Last year, the first world wide e-Commerce Summit was held in Amsterdam. Because of its huge success, EMOTA (the European e-Commerce and Mail Order Association) and their American counterpart, Shop.org, will organize a second edition. The collaboration between these 2 organizations and their members has provided a strong basis to draw speakers and attendees from across Europe, the United States and other parts of the world.

This year, the Global E-commerce Summit will be held in Monaco at the Grimaldi Forum from 26 till 28 October. It procures an essential perspective on digital retail’s global implications and opportunities. First-hand accounts from leading international retailers will provide the backdrop for rich conversation on regional strategies, cultural nuances, and consumer trends worldwide.  This year’s Global E-commerce Summit promises to be an inspiring and educational platform, with various conference sessions, two networking events and 25 exhibitors.

The reception evening on October 26th is an ideal opportunity to network with industry peers while enjoying Monaco’s post summer climate. Apart from networking, the program content will be astonishing.  Speakers like Hiroshi Mikitani, CEO Rakuten “Japan’s biggest online shopping mall” and Sucharita Mulpuru, Senior Analyst Forrester Research will bring insights in online retailing. And do we get a continued story of Overstock.com? Last year, this online outlet centre shared their international expansion strategy with the forum attendees. What will chairman and CEO Patrick M. Byrne tell us this year?

In 2008 I took part in the panel discussion about trends and tips for succeeding in the European marketplace, but this year I will go as attendee. I can already recommend you two favourite guest speakers: Paul Delaoutre, chairman and CEO of Galeries Lafayette France and Kate Terry, EVP Global Ecommerce of Tommy Hilfiger USA.

Do not forget to book your agenda from 26 till 28 October. I’m looking forward to meet you at the Global E-commerce Summit 2009 in Monaco. For more information, visit http://www.e-commercesummit.com

Last week, I was invited to attend the yearly german eCommerce congress ‘Online Handel 2009’.

Indeed, Bivolino.com was one of the International cases presented and feedbacks from participants were really great…you feel that the german e-Commerce community is very active. Multi-channel retailers like the famous department store Kardstadt (e-commerce pioneer since 1996) or Butlers (e-commerce starter) find their way to get their offline customers online 24h/7days and of course eventually new online customers. Both cases were remarkably presented by very open & authentic ‘Geschäftsführer’ explaining their strategy & tactics….very inspirational !

But let me share this presentation with you. It gives a nice image of where we are today regarding e-Commerce in Europe and where we are going to : Forrester predicts that by 2012 nearly half of retail sales will either be transacted online or influenced by the web !

When Jef Bezos founded Amazon, his vision was that online retailing could reach around the 17% of the whole retail…so let’s be ambitious and go for it!

During the First Global e-Commerce Summit in Amsterdam, I was , for the first time since so many years, talking about the ‘crisis’. Still the figures showed by Forrester here available are very encouraging but…
Since 2001, the American expenditure on e-commerce never increased as slowly as in the previous October month. The increase did not reach 1 percent. This has been calculated by research office comScore. Never before the research office noted such a low increase-figure, because the online spendings only have been mapped since 2001. The company compares the expenditure of a certain month with the same month of the year before.

Lower Incomes
Households with a totall year income of less than fiftythousand dollars spend even less online this year compared to last year. During the months August, September and October expenditures decreased with 3 percent. Households with an income between fifty- to hundredthousand dollar spent 1 percent more online in the same period. Families with an income higher than a hundredthousand dollars show a striking strong increase: they spent an average of 14 percents more on the Internet.
Sixth months in a row.

US Private Equity & Venture Capital
During the debate ‘The investors view on eCommerce & MultiChannel Retailing’ I was impressed by some provocative declarations from Michael P. Zeisser , Senior Vice President from Liberty Media Corporation (QVC, Provide Commerce, BuySeasons, The Game Show Network, Blackcountry.com, GoPets, Bodybuilding.com, OpenTV). He really warned us all about the future which was going to be really hard tough times according to him…I wanted to digg further into this topic within the US VC community as it represents a nice barometer we have to tackle with. This is the best presentation I founded. It is from Sequoia, one of the top US VC…just to inspire you to keep your cape very strongly as the sea is going to be really harsh with you. Take the right measures and keep cool, you will manage to get stronger out of it !

I wish to all of you a happy e-shopping X-mas time!

This is the powerpoint presentation that I gave during the First Brussels Digital Marketing Fair as well as the First Global E-Commerce Summit in Amsterdam on october the 27th. It is a mashup of different sources with a focus on e-commerce implementation illustrated by the Bivolino case on Hyves.nl.

The Powerpoint presentation can be found on my Docstock account. Acces the presentation directly via this link.

A very nice and helpfull debate for ecommerce start-ups and fastgrowing webstores. Listen to several professionals in the field of ecommerce active in the Netherlands. Tips, Tricks, do’s and dont’s.

If you are thinking about starting a webshop or you are already the proud owner of a digital store, than this slideshow is definitly something for you. This presentation I used at the eCommerce Forum 2008 in Brussels. More info on that can be found at ecommerceforum.be.

It was a pleasure to attend eTail Europe in London this week. The most amaizing case was for me Zappos.com, the long tail for shoes. Tony Hsieh, CEO & Founder, told us their story in a very passionate and simple way. Like me, he is a survivor starting the business in 1999.

Zappos.com is one of the US e-commerce success story ranked nr 27 in the top 500 internet retailer 2008. 2007 sales : $850.000.000 with a growth rate of 42.38% and a conversion rate of 9.5%…and they have no master plan but are learning from mistakes!

Here are their 10 lessons I would like to share with you :

1. e-Commerce business is built on repeat customers

2. Word of mouth really works online

3. Do not compete on price but on the best service

4. Make sure your website inventory is 100% accurate (from 99% to 100%)

5. Centrally locate your distribution

6. Customer service is an investment not an expense

7. Start small & stay focused. It is OK to be patient

8. Don’ t be secretive. No top secret

9. You need to actively manage your company culture. Your culture is your brand

10. Be wary of so-called experts