Ecommerce continues to boom - but also mobile commerce, TV shopping and temporary shops have evolved, to adapt to the multi-channel approach of selling goods. The time for change was yesterday!

This was the message I got from several big retailers at the Deutsche Versandhandelskongress 2011 in the Rhein-Main-Hallen in Wiesbaden, Germany. Ecommerce is doing great in Europe, and a prosperous future lies ahead. Check out this great Keynote by James Roper, Chief Executive, IMRG: the e-retail industry association in the UK.

Overview and Outlook for Digital Retailing Worldwide – What’s next? Social Media, Mobile, TV, Cross-border – What’s the Motor of Growth for German Distance-Retailer?

Forecast growth of 40%

E-commerce is hiring!
In order to accommodate this growth, the right job profiles are needed. Over 75% of the surveyed e-commerce companies is planning to hire 10 new employees on average in 2011 to boost their activities. Belgian e-commerce businesses are looking for online marketers (49%), IT specialists (32%) and logistical operators (19%).

Mapping e-commerce in Belgium
In the top 3 of the best-selling products over the Internet we find decoration products, like last year, at No. 1 (35.1% in 2009 and 46% in 2010). The top 3 is further complemented by fashion accessories (43%)and clothing (43%).

The belgian Post is still the most popular package vendor. 65% of companies surveyed indicate to deliver parcels through the post to their customers. Couriers (38%) and pickup points (for example, Kiala) are also offered to deliver online orders. More and more e-commerce companies offer the ability to pick up packages at a collection point (from 29.5% in 2009 to 38% in 2010).

Online stores who offer credit card payment are still very popular. 95% of the Belgian e-shops offer payment by Visa and MasterCard, 38% offers payment via American Express. Paying with ordinary bank card - Bancontact/ Mister Cash – is possible with 60% of the Belgian internet shops, Maestro is offered at 49% of the shops. Besides the online payment systems like PayPal (54%) and Ideal (46%), online banking is well established as a payment method.

Tagged: BeCommerce, eCommerce, Figures, IVOX, Trends ]]> http://cmoitier.wordpress.com/2011/09/28/becommerce-annual-figures-trends-powered-by-ivox/feed/ 0 cmoitier Growth recruitement http://cmoitier.wordpress.com/2011/06/30/create-a-unique-piece-of-luxury/ http://cmoitier.wordpress.com/2011/06/30/create-a-unique-piece-of-luxury/#comments Thu, 30 Jun 2011 09:39:53 +0000 cmoitier http://cmoitier.wordpress.com/?p=350 ]]> The luxury market and the fashion houses are struggling to keep up with mass demand; now a shift in paradigm seems to be happening, aided by recent economic times to get back to its artisanal grass roots. When the luxury market first came about, luxury goods makers delivered personalised products to customers based on an in depth consultation of the individual’s personal tastes, styles and budget.

Then luxury boomed; no longer could the service afford its personal touch but was based upon a mass production of its goods due largely in part to an active economy. Luxury became such a mainstream part of fashion houses output that craftsmanship and artisan lost out to logo’s,‘it’ bags and a constant turnover. But the market almost outgrew its own reach and now a back-to-old roots is happening, whereby mass customisation promises to return individuality to the luxury market.
In a recent report entitled “Mass Customisation is (Finally) the Future of Products,” Forrester Research describes the process like this: “Mass customisation bifurcates the product experience of customers into two stages. First, the customer participates in design by making choices around particular features. Second, the manufacturer produces a unique built-to-order product for delivery to the customer.”

It’s not necessarily a new idea, Nike, launched Nike ID – its platform which allowed customers to add a personalised look – in 1999, Louis Vuitton launched the Mon Monogram customization service for the brand’s bags and lettering could be added to sunglasses with Prada Customize. However since then any attempts by other houses to make customising available on signature pieces have failed due to poor implementation and inability to maintain cost levels.

But now, largely due to our new digital means of shopping, such as Facebook and multiple online outlets, the luxury market has new opportunity in a customer expecting more from their shopping experience and cheaper tools to create visuals, to open back up forms of customization.

It looks set to have a prosperous future as these customisation platforms can anticipate, and not just cater to, personal tastes so can simultaneously surprise consumers and provide them at will – surely a huge potential for the luxury.

Source: FashionUnited

Supported by the European Commission, we are hosting the first “Create Your Own 2011” event in Berlin (30-31 May 2011) – a business symposium and an exhibition that brings together some of foremost European thinkers and doers in mass customization, personalization and customer co-design (www.cyo2011.com).

This networking event shall provide a hub for discussion, showcase experience and offer participants to expand their network with a focus on start-ups and open-minded entrepreneurs in business-to-consumer (BTC) markets.

On May 30, the event kicks off at 5pm with an opening of an exhibition of European mass customization entrepreneurs and their products, and a reception and open press conference.

