Kinnevik owns 33%, was the first fund they launched and comprises
Dafiti (online shoes and fashion in Brazil), Lamoda (online shoes and fashion in Russia)
and Namshi (online shoes and fashion in the Middle East). These three companies are
built on the same platform and systems as Zalando, and Lamoda and Dafiti in particular
are performing very well. Dafiti currently has the best infrastructure and very high volumes while Lamoda has the best momentum. Bigfoot I is well funded but might need some
additional injection to fully progress with the expansion plans.

Bigfoot II, in which Kinnevik owns 34%, was the second fund they launched and
comprises The Iconic (online shoes and fashion in Australia), Zalora (online shoes and
fashion in South-East Asia) and Zando (online shoes and fashion in South Africa). This
fund is a little younger and might need some additional funding to progress with the
companies’ expansion plans.

The other story that dominated my thoughts was the sudden split between Rakuten and their joint venture partner in Indonesia. Rakuten has now done this on 2 occasions and everytime it has left a deal after 12 months. I think it is clear that Rakuten are slowly learning that joint ventures sometimes is not the best way to enter a market. Hiroshi Mikitani clearly wants a bigger slice of global ecommerce but they have to manage their market entrance strategy better.

The 10 stories that caught my attention this past week:

1. 10 Stats You Should Know About E-Commerce in the Middle East – A very informative video on the state of ecommerce in the Middle East. The take away is that cash on delivery is the payment method of choice and also a barrier to growth in the region.
2. Wal-Mart outlines its e-commerce priorities – Walmart is making the right noises for their ecommerce efforts. However in my opinion they lack one thing – a feature that will drive their efforts and differentiate from their competitors.
3. If You Think 10% Is A Good Transaction Fee For Your Marketplace, Then It Will Struggle – Marketplaces are the rage at the moment in ecommerce which makes for proper planning from beginning. The one thing with the marketplace model that needs to be properly calculated is the revenue made from sales of merchandise. Personally, 12% per item is what would be the ideal starting point for revenue generation but this also needs to be tweaked for high ticket items etc.
4. Rakuten: The biggest e-commerce site you haven’t heard of – I find the personalisation of the Rakuten service interesting. They clearly want to be different than Amazon but still be a global player in ecommerce.
5. After Two Years, Dealdey Sees Significant Growth In Nigeria’s E-Commerce Sector – Dealdey might not be a household name but they have made a big impact in Nigerian ecommerce. Certainly an African ecommerce business making great strides.
6. Decide.com lands $8 million, names former drugstore.com CEO to board – Decide.com has raised some additional funding and interestingly have ensured that most of their funding is from Seattle based venture capital funds. It is clear that the additional funds is going to be used to grow their catalog and staff count.
7. A deeper look at Amazon Prime – I find it very interesting how investment analysts do these Amazon Prime calculations. The facts are nobody really knows the true user count (I suspect only Jeff Bezos and some of the senior leadership does) but it is clear Prime is super important for Amazons’ future.
8. Sift Science Takes $5.5M to Wield Machine Learning Against Fraudsters – Sift Science is offering a service that will over time lead to either an acquisition or multiple rounds of funding. I am of the opinion that these secondary services will be more common place as startups recognize that ecommerce businesses will use these services to augment their own businesses and operations.
9. Let the Online Price Comparison Battle in Southeast Asia Begin – I am glad to see this emerging in other developing markets. Comparison Shopping Engines have a role to play in developing ecommerce markets.
10. The Exciting Uncertainty At The Intersection Of Content And Commerce – This development does not surprise me one bit. Content is one of the parts of the internet that drives innovation. Ecommerce adds opportunity for content creators whom face tough times in normal print.

Bonus links for this week:

