- WSJ's Scoop: Google's eCommerce play: Company will launch buy buttons on its search-results pages in coming weeks. Google Inc. will launch buy buttons on its search-result pages in coming weeks, a controversial step by the company toward becoming an online marketplace rivaling those run by Amazon.com Inc. and eBay Inc. The search giant will start showing the buttons when people search for products on mobile devices, according to people familiar with the matter. The buy button will appear only on mobile phones (and currently only to a small percentage of mobile traffic). 1. It’s currently available only in the US. 2. Shoppers will input their credit card information with Google once, or can use a variety of digital payment methods (Google hasn’t clarified which ones yet). 3. Shoppers will have the option to choose different colors, sizes and shipping options. 4. Shoppers will have their email and address information shared with retailers, if they opt in. (This is important.) 5. The program will continue to be advertising-based, instead of commission-based, which is substantially different from Amazon, eBay, and other marketplaces. So what does this mean for retailers and brands? At ChannelAdvisor, we think this could be big news — one of the biggest disruptions since Google launched Product Listing Ads (PLAs) — and something all retailers and brands need to watch closely. Our experience shows that early adopters of PLAs gained an early and sustainable lead, and we think this change has the potential to further separate the leaders from the laggards. So it makes a ton of sense to us at ChannelAdvisor that Google may be launching its own version of a marketplace by way of a buy button — think of it as a “transactional ad unit.” In fact, given Google’s assets — from Android to Google Wallet to PLAs and everything in between — it’s actually a bit of a surprise to us that this hasn’t happened sooner. Our verdict? This development could be huge for retailers, and those that get on the bus early are likely to widen the competitive gap between themselves and their competitors.
- Just Dial integrates e-commerce marketplace with its local business listings platform. Just Dial Ltd, which runs an India-specific local business listing platform Justdial.com, has expanded the scope of its B2C transaction based services by adding product e-commerce marketplace. The firm had started what it called ‘search plus’ or transaction services where it allowed people to order food online from local restaurants, book doctor’s appointment and flight tickets and much more. With product e-commerce it is now entering a much wider market which can add to its revenue stream. The company has added a ‘shop online’ feature on the homepage where it lists products across several categories such as mobile, appliances, electronics besides a host of others including those which are not pushed by big e-commerce marketplaces such as tiles, sanitaryware, bicycle, paints etc. Since it is a marketplace it essentially connects consumers to third party vendors and only acts as a platform linking the buyer and sellers while facilitating the transaction. In the process it comes across as another hyper local e-commerce platform which links local shops to consumers online. This makes sense for Just Dial as it extends the offering by allowing those local sellers already listed on its platform to sell products. Few weeks ago restaurant listing site Zomato started online ordering of food from its restaurant partners in a similar move to extend an existing business line. However, how seriously the consumer would absorb the Just Dial offering given there are specialised e-commerce ventures doing a similar job with better UI/UX, is something we would get to know as Just Dial starts sharing user stats, from next quarter. One area of differentiator could be its delivery promise. The site claims some products like grocery and medicine ordered through its platform will be delivered in an hour while for some others like electronics, Just Dial says it offers a ‘7-hour express delivery’ for orders placed before 2 PM and the offer comes with Just Dial’s written guarantee along with manufacturer’s warranty & original invoice. Orders post 2 PM will be delivered in the next 24 hours. Although most large e-commerce properties also offer same day delivery for some products, since Just Dial primarily leverages local sellers, it can actually cut down on delivery timelines. It would compete with several players such as Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal, ShopClues and Paytm. Indeed Paytm appears to be the closest peer to Just Dial in terms of the e-commerce business model. Others offer warehousing and even logistics services to their vendors.
- People Changes at Tiger Global. Tiger Global Management on Monday announced key personnel changes including the departure of Feroz Dewan, who has run the closely watched Wall Street firm's hedge fund operations and is leaving to start his own business. Dewan, a partner who has been with Tiger Global for 12 years, will leave at the end of June, the firm's founder, Chase Coleman, wrote to clients in a letter seen by Reuters. Tiger Global oversees roughly $20 billion in assets, with roughly half invested in its fast-growing private equity business. The remainder is invested in public equities with about $6 billion in its hedge fund and $3.5 billion in its long-only portfolios. Scott Shleifer, who had been running the private equity business with Lee Fixel, will take over as head of the firm's public equity business. Tiger Global has long been focused on technology investing and listed Chinese e-commerce company JD.com Inc as its biggest holding at the end of the first quarter. It also raised its stake in Alibaba Group Holding Co , which listed its shares in the biggest ever initial public offering last year, a regulatory filing shows. The hedge fund started the year on a rocky note but recovered some ground in April with a 3.2 percent gain, leaving it down 2.4 percent for the year to date, an investor said. Separately, Caleb Watts, also a Tiger Global partner, also will be leaving to focus on managing his own money, according to the letter. To streamline operations the firm is also merging its Tiger Global Internet Opportunities Fund into its Tiger Global Long Opportunities fund.
