eBay's future, at least in public, has been about structured data, new user experience development and efforts around AI and machine learning. eBay has been talking about the structured data initiative since at least the start of 2015, so it's been two years, and there isn't yet much to show for it. We think the biggest issue with the structured data initiative is it is taking too long.
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Amazon has unique and unrivaled visibility into the performance of hundreds of thousands of products and brands. Just like Netflix is investing into TV shows based on data they collect, Amazon is starting to build brands based on data. But Amazon could also avoid doing most of the work, and instead invest into the brands already performing well.
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Last week Walmart announced a new initiative - discounts for products ordered online, but picked up in stores. By the end of June the program is expected to expand to include over 1 million products. This is the opposite of what Amazon is doing. Amazon is building features for convenience, like same-day delivery in major cities. Thus this change by Walmart raises a question - are shoppers more cheap than they are lazy?
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Given the recent change in the US government, and policies yet to come, the question of how big of a role China plays in Amazon business is very interesting. The takeaway from this research is not the exact percentage of Chinese sellers. It's the fact that there are more Chinese sellers than one might assume, they are very competitive because of FBA, and the ratio is no doubt growing.
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India will eventually become the second largest e-commerce market in the world, overtaking US in the next 10 or so years. There are four players in the Indian market: Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal, and Paytm. However the market is shifting towards only three: Flipkart-Snapdeal, Amazon, and Alibaba-Paytm. Recent Alibaba investments into Paytm took its stake to over 50%. And Flipkart-Snapdeal merger seems to be just a matter of time.
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Amazon marketplace has advanced from a website where people list some random products on, to a platform where true retailers build their business. This meant that gaining access to a seller's Amazon account is potentially very lucrative. Not only can a hacker use it to gain insight about the seller's business, best products, ads performance, etc., but also cause big cashflow issues. We think the attacks on Amazon seller's accounts are only going to get more aggressive and sophisticated. Crime is moving online, and Amazon seller accounts are one of the targets.
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We wanted to elaborate on why Amazon launched Amazon Cash, and why payments are key. In the US it is easy to underestimate the size of the population without access to credit cards or any type of banking. While it might appear like everyone has a credit card, it couldn't be further from the truth. This move thus enables access to Amazon.com for millions of new customers.
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This time we looked at how many of the top Amazon sellers have joined in the past 365 days. It is an interesting number to look at because as we found, it shows that it takes a while to become a top seller. We found that just 5.6% of top 10,000 sellers joined during the past 365 days.
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We think Amazon should introduce a Verified Seller status. A verified seller is checked by Amazon to have a valid business, no history of counterfeit, good rating, etc., but also willing to publish their business information. It's a seller who doesn't need to hide behind the anonymous name.
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Amazon is positioning themselves as a e-commerce infrastructure company, not a retailer. Their message to big brands is that they are not selling products to Amazon for resale, but instead using Amazon as a platform to reach a massive audience, and using their infrastructure to facilitate all e-commerce tasks. In this view, Amazon is not a middleman, but instead an enabler.
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