Shopify has made it easy for starting businesses to build an e-commerce website and many businesses have been using it. It is a great tool to get started with little to knowledge of programming and design needed. More recently the world has developed a strong interest in blockchain and the possibilities of cryptocurrencies. Open Bazaar is a peer-to-peer marketplace where there is no regulation of what can be sold or not whereas Shopify might step in when someone is trying to sell some controversial items. Other than Shopify, Open Bazaar also doesn’t charge a fee to sell or buy using their platform.

When trying to create a marketplace in each of these two platforms, I found that both seem to offer limited customization to brand yourself. It was my first time testing either one.

When you first open the store page, on Shopify you can select different themes while on Open Bazaar you don’t really change much but add products and personalize with the header image.

The store design of Open Bazaar reminds me more of Etsy rather than a more professional looking e-commerce website. In that regard I do prefer what is possible with Shopify’s designs. It looks more clean and professional.

The navigation menu is very easy to set up in Shopify and it looks clean with drop down menus. The navigation menu in Open Bazaar on the other hand is more simple. It is alphabetically ordered, which I think should be optional. Also, every category will appear and you can’t make some of them subcategories.

In both, Shopify and Open Bazaar, I was disappointed with the fact that I wasn’t able to change the layout and colors of buttons for the product page. Also, they only allow pictures to be added, no videos. I find it very unfortunate since videos of products can be so beneficial. I also think it would be better to have ability to go through pictures in Open Bazaar from the first picture that appears and not having to scroll lower to another section.

Trying to recreate the Shopify store on Open Bazaar, I realized that there was no blog feature. You can connect your social platforms but what if you wanted to have a blog with style tips for example? Now, for some companies this is not a concern but some industries could benefit from a blog section.

Another thing that was missing in Open Bazaar was a sale option. In Shopify you can add a previews and new price to imply sale that is shown in the product list page and product page. In Open Bazaar there is an option to add a coupon code but I wasn’t able to actually see it anywhere. The customer has to enter the promo code at checkout but how would he know that there is a coupon? You could publish it on your social platforms or add it to the header image if it is a general discount code for the holidays for example. You could also add the code into the description of each product. If you wanted different items at different discount rates, it would make it difficult and confusing.

Also, in Open Bazaar I added one item to the cart by clicking “BUY NOW” and was not able to close and add an additional item. This seems like it is not suitable right now for businesses where customers often buy more than one item.

Payment is also something where it gets a little difficult with Open Bazaar as they use cryptocurrencies, which are not widely in circulation. Yes, there are a lot of Bitcoins for example out there but it not a common thing for consumers to have. Most people pay online with their credit cards or with PayPal, which works on Shopify.

Nevertheless, Open Bazaar is easier to set up right now because of all of these things. You don’t have to worry about setting up a navigation menu or home page. It is very easy to simply add products to the store. Also, they seem to have a chat function that comes up when you look at another store. But both platforms will give you the basic abilities for e-commerce and are fairly simple.

For now, I like Shopify better in terms of aesthetics because I feel like businesses can customize it a bit easier and create a layout that they want to display. Also, the blog section is a major part that I would want to incorporate in order to keep getting long form content up on the site, receive comments from buyers and with that, be in a dialogue with them.

However, I do think that Open Bazaar could be the new Shopify – if they can do some changes. It hasn’t been out as long so it would be wrong to think that this is the best they can do. I also think that Open Bazaar and Shopify simply serve different people and businesses. If you just want to build an e-commerce website with nice aesthetics, Shopify is better. Most fashion companies for example will care about the look of their e-commerce site. But for others there are other things in the back end to consider.

Depending on the kind of industry your in and products you sell, Open Bazaar might be a lot better for you. Open Bazaar is decentralized and non regulating. For example pharmaceutical companies (mostly indirectly) have to follow HIPAA and the privacy rule, which protects personal health information and medical records. If they want to sell products online, they would benefit from using Open Bazaar as the data collected would not belong to Open Bazaar. On Shopify, data collected is stored on Shopify and third parties can much easier get access to them. Therefore I would choose Open Bazaar  for companies that want to keep their customer’s data more confidential and secure.

