JeffMolander.com

Are merchant selling networks the birth of
‘Social eCommerce?’

by Jeff Molander

There’s an endless amount of silly and illogical hype around Facebook and Twitter — their ability to create a new form of advertising. Forget advertising for a moment: When will e-commerce become socialized? Which companies will actually enable it? eBay’s unbridled success gave birth to an ecosystem of companies that “help sellers sell”… and eBay brings buyers and sellers together around shared interests to gab, blog, review products, etc. But there aren’t any companies out there helping sellers connect with other sellers to create “merchant networks” — with one exception. Not until today have sellers been able to instantly connect with other sellers to expand their own inventory (find new stuff to sell) AND create new sales channels (recruit other sellers as distributors). Check out this short video for the basics and here’s a link to the media release http://pitch.pe/16159

What do you think?

Disclosure:
Jeff Molander is a Board member of, and has strategic interest in, Shopster eCommerce inc.

June 30, 2009

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Aaron Bean
July 1st, 2009 at 11:33 am

Jeff,

Interesting concept. I’m curious, do you have any research from business customers that points to a sincere market need for this product? Or is this simply another innovation from Google because Google has the resources to release it? Just curious to learn more about the fundamental market drivers and customer needs being articulated in the market that drove development of this product.

Thanks,
Aaron

Jeff Molander
July 1st, 2009 at 11:38 am

Hi, Aaron…
Thanks for the thoughts… but I’m unclear on what you’re referring to re: Google as my post and the video do not refer to Google.

Aaron Bean
July 1st, 2009 at 12:29 pm

Maybe I missed something but I thought that Shopster was from Google. Is Shopster a stand-alone company with no relationship to Google?

Jeff Molander
July 1st, 2009 at 5:54 pm

Hi, Aaron…
Correct, Shopster eCommerce Inc. is in no way connected to or associated with Google.

That stated, your question re: market demand is a great one. Yes, there seems to be market demand among a wide array of retailers large (mid-tier household brands) and small (eBay Power Sellers).

Think of it this way: know anyone selling on the Web who wouldn’t mind opening up their sales distribution network with like-minded *merchants*? (not “affiliates” who hand out coupons or arbitrage search demand)

The problem, thus far, has been connecting with other suppliers in a seamless way to make it happen — manage the back office using a reliable drop-ship model featuring quality (vetted) merchants (with strong reputations for delivering product).

Personally, I’ve strolled the isles at conferences and found there to be tremendous demand. The real challenge has been getting things going and then managing the reputation of sellers (again, think eBay).

Aaron Bean
July 1st, 2009 at 7:36 pm

Got it, thanks for the clarification Jeff. Sounds like there’s quite a bit of demand and the distinction between other merchants and affiliates is a key one.