noochi

web marketing expert and co-founder of a web enthusiast network named inreallife, henriette, asked for a top 5 or 10 of the future of ecommerce in the group’s forum. before i knew it i had written 2 full pages with what i’ve actually concluded through many of the posts on this blog, and so felt it belonged here:

the future of ecommerce is social. no doubt in my mind. 300 million facebook profiles can not be mistaken; ”social” has become mainstream (and i attended a conference on the topic last week where jupiter research, google and others fully confirmed it: the future is now, and we, as consumers and customers, not corporations, own it!).

transparency and fairness. i can’t say it better than peter friis, danish google ceo (along these lines ayway): ”there are more clever people outside of your company than inside it… so if you fuck up, i have a personal reach of half a million people i can tell it to… on linkedin alone”. people trust peers more so than companies, and with 200 million blogs around + all the social channels, giving room for peer reviews have become a necessity. according to this one-year-old nielsen survey, 78% trust peer recommendations more than anything else. this, i believe, will fire up fairtrade, as transparency is and increasingly will be a must.

behavior based recommendations. algorithms that cleverly analyze profile info, buying- and browsing patterns are and increasingly will be a very important parameter for competitiveness. i only want one cd with jenny wilson, so stop bothering me until you have something new that have been qualified by cool ‘people like me’. which leads me to the next point.

loyalty programs/ 1:1-marketing. unfortunately, sending flowers in denmark is one of the few areas that still suffer from monopoly (soo last century!), forcing me to be loyal to interflora.dk (my granny makes it all worth it). every transaction is the same, nothing is kept on file. and i receive the same customer satisfaction survey every time i shop there. i have suggested a loyalty concept to interflora 10 times. i have suggested that they keep me on file and for example offer free shipping for every 10 or 20 transactions. i have never gotten a response. other web florists, such as american Proflowers.com are so much better at making 1:1 marketing. i was recently prompted to remember a birthday with words along the lines of: ”welcome back”, and ”your friend william has his birthday coming up”. of course i know that proflowers care as little about me as interflora does… but as a consumer, i appreciate that proflowers care about my data. in the future (which is now), consumers will not remunerate businesses who can’t handle customer data for 1:1 (and permission-based ONLY for crying out loud) marketing.

diy + miy/ personalization. DIY (do-it-yourself) & MIY (make it yourself)… already a big hit. people want their individual version of everything. shirtcity.com (imentioned before), where you can design the prints of tees, mugs and whatnots is a good example. some vendors on etsy and dawanda allow you to pick your own fabrics and colors. apple offers a free laser engraving on all new ipod models, and denmark’s own tuborg beer (part of carlsberg) facilitates the making of your own beer labels. i think such sweet little services may be a requirement from future prosumers. i might even buy a car bike online, if it came with a personalized paint job.

community dynamics. the intriguing trades of the most usable communities will be applied to market places. user stats, aliveness indicators (learned that word at the first inreallife meeting), neighbours, and snooping into your peers’ transactions will be huge… snoopin’ ’round seems to appeal to us…

niche portals. i am also certain that peer-to-peer market places (lacking a more precise term) have a great future. i’ve written about the success of american etsy before, and about german dawanda – both are handicraft market places where you can buy and sell anything handmade. i’ve also mentioned american foodzie.com that sells organic tit bits from artisan producers. the buy/ sell-concept within product categories will be big.

give back. in the corporate world, giving back is known as csr (corporate social responsibility) and is heavily talked about. my favorite transaction based site kiva.org, loans that change lives, beautifully demonstrates that people really want to make a difference. at kiva, you not only have a lender profile and portfolio, but you also have stats for how your recommendations influenced others, and thereby give you ”credit” for the joint impact. i think donations and initiatives like agoodcause.com will develop and become more transparent.

i want to practice and combine all of this and have a great future… which leads me to one last point… our one cool web has unlimited space (i will leave others to debate storage), and so there is plenty of room for all of us…tags:1:1, business concept, community, consumption, crowdwisdom, irl, webshop

22nd of september is declared earth day for the internet by one web day (since 2006). this year’s topic is “online participation in democracy”. to honor this initiative, here’s my modest say on the topic:

reach. kiva.org, micro-lending site, loans that change lives. kiva has experienced such a spike in traffic that very often, there are no entrepreneurs left to lend to. they’re all funded and transaction stats are out in the open. the organization simply can’t keep up with people’s willingness to give in this way. what a potential!!! huge!!! if organized in the right way, this concept could change the balance of this world into a better one!

money doesn’t do it. a cool friend of mine works as a new media fund raiser for red cross… she makes use of e.g. youtube& facebook to get the message across. almost a must in b2c. and so the channels for utilizing viral qualities from peer to peer are heavily explored exploited for commercial interests which clutter the space and makes it extremely difficult to get through the noise… if the message is strong enough, if your home video is truly funny (no link on purpose), if the interface makes it easy to act while people are there, you can involve them. with no other resources than your internet connection and your right to communicate. corporations spend sick amounts trying and failing.