- Alibaba-backed Visualead rolls out new dotless QR codes that aim to reduce counterfeiting. In January, Alibaba disclosed its investment in Visualead, an Israeli startup that helps brands make colorful, visually appealing QR codes. While the company’s product was cute, its value to Alibaba is growing clearer now that it has revealed a new QR code alternative that aims to prevent counterfeit sales. Alibaba is using Visualead’s technology to power Blue Star, a new tool that prints out individual, scannable codes for individual packages. When scanned using the mobile app for Taobao, an image appears confirming (or denying) the product’s authenticity. Brands can choose from a set number of templates to customize these landing images and throw in links to promotions or e-commerce pages… perhaps even ones that are on an Alibaba property. Visualead co-founder and CEO Nevo Alva tells Tech in Asia that Alibaba only opens Blue Star to genuine brands. That means Nike can sign up, but FakeNikes.com will get turned away. Alva also adds that Alibaba is providing Blue Star free-of-charge for the time being, irrespective of where the goods will be sold. That means that Nike can pin the codes to packages that will go to an Alibaba competitor.
- Spotify Inks Deal With Starbucks Tasking Customers With Picking In-Store Music. Spotify and Starbucks just announced a clever deal to promote Spotify Premium while giving Starbuck customers and employees the opportunity to influence the music played at their local Starbucks. This is the latest in a line of high-profile deals Spotify bagged that puts its brand in front of an important consumer demographic. Soon baristas will be tasked with making coffee and picking the music in their locations. The deal links Starbucks’ loyalty program with Spotify’s massive music ecosystem, giving My Starbucks Reward members unique access to Spotify. Program users will then be able to influence which songs makes it on in-store playlists. The program starts with 150,000 U.S.-based Starbucks store employees who will receive a Spotify Premium membership in the fall. The plan is then to roll out the service to Starbucks customers shortly after. Streaming music companies such as Spotify, Rdio and others are racing to differentiate themselves. Since most platforms offer similar music and experiences, the war is mostly in public relations. And Spotify is winning this part of the war signing deals to allow Uber riders to DJ from the backseat and getting the streaming service into BMW and Mini cars. Starbucks has long associated itself with emerging music and this deal with Spotify pushes the coffee retailer (along with its legions of dedicated customers) into the age of streaming media.
- Singapore’s Postal Service Reinvents for the Digital Age, Derives a Quarter of its Revenue from eCommerce: With traditional mail services in decline, post offices around the world are scrambling to reinvent themselves for the digital age. “Sitting on that burning platform, we looked around and said, ‘Where could we develop?’” said Wolfgang Baier, the chief executive of SingPost. Japan Post is buying the largest private package and freight delivery company in Australia, Toll Holdings, in a bid to create a rival to UPS and FedEx. The United States Postal Service, which lost $5.5 billion last year, is providing Sunday deliveries for Amazon. Australia Post is working with the Chinese Internet giant Alibaba to help local businesses connect with consumers in China. There are at least two business trends unfolding before us. One is the death of mail,” said Frank Lavin, chief executive of the e-commerce consultancy Export Now. “The second is this boom in e-commerce.” SingPost’s makeover is among the most ambitious. Besides its regular postal duties, it offers a basket of services for companies, including website development, online marketing, customer service and, of course, package delivery. Following the Amazon model, it is building a network of 24 warehouses in 12 countries to stockpile goods for companies. The e-commerce team is staffed with former Silicon Valley executives. Singapore’s central location, said Mr. Baier, makes it a natural hub for e-commerce in Asia. He recited numbers to demonstrate the scale of the opportunity: Over 600 million consumers live in the region around Singapore, and 2.2 billion people are within a five-hour flight. The shift has been stark for the postal service, once a state-owned company that went public in 2003. Four years ago, e-commerce barely figured into its bottom line. Today, it accounts for more than a quarter of the group’s revenues, which have grown by 60 percent during that same period. Others are taking notice. Last year, Alibaba paid $250 million for a 10 percent stake in SingPost. Alibaba and SingPost are now in discussions to form a joint venture focused on e-commerce logistics in Southeast Asia. Then, two years ago, SingPost made its biggest digital push, creating SP eCommerce to tap into the Internet retail boom in Asia. Today, it counts nearly 1,000 companies as clients, including Philips, Uniqlo, Deckers and Muji. SP eCommerce’s offices feel more start-up than mailroom. There is a Foosball table in one corner. Employees can play Ping-Pong. The group’s chief executive, Marcelo Wesseler, created his first e-commerce website in 1997 and worked in Silicon Valley before moving to Singapore. Other employees have come from technology stalwarts like Amazon and Hewlett-Packard. The company also created a customer-care department. At its Singapore offices, 30 or so employees handle the phones, answering questions or addressing complaints. An additional 200 customer-service agents work elsewhere. As