June 21, 2011
By the ZippyCart Content Team

Google Ventures and AOL Ventures announced Monday that they are supplying a new ecommerce solution called Shopobot with seed funding. Shopobot is an online ecommerce solution that allows consumers to track fluctuating prices from online retailers for products ranging from cameras and TVs to laptop computers and iPods. When prices go up or down, Shopobot members are notified and linked to the new price.

The site is currently in beta and sports a very simple user interface. You choose what products you’re interested in tracking. Then, Shopobot comes up with a list of featured items from your selection. When looking at a Macbook Pro, for example, Shopobot shows you a nice, clean graph that displays the online price fluctuation of the past 30 days for both new and used items.

When taking a closer look at the products detailed page, you can view details on the price changes and the current pricing trend. The little Shopobot mascot resides at the top of the page, giving you a thumbs up or a thumbs down based on recent price changing activity.

Shopobot could develop as a useful tool for economists. By tracking retail prices, economists can analyze purchasing trends and help retailers to adjust their online business plans to be more successful. The site crawls the top 12 online ecommerce sites, including Amazon.com, Newegg.com and Wal-Mart.

Similar to online stock market utilities, consumers using Shopobot will be able to set a price warning when an item they are tracking falls below a certain price. So if you’re looking to buy an iPod Touch, but don’t want to pay more than say $200 for it, Shopobot will alert you when that item falls below your price limit on, for example, Amazon.com.

Ultimately, Shopobot is an ecommerce solution to a complicated problem. Online retailers change their prices constantly, sometimes many times in a week. They like to experiment with different price-points, and consumers often reside on the losing end of that experiment. The founders of Shopobot want to take the guesswork out of when to buy, and offer consumers insight to how online retailers set their prices.

June 15, 2011
By the ZippyCart Content Team

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Amazon is all over the map. They know how to diversify. One day they’re touting the most literate cities in the United States, then the next we see top selling Blu-Ray DVDs shoot to the top of the list. Talk about mixed messages. Recently we heard that more users were putting electronic books into their shopping carts on Amazon than actually buying real ones, now it’s all about Mac downloads and Android Apps and watching Blu Ray discs, even as they push forward with their own print publications.

Can you do both? Maybe they want you to put on a movie while you read your Kindle, you know, for background noise. Whatever your reasons for putting any of these titles in your shopping carts, odds are you won’t be sorry.

First up is Avatar, James Cameron’s sprawling, epic, environmental-sci-fi-fantasy extravaganza. Whether you put it in your shopping cart for the environmental message, the science fiction action, or you just like blue cat people, this flick had something appealing for just about any moviegoer. The box office receipts spoke to that, raking in close to 3 billion dollars in combined revenue since it was release in 2009. More than a year and a half later it’s still going strong. Like any big-name release, there are multiple versions to take advantage of, with the top choice being the “Three-Disc Extended Collector’s Edition + BD-Live.”

The latest installment in Disney’s runaway “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, On Stranger Tides is still doing its thing at the box office, but the Five-Disc Combo (Blu-ray 3D / Blu-ray / DVD / Digital Copy) package is already getting a lot of attention on their ecommerce solution. Fans of Johnny Depp and action on the high seas are preordering this hefty bit of pirate booty and filling their Amazon shopping carts in advance to secure their treasure against late-coming scallywags.

Consumers looking for an even more kid-friendly selection need look no further than the Steve Carell computer-animated star-vehicle Despicable Me. Available in a Three-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo with Digital Copy, it’s perfect for families on the go who want to display the film on a portable DVD player, in-car system, or iPod video (or any other product that plays videos and can keep a small child entertained).

More mature viewers who are fans of westerns, action, and the Coen Brothers will want to put their remake of  True Grit into their shopping carts. Also available with the Blu-ray/DVD Combo and a digital copy, whatever form of media you prefer, Amazon has you covered. Those same viewers will probably be in the right demographic to take advantage of Back to the Future: 25th Anniversary Trilogy. This comprehensive collected version of what might be Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd’s crowning contribution to modern cinema also includes a digital copy, so that in the future, when current forms of media like Blu-Ray players become obsolete, you can still count on playing your copy.

