Gamma Waves’ Post

Managed to miss BigCommerce's BigSummit? Or feeling a little fuzzy after all that street dancing and the after party at Mr. Fogg's? Well, don't worry, you can catch my thoughts on the day below. Topics include: ▪ BigCommerce having re-discovered their mojo? ▪ BigCommerce's focus on velocity, total cost of ownership and composable (can anyone say MACH Alliance?) ▪ Opinions agogo (opinionated sic) when it comes to headless - I'm confident 🧔🏻 James Gurd and Paul Rogers will have plenty to say on this in the Inside Commerce roundup next week ▪ ShopPay competition from PayPal ▪ Digital Transformation Panel thoughts from Ulrika Evans at SNEAKERSNSTUFF LTD, Michael Ewald Hansen at LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW, Steve Borg at White Stuff and James Kothari-Henry at Harvey Nichols - expertly chaired by Mark Adams ▪ Legacy tech transformation insight from Simon Dixon at RS Components & Controls (I) Ltd. ▪ Inspirational quotes from Jason Mohammad ▪ and whilst it was last, a very much not least fireside chat from Karren Brady. It was an awesome event and I was blown away by the setup at White Hart Lane. I can't imagine it's cheap, but it was really impressive - both in terms of the venue itself and also how the day ran. Kudos to the whole BigCommerce team for pulling that together. It was great to catch up with familiar faces like Mark Slocock, James Gurd, Jim Herbert, Theo Burns, Colin Stansbury and Oliver Cole and to make new connections - hey there Hannah Herlihy Lowe and Daniel Viniegra. If you have any thoughts or feedback, please drop them in the comments. #bigsummit #bigcommerce #ecommerce #digitaltransformation #community

Hey y'all, buckle up for a pretty wild e-commerce ride! 🎢 This ain't about cutting corners, but about good ole grit, thinking outside the box and big picture stuff. 🤓 Our buddy's journey is a masterclass in how to slay the e-commerce beast without breaking a sweat. They kicked off in a niche that everybody saw through a blinkered lens, but, backed by some killer market research and a rock-solid belief, they carved out a spot that was all theirs. 💪 🚀 Their game-changer? They didn't play copycat with the big guys.🙅 Instead, they zoomed in on giving their peeps an epic shopping experience, powered by some smart AI for personalized vibes. Their customers turned into a tight-knit tribe, giving real talk further jazzing up their game. And their marketing playbook? Real talk, served up raw and real, to build some serious trust. They found their own voice, shaking up the status quo. When it came to logistics, they made sure what coulda been a supply chain headache became their secret superpower. 👌 Here's the thing, winning at e-commerce ain't just about pushing products—it's about crafting wow-worthy experiences, building real-deal relationships, and staying true to your vision no matter what. 🎯 Let's do this: What offbeat routes led you to hit the jackpot in biz? By sharing your story below, you might just kick-start the next big thing. 🌊 #ShareYourStory

I found myself pondering about how market-making businesses like Zepto emerge as a result of sociological trends. If so, do these trends then translate to a consumer behaviour shift resulting in demand creation for a new kind of service? The quick commerce sector is under the spotlight again since Zepto announced its platform fee. Earlier this sector was under scrutiny for reasons such as contribution to traffic nuisance, road accidents, risk of delivery partners losing their life in the hurry to deliver orders within 10-15 minutes. Unlike its rivals, Zepto is the only platform whose sole and strategic focus is on-demand grocery delivery. I believe this market is here to stay, and here’s why :- 1. Convenience - picture the sweaty crowds, humidity and discomfort, long and indisciplined queues, carrying bulky bags of household products, and what not? With quick commerce, we don’t have to deal with any of this. 2. Time - for me, this is the most important. Instead of asking how much time am I saving with this service, I ask myself “what else could I be doing with the time saved?” Eitherways, I have the freedom to spend the time saved as I wish to. 3. Speed - Blinkit’s advertisement on TV summarises it best, where “Chachu” reaches his nephew’s house but forgets to buy his nephew a gift, which is when he orders a box of chocolates on Blinkit and the delivery partner races towards chachu. The nephew is ecstatic when he sees his chachu with chocolates. Of course, the aforementioned are problems faced by privileged households mostly in T-1 cities - and given Zepto’s mission of expanding into T-2 & 3 markets, the real challenges of grocery quick commerce will unfold as they scale in the lower tier markets, which are :- a) Customer acquisition in Tier-2 & Tier-3 markets (chosing the right marketing activations, channels, and possibly re-establishing product-market fit) b) Business re-modelling and pricing strategy in these lower tier markets While the scrutiny continues, it will be interesting to see how this landscape develops. #QuickCommerce #OnDemandEconomy #GigEconomy #Zepto

#Scaleup Tech Icon Series: From e-commerce to live-commerce - straddling the value chain Store N Go may not be a familiar name to most of us outside of the FMCG and e-commerce industries. When the #FOX program put out a call for application in 2023, the company's credentials were nothing short of impressive: from 2018, growth was steep, buyoed in part by the e-commerce boom during the past pandemic - but what we saw was something much more: industrious and meticulous entrepreneurs who put in the time to build a solid foundation with processes and technology; utilizing a bespoke software solution to ensure efficient operations in the razor-thin margin of warehousing services. Interestingly enough, the company is now zeroing on the live-commerce wave by deploying their very own studios and hosts, thereby driving revenues and margins further. Not content with just the domestic market, they are now expanding their wings to the region. Kudo's to Kee Lion Tee Ken Lee Elaine Tan for achieving so much in so short a time! Balasubramaniam A. Gopi Ganesalingam AHMAD HISYAM R. Raja Nurshahira Raja Chulan Mohd Rofizal Mustapa