On the other hand, the privacy that Open Bazaar offers also means that it is harder for the government to go after scams or illegal trades. The use of cryptocurrencies also makes it impossible to track at the moment where the money comes from and goes. But this has to be figured out for everything Blockchain and cryptocurrency related.

Overall, I think there is a different use and need for each of the platforms. Businesses that are considering Open Bazaar I would assume want it for the back end features, not the design and style. And if you are interested in the benefits of Open Bazaar, you won’t go for Shopify even if it prettier because it is not offering the same in that regard.

“Alexa, what is the weather today?” or “Siri, how long will it take me to get to work today?” are common things we hear today. Now 16% (39 million) of Americans own a smart speaker and 500 million users use Siri. Isn’t that crazy? It has spread like wildfire and will likely become more and more common worldwide.

Smart devices have not only become more popular as a way to communicate and get questions answered, but are expanding into the whole home accessories market with smart lights, locks and other devices that are supposed to be controlled from your phone or a central station in your house.

For consumers this opens new possibilities in terms of letting people in while they’re gone, checking on who is outside from their phone, changing and setting up lights to go at a specific time, etc. It also however, comes with security risks since all those smart devices are usually connected to WiFi. It is based on the assumption that users have a strong WiFi key. There was an incident with Phillips smart lights and also another app for home locks called Nest, where remote control was unavailable to users for some time.

On the other hand, it can also help in the future to have more smart applications in the home. As an example, a smart fridge might be able to tell if your milk is spoiled, you’re running out of coffee and order it automatically to be delivered to your doorstep the next day. Further, a smart toilet might be able to realize and tell you if you are getting sick or should see a doctor. While this might sound like too much information, it can also be helpful for doctors and scientists as they might find out early signs of diseases that they never knew were connected to that disease. And with that maybe some illnesses can be prevented or treated earlier.

There is a project called Hudson Yards in New York that is all about building smart homes as well as a shopping mall in the city. It would be the perfect place to test all of these ideas. However, if you move in there you do have to give up your rights to the data and let them have it in order to get the amenities of the building. This might seem intruding but I am sure there are a lot of people who don’t mind it and want to have a smart home.

For marketers, having a smart home’s information and data on the people living there can also be very beneficial. A building with elevators equipped with big screens has the potential for advertising. And very targeted ads as well since they would have all the data of the people living on a specific floor or even apartment. This would be a huge opportunity to study consumer behavior more!

Of course the costs would have to go down more for all those things in order to have more people use it and be able to collect more data. Also, it obviously comes with security and privacy issues. But I think we can see how this could change a lot in everyone’s life and for a lot of markets.

Today anyone can start a business online. The barrier for entry is so much lower than it used to be without the Internet. Often the starting costs can be minimal if you don’t actually have to have the inventory and labor as retail stores would as well as having the ability to track ads and conversions coming from various online channels.

 

I think it is important for an entrepreneur to hear and learn about other entrepreneurs and success stories as well as failed business ideas. Personally, I like listening to Empire Flippers, a site dedicated to selling and buying websites that generate revenue from Amazon FBA, Affiliate, Dropshipping, and other sources. For some of the sites for sale, they interview the owner and it is always interesting to hear they story and things they think the buyer could improve on, where their traffic comes from etc.

 

How I Build This is also a great podcast where people of established companies discuss how they got started. A pattern you can see is that most of them have tried other business ideas before that failed and that they keep taking risks. No risk, no reward. A lot of people are scared of taking risks but I think only when you do you can accomplish something great. And it is important to realize that it is ok to fail as long as you learn from it and keep going.

 

For your first business you should be aware of the risks and minimize capital loss. It is interesting to see a lot of business being able to run without or very little inventory. It saves you the costs of the inventory as well as costs for storage.

 

While nowadays you can easily start an online business by yourself, it is always good to have other people on board that can bring in different ideas and help with the different aspects of the business. However, I think it is important for an entrepreneur to want to learn from others and learn more skills. If you know a good amount about a lot of different things like marketing channels, supply chain etc. it will help you understand your team and manage them better.

