Exciting Commerce // Unlimited

Corporate Incubators – Godsend or a Pain in the Butt?

2012-05-16T12:59:25+02:00

At this year’s NEXT conference in Berlin, Deutsche-Telekom-CEO René Obermann presented their new incubator programme named hub:raum. This programme will enable 10-15 startups per year to get a funding of up to 300,000 EUR and benefit from the corporation’s expertise and reach. This got me thinking.

Read the full feature at ecomPunk.com!

Why Is The Shopping Party Model So Popular Now?

2012-05-05T22:04:07+02:00

Juvalia & You is already online, Pippa & Jean will launch shortly (German link), and further online driven shopping party and direct sales concepts will be following in the coming months. Why are shopping parties at this moment such a hot topic for e-commerce?

Jeremy Liew from Lightspeed Venture Partners, already a supporter of subscription models such as Shoedazzle, has recently listed out three factors which speak for the new direct sales model ("Is Direct Selling The Next Driver Of Startup Commerce Companies?"):

"The first is the economy (...) The second is the birth of social media (...) The third reason is tablets and the internet."

The new input devices open up new opportunities especially for local shopping:

"These devices, combined with lightweight SaaS ERP, CRM and SFA software, dramatically improve the productivity of direct sales reps.

In the old days, a direct sales rep would call on the people that they remembered to call on, host a party when they got around to it, and had to have physical samples, or page through catalogues, to show what they had in stock.

Today, a sales rep can get prompted on their iPad with who they should be calling on.

They have an infinite catalogue, with video and color photos from multiple angles for each item, available on their tablets.

They can take orders on the spot, swiping a credit card through a dongle. And happy customers can self-serve and place new orders directly on a website, without the sales rep having to go back to see them in person.

This is a massive increase in productivity."

This shopping experience is particularly enhanced for the up till now under served two-thirds of society (German link). Nevertheless one shouldn’t fantasize too far. Neither the technology nor the customers have final say over the success of a direct sales model:

"The fundamental challenge in direct selling is getting people to sell your stuff, not so much getting people to buy your stuff."

"Effective direct-selling companies are 25% about the brand and 75% about the sales channel."

Nevertheless, Jeremy Liew is “tremendously excited about the opportunity to build very big commerce companies in this space" and mentions in his post about the offerings from Thirty One Gifts, Stella and Dot, Chloe and Isabel, Gigi Hill, Miche Bags and J Hilburn

Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, adapted for excitingcommerce.com by Jason Soo.

Laziness in Commerce

2012-05-03T13:47:51+02:00

What’s the superlative for online shopping? Being too lazy to do online shopping! Unless you don’t enjoy the online shopping experience per se, finding the right product, putting it into a shopping cart, providing one’s delivery address and chosing a payment method can be a recurring pain in the butt. Here’s to the lazy ones!

Read the full feature at ecomPunk.com!

How will Project A hit the jackpot?

2012-04-24T20:09:04+02:00

How will Project A hit the jackpot? - At Exceed 2012 they haven't come out with it yet. However, today the news came out that Otto's Project A Ventures has joined nu3, a shopping site for dietary supplements. At Deutsche Startups you can find out the important details:

"The three founders hold 20% each. The Berlin incubator has a share of 39%, and last but not least eDarling founder Christian is involved in nu3 as well."

nu3 has everything that Project A needs now: An undervalued ecommerce theme, a strong, internationalisable brand and thus the ideal basis for using all the marketing competence they have collected at Rocket Internet.

Moreover, the wellness theme is ideal for having it played by TV stations, because also ProSiebenSat.1 - Seven Ventures that is - has a strong interest in developing beauty/wellness as one of three focal points.

So, Project A's involvement with nu3 not only answers the question What will be Project A's first hit? but also the question Perfect Life: Why doesn't Otto come up with something like this?

