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B2C (Business to customer) news
Study: Dissatisfaction with online grocery shopping increasing. Personal selection of fresh produce is still an issue that has not been fixed. Potential for Augmented reality or other technology? Food Dive
Walmart continues to look for areas in which the can create recurring revenue by delivering grocery products to customer homes via a smart lock trial. The Silicon Valley test location is a good one for adoption but feels to be biased based on early adopter being seen in the Valley. TechCrunch
Amazon has a low-key start-up, Amazon Live, focused on ways to make purchases through interactive videos. This is another test on solving purchases from videos which will impact other parts of Amazon (Thursday night NFL, Amazon Studios etc). CNBC
Being a kid and walking into a Toys 'R' Us store is an experience that stays with you for life. The news that Toys 'R' Us has filed for bankruptcy is sad as this experience seemingly was ended with large debt and Toys 'R' Us adapting to ecommerce. Recode
Target has grown the amount of States in which their next day reordering service is available. As Amazon and Walmart grow their grocery businesses online, Target may potentially be more at risk of losing customers. This testing of larger availability is important for Target to remain relevant to US customers. How about more products Target? 15000 selection is a bit limited. TechCrunch
PitchBook has a very good holistic look at Amazons large impact on many industries. When I see these reports I am always cautious as Amazon controls the news we all read about their business without providing any substantial evidence. PitchBook
South East Asian group Sea who own Shopee have filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange. The impact of this could potentially lead to them providing capital to others in the battle against the large public Chinese businesses that are getting more involved in South East Asia. Tech In Asia
Flexport continues to impress as they grow their business and impact a market that requires software to impact large incumbents. Simple - they will either to public or be acquired for a lot of money as without a doubt they are a market leader in their category. TechCrunch
Google offers to display rival sites via auction in Europe according to Reuters sources. As Google looks to a solution to their EU problem an auction that features their competitors in their search results still provides them with the power to control locations and generate revenue from it. The auction is a bad idea. Reuters
Kohl's to accept free Amazon returns. It is an innovative idea but what does Kohl's get in return for this from Amazon? A potential acquisition (not likely), a per package fee (potentially) or foot traffic (likely) that they can upsell and generate revenue from. Retail Dive
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D2C (Direct To Customer) news
Casper it seems has provided capital to a third party to acquire a mattress review website. The investment is mentioned by these review websites in the form of disclosures. The review website operate independently but having received capital from Casper I am unsure that they would be willing to be critical of their investor. Recode
Sophie Bakalar from the Collaborative Fund makes a great argument that not all consumer startups need to be ecommerce brands. The direct to customer category has seen a lot of changes since 2010 when it emerged. To be relevant now, newly launched direct to customer startups need to spend on marketing and having a physical retail element by default otherwise they will not gain enough traction. Collaborative Fund
Forerunner Ventures due to its incredible investment record in direct to customer ecommerce receives between 175-200 companies looking for funding per month. Kirsten Green talks about that and the narrative on Bodega (as noted in my notes from last week). Fascinating. TechCrunch, PitchBook
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Marketplace news
Is Amazon partnering with Alibaba to ensure that their Chinese Kindle edition is sold to a wider audience a sign of Amazon's shrinking ambition? I view it more as a case of Amazon China ensuring that their partner China Mobile gets maximum exposure in terms of customers who would potentially acquire a Kindle. Recode
JD.com and Alibaba are battling one another in fresh produce ecommerce in China. They both have investment into large produce selling businesses that have made shopping for produce an easier produce. As the integration of physical retail in China accelerates into parts of these marketplace based business this category will become more profitable. TechNode
A large Middle East retail group, Alshaya has acquired a strategic stake in Noon.com. This is a big move for Noon.com and provides further evidence of the MENA opportunity for ecommerce marketplaces. Alshaya will provide Noon.com with access to international brands and also be a seller in the appropriate categories on Noon.com. MENA Herald
