Electric Thoughts in a Digital Era

Category: eCommerce

  • The big battle for ecommerce domination

    It is the month of February and  Q4 seems like a lifetime away. I am beginning to see one story develop in more detail as time goes by. Ecommerce in North America is becoming a battle between Amazon and Google. It is Jeff Bezos vs Larry Page, the State of Washington vs California and it all boils down to owning the commerce vertical online.

    Background

    Regular readers will be aware that I believe that Amazon is the gold standard for ecommerce. Their value proposition is attractive for customers and they control the entire ecommerce value chain when a customer acquires a product from them. The only thing that Amazon does not have a 100% control over is logistics, the final step to getting the product into the hands of the customer. I believe that Amazon is solving that problem by coming closer to their customer’s location through fulfillment centre’s.

    Google on the other hand is a technology company not really sure what it’s core offering is. It is a media company (via Adwords, Product Listing Ads), a lobbying behemoth (they spent $18 million dollars in Washington, as seen in the graph below), a mobile operating system company (via Android and Motorola Mobility), provide analytics and software for business (Google apps). It is becoming clear that they have ambitions for retail which makes sense. Increasingly it is being shown that they also want to be part of ecommerce.

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  • PriceMachine shows Wize Commerce’s future

    About a year ago, I found a company based on West Coast that had strong connections with Comparison Shopping Engines (CSE). I researched and read everything I could about Wize Commerce and was left confused.

    I have been keeping an eye on the Comparison Shopping environment in the US as Google continues to circle around the industry.  I am going to say it as I don’t think anyone else will, I fear for the industry in the US and believe now more than ever that 2013 is a make or break year. Google and Amazon are slowly taking developed markets under their control. Google Shopping, Product Listing Ads, Amazon.com and Amazon product ads are all taking clicks and eyeballs away from Shopzilla, Nextag, PriceGrabber, TheFind, Pronto, Shopping.com and Bing.  Shopping.com and Bing is in a different situation as they are part of an ecosystem for their respective owners (eBay and Microsoft) and have in my mind less pressure to be profitable.

    Jeffrey Katz is one of the most vocal CSE President’s and he has not flinched in calling Google out on their operations on Google Product Search. I noted that when Google Shopping came around he has started to talk more on general ecommerce trends. I am not going to debate Google’s impact on ecommerce or Comparison Shopping as that is another long form post in itself.

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  • The 10 e-commerce stories for the week ending 18 January 2013

    Jack Ma to retire, Hybris to IPO? and ecommerce in South Africa

    The past week has been an interesting one. IPO’s seems to be a topic of note in 2013 and Alibaba is seemingly getting their house in order to go public in the next 18 months. Ma is retiring in May 2013 from being CEO of Alibaba and moving away from being in charge is a strategic move. Ma has been accused in the past of not disclosing information regarding holdings and if he is seen as being in charge of Alibaba when they do go public it will hurt their potential of investment. Even if Ma is not CEO or President of the company, he will likely become chairman of the company, so he will still be in control of the long term strategy. Alibaba is his offspring and he will ensure that it does well in the long term.

    If Alibaba goes public, I think we will see an increasing amount of Alibaba businesses going into Asia and Australia. Asia is at the moment a straight battle between 2 giants (Alibaba and Rakuten) and upcoming ecommerce businesses which are either funded (Rocket Internet, MIH, eBay and Amazon) and unfunded (startups).

    At the moment ecommerce platforms or software providers is a vertical that is tightly monetised and scrutinised by corporates. The corporate owners of ATG, GSI Commerce, Magento and Hybris are all looking to own a specific part of ecommerce landscape and make considerable returns on investment. ATG is owned by Oracle and has flown by the radar for a very long time and service businesses like Walmart. GSI Commerce and Magento is owned by eBay and it is slowly becoming clear what the value of the holdings are for eBay. Hybris is a company that intrigues me and has flown below the radar. Enterprise ecommerce solutions is going to become increasingly important as ecommerce becomes more mainstream in developing economies.

    The stories that caught my attention for the past week:

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  • Rocket Internet to IPO?

    Earlier today I read Thomas Baldwin’s post on Rocket Internet preparing to go public and I must say it is at the moment a rumor. What is the ramifications if they do go public?

    Preface

    The last 18 months – I have been reading and observing a German accelerator going through the gears and starting businesses faster than I have ever seen any company do. They are a controversial topic and have 3 brothers that are the commanders in chief of this business.

    They are not everyone’s cup of tea nor are they without any controversy. Blitzkrieg and all of the other things that have gone into the public domain makes going public a interesting move, if true for Rocket Internet.

    Driven by success

    The Samwers are some very clever business people and what they have achieved should not be discredited. They have started a lot of businesses, hired a lot of staff, closed businesses and retrenched staff on a scale I have never seen. They are obsessed with execution and ROI. Whatever they do it is with one thing in mind – success.

    I am not going to debate their way of operation. They do take ideas from first world markets (Amazon, Zappos, IKEA, Square and Groupon) and then create businesses based on these concepts in emerging markets. Call it cloning, copying or whatever it is, it has made them handsome returns. The results seems to be good for their investors which is the prime focus for a startup accelerator. Ultimately, it boils down to culture and personal beliefs. You either like it or hate it. There is no in the middle with the way in which Rocket Internet operates.

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  • 7 Themes for ecommerce in 2013

    I thought about writing a few predictions for 2013 but it seems Forbes and techcircle have beaten me to it. 2013 is going to be a fascinating year for ecommerce. Why? Well, global ecommerce is now a reality and innovation is happening all across the globe. The amount of customers that are able to buy merchandise online is growing by the day.

    Personalitization for customers
    One of the most interesting parts of ecommerce that I think is due to for a bit of innovation. Amazon’s recommendation engine is powerful but is in need of a bit of a refresh. Ultimately if you have a customer on your website who is ready to buy items, a bit of additional marketing never is a bad thing. Startups like RichRelevance will continue to provide a service to merhants that provides personal advertising when browsing while shopping online.

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