June 14, 2011
By the ZippyCart Content Team

eCommerce solutions Facebook and Groupon can easily claim the title of being two of the heaviest hitters on the web. Between their IPOs, billion dollar valuations, and market domination, the two companies have grown in leaps and bounds in the past couple of years. However, recent user numbers and criticism suggest a change in attitude.

For Facebook and Groupon, is this the  dawning of a new age?

Facebook: Evolving into an ecommerce software platform for musicians and merchants, a looming IPO, and boasting nearly 700 million users —  has Facebook become too big for its own good?

Although the site continues to grow worldwide, it’s current 1.7% growth is attributed to developing markets like Brazil, Mexico, and Thailand who are just getting on the social media band wagon. Meanwhile, Facebook is seeing its biggest user decline in countries that have adopted it the quickest. Data taken from Inside Faceboook reveals almost 6 million Americans abandoned the site in May, falling from 155.2 million to 149.4 million by the end of the month. Canada dropped 1.52 million users while those in the United Kingdom, Norway, and Russia are each seeing losses of more than 100,000.

“By the time Facebook reaches around 50 percent of the total population in a given country (plus or minus, depending on internet access rates in that country), growth generally slows to a halt,” stated Inside Facbook’s Eric Eldon.

Considering Facebook’s activity in the last couple months, there are other possible factors contributing to the decline. In May, Facebook upped its security features that were designed to protect user accounts from malware and hacking. Just earlier this month a facial recognition system that automates photo tagging has stirred up controversy as to whether or not Facebook had gone too far.  And don’t forget the masses of users who randomly deactivate and then reactivate their accounts. The culmination may prove to be reason enough. Love it or hate it, Facebook is just too hard to quit.

Groupon: Filing for an IPO, increased vertical growth, and an over-saturated market — has Groupon become too much of a good thing?

The novelty of the Groupon is great, it introduces people to new types of businesses through a deep discount, and although this leads to great exposure for a company, it is also cultivating a “love ‘em and leave ‘em” type of consumer behavior. Customers love a discount, but will leave when the discount is gone in order to move to the next business, simply because they can afford to do it with a different deal offered each day.

Referring to an old adage, “Give a man a fish you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime.” Groupon has clearly shown marketing success by driving large amounts of traffic to participating businesses, however in this economy, Groupon may be in a place where its signed merchants are just being fed fish. One major question surfacing on the web these days is just how much of the increased traffic is turned into repeat business?

What could be Groupon’s fatal flaw is that it doesn’t offer a brand shield to protect its signed merchants from being destroyed by a whirlwind discount that only brings a momentary sense of financial satisfaction.

As such, when the economy and major markets are in full upswing again, Groupon’s greatest allies — vendors, retailers and the like, could possibly turn against them and not want the daily deals sector to be a part of their brand or business identity. Perhaps, Groupon seems to be in rapid growth mode as a way to keep ‘getting while the getting is good.’

June 10, 2011
By the ZippyCart Content Team

The biggest announcement to come out of Cupertino may not be the new plans for Apple’s UFO-shaped headquarters or the latest releases from the World Wide Developer’s Conference like the iOS 5, iCloud, or the astonishingly low priced OS X Lion for $29.99, but rather a sweater. Steve Job’s sweater to be exact. The latest ecommerce craze that has Jobs fans filling their shopping carts and shutting down online storefronts is Steve Jobs’ signature black cashmere sweater – seriously.

One of these years is not like the other ones, which year is it?

After the big WWDC keynote speech on Monday, many were left wondering about the developing future of Apple’s technology and how it will affect key competitors like Amazon and Google, while a select few were wondering just who designed his sweater. Wonder no more you select few, Techcrunch first got word from German luxury fashion house, Vonrosen, that the cashmere sweater is featured on their European flash site and that people can put it in their shopping carts to don the same Jobs fashion for a rough $616 (jeans, sneakers, and black mock neck not included).