 

Also, for most businesses you will have to do tests for figuring out the best way to get traffic to your site. It will likely take time and just because you have no sales or very little after a few months doesn’t mean the business will fail for sure. Nothing just happens over night. As long as you see growth and improvement, it is a good sign.

The Internet changed everything and gave opportunities to our society that we never had before. Back then people already realized the potential for it and tried finding new ways to make use of it. Now we have hit another revolutionizing and promising technology: Cryptocurrency. It is still fairly new but more and more people believe in it or at least show great interest in its development.

However, the problem with new technologies, especially when it comes to sharing information and making transactions, is that there are no laws or regulations for it for a long time. Even for the internet, most laws that regulate physical businesses don’t actually touch online businesses but are rather extended and tried to be interpreted in that context.

Governments also have trouble figuring out how to regulate cryptocurrency and it is much more difficult because of its anonymous nature. To summarize cryptocurrency, it is based on blockchain, a ledger that records and stores transactions. The most popular cryptocurrency is Bitcoin. You can send and receive Bitcoins that can translate into real world money anonymously and safely through blockchain. Because it is anonymous, law makers can’t track that money and can’t tell if something was a business transaction that should be payed taxes on.

Also, the value of one Bitcoin fluctuates a lot. The value is not based on a company’s revenue, CEO or anything affecting stock prices but is solely based on consumer sentiment. If people trust the currency and think it will be valuable more later, the price of one bitcoin goes up. If there is a lot of fluctuations, people can sure buy and sell Bitcoins like a stock but it is so unreliable because it is not based on news etc. It seems like it is an investment more so than a currency because we can’t really use it in real life if it fluctuates this much. If we buy real world products or services with it, someone might get screwed over by the same amount of Bitcoin not being worth as much the next day as it was when the transaction occurred. Further, a small amount of people might own a big part of all the Bitcoins available, which means that they can influence and manipulate their value easily.

There are some cryptocurrencies that are based on a different currency like the US Dollar. However, this is hard to accomplish in code and also has the problem of not every US Dollar actually being in bank accounts as they are thought to be (because banks keep a record of what you own but can give away your money to someone else as it is assumed that no one will clear their bank accounts all at once).

While having anonymity with transactions is comforting and makes us and our personal information save, there does need to be a way for authorities to be able to check transactions for business transactions or even crime related transactions. It will likely take still a long time to figure that our as well as governments to actually make new laws that cover things like blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Until then what do we do?

Another problem with this is also that Bitcoin needs nodes and their power to be powered by it. Now, miners have the incentive of receiving Bitcoins for their efforts. Miners use strong computing powers to try and solve a block, the person or people that solve that block first, receive 12 Bitcoins (1 Bitcoin is currently worth around $6.000). Companies dedicated to mining have a lot of computers working on a block but a single person can join mining pools with other individuals to have a better chance at cracking the block. The question is, why would those miners keep running their computers and spend money on electricity etc. when there won’t be Bitcoins left to be mined?

There are a lot of opportunities with cryptocurrency but equally as many questions and problems to be solved. How can we stabilize those currencies and stop people with large amounts of Bitcoin to sell or buy a lot at once, manipulating the value? How do we make sure taxes are payed and authorities can track important transactions? Will it even keep running and who will be responsible to keep Bitcoin running?

Security and control are one of the most important components for any business but especially e-commerce when customers are making transactions online. If we want to buy something from an online store, we want our information to be secure and prevent it from being stolen by hackers. Sellers want the same kind of security. Both, sellers and buyers always want control over their information as well as have transparency when it comes to figuring out where something went wrong in the buying/selling process.

Currently there are a lot of sites that have HTTPS, which means that other than HTTP websites, here the messages or any kind of communication between your browser and the website are encrypted. An example how encryption is successfully done is by using public key cryptography, hash digest as well as a digital signature in order to ensure that messages are not readable by other people as well as that the information has not ben tampered with. However, there are many ways and tools to make your website more secure.

The newest development in this industry has been Blockchain, which is a digital ledger in which transactions are made and recorded publicly. With it we can secure anonymity, stop the threat of hackers, transparency and give consumers back their control over their identity.

