WEEK 1- THE ONE THING

Gary Keller is chairman of the board and cofounder of Keller Williams

Realty, Inc., one of the largest real estate companies in the world. He is an
Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and finalist for Inc. Magazine's
Entrepreneur of the Year. He has helped many small business owners and
entrepreneurs find success through four nationally bestselling books: The
Millionaire Real Estate Agent, The Millionaire Real Estate Investor,
SHIFT: How Top Real Estate Agents Tackle Tough Times and his latest
The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary
Results.
In this interview, Gary talks about how he avoid distractions, how he
prioritizes his work and stays focused, what his "one thing" is, how to set
goals and his best career advice.
How do you avoid distractions in your life when they are
unlimited and we're always connected through technology?
Success does not mean perfection. I‘m not concerned with avoiding
distraction every minute of every day. The perfect, uninterrupted day is
impossible. It‘s about figuring out what matters most, and when you‘re
doing that ONE Thing, eliminate distraction.
I time block. If you looked at my calendar, you‘d see regular appointments
with myself to do my most important work. That‘s when I avoid distractions
at all costs. Think of it like going to movies. You‘re there for ONE Thing—to
see the film. Because you‘re really clear about that, you turn off your cell
phone, you grab snacks in case you get hungry, and you probably even
make a pit stop before you go in. All this so you can have an uninterrupted
experience.
When you time block your most important work and treat it like going to
movies—you make a stand around avoiding distractions—amazing things
happen. When you start thinking of your days this way, the burden of
always having to be ―on‖ goes away and you end up accomplishing more.
What are some of the best ways to prioritize work and stay
focused?
The best way we‘ve found is what we refer to as the focusing question in our
new book The ONE Thing. Based on goals in any area of your life, ask
yourself, ―What‘s the ONE Thing I could do, such that by doing it
everything else would be easier or unnecessary?‖ Then time block to make it
happen. It doesn‘t have to be any more complicated than that.
The amazing thing is when people ask themselves the question, they are
almost always accurate. People instinctively know what matters most. If
you‘re not sure, look to the people who came before you. Chances are
someone has already accomplished what you‘re trying to achieve and
they‘ve shared how they did it (in a book, an article or a blog post). Start
with their answers and go from there.
Can you give an example of a goal you set and how you went
about achieving it?
In 2001, we were growing and succeeding but hadn‘t yet caught the
attention of the top performers in our industry. I called together a group of
our key executives to brainstorm 100 ways to overcome this challenge. Day
two we narrowed the list to just 10 ideas, and from there we chose one big
idea – write a book helping others become elite performers in the business.
And, it worked. It was the ONE Thing. Ten years later, The Millionaire Real
Estate Agent is still No. 1 on the Top 10 Most Popular Real Estate Books.
How do you discover what your “one thing” is?
Again, it‘s the focusing question. You simply ask yourself in any given area
of your life, ―What‘s the one thing I can do, such that by doing it
everything else is easier or unnecessary?‖ That‘s it.
Of course, we never said it was only ONE Thing. It isn‘t in the research or in
the book, but people add that word all the time. Success is sequential, not
simultaneous. It‘s one step at a time. ONE Thing at a time. It‘s not your one
and only thing. It‘s the ONE Thing right now.
What you‘re trying to do is set up a domino run in your life. You want to
line things up with the end in mind.
Define where you‘re going and determine what your next step is to get
there. Your ONE Thing is always tied to your destination. At any given
moment it is your most levered action – your first domino – that starts it all
and gets you the most bang for your buck. We can‘t do everything, but we
can do ONE Thing that matters most at any given moment in time.
Over time, a pattern can emerge around your career, skills and passion. For
me, my ONE Thing always comes back to teaching in one form or another.
That‘s my ONE Thing.
What are your top three career tips based on your book?
Make yourself indispensable. It‘s just one piece of advice. Find your ONE
Thing, connect it to your company‘s ONE Thing and become irreplaceable.
The employees who attempt to be good at everything but master nothing
are ultimately replaceable. When you identify a need, make it you ONE
Thing, and doggedly stick to it, you‘ll ultimately achieve the most. And by
the way, you‘ll be irreplaceable because you‘ve mastered just ONE Thing
WEEK 2 – THE .COM BUBBLE
https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/dot-com-bubble/
 WEEK 3 – AMAZON AND JEFF BEZOS

Jeffrey Preston Bezos is an American technology entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist.