Bloomberg did an indepth article on Amazon India, which currently has 13m cubic feet warehouse space, over 225,000 sellers and more than 160 million products. Venture backed competitors are going to have to spend large amounts of capital to compete with this business. Bloomberg
India’s largest e-commerce player Flipkart may have pushed its IPO plans back. Currently, I do not see any reason for a Flipkart IPO in the next 18 months. SoftBank's latest capital injection via its Vision Fund provides Flipkart with capital and runway. The bigger question for me is profitability and dealing with Amazon's competitive nature in a market that is still in early phases of ecommerce. The Hindu Business Line
eBay is reportedly looking at investing or acquiring a stake in Wadi.com, a Middle East marketplace that is majority owned by Rocket Internet. Wadi.com is the second largest online retailer in MENA and illustrates how important MENA ecommerce is viewed by global ecommerce investors/businesses. Arabian Supply Chain
Takealot’s plan to grow its R2.3-billion ($175 million) annual revenue. Yes this does read like an advertorial but this marketplace in South Africa is an interesting case. They merged with a competitor, acquired a fashion based business and look to be growing their marketplace. Interestingly they have made it clear that they are not interested in moving into Africa. MyBroadband
Three Boeing 747-400 Freighters will be publicly auctioned on Taobao in November 2017. Using marketplaces as judicial instruments to generate revenue from businesses that have gone bankrupt would only be done in China. China Daily
Naspers has approached the Competition Commission in South Africa regarding their transaction to acquire AutoTrader South Africa. Adding a vehicle supplier to their classifieds assets makes sense and provides OLX with catalogue that will impact the second hand vehicle space. AIMgroup, Fin24
A product manager and a marketing team lead at Amazon I suspect had to answer to Jeff Bexos about Baby Registry emails being sent to customers. Needless to say this is a case of data providing incorrect insights into customers and provides customer irritation which Bezos historically does not like. TechCrunch
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Marketplace news
Is Amazon partnering with Alibaba to ensure that their Chinese Kindle edition is sold to a wider audience a sign of Amazon's shrinking ambition? I view it more as a case of Amazon China ensuring that their partner China Mobile gets maximum exposure in terms of customers who would potentially acquire a Kindle. Recode
JD.com and Alibaba are battling one another in fresh produce ecommerce in China. They both have investment into large produce selling businesses that have made shopping for produce an easier produce. As the integration of physical retail in China accelerates into parts of these marketplace based business this category will become more profitable. TechNode
A large Middle East retail group, Alshaya has acquired a strategic stake in Noon.com. This is a big move for Noon.com and provides further evidence of the MENA opportunity for ecommerce marketplaces. Alshaya will provide Noon.com with access to international brands and also be a seller in the appropriate categories on Noon.com. MENA Herald
Bloomberg did an indepth article on Amazon India, which currently has 13m cubic feet warehouse space, over 225,000 sellers and more than 160 million products. Venture backed competitors are going to have to spend large amounts of capital to compete with this business. Bloomberg
India’s largest e-commerce player Flipkart may have pushed its IPO plans back. Currently, I do not see any reason for a Flipkart IPO in the next 18 months. SoftBank's latest capital injection via its Vision Fund provides Flipkart with capital and runway. The bigger question for me is profitability and dealing with Amazon's competitive nature in a market that is still in early phases of ecommerce. The Hindu Business Line
eBay is reportedly looking at investing or acquiring a stake in Wadi.com, a Middle East marketplace that is majority owned by Rocket Internet. Wadi.com is the second largest online retailer in MENA and illustrates how important MENA ecommerce is viewed by global ecommerce investors/businesses. Arabian Supply Chain
Takealot’s plan to grow its R2.3-billion ($175 million) annual revenue. Yes this does read like an advertorial but this marketplace in South Africa is an interesting case. They merged with a competitor, acquired a fashion based business and look to be growing their marketplace. Interestingly they have made it clear that they are not interested in moving into Africa. MyBroadband
