Exciting Commerce // Unlimited

ShopExchange: Amazon, eBay and QVC on Shopping Spree

Lots of activity at the "Online Shop Exchange".  Amazon, eBay and QVC parent company Liberty Media are busier than ever stocking up on online businesses.  Particularly high on their shopping lists are underperforming niche etailers and innovative high tech startups:

• Amazon announced to take over Fabric.com (see press release) to tone up its needlework and handcraft area (via).

At the beginning of the year, Amazon already bought out audio book shop Audible and recently made some investments in startups like Animoto and The Talk Market.

• As reported by The Next Web blog last week, "Ebay secretly acquires visual media company VUVOX" (via).  Such a company fits well to the planned capsulizing of eBay site elements into widgets and apps.

In an interview with BusinessWeek in March, eBay’s mergers chief Lorraine McDonough stated that eBay is on the lookout for take over targets to complement its core business.  In January, eBay bought Fraud Sciences for $169 million. 

In total, eight or nine acquisitions are expected this year, roughly double the usual amount.

• Recently, the QVC parent Liberty Media not only took over the remains of insolvent gift website RedEnvelope (see press release), but also last week announced a $31 million cash take over of Celebrate Express, a specialty mail order company for party supplies (via).  The enterprise most recently registered an annual revenue of $85 million.  John Cook has some good background info.

"The Celebrate Express acquisition represents another step in our stated strategy to acquire niche e-commerce businesses whose value we can enhance," says Michael Zeisser, senior vice president of Liberty Media.

Related posts:

• ShopExchange: When Will QVC Acquire HSN?
• Amazon Invests In Video Shopping Platform The Talk Market
•  Backcountry Launches Chainlove, Its Third “One Deal at a Time” Site

Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, translated by Jason Soo.

Google Trends: Surfing Habits of Woot! Fans

What are the 10 most visited live shopping sites used by American Woot! fans? According to Google Trends:

1. yugster.com
2. thingfling.com
3. midnightbox.com
4. (cykian.net)
5. stootsi.com
6. 1saleaday.com
7. shnoop.com
8. dodtracker.com
9. ihavetohavethat.com
10. steepandcheap.com

Source: Google Trends

Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, translated by Jason Soo.

ShopExchange: When Will QVC Acquire HSN?

IAC, one of the biggest online TV conglomerates, is on the verge of splitting into five independent companies.  With that move, QVC would finally be able to take over the home shopping network HSN and become one of the world’s largest mail order houses.

Last week the balance sheets of the new IAC entities have been revealed, among which are the latest figures from HSN (see table).  HSN, the second largest home shopping network in the US, and the IAC catalog busines Cornerstone Brands will form the new company HSNi (HSN Inc.).

Interesting to see, that Shoebuy and the shares of Japanese shopping network Jupiter Shop Channel, which both have been part of the IAC retailing division, will remain with IAC.  Also remaining with IAC are Pronto, Gifts.com and other promising e-commerce businesses.

Thus HSNi represents the weaker parts of the portfolio:  Despite several management re-orgs, HSN continues to perform below expectations.  It was also known for some time that IAC overpaid for Cornerstone Brands.  IAC has now reported a goodwill impairment of $300 million.

It is expected that as soon as HSNi is split from IAC, Liberty Media (QVC’s mother company and one of HSN's current share holders) will execute a take over.  With such a move, QVC would become one of the world’s largest mail order companies - and catch up with the likes of Amazon.

Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, translated by Jason Soo.

