by Call2actionmedia | Sep 22, 2016 | Your Call To Action
Some random thoughts on the current state of E-commerce. As I mentioned over a year ago, Jet.com didn’t make too much sense as a contender. Yea, they can start discounting and use buzzwords like algorithms but at the end of the day, is Jim buying those shoes or not. Turns out they had a great exit with Walmart, which is great for them. But where does this leave Walmart? Did they really need to spend $3b to buy what amounts to some software? Is the $3b a customer acquisition cost? It seems like Walmart is doing their best to appear as they are fighting the Amazon beast, but is it working? Here are 2 separate recent anecdotes: Jet is heavily marketing a 15% coupon for the first 3 orders a new customer makes, great. Put in an order at prices similar to Amazon, get an extra 15% off and in this users case, the product was fulfilled by a 3rd party vendor. Unbeknownst to the user when purchasing, the order was routed to another seller. Then the order was put in a queue for 7 delivery days. Delivered. All is well in the world. On the Amazon front, in trying to get an FBA freight order into Amazon, a rep had to call and push the delivery out a week because there is so much freight arriving they cannot handle it and need extra time so there are truckloads piling up outside of FBA facilities. How do you compete with Amazon? For a Prime user, all the added benefits of Amazon Video, Music, 2 day shipping, Audio and more.....
by Call2actionmedia | Feb 23, 2015 | Your Call To Action
As a Digital Media Agency/Startup Incubator my hands are in many types of projects/businesses. Currently, I am working on a unique mixed marketplace in the Home Improvement space. Over they years, in E-commerce, I have been involved in a few different verticals such as Building Supplies, Watches, Gifts, Nutraceuticals to name a few. Each have their own nuances in order to be successful as well as rules to follow. One interesting vertical I found was in the Lighting business. This is a tightly controlled category ruled by a handful of brands releasing distribution very carefully. Beyond being able to sell product, there is the IMAP (Internet Minimum Advertised Price) that must always be adhered to… although savvy merchants know how to circumvent that. There is the constant tension between vendor and distributor to keep certain pricing and distributor to vendor for timely shipments. One thing, which to most is obvious, holds true regardless.. once a destination proves to have a critical mass of purchase ready shoppers, they are king and are clearly in charge. Amazon is a great example. The site design and user experience is arguably terrible. They were smart enough to lock in consumers with the Prime program which gives great benefits such as free shipping, video and music streaming. They also give the appearance of a marketplace where you can “shop” for the lowest price when in fact there is alot happening under the hood ensuring you usually dont (see: http://recode.net/2015/01/13/how-amazon-tricks-you-into-thinking-it-always-has-the-lowest-prices/). One feature I am excited about seeing more widely used across the Shopping Web is the ability to make an offer. Apparently Amazon was begining to...
