Hello – I am Anika and new to the digital world. After receiving a stellar business education at University of Rostock and spending some time abroad I decided to join the eTribes Framework team in Hamburg. I quickly needed to broaden my understanding of the digital world and therefore took it upon me to read a whole list of recommended books. Together with eCFO I am now publishing the resulting reviews/learnings from my reading materials.
My first book ‚E-Commerce für Fortgeschrittene – 50 Denkanstösse für den Online-Handel’, written by Jochen Krisch and Sascha R. Rowold, I devoured within a few hours.
The author Jochen Krisch is a well known e-commerce expert in Germany and also the editor of the internet-branch service Exciting Commerce. In line with the editor’s motto „the exciting future of e-commerce“, the book presents the top 50 blog articles of 2009 to 2011 describing different kinds of business models and discussing the latest e-commerce trends due to new technologies and social innovations. The columns are cross-sectoral and broach the issues of among other things live shopping, mobile commerce, shopping systems and clubs, setting up shopping networks and applications, social shopping as well as Ebay, Amazon, Facebook & Co.
Ebay, for instance, has progressively turned from an open marketplace to a managed marketplace (i.e. more fixed prices, professional sellers and new goods) in recent years. However, the expected increases in sales remained slightly down in comparison to Amazon. A return to the traditional retail auctioneering business offers eBay’s classifieds platform. But not only Ebay will evolve in the future. Likewise, the development of Amazon, Google, facebook or Zalando as relevant players in e-commerce is exciting.
Also worth reading were the blog articles about shop systems. According to the authors, shop systems should no longer be based on catalogue models or be standardized. Due to increasing predatory competition and the online ordering saturation, online retailers are better adviced to find special, innovative shopping solutions. To be successful in the future and to achieve growth through a regular customer business, they must reinvent themselves and especially inspire their customers emotionally. Alternatively, online retailers should specialize in a market niche.
What I especially like about this book is that subjects were taken up several times to identify and analyze new developments e.g. the business models of Vente Privée or Ebay. Thus, I got a feel how fast and in which directions the online world can change within two years.
For eTribes and it’s stakeholders the book is a good read to learn about different business models. New trends and the rapid development in e-commerce e.g. the increase of online buyers from 45 percent in 2004 to 69 percent in 2011 show, that the retail is constantly moving to the internet. This means that companies have to adapt e-commerce solutions to their business models.
Also this year, I am convinced that Jochen Krisch and his team will publish diverse pioneering articles about e-commerce on their website. The book incited me to think about future trends of e-commerce, too. I’m particularly looking forward to the developments in mobile commerce – how will mobile shopping be improved this year? How will Ebay’s new payment system will work out? – Let’s get ready to be excited!