Exciting Times: Atoms are the New Bits

"Atoms are the new bits. Think of it as World 2.0 instead of Web 2.0." - Hank Williams

"Atoms are the new bits. Think of it as World 2.0 instead of Web 2.0." - Hank Williams

Social Shopping: Polyvore Shows Off Its Figures

Polyvore, one of the most exciting social shopping ventures, released some new figures in its blog:

"Polyvore is growing very quickly. Here are some of our stats:
- 1 million unique visitors per month
- 40 million monthly page views
- 250,000 registered users
- 9 minutes average session time on site
- 20 average pageviews per visit
- 1.8 million sets created
- 2 million products"

Maybe even more impressive is their team:

"The Polyvore team consists of 6 ex-Yahoo, ex-Google and ex-eBay employees.
- Pasha Sadri, Co-Founder (creator of Yahoo Pipes)
- Jianing Hu, Co-Founder (Yahoo Travel)
- Guangwei Yuan, Co-Founder (Yahoo Travel)
- Shiv Ramamurthi, Software Engineer (Yahoo Search)
- Jess Lee, Product Manager (Google Maps Product Manager)
- Josh Wetzel (Director, eBay's Distributed Commerce business unit)"

Polyvore raised $2,5 million from Benchmark Capital and shares its offices with Friendfeed

Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, translated by Jason Soo.

EBay Live! 2008: eBay Facebook Apps, the Next Generation

Like so many others, eBay's first attempts in Facebook (see: eBay Marketplace) have failed miserably.  But unlike so many others, eBay hasn’t given up and is briskly testing out other applications with the help of external creativity (see: eBay's Micro Project Program), that look much more promising now.

One of the current efforts, “StyleSlam”, was presented (PDF) at eBay's Developers Conference with the motto:  "Fun game with virtual item linked to real eBay searches".

More on StyleSlam, which was developed on behalf of eBay UK, can be found in the developer`s presentation:

"StyleSlam is a fashion application, hinged around gaming and competition, tied to the social interactions within Facebook and linked to the eBay concept of trading and getting a bargain."

The application appears all-in-all to be somewhat overambitious, but is conceptually on the right track.

Related posts:

• ThisNext Scores with I Want Application

Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, translated by Jason Soo.

EBay Live! 2008: How Open Can eBay get?

According to eBay, "User Generated Content is an industry wide problem", and eBay feels particularly afflicted.  How “open” is eBay wanting and able to be in the future?  The question of openness is not only valid for applications on the eBay Open Platform (“Project Echo”) but in particular also for regular eBay sites.

As eBay indicated at this year’s Developers Conference with its Roadmap for User Generated Content (PDF), eBay - in comparison to Amazon and Etsy (!) – provides the most flexibility with respect to customization of product websites.

Nevertheless, eBay struggled with policies on whether or not users could freely link to external sites and to which extent slideshows, YouTube videos and other rich media elements were allowed to be bound into product descriptions.

Now it seems a decision has been made.  The so-called UGC-Roadmap (PDF) defines guidelines which will help clarify what (and what is not) allowed.  EBay will start tightening the rules as of next year:

• No Flash, Javascript or otherwise uncontrollable code will be allowed in standard code.  A specially created eBay ETML-Standard (“eBay Safe Markup Language”) will be implemented to enforce this.

• Permitted will be widgets that are both hosted with eBay and also have the eBay nod of approval.  The widgets, for which a special directory will be created, will allow for a “Rich User Experience” on eBay sites.  And just to be perfectly clear: "Rich content will only be provided by few select developers, must be turned into widgets and vetted by eBay."

The guidelines raise a few interesting questions.  Are YouTube videos which are not hosted with eBay allowed or not?  And on which conditions can one become a trustworthy widget partner?

EBay promises with the new rules “better control” – permeated throughout the whole presentation (PDF) there is a clear aggressiveness towards User Generated Content.  Nevertheless, over the short or long term, eBay’s current stance could be relevant for other shopping platforms, too.

Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, translated by Jason Soo.

EBay Live! 2008: eBay’s Micro Projects Program

Often more enlightening than eBay's User Conference is the Developers Conference which takes place in the days before.  It’s at the Developers Conference where future plans are revealed to third party developers.

The eBay PR people put “Project Echo” in the spotlight this year, a till now rather unspectacular directory for eBay applications which is supposed to bring eBay onto the same path of Facebook and Co, sometime in 2009.  More on "Project Echo", the "eBay Open Plattform", in the Feedback Forum.

