Amazon goes direct, the unwrapping experience, and e-tailers moving offline: a look at the top 3 ecommerce trends from Kleiner Perkins’ 2017 Internet Trends Report

“I don’t think retail is dead. Mediocre retail experiences are dead.” -Neil Blumenthal, Co-CEO, Warby Parker

Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker took to the stage at Code Conference to deliver the “most anticipated slide deck of the year", a 355-page report on Internet trends for 2017. Buried among those slides were nuggets of key ecommerce trends: e-tailer success found through customer-first, omnichannel experiences.

Here are the top 3 ecommerce trends from Mary Meeker’s Kleiner Perkins Internet Trends 2017 Report:

Ecommerce For Eats and Entertainment

Shopping online is no longer just about the end product but the experience itself. Ecommerce trends in 2017 show customers subscribing to brands which make the everyday easier, and entertain.

1. Unwrapping boxes is entertainment
   1. Unboxing YouTube top 5 channels, which show online personalities unwrapping their purchases, boast 33MM+ subscribers.
2. Eating in is the new eating out
   1. The top 10 restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area delivering to homes through DoorDash have seen a 45% year-over-year increase, up from 10% two years prior.
3. Grocery shopping is moving online
   1. Consumers are 8x more likely to buy past purchases when prompted with a “Buy It Again” option.

Amazon vs. Wal-Mart Heats Up

As Amazon looks to expand its physical footprint, the world’s largest offline retailer is getting aggressive online and in going direct. And though the company still has a ways to go when competing with Amazon, Wal-Mart—which does not specify revenue—reported a 63% increase in ecommerce sales over the last quarter.   

1. 90% of Americans live within 10 miles of a Wal-Mart
   1. With recent acquisitions of online companies like Modcloth and Moosejaw, Wal-Mart has the upper hand for distribution through saturation of the physical market
2. Amazon: the new leading private-label supplier
   1. As of August 2016, Amazon dominates the market in batteries and is third for baby wipes as a private-label supplier.
3. Amazon moves into the physical marketplace to compete
   1. The e-giant first stretched its physical footprint with Amazon Go, Books, and Locker. Their latest acquisition of Whole Foods moves them into venerated distribution around their upper-income Prime subscribers.

“Amazon did not just buy Whole Foods grocery stores. It bought 431 upper-income, prime-location distribution nodes for everything it does.”
-Dennis K. Berman, Financial Editor, WSJ

E-tailers Move Offline

As Amazon moves to compete with Wal-Mart offline, digitally native brands have also found success closing the on-to-offline loop. According to Kleiner Perkins and Warby Parker’s Co-CEO, ecommerce is trending not to bury retail, but to reward those offering a unified omnichannel brand experience.

Take these examples—retailers taking control of their sales and distribution channels to elevate the customer-first experience:

• Warby Parker customers can schedule eye exams in-person and buy glasses, either on or offline
• Bonobos allows men to try on clothing in-store, and will ship their purchase home
• Lowe’s and Google have teamed up to guide customers around the furniture store with an augmented reality app on mobile phones

Go Direct or Go Home

The power to reach users in new ways is in your hands. With the tools available today you, too, can innovate your omnichannel brand experience by taking control of your sales and distribution channels.

“If you control the customer experience, you control the margin.” –Rick Wilson, President, Miva, Inc.

Miva’s groundbreaking ecommerce software has been used to power more than 100 billion dollars in online sales since 1997. With our integrated ecommerce software, you can manage and facilitate all levels of the supply chain, offering that unified omnichannel brand experience your customers crave.

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