At the end of the day it is mostly buyers that want to know where the product or items they buy come from. Companies that buy parts for their products to assemble, want to know when and where it came from, who worked on it. Buyers of the end product want to know as well if claims about fair trade and minimum pay are true, if the coffee beans truly come from Hawaii or other products were really made in a specific country, if really no GMOs were used, etc.

But suppliers should also see the benefit of transparency of this level. Only if they give this information to the next buyer, will the buyer truly be able to trust the company and have more reason to work with them long term, perhaps make a better deal.

The whole buying process can be made transparent and with that more efficient. If every company used Blockchain in their supply chain, they could identify faults and errors from the very start of the process and make changes accordingly. Parts of the chain and even specific departments can be held accountable when there are certain problems that are reoccurring like theft or breakage.

The main problem I see for this to come into fruition is figuring out a way to scan each part or product since it will be repackaged and also the implementation of the tools used into each step of the process. For the product scan, it would be best if every product has a unique code, perhaps a NFC sticker with a RFID tag could work, to connect it to blockchain with information about the product and conditions and to easily scan it through boxes without having to go through each product that arrives.

Those tools to scan and upload the information to blockchain need to be implemented into each step, which can be costly for each party as well as warehouses, trucks, etc have to be modified and tested to see if this could work accurately.

If this can be figured out, blockchain definitely presents a game changer in any industry for both, sellers and buyers as well as end consumers.

You want to own a bag from Chanel but can’t afford the retail price. So maybe you look for vintage, pre-owned ones that you can buy for cheaper. However, of course you want to make sure that it is a real Chanel bag and not a knock off. The question is how do you know for sure other than going into a Chanel store and ask after you have bought it?

This question of authenticity goes for a lot of things and a lot of businesses. In any business you need to establish authority, authenticity and trust! Especially in today’s society this has become a big question. This is what most consumers pay attention to when they are considering buying anything, really. From fashion and art to toys for their kids and even laundry machines. People want something that they can trust, from someone that they can trust!

A lot of brands today try to be more transparent and true to their customers, showing them behind the scenes of the business, answering their questions and giving valuable information and advice. However, they have to do more. Yes, showing processes and providing information online and on social platforms are great, but customers really want to see that the brand does and supports, what they say they stand for.

Millennials are the generation that are especially suspicious of brands. They are not as brand loyal and more distrusting than generations before them. Why? Because they grew up with the Internet and it has provided them with the ability to check companies online, see real reviews from other customers, and it has become harder for companies to hide any wrong doing.

When a company does something wrong, they have to act fast because it can go viral very quick and they can’t just remove it, but they have to apologize! When Pepsi released the commercial with Kendall Jenner, depicting all the stereotypes possible and making a mockery of the Black-Lives-Matter Protests, it backfired so quickly, even taking it down a day later, couldn’t save them.

People all over the world can now hold companies accountable for their behavior, actions and products. They can share their experience and feelings about a brand in an instant and companies need to make sure that those people have a pleasant experience that aligns with the brand’s vision.

In high value industries it is even more important to clients that what they spend so much money on, is the real deal. ATO’s new vision for the art market is inspiring and while complicated to understand the idea of blockchain creating a market for artists, it is pushing into a new direction of authenticity and transparency.

It is in a creators interest, may it be the fashion designer or an artist, that their products keep the value they deserve and that the customer can know for a fact that what they are holding is not a fake. It makes me think that all products should have a digital kind of sticker (like the NFC sticker), that is not removable and will always let you know what you own and have. I would think that it would make anyone wanting to purchase a high value item more comfortable in knowing it is there, easy for them to find and access the information without needing an expert. After all, we all want what we payed for.

 

As a customer in store we want to go look through the items for sale and have a easy way to pay at the register, usually with cash or card. It is pretty seamless and easy. Customers want the same seamless experience online. Who wants to go through multiple screens to finally click order now?

Amazon has in my opinion perfected the shopping experience. Of course, most retail websites have made it that when you sign up you don’t have to reenter your address and payment method every time. However, Amazon has become the first destination to search and shop anything you need. For other websites, not everyone will actually make an account but also often check out “as guest” and therefore not save their information for future checkouts.

