The week for ecommerce was a quiet one in terms of news but some news stories are going to be driving the ecommerce landscape in the next 18 months. The one company not involved with the Alibaba IPO, Alipay struck a deal with Stripe, the new hot payments startup. Alipay is the company that is going to drive the Alibaba behemoth long term and this partnership with Stripe is massive. It is the first time that I can think of a Chinese payments company makinga deal with a US focused payments startup. This story validates something that I have been thinking about – PayPal is no longer the hot digital payments business. I am fully aware of the past history between eBay and Alibaba but the fact that Alipay has partnered with Stripe speaks volumes.

What is the real story behind the Amazon vs Hachette fight? Amazon supposedly wants better pricing for ebooks and wants to charge publishers for services related to special, ebooks etc. There has been a lot of stories around this but I think that is not the real battle that Amazon is fighting. In the UK, Amazon wants to be able to print books that are no longer available from publishers. Holistically, this makes sense as in the UK and US markets Amazon is one of the biggest book sellers. If Amazon will be able to do this (long term I think it it will happen) right now is another question, it seems unlikely but the process has started and Amazon has placed the book industry on notice again.

The stories that caught my attention this past week:

1. Souq.com  Egypt’s E-Commerce Development Project facilitates launch of new e-commerce startups (Albawaba) –  “Souq.com Egypt, Egypt’s largest e-commerce platform, announced today its plans to help establish a new crop of e-commerce startups, which will be set to join the country’s burgeoning e-commerce industry within the next three months. 86 young Egyptian entrepreneurs are scheduled to join the E-Commerce Entrepreneurship Program in August for an eight-week training course that aims to equip them with the skills and know-how needed to launch their own e-commerce ventures.”
2. Omnichannel Apps: Reality vs. Promise (L2ThinkTank) – “The gap between what happens in-store and what is supposed to happen in-store shows how critical it is for omnichannel to be a company-wide initiative, not just a plan designed by the digital team.” In my mind currently there are 3 retailers that are executing on omnichannel – Nordstrom, Walmart and Zara.
3. Google, Walgreens, aisle411 Release New Era Of In-Store Retail Mapping (TechLi) – “One such launch that could have an interesting impact on the future of consumer retail shopping experiences was launched by indoor retail mapping platform aisle411, which introduced a new functionality that will allow retail shoppers using Google’s Project Tango to search and navigate to product locations while getting rewarded in retail environments. Google’s Project Tango was developed to create 3D maps of indoor spaces with the ability to show a user’s precise location and orientation within centimeters of accuracy. With an expertise at taking complex data from retail environments and mapping it to make shopping easier, aisle411 was brought in to leverage the Project Tango technology and integrate it with its inventory searchable indoor maps for retailers.”
4. Social E-Commerce Site Fancy Is Raising Money At A $1.2 Billion Valuation (Business Insider) – “The social ecommerce site Fancy is trying to raise a new round of funding with a valuation that could be as high as $1.2 billion, a source told Bloomberg.The person said an investment would double the value of the company since July.”
5. Amazon to form e-commerce JV with Catamaran Ventures (MediaNama) – ” E-Commerce behemoth Amazon is forming an e-commerce joint venture with Catamaran Ventures, the investment office of Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy for back end operations, reports The Economic Times. Catamaran Ventures head Arjun Narayanswamy has told the publication that they are partnering with Amazon Asia to offer services that will help offline sellers and SMBs (Small and Medium Businesses) sell their products online.”
6. Tencent pays $736 million to take 20% stake in 58.com , China’s answer to Craigslist (TechInAsia) – “Chinese web giant Tencent (HKG:0700) – now best known as being the maker of WeChat – announced today that it’s paying US$736 million for a 19.9 percent stake in 58.com (NYSE:WUBA), which is China’s answer to Craigslist. 58.com, which has 130 million monthly unique users, IPO’d last October.”