perspective. i laughed loud and from the gut… quite a few times before i had enough. watch the richter scales‘ interpretation of the new bubble below (i too have a web millionaire inside who hasn’t come out yet!). they even predict that we all blog about them… the wannabees and the failed entrepreneurs. but also just people for whom it adds life quality to get a new outlook on things from the comfort of their own sofas, and who share taste and humor. peers and experts in all fields. they’re here.

voice. this blog has an average of 10 daily visits… and it holds very few comments. however, the people who did comment, mainly commented because i wrote my opinion about them. and they responded. that makes me proud… that is also practicing democracy. it gives me a strong feeling of safety as a human being. that i can speak my mind… even if it is in a way that clutters the space… and there is a chance that the right people hear it.

coordination. before i get too ceremonious, i also think stumbleupon demonstrates a kind of e-democracy, even if its a little bit passive for participation… and even if it has, and may increasingly have, a strong commercial aspect (according to this interesting article that i stumbledupon on… humpf… tophostingcenter.com) … our voices as consumers of products as well as information count. and mass culture is perhaps not as dangerous on the internet as elsewhere, because we have become so brilliant at searching and sorting through to the information we want. tophostingcenter.com posted an interesting pov and is immediately remunerated.

more e-democracy heroes at one web day for your web education. these folks probably know better…tags:blogging, democracy, kiva, participation

i’ve explored claircasts, podcasts (all in danish) made by jette harthimmer, clairvoyant and award-winning podcaster. she explained to me, in a very charming and transferable way, the meaning of life. it is about listening to your intuition and to give something back. very true. and i listened (for 2 full hours!) to jette harthimmer interviewing martin thorborg, godfather of danish entrepreneurs, speaking about life and business in a very inspiring way. what i brought with me from the martin thorborg podcast:

free is worth so much more than 0,001 cent, so give real value away. no bull shit.

add on and charge after you gave it away.

live your dreams – if for nothing else, to avoid waste of your life regretting that you didn’t.

say no to ad offers and phone sales men. stick to pr. its efficient and its free.

keep your focus in one place.

FACE YOUR SHIT. don’t fool yourself. stop making excuses. life doesn’t start when you go on vacation, it’s right here.

re-evaluate the norms and revise them.

don’t settle for less. mediocrity sucks. and it sucks big time!

a great idea is worth nothing in the hands of incompetent people.

give your best ideas away. get it out and get over it. enjoy that others prove it… or prove it wrong.

don’t worry. you’ll get another idea. and it will not be a problem.

clever guy. more instructions for life. keep it simple. you are the captain of your own soul. the captain of your own soul is you.tags:belief, entrepreneurs, feelgood, freeconomics, listening, podcasts

back in may i brought 23k.dk to life for the ab fab o. 23k is the name of a hostel located in knabrostræde in the center of copenhagen, managed by rental company hay4you. the website is to serve as an extension of the housing services provided, by recommending various sites and events in denmark’s sweet little capitol our fair city. i have volunteered to get the blog going for a while…

logo by gytz, theme named fresh apple by 22-year old german jez. i fiddled with the stylesheet and graphics, and added snap shots of external sites, tag cloud, quote rotator, contact form, and image gallery from 23hq.com.

i hope the blog will eventually be of use to hay4you’s guests (and others - feel free!)… feedback is always most welcome.tags:23k, copenhagen, working ideas

i’m glad i got noochi.com when i did. seems to be a lot of good karma around double o web shops:

foodzie.com - a cute and simple and yet-to-be-fully-launched marketplace for food from small artisan producers and growers across the US

droog.com - 15 years old dutch furniture company with a very stylish design shop. how cool to have funky models creating the proper context for the various objects (if that “#¤% lamp didn’t look good to begin with, it does now).

tags:design, food, webshop

the status line of one of my linkedin connections made me curious about zenzuu. a half-way empty (real estate wise that is - seems packed with folks) and perhaps-a-good-idea community. a quick pep talk later i signed up. i now have one more profile. i have so many profiles its actually absolutely absurd when you come to think about it. my name-and-email passports get me every where i want to go on oh! so many levels (no microsoft ad intended)…

yeah… i know that makes me sound a hundred years old in the sweet world of geeks… but i think it is a sound reflection. don’t just pollute our beloved space. read about it. ask others. investigate. check it out. decide for yourself. curiosity is a good thing… and my connection’s argument that it is a fascinating development we’re witnessing convinced me. will report back if i make any money with it (and feel free to sign up under me :-)) - perhaps we will get rich together.

i hereby mark this post with a ? (and if the video below goes black - take it as a sign).
added september 20: i replaced the embedded video with a jpg. made up my mind now…

tags:community, money, working ideas