The 10 ecommerce stories for the week of 30 March 2013

Google unveils Shopping express in San Francisco, Amazon acquires Goodreads, Walmart does Lockers as well and much more.

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:

Onwards..