Two Cool Infographics About The Internet

Enjoy!
(This is my longest blog post ever pixel-wise...)

A few stats about runaway success Groupon.com

According to its CEO Andrew Mason, straight from the TechCrunch CrunchUp (wow):

• 50% gross margin
• Launched in November 2008
• A year ago today, active in 5-6 cities
• Now running in 170 cities in 22 countries
• Over 1,000 employees now
• About 12 million people getting daily email. Adding 2 million a month
• 97% of businesses featured want to be featured again
• Breakage rate is probably around 10%, though Groupon doesn’t directly track it

TechCrunch Social Commerce Panel videos, feat. Groupon, LivingSocial, Payvment, gWallet, Eventbrite, Zong

TechCrunch's last Summer CrunchUp was all abour Social commerce: social currency, social savings, social coupons and social recommendations... See all about it here.

Why Google is scared of Facebook

An awesome presentation on social networking by Paul Adams, UX researcher at Google:

The Real Life Social Network v2

View more documents from Paul Adams.

Breaking: Woot to be acquired by Amazon

"Holy crap! Woot has signed an agreement with Amazon - yes, the Amazon - to become an independent subsidiary of the ecommerce colossus. Woot HQ will remain in Carrollton, Texas, and will operate as autonomously as other Amazon companies like Zappos and Audible.

Visit the blog for our usual snarky commentary and tell us what you think.
- Woot"

PIXmania targets EUR1.5b revenues in 2014

PIXmania's turnover is up 15% to 897 million euros, and its net profit is up 40% ... The group intends to diversify even more, engage in online travel and expand its network of stores.

Also, the group's e-commerce outsourcing services, e-merchant, reached EUR35m revenues in the last fiscal year.

Original article in French

Google translation

How the World Spends Its Time Online

Awesome Video from Jeff Bezos about Amazon and Zappos

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos talks openly about Amazon and Zappos...

GSI Commerce Q1 2010 results

From Internet Retailer:

GSI Commerce first quarter sales rise nearly 39%

E-commerce technology provider GSI Commerce reported today sales of $272.6 million for its fiscal first quarter ended April 3, up 38.7% compared to $196.5 million for the same period a year earlier.

For the first quarter, GSI reported:

Income from operations of $17.4 million, up 87.1% from $9.3 million.
Net loss of $8.1 million, compared to a net loss of $12.1 million.

"The year got off to a strong start for GSI with better than expected top and bottom line results in the first quarter,” says Michael G. Rubin, chairman and CEO of GSI. “The key drivers to the upside were strong comparable-store e-commerce trends and continued momentum in marketing services.”

GSI offered the following guidance for fiscal year 2010:

- Revenue of $1.3 billion, which would represent 30% growth from 2009 revenue of $1.0 billion
- Income from operations of $15.6 million
- Net income of $135.0 million.

Study says Social Commerce pays off

Via the excellent Exciting Commerce blog:

"Unfortunately there are still too few scientific studies on networking effects in e-commerce. Understandable though, due to limited opportunities to make direct comparisons.

All the more exciting that a new study has been released (PDF) from France and the US with the title “Deriving Value from Social Commerce Networks”, whose results have been recently published in the Journal of Marketing Research. The study examines what happens when merchants begin to network with each other."

Download the study here.

Read the whole article at Exciting Commerce here.

iPad Commerce Watch: episode 2

Following in GAP's footsteps, here comes Italy-based online fashion retailer YOOX, with its own iPad app...

It was developed by Yoox's in-house team, and it enables iPad owners to browse, shop and pay in 6 languages and for delivery in 67 countries...

Google incorporates ratings and reviews from e-retailers in search results

Via Internet Retailer:

Ratings and reviews vendor Bazaarvoice is tying in with Google, enabling its 800 customers to display ratings and reviews from their websites in Google search results.

This enables Google to bring search even closer to the act of purchase for the users...

And it will probably increase the conversion rate of retailers using Bazaarvoice, as shoppers coming from a product-specific review in Google's search results will be even more qualified.

(This new Bazaarvoice feature is free and optional.)

Read the full article here.

Amazon's amazing growth compared to US retail and e-commerce

A cool chart courtesy of Silicon Alley Insider says it all:

GAP e-commerce goes iPad: touchCommerce !

GAP launched an iPad e-commerce app. It's gorgeous, mixing content and shopping, and making great use of the tablet's touchscreen gestures. Here's the video demo:

International E-Commerce Web retailers are reaping overseas sales without actively pursuing them

So says An Internet Retailer survey...

Tony Hsieh on Zappos and delivering happiness

Check out this presentation by Tony Hsieh, CEO of zappos.com, about delivering happiness to yourself, your employees and your customers:

Zappos - Amazon - 02-25-10

View more presentations from zappos.

New Zappos TV ad, highlighting their unparalleled customer service

This is the first TV spot in a new campaign for Zappos, the online footwear and apparel retailer. This spot was created by Mullen in Boston, MA.

Here it is:

E-commerce innovations: extreme retailing

Are you ready for "Extreme Retailing" ?
E-commerce has evolved more in the last 12 months than in the last 12 years, with a combination of entertainment, game mechanics, and innovative shopping models.

According to Megan Conniff from the US National Retail Federation's big blog, here are 3 ongoing trends:

1. Deals and discounts (retailmenot.com)
2. Urgency retailing (woot.com)
3. Private shopping clubs (venteprivee.com and its hundreds of copycats worldwide)

And here are 5 upcoming trends:

1. Local discovery & promotion (groupon.com)
2. Mobile empowerment
3. Community and crowdsourcing (myfab.com)
4. Mass customization
5. Game Mechanics/entertainment commerce (swoopo.com)

I so agree with Megan (and with Jochen and Jason from Exciting Commerce, a recommended read by the way...)!

Bonus: here's a video of Joshua Goldman's presentation at the Retail Innovation & Marketing Conference, explaining swoopo.com's killer commerce model:

Mobile e-commerce: mobile site or mobile app?

Here's Elastic Path's answer in video:

The State of the Internet: 2010

Venteprivée.com 2009 revenues and 2010 projections

According to Journal du Net, here are the latest figures from online private shopping club leader Vente Privée :

2009 figures:

- revenue: €680m, +33% vs. 2008

- 2009 profit: 6-7%

- 9.7m members, +12.5k per day

- 15% of sales only are made outside of France

- sales action : 2,500 sales in 2009 with 1,200 brands

2010 projections:

- €850m revenue,

- 25% growth,

- 2.5m new members,

- 3,300 sales,

- 250 new hires.

Wow.

Amazon.com '09: sales +28% to $24.51 billion, profit +40% to $902 million

And here are the slides from Amazon's Q4 '09 earnings webcast:

View more presentations from Michael S. Levy.

US e-commerce Holiday sales reach $27 billion

First off, Happy New Year everyone!

According to comScore, online Holiday sales (from Nov 1st to Dec 24th) reached $27 billion, a YoY growth of 5%.

Here's the comScore data breakdown: