Amazon interested in Europe, WeChat disrupts the shopping experience, Netshoes builds a mobile empire, Fab downsizes their New York operation and much more.

The first week of October is in the record books and it contained a lot of ecommerce news. In weeks gone by, I have had time to think and it is pretty clear ecommerce is now a global business. The competition might no longer be corner store but rather a very large venture backed business that can influence your customers . I have a suspicion that the visitors to this past weeks Shop.org Annual Summit was more international than in years past. (For the record, that is one event I still want to attend..).

If I look into the news of the past week – then it is pretty clear that mobile and logistics is the new differentiators. Mobile is still the one part of ecommerce that is still in its infancy (yes, I know it is important) but best practices etc is still very much kept inside businesses. Logistics on the other hand is the reason why venture capital and investors are putting their Dollars / Euros for the long haul ROI. Take the news that Amazon is looking at Distribution centres in the Czech Republic and Poland. Is that a reaction to the labour issues the business has faced in Germany or a case of getting closer to their customers? I tend to think it is a bit of both.

Netshoes is arguably one of the biggest ecommerce businesses in Latin America. Generally, there are few times in the year in which businesses like Netshoes provide detail. I found their mobile business as discussed at Shop.org interesting. Why? They are firmly aware of when users use their mobile app (hello football broadcasts) and have done specific features to leverage their own catalog. Geo-location and mobile remarketing via a partnership with Google. I have a feeling we are going to see businesses doing a lot of predictive analysis and personalisation to bolster their mobile products.

Well, Fab.com has laid of 101 of their staff members. They have since beginning of the year downsized their operation by 37%. AllThingsD had an article over the downsizing due to a bad bet over flash sales. I dont particularly agree with that as being the cause for their retrenchments nor is the answer a faster road to profitability. I am not going to go in detail as I am going to write a post on it as soon as this weekly recap is done.

The stories that caught my attention the past week:

1. Paga Records Over 400,000 Mobile Payment Transactions Worth N4.5 Billion In September – Payments is a challenge in Nigeria for merchants and customers. Paga is a startup making progress on the pain point but I have to wonder what those payments where? Was it large transactions or micro payments?
2. Google Introduces Cross-Device and Offline Conversion Tracking – Google has taken the first step to providing analytics for offline conversion tracking. Why has this taken so long and also is there startups in this space as Google most probably has done this to ensure they can make additional revenue for their mobile business…
3. Staples Buys Runa To Square Up To Amazon In The E-Commerce Game For Office Supplies – Thinking about this in some more detail I have to wonder whether the removal of the Amazon lockers from Staples and RadioShack stores had anything to do with this acquisition. Folks – am I the only person thinking that Staples and RadioShack wanted Amazon to buy them?
4. Google Tests Instant Product Listing Results – A nice scoop by the team at CPCStrategy. Google testing instant product listing results is surely another good user experience.. I see this is another way to decrease the value of organic search and make revenue for Google.
5. China e-commerce giant Alibaba invests in a mobile app search engine – Alibaba has been making small movements into new verticals over the last 18 months. Alibaba after their IPO is going to be a massive threat for Amazon and the rest of the ecommerce world as they will then have cash reserves to make acquisitions.
6. Shopping search engine TheFind surpasses 1B shopping searches(exclusive) – Thefind has surpassed a billion searches on their platforms. I am trying to understand why this company is not a big player in the comparison shopping engine space?
7. Amazon Readies Set-Top Box for Holidays – This if true will place significant pressure on Roku and other video distribution businesses. It is clear that this device will be able to stream video content as found on Apple TV etc.
8. You’ll Be Surprised By Which Retailers Are Most Mobile-Centric (Hint: It’s Not Amazon Or eBay) – Some very interesting data points here. Notice that retailers like Target and Best Buy are competitive against Amazon in terms of % visits that only originates from tablets and mobile devices but are absent in total visits to a platform. That is why Amazon is such a massive threat it is a massive platform business..
9. Indonesia most attractive ecommerce market in SE Asia – This read like a marketing pitch for a newly formed company which it was due to a lack of disclosure by the Author. However, some very interesting information on one of the hottest markets for ecommerce investors.
10. Amazon Vs. Walmart: E-Commerce Vs. Omni-Channel Logistics – It is clear that commerce’s titans are Amazon and Walmart. However, Walmart wants to be more competitive against Amazon. However, trying to compete with Amazon via a Ship from Store program is going to be a challenge. There are multiple opportunities for the process to become a customer inconvenience. This is going to be a story worth keeping an eye on.

Bonus links:

• 5 reasons why Rocket Internet graduates make good entrepreneurs – Rocket Internet has provided training for many entrepreneurs and have made the process of starting a ecommerce business a little less daunting. 2 Things from that article stood out: obsession with execution and data.
• France wants to make it illegal for Amazon to offer free shipping – If this continues I can see Amazon leaving France as Bezos takes no prisoners regarding legislation etc. It is clear that the target for this new law is Amazon but one has to wonder if this partly retribution for how Amazon reports its tax via a Luxembourg entity? Who is the loser in this? The french customers..
• Do Etsy’s changes risk making it like eBay? – Etsy’s growth has been astronomical but seemingly merchants are unhappy over the change in terms and conditions. I wonder if this is the price of success or the opportunity for a startup to compete with Etsy?
• Google turns to a mobile catalog specialist for new interactive ads – Interesting new source of GDN advertisements for Google. Another sign that Google is a media company..
• Goodbye Wholesale Brands – A very interesting post from Jamie Quint. Traditional merchandising is going to be disappearing as eCommerce put the brand in control over pricing and fulfillment. Bonobos and Warby Parker are great examples of this.
• Here’s Amazon Smith 3D smartphone UI, straight from the Lab 126. Kinect like gesture controls in the works too – The Amazon phone is at the moment a rumor. Image / Object recognition will be a feature that will crush competitors as it is a proprietary event. Secondly – this reads like a product that combines artificial intelligence with augmented reality.  The Hacker News post contains some interesting tidbits not yet seen in the public domain..