part of the e-commerce expansion, SingPost upgraded its core delivery services. It has bolstered its network of warehouses and fulfillment centers, most of which are in Asia. The centers handle freight and customs clearance so goods can move faster through the region, where regulations differ from country to country. In Singapore, SingPost has invested $182 million in building a high-tech warehouse that will merge logistics and sorting into one assembly line. Workers punch or scan an order on a screen, and robotic trays deliver products from shelves for them to pack and ship. SingPost is pitching itself as a conduit to the Asian consumer, particularly in countries like Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia. With its swelling population of young and mobile consumers with newly disposable incomes, the region offers a rich seam of new opportunities. Looking beyond its borders for growth, the Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi last year opened a regional headquarters in Singapore, using it as a launching pad to move into Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia. Next, it is targeting Vietnam and Thailand. It teamed up with SingPost for support on logistics for e-commerce, which accounts for 80 percent of Xiaomi’s sales in Southeast Asia. At its campus in Singapore, SingPost built a warehouse specially for Xiaomi, where orders from the first click to the final delivery are handled. Inside the 11,000-square-foot space, a smartphone battery is stuffed into a cardboard box, sent flying down a green conveyor belt and zipped off to the customer a few miles away. A video camera is perched above, controlled by someone who watches from Beijing.
Using mobile apps to interact with merchandise: Using the Quikkly iOS or Android app, you scan what the company is calling an Action Tag — its own proprietary barcode-esque tech — and this immediately invokes an online action, such as listening to a track on Spotify, adding a contact to your address book, following someone on Twitter, or even connecting to a public WiFi spot. “When you see interesting stuff online and there’s a button to interact with it, you can click on it and something happens immediately. ‘Like’ on Facebook, ‘Follow’ on Twitter, add to Basket, listen to the song. In the physical world, it’s considerably more difficult,” says Quikkly CEO Fergal Walker. “If you’re interested, you would have to manually search for the item, hope you find the right one, and hope it works on your mobile. Quikkly removes the hassle and makes it as simple as it is online.” Quikkly also makes it pretty easy for anyone to create their own Action Tags, to be included on, for example, a business card, flyer or poster. This can be done via the website or mobile app. In fact, Quikkly is talking up its mobile-first play. To create an Action Tag, you simply select from a grid of pre-defined actions and fill in the needed details, such as URL and custom message.
Using mobile apps to interact with toys: “We want to draw kids out of a two-dimensional screen, to blend a hands-on physical experience with an app, and make something new come to life,” said Vikas Gupta, a co-founder and the chief executive of Wonder Workshop, a start-up that makes Dash and Dot, two programmable toy robots that will begin shipping to early backers this holiday season. Dash and Dot are controlled by a mobile app, but they can also be taught to understand and react to events that happen in the real world — to play a real tune on a xylophone, say, or to bark in response to a child’s clap. Wonder Workshop is on the vanguard of a trend that threatens to overrun much of the traditional, mass-manufactured toy business.
Twitter Experiments With Engagement Stats Directly In Tweets: Want to know just how many people actually care about what you’re tweeting? A new Twitter experiment spotted by ex-Twitter platform head Ryan Sarver will show many you how users are clicking on the links in the updates you post, with a handy link directly in the expanded Tweet view in the iOS application. As usual with Twitter’s features, this is limited to a small sample pool of users at first, but could roll out more widely if deemed successful. At the bottom of the tweet view, for those with this feature enabled, you’ll see a “View Analytics Details” link, which takes you directly to a synopsis of the overall interaction with said tweet, including overall impressions, and “engagements,” which includes how many people actually clicked on a link you shared, how many expanded the tweet and more.
Uber is causing the price of taxi licenses to crash; separately, a legal setback causes Uber to suspend operations in Nevada; ~1000 jobs might be at risk: The average price of an individual New York City taxi medallion fell to $872,000 in October, down 17 percent from a peak reached in the spring of 2013, according to an analysis of sales data. In other big cities, medallion prices are also falling, often in conjunction with a sharp decline in sales volume. In Chicago, prices are down 17 percent. In Boston, they’re down at least 20 percent, though it’s hard to establish an exact market price because there have been only five trades since July. In Philadelphia, the taxi authority recently scrapped a planned medallion auction. Most major American cities have long used a system to limit the number of operating taxicabs, typically a medallion system: Drivers must own or rent a medallion to operate a taxi, and the city issues a fixed number of them. In New York, which established its medallion system in 1937, that number is 13,437. The number has risen only gradually since the late 1990s, even as the city’s economy has boomed.
