Opportunities In Ecommerce

1: Changing Ecommerce Landscape

Vertically Integrated Brands

• “I see the biggest opportunity in online commerce as design-oriented and/or

custom products in specialty verticals.” – Jason Pressman, Shasta Ventures
• “We’re seeing more and more ‘Warby Parker-style’ vertically integrated businesses
being created that bring products directly to consumers at really competitive
prices.” – Mark Macdonald, Shopify
Online Retail Education

• “Many people are under the false assumption that it’s very hard, risky, and takes a
lot of money.” – Billy Murphey, EcomLab
Location Independence

• “With fulfillment services like Shipwire and the ability to hire writers and customer
service people on oDesk, it’s now possible more than ever to run an ecommerce
business with a shoestring budget.” – Leighton Taylor, EcommercePulse.com
Aggregation of Niche Products

• “Aggregating many independent manufacturers under a single ecommerce brand.

New product discovery is a compelling reason for your customers to return to check
out your merchandise.” – Sina Djafari, Duoplane.com
Niche Retailers and Small Manufacturers

• “The web is changing traditional distribution channels.” – Dale Traxler,

PracticalEcommerce.com
2: Customer Relationship Management

Customer Lifecycle Management

• “The big opportunities are in customer relationships — solving for customer lifetime
value — both before and after the sale.” – Sam Mallikarjunan, HubSpot
• “The fastest growing companies are comparing the cost per acquired customer to
the lifetime value of customers, rather than just looking at the immediate return
from the customer’s initial purchase.” – Corey Pierson, Custora
Customer Loyalty
 • “Build loyalty into the process. Know me and love me, if I’m your buyer.” – Chris
Brogan
Customer Segmentation

• “Use remarketing lists for search ads, tailor your site experience based upon
personas or distinct buying behaviors, and customize emails to consumer
preferences.” – Carson Biederman, Mustang Group
3: Conversion Rate Optimization

• “The biggest opportunities are with conversion rate optimization (CRO) and the
entire customer experience.” – Peep Laja, ConversionXL
• “Most retailers are focusing on traffic generation, not conversion rate optimization,
which is where most of the potential lies.” – Neil Patel, Quicksprout
4: Evolving Digital Landscape

Mobile Commerce

• “The biggest opportunity is optimizing for mobile.” – Linda Bustos, Elastic Path
• “I think huge opportunity will come from Apple opening up the API for their
fingerprint scanners to allow you to purchase products from any website with a
finger scan.” – Richard Lazazzera, A Better Lemonade Stand
• “Mobile commerce is the big opportunity.” – Deena Varshavskaya, Wanelo
Social Customer Acquisition

• “It’s never been easier to drive mass volumes of sales quickly and test markets. Get
good at FB ads.” – Ezra Firestone, SmartMarketer.com
• “Nimble startups who can repeatedly and at scale build customer acquisition
expertise in unsaturated channels can really differentiate from their competitors. ” –
Jeremy Liew, Lightspeed Venture Partners
Combine Online and Offline

• “Our guideshops and physical catalog have been our largest recent growth drivers.”
– Craig Elbert, Bonobos VP Marketing
• “There’s opportunity in combining the online with the offline, even as a showroom
environment, or pop up shop, or other non-traditional retail environment.” – Miracle
Wanzo, HipUndies
5: Improving Customer Experience

Personalization
 • “Tailor each member’s experience to reflect that member’s preferences based on
demographic information, purchasing behavior, waitlist data and click-through
history.” – Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, Gilt
• “We may see categories that now customize to your taste/fit/need better in the
future than in the past.” – Ed Han, TinyPrints
• “Gifting: It should be easier for the web to curate a limited set of choices for me that
is unique to the receiver, within a given price range.” – Charlie O’Donnell, Brooklyn
Bridge Ventures
• “I am personally interested in starting something in the mass customization space:
e.g. only making customized products & selling it via e-commerce.” – JP Canada,
ProTeethGuard.com
Smarter Merchandising

• “Smarter Merchandising is a big opportunity, but it is rare for anyone to write about
it because it’s not new!” – Dave Chaffey, Smart Insights
Pricing & Bundling

• “The ability to dynamically price items is an enormous margin opportunity for online
retailers.” – Eric Roth, Lazard Freres
Complex and Big Purchasing Decisions

• “Big ticket items are moving online. Technology can help qualify these complex
purchase decisions.” – Janus Jagd, Cylindo
6: Inbound Marketing

Build a destination

• “Build a destination: bring the store to the consumer and allow others (publishers
mostly) to use it. Leveraging this we are now the top revenue partner to big names
like Priceline, Lenovo, and 1800Flowers.” – Charlie Kim, Next Jump

E-Commerce business challenges

With all the eCommerce business challenges faced by your online business,
how do you find the best solutions? In this post, we’re going to share solutions to
7 common online business problems so you can identify them, fix them, and get
back to running your business.
Problem #1: Online Identity Verification

When someone visits your website, how do you know if that person is genuinely
interested? Are they entering their real name and contact information? For all
you know, all of the information they enter could be fake.

Problem #2: Competitor Analysis

In the super competitive eCommerce business world, there are many

competitors offering similar products and services. So, how do you set yourself
apart?

Problem #3: Customer Loyalty

Did you know that it can cost up to 5 times more to acquire a new customer than
retaining an existing one?

Problem #4: Product Return and Refund Policies

According to ComScore, more than 60% of online shoppers say that they look
at a retailer’s return policy before making a purchase. And, 2 in 5 customers said
they abandoned shopping carts because of delivery dates. ?

Problem #5: Price and Shipping

Remember our 2019 calendar example earlier from Etsy?

Problem #6: Retailers and Manufacturers

Many online businesses buy their products from retailers and manufacturers.
Unfortunately, many times these retailers and manufacturers also sell the same
products directly to customers.
Problem #7: Data Security