On May 31, a full-day business symposium will feature over fifty co-creation entrepreneurs, makers, researchers, technology experts, policy maker, and investors from around Europe.  Plenary presentations and panels will look into the market for mass customisation, new business models, and the latest technologies that make it happen.

You will find the agenda, further information and registration at www.cyo2011.com. As the event is supported by the European Commission, registration is 200,- Euro only if you register early.

SPECIAL OFFER: If your company is offering mass customization products or services, participate at the CYO 2011 exhibition. This will be a great opportunity to showcase your offerings to a wider public, the CYO 2011 participants, and a large group of invited journalists and multiplicators. Participation at the exhibition is only 250,- Euro (including the 200,- Euro participation fee at the business seminar), but place is limited. For exhibition requests please use the exhibition request form. For all questions concerning exhibition requests please contact Nadia EL-Imam at nnegash@gmail.com.

The market is being driven partly by technology – as electronics and software continue to develop at a breathtaking pace – and partly by the growth in online shopping as an increasing number of consumers are choosing to buy goods at leisure from the comfort of their own homes in preference to battling with traffic congestion and struggling with crowds in shopping malls.

Both companies have been investing heavily on online shopping.  They are developing new tools aimed at  capturing market share  while also investing in people – by recruiting fashion teams and designers worldwide, and forming partnerships with leading brand owners and retailers.

Recent initiatives by Amazon include the launch of its Outdoor Recreation Store and Denim Store, its acquisitions of Zappos.com and BuyVIP.com, a refocus on high-end fashion retailing, and the launch of exclusive collections such as Heidi Klum for New Balance. Recent initiatives by eBay include online “storefronts” in the USA in which retailers such as Brooks Brothers and Timberland sell excess and discounted stock directly to buyers.  In addition, eBay has launched a fashion outlet site in the UK, and the company’s eBay fashion LookBook has been billed as the first ever “shoppable, shareable digital style gallery”.  In October 2010 eBay announced that the designer Derek Lam would introduce an original collection to be sold exclusively on the site.

For many firms, selling apparel online is an comparatively high risk business.  But Amazon and eBay already have strong market shares, brand positions and reputations in online retailing worldwide.  It seems likely, therefore, that their respective ventures in the apparel sector will prove highly successful.

Neither company, however, banked on the sudden attention of another potential rival, Google.  To date, Google has generated 97% of its turnover through advertising revenues.  Consequently, Google’s decision to enter the online apparel market by forming Boutiques.com – which enables consumers to run their own “personalized boutiques” with the help of celebrity endorsements – represents a significant new direction for the company and for the online apparel market in general.

Amazon and eBay are intent on building up shares of the on-line apparel market.  And as the on-line apparel market as a whole takes an increasing share of total apparel purchases, Amazon and eBay will increase their share of this market too.

In principle both companies are rivals but there is little for them to compete over as both can see achievable and separate  paths  to expansion.  However, this may not be the case in the future.

In the fast-changing world of technology, there are more ways than ever before for online companies to put their products before the consumer.  Moreover, this will become increasingly the case as technologies converge.  Already, technology is available for combining television and conventional home entertainment with the worldwide web and the mobile phone, and this will lead to greater opportunities for making purchases via mobile phones and at home from the comfort of the armchair.

Google – by entering the online clothing retailing space – has the potential to change the rules of the game for everyone, by virtue of its considerable research and development spent alone.

But all three firms – Amazon, eBay and Google – are well-positioned to make acquisitions of younger, less stable online apparel sites.  These would benefit tremendously from the platforms which such giants can provide them with.

Acquisitions of this nature can almost be taken for granted in 2011 – if not soon afterwards.

What do you want me to do  if they want to purchase Bivolino.com ?

Let’s face it; you can probably think of a thousand things you’d rather do than drive to the store again and again for toilet paper, toothpaste, trash bags and the dozens of other home essentials that keep your home running. We can too. Daarom is Alice opgestart .The Internet has changed the way we shop for things like books, clothing, shoes and electronics. We buy online for the convenience and the power we have to get product reviews, choose brands, see price comparisons, and make better choices.But when it comes to home essentials, we still trudge off to the store, load up the cart, and haul a trunk-load of stuff out the parking lot. Why? Because no one has come up with an efficient, cost-effective way to buy these goods online. Until now.

Alice provides you a better way to manage all of your household essentials online. You tell Alice what you buy “To-Do-List “choosing from great deals on 1000’s of products—and Alice goes to work. She organizes all of your products, find coupons and deals for you, remind you when you might be running low, and help you order just the items you need so you can avoid that trip to the corner drugstore or the big-box store. And all this convenience comes direct to your door . You order from Alice just like you would from a retailer, but behind the scenes Alice works as a marketplace where you can often buy direct from the manufacturers that make your goods. The benefit of the marketplace sale is that it eliminates the retail middleman and saves lots of costs that manufacturers can pass directly on to you. And in addition to saving you money, the Alice marketplace allows participating brands to have a direct relationship with you—to reward you, personalize things for you, and work smarter for you. It is a win-win that gives you fantastic convenience, free shipping and tangible savings.