Earlier posts on the subject:

Alles über Ottos Online-Offensiven 2012 (German)
Mavendi: Ottos Liquid Labs legt die Latte erstmal niedrig (German)
Otto stattet Project A Ventures mit 50 Mio. Euro Fonds aus (German)
Was wird der erste große Wurf von Project A Ventures? (German)
The Oryx Project: Ottos Project A Ventures gibt richtig Gas (German)
The Oryx Project: Otto steigt bei Amerano und Wine in Black ein (German)

Speaking to Nils Körber, CTO for Rocket Internet South Africa

2012-04-23T11:57:26+02:00

A couple of weeks ago, an anonymous source wrote about the operations of Rocket Internet in South Africa. We are lucky to have had a couple of questions answered by their CTO, Nils Körber, who talks about commerce in South Africa, infrastructure for new startups and the post PC/mobile era in Africa.

Read the full feature at ecomPunk.com!

Houra.fr Wants to Sell 100 Million Euros Worth of Groceries in 2013

2012-04-21T09:07:12+02:00

The Journal du Net has taken another look behind the scenes at French online supermarket Houra.

As a daughter of the Belgian Cora group, Houra was able to reach profitability in 2006 after six years of operation. Revenues were at the 61 million euro level, according to own statements. Revenues went up to about 80 million in 2009, experienced a slight raise in 2010, and then jumped to “double digit” percentage increases in 2011. Houra is targeting to break the 100 million euro mark in 2013 (in French).

Houra relies on 90,000 regular customers who make up 90% of revenues. In 2011, those customers spent an average of 220 euros per purchase (in French). Up to 70% of the revenues are generated from Paris alone.

In the French market, Houra is looking on par with Ooshop/Carrefour and Auchandirect and a good way ahead of Telemarket.

In Germany, the current edition of prominent local magazine Focus is claiming Rewe to be the biggest hope in Germany in the online supermarket sector.

Exciting Commerce has reported previously on the drive-in grocery shopping trend in France.

Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, adapted for excitingcommerce.com by Jason Soo.

What is your strategic ecommerce tactic?

2012-04-20T10:32:14+02:00

What? Strategic tactic? Is there a difference? Does it matter? It absolutely amazes me how often I have met people in business that do not know the difference, let alone that they have either one of them.It’s more the opposite. Loads of business people start running before they know where to run to. Just recently I had the chance to be observer at a little ecommerce project, where I experienced this in fantastic clarity.

Read the full feature on ecomPunk.com!

Roman’s Rants: Shop System Wars

2012-04-18T09:55:56+02:00

Regularly, the commerce community passionately talks about which shop software is the coolest, hippest, fastest, feature-richest (if that is even a word) or simply the best. Believe me, having written several books on various shop software stacks such as Magento and OXID eShop I know what I’m talking about. You know what? It doesn’t bloody matter which software you use, it’s just a fucking tool!

Read the full feature at ecomPunk.com!

Magento Founder Yoav Kutner on His Departure from eBay

2012-04-15T22:10:28+02:00

Magento co-founder and CTO Yoav Kutner has for the first time publicly commented on his departure from eBay ("eBay Doesn’t Understand The Meaning Of Open"):

"As for why he left, Kutner says the execs that coordinated the deal at eBay and PayPal were no longer with the company, and the vision of why to buy Magento and what to do with it was lost when they left. “I’m hopeful they will figure it out,” he added."

At the same time Yoav Kutner left, X.Commerce CTO Neal Sample also left eBay/PayPal (German link).

Auctionbytes has also reported that eBay wants to close its Open Platform Program, one of the last exciting eBay initiatives that we at Exciting Commerce have been reporting on from the start. See “eBay Launches First Open Social Applications” and “How Open Can eBay get?”.

Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, adapted for excitingcommerce.com by Jason Soo.

Yuri Milner’s DST Raises Stake in Zalando to 10%

2012-04-15T11:38:54+02:00

Yuri Milner’s investment fund DST Global has stocked up on shares of Zalando up to their usual level of about (9 to) 10%. The previously known stake had been 4% (German link).

Kinnevik, who previously already invested 120 million Euro (95 million of which in 2011- see German link), has also participated in this financing round. In the press release (via email):

“The Zalando shareholders DST Global and Kinnevik have underwritten a further financing round with Zalando.

The two shareholders are thereby exercising an option agreed in the last financing round January which allows for a capital increase according to the same conditions.