"Remember, Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither is a successful online business. Stay connected to your customers, give them top-notch service, and build trust like it's your superpower. Oh, and don't go it alone! If you can’t or even better can but don’t want to - build a squad of mentors, fellow entrepreneurs, and pros who've been there, done that. They'll be your guiding stars when the e-commerce universe feels a bit daunting. Such is the team at NEXT BASKET. Keep learning, keep adapting, and keep that passion burning bright. With resilience, a customer-focused mindset, and a pinch of adaptability, you'll be soaring in the e-commerce world in no time.", said Evgeni Yordanov in interview for CatalystPay.   Read the full interview here: https://lnkd.in/dZ8USMqh 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮 https://nextbasket.com/

Unicommerce is listed! Today is a very special day as we celebrate a really special milestone for a truly unique company. In the early days of 2015-16, we were a fledgling software business with negligible revenues and very few customers. The business had to justify its existence every day. On one side we had a lot of age-old dogmas telling us why it won’t work - that Indian businesses don’t pay for software, acquisitions and subsidiaries don’t work out, software businesses require huge amounts of capital to build and a lot more. But on the other hand, we had a stellar team, a large and growing eCommerce market, and most importantly the few customers who really loved what we did. There was not much we could do to fight the dogmas. But what we could do was to continue listening to our customers and serve them really well. While the future wasn’t so clear back then, we had absolute clarity on what we needed to do when we showed up to work every day. So, we kept building, step by step, and the fog of uncertainty kept clearing as we moved forward. Our wonderful team led by Kunal Bahl and Kapil Makhija, shared the ethos of not only leaving any job unfinished, but in fact doing it to the highest standards every time. Small things add up to truly great things over time. There were many stumbling blocks on the way, but we were anchored by the love of our customers and partners. In what would become Unicommerce’ way of working, we invested our efforts in building relationships and not just business partnerships. Along the way, we found some really helpful co-believers, who invested with us and provided further guidance. As we take on a new responsibility today of being a public company, we share the same ethos we did since the beginning – building solutions, not just products, building relationships, not just business partnerships. There is clarity and focus on what we need to do when we go back to work tomorrow, a strong conviction in the direction we’re taking, a stellar team under Kapil’s leadership, and a lot of love and support from our customers, partners, investors, friends and families. Thank you so much for having supported us along the way. It means the world to us.

Quick Commerce is still thriving in many markets! As we know, Quick Commerce per se is still finding its feet after a turbulent few years, and whereas a standalone rapid grocery delivery service will always struggle in mature (eCom/ Bricks and Clicks) markets like the UK, in many developing markets Q-Comm is still a big opportunity for many brands. Great thing is we can learn from our (decades of!) successful eCom history in these established markets and apply the key learnings to make Q-Comm work elsewhere. How well are you transferring your eCom knowledge across borders and subchannels? If you feel it could be a bit less turbulent and bit more rapid then please get in touch. #quickcommerce #zepto #ecommerce #developing #mature https://lnkd.in/eFzm4m_w?

There seems to be no stopping the quick-commerce juggernaut, at least in the key cities. Redseer Strategy Consultants in a recent report - https://lnkd.in/eAzqFG54 - believes that the q-comm space will grow by 75-85% to $6Bn GMV by FY25, on the back of 5Mn new monthly transacting users ! And to top it, existing users will spend 20% more on such platforms !! Users are expected to hit 20Mn MTU by FY26, with majority of new users expected to come from the top 30-50 cities. With rising expectations, it will interesting to see how the various players work towards ensuring an even better overall experience for the end consumers. #quickcommerce #India #retail

Takealot’s route to profitability in clear view! Takealot Group produced a resilient half-year performance, only dampened by parent Naspers’s reporting in US dollars. Takealot Group, the South African e-commerce business owned by Naspers, produced strong growth in the six months to 30 September, months before the expected launch of Amazon.com’s retail operations in the local market. According to the half-year financial results from Naspers and its European-listed subsidiary, Prosus, Takealot Group, which includes Takealot.com, Mr D and online fashion outlet Superbalist.com, saw gross merchandise value (GMV) and revenue grow by about 15% and 10%, respectively, year on year, in rand terms. “The business continues to deliver acceleration in e-commerce growth in the country”, said Takealot Group CEO Mamongae Mahlare. “While Takealot Group is not yet profitable at a trading profit level, strong momentum towards profitability has been made through Takealot.com’s business operations, which are generating more revenue than they cost to run. This is a clear indication that the business health is solid, with profitability at an operating level.” Amazon’s impending entry into the local e-commerce market is keeping the Naspers-owned platform on its toes. This is in spite of headwinds faced by retailers in South Africa, including high interest rates, inflation and load shedding. An increase in e-commerce-related crimes has also had a negative impact. #ecommerce https://lnkd.in/d3hMvkc5