"Rent is the New Customer Acquisition Cost"
(from the Business of Fashion)

‍

‍

What we learned:

While digital marketing channels (e.g. Google and Instagram))increasingly evolve into sales channels, the role of physical stores may go the other way: from a sales to a marketing channel. As writer Doug Stephens asserts:

“...physical retail is no longer simply a product distribution strategy — it’s a customer acquisition strategy or which there is an inherent and attributable return of value.”

‍

Read the full article here.

‍

‍

"Shopify and the Power of Platforms"
(via Ben Thompson's Stratechery blog)

‍

‍

What we learned: 

Both Shopify and Amazon create ecosystems around them. But only one tries to capture the value from its ecosystem through intermediation. In this article, Ben Thompson differentiates Platforms and an Aggregators.

Read the full article here.

‍

‍

"20+ stats that show how online retail is changing"
(From eConsultancy)

‍

‍

What we learned:

Here are two of several arresting statistics from the article.

- A full 96% of US online shoppers buy on marketplaces

- A survey on the go-to sites for online shoppers yields a surprising result: eBay ranks among the least popular!

Read the full article here.