Both investors are each acquiring a further share of about 5% of Europe’s leading online retailer for shoes and fashion products.” (ExcitingCommerce translation)

Zalando achieved 200 million Euro in net revenues in the first half year of 2011 (German link). In 2010 it was 159 million Euro.

Gründerszene recently published an interesting article (in German) with their take on an internal investment presentation from DST Global. Contents of the leaked document and analysis in English are presented by VentureVillage.

Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, adapted for excitingcommerce.com by Jason Soo.

Gender Innovation: How do women shop online?

2012-04-11T16:08:26+02:00

What do women in eCommerce want? This was one of the focal points of the recent Exceed 2012 conference. Those who had expected practical advice have surely been disappointed. However, this has not been the purpose because today's websites cannot be readily turned into good shopping sites for women. And those who try most likely will get only get mediocre results.

In order to also provide an adequate shopping experience in the online world, one would have to approach the subject from completely different angles. This is the reason why the panels and interview at Exceed 2012 could at best provide ideas and suggestions. Those who listened carefully, however, could get a taste of what really matters:

Julia Derndinger, CEO of Imedo (left) said: "We already have everything new need, so you'd better work hard!" Delia Fischer (right), founder of Westwing described how she uses her imagination while shopping and how she would "like to picture herself in the shoes" she would like to buy. At Westwing she made sure that women get an impression of how the product appeared. And Bellegs founder Daria Saharova spontaneously invented the concept of the "digital prosecco" that should sweeten the shopping spree.

Roman Zenner has asked the three of them for a joint interview:

At the end of the day it's not really the functional elements or the technical solutions which make for an enjoyable shopping experience. Instead, a lot of "soft" and implicit factors matter and decide if and how an offering is working.

This is the reason why the term Gender Innovation fits so well, because eCommere for women is not simply an optimisation task. Rather, it's all about completely reinventing eCommerce for women. Until now, the figures only show that currently we are barking up the wrong tree. At best, there are little hints as to what the development could look like. Accordingly, everybody who tries to seriously work in this area faces an exciting and challenging task.

We know that for women the social factor plays a far more important role. It's even probable that after iPhone, iPad, Kindle & Co. we need yet another new type of device before this area can really take off and women develop a passion for online shopping which matches the more traditional variants.

Until now, eCommerce for women works in those cases where women shop in "male mode" and know exactly what they want. Those, who are really successful with women, however, use completely different mechanisms.

Our thanks also go to Beate Rank from Rakuten, Annemarie Grund from Baby Basket und Sabrina Schönborn from SugarShape for their input regarding the "Women in eCommerce" during this year's Exceed Conference.

Earlier posts:

Exceed 2012: E-Commerce-Frauen, vereint Euch! (German)
Citrus Lane, Plum District, Julep und mehr Ideen für Frauen (German)
Gender Innovation: Wer knackt den Online-Code der Frauen? (German)
Was die Modebranche leichtfertig an Online-Potenzial verschenkt (German)
24-Hour Shoppers: Understanding Online Shoppers in Europe (German)

Best Buy Transformation: 50 Big Box Locations To Close

2012-04-04T00:00:15+02:00

Best Buy is shifting into cost-cutting mode and one of the measures will be to shut down 50 retail outlets in the US. This comes as part of their "Best Buy Transformation Strategy" (PDF) which is a response to their recently announced billion dollars of losses:

"Best Buy on Thursday announced a fourth-quarter loss of 1.7 billion, or a loss of $4.89 per share. Best Buy also said it will close 50 of its big box retail locations in the U.S. in the next fiscal year."

Reacting to the current market circumstances, the motto is now “thinking small”. $300 million should be saved by closing the big box stores, but in parallel one hundred new small format mobile stores are in the plans. The remaining big box stores are to be remodelled as so-called “Connected Stores”. Goal: more store presence using less square footage.

Best Buy as Amazon’s showroom

CNET has laid the biggest blame for Best Buy’s weakened retail performance on Amazon:

"Best Buy's problem: Amazon. Best Buy has been trying to grow its e-commerce business to compete better, but the big-box approach to selling consumer electronics isn't what it used to be.

"The company is gradually becoming a physical showroom for online retailers, and the prevalence of smartphones makes comparison shopping increasingly easy," said Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter."