Steve Jobs’s signature black sweater is like the Wilson to Tom Hanks in Castaway. It has taken its own runaway identity so much so that Vonrosen has reported that due to the overwhelming number of orders, as of Wednesday the company was no longer able to take any future orders. Apparently, everyone wants to look like Steve Jobs.

A quick apples to apples comparison:

iPhone: $300
iPod: $400
iPad 2: $629
Copping Steve Job’s black sweater: priceless $616

However, not to be outdone, fans of rich CEOs can also parody Mark Zuckerburg’s look on faux online shop, MarkbyMarkZuckerburg.com. Rather than shelling out $616 for a sweater, shoppers can put a $23 white t-shirt or a pair of Adidas flip flops into their shopping carts.

Sure you may not be rich like Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerburg but at the very least, you can look like them (and even own a Steve Jobs bobblehead!).

June 3, 2011
By the ZippyCart Content Team

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and it can be assumed quite profitable when executed correctly. Consider Groupon and LivingSocial, Amazon and Apple, Google and Microsoft, these are considerably some of the oddest couples on ecommerce software platforms, yet they manage to coexist in the same space, a space that is marked by the constant need to one-up each other for market domination and profit.

Manhattan-based eyewear fashion house Warby Parker is no stranger to this kind of tumultuous relationship, as it leads the way in selling designer glasses that people can afford and would want to wear. Now launching in the same playing field comes a collaboration between online fashion retailer Bluefly, and eyewear manufacturer A & D Labs, dubbed Eyefly.

Eyefly offers a rather extensive collection of in-house designed frames for men and women that boasts a style that is Italian-inspired with the sensibility of a New Yorker on its ecommerce software platform. Eyefly glasses are presented as fashion accessories like a pair of shoes or a handbag, rather than those troublesome spectacles a person pulls out to read the label on the side of a cereal box. On the same site customers can pick out their eyewear, they can also read Eyefly’s fashion suggestions on what outfit or accessory would pair best with their new specs.

Eyefly could be easily be Warby Parker’s brother from another ecommerce software mother in fashion and in operations. Both companies take the role of providing fashionable glasses that people can afford. Relatively priced the same way, Eyefly offers its goods for $99 while Warby Parker takes on a $95 price tag for its prescription lenses. And while both companies run on ecommerce software platforms, Eyefly and Warby Parker offer an interactive boutique experience that lets its customers virtually try on its glasses using a webcam or uploading a picture from their desktops, mimicking an in-store trip. Eyefly brands this experience as the “FittingBox” while Warby Parker simply calls this the “Virtual Try-On” option. However, Warby Parker may have the edge as it allows its customers to receive up to five frames to be mailed home to try on (not to mention, for every pair bought on its site, another is donated to someone in need).

Although Eyefly’s ace up the sleeve could very well be its celebrity endorsement, and whenever a celebrity backing is in play, competition is sure to be stiff. Eyefly boasts high-profile clients like Kanye West, Alexa Chung, Justin Timberlake, and Jay-Z to name (drop) a few. To give Eyefly credit, the aforementioned happen to be serious trend setters in the fashion industry (from Vogue to pop music) and notorious for commanding the public’s attention who also want to mimic their signature swagger.

For now, Warby Parker just may remain ahead of Eyefly as it has the advantage of being first out the gate, has an established following over a year, and perhaps offering its specs $5 less is enough to seal the deal. Eyefly has a lot of traction to make up but of course, with any new site with legs, it’s just a matter of time till we see how the playing field levels out.

May 20, 2011
By the ZippyCart Content Team

This week, luxury flash sales giant Gilt Groupe launched Gilt Taste in beta, an online marketplace for artisanal products and ingredients. Gilt Taste marks the company’s foray into the gourmet food world and what seems to be a glimpse into a new business model being tested out on Gilt’s main ecommerce software platform — offering luxury goods at full price.