He is best known as the founder, chairman, and CEO of Amazon.
Bezos was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and raised in Houston, Texas. He graduated
from Princeton University in 1986 with degrees in electrical engineering and computer science.
He worked on Wall Street in a variety of related fields from 1986 to early 1994. He founded
Amazon in late 1994 on a cross-country road trip from New York City to Seattle. The company
began as an online bookstore and has expanded to a variety of products and services, including
video and audio streaming. It is currently the world's largest online sales company, as well as the
world's largest provider of cloud infrastructure services via its Amazon Web Servicesarm.
Bezos added to his business interests when he founded aerospace company Blue Origin in
2000. A Blue Origin test flight successfully first reached space in 2015 and Blue has plans to
begin commercial suborbital human spaceflight as early as late 2018. He purchased The
Washington Post in 2013 for US$250 million in cash. Bezos manages other business
investments through his venture capital fund, Bezos Expeditions.
On July 27, 2017, he became the world's wealthiest person when his estimated net
worth increased to just over $90 billion. His wealth surpassed $100 billion for the first time on
November 24, he was formally designated the wealthiest person in the world by Forbes on March
6, 2018 with a net worth of $112 billion. The first centi-billionaire on the Forbes wealth index, he
was designated the "wealthiest person in modern history" after his net worth increased to $150
billion in July 2018.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppNAoLcnNSI
 WEEK 4 – TYPES OF ONLINE BUSINESSES
SAAS: SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE

Cloud application services, or Software as a Service (SaaS), represent the largest cloud
market and are still growing quickly. SaaS uses the web to deliver applications that are
managed by a third-party vendor and whose interface is accessed on the clients’ side. Most
SaaS applications can be run directly from a web browser without any downloads or
installations required, although some require plugins.

Because of the web delivery model, SaaS eliminates the need to install and run applications
on individual computers. With SaaS, it’s easy for enterprises to streamline their maintenance
and support, because everything can be managed by vendors: applications, runtime, data,
middleware, OSes, virtualization, servers, storage and networking.

Popular SaaS offering types include email and collaboration, customer relationship
management, and healthcare-related applications. Some large enterprises that are not
traditionally thought of as software vendors have started building SaaS as an additional
source of revenue in order to gain a competitive advantage.

SaaS Examples: Google Apps, Salesforce, Workday, Concur, Citrix GoToMeeting, Cisco
WebEx
Common SaaS Use-Case: Replaces traditional on-device software
Technology Analyst Examples: Bill Pray (Gartner), Amy DeMartine (Forrester)

PAAS: PLATFORM AS A SERVICE

Cloud platform services, or Platform as a Service (PaaS), are used for applications, and other
development, while providing cloud components to software. What developers gain with
PaaS is a framework they can build upon to develop or customize applications. PaaS makes
the development, testing, and deployment of applications quick, simple, and cost-effective.
With this technology, enterprise operations, or a third-party provider, can manage OSes,
virtualization, servers, storage, networking, and the PaaS software itself. Developers,
however, manage the applications.

Enterprise PaaS provides line-of-business software developers a self-service portal for

managing computing infrastructure from centralized IT operations and the platforms that are
installed on top of the hardware. The enterprise PaaS can be delivered through a hybrid
model that uses both public IaaS and on-premise infrastructure or as a pure private PaaS that
only uses the latter.

Similar to the way in which you might create macros in Excel, PaaS allows you to create
applications using software components that are built into the PaaS (middleware).
Applications using PaaS inherit cloud characteristic such as scalability, high-availability,
multi-tenancy, SaaS enablement, and more. Enterprises benefit from PaaS because it reduces
the amount of coding necessary, automates business policy, and helps migrate apps to hybrid
model. For the needs of enterprises and other organizations, Apprenda is one provider of a
private cloud PaaS for .NET and Java.
Enterprise PaaS Examples: Apprenda
Common PaaS Use-Case: Increases developer productivity and utilization rates while
also decreasing an application’s time-to-market
Technology Analyst Examples: Richard Watson (Gartner), Eric Knipp (Gartner), Yefim
Natis (Gartner), Stefan Ried (Forrester), John Rymer (Forrester)

IAAS: INFRASTRUCTURE AS A SERVICE

Cloud infrastructure services, known as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), are self-service

models for accessing, monitoring, and managing remote datacenter infrastructures, such as
compute (virtualized or bare metal), storage, networking, and networking services (e.g.
firewalls). Instead of having to purchase hardware outright, users can purchase IaaS based on
consumption, similar to electricity or other utility billing.

