The 10 e-commerce stories for the week ending 30 November 2012

Shoprite Checkers claims a Africa first, Nike sells Cole Haan, Bezos speaks and Google Shopping gets attacked by Microsoft

December 2012 is here and this past week (where did November go?)  has been a busy one for ecommerce. Black Friday and Cyber Monday is now in the record books and by all indications, the winner was mobile commerce. Apple has created a position of strength with regards to commerce on devices. The iPad seems to be the device driving a lot of traffic and sales to retailers and the iPhone is just a bit behind the iPad in terms of ecommerce value. I am convinced that Jobs knew in advance that his devices would become important for certain industries. Ask yourself one question, why does BlackBerry, HTC, Samsung and Android get a mention here? .. I will answer the question in the coming weeks.. but it boils down to execution.

I get proud when I read about South African commerce businesses that innovate. Our market may not be as big in size as the US or the UK but there are a few businesses that get it. The Shoprite group ( a large retail operation) is a business that has been building an empire and they get it. Yes, it is the only South African retailer that ensured that they created a defensible position before Walmart arrived. Acquisitions and investment has ensured that they stay a dominant player in retail in South Africa. They announced a mobile coupon app that is going to make a lot of their customers happy and scare their opposition. See, retailers a business that leverage technology to create a win for themselves and their customers…

With further ado, the 10 stories that captured my attention are:

  1. How IBM Is Watching How You Shop Online – I know retailers and credit card companies monitor online shoppers. However, IBM is also watching you shop online. I would love to see this data and can honestly say, I hope retailers are working with IBM with regards to analytics.
  2. Cautious uptick in e-commerce investing – Cautious investment by VC’s? Online commerce business have problems which makes investors squirm. It is called margins and large incumbents (Hello Amazon, Ventee Privee, eBay etc). Transactional business have potential but they need scale, has anyone considered  looking at the ecommerce value chain and building businesses that would lead to bolt on acquisitions by the large incumbents?
  3. Shop It To Me beefs up its shopping personalization engine with “Threads” – Personalisation is something that I think we are going to see a lot more of in 2013. Search is a requirement and no longer a differentiator, so what remains left for ecommerce businesses? Personalisation and a few more. (I think that is worth a post by itself)
  4. Buscapé launches application in partnership with INdT – Buscape is a forward thinking ecommerce business (Disclosure: They are in the MIH stable for whom I work for) and mobile applications is the future. I can’t think of any ecommerce app that can be used in 3 languages..
  5. Cyber Monday: Winners and Losers – If you are looking for evidence to understand Amazon’s dominance, here is a piece. They have almost double the percentage of users in a 24 hour period than their next rival. Shopzilla getting a mention is interesting as it does show that Comparison Shopping in North America is still relevant.
  6. Egypt’s Bkam Boosts E-Commerce with Comparison Shopping Site and Mobile App – Egypt is a fast growing ecommerce market on the African continent. Bkam looks fundamentally sound but I wonder how big the market is in Egypt?
  7. Forget family and food, Thanksgiving Day 2012 was all about the online shopping – Is the shift in retail to online in North America underway ? Thanksgiving highlighted the impact that online shopping had in relation to users going to the store? I tend to think that next year mobile and online will be even bigger than 2012.
  8. Is Google’s search manipulation hurting consumers? – Until Google itself communicates how they operate in search with shopping, travel etc the tone of this post will continue. Danny Sullivan does a good job reporting on Google but the time has come for Google to come clean. Don’t even mention the user and business IP here Google..
  9. A private equity firm picks up Cole Haan from Nike – Nike is clearly refocusing their business. Cole Haan was obviously not part of their long-term future.. A case of a bad acquisition or does Nike have financial problems?
  10. Microsoft launches ‘Scroogled’ anti-Google Shopping website – I find the irony in this priceless. Remember Google initially went after Microsoft when they were a startup. When will Google’s CEO respond to these accusations honestly? Danny Sullivan then fired back in Google’s defense.

Bonus links for the past week:

Onwards..