A blog on eCommerce, Social Commerce, Comparative Shopping Engines & Business

By Hendrik Laubscher

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Should Digitization be the North Star of Commerce?

If you work for or with brands, one realizes fast that these businesses are in trouble. The amount of brands that have their business in tune is akin to finding chicken teeth. Small, medium, or large companies have blind spots that they might not know about, impacting their survival. Whether it’s called digital transformation, digitization may provide the enormous opportunity available of our lifetime.

Marc Andreessen famously wrote that software is eating the world. The reality is the use of legacy technology, unclear business models, unwillingness to use technology leads to inefficiency, unprofitability, and irrelevance. 

Digitization - The commerce North star
Is Digitization the North Star for commerce?
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The Realities For Brands

Last weekend I watched an episode from History Channel’s The Food that build America on how Hershey’s battled Mars, Kellogg’s fought Post Toasties. The irony is a hundred years later; brands still have significant challenges to exist. My boutique consulting business Blue Cape Ventures, has ensured that I speak to brand executives in various sectors. 

The past three years have changed my perception of how brands should manage short to medium goals. Brands of all sizes are in different stages of pain which no-one wants to talk about due to fear or concerns that they are in the minority.

The reality for brands - they cannot read the room or sitaution.
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2021 Stories I am following

History will show us that 2020 was a year in which consumer behavior, commerce, and trade changed. Businesses of all sizes faced challenges at a scale not seen prior the World War 2. What does 2021 have in store?

If 2020 is a yardstick, 2021 will continue to speed up e-commerce adoption worldwide. If you run a business or manage a brand, the next six months in develop markets or 18 months in developing markets are critical.

2021, a new year that rhymes with 2020
Source: Medium
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Social Commerce – The New Gold Rush

I have, over the past decade, tried to understand what social commerce is. A few years ago, we had the emergence and disappearance of distributed and conversational commerce. I am beginning to see the use of social commerce again and think it’s worth discussing. 

What is social commerce? It depends on who you ask, their location, and what they perceive what social is. The other topic that gets lost in the discussion is trust and discovery. To be clear, I believe that we have no idea what social commerce is in the West.

Source: Quickmeme
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The Eleven Things To Watch – 11.11 Global Shopping Festival

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), China’s economy is the only country with a positive GDP in 2020. Economic growth in 2020 is rare as economies are under pressure due to job losses, market contraction, and secondary effects from COVID-19. If you work in commerce, we assume that disposable income is available in all markets we operate in. 

The coming Wednesday is one of my favorite macroeconomic barometers, the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival. It started as Singles Day, and every year since 2008, it showcases the difference between Chinese e-commerce and the world.

Source: Alizila
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