More notable for the moment is the Micro Projects Program ("Be a Part of It!"), the future mechanism by which eBay will outsource interesting projects to external developers. 

In effect, a sort of mid-layer is created between developers who take part in the developer program (and normally work voluntarily on an idea they come up with themselves), and the developers who get pulled on demand into eBay development initiatives.

More info in the presentation (PDF):

"Micro Project is a term that eBay uses to describe projects or applications that are sponsored by eBay but developed outside the typical eBay product development process"

Ebay Countdown and the Ebay To Go Widgets are two of these outsourced micro projects.

Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, translated by Jason Soo.

EBay Live! 2008: All Hail Paypal!

Interesting to see how aggressively the eBay management was pushing the eBay owned Paypal payment system at this year's eBay Live! Conference.

EBay would like to establish Paypal as the “safest” payment method for online commerce – and it would be near and dear to eBay if it could become the singular choice for all eBay’ers.

For 2 years, eBay has been under strong pressure from Google’s Checkout payment solution. 

And it’s only a matter of time until Amazon brings its own payment/checkout system officially to the market (see: "Is Amazon Planning To Go Head-to-Head With PayPal?").

Introduced at this year’s Developer’s Conference was eBay Checkout and Paypal Express Checkout.  The Checkout buttons came from this presentation (PDF).

Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, translated by Jason Soo.

EBay Live! 2008: eBay on Reconciliation Course

It’s been a while since eBay presented in such an underwhelming way at its annual eBay Live! Conference.  The traditional keynotes were sprinkled with thinly veiled reconciliation efforts.  The Bits-Blog of the NY Times summarizes eBay's efforts with its post, "EBay Tries to Buy a Little More Love from Sellers":

"The key problem with eBay is that the value of what it offers has not kept up with the price it charges sellers."

It seems that eBay is busier than ever with itself.  In contrast to previous years, this year’s eBay Live! didn’t cast any ripples that go beyond eBay’s already shrinking borders.

Or as one observer put it: “eBay Live 2008 (or as I called it “eBay coma 2008″)"

Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, translated by Jason Soo.

ebay.vn and the Vietnamese Web 2.0 Scene

Since eBay Vietnam is making some headlines these days (1, 2), why not hint to some good Web 2.0 startup infos from a country that is currently experiencing tremendous changes – and not only in the online world (1, 2, 3).

"Just want to give a shoutout to Jason Vu who runs the best blog I have seen so far on the Vietnam Web 2.0 scene. I am guilty of hyperbole here of course since there’s only two English-based blogs i have found.

If you are wondering on whether Vietnam has a Youtube clone, a Secondlife equivalent or local social networking site and are thinking of jumping in to become the next web mogul in this country, think again and read Jason first."

Jason discusses topics like:  Why Da Lat could not be a Silicon Valley Clone.  Most recently is Vietnam’s Web 2.0 startup blog also a part of the OpenWeb.Asia Workgroup.

As announced last week: eBay (ebay.vn) will close operations after just a year and instead work with a Vietnamese startup:

"In a move to expand its global reach, eBay is inking a partnership with a Vietnamese start-up to cash in on the growing millions of Internet users in the Southeast Asian country.”

A number of interesting background statistics mentioned in the article:

“An estimated 20 million Vietnamese are now online, up from 500,000 eight years ago. IDG Ventures predicts as many as 36 million Vietnamese will be using the Internet in less than two years.

Vietnam's Internet numbers are relatively small compared with those of China. But the young and upwardly mobile Southeast Asian nation of 85 million is an attractive market for numerous Vietnamese-American entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley and, increasingly, big players like eBay. Industry insiders believe Yahoo, which is the country's most popular Web site, is also looking for a deal with a Vietnam start-up.

‘The merchant DNA is more a part of the Vietnamese culture than other parts of the world," Dan Neary, eBay's vice president of emerging markets, said earlier. "We are bullish about our business model there. It's just a question of how quickly it develops.’”

Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, translated by Jason Soo.

