Alibaba breaks records on Singles day, Amazon partners USPS and a conversation with Sina Afra – Ecommerce stories of the week

Alibaba smashes records on Singles day, the most fraudulent ecommerce countries, Amazon partners USPS,  a conversation with Sina Afra and much more
Folks, I am aware that I am a bit late but I wanted to wait until the end of this day to post anything. Why? Simple today is Singles day in China which has become a statement for Alibaba. If you wanted a sign of the power and the ability to disrupt that Alibaba has then 11 November is that sign. I understand that deep discounts impacted this day but to put it into perspective this is 2.5x Cyber Monday and according to Bloomberg:

The Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. said transactions on its websites yesterday topped 35 billion yuan ($5.75 billion), surpassing last year’s single-day sales of 19.1 billion yuan.

Amazon then did something that no-one saw coming. It unveiled USPS as its delivery partner for Sunday deliveries. It is not using it’s longstanding logistics partner UPS or FedEx but rather the US Postal Services. Increasingly it looks like Amazon is adding more reasons for users to select Prime as their preferred way to interact with Amazon.

Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) is working with the U.S. Postal Service to deliver packages on Sunday, starting in the Los Angeles and New York metropolitan areas. Amazon Prime members, who receive unlimited, free two-day shipping on millions of items, can now receive their packages on Sunday in these areas. Amazon and the U.S. Postal Service plan to roll out this service to a large portion of the U.S. population in 2014 including Dallas, Houston, New Orleans and Phoenix, to name a few.


The stories that caught my attention for this past week:

  1. eBay quietly arrives in Indonesia under the name Blanja – This is big news as it continues to show that eBay has made the emerging markets a priority and are willing to enter via partnerships. The Indonesian market is in its infancy stages but eBay is clearly interested in it. How long until an official eBay marketplace is seen in South East Asia?
  2. Which e-commerce format— marketplace or inventory-led—will lead to profitability first? – If you are an ecommerce executive then this question is surely to have reared its head in meetings or strategy sessions. In short this question is only partly asked as you need to bring in location into the conversation. In developed markets I would tend to believe that marketplaces is the way to go but in emerging markets I dont see a firm answer except that I think this needs an entire post.
  3. Katia Beauchamp of Birchbox, on the Strength of Optimism – I enjoy articles like this when founders or CEO’s speak about their companies in a completely transparent manner. Birchbox has surprised most people and I think the leadership of the business is clearly a contributing factor to the success of the business.
  4. Cyber Monday in China and Southeast Asia – I found this interesting and also kind of sad as I think Singles day in China is a truly unique event. The fact that companies are latching on to that in other parts of the world (including South Africa?!) makes me realize the impact that marketing has on ecommerce.
  5. The Ecommerce to Marketplace Pivot : What More Should Flipkart et al Do – I believe that only 1 person in ecommerce understands marketplace ecommerce and his name is Jeffery P Bezos. Marketplace ecommerce is a purely margin based activity that is only used to try and make money for a platform by doing is little as possible for the partners and making maximum return on that partnership. The question seen in India is symptomatic of a region that has seen many rounds of capital injected into the local ecommerce ecosystem but now that investment needs to start making returns. What does remain for the businesses to do?
  6. Is the new mobile ecommerce experience all about avatars and auction rooms? – I read this and thought “it is a clear sign that mobile commerce is still in its infancy”. I don’t think that mobile commerce is about avatars and auctions. Auctions are slowly dying as a vertical and mobile commerce is all about dealing with constraints.
  7. Groupon Acquires LivingSocial’s Korean Business TicketMonster for $260 Million – This is for me one of the big stories of the week. Is it a sign that LivingSocial is in trouble? Yes. Is it a sign that Groupon is on the way up? I am not really sure.  “Groupon said it will pay at least $100 million in cash and up to $160 million in stock for Ticket Monster, known locally as TMon”. Amazon will sell the Groupon shares on the public market as soon as possible as it does not want to hold on to shares of a potential rival whilst being majority owner of LivingSocial.
  8. Google Takes Its Tracking Into The Real World – It was a matter of time until Google would kind of solve the physical retail problem for their advertisers. I think this is a particular vertical where startups and technology companies are going to be spending big as the end game is billions of dollars for the winning company / companies.
  9. Wal-Mart Blames Price Errors on Technical Glitch – “Earlier Wednesday, shoppers took to Twitter to cite ridiculously low prices like treadmills for $33.16 and Hewlett Packard LCD monitors for $8.85. Jariwala said that the company is notifying customers who ordered these items that their orders have been canceled and they’ll be refunded in full. In addition, it will send customers a $10 e-gift card that can be used toward future purchases at its stores or on its website.” Needless to say this wont be the last e-retailer to have this problem..
  10. The Internet Killed Distance. Mobile Computing Brought It Back. – Location is at the moment one of the elements that no-one (ok, maybe Foursquare) has resolved in commerce. How do you bring that factor in? Geofencing? Location-based services?

Bonus links:

Onwards..