The 10 e-commerce stories for the week ending 23 November 2012

Black Friday stories, Tiger Direct consolidates, A virtual measuring tape, E-commerce industry insights from Turkey, India, South Africa and Brazil.

What a week, that is the first thing that I can think of when reflecting about the last 5 working days. Today is Black Friday in the United States and my inbox looks in pretty bad shape, the intensity of this years marketing by eretailers feels to have gone up a notch. Black Friday made in appearance in South Africa as eretailers try to get on the bandwagon (Expect a post on this topic in the coming days) of a phenomenal day for retail in the US.

Amazon this week did something I was expecting. It threw down the gauntlet to Google with a very clever concept called Amazon pages. It is a Pinterest like execution designed to draw more content around Amazon’s rubik’s cube. Bezos in my opinion never does anything for free and there is always a strategy around everything done by Amazon.com. The pages concept to me feels like a challenge to Google as this product will have content that is not found in the Google index. This topic is going to be one that is to be revisited as Amazon is in a mode I have never seen before. Bezos has been calculated and slowly making moves in publishing, advertising and technology; the difference is that this is being managed by Amazon with how much is shown to the world controlled by them.

E-commerce in developing nations is pretty close to home for me. I live in a developing economy, have it as my occupation and it is something I am pretty interested in. The next phase of ecommerce in my mind is a shift towards new battle grounds which will see the eBays, Amazons of the developed ecommerce markets going into regions where a Buscape, MercadoLibre, Alibaba, Flipkart, Souq, Trendyol or Ozon is found. In my mind platforms, resources and execution is going to be what determines who survives..

Without further disruptions, the stories that caught my attention this past week was:

  1. TigerDirect will swallow up CompUSA and CircuitCity brands – A sign of the shift in the last 3 years. When I was in the US in 2005 both CompUSA and CircuitCity was online shops I bought from. TigerDirect came on my radar about 9 months ago and in my mind is slowly building a powerhouse to compete against Amazon, Best Buy etc in North America. Consolidation normally is a sign that the market is close to saturation.
  2. 360buy Launches Digital Music Service – In Chinese ecommerce it is literally Alibaba and the rest. 360buy has burnt through investment like any competitor trying to compete with a gigantic competitor. Whether a digital music service will help them in the long term against Alibaba is another story. (I am leaning towards it won’t)
  3. In Turkey, entrepreneurs and VCs are still waiting for their big payday – Turkey is one of the countries in developing ecommerce markets that absolutely fascinate me. Credit card penetration is high, mobile phone adoption for smartphones (hello iPhone) is huge and the market is full of interesting businesses. Amazon, eBay, Tiger Global and MIH all have holdings in this market. E-commerce entrepreneurs that I have met personally (when I visited the country earlier in 2012) are some of the most educated and skilled folks I have met and they can hold their own. This market is one where long term and organic growth is going to win, they have their challenges as most developing ecommerce markets have, but this market in my mind is one to keep an eye on. (Visit the country and you will understand why I feel strongly about the potential of this market.)
  4. Ecommerce funding in India: The story so far – India is a ecommerce market that has huge potential simply due to its size. However, the growth has been rather stop-start and the current state is not where I believe analysts thought where the market would be. A great resource for anybody interested in Indian ecommerce.
  5. Amazon Offers ‘Amazon Pages’ For Brands To Customize With Their Own URLs, And ‘Amazon Posts’ For Social Media Marketing – Amazon providing another great tool for their marketplace shops. As I said the Search Engine implications of this move should not be forgotten. A classic Bezos play, get users to do the work and then use the data to expand Amazon’s domination. Google, a response not called Google Shopping might be worth contemplating.
  6. Report: FTC Likely To Abandon “Vertical Search” Antitrust Claims Against Google – Regular readers would be aware that I have some issues with Google. It feels more like this is history repeating itself, as Microsoft also fought and lobbied against legal issues they may. I hope this is not going to end in nothing as this could have adverse on a variety of businesses. Google needs to be held accountable and ensure a fair and just playing field is available for all.
  7. BII REPORT: How Retailers Are Trying To Own Mobile Commerce – Retailers have a few problems. One, consumers are now more educated than ever before making a purchase. Then they have a technology that is completely disrupting their operations. Mobile commerce is here to stay and will be another determining factor for long term business survival and growth. (Yes, we all know this but have you done anything about this disruptor? )
  8. TMall to Lure More International Brands – Taobao and TMall are the 2 things that are central to Alibaba’s future. TMall has to provide international brands to local Chinese online shoppers as if not they will move away from the platform. Whether these brands are even contemplating having a presence on TMall is open to discussion..
  9. Online shopping in South Africa has (finally) come of age – Alistair Fairweather makes a great point but in all honesty these kinds of stories make their way into the media and online sphere every year at this time. Not to sound negative, any research available to back this up?
  10. Brazilian e-commerce expects record-breaking Black Friday amid scam complaints – Black Friday in Brazil? Interesting.. Brazil is the Latin America ecommerce market that matters and it will continue to be highly competitive.

Bonus links for the past week:

Onwards..