• New CEO for kalahari.com – MIH have appointed a new CEO for their Kalahari business. Caren Genthner-Kappesz brings international experience to an ecommerce business that she will take to “next stage of its development.”
• Shoppers’ ‘Mobile Blinders’ Force Checkout-Aisle Changes – Mobile is disrupting retail in ways that forces retailers to rethink large parts of their operations.
• E-Retailers Now Accounting for Nearly Half of Book Purchases by Volume, Overtake Physical Retail – The book business is changing to be more online focused. “In 2012, for the first time ever, online channels accounted for more book purchases than bricks-and-mortar retail in the U.S., according to new data from Bowker Market Research.”
• Faster Than Overnight: How Etailers Get You Stuff the Same Day You Ordered It- I found this article fascinating as logistics is something that cannot be forgotten by ecommerce businesses. This process happens everyday which makes one wonder what more can be done to optimise the process.
• To Beat Amazon, Walmart Is Treating Its Stores Like Apps – This is if executed properly a huge disruption that will distance Walmart from their competitors. The idea makes a lot of sense and will speed up the process of getting shoppers out of physical stores faster than traditional cashier visits.
• Why Google is pulling the plug on Frommer’s – Google bought Frommer’s (one of the last acquisitions Marissa Mayer did while at Google) to augment their local offering. Travelers no longer open books in cities, it is tablet and mobile phones that are used when visiting a new city.
• Google launches flight search in UK, France, Italy, Spain & Netherlands – This is a concerning development as more search engine results will now be showing ITA results on top of pages instead of organic results.
• The Great Technology War between Giants – Regular readers will be aware of my thinking regarding the big five technology businesses. The post I wrote contains a great infographic from staff.com.
• Samwers Launch €150 Million Venture Fund – “Mr. Siegel said that they would be particularly interested in regions where funding was scarce. “I think MENA [Middle East, North Africa] is underfunded. There are a lot of very interesting things going on in Vietnam but very few deals being done. South East Asia has lots of opportunities for growth.” Enough said..

Onwards..

Related posts:

1. The 10 e-commerce stories for the week ending 8 March 2013
2. The 10 e-commerce stories for the week ending 15 March 2013
3. The 10 e-commerce stories for the week ending 18 January 2013

Middle of March is normally the start of news that relates to end of quarter information. SEC filings, quarterly results and lots of press coverage is the norm. The point is we are almost done with quarter one and Alibaba did the unthinkable. Jack Ma, the founder of the biggest ecommerce business in the world has announced his successor. Jonathan Lu is to take over from Ma and his appointment I think is a very strategic one. One, he is one of a handful of Alibaba senior management  who has vast knowledge of the entire operation. Also, I think his background in finance has helped him. It is clear that an Alibaba IPO is coming and he will be the person meeting with banks etc. One other thing to note, is that Alibaba has decided to appoint a local executive and not an international CEO to lead them into the future. Alibaba in my mind is going to be a threat for all ecommerce businesses in the coming years.

The article or story that dominated my thoughts was the eBay story over Paid Search ads. eBay claim that they have results to backup their conclusion that paid search is ineffective. “Overall, paid search turns out to be a very expensive way of attracting new business: The study’s authors estimate that, at least in the short-run, paid ads generate only about 25 cents in extra revenues for each dollar of ad expenditures. (For branded keyword searches, the additional revenues are close to zero” It is a fascinating read but I think a few things needs to be said. One, eBay has proved this for their own keywords and have tested their own hypothesis. I generally think that paid advertising is to be used in a controlled manner as it can lead to unsustainable growth (hello Groupon) but this raises some eyebrows in the direction of Google Adwords. Also keep in mind, that eBay has a reputation of bidding on low quality keywords which must be taken into consideration. Google answered this situation in 2012 and I must say I think we might see more of these stories in the coming 12 months. Adwords is the revenue driver for Google and they will defend it aggressively.

The 10 stories that caught my attention this week:

1. Amazon Has An Estimated 10 Million Members For Its Surprisingly Profitable Prime Club – Prime is one of the revenue drivers for Amazon. Bezos is always coy about the membership number as I think this is a pretty important piece of intelligence for Amazon rivals. Is there any other ecommerce loyalty programme that has 10 million users?
2. Google Benefits as Priceline Outspends Expedia on Web Ads: Tech – Google always benefits when there is rivalry in a specific industry. Priceline has annual ad spending of over a billion dollars per annum. Travel is one of the most competitive Adwords categories – boy I would love to know click through rates and ROI on this massive amount of investment done by Priceline.
3. Target reportedly signs on with rumored Google Shopping Express same-day delivery service – Ladies and gentleman, we have a new topic that will be closely watched by everyone associated with ecommerce. Which businesses will sign with Google Shopping Express? I think we will see large retailers who have been harmed by Amazon targeted.
4. E-commerce company FiftyOne picks IPO underwriters: sources – FiftyOne is an ecommerce businesses that I think we will see quite a bit of. IPO is interesting as that would indicate that they need to raise additional money and would like outside funding to give to their original investors. Why do I think they will be a long term business? Retailers will always look for other ways to make revenue from existing merchandise.
5. It’s Adapt-or-Die Time for Daily Deals Firms – The daily deal space is on the downhill to extinction. Andrew Mason’s deal ran out at Groupon and LivingSocial is also under the microscope. I think we will see either consolidation or businesses closing. Groupon has already added significant investment into their products business. I think they will over time become a local ecommerce business whom sells products like any other ecommerce business..
6. Zalora Receives €20 Million Investment and Builds a Software Development Center in Singapore – What would a post be without a mention of a Rocket Internet story? Zalora has over time become an important business for Rocket Internet. I find the fact that they are going to use some of the investment for a software development center interesting as I thought all software operations are run out of either Germany or Portugal. Are we slowly beginning to see Rocket Internet consolidating resources to specific businesses instead of having them centralised?
7. Nice pants: Bonobos raises $30m off of strong growth and Nordstrom deal – Bonobos is one of my favorite case studies. Entrepreneurs who spot an opportunity, go for it and then make a sustainable business. The mere fact Nordstrom keeps close on the deals with Bonobos is indicative on the management they have. Nordstrom is a retailer that I think will be one to watch for. I wonder if they are considering an outright acquisition of Bonobos down the line?
8. E-Commerce in Egypt: A Market Overview – I keep a close eye on Egypt as I think the market is a long term one. Note to the rest of the ecommerce world – Africa is the next big thing..
9. Google continues to push ad-based shopping results, launches Product Listing Ads on smartphones – It is clear that Google is concerned over their mobile business. Product Listing Ads on smartphones is not a surprise but yet another sign that Google is no longer the “do no evil business”.
10. Forget Brazil – Mexico and Colombia are the new eCommerce frontiers – Brazil in my own mind is the emerging ecommerce market closest to becoming a developed market. Why do I say that? Internet penetration is very high and a lot of businesses have moved to become regional players. Mexico has in the last 18 months been used as a testing area for businesses focused on Latin America. Lots of potential in the market for businesses whom wish to invest over the border in my opinion. Columbia is in my view the uncut diamond for businesses that are willing to play the long game.

Bonus links for this week:

• ComparaOnline.com acquires CortaContas from Buscape Group and consolidates its entry to the Latin American market – Buscape selling Cortacontas is interesting and indicates to me that they are focusing their operations.
• European Online Retail Forecast 2012 to 2017: Online growth will begin to polarize across Europe – Market segmentation will take place as Northern and Southern Europe drift into different maturity phases. Long story short – competitiveness and growth is on the cards.
• Target buys two e-commerce chains to boost culinary business – “Discount chain Target Corp has agreed to buy Chefs Catalog and Cooking.com to boost its ability to sell cooking products and kitchenware online.” I think it is clear Walmart and Amazon drives retail and online retail in North America. The investments make sense as it improves Target’s ability to sell cooking and kitchenware online.
• Rent The Runway Poses A Threat To Department Stores – Rent The Runway has the potential to disrupt retail as the lack of sales through their business model will have retailer implications.
• Taobao Mobile Hit 300 Million Visitors in 2012 – Taobao is the business that will drive Alibaba’s long term growth and they have positioned mobile commerce as a customer acquisition strategy for their loan business. The scale that this business operates is off the charts amazing. “Taobao Mobile, last year its cumulative visitors hit 300 million, of which 57 million ever purchased items. The transactions through mobile went up by 6 times YoY, covering 6.87% of the total (1.77% in 2011). An average of 9.28m users searched for items on Taobao Mobile daily, and in every single hour over 220,000 goods were sold through this platform.”
• Alibaba Names Jonathan Lu As New CEO, Replacing Founder Jack Ma – I wrote this after thinking about the Alibaba leadership change, but still am wondering is Ma going to be pulling the strings still at Alibaba?
• Google SVP Jeff Huber Steps Aside As The Company Divides Mapping And Commerce Units, Will Join Google X This news was under reported in my mind. This is a massive change at Google and in my mind is the sign that commerce is getting a lot more attention from the leadership at Google. The irony in this is that Marissa Mayer was responsible for this until being sidestepped by Larry Page. I think we will be seeing a lot more news about Google commerce in the next few months

Onwards..