American Paddlefish Caviar $222 for an assortment

Although the flash sales model has been the core of Gilt’s primary business, the company has been developing plans to spread into full-priced categories. Gilt users may be surprised by Gilt Taste as it is not the ordinary company vertical. Gilt Taste is designed to look more than just an ecommerce site and is rather reminiscent to an epicurean’s editorial delight.

The company brought on former Gourmet Magazine Editor Ruth Heichl to be the editorial advisor for Gilt Taste. The site boasts recipes from New York Times columnist Melissa Clark, a personal essay from James Beard Award winner Barry Estabrook, high-quality food pictorials, research on ingredients, and brings the new generation of American farmers to the forefront, with the promise to also include big name restaurant chefs and food writers as content contributors.

As for the ecommerce side of Gilt Taste, consumers can choose from a variety of artisan products ranging from California Caviar ($148 – 2 oz.) to Black Winter Truffle Juice ($112 – 14 oz.) among the many finely curated seafood, meat, cheese and dairy offerings to put into those online shopping carts. In addition, the site will offer limited quantity weekly specials which should begin in the summer (most likely when Gilt Taste comes out of beta) and perhaps is a way to appease the Gilt consumers who have grown accustom to the deep discounts the company has offered on the verticals currently on its ecommerce software platform. At press time, a number of its offerings were already sold out.

However as impressive of a collaboration of food experts and writers Gilt brings into Gilt Taste, the brand does face strong competition from other artisanal food sites attempting to carve out a space in this trending niche.

San Francisco-based Daily Gourmet brings the same mission for finely curated artisanal products but with a nutritional twist. The site brought on nutritional expert Stacy Goldberg to lead Daily Gourmet’s blog and answer diet related questions. The site follows a flash sales model offering discounted and limited quantity products, sales usually last 3 days.

Often compared as the Etsy for foodies, Foodzie offers selected products curated from local producers and farmers with a focus on sustainable foods. Also San Francisco-based, this company may have a firmer grasp on the foodie helm since it launched back in 2008.

Other notable sites includes Trisse and OneKingsLane who have modeled themselves as members only brands and echos discounts that would be expected of Gilt Groupe verticals.

Gilt Taste boasts a talented team to create a sophisticated, culinary destination site, however with the deep prices not traditional to Gilt’s core business model, it will be interesting how the company’s loyal users adapt to its new offering of artisanal products when other destinations, like the aforementioned, are operating the way Gilt Taste would be expected to.

May 13, 2011
By the ZippyCart Content Team

In an act that makes Facebook look like the jealous girlfriend not getting all the attention, the social network giant took to a PR company to “smear” Google’s privacy policy reputation. Meanwhile, Google closes on one of its best weeks ever this year with its must-like, must-tweet event to date: Google I/O 2011.

Google I/O 2011 in all its glory!

Let’s take a look at this year’s highlights, as many of us were not able to attend the conference as it sold out in a record of 59 minutes! Google I/O 2011 had those out in the ecommerce blog-o-sphere wiping virtual drool from their screens as they lived vicariously through the attendees who took to the web to share all the new gadgets, software and hardware expected to roll out this year.

Google announces the hopeful fix to platform fragmentation with Android 3.4. The new Android version is deliciously called Ice Cream Sandwich. The new OS, which has no launch date yet but expected in Q4, will have Near Field Communication (NFC) capabilities, merge elements from merge Android 2.3 and  Android 3.1 Honeycomb User Interface (UI), such as sliding widgets, holographic UI, face recognition, and a task launcher.

The new platform called Android @ Home will allow users to control a household right from the comforts of an Android device.

Google implemented a new revenue sharing model for the Chrome Web Store, that gives developers 95% of the profits.  The Android Market will be redesigned to offer larger app sizes and more sophisticated app options. There will also be Editors badges to filter out the junk apps.