Monday Syndrome Spurs on Live Shopping in Turkey

In Europe Turkey has come up with a fascinating new way to excite gadget fans - on Mondays.

Pazartesi Sendromu ("Monday Syndrome”) is the live shopping site of Turkish electronics dealer Gedikgross.  On Mondays shopping fans can find three bargain deals of limited stock every 50 minutes.

The blue ribbon goes to the presentation, which is in the form of a time line. This allows users to see what kind of future offers will be available and when.  The user can then make a note of upcoming deals of interest.

Pazartesi Sendromu shows some new prospects of the live shopping model.  Besides having a clearly focused structure, the site utilizes all typical live shopping elements (limited stock, countdowns, etc.).

At the same time, users of the main site Gedikgross are informed whenever products there are known to be up and coming on the Pazartesi Sendromu site. 

Monday Syndrome is one of the most exciting new live shopping ideas since Smackshopping from Jellyfish, which is now part of Microsoft.

Turkey is now the country with the second most number of one deal a day and live shopping sites in Europe.  Since the beginning of 2007, a good dozen Woot! clones have come onto the market.  A good overview can be found on kelephir.net (in Turkish).

Related posts:

•  Vente du Diable: The French Deep Discounter for Refurbished Consumer Electronics

Originally posted in German as two articles (1, 2) by Jochen Krisch, translated by Jason Soo. Thanks to Murat Icer for valuable tips on the Pazartesi Sendromu site.

Backcountry Launches Chainlove, Its Third “One Deal at a Time” Site

Backcountry, known for its “one deal at a time” sell out shops SteepAndCheap (Outdoor) as well as WhiskeyMilitia (Style), has launched its third website at the beginning of June:  Chainlove is for biking fans.

"Chainlove knows all about two-wheeled addictions. From the Tour d'France to the North Shore, Chainlove hooks up cycling junkies with primo bike gear at cut-rate prices-–completes, components, apparel, tools, and more.

For anyone who has visited Steep and Cheap or Whiskey Militia, the formula is hardly new: one ridiculous deal at a time until it is sold out. Now we’re taking this tried-and-true method to the bike world."

Market observers won't be surprised by the move. Backcountry was acquired last year by QVC parent company Liberty Media.

(via getelastic)

Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, translated by Jason Soo.

3D Printing: Fabidoo Launches USB Sticks with Individualizable 3D-Covers

Fabidoo ("Your Industrial Revolution") continues its pioneering work with 3D printed consumer products - and for the first time combines an electronic product with a 3D-printed customizable casing.

The first examples of their so-called “doo.sticks” – customized USB sticks – can be found now on the website.  The challenge Fabidoo had to surmount here was combining mass production capabilities with low yield individualized products.

Fabidoo offers doo.sticks to both retail consumers and corporate clients.

Notable is the implementation within the design tool.  Users can view and work the designs in both open or closed configurations.  One of the best examples:

Recently, Fabidoo also extended their product range with good luck charms, key chains, and fabidoos (trinkets for sweethearts).

Since its relaunch in March, designers participate in a profit sharing program based on sales of products using their designs.

Already by the end of last year Fabidoo made a breakthrough in product quality.  With the clear, glossy finish, the fabidoos are far more durable and porcelain-like than before.

Originally posted in German by Stephan Randler, translated by Jason Soo.

Buy It Now: eBay’s Slow Retreat from Auction Sales

Has eBay reached a natural saturation point for its auction business, has it lost its appeal to users, or are online auctions simply losing relevance in the current times? 

As the annual eBay Live! Conference will start tomorrow, BusinessWeek recently had a few worthwhile appraisals on the topic ("Auctions on eBay: A Dying Breed"):

"As consumers opt for fixed-price purchases, what happens to the company that perfected the art of online bidding—and the scores of e-auctioneers? (...)

EBay's "Buy It Now" business, where shoppers can purchase items at a set price even when the merchandise is also listed in an auction, makes up 42% of all goods sold on eBay. It's growing at an annual 22% pace, the fastest among eBay's shopping businesses (...)

