Tag: ecommerce

  • Old bottles, new wine

    I recently contributed a column in Pitch on the role of mass media in building ecommerce brands. You can catch it here.

  • Manufacturer, Market, Media

    Sometime last year at Myntra, we were having a planning meeting and everyone was asked for their take on the future of (fashion) e-commerce in a 5 year time frame. I confessed that I had no idea, and asked the group whether they had heard of 3D printing. Since this was before the hype machine went into overdrive, none had. My perspective was that if I could print branded merchandise on my own, what would be the role of an intermediary? (interestingly, I read something on a similar note more recently)   I have no idea how mainstream this phenomenon will become, but 3D printers are already being sold online by Staples and Amazon. eBay also has an app that allows users to buy custom goods from three of the top 3D printing companies. (via)

    There are multiple themes which we can explore from here – the augmented human, the collaborative economy and social commerce – to name a couple. But since these are fairly obvious and have at least been kickstarted on the blog, I thought of connecting this to my post from last week – the future of owned media – in which I explored the possibility of a media marketplace which is tapped by businesses to create, curate and possibly even market content that is relevant to them. The journalism that brands want subsidising the journalism that society needs. I hypothesised whether Bezos’ purchase of WaPo was a vague start to this, given Amazon’s presence in multiple domains.

    It’s interesting that Bezos had invested in MakerBot, probably the original poster boy of 3D printer manufacturing, (via) but thinks the digitisation of physical goods is a while away. It becomes even more interesting when WaPo publishes a story on the business case for 3D printing in the context of e-com players’ need to minimise delivery time. The long tail would explode even more! The article also mentions how “Amazon’s giant fulfillment centers could be another place where just-in-time manufacturing and delivery come together.“

    What role does media play in this? IMO, we’re increasingly moving towards interest based communities and our consumption of media is influenced by this. With Kindle, WaPo and several other components in the mix, Amazon could indeed be well placed to aggregate the long tail of not just creators and consumers of physical goods, but information (media) as well.

    until next time, the Amazon of news

  • Big Basket

    Grocery, staples and over 7000 products delivered to your home, courtesy BigBasket.com.  In conversation with co-founder and CEO Hari Menon.
    [scribd id=112012625 key=key-u0f9nh1k6vzihwbuws5 mode=scroll]

  • e-Tales

    An India e-commerce study done late last year by IAMAI-IMRB pegged the industry to reach Rs.9210 crores by the end of 2007-08. In this, the etailing market is expected to have a share of Rs.1105 crores. The study also gives the things going for and against etailing. More recently, the JuxtConsult India Online report states that 80% of all regular online Indians ‘shop’ online  they either search or buy online, though I dare say that this would be driven a lot by online travel bookings than by etailing.

    So, perhaps, the timing could be just right for Storrz. I first came across the site when i read the coverage of Proto last month, and have been wanting to check it out ever since. But the immediate stimulus were recent articles in Headstart, and Mashable. I signed in, and was given an option to invite my friends too from the different email services, with a reward possibility too. A small query here, why not friends from my social profiles too, the reason being, my conversations there are so much more contextual. It would work great, for say the tees brands like Xtees, Youthcode, Nitrotribe etc. In general, aren’t those networks better places to find existing social crowds who can add quite some value to a social shopping network? (more…)