Alice , the open online shopping platform for sundry goods ( toilet paper, toothpaste, trash bags and the dozens of other home essentials ) has thus a  particularly interesting business model . Their formula is simple: use the web to disrupt existing business models and shift more power to end consumers. Alice is ready to shift the power back to you .

Regarding their product sample strategy:

“The manufacturers who sell products over Alice.com can directly target consumer groups of their liking with their free product samples. The samples are sent with the regular purchase orders. The profiles and other user data (such as purchase behaviour) allow for a more direct selection of sample recipients as opposed to when samples are made available to individual retailers.”
“The clever part about their model is that they don’t make any money selling the products that they offer. They make their money selling advertising on the site, and selling purchase data back to the manufacturers (which the manufacturers have wanted, but lacked forever). Data is king in the world of sales, and Alice is positioning itself to be the impartial third party that sits between the customer and the manufacturer. As long as Alice doesn’t compromise the identities of their customers, I don’t see how they can lose. Customers value price and manufacturers value richer customer data (what they buy and what causes them to buy), and everyone wins.”

Alice is positioning themselves as the platform with the lowest prices in order to get the furthest reach. And with this reach, Alice.com is able to collect the largest possible amount of useful data in order to be able to offer additional services such as advertising or targeted product samples. This in turn enables them keep product prices at their lowest possible level.

Alice is the kind of rethinking other organizations need to be doing right now : iInstead of just optimizing business models that are based on the old fashioned brick and mortar models (like narrow margins on markup).  Congratulations Alice  !

Source: Alice.com Proves Not Making Money Can Be a Winning Strategy

That is the result of a research program by Multiscope (NL) where the behavior, attitudes and knowledge about social media of nearly 15,000 Dutch was mapped.

According to the researchers, the use of social media is in transition. It shows that 90 percent of the Dutch know ‘Hyves’, but only 60 percent have a profile. ‘YouTube’ has respectively 87 and 22 percent. Twitter is now known to 76 percent of the Internet population, 11 percent have a profile here.

On average we use 1.8 social media websites. ‘MySpace’ and ‘YouTube’ are being used the most in terms of hours, they account for 70 percent of the total social media time use in the Netherlands.

Recently I was very honored to receive a letter asking me to join Flanders DC as Board Member. Why is this so special and important to me?  Well, it is quite simple: I will get the chance to help guiding Flanders on the way to innovation & entrepreneurship at home and abroad. A very crucial challenge!  As innovative e-commerce pioneer since 1999, I feel lucky to transmit some little parts of our Bivolino.com experience. I will be able to give my personal micro SME touch in this “multicultural” Board which is for the first time mixing people coming from 3 different worlds: Politics, Academia & Business.

Born in 2004, Flanders DC was launched by the Flemish Government as independent non-profit association. Till now, it has achieved quite a tremendous job with a small team of people. From big international events like the Creativity World Forum to local events like The Future Summit, from International Flanders DC Networks, to research studies on topics like e-Business, downstream innovation, index of creative economy, … to some special initiatives like Flanders DC Fellows or online training modules…. with different target groups like schools pupils, SME’s, …It has been a good 5 years start but now that the project comes into a more mature position, some measures need to be taken:

“Een grote vereniging zal eerder sterven van een indigestie van te veel opportuniteiten, dan uitgehongerd te zijn van te weinig, zo aub focus, focus en focus !!!“

My personal dream is: “Let Flanders DC be the Iphone of the Flemish Creativity”!

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

Men are also spending more online than women. The average online spend over the last six months was £2,602 for men compared to £1,930 for women.

The PayPal report suggests that men were quicker to turn to the internet at the beginning of the economic downturn, looking to save money by shopping around, and to research products in more depth before buying them.

Carl Scheible, Managing Director of PayPal UK, said: “The online revolution has turned men into shopaholics. We love the quick and efficient nature of the internet, especially when it comes to buying technology and gadgets.

“Our impatience has helped drive a revolution in how websites are designed. Gone are the days of elaborate graphics that take an age to load – and drive customers away to better designed sites. Companies like PayPal have also helped by making it quicker to checkout and pay online – in many cases, in just a few mouse clicks.“

Men’s love affair with online shopping looks set to accelerate. Four in 10 (41%) male shoppers plan to do as much of their shopping as possible online in future against just 29% of women and over half (55%) of men shopping online expect to expand the range of products and services they buy compared to 45% of women.