Compared to SaaS and PaaS, IaaS users are responsible for managing applications, data,
runtime, middleware, and OSes. Providers still manage virtualization, servers, hard drives,
storage, and networking. Many IaaS providers now offer databases, messaging queues, and
other services above the virtualization layer as well. Some tech analysts draw a distinction
here and use the IaaS+ moniker for these other options. What users gain with IaaS is
infrastructure on top of which they can install any required platform. Users are responsible
for updating these if new versions are released.

IaaS Examples: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cisco Metapod, Microsoft Azure, Google
Compute Engine (GCE), Joyent
Common IaaS Use-Case: Extends current data center infrastructure for temporary
workloads (e.g. increased Christmas holiday site traffic)
Technology Analyst Examples: Kyle Hilgendorf (Gartner), Drue Reeves (Gartner),
Lydia Leong (Gartner), Doug Toombs (Gartner), Gregor Petri (Gartner EU), Tiny Haynes
(Gartner EU), Jeffery Hammond (Forrester), James Staten (Forrester)

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN

IAAS , PAAS , SAAS

Technology as a field is littered with acronyms. TLD, CPU, GUI, etc. And if you noticed
that those acronyms all have three letters, we even have an acronym for Three Letter
Acronym (TLA). However, some of the most prevalent acronyms in software these days
are those for *aaS , the ubiquitous <Something> as a Service technologies that are
dominating the landscape.
Companies large and small are using these services to accelerate product development,
offload work, etc. The big three “as a service” options are: infrastructure, platform, and
software. Let’s look at defining those three, along with what I’m going to call NaaS or
“Nothing as a Service”, more on that later.
Which of these you use determines how much of the work you are doing yourself and
how much you are abstracting away to the provider of the service. Depending on what
your business is, you might want to abstract away all or none of the effort involved in
providing functionality. While there are always exceptions and overlap between the
acronyms–they are only abstractions, after all, the general principles hold.

SaaS, PaaS, IaaS - Climbing Down the Ladder of Abstraction

Software as a Service
Starting at the highest level of abstraction, we have Software as a Service (Saas). In this
model, the whole shebang is in the vendor’s hands and you just use the service. These
providers range from enormous enterprise-level software offerings like Gmail and
Office365 Online down to micro-SaaS providers like one of my personal favorites:
Freckle, which provides time-tracking for freelancers and teams. At this level, there is no
installation of software, no updates, etc., just open your browser and go.
Platform as a Service
Next on the list is Platform as a Service (PaaS). In this model, you don’t want to think
about the server or its internals, you want to point to a virtual machine, tell your code or
container to go live there, and let your application take over from there. This is where
Engine Yard fits in the scheme of things, along with Heroku, Openshift and others. In
addition, most of the larger IaaS providers also have offerings in this area.
Infrastructure as a Service
Further down the chain of abstraction we have Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
providers. We run into the heavy iron here: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and
Google Cloud are the three dominant players, with IBM and VMWare playing catch-up.
Here, the line between what you are doing and what the provider is doing gets thinner.
You are typically using virtual machines on someone else’s servers rather than servers
of your own. Which, of course, allows your servers to be anywhere your provider has a
data center, allowing for lower latency, scaling, etc.
Nothing as a Service
Finally, at the level of no abstraction, we have what I like to call Nothing as a Service
(NaaS). You are responsible for everything from taking the server out of the box,
operating system configuration, network connectivity, down to making sure the power is
plugged in.
Each of these options has their plusses and minuses and a company may find
themselves using any or all of them. Which you choose should be based on how central
application is to your business. In most cases, companies probably don’t need to host
their own email server, so a SaaS solution frees IT resources to work on more core
business functions. Similarly, if you don’t want to spend your time tuning the JVM, a
PaaS like Engine Yard may fit your needs.
Probably the best analogy I have come across for showing these levels of abstraction is
from this post, which has the following image:
I think this does a brilliant job of explaining what we have been getting at: choose the
provider that fits your needs at the time. Thanksgiving dinner, you are going to cook for
yourself, pizza after a softball game is an evening out.
It’s Time to Eat
It’s getting close to dinner time and the last thing you want is a bunch of hungry people
bugging you for food. You know what, before we get too lost in the restaurant metaphor,
let’s just stick to software and talk about which XaaS you should choose.
You Probably Want to Use Software as a Service When…
When the application isn’t core to your business or it’s something that you are not
adding value to it, SaaS is probably the way to go. If your business only uses email for
employee communication, don’t set up an Exchange Server. If you are adding value to
email by connecting it to your proposed application–for example–then you need to lower
your level of abstraction.
These are probably the easiest calls you will make in this space. There are so many
great line-of-business SaaS applications that you have to have a good reason not to use
one. I suggest that first among those good reasons comes from answering the question:
“Are we going to make money off of this software?” How you make money from it is
dependent on whether you are a startup or an enterprise, but irrespective of that, you
seldom go wrong keeping value at the forefront of your thought process.
World-Domination Starts at IaaS
Given what I can only assume is your desire for world-domination, I’m sure you have
plans floating around your mind (and maybe your pitch deck) about data center
deployments, CDN’s, DevOps, etc., let me suggest that you should nearly always start
with IaaS.
Why? If you are following Lean practices (and if not, why not?), and your first Minimally
Viable Product (MVP) requires you to set up any level of infrastructure, I am willing to bet
that your definition of “minimally” is too big. IaaS allows you to quickly build the smallest
possible increment of your application, down to deploying single functions on
AWS/Google/Azure. Any slice of time that you spend in early iterations building out
infrastructure is opportunity cost keeping you from getting your MVP in front of potential
customers. By all means, keep dreams of scaling out percolating in your subconscious,
but focus on delivering a solution worth scaling first.
When is it time to PaaS?
When to move off of IaaS is a question with no hard and fast answer, but let me offer a
few guidelines. It’s time to start thinking of PaaS when you:

