Category: 10 stories that got my attention

Naspers, Rakuten, GSI Ecommerce and flash sale ecommerce get some headlines…

The past week can be summarized into one thought “Just how global is ecommerce?” Truth is that the man on the street has little idea nor is it important for him. His primary mission is to buy that product that he wants. Sometimes, I feel that we in ecommerce forget that. When last have you asked your team “How are we helping our users get the desired end result?” I will most probably follow that thought with a post soon.

The past week had featured stories on Naspers and acquisitions. For me the most interesting story line was that on Rakuten. Hiroshi Mikitani, is the man trying to take his ecommerce business (Rakuten) into new markets. There is also some interesting news from startups (decide.com, Instacart) and a regional look. In three sentences, I mentioned businesses in a large number of markets and it highlights just how global ecommerce is.

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The past week was one dominated by earnings. Amazon disappointed but showed signs of where their growth is coming from. One thing that seems to have gone missing this week in all the Amazon doom and gloom is that they have a long term strategy. So they had a bad quarter.. yes, there are others who would not mind being in their position.

I believe that we are also beginning to see the power of the marketplace for a variety of verticals. Amazon is the standard and the results back it up, startups are trying to assist users either sell no longer needed items or help them them acquire items. The point is this vertical is growing in importance.
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The week that has passed contained previews of the future. Facebook and Walmart are to strengthen their relationship and Amazon will be starting to face user revolt over sales tax collection. Amazon will be doing the right thing with regards to taxing but how it affects their bottom-line is another story. It is pretty clear that Walmart feels the need to partner with digital companies to try and shorten the distance between themselves and Amazon.

There is one post that I read this week that I have gone back to a couple of times. Fred Wilson has been writing about mobile a lot more recently and his post over Mobile commerce highlighted one of the newer channels that commerce needs to be thinking about. Mobile is here to stay, the execution is what will determine who wins and become successful. It provides more touch points for retailers to connect with their users.

Obviously the biggest story of the week has to be Marissa Mayer being named the new CEO of Yahoo!. Personally, I want Yahoo! to become more relevant because dear citizens of the Internet we have one search engine making all the rules. Commerce is something severally lacking from Yahoo’s stable (Yahoo! Shopping is powered by PriceGrabber) and maybe something that Mayer needs to have a look at. Merchants are going to look for an alternative as soon as paid Google Shopping is rolled out. I sense acquisitions in a variety of areas.
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The first week of July is in the record books. This year has steadily been gaining speed and everyone has started with Q4 planning. It is pretty clear to me that in South Africa ecommerce is starting to become more acceptable. I know that sounds weird but I still feel retailers see ecommerce as a challenge and not a complimentary channel to make further revenue. It made me smile reading that Mr Price and CNA will be adding more attention to their ecommerce offerings. Are we at a tipping point for ecommerce in South Africa?

I was overseas last week and when walking around in Turkey the retailers in the shopping malls had URLs and social media stickers on the windows of their shops. Bricks and Mortar is definitely in certain markets adding ecommerce to their touch points for customers. I hope you missed the weekly posts last week, the silence wont be happening again. So, without anymore babbling, here are the stories that got me to click and read more.

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