Square gets a cup of coffee from Starbucks, Maelle Gavet from Ozon.ru, Multiply pivots to ecommerce, ShopGo enables ecommerce in the Middle East and mobile commerce is the week in a few words.
The summary of the 10 e-commerce stories for the past week highlights just how global ecommerce is. Let me start by saying it was a fun week for news and plenty of excellent articles made me think about the future. Russia is the last big market that is available for ecommerce investment but the Ozon story highlights how dominant the company is. Remember the name Ozon.ru, as I suspect that the company is on track to become a emerging market heavy weight.
Starbucks investing in Square is a big deal. Having read Howard Schultz’s book Onwards earlier in the year, I suspect the talks between him and Jack Dorsey from Square / twitter have been going on for some time. The investment validates Square as being a company that is increasingly playing a bigger role in the payment space. I believe strongly that Square is showing the future of retail payment. Starbucks must also be seen as a progressive retailer which are looking for ways to make their coffee purchase seamless. (For the record, a proper cup of coffee has the potential to create a few moments of inspiration).
Without further ado, here is the stories that got my undivided attention this week:
1. Is This The Jeff Bezos Of Russia? – This is one of the best articles that I have read on an ecommerce business in the developing world. Maelle Gavet, CEO of Ozon.ru provides details on the struggles that she has had with Ozon.ru – everything from funding to Logistics. I found one piece of this article very interesting. “I read everything,” says Gavet, who keeps an eye on the leading e-commerce companies around the world–not only Amazon (which owns Zappos), but also Japan’s Rakuten, Argentina’s MercadoLibre, Brazil’s Submarino, and France’s Fnac. “All of these companies have so much to teach us.” Lesson for ecommerce executives is: look at global companies that are successful and then use some of their ideas for your own market.
2. ShopGo, A Jordan-Based Startup Seeking To Boost E-Commerce In the Arab World – The mere fact that ShopGo is providing the ability for stores to be created online in a easy and inexpensive way tells me that the Middle East is slowing getting to a point of reaching critical mass. Online shopping enablers such as ShopGo is an excellent way for non technical shop owners to get into ecommerce.
3. FindTheBest: A Comparison Engine Tries to Build a Business – FindTheBest is a hybrid comparison engine featuring both algorithms and human curators. The differentiator is that it is data driven with decision making capabilities.
4. Tablets: The Future of Ecommerce? [Infographic] – It is becoming clear that the tablet is becoming a separate platform that needs careful thought from ecommerce businesses. I still think we have not seen the ultimate execution for tablet based content.
5. Stefan Magdalinski Speaks about Multiply’s Blog Shutdown – Multiply is based in Indonesia and is part of Naspers’s MIH stable (disclosure, MIH is my employer). The social network / blogging platform is being removed and Mulitply is pivoting to an ecommerce marketplace.
6. Tmall Hit RMB 20bn in First Half of 2012 – Turnover is up 200% YoY to $3.15 Billion (20 billion RMB). Taobao is a very important part of the Alibaba group and Tmall is steadily becoming a high value asset for Alibaba. (Yahoo might rue the fact that they acquired shares from Alibaba earlier in the 2012 financial year.)
7. Fab’s lesson: 30-40% of its traffic is mobile, but 95% of its mobile sales come from iOS devices – I love fab.com and mobile commerce is something that interests me. However, I am beginning to see a pattern emerging with regards to m-commerce. The iOS devices are the key revenue drivers for businesses doing mobile commerce.
8. Google Shopping – The Balance Between Old & New – Lets just say that Google Product Search becoming Google Shopping is a big deal. I believe this a direct response to Amazon’s dominance in ecommerce.
9. Analysis: EBay lures big retailers in Amazon battle – Increasingly it is looking like we will have a mexican standoff between eBay and Amazon.com. When you use a competitor as a way to get shops to use your platform it then provides all the power to the opposition. John Donahoe is taking eBay into uncharted water..
10. E-commerce spending up 15% to $43.2B, but will it last? – The global economic pain is felt by every retailer. However ecommerce companies are going really well and users go online to ensure that they are getting the deal they want.Will the momentum continue?
The bonus link this week is a post I wrote earlier in the week regarding the effect that Amazon has on global ecommerce. The Amazon effect is a critique of Amazon Passes Google as Top Destination for Shopping Research [Report].
Onwards..