Week 9 of the Big50 features 5 hot e-commerce startups. These days, pretty much all commerce has some element of “e” attached to it, whether online or off.
According to a report by eMarketer, the giant in this space, Amazon, will capture more than 40% of the e-commerce market by the end of this year. Amazon is such a behemoth that its e-sales are 6 times more than that of #2 eBay.
eMarketer forecasts Amazon will capture 43.5% of U.S. retail e-commerce sales, which translates into approximately $196.75 billion this year. This number represents close to 4% of all retail sales in the US.
But it’s not just the digital newcomers cashing in on e-commerce. The top 10 e-commerce companies (ranked by online sales) includes Walmart, Macy’s, Costco, and Target. Pretty much every sale these days has an e-commerce element to it, whether through an online shopping cart, a smartphone app, a CRM back end, or near ubiquitous digital marketing.
Even at brick-and-mortar locations, shopping can’t escape the online influence – hence the “showrooming” phenomena, where consumers browse at retail locations and then seek out the best deal online.
The startups featured this week are pushing e-commerce in new and innovative directions.
We start off the week with e-commerce infrastructure and a startup with technology that speeds up, secures, and automates much of the online shopping pipeline. Next, we look at two automotive-related e-commerce companies, a location-based shopping app, and a delivery services for medical marijuana.
Yes, we’re in a brave new (if somewhat stoned) world.
How these startups made it into the Big50-2017
To recap, the Big50-2017 competition started with more than 160 startups.
Through three rounds of challenges, the Startup50 team whittled that down to the 55 startups we are featuring in the Big50-2017. (Yep, there are 55 startups in the Big50. You know, like giving a 110%.)
The first obstacle Big50 startups had to pass was the fundamentals test. Have they raised sufficient funding, attracted a solid team, developed a viable business idea that tackles a real-world problem? Do they have on-the-record customers, are they targeting a viable market niche, and have they launched an MVP that’s moved the needle?
Next, if the fundamentals were in order, startups had to fight their way through the Online Voting and Social Media challenge.
Those still standing, then had to face the Content Challenge. Startups pitched the Startup50 team their best story ideas for a forthcoming podcast.
The 55 startups featured in the Big50-2017 startups excelled in each of those three challenges.
Come back in fifteen minutes or so, and you’ll see the first of our e-commerce startups, one that helped its customers “double their sales and hit record page views” a couple weeks ago on Black Friday. Stay tuned. . .
