Ecommerce 2.0 is happening now

I just spent the last two days at the Internet Retailer conference, and emerged convinced more than ever that we’ve just scratching the tip of the iceberg with ecommerce opportunities. There are still many more $500m+ revenue ecommerce companies to be built, and many of the people building them were at the show.

A lot of attendees were entrepreneurs running businesses doing single to double digit millions in revenues in categories ranging from diapers to skis, from power tools to blinds. While many had built their technology in house, there really isn’t any need to do that anymore. The sheer volume of vendors who can help with everything from the ecommerce platform to the affiliate and search engine marketing, from alternative payment systems to pick, pack and ship, was just remarkable. An entrepreneur willing to do the work to pick a good category and line up vendors could launch a business with very little technological expertise.

To illustrate the depth and range of vendors to whom you can outsource just about anything, two of the more interesting companies I talked to were PAC Worldwide and Arroweye Solutions.

PAC supplies customized and branded mailing/packaging material to ecommerce vendors. For example, they produce the envelopes that your Netflix DVD’s arrive in. Its a great idea for e-tailers focusing on building a brand and an ongoing relationship with their consumers.

Arroweye allows retailers to sell customized giftcards and greeting cards. A customer can not only buy a giftcard for a friend, but can put their own picture on the card, get it inserted into a custom printed greeting card, and get the whole thing mailed, all from inside the browser. Its an incredible boon for the delinquent gifter, and an additional revenue line for retailers.

Excitingly, many of the vendors work on a SaaS/variable cost basis, so an ecommerce merchant can trial with very low risk (both technological and financial) new functionality whether it be customized gift cards, behavioural marketing (NB Lightspeed is an investor in MyBuys), collaborative filtering, or customer reviews. How very “web 2.0”.

Its definitely a good time to be an ecommerce entrepreneur! I’m interested in hearing from merchants who have passed the $10m sales mark, see real sales momentum, and are looking to raise capital to accelerate growth and address large market opportunities, as well as vendors looking to address a common pain point for etailers.