A few thoughts on Rocket Internet in Africa, Jabaar is looking for investment, Amazon scares everyone with their “stealth project” that has been going for 6 years and Flipkart goes into fashion.

The past week has been interesting one for ecommerce. I think facebook might just have opened pandora’s box with regards to commerce. The execution on a device level is spot on. Are they in the process of asking their page users to start paying for eyeballs? Zuckerberg is a clever founder and I think he has been doing acquisitions based on a plan. We all knew that their mobile offering was below standard etc.. a billion users with a proper execution is a very exciting opportunity.

I have been looking at something for the last 18 months and Amazon is slowly making it more visible to the public. It is a new market for them which should be concerning to their rivals. The ad network that they are working on has infinite potential and should concern Google. The ecommerce behemoth is a secretive organization whom only shows what they need to. “Unlike most in the ad business who love to talk to the press — and generally do so freely — Amazon execs need approval from Seattle to do interviews.”

Also one other piece of interesting information that came past my inbox this week is mobile commerce (to unpack that, another post is needed). Mobile commerce is here to stay but the growth is being seen in all markets. In the US, shoppers spent $5 billion while using tablets over the past 12 months. Have you shopped online with your mobile device?

Without further ado, here is the 10 stories that got my attention this past week:

1. Rocket Internet may be just what is needed to Turbo-charge African E-commerce – A fascinating look at the last battle ground for ecommerce investors, Africa. Read it and draw your own conclusions, my dear readers.

2. More Than 100,000 Sellers Have Inventory in New Google Shopping Model – I am willing to say that I think we will be seeing a lot more press releases and blogposts until the official launch of Google Shopping. A hundred thousand sellers and yet there is still categories with little content in it – Google what is really going on here?

3. Mobile shopping bringing in $20 billion annually — study – A $20 billion market that at the moment is still being tested and evolved. I have seen some great mobile executions but the fact is, mobile commerce is not typical commerce. The results of the process at the moment is being seen behind closed doors..

4. Fake Reviews Shadow Brands Selling Online – This is becoming a pattern for me. The whole review process is looks to be under inspection. A trained eye can spot a review that is not credible. My own thoughts on this is that the model and process needs to be relooked. Humans make decisions based on our senses, the Internet has knocked that out of the equation…

5. eBay Is Now Selling Live Services, Launches Secretguru As A Beta Pilot In The UK – eBay is without a doubt a company in a transition. Is the perception of their business changing? Secretguru seems to be a response to TaskRabbit and Zaarly if I am honest.

6. Polish ecommerce analytics tool Manubia raises seed funding from hardGAMMA Ventures – Ecommerce analytics is an industry getting a lot of attention from startups. Being able to make decisions based on data is never a bad thing,e

7. Jabbar in talks with investors to sell companies or stakes – Jabbar is a powerhouse in the MENA region, but why are they looking for investment? I sense that they want to scale to be able to compete with Namshi (A Rocket Internet business) and a fresh cash injection is most probably the best idea.

8. Google: Merchant Tools, Product Data The Focus For Google Shopping In Q4 – Rick Backus from CPCstrategy wrote an interesting article on the future execution of Google Shopping. I would love to know how they will determine priority.

9. How Amazon Beat the Odds in the Tablet Economy – Bezos knew the impact that the Kindle would have on Amazon’s future. Kindle and Kindle Fire are disruptors and no one has an idea how to make a low cost high quality device.

10. B2C to A-plus for China’s E-commerce – my read of the week, if you are interested in Chinese ecommerce then this is a must read.

Bonus links for the past week:

• Shopify Partners with Canada Post to Turn Brick-and-Mortar Into Brick-and-Click – Shopify is a company that I think is a potential acquisition target for the future.
• For big-ticket items, social shopping needs more screen-sharing – Social shopping is a buzzword that makes me cringe. “Buying things online is a solitary experience, but ClickWithMeNow aims to make the process a bit more social.”
• ShopSavvy taps into Best Buy’s API for better, faster mobile shopping – I can see more retailers having public API’s in the future. Best Buy is looking for solutions to their large challengers.
• Tara Hunt and Buyosphere: Sometimes the startup magic just doesn’t happen – This a sad post for me. I was a very early user of Shwowp before the rebranded to Buyosphere and can tell everyone that Tara, Cassandre and Jerome worked hard on executing their idea. They are ahead of the market at the moment.

Onwards..