Three Boeing 747-400 Freighters will be publicly auctioned on Taobao in November 2017. Using marketplaces as judicial instruments to generate revenue from businesses that have gone bankrupt would only be done in China. China Daily
Naspers has approached the Competition Commission in South Africa regarding their transaction to acquire AutoTrader South Africa. Adding a vehicle supplier to their classifieds assets makes sense and provides OLX with catalogue that will impact the second hand vehicle space. AIMgroup, Fin24
A product manager and a marketing team lead at Amazon I suspect had to answer to Jeff Bexos about Baby Registry emails being sent to customers. Needless to say this is a case of data providing incorrect insights into customers and provides customer irritation which Bezos historically does not like. TechCrunch
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Fashion ecommerce news
Fashion ecommerce is seeing a change in how merchandising is done. Machine learning and data science is the first interaction point for potential purchases by a merchandiser and then has human interaction between the respective brand and the business. This points in my opinion to the increased role that data science should play in fashion ecommerce as the impact that data has on the bottom line of the business will continue to define successful startups and those that struggle. Glossy
ThredUp is seeing first hand the impact of adding luxury products to its business. The additional resources needed and issues it creates is very different from their initial business. The bigger question for me is, are they able to scale the business that contains both low and high end fashion items for resale? Glossy
LVMH and Hublot have filed legal proceeding against Chinese counterfeiters who sell counterfeit watches that infringe their trademarks. This is a very interesting case as they have explained how search engine optimization (SEO) and layers of different payment gateways ensure that these business continue to operate even after trademark holders asking for their closures. It seems to be aimed at hosting companies who provide these counterfeiters the opportunity to host these illicit websites. Jing Daily
The British Fashion Council as heralded a new partnership between an initiative it supports and JD.com. Dame Natalie Massenet who happens to sit on the British Fashion Council is not mentioned but clearly another move to ensure JD.com has more access to European fashion. China Daily
Ipsy has added a vertical ecommerce business to generate more revenue from their current subscibers. Is this a case of them hitting the ceiling with their subscription business or believe that they can generate more money by offering a vertical ecommerce business? TechCrunch
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Mobile commerce
Wish.com aka Wish Shopping continues to do things differently. They have agreed to be a jersey sponsors for the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA. The costs is rumored to be in $30 million over a 3 year period but I question what impact that his will have for sales and revenue creation by Wish. Recode, The Orange County Register
Adidas is using exclusivity and desirability via their Glitch app to drive sales in the sneaker space. Adidas continues to be an innovative brand looking at ecommerce in a different manner. WWD
UberEATS is an unlikely standout for Uber. Is UberEATS a potential future flywheel for Uber? The barriers to entry for drivers for UberEATS is less than what is for ride hailing and restaurants are seeing impact from this business. I believe this can either lead to them being spun out as a seperate company or a line item once Uber IPOs. The New York Times
Don’t Believe the Hype: Why WeChat Is Not a Cure-All for Luxury Brands in China. A fascinating counter argument by an Agency head on WeChat. I believe that WeChat must be a part of your China commerce strategy but not a singular standing item. Jing Daily
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Stats and other interesting news
Hilton and Amazon have teamed up on a new initiative that will allow member of Hilton’s Honors loyalty program to shop Amazon using their points. This is the first time a hotel brand has offered such a deal, Amazon says, and will be available to all Hilton Honors members. TechCrunch
Dutch marketplace Bol.com is biggest online retailer in the Netherlands according to a third party. Ecommerce News Europe
Why Sweden is close to becoming a cashless economy - fascinating. BBC
E-commerce is booming in Sweden. A strong indicator is research firm Payson's investigation showing the fastest-growing Swedish e-commerce businesses between 2015 and 2016 – all Top 10 companies grew by several thousand percent, albeit from a very low base. Business Insider Nordic
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Thoughts on the news from this past week
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