Exciting Commerce // Unlimited

Pinterest: What two years can account for

In the recent Pinterest discussion, there are many who are distracted by its surface. As usual, live.hackr digs a little deeper and has published one of the best analyses so far:

"Pinterest has been launched almost 2 years ago, so it has not fallen from the sky. However, it remained more or less undiscovered for about 1.5 years, has established itself in the 'creative' industry not just as an insider's tip.

By doing so, they have created the basis for their successive viral explosion themselves, because when the impulse for an increased expansion was triggered, there was something new users could get attached to. There was culture, material, working methods and a good-humoured community.

As a new guest, one casually joined an unexpectedly cool party (before the social media crowd could turn it into a drinking bout, different than 'planned' successes like Google's, where people feel like the tenth visitor in a completely empty stadium; this is also the reason why Google cannot make anything "social": they don't have anything what could be between the steppe and the horde)." (our translation)

The latest Pinterest figures provided by RJMetrics suggest that good services in the social web need their time to grow. Here, one can clearly see (see pie chart) that female users prefer re-pinning over pinning, which is one of the most important growth factors.

We have reported about the special Pinterest appeal at a very early stage. Read more about this subject in our Pinterest update.

Etsy, Polyvore and Pinterest have cracked women's online code. Who else? - This is what we would like to ask ourselves during our Exceed 2012 conference, which will take place in Berlin in March.

Earlier posts on this subject:

• Social Shopping: Alles über das Pinterest-Phänomen (German)
• Pinterest und die neue Ästhetik des Social Shopping (German)
• The Fancy: Luxuskonzern PPR investiert 10 Mio. Dollar in Shopping-Tumblr (German)
• Gender Innovation: Wer knackt den Online-Code der Frauen? (German)

The Etsy Way: Behind the Scenes

Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson has revealed a few behind the scenes peeks into the company culture of Etsy (“The Etsy Way”):

"Pretty much everything we write about above is open source (even the culture) so the motivated reader will find links to tips and actual software along the way to actually set things up on his/her own.

If there’s anything you’d like to know more about The Etsy Way, just let us know in the comments. We’ll add it if we have it, and probably write it if we don’t."

Etsy had grown their merchant revenues in 2011 from $314 million to $538 million. In December they broke records with a turnover of $70 million.

Related posts:

• Etsy Raises Merchant Revenues to $538 Million in 2011 (+71%)
• Etsy Tech Talk: Moving Fast At Scale
• Etsy Grows Revenues from $180 Million to $314 Million
• Etsy 2008-2010: Business Growth Under the Microscope
• Etsy Raises Another $20 Million and Picks New COO
• Etsy 2010: How Social Can Commerce Get?

Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, adapted for excitingcommerce.com by Jason Soo.

In 2011, Kinnevik invested about 305 Mio. € in Samwer-Startups

Investment AB Kinnevik has published its yearly Samwer Report for Rocket Internet and the growing number of Samwer involvements (PDF). Also see the corresponding presentation (PDF) with a world map:

According to this, as far as Samwer startups are concerned, Kinnevik invested about 305 million Euros in 2011 alone (or 2.673 million SEK), and until now almost 390 million Euros (or 3.411 million SEK) in total:

Zalando received almost 95 million Euros (828 million SEK) from Kinnevik, until now almost 120 million Euros (1 billion SEK) in total. Recently, with Yuri Milner's DST funds, another major investment company has invested in Zalando.

Home24 (formerly known as Möbelprofi) and the other Samwer furniture startups (also read the ultimate chance in the furniture market) have received more than 40 million Euros (363 million SEK) in 2011.

New additions to the Kinnevik portfolio are also Westwing and Pinspire.

This time, the new Kinnevik year-end release contains more information about Samwer investments than ever before.

Earlier posts on the subject:

• Rocket Internet looks for billion financing by sovereign wealth fund
• Samwers sell 4% of Zalando to Juri Milner's DST
• Oliver Samwer über die ultimative Chance im Möbelmarkt (German)
• Samwer Report: Wofür Rocket weitere Milliarden braucht (German)
• Samwer Report: Wie angel ich mir einen 300 Mio. € Investor? (German)

Roman’s Rants: Mobile Commerce

Today I would give my two cents about the self-perpetuating hype termed Mobile Commerce. Media companies and agencies alike are regularly bursting with excitement regarding what a big thing it already is and will be in the future. What a pile of crap! As if would just take a bit of extra budget to have one’s own app programmed and sent to an app store or to have a new mobile CSS plastered over one’s old onlineshop to reach the golden ages of mobile success!

Read the full feature on ecomPunk.com!

How do you discover your products?

Commerce is about buying products, right? And before you actually buy them, you first of all need to find them, don’t you? Of course! What sounds like a no-brainer is actually something not many shop owners think about. And I’m not talking about product search. Rather, I would like to talk about discovery, an aspect the solution of which will be at the core of successful commerce companies in the future.

Read the full feature on ecomPunk.com!

Crowdfunding: It’s not just about the money

Yesterday I left the cosy warmth of our HQ and went to Dresden to catch up with Seedmatch, a startup company helping other startups get seed financing by means of crowdfunding. While I’m still in the process of compiling all the material I’ve collected yesterday (watch out for the full report next week), I wanted to take a couple of minutes to think about what the possible motives for micro-investors are.