7. Globby Helps Small Shops Take Advantage Of Southeast Asia’s Booming E-Commerce Market (TechCrunch) – “Mobile penetration is especially high in Southeast Asia, and still growing, and the increase in mobile devices also fuels a promising e-commerce market. The problem for many vendors, however, is how to bring their brick-and-mortar stores online. A Singapore-based startup named Globby (short for Global Blaze Solutions) wants to be the e-commerce platform of choice for Southeast Asia’s stores (and differentiate from other e-commerce platforms like Shopify and Magento) by offering hyperlocalized support and tools that are tailored to sellers in the region before tackling other markets. “
8. Amazon reportedly wants to print publishers’ books when they run out (The Verge) – “Amazon has found itself on tense terms with publishers as it begins to really use its size and power to gain favorable terms in distribution deals, notably with the major publisher Hachette. Now, the BBC and trade publication The Bookseller are reporting that Amazon is attempting to introduce some strong new terms in its contracts with small UK publishers as well, one of which is calling them an act of “bullying.” Among those is the ability for Amazon to begin printing books itself should a publisher run out of copies, allowing Amazon to continue quickly filling orders. The BBC reports, however, that Amazon would be using “print-on-demand” equipment, which generally produces a lower-quality copy than a publisher would make on a traditional press.”
9. Etsy just poached one of Pandora’s most important employees to lead its move into mobile (The Verge) – “At Pandora, Grishaver was focused on mobile, the area where Etsy is seeing its biggest growth. “When you think about the success of Pandora, it’s about the simplicity of the product in terms of user experience, and yet there is a ton of sophistication under the hood in terms of the technology that drives the recommendations.” He helped the music service roll out features like its alarm clock, station recommendations, and push notifications. During his tenure the Pandora app was consistently one of the most downloaded music apps on both iOS and Android. “Hopefully I can apply that learning and those techniques to Etsy, in terms of developing some of those really impactful features on mobile.””
10. ETail is a costly investment in South Africa (Mail & Guardian) – “Big companies are splashing unprecedented amounts of cash into e-retail in South Africa, with the likes of online merchandiser Takealot.com recently raising R1-billion of investment for expansion in the country and sub-Saharan Africa, and Naspers ploughing R5.6-billion into e-commerce around the globe, with a portion of that earmarked for local development.”
11. eBay’s Magento to Shut Down Small-Business E-Commerce Product (Re/code) – “eBay’s e-commerce software business Magento is killing off its Go product aimed at small-business owners and has inked a deal to move those customers over to competitor Bigcommerce’s service, a source familiar with the deal told Re/code. eBay is also shutting down its ProStores e-commerce software offering, according to this source, a service that targeted similar sized businesses as Go.”
12. Jumia Extend Operations To Northern Nigeria With Kano Launch (Ventures-Africa) – “Nigeria’s largest online retail store, Jumia Nigeria has extended its reach to Kano, the second largest commercial city in the country. “This expansion is one of many to come as we already have hub stations in 9 other states,” Co-CEO at Jumia Nigeria, Nicola Martin said.”
13. How “the Amazon of Russia” thrives in a cash-only economy (Harvard Business Review) – “Russia is also a cash market. People don’t pay until the parcel is delivered. That means if you don’t deliver, you don’t get paid—and you handle a lot of cash. In 2010 about 82% of payments were made in cash; 75% still are today. In a cash economy it’s also harder to track customers and monitor fraud. People often think that Amazon identifies them through a login name and a password—but that’s not entirely true, because you can register as often as you want. The one thing you cannot do is use the same credit card for two accounts, so your credit card number is your unique ID.“
14. The U.S. is the top market for Chinese companies on eBay (Internet Retailer) – “In dollar terms, the United States, United Kingdom and Australia represent the largest markets for Chinese sellers on eBay. But those sales are growing fastest in other countries, the eBay report says. Sales to Argentina from Chinese sellers on eBay grew 130% last year, while sales to Israel increased 78% and to Norway 69%.”
15. Amazon plans to trial online shopping pick-up lockers in tube station car parks (The Guardian) – “Amazon has confirmed plans to trial online shopping pick-up lockers in London Underground car parks this month, joining a string of rivals already using the tube network. Under the proposals, lockers will be located in the car parks at Finchley Central and Newbury Park, joining nearly 300 locations around the UK where Amazon offers the service.”
16. ‘Inventory Model Would Not Work For E-commerce Players’ (BusinessWorld.In) – “Ajit Sivadasan,  Global VP/GM,  e-Commerce, digital marketing and web business  of Lenovo, was in Bangalore recently, talking about the potential of e-commerce in India. Sivadasan believes that the inventory model would not work for e-commerce players, as one  burns cash in maintaining stocks, and suggests that a manufacturing to home delivery model’ is of one of the ways to make a global impact. He says e-commerce can work when you tie orders to factory production, which will make the supply chain efficient. Having built Lenovo’s global e-commerce business, he is bullish about Asia.”
