Great insights! We are building a platform to bring sellers/importers of gasoline and diesel fuels with logistics companies and service station retailers who buy in bulk volumes. In a Nigerian market that is highly fragmented and price opaque, how do you view the play in the market?
Very interesting article but I wonder whether aggregator differentiation could be the difference between success and failure on platforms such as Amazon rather than just the highest bidder? Take Branded for example, https://joinbranded.com/, they have an approach of working alongside the store owner rather than a complete buyout which might be favourable for those who have built their store from nothing and not quite ready to let go entirely. If all aggregators are pushing for price with no differentiation then indeed those late to the party will have little gains but if they bring something different to the offer then I do think they might be able to find success.
Sure, it seems very likely that the new aggregators will try to find a differentiation angle. However, our point is that will be much harder on Amazon than on Shopify (see the OpenStore quote) - there is inherently less scope for differentiation on Amazon. Doesn;t mean that some aggregators won't find some clever ways to do it.
I certainly agree that there will be a move to the likes of Shopify which could provide easier wins for some aggregators and with 800,000 businesses on the platform this could be a great move. However, the likes of Etsy and eBay which operate in a similar manner to Amazon but in vastly smaller numbers mean the opportunities are less and thus could be saturated quickly.
It'll be interesting to see how the space pans out and if new aggregators are able to gather market share by diversifying the platforms they focus on and if any decide to avoid Amazon altogether. Great read, look forward to seeing a follow-up as the industry develops.
Didn't know about Vevo/Machinima but sounds plausible indeed. And yes, it should be possible to do just with contracts, but it's also easy to understand why outright acquisitions are an easier carrot for small sellers on big ecommerce platforms. The problem of course is the prices for such sellers are getting bid up to levels that are no longer justifiable.
Great insights! We are building a platform to bring sellers/importers of gasoline and diesel fuels with logistics companies and service station retailers who buy in bulk volumes. In a Nigerian market that is highly fragmented and price opaque, how do you view the play in the market?
I don't know much about this market so not sure I can provide any insights
Very interesting article but I wonder whether aggregator differentiation could be the difference between success and failure on platforms such as Amazon rather than just the highest bidder? Take Branded for example, https://joinbranded.com/, they have an approach of working alongside the store owner rather than a complete buyout which might be favourable for those who have built their store from nothing and not quite ready to let go entirely. If all aggregators are pushing for price with no differentiation then indeed those late to the party will have little gains but if they bring something different to the offer then I do think they might be able to find success.
Sure, it seems very likely that the new aggregators will try to find a differentiation angle. However, our point is that will be much harder on Amazon than on Shopify (see the OpenStore quote) - there is inherently less scope for differentiation on Amazon. Doesn;t mean that some aggregators won't find some clever ways to do it.
I certainly agree that there will be a move to the likes of Shopify which could provide easier wins for some aggregators and with 800,000 businesses on the platform this could be a great move. However, the likes of Etsy and eBay which operate in a similar manner to Amazon but in vastly smaller numbers mean the opportunities are less and thus could be saturated quickly.
It'll be interesting to see how the space pans out and if new aggregators are able to gather market share by diversifying the platforms they focus on and if any decide to avoid Amazon altogether. Great read, look forward to seeing a follow-up as the industry develops.
Re: YouTube, hasn’t this already existed in Vevo/Machinima? Only w contracts instead of acquisitions
Didn't know about Vevo/Machinima but sounds plausible indeed. And yes, it should be possible to do just with contracts, but it's also easy to understand why outright acquisitions are an easier carrot for small sellers on big ecommerce platforms. The problem of course is the prices for such sellers are getting bid up to levels that are no longer justifiable.