Google is expanding into a multimedia company with Google Music Beta and Google Movies. Google Music Beta is a cloud-based music player pre-loaded with 20,000 songs. The service is designed only for Android devices, however, the music industry’s response has been less than satisfactory as Google hastily moved forward without establishing any partnerships with any record labels in order to compete with Amazon and Apple. Google Movies allows users to rent flicks from the Android Market and stream them onto any Android device.

Two Chrome notebooks were announced. One from Asus, and another by Samsung, will be sold by Best Buy and Amazon in the US starting June 15. Companies can replace their old laptops with Chrome notebooks for just $28 per month, per user.

If you use Chrome or the new Chrome OS, you can also install Angry Birds and play inside your browser both off and online!

Last but not least, if you are a friend of, or know someone who attended the conference, Google was making it rain swag (some of which is already being sold online)!

The 5,000+ Freebies:
Chrome Notebooks
Sony Xperia Play smartphone
Unreleased  Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
Verizon 4G LTE Mi-Fi device
Android Open Accessory Development Kit

May 10, 2011
By the ZippyCart Content Team

Flash sales company, Gilt Groupe, has joined the billion dollar valuation club after recently closing a $138 million round of funding led by Japan-based Softbank Group. Since Gilt’s launch in 2007, the company has raised $240 million to date.

This is what a $1 billion valuation looks like

As part of the deal, Softbank will invest $62.5 million in Gilt and form a joint venture with the company’s Japanese site, which will give Softbank a total of 50 percent stake in the newly formed Gilt Groupe Japan. The joint venture will bring the increasingly popular ecommerce solution, flash sales model into Japan’s untouched territory.

Other investors who participated in this massive round include Goldman Sachs, New Enterprise Associates, Draper Fisher Jurvetson Growth, Pinnacle Ventures, TriplePoint Capital, Eastward Capital, General Atlantic and Matrix Partners.

The fresh capital will be use for various growth initiatives including acquisitions, expanding existing verticals and developing new business ventures. However, the big cash infusion may be a precursor to a highly anticipated initial public offering.

Gilt’s current portfolio includes a variety of lucrative verticals featuring its largest, women’s and men fashion; followed by Gilt Jetsetter, vacation and travel; Gilt children, children’s apparel and goods; Gilt Home, designer home decor; and Gilt City, local services and experiences.

Although the flash sales model has been the core of Gilt’s primary business, the company will be shifting to full-priced categories on its ecommerce software platform, with an upcoming menswear shop slated for a summer launch and gourmet food site, Gilt Taste expected in July. However, as the company evolves its offerings, it will remain true to its singular identity as a provider of luxury goods across categories.

What will be Gilt’s next vertical? Gilt CEO Kevin Ryan explains the company’s method for new verticals come from basic testing. If the trial flash sale does well on a specific category, then the company will further explore it.

Gilt had previously dabbled in pet sales but as the method shows, it did not provide the right traffic to become a vertical mainstay. Gilt is currently dabbling in the pop-up restaurant trend. In honor of the James Beard Awards, the company has been selling seats to the foundation’s pop-up restaurants, Gilt is now rumored to be in development of its own pop-up restaurant which could very well be part of the company’s new category development.

Gilt currently has a firm grasp in the flash sales market as it has made the first mark in the U.S. However, this is an industry taking off with many big name competitors to look out for. Companies like Exclusively.In, Ideeli, Amazon’s MyHabit, and Nordstrom’s Hautelook, have all recently entered the flash sales space but perhaps, the one company to look out for this year is Vente Privée, the European flash sales pioneer. It has been rumored Vente Privée will look to enter the U.S. market within the next nine months but will be starting fresh in a territory dominated by Gilt. The entrance of more flash sales site will naturally spur on healthy competition which will lead to the development of more opportunities and verticals for growth, and with $138 million fresh dollars to play with, Gilt has that many more reasons to do so.

