Alexander Graf / Holger Scheider

The E-Commerce BookAbout a channel that became an industry

ISBN 978-1536937800

© 2016 by Alexander Grafc/o eTribes Framework GmbHWendenstraße 13020537 HamburgGermany

All rights reserved. This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise – without prior written permission of the publisher.

Translation: Brian Melican, Hamburg, GermanyCover Design: Grafische Gestaltung Guido Klütsch, Köln, GermanyType Setting: Fotosatz L. Huhn, Linsengericht, GermanyProject Coordination: Birga Andel, Lektorat & mehr, Rüsselsheim, Germany

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Inhalt

What is E-Commerce? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

1 E-Commerce: The story so far . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111.1 The beginnings of a revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111.2 E-Commerce in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

2 The Topography of E-Commerce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 672.1 Procurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 702.2 Product presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 962.3 Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1232.4 Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1542.5 Orders and sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1762.6 Logistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2002.7 Customer service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

3 Case Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2333.1 About You – A retailer re-invents e-commerce . . . . . . . . . . . 2413.2 Ali Express – The Golden Gate to Western Consumers . . . . . . . 2433.3 Alibaba Group – An Amazon-killer or a paper tiger? . . . . . . . . 2453.4 Amazon – Every retailer’s worst nightmare . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2473.5 Amorelie – A recipe for niche domination(?) . . . . . . . . . . . . 2493.6 AO.com – Is white goods a niche ripe for a champion? . . . . . . . 2513.7 Apple – A textbook case of brand manufacturer direct sales . . . . 2533.8 Asos – Britain’s favourite fashion shop and its international

ambitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2553.9 Blue Apron – Food subscription for lazy hobby chefs . . . . . . . 2573.10 Blue Nile – THE online destination for high end jewellery . . . . . 2593.11 Bonobos – The online fashion brand the world wasn’t ready for . . 2613.12 Casper – Masters of the art of direct sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2633.13 Conrad – Why “multichannel” is not enough of a USP . . . . . . . 265

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Inhalt

3.14 Delivery Hero – Europe’s most aggressive unicorn . . . . . . . . . 2673.15 Ebay – Twilight of an E-Commerce Legend . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2693.16 Etsy – Hand-made, long-tail, gold mine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2713.17 Fahrrad.de – Niche winner looking to expand Europe-wide . . . . 2733.18 Gilt – How a flash seller became a flash sale . . . . . . . . . . . . 2753.19 Grainger – A.k.a The last hurdle for Amazon in B2B . . . . . . . . 2773.20 Harry’s – New York start-up insources value creation . . . . . . . 2793.21 HelloFresh – IPO or not, it’s the foodbox start-up that

continues to grow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2813.22 Home Depot – Buying bricks and mortar online . . . . . . . . . . 2833.23 Home24 – The online David to Ikea’s Goliath . . . . . . . . . . . . 2853.24 Ikea – An e-commerce late bloomer trapped in

multichannel hell? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2873.25 JD.com – A foot in the door to the Middle Kingdom . . . . . . . . 2893.26 Jet.com – A real Amazon contender or just a black hole for venture

capital? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2913.27 JustFab: The next Zara – or the next “Fab” bust? . . . . . . . . . . 2933.28 Limango – Exciting e-commerce, made in Germany . . . . . . . . 2953.29 Media-Saturn – Has the electronics giant woken from its

slumber? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2973.30 Nordstrom – The Great Omnichannel Hope? . . . . . . . . . . . . 2993.31 Otto – From mail order company to retail holding . . . . . . . . . 3013.32 Overstock – The outlet concept goes online . . . . . . . . . . . . 3033.33 Rakuten – Dreams of becoming the world’s biggest internet

service provider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3053.34 Staples – Last-chance saloon for this stationer . . . . . . . . . . . 3073.35 Stitch Fix – Is a personal style advisor the next stage in

e-commerce evolution? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3093.36 Tmall – World Champion of Gross Goods Volume . . . . . . . . . 3113.37 Vente Privée – The mother of all flash sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3133.39 Walmart – Too big to fail? No such thing in e-commerce . . . . . . 3173.42 Wayfair – Or: Proof that furniture can be sold online . . . . . . . . 3233.45 Wish – Mobile junkshop aiming to become the next Walmart . . . 3293.46 Xiaomi – China’s hardware and technology powerhouse . . . . . . 3313.47 Zalando – Internet retailer or technology company? . . . . . . . . 3333.48 Zappos – Amazon dreams of shoes and fashion . . . . . . . . . . 3353.49 Zooplus – Successful niche shop with potential for growth . . . . . 3373.50 Zulily (QVC) – Another flash-sale flash in the pan . . . . . . . . . 339