Related posts:

1. The 10 e-commerce stories for the week ending 8 March 2013
2. The 10 e-commerce stories for the week ending 18 January 2013
3. The 10 e-commerce stories for the week ending 22 February 2013

Mobile commerce in its current format is not the endgame in my mind. We are only scratching the surface on what mobile devices can do. Augmented reality, location and a variety of other things will play a role in commerce in the coming years.

Regular readers will be aware of my thinking regarding the big five. It is not the animals found in the game park but rather the big five technology businesses. I have written about it in the past when I looked at the Amazon effect but these companies drive the technology used by us on a daily basis.

A large part of my thinking was started by Farhad Manjoo when he wrote about the 4 horse man in Fast Company in 2011.  One can summarize his article in a sentence -  “Apple, Facebook, Google, and Amazon battle for the future of the innovation economy.”

In a NPR interview Manjoo summarizes the business models used by the Google and Amazon whom has direct lines with ecommerce. Facebook and Microsoft at the moment have ecommerce as a supplimentary service but it is not a core part of their revenue generation mechanisms.

On Amazon’s business model

“They’re trying to create a device that sells as well as the iPad and can prove to be a very popular rival to the iPad. But the thing they have done that is very smart is that they’ve made their device less powerful on purpose. So the Kindle Fire is smaller than the iPad and cheaper, and it is very intimately tied to Amazon’s Web store. They don’t want to make money from the device. They’re selling it, from what we know, for no profit at all. But they want you to buy a lot of stuff from their store.”

On Google’s business model

“Beyond search, it has an email service. Google has various online stores — a bookstore, a new music service. The big thing recently, it has created this very successful mobile operating system called Android, which has become a big competitor to the iPhone. And then it’s doing some very far-out things. Right by my house, I see Google self-driving cars driving around. And so they’re working on things that might be ready in the far future and also things that are going to be ready next year — the breadth of their innovation is pretty amazing.”

The battle is far from done as I see these businesses being disrupted by developing world behemoths whom control the industries in which the fab 4 play in.

Staff.com have a great infographic in which the big 5 is looked at in terms of revenue,profit and market cap.

Source: Staff.com

Related posts:

1. Great Resources For Learning About Startups & Technology

Lu, is like Ma one of the few Alibaba executives that has experience and knowledge of all 25 Alibaba businesses (a brief summary of the Alibaba holdings is seen below). That is significant as he will need to manage all of these holdings after they were all realigned to be separate businesses.

Lu has 2 distinct advantages over other Alibaba staff members. One, he is currently the leader of Aliyun, the mobile business inside Alibaba but has alsoled Alipay and Taobao. Alipay is the company that caused all the issues for Ma with Yahoo.

I have noticed something over the last 12 months, a high majority of CFO’s or staff with significant experience in online payments taking leadership roles at the top of ecommerce businesses in emerging markets. The major asset that Lu has is his experience as the CEO of Taobao. Taobao is the business that in my opinion will drive Alibaba’s growth in the next 5-10 years.

Lu will be in charge when Alibaba IPO’s, which will be a historical day. That is going to happen in the US and will be oversubscribed. Any investor worth his salt will be aware of the immense potential the Alibaba group has.

Barclays said recently Alibaba could be worth $55 billion.

“He has a very strong reputation and he has a very strong background in the e-commerce space,” said analyst Elinor Leung at Hong Kong-based brokerage CLSA.

“Ideally, you always want the founder to lead the IPO, but if the founder decides not to do it, Jonathan has a lot of experience,” Leung said.

I have a few questions over Ma’s new role. Is Lu going to be a separate voice once he takes over as Alibaba CEO or will Ma continue to lead Alibaba? The answer will determine how successful Alibaba will be in the coming years.