1. Have paying customers using your application. How many is a bit of a fluid
question, but let’s put 25 up as a target.
2. Have some funding. This means you are either an enterprise, have some VC
money backing you, or have bootstrapped yourself to the point where you are
paying yourself.

Meeting these conditions minimizes risk for your application and your company. These
conditions are necessary, but not sufficient. You’ll know it is time to move on when the
limitations of the abstraction are limiting the building of the next iterations of your
product. Better to move one iteration late than one too early. If you are encountering no
friction, make no changes.
My Baby is All Grown Up Now
One way to look at the XaaS ecosystem is that it exists to grow and nurture your
application to the point where you might not need it anymore. But just like your parents,
they are available (hopefully) whenever you need them. Going the Nothing as a Service
route is the last step in the evolution of an application and it is the rare product indeed
that gets this far. The conditions for outgrowing PaaS are impossible to reduce to a
simple set of rules. More likely, an application expands into multiple regions PaaS,
breaks into microservices, etc., in order to avoid the overhead of setting up servers,
networking, etc. It is, as they say, a high-class problem. If you are in this situation,
congratulations! There is nothing I could convey in a blog post that will have more than a
superficial relationship to the decisions you’re making.
Everything we’ve gone over here are just guidelines. Your particular situation may
require ignoring part of all of these suggestions. Pick the level of abstraction that makes
sense for your business needs and get to make something awesome.
 WEEK 5 – TYPES OF ONLINE BUSINESSES 2
The Inception of E-commerce in India

E-commerce is the buying and selling of goods and services, or the sending of funds
or data, over the Internet. E-commerce transactions can be either B2B, B2C, C2C, or
C2B. Though the e-commerce industry in India is riding the wave of popularity in
recent times, its inception can be traced back in the early 1990s with Rediff. IRCTC,
the first company to create a successful e-commerce portal, was introduced in 2002.
However, the revolution of smartphones and easy availability of cheap data have
amplified the current Indian e-commerce scene.

The Present Scenario

 The e-commerce industry in India is growing fast, booming, and expanding at a larger
rate. The concept of online shopping has attracted the Indian population tremendously.
Exposure to Internet has been highly instrumental in the e-commerce success.
 According to IAMAI-IMRB report, over 460 million Indians use Internet and India has been
the second largest online market after China. It is obvious that e-commerce growth is
directly related to the number of Internet users.
 Furthermore, a study by Forrester Research states that India’s online market is expected
to reach $64 billion by the year 2021, growing at a five-year CAGR of 31.2%.
 The emergence and extraordinary success of various online commerce startups like
Flipkart, Jabong, Snapdeal, have recreated the model of online marketplace. Even global
companies like Amazon and eBay made their entry in the Indian market that can be seen
to dominate the e-commerce industry.
Top Successful Ecommerce Businesses in India
Flipkart – Flipkart is one of the pioneers among India’s successful e-commerce
startups. Founded in 2007, it was the brainchild of Sachin and Binny Bansal, both
IIT-Delhi graduates. Though they started as an online bookseller, they gradually
expanded their base with more retail options such as apparels, electronic gadgets,
and household items. With multiple payment options and huge discounts, Flipkart
slowly grew its customer base. It even became the first e-commerce portal to launch
its mobile app version. It even went on to acquire competitors Myntra for $20 billion
and Jabong for $70 million, and more. According to reports, Flipkart’s revenue rose
up to 34% in the year 2015-16.

