The Facebook of ecommerce — Benedict Evans

With more of the decision making process taking place before the consumer ever enters the store (Google Research finds 83% of US shoppers who visited a store say they used online search before they went in), retailers should also be working to ensure that the online brand discovery experience is equally as exciting as immersive physical ones.

As we discussed in last week’s essay, Instagram is both a blessing and a curse for Shopify. On the one hand, it is the perfect discovery channel for the type of products that are typically sold by Shopify merchants: visually appealing objects you didn’t even know you wanted (fashion, homeware, furniture, etc). On the other hand, too much reliance o... See more

An aggregator like Facebook or Airbnb brings all the relevant goods, services, or information that a consumer might seek into one place, and it gathers all the consumers there, too. Netflix is a one-stop shop for film and television. YouTube is a one-stop shop for user-generated video. Uber is a one-stop shop for car rides. These aggregators amass ... See more