17. Amazon Is Quietly Launching A Local Takeout Service To Rival GrubHub, Seamless And DeliveryHero (TechCrunch) – ” Amazon has been tipped to launch a local services marketplace this year to rival the likes of Thumbtack, Angie’s List and Yelp. Now one part of that effort looks like it’s about to go live: the company is now rolling out a food takeout service, a direct competitor to GrubHub, Seamless and DeliveryHero.The offering is initially going to be part of Amazon Local, the company’s Groupon-style service and app that offers people daily deals, coupons and discounts from merchants in their neighborhood.”
18. Paypal at a Cross Roads (Tom Noyes) -“Big things are in store for my favorite eCommerce payments company. Really, I do like Paypal. I may ding them on their POS strategy… as it makes no sense at all… but I love Paypal online.. the “original” ecommerce payments solution that adds value to merchant and consumer. This is my big theory today. With eBay repatriating $9B and taking a 30% tax hit, we all know that acquisitions are planned. But what? Obviously Carl Icann, David Marcus and the BOD have had some disagreements. Rather than guess the strategy, lets take a look at WHO is staying at Paypal. Don Kingsborogh is the former CEO of Blackhawk and head of Paypal’s POS strategy, and Discover Network strategy/relationship.”
19. Japanese giant Rakuten enters India, but it’s not yet joining the ecommerce war (TechInAsia) – “Japanese ecommerce titan Rakuten (JSD:4755) has just announced its entry into India. To begin with, the firm has today opened a global unit called the Rakuten India Development and Operations Center (RIDOC) in Bangalore. A statement from the company says the center will focus on “infrastructure operations, processes, and resources.” For now, there’s no Rakuten India estore – instead it is working behind the scenes on developing talent in infrastructure automation, software development, and quality assurance.”
20. This Internet Millionaire Has a New Deal For You (DMagazine) – “Amazon’s fundamental misunderstanding of what made Woot great can be seen today on the site. It sells many items simultaneously. It’s a marketplace, not an event. The write-ups are cute, not subversively funny. Woot is no longer a bug-eyed beast with eight tentacles. It’s a pancake with two smaller pancakes for Mickey Mouse ears and a smile made of whipped cream. In 2012, two years into his three-year deal with Amazon, Rutledge walked. He won’t say how many millions his early departure cost him, but his contract with Amazon included a three-year non-compete clause from the date of sale, and he was watching the clock.”
21. Angela Ahrendts: ‘Starting Anew’ (LinkedIn Today) – “Last month, as you might have heard, I started a new job. At some point in your career, maybe you too have made the life-altering decision to start anew. If so, you know firsthand how exciting, challenging and sometimes disorienting the first 30, 60, 90 days can be. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately myself.” A clear sign that Tim Cook’s Apple is not the same one that Steve Jobs lead – the SVP of Retail blogging about her first 30 days at Apple.
22. Social Shopping Site Svpply To Shut Down, Nearly 2 Years After Selling To eBay (TechCrunch) – “Svpply, the curated social shopping site meant to replicate the experience of traditional window shopping online, announced today that it will shut down on August 31. The shutdown will occur just a week short of the two year anniversary of its acquisition by eBay, which occurred in September 2012. In the months immediately following the eBay deal, Svpply continued to iterate and launch new features and apps, but in recent months development on the service has seemed to stagnate.”
23. Stripe, China’s Alipay strike payments agreement (Reuters) – ” Payments startup Stripe and China’s Alipay have struck a deal to allow Chinese buyers to pay for purchases on the U.S. service, in a rare agreement between a Western payments service and the Alibaba (IPO-ALIB.N) affiliate. Alipay, once part of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba before it was split off, handles about half of all online transactions in China. In a Tuesday blog post, Stripe said the deal will let its own customers more easily handle purchases from the world’s second largest economy.”