Lu has a few interesting tasks to do in the first year of his term as CEO(some maybe long term projects):

• Continue with the realignment of businesses as per the initial structural change made by Ma. I wonder how he will lead all 25 businesses. Have them all report directly to him or have the 25 businesses divided into functional groups?
• Continue with the logistics investment to ensure that the process completes as per Ma’s original plan in 2023.
• I would not be surprised if Alibaba also leverages some of its non-Chinese assets more. Vendio etc are all at the moment seemingly running as independent businesses and not providing any real value to Alibaba.
• Continue domination in Chinese ecommerce to ensure that Amazon, eBay and all other Western businesses do not take market share away from Alibaba.
• Potentially invest into startups that could help their ecommerce value chain. I am unaware of any startup competitions that Alibaba does. The identification of new talent and businesses to their value chain is of critical nature to mature ecommerce businesses like Alibaba.
• Potentially competing against Rakuten in Asia. I cannot see any reason why Alibaba would not look at assets in South East Asia (SEA) or Japan?
• Maybe potentially acquire businesses from Rocket Internet. Lazada would provide access for Alibaba into SEA. This does not seem plausible right now but I think down the line Rocket Internet might be very keen to sell Lazada to either Rakuten or Alibaba.
• Maybe also sell their scalable commerce solution to other Asian businesses or any ecommerce business for that matter.
• Continue to ensure that Chinese New Year is the biggest single day in ecommerce globally. I am fully aware that scale will ensure that Alibaba will break all kinds of records.
• Ensure that 360buy continues to spend millions on customer acquisition costs. At the moment I cannot see any reason or way for 360buy to gain market share from Alibaba.
• Continue to develop Alibaba staff.  Lu will have to ensure that he has a generation in the wings to continue the domination in China. I believe strongly that in the next 5 years we will see Alibaba becoming a global competitor for Amazon. They will enter other markets.
• Continue on the road to becoming the biggest ecommerce business in the world.

The Current Alibaba Leadership:

At the moment Lu will continue to be an mysterious Alibaba staff member. From the 10th of May the spotlights will be on him.

No related posts.

I missed writing last week’s summary and boy this week has been full of news. Google is rumored to be building a Amazon Prime competitor. I find this interesting, how does it fit into the commerce value chain at Google? (at the moment this seems like a program to be run on top of Google Shopping? ). Secondly, it raises a very interesting question – if I am a merchant why would I take part in this program? Amazon Prime is the world’s greatest loyalty program and it is very successful for Amazon’s customers. The mere fact that Bezos keeps the user numbers secret tells you of the importance. Google has a serious disconnect with “Google Shopping Express” and needs to ensure that it compliments its services or it will go nowhere.

Are we beginning to see the building blocks for a marketplace from Google? Maybe, but Google has bigger problems to worry over – vertical search as seen with apps is cannibalizing its advertising business(the goose that lays the golden eggs for Larry and co), Android has lost ground in comparison to iOS for the last 2 months and Motorola seems to be having less staff every month.

I am going to say it as it has been on my mind for the last few weeks – anybody that wants to directly compete with Amazon needs lots of cash, patience and has to be 4 steps ahead of Bezos. No one has won when going head to head with Amazon.com (only when using the courts have Amazon lost) – they are the kings of margins and closing down industries. Google must be real sure that they want to go head to head with Amazon. I have seen what they do to companies – it aint pretty.

A few weeks ago I wrote about a potential IPO for Hybris software. Well, in the last few days they have announced a new round of funding by some serious investors. Meritech’s additional investing is interesting as they are a late stage fund and I think it signals that this investment is primarily done for growth. Let us be honest for a moment, enterprise commerce solutions is at the moment an open market. Oracle has spent billions on acquisitions, eBay has a interest via GSI Commerce and IBM has also spent millions on acquisitions to ensure that they have a total solution for merchants. Hybris is in my opinion a company to watch and I have a feeling that they will target specific functionality to add to their current offering. The IPO will come as they will need to raise money to challenge Oracle ATG in the enterprise commerce platform industry.

Africa and the Middle East are regions that I look at closely. Ecommerce in both regions are it is infancy but the investors are all here spending millions to ensure that they have a business/es to cater for customers in both regions. The Middle East has seen an influx of investment (LivingSocial etc) and then saw those same investors move out of the markets. It is almost like the ecosystem lost momentum which ensured business closures, investors leaving etc. Cobone is a early market leader who received funding from LivingSocial (whom are also under some pressure) and then lost the investor due to LivingSocial leaving the region. Earlier today, it was announced that Tiger Global has acquired Cobone with original investor Jabbar Internet Group exiting the investment. I note that  Tiger Global Management is investing heavily in Africa and MENA – it almost looks like a consolidation of holdings has been happening over the last 6 months.