Best Buy’s transformation strategy speaks of a “dramatic shift over the past 3 years”.

More on the “new normal” as quoted by Best Buy can be found in their year-end report.

Originally posted in German by Matthias Hell, adapted for excitingcommerce.com by Jason Soo.

Rocket Internet in South Africa

2012-03-28T13:28:21+02:00

Yesterday, an ecomPunk reader who in his own words works for a large multinational and would like to stay anonymous sent us very interesting insights about how the Samwer brothers have expanded their cloning business to South Africa.

It all started with Oliver Samwer and the post that he talks about a blitzkrieg. Yes, I know the one that put the company in a bit of spotlight. He mentioned South Africa and that is when we all knew that they were on their way. Rocket Internet seems to be the kind of business that does not do a lot of PR and then on one day the launch companies in various markets, more on that in a bit.

Read the full feature on ecomPunk.com!

Exceed 2012: Highlights from the first seed conference

2012-03-27T15:11:03+02:00

"Still feel the energy of the last two power days!" (via, #exceed12)

Last week Exceed 2012, the first Exciting Commerce seed conference, debuted in Berlin. If and how the the seeds that were sown will bear fruit we will seen in two or three years. The main programme and the startup initiatives such as eTigers wanted to encourage thinking outside the box and show market as well as innovation potentials in various directions.

This is the reason why each of the 500+ attendees has taken home different insights, for sure. Thomas Lang has summarised his personal highlights:

"Seeding of new business models, hungry founders with great ideas belonged to the varied programme as well as success stories such as the sale of Tradoria to Rakuten last autumn.

Crowdfunding, Mass Customizing and the ominipresent gender innovation issue (women in E-Commerce and E-Commerce for women) were additional subjects, which were loosened up by numerous pitches.

No only the content provided variety, but also the form with presentations, interviews, panels and pitches has again proved to be successful." [our translation]

His personal top 5 can be found in his blog. Additional impressions were captured by Roman Zenner and Kai-Thomas Krause from ecomPunk. They have published recaps of day 1 and day 2 as well as images from Exceed 2012.

Highly anticipated was the kick-off with Project A Ventures, who don't regard themselves as being "the good guys", but who want to practise a kind of company building different from that of the Samwers at Rocket Internet. Also, they would like to support founders regarding data and process know-how.

Also this year, we were enthusiastic about the Kalkscheune's atmosphere, with its various possibilities for networking on two levels. In the hall, in the courtyard, in the smaller rooms and the manifold lounge corners one could exchange openly or privately and talk to like-minded people and/or investors. Regarding the guest list (thanks again to Stylight for the visualisation!) one could make contact on many levels.

We thank all participants and supporters for their openness and their extraordinary engagement!

Exceed 2012 was presented by:

and supported by:

Earlier posts on this subject:

Exceed 2012: Wir sehen uns in Berlin! (German)
Exceed-Teilnehmer/innen 2012: Wer ist schon alles dabei? (German)
Exceed 2012: Welche Investoren treffen Startups in Berlin? (German)

Digital prosecco? Let’s talk eCommerce for girls

2012-03-27T13:31:19+02:00

During last week’s Exceed Conference, gender innovation surely was a focal point. In order to address this, three charming ladies got in front of our camera and talked about how they perceive the targeting of modern onlineshops – which usually do not cater towards the shopping behaviour of most women. Rather, what they are missing are inspiration and emotional engagement in the online shopping process. Julia Derndinger from Imedo, Delia Fischer from Westwing and Daria Saharova from Bellegs also talked about their experience as female entrepreneurs.

Watch the full interview on ecomPunk.com!

Exceed 2012 Day 2 & Party - Photo Gallery

2012-03-27T13:28:25+02:00

Watch the gallery on ecomPunk.com right now!

Innovation in Commerce: Shopware Interview

2012-03-26T13:11:22+02:00

One of the things Exceed 2012-related commenters unanimously agreed on was the fact that Shopware was indeed one of the highlights of last week’s conference – Alexander Graf from Kassenzone called it simply the best shop software. We have talked to Wiljo Krechting, Manager Public Relations, about what Shopware was, is and will be and what The Mosaic is all about.

Read the full feature on ecomPunk.com!