At the current pace, this may be the first year that eBay generates more revenue from fixed-price sales than from auctions, analysts say."

Is eBay on the road to becoming a regular shopping portal?

ReadWriteWeb assesses the topic further.  In the process it reveals a prototype for a Split Screen format showing how auction vs. fixed price offers might be presented in the future.

Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, translated by Jason Soo.

Mobile Shopping Roundup

ReadWriteWeb summarizes the latest developments in Mobile Shopping from last week's Internet Retailer Conference:

"Some services already exist today that let shoppers send text message to a phone number or mobile shortcode in order to purchase goods or services. The spammy commercials selling ringtones and wallpaper may be representative of this trend, but other more reputable brands are also venturing into this territory as of late."

The article ("Want to Go Shopping? Break Out Your Mobile Phone") provides the latest stats and a good overview of new services like Amazon's TextBuyIt.

More coverage of the Internet Retailer Conference you can find at the Get Elastic Blog

Update: CSE Strategies has some more m-commerce ramblings

Related posts:

• Shoplette and the Mobile Future of Social Shopping

Yoox Announces IPO for 2009, Follows the Footsteps of ASOS

As Michael S. Levy ("An E-Commerce IPO in Europe") and others report: Popular online fashion retailer Yoox from Italy wants to follow the footsteps of British fashion retailer ASOS.  It plans to enter the stock market sometime in the first half of 2009. 

Internet Retailer writes:

"The online apparel and accessories retailer has retained Italian investment banker Eidos Partners as financial advisor to manage the IPO.

YOOX’s majority owners are three financial investors, with 58.2% ownership, founder Federico Marchetti (8.1%), the management team through stock options (21.7%) and a further 30 private investors (12%)."

Fashionunited further adds:

"In 2007 the Group’s consolidated accounts showed a sales growth of 38.5% to Euro 90.8m (USD143 million) and operating profits tripled compared to 2006. These growth trends were continued in the first quarter of 2008.

The website also runs online flagship stores on behalf of leading fashion brands including Marni, Emporio Armani, Stone Island and Valentino."

Yoox has been talking for years about an IPO, but only now seems to be willing or able to implement it. 

ASOS from Great Britain – with comparable revenue levels - has already for some time been on the stock market.  The 2007/08 annual reports should be available here shortly.

Related posts:

• RueLaLa: $25 Million for New Shopping Club

Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, translated by Jason Soo.

Social Commerce - The Music Video

"More than words" - Bazaarvoice released this music video for social commerce fans at their Client Summit in May

Etsy Hits New Revenue Record in May

The Etsy sellers were able to again continue their turnover growth of the last months.  The Etsy team posted a new revenue record of $6.5 million for May.

"The numbers for May:

• $6.5 million sold here on Etsy last month —  8.3% more than April.
• 449,000 items were sold to make up that sales figure. 
• A tiny bit over 730,000 new items were listed.
• 65,200 new buyers and 14,400 new sellers joined the community."

The average pricepoint was at $14.50 in May, above from the year average at $14.

On Tuesday Etsy hit another milestone and welcomed their 1,000,000th member

Related posts:

• Ready to Sell a Bionic Man? Etsy Breaks the $6 Million Sales Barrier

Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, translated by Jason Soo.

Popular in France: Shopping Clubs for Wine Friends

On the uptake in France are shopping clubs that are specializing in closed sales of the tasty drop.  Freshly launched is Le Carré des Vins, as reported by ShoppingActu (FR/EN):

“Le Carré des Vins is a new entrant in the world of private wine shopping clubs.  Although this niche is already occupied, Le Carré des Vins might take some market share due to its elegant design.  In addition, included with every purchase is a video which presents the wine region.”

Le Carré des Vins is one of seven French private sale clubs for wine lovers. The most known names in the industry are V2Vin, 1Jour1Vin, and CavePrivée.