Without further ado – here is the 10 stories that caught my attention this past week:

1. Rakuten Branches Out to Asia – Rakuten announces a $10 million Rakuten Fund for Southeast Asia. The fund will strategically invest in startups which Rakuten believes will help in its e-commerce or online travel business in Asia. I think here it is a case of Rakuten had no other choice – be an early investor in SEA ecommerce companies or lose out to competitors. Also a response to Alibaba’s dominance in the region in my opinion.
2. Bad Merchant? Google May Drop Your Rankings Later This Year – This was to be expected especially with the paid for service that Google Shopping has become. One question – will these merchants be penalised via higher Adwords costs or will they be removed from Google Shopping? One other thing – what is the point of Google Trusted Shops program then if another signal is to be used to determining the legitimacy of merchant performance?
3. PayPal Separates Developer Platform From X.commerce, Launches Simpler, Mobile APIs And More – This is a very interesting move by PayPal. Why? eBay centralized all developer interaction under one entity called X.commerce. I think this has been caused by 2 variables – Stripe and Square adoption rates have been high due easy developer platforms. Secondly, I thought at the time and still think X.commerce is dead on. This is the beginning of X.commerce move towards irrelevance..
4. What Does Neiman Marcus Departure Mean for eBay? – This is a significant moment in eBay’s history. They have one problem that they seemingly cannot solve and that is third party sellers for their marketplace. Neiman Marcus’s departure highlights how important relationships are between commerce platforms and their merchants. 25 fashion businesses in 2 plus years since launch should be a concern for Messrs Donahoe and co.
5. eBay aims for globalization, mobilization and more growth in 2013 – eBay is the leader in terms of mobile commerce in my mind, however they have not done great in the emerging markets. This article makes mention of the importance of BRIC’s for eBay. I will add another one here – I think we will be seeing them spin off  their classifieds business into a separate business in the coming 18 months..
6. Google Eats Retail – “Make no mistake about it, Google is trying to eat retail with its recent moves and every retailer should be worried about the implications.  However, while Google is dominant in search, it is not the global e-commerce leader yet.  It does not own significant pieces of the customer relationship (e.g. shipping, customer support, and retention marketing) and as such, retailers need to continue to invest in areas that will stave off commoditization.” Need I say more?
7. Fab stops sending you emails you don’t read, even when you don’t ask them to – Fab does the small things really well. This should delight customers as email overload is something we all battle daily..
8. Google follows Amazon into b2b e-commerce space – B2B ecommerce is suddenly getting a lot more attention. Why? No one is the market-leader in the vertical. I think this is a trend we will be seeing a lot more of in 2013.
9. Amazon has a commanding lead among mobile department stores – Showrooming is something that Amazon owns in the US. That in itself should scare retailers beyond concern. “Amazon receives 59.36% of mobile department store visits, Hitwise Mobile says” Why? Opening your mobile and using the Amazon Price Check app is easy and gives you the information to make a decision.
10. Millicom buys in further to Rocket Internet landgrab in South America and Africa – Millicom has increased their stake in Rocket Internet’s ecommerce efforts in Africa and South America. Jumia also has received another round of funding from Summit partners. I would love to know one thing – what is the total amount of money raised by Rocket Internet over the last 2 years. I am guessing it should be close to a Billion dollars…

Bonus links for this week:

• FindTheBest raises $11M to kill comparison-shopping hell – I love using FindTheBest – they allow customers to compare almost anything. They have proved their model and is a business I watch as I think they have a few things up their sleeves..
• Alibaba may be considering an IPO in the US – This makes sense to me as US investors will battle to get their share of the Alibaba IPO. I almost sure that this will happen and the IPO will be oversubscribed.
• The Problem With “Warby Parker for X” – Jamie Quint wrote a great article on the unique case that is Warby Parker. I agree with him, Warby Parker is a very unique business with a unique set of circumstances which has led to their success.
• The Next Place You Buy a New Car Could Be Google – Google has been testing a car comparison service which leads to dealerships selling cars. Is there any industry in which they have no interest? Autotrader – you have been placed on notice – Google is watching you.  In my mind they will do the same they did to air travel – buy a platform to add it to their search engine.

Onwards..

Related posts:

1. The 10 e-commerce stories for the week ending 11 January 2013
2. The 10 e-commerce stories for the week ending 18 January 2013
3. The 10 e-commerce stories for the week ending 15 February 2013