May 4, 2011
By the ZippyCart Content Team

Never one to let the grass grow under their feet, the folks at Amazon have launched their very own members-only, daily deals, fashion-related ecommerce solution, named “My Habit.” My Habit will follow the same formula as other daily deals fashion companies, like Gilt Groupe and Hautelook: users sign up to become members, and then are clued into to an exclusive, deep-discount deal every day or week (or whatever time period the company uses). They then have that much time to get in on the deal.

Some of these ecommerce solutions are so exclusive that you can’t get in without an invite from an existing user. Currently My Habit is open to anyone, but who knows how long that will last. It’s natural for an Amazon product (or any new product) to be open and try to draw as many people in as quickly as possible, especially with Jeff Bezos’ renowned “get big fast” philosophy.

The daily deals space is increasingly crowded, however, with the recent roll out of Google Offers and Facebook Deals. Fashion daily deals sites like Gilt Groupe, Hautelook, and ideeli (just to name a few, and I do mean a few) already have an established following, name recognition, and big back catalogues of members and designers.

Also: doesn’t Amazon already have their own branded daily deals program? (Answer: Yes. It’s called Woot.). Not to mention Amazon’s acquisition of Living Social. This doesn’t even take into account niche daily deals providers like Thwipster and the ever-present looming shadow of Groupon that towers over almost any daily deals program.

Still, as the biggest ecommerce solution on the web, with almost 10 billion dollars in sales last year, if they want to stick their toe into the daily deals water, shark infested as it is, that’s their choice. Given their track record for success, they just might emerge with a necklace made out of shark’s teeth around their neck.

May 3, 2011
By the ZippyCart Content Team

To the clouds!

In a move that seems to draw the battle lines even further between ecommerce solution giants Amazon and Apple, Amazon announced that the company has dropped the price of its bestselling mp3s from $0.89 to $0.69. This may be the company’s attempt to gain ground in digital sales for its recently launched Amazon Cloud Player service against its leading competitor Apple’s iTunes store.

Amazon has been chasing Apple for some time now (remember the ongoing Appstore and App Store trademark mess?), as the company constantly remains in a distant second behind with only 10 percent of the digital music market share, while Apple boasts a 70 percent hold. As of now, 52 of the 100 mp3’s on Amazon’s best selling list, including Katy Perry’s “E.T.”, Jennifer Lopez’s “On the Floor” and Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” have been reduced to $0.69 in Amazon’s ecommerce solution while they remain at $1.29 on iTunes’ shopping carts.

In addition to this price cut, Amazon is making more efforts to push its Cloud Drive to the public before Apple enters the market with its own service rumored to be called iCloud and have its own music player. Currently Amazon’s Cloud Drive stores music, videos, photos, and documents on the company’s servers, which is where the future of data storage is shifting to and is becoming a trend to watch, as other big players like Microsoft have also made plans to take advantage of the benefits of the Cloud.

For a limited time, Amazon offers its users 5GB of storage for free on its Cloud Drive, which is upgradeable to 20GB with the purchase of any Amazon MP3 album through the music side of their ecommerce solution, or from 20GB up to 1TB at $1 per gigabyte.

However something in the air, so to speak, says an Apple announcement for “iCloud” is not that far behind with the Worldwide Developers Conference set for June 6-10 in San Francisco. This is an event that has always been a platform Apple uses to make its major summer announcements for its upcoming products of the year,which will most likely unveil Mac OS X Lion. Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, Philip Schiller, lead on (as Apple likes to do) in a March 28 statement on Apple’s website, that the conference will unveil the future of iOS and Mac OS which is rumored to be heavily built around the cloud.

Amazon’s current tactics could attract more users but it has yet to be determined if these users become dedicated to the company’s Cloud services or just biding their time until Apple releases its own cloud offering. Until then, Amazon has one small foot forward and as the market shows, any step ahead is one step behind for competitors.