Read the full feature on ecomPunk.com!

The Big Shift and The Future of the Feminine Archetype

Apart from the topic "Creative Commerce / Customization 500" (see also our former post about printing service providers), "Gender Innovation / E-Commerce for women" will be a key aspect of the upcoming Exceed Conference, for which a record number of women (particpants as well as speakers) has registered already.

We are very pleased with this development, because an online industry that is mostly dominated by great yet self-centered guys, not only misses interesting concepts for women but first and foremost lacks the right mindset to shape the future. This is what John Hagel, a mentor from Silicon Valley emphasises in his short presentation:

 

"The femine archetype starts with the notion that the world is about relationships, it is not about transactions. The masculine archetype is: Everything is a transaction. Buy low, sell high, squeeze as much as you can, move on.

In this new world it's about relationships not transactions. It's about the notion of these relationships being long term sustainable relationships, where the kind of communication that occurs in the relationship is not around data sets and graphs, charts of data. It's around stories.

It's an interesting observation that in that kind of world the communication is quite different. We're looking at situations where you want to bring in emotion and intuition in the relationship, you want to express vulnerability in the relationship, because I guarantee you will not build trust without expressing vulnerability.

So if you are in that masculine archetype to project a strong image at all times you will not be successfull building trust."

This is a very enlightening TEDx presentation by John Hagel in front of a female audience in Silicon Valley in the context of his "The Big Shift" series, in which his book The Power of Pull has been published as well.

Events organised by Exciting Commerce benefit from their deliberately informal character - in contrast to other industry events. Often, this results in well-meant advice regarding how to become more professional in this respect.

However, what matters most to us - in the smaller and the bigger contexts - is to create an atmosphere that encourages people to discusss and share their experiences as well as to make it possible for others to participate in those ideas and plans. We are looking forward to this unsually open exchange that will take place again in March.

Earlier posts on this subject:

• Citrus Lane, Plum District, Julep und mehr Ideen für Frauen (German)
• Gender Innovation: Wer knackt den Online-Code der Frauen? (German)
• Was die Modebranche leichtfertig an Online-Potenzial verschenkt (German)
• Wie sehr Frauen beim Online-Shoppen ausgebremst werden (German)
• E-Commerce für Frauen: Der Beginn einer neuen Ära (German)
• Frauen als Innovationstreiber für den E-Commerce (German)
• Das weibliche Web: Wo bleiben die Frauenkonzepte?
• 24-Hour Shoppers: Understanding Online Shoppers in Europe (German)
• "What Drives Social? What Drives Commerce?"

Startup Screen: Project A Ventures, Exceed Conference, Crowdfunding

As ususal we would like to provide you with our view on what the startup scene has managed to produce last week – news-wise. This time we talk about the recent development of Project A Ventures, give an outlook of the forthcoming Exceed Conference and talk about how the concept of crowdfunding has led to interesting investments in the recent past.

Read the full feature on ecomPunk.com!

Vente-Privée grows to 1.1 billion €, makes 80 million € in Germany

In 2011, for the first time, Vente-Privée has made more than 1 billion € in turnover, thus only slightly missing its planned results. The French market leader has closed 2011 with a gross turnover of 1.073 billion Euro and a growth of 11%:

The net sales are no longer disclosed by Vente-Privée, so the 2010 and 2011 figures in our chart are estimated values.

Originally, Vente-Privée wanted to reach 1 billion in net sales in 2011 already. Apparently though, the current situation regarding market and competition does not allow for these numbers.

Accordingly, Vente-Privée is testing new sales formats, expands its service portfolio and more and more works as a media company with marketing power:

"New offers such as RoseDeal or services in the area of entertainment support brands and artists with the medial impact of the online flash sales concept:

1/ RoseDeal: With this new service, vente-privee.com offers highly reduced coupons which can be redeemed in retail stores or by entering a coupon code on the partner's website.

2/ Regarding the promotion of artists, events and new products, vente-privee.com also works as a media channel and for example supports them by selling high amounts of concert tickets within a short timeframe." (our translation)

In the German market, Vente-Privée is still struggling ("Shoppingclubs: Die Auf- und Absteiger 2011/12") and grows its gross turnover from 71 mio. to 80 mio. Euro - which means a 13% growth. In the preceding year, the growth rate was still 33%.

The challenges for shopping clubs in an increasingly more competitive market was also a major subject during last autumn's K5 conference.

Earlier posts on the subject:

• Shoppingclubs: Die Auf- und Absteiger 2011/12 (German)
• Vente-Privée: "Wir haben 150 Mio. Euro in der Kasse" (German)
• Vente Privée gründet US-Joint-Venture mit American Express (German)
• Vente-Privée-Interview: "All they can think of is deals!" (German)
• Vente-Privée wächst 2010 um 15% auf ca. 780 Mio. Euro (German)

Who the fuck is ... Coupies?

We know you just cannot get enough of these, and so we proudly present yet another series: Who the fuck is …? On a more or less regular basis, we will introduce you to companies that are working in an area of commerce we find particularly interesting or that have been in the news lately (for a good reason) or have paid us loads of money to pay for all our punky extravagance. Anyways, today we’d like to present Coupies, a mobile couponing service from Cologne.

See the interview on ecomPunk.com!