24. Diapers co-founder to launch a new digital publication without gimmicks, stunts or click bait (Geekwire) – “Bharara’s interest in digital media, closely follows other successful tech entrepreneurs who see an opportunity to create digital publications as audiences have flocked online to consume content (even if the money hasn’t necessarily followed in the case for traditional media). Perhaps, the leap was inspired by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who purchased The Washington Post for $250 million last August, and has been pouring money into Business Insider. Other examples include Twitter’s Evan Williams, who started Medium, and Facebook Co-Founder Chris Hughes who bought The New Republic in 2012.”
25. Decline in FedEx’s SmartPost volumes laid at the feet of Amazon’s defection (DC Velocity) – “Rob Martinez, president and CEO of Shipware LLC, a parcel consultancy, said Amazon is the only shipper that “can affect that big a swing” in SmartPost traffic within such a compressed time period. Martinez, noting FedEx’s comments that the increase in SmartPost revenue was due to the dual impact of rate increases and improvements in customer mix, took that to mean that Smith, FedEx’s founder and CEO, and his folks were not sorry to see Amazon’s volumes—and marginally profitable business—hit the road.The message from FedEx is that “our balance sheet is better off without low margin business” and that “we have no problem losing that customer,” Martinez said.”
26. Rocket Internet Owners Said to Plan Keeping Stake in 2014 IPO (Bloomberg) – “The company, which may be valued at 3 billion euros ($4.1 billion) to 5 billion euros in a Frankfurt listing later this year, is trying to convince investors that it can sustain growth and be profitable over the longer run. Rocket replicates existing e-commerce business concepts, mainly from Silicon Valley, in markets outside the U.S. and China — from Brazil to Nigeria to Myanmar. In meetings with investors ahead of the IPO, Rocket has been benchmarking its business model against that of Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the people said. The German firm is raising funds from a share sale as it pushes growth in regions including southeast Asia and Latin America.” Benchmarking versus Alibaba is an interesting tidbit.
27. MercadoLibre, Inc. Announces Proposed Offering of $300 Million of Convertible Senior Notes Due 2019 (MercadoLibre) – “MercadoLibre, Inc. (“MercadoLibre”) (Nasdaq:MELI) today announced that it intends to offer, subject to market and other conditions, US$300 million aggregate principal amount of Convertible Senior Notes due 2019 (the “notes”). MercadoLibre expects to grant the initial purchasers a 13-day option to purchase up to an additional $30 million principal amount of notes, solely to cover over-allotments. The notes will pay interest semiannually and will mature on July 1, 2019, unless earlier repurchased or converted in accordance with their terms prior to such date. MercadoLibre will not have the right to redeem the notes prior to maturity. Prior to January 1, 2019, the notes will be convertible at the option of holders of the notes only upon satisfaction of certain conditions and during certain periods, and thereafter, at any time until the close of business on the second scheduled trading day immediately preceding the maturity date. “
28. ASOS Website Back Online Following Suspicious Warehouse Fire (Power Retail) – “ASOS has now had enough time to take stock following a deliberately lit fire at its largest warehouse in the UK and has begun selling again via its website.The latest news from ASOS following a blaze that broke out at its UK-based warehouse operations shows that just 20 percent of the facilities stock was damaged and the website is now back online.”
29. “Flash Selling” Winners and the Future of E-Commerce (Motley Fool) – “The future of commerce may very well lie in cyberspace. Not only that, but the fastest growing trend within the world of e-commerce happens to be a variation of one of the eldest retail tricks in the book – deals of the day. This sales tactic, also known as “flash-selling”, has taken both markets by storm with unparalleled year-over-year growth. As we look at the rise of flash-selling companies like Zulily (NASDAQ: ZU) and Vipshop Holdings (NYSE: VIPS) versus traditional e-commerce juggernauts such as Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) and JD.com (NASDAQ: JD), can we identify the best investment?”
30. Amazon, boasting new sales office, sniffs around Israeli high-tech (Haaretz) – ““We see so much innovation [in Israel] in [data] storage, big data analysis and life sciences,” he said. “Among technology centers around the world, I think Israel is one of the hottest places at the moment. It’s clear that we’re looking at companies here, but we can’t comment beyond that.”Amazon is a rarity among global high-tech giants: It hasn’t acquired a company in Israel. At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February, Amazon officials met with executives of Israeli data-storage startups, but based on its track record, Amazon appears more interested in acquiring retail and logistic companies than technology firms.”