April 29, 2011
By the ZippyCart Content Team

Oh Facebook, what aren’t you trying to do these days? It seems the buzz phrase of today is ‘daily deals,’ and although Facebook is properly positioned to be a key player in this space, another site entering the daily deal market is one played out song (oh, hi there Google Offers). However, Facebook is no newbie, which makes the recent launch of “Facebook Deals” on its own ecommerce platform a bit of a revival in the deal space. 

Can I haz dollar?

This week Facebook rolled out its deals to five test markets beginning with Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco. The social networking giant brings a different spin to discounted activities and focuses on deals that people would most likely do with their friends, keeping along the lines of its bread and butter– being entirely social. Rather than seeing deals about teeth whitening, Facebook will bring offers that are more like river rafting, wine tasting, and concerts.

Users can access these deals through a button on their Facebook page. Browsing through the deals, users can either “like” or share offers with their network, which will also show up in their news feeds. Users can pay with a credit card, PayPal or for the first time, with virtual currency using Facebook Credits. The virtual currency is good to obtain a voucher that is then used to buy the deal.

April 28, 2011
By the ZippyCart Content Team

Jeer or cheer, Apple may have just pulled a one-up over mobile fiends by releasing the elusive white iPhone 4 today (gasp!). This means that those patient Apple fans (or what is left of them) can finally put a white iPhone into their online shopping carts. 

It's really here! No, really!

ZippyCart last reported that the white iPhone was just another rumble in the Apple rumor mill due to a suspicious removal of all the phone’s SKUs and product images from its US and international sites, leaving many out in tech-land to assume it would not be going into shopping carts at all.

Apple initially planned to sell both black and white versions back at the original launch in June 2010. However, the company revealed in a statement that the white models were more challenging to manufacture from getting the right white coloring, the screen leaking light, and on and on down the list.

Furthermore, what seemed to really put a kebosh to a white model was the announcement that the iPhone 5 was [rumored] to be launching this fall. Well the goods news is (a cruel 10-months later) the white iPhone 4 is no longer this mythical creature that kids dream about at night, but rather a product currently sitting on Best Buy, Apple, and other retail shelves. Fool us once Apple…

The white model will be served up with both Verizon/CDMA and AT&T/GSM capabilities. It will function exactly like the black iPhone 4 and carry the similar price tags– $199 for the 16 GB model and $299 for the 32 GB model with a two-year service contract. Analysts expect the white iPhone to increase sales between 1 to 1.5 million per quarter till the actual release of the iPhone 5 which begs the question– really?

Mulling over the idea as to why at this point there is still any hype about this phone may come from the ‘is it or isn’t it coming’ online fodder that has kept the “great white hope” alive. Just to stir up a little trouble, this could also be Apple’s way of distracting the masses from the iPhone ‘bug’ that is tracking and recording people’s every move debacle. Now users can have a white iPhone that tracks and records their every move.

A majority of savvy smart phone users may just pass over the white phone entirely to hold out for an iPhone 5. This is coming from someone who patiently waited 10 months for a white iPhone and has been living in no-smartphone land, waiting another few months for a brand new version will not hurt.

Will you be putting a white iPhone in your shopping cart or wait (some more) for the iPhone 5 debut?

April 28, 2011
By the ZippyCart Content Team

Amazon.com, the web’s largest-grossing ecommerce solution, is showing profits slightly below earlier predictions. Despite bringing in a reported net sales of $9.86 billion (which was up 38 percent, beating analysts’ expectations of $9.54 billion), its profits fell 33 percent to 44 cents per share. There were many reasons for this discrepancy, namely operating expenses that exceeded $9.5 billion! For some comparison, that’s up from $6.7 billion in the same quarter last year.

That’s a huge jump year-over-year. What could be the cause of it? Well, if you’ve been following the news surrounding Amazon’s recent hiring surge, you know that the growing ecommerce solution has been bringing on new employees at a staggering rate. Last year they reported 26,100 employees. This year they are declaring 37,900 – that’s an increase of 45%, with 4,200 people added in just the last three months! That kind of rapid growth is staggering. Any organization of any size facing an influx of personnel that large is bound to experience some growing pains and the way pain is expressed in companies like this is via money.

