e-Commerce and more I 18th to 24th Oct - #88

Hello Everyone!!

After some readers told me they missed the weekly Ecommerce newsletter (Mark, Juan Pablo, Daniel you will recognize yourselves), I finally managed to get back at it and looking forward to continue sharing insights on the world of eCommerce!!

1. Spotify partners with Shopify to add merch to artists’ profiles

Spotify goes Shopify !! We have all mixed up the name at least once in the past!!? Even if many people mix these 2 companies, Shopify & Spotify don’t have any real relationship except their names but this is about to change !!

The rstreaming giant (SPoTify) and the commerce giant (SHoPify) announced a partnership to allow artists to connect Spotify profiles with their Shopify stores, allowing them to market their merchandise directly to fans through the Spotify app.

Fans will then be able to browse products and make purchases directly on the app. This partnership will enable easier access to artists’ existing Shopify stores, an additional revenue stream for artists.

You Buy where you Browse!! This kind of partnership will continue to become critical for all the social media & content platforms in order to create new revenue streams and lower their dependency on advertising revenue

2. German food delivery giant Delivery Hero leads $1 billion investment in grocery start-up Gorillas

Gorillas intant delivery startup raises another billion.

The instant delivery space is getting more and more crowded and this means you need a lottttttttt of cash in order to sustain these deliveries in less than 10-15 minutes!?

The increasing competition in the space represent also one reason to invest further as rivals like Turkish company Getir, British firm Zapp and German peer Flink are expanding as well with fresh money!

Interesting to see Delivery Hero investing $200M into Gorillas just one week after acquiring the Super App Hugo in Central America!!?Delivery Hero is definitely investing strategically to grow globally!

3. Instacart acquires Caper AI, a smart cart and instant checkout startup, for $350M, as it moves deeper into physical retail tech

Instacart is entering into the physical retail business with the acquisition of Caper Smart cart & instant checkout solution. While Amazon is leading the way in cashierless stores, many companies are trying to catch up!

This is the 2nd acquisition of Instacart which is clearly showing that the delivery company is planning to get into the world of physical retail.

Instacart acquired another company recently called Foodstorm which help stores take and manage catering-style larger orders of ready-made food. It will be interesting to see what the traditional retailers using Instacart as delivery partners see the acquisition as potential competition or enhancement of Instacart value proposition.

4. StartUp Of the Week: Sendbox

Nigeria’s Sendbox raises $1.8M to provide e-commerce fulfilment for small merchants

We don’t see eCommerce fulfilment & shipping startups popping out every day from Africa!! Great to see that some entrepreneurs are tackling the supply chain

Sendbox offers fulfilment & shipping capabilities for Merchants in Nigeria and plans to expand! They have made already more than 200K deliveries for 10K merchants!

5. Interview: Check out my Interview with Lara Habib on Al-Arabiya News,

Some takeaways

???Supply Chains = "It will get worse before it gets better"

??The Global Supply Chain is a giant machine, "one part break, the rest is impacted" (we have few broken parts right now)

??Supply chain Disruption will most likely start to ease after the Chinese New Year as stimulus slowdown/disappear across the globe, demand stabilizes and measures are taken (ie: California ports hours extensions, shipping lines stopping increases).

??Ecommerce demand will continue to increase beyond the pandemic, driven by strong consumer behaviour changes and many organizations investing heavily in this channel.

??If you want specific gifts, buy them early as they most likely are sold out as we get close to Christmas?

6. Event: Ecom World Conference

40K people, 8K brands, 80+ speakers, join me at the Ecom world conference where I will be sharing some perspective on how to convert returns into a competitive advantage!!

I have a few free tickets, if you want one, reach out to me and hopefully, I still have some left!

Enjoy, cheers

Nabil