The 10 ecommerce stories for the week ending 21 September 2012

Amazon vs Walmart – A heavyweight fight coming to an Internet connection soon, Naspers further invests in Indian ecommerce, An overview of opportunities in BRIC nations and some news in relation to South African ecommerce.

The week past was a busy one for me, but is one that I think signals a head on battle between 2 heavyweight retailers. Amazon vs Walmart was ratched up a notch with Walmart announcing that they will no longer be selling Kindles. Target was the first retailer to do this, but I wonder is this a defensive move or an offensive move on Walmart’s part?

Amazon also announced that they are shutting endless.com down, which  was their initial competitor for Zappos.. Well we know which one won in the end.

Let me be very clear on one thing. Ecommerce is a global activity done by millions of people, however the future of ecommerce is in developing companies. I am aware that this may seem ironic, but Africa, South East Asia and the Middle East is starting to gain more attention. The Middle East I think is going to be getting alot more attention from investors that are based in Turkey. If the market is expensive to get into, businesses start looking at other high growth markets to enter. I know this is obvious but high growth regions are no longer available in mass numbers. Africa is a long term play, it is going to need a lot of investment, but the right products will make investors very happy..


Without further ado, the 10 ecommerce stories that grabbed my attention are:

1. Pinterest rival Fancy gets into group gifting – Gifting is something getting a lot of attention. Fancy is clearly further down the road to success than rival Pinterest. I wonder how long this company stays private or is it a matter of time before they become an acquisition target?

2. Daily Grommet Announces Series B Funding Led By Japanese e-commerce Company, Rakuten – It is clear that Rakuten is building itself a portfolio of holdings. I must confess the Daily Grommet seems to be something similar to a trend spotting business. So a product is found on the Daily Grommet, pinned on Pinterest and then available for purchase on a Rakuten marketplace?

3. Excl: Before backing Flipkart, Naspers invested in BuyThePrice.com this year – I think this investment highlights how import India can become for ecommerce powerhouses. Is India a long term play or a short term exit opportunity?

4. Maybe Future of Retail Won’t Be Shipped but Picked Up – What is one of the biggest challenges facing all ecommerce businesses? Logistics. In developing markets it is a barrier to entry. I believe that in-store pickup is a future solution. Ultimately, footfall can be solved with driving the traffic back into the store. Oh yes, suddenly those compulsive buying aisles seem functional again.

5. Rocket Internet: Is There A Method To Its Madness Or Is It Just Bad For Innovation – Rocket Internet fascinates me and I have had quite a few stories listed in these posts regarding their operations. This post is one to enjoy with a beverage of your choice. I believe that they are training many ecommerce entrepreneurs without that being a core function of their businesses.

6. The Internet slows down for retailers – Ecommerce website loading times is a crucial key performance indicator. For every millisecond that your website loads longer than in comparison to a competitors website, a user has the opportunity to click away. A real world example – Amazon.com makes $67 million per day in sales, a 1 second page loading time delay could cost them $1.6 billion per year in lost revenue.

7. Comparison of Turkey and Brazil digital industries by numbers [Analysis] – Webrazzi, a Turkish based blog does a great job of comparing 2 of the fastest growing markets for ecommerce companies.  A fascinating post highlighting just how important early mover advantage is from an investment point of view.

8. Breaking Down the BRICs: China’s Opportunities and Barriers – China is a market that contains everything a marketer should love. However, international businesses have struggled in the Chinese ecommerce space for a variety of reasons.  PitneyBowes provides something thought provoking analysis on China and Chinese ecommerce.

9. Groupon: Smoke and mirrors or real value? – Groupon is a phenomenon, plain and simple, I doubt whether we will see anything similar again. At the moment, Internationally they are battling, but in South Africa they “will be South Africa’s biggest online retailer by revenue”. They have definitely played a role in getting more users do buy into ecommerce but the vagueness and lack of details does leave a lot of questions at the table regarding claim.

10. Fake Alert: Don’t Believe Those Online ‘Reviews’ – At the moment, one of the pillars of ecommerce, reviews is seriously getting hammered in the press. I must say, I am looking to seeing a startup/strartups solve this issue.

Bonus links for the past week:

Onwards..