Some ask why the web’s biggest ecommerce solution (almost 10 billion in sales last year!) needs/needed to hire so many people so quickly. Jeff Bezos has the answer (as he often does) and it seems to hearken back to his mantra of “get big fast”:

“In the last 90 days, we announced Kindle with Special Offers, Kindle Library Lending, Audible audiobooks on Kindle, Appstore for Android, Amazon for Windows Phone 7, Checkout by Amazon in both Germany and the U.K., a Kindle Store in Germany, Cloud Drive, Cloud Player, and Prime Instant Video – just to call out a few”

That’s not even mentioning the substantial price break on the Kindle DX that they just let drop last week. This all adds up to a company laying the foundation for even more growth in the next year. Says industry analyst Ken Sena, of Evercore Partners in New York, if you’re buying stock in Amazon right now:

“You’re really not buying [it] for the profitability. You’re buying it because you like the online growth story…When you think about their overall opportunity and how big it is, they’re doing the right thing.”

April 26, 2011
By the ZippyCart Content Team

If it hasn’t been splattered on enough television sets, gossip mags, or headline news these days, wedding season is upon us and in full force. This year, many major retailers have expanded their ecommerce software platforms to open up online bridal boutiques selling everything for the bride-to-be to fulfil wedding dreams. New York-based private flash sales site Exclusively.In, specializing in Indian-inspired luxury goods and services, is the latest ecommerce site to enter the wedding industry, filling the Indian wedding niche with its new online boutique, Exclusively.In Weddings. 

Exclusively.In's Designs for Indian Weddings

The Indian wedding niche is one that has yet to be conquered by retailers in the U.S. It is recognized as one of the fastest growing and most lucrative niches in its industry as Indian weddings are often celebrated for three days with multiple ceremonies and wardrobe changes.

Exlusively.In has provided a way for those who want to experience an authentic Indian wedding without having to travel outside the U.S and most importantly for any bride, not breaking the bank to do so. The company has partnered with big name Indian designers like Ritu Kumar, Payal Singhal, Shyamal & Bhumika, and Satya Paul. The new boutique will offer bridal lenghas, men’s sherwanis, bridesmaid outfits, and kundan wedding jewelry sets to put into those online shopping carts.

Although Exclusively.In is niche specific, the global bridal-wear market is forecast to reach $56.5 billion in the US by the year 2015. This means that even catering to a narrow consumer base, competition still looms on a broader scale with ecommerce software sites offering what any type of bride wants: deep discounts.

Similar ecommerce site, Gilt Groupe, had launched a flash sales bridal boutique called Wedding Shop in mid April. The majority of the items sold out within hours and included off-the-runway dresses from chic designers like Reem Acra, Temperley, and Vera Wang. The success of the sale may be a precursor to a designated online boutique however, Gilt may stick with its pop-up model to further its demand.

Bridal group buying site, Bust My Budget, has created a place in the daily deal market by offering goods and services related to bridal needs. The startup is still in its early stages but is gaining notoriety for leveraging that bridal keyword– discount.

Urban Outfitters launched its own online bridal boutique, BHLDN, and is gearing up to open brick and mortar locations in August. The BHLDN style is a take on its brand Anthropology and offer reasonably priced bridal wear ranging from $1000 – $4000.

Exclusively.In seems to be making its mark, in addition to its niche focus, by serving up its wedding boutique as a designated, ecommerce destination rather than its other verticals that follow the flash sales model. With the big Royal Wedding set for April 29, many brides-to-be will be watching and will mostly likely be inspired to make their own fairytale weddings happen, as such ecommerce software platforms like Gilt Groupe, Bust My Budget, BHLDN, and Exclusively.In Weddings, will be there ready to show brides the discounted way to the wedding of their dreams.