Further, Amazon offers subscriptions to make it easier for you to keep having essentials handy and they have something called Amazon Dash Buttons. Those are little fobs for different brands that you literally only need to click once and you have ordered the product the Dash Button is associated with. They already have over 150 Dash Buttons.

While the Amazon Dash Button has not been crazy popular so far, I do think it might gain more and more traction. Right now you can get it for $4.99 and also receive $4.99 credit for your first order. I feel like they could get more people using it if they tried giving it for free with an order. For example if I order Tide, why not suggest adding the Dash Button in checkout or even just sending it with my order for free? Of course I don’t know how much it costs them to make these but I think this would make it easier for them to spread the use of it. If people already have it at home, why wouldn’t they use it?

People love convenience and they are lazy. That is why I think Amazon has become so big. You don’t need to visit different stores or sites, you can get almost everything from Amazon and their customer experience is always great. And that’s what people care about: Easy ordering (the less steps the better) and great customer experience with no problems.

Social Platforms Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram are trying to hop on the wagon and try to make shopping faster, easier, simpler. Snapchat’s Visual Search that partners with Amazon

On Instagram they also added shopping links for posts and stories so that people don’t have to search for the product online and go through a more elaborate process. Even the website and app that was available before for bloggers and influencers to tag products (Liketoknow.it) had more steps and clicks to get to the desired product. How it worked was that the consumer could screenshot or “like” a photo that they want to know the products of and they would get an email from liketoknow.it with the information and links. However, sometimes influencers wouldn’t tag every product and so sometimes the one product you wanted to know about would not be listed.

I have used it in the past and exactly that happened and it was frustrating because I went though “so many steps” (at least that’s how it felt) and didn’t even get to know where the shoes were from.

Companies need to realize that the less clicks and steps it takes, the more likely they will be to make conversions and sell products. It is part of a great customer experience.

If you can get to one single click that would be the ultimate goal because that’s what people like and want. It’s what will happen more and more in the future as companies realize and try to be competitive.

You see the perfect birthday dress or this cute swimsuit for your vacation next week and when you try to add it, it says that it is out of stock! Whyyyy!? Yes, we probably have all been a customer that couldn’t get a specific item because they were out of stock. Sometimes you can be added to a waitlist or get a notification once it’s back in stock but what if it is for a special occasion, a vacation next week, etc.?

Companies have come out with a lot of strategies to increase demand and increase sales. They just need to keep in mind that when demand and sales increases, their supply needs to also increase. That is if you don’t brand yourself as being exclusive and only making limited editions and quantities always.

An example of a company that failed to do proper inventory management is Sunny Co Clothing. In summer of 2017 they had a brilliant marketing idea. On Instagram, they published a photo of one of their bathing suits and the caption said that whoever reposts this post in the next 24 hours will receive a free bathing suit from them. How amazing does that sound?

Brilliant. It worked. BUT what was wrong? They did not anticipate their post going so viral and so many reposts coming in and were not equipped with enough inventory! The bathing suit was sold out so quickly. In fact, it sounded so amazing that they got 50,000 orders in 35 minutes of releasing the promo codes to the people that reposted and tagged them.

And not only did they get so much attention and awareness of their promotion, they also went from 7,000 to 784,000 Instagram followers pretty much over night.

On a side note, they also had some other criticism like the fact that the swimsuits weren’t really free, since they still charged for shipping and the shipping costs of $12,98 were higher than the actual shipping plus the cost of making the suit (from Alibaba) would cost.

That aside, if a company doesn’t meet your expectations in terms of having what you want in stock, potential customers will remember it. If it happens often enough or during a hyped event like Sunny Co’s, it will probably keep customers away in the future. It is a simple form of trust. Trust that the store has it ready to be shipped and that the right product arrives: right color, right size. And please arrive in time!

So what can we learn from them? Make sure you have enough inventory to match the demand that might come from a promotion! It can be risky to have a lot of inventory when you don’t know how a campaign will go but it can also be risky not to have enough when the campaign goes viral because customers will be angry and disappointed if they can’t get what they expected to get.