The wine clubs are catering to a till now relatively small target market, as indicated by figures from JournalduNet (FR/EN).  According to the numbers, CavePrivée for example racks up 30,000 members and operates with 450,000 Euros (670,000 USD) of annual revenue.  To compare: France’s market leader Vente Privée claims over 2 million active users.

Related posts:

• Vente du Diable: The French Deep Discounter for Refurbished Consumer Electronics

Originally posted in German by Stephan Randler, translated by Jason Soo.

Amazon Invests In Video Shopping Platform The Talk Market

Amazon walks the talk with The Talk Market and has made an equity investment in the previously introduced video shopping platform.  According to the press release:

"The Talk Market's patent-pending user-generated TV shopping channel platform enhances sellers' video presentations with dynamic graphic overlays, custom motion graphics and soundtracks."

The Talk Market tries to be something like a user generated QVC, but seems to not quite get the QVC sales strategies. A typical reaction:

"Looking at Talk Market’s video I couldn’t help but chuckle. My standard question: Who watches this stuff?"

At present it seems that Amazon likes to support startups that use Amazon services with The Talk Market being a prime example.  A further example is Amazon’s recent equity take in the very cool Animoto service.

Here is a good video showing Jeff Bezos on his new mission promoting Amazon services towards startups (transcript here).

Related posts:

• Talk Market and the Online Video Shopping Experience

Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, translated by Jason Soo.

Uneetee Pimps Up with Insaneetee and New Logo

The Uneetee vs. Shirt.Woot business strategy game is starting to get feisty, and Uneetee is throwing in a few good punches.  It not only unveiled a new logo, but it also now offers daily $10 Insaneetee deals (“One Day, One Design on Sale Everyday”, see news).  These daily deals complement the (regular) Uneetee deals that are now only pre-orderable on a weekly basis.

Furthermore Uneetee has vastly optimized the presentation of their shirts.  A look at the old versions can be found here and here.

A little bit more about Uneetee in the related affiliate video.

Related post:

•  Shirt.Woot! Breaks the $500,000 Mark in May

Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, translated by Jason Soo.

Exciting Times: Finding information about sellers

"The real problem in a world of hyperfragmented sellers isn’t finding information about prices: it’s finding information about sellers." - Umair Haque

"The real problem in a world of hyperfragmented sellers isn’t finding information about prices: it’s finding information about sellers." - Umair Haque

4 Stores, 1 Checkout: Gap Implements Integrated Shopping Cart

Gap implemented an integrated shopping cart for all stores of the Gap family (Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy and Piperlime).  Customers pay only one shipping fee, even if orders contain mixed products from the different stores.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

"In an effort to get shoppers to use all four of its Web sites, Gap Inc. is allowing them to move more easily between the sites, fill one virtual shopping bag and pay one shipping fee.

Until now, shoppers had to visit the company's Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy and Piperlime sites separately to make purchases."

Hitwise has made a first analysis.

Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, translated by Jason Soo.

Shirt.Woot! Breaks the $500,000 Mark in May

Shirt.Woot! continues to grow rapidly, and - with sales of $515,000 in May - for the first time broke the half million dollar mark.  The previous record was $422,000 in March.

Contributing to this record breaker was a clearance sale on May 27 which brought in $77,000, as well as the launch of international sales and the decision to permanently raise the daily t-shirt limit to 2,000 shirts.

As always, Woot! only publicizes the sales of the first sales days.  Additional to these figures are follow-up orders that are estimated at 20 – 25%.

Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, translated by Jason Soo.

The Most Innovative Small Company in America is ... Threadless

Threadless has made the cover of Inc. magazine’s June edition as "The Most Innovative Small Company in America". In the cover story (“The Customer is the Company”) you can find an estimate of the 2007 revenues:

"The Threadless user base has grown to over 700,000 members and in 2006 sales reached $18 million and continued to grow 200 percent in 2007 for an estimated $30 million in T-shirts last year."

via T-Shirt Talk and Frank Piller

Related posts:

• Threadless Introduces Limited Edition Prints
• Threadless Founder is the Next to Yield to Professional CEO

Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, translated by Jason Soo.