MakeMyTrip – MakeMyTrip was initially launched as India Ahoy in the year 2000 by
IIM-A alumni Deep Kalra. It was the first-of-its-kind online travel portal in India.
Though MakeMyTrip’s beginning was not a smooth one, it redefined the way how
Indians purchased e-tickets and booked hotels. Recently, it has merged with another
popular travel portal, Goibibo and reported revenue of $447 million in which half of it
came from hotels and travel packages.

Snapdeal – Besides Flipkart and Myntra, Snapdeal is in the list of successful e-

commerce ventures in India with the largest online marketplace. The company saw
an immense growth in just two years – its growth being almost 600% every year. The
venture was launched in the year 2010 by Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal as an offline
coupon business by the name MoneySaver. Later they moved into selling various
items – from clothes and books to gadgets and appliances. Currently, they have
more than 50,000 sellers and sell around 5 million products.

Ecommerce Companies and Increasing Job Opportunities

The e-commerce boom in India has not only changed the face of consumer business
but also opened many doors in terms of career and job opportunities. With a number
of ecommerce startups launching every year and the market growing by leaps and
bounds, the e-retail trend is here to stay.

Students who want jobs in the e-commerce industry need to have an MBA degree in
Marketing, Finance, or even a degree in engineering based on the job profile. There
are various e-commerce jobs that include product creation and design, branding and
marketing, product development and management, business analysis, finance, and
more. On an average, an e-commerce job salary can range in between Rs.35 lacs to
Rs.50 lacs for mid-level employees. The good news is, the salary growth is expected
in the coming years as well. Special skill sets and certifications in analytics or big
data can add more weightage.

INDIA ECOMMERCE REPORT

In India, the e-commerce revolution has become a reality. With billions in daily sales
and staggering discounts, online shopping is making headlines and attracting both
consumers and retailers. Traditional offline retailers are also going digital.

To better understand consumers‘ online buying behavior, EY polled 690 online

respondents in six cities in India. The objective of the survey was to know:
 Why consumers shop online

 What the demographic profile of an online shopper is

 How online shopping carts vary for different consumer segments

 What, if any, the specific characteristics are of product categories sold online

 What factors influence online buying decisions

 What major challenges consumers face

The survey‘s insights emphasize what e-commerce companies can do to drive the

next wave of growth and sustain the momentum in a constantly evolving market of

hyper-growth and hyper-competition.

Heavy discounting fueled e-commerce‘s initial growth, as players with deep pockets

used price cuts to bring new consumers online. However, this strategy is

unsustainable: it dents profitability and results in disloyal buyers who merely seek

the best bargains. A company‘s lasting success will depend on its innovation in

meeting its customers‘ needs.

Going forward, companies will have to use data and analytics to develop consumer-

centric strategies that address more latent individual needs — e.g., increased

convenience, timely delivery — and anticipate future challenges to outperform rivals.

 Seven key points to sustain e-commerce growth

1. It’s all about consumers

Sustaining in a hyper-growing e-commerce market

E-commerce in India has caught on like wildfire recently, in contrast to a decade ago,

when the prevalent opinion was that too many challenges — low internet

penetration, limited payment infrastructure (i.e., restricted use of credit cards),

consumer psychology and behavior, logistics and warehousing issues — would

prevent online shopping‘s emergence.

Despite the challenges, online retail has grown at breakneck speed. And continued

growth is expected in the sector, driven by favorable demographics, increasing

internet penetration and the growing use of smartphones and their impact on

consumer preferences.

2. Convenience is key

Indian consumers are adopting e-commerce because of its increased convenience

and the access it offers to an expanded basket of goods. And cash on delivery, same-

day delivery and one-day delivery have addressed many consumer inhibitions.

Top reasons why people buy online

1. Convenience
2. Discounts and cheaper prices

3. Multiple product options

4. Multiple payment modes

5. Good return policy

6. Preferred brand availability

7. Timely delivery
Convenience
40%

of respondents said that convenience was the most important reason for shopping
online.

Discounts have become ubiquitous on e-commerce sites, and buyers have become

used to them. Most of the online buyers polled will choose an online portal offering

the best discount. To improve consumer retention and encourage repeat purchases,

players are partnering with mobile/online wallet providers, which offer cash back on

purchases.
Discounts
61%

of respondents said they would stop buying online if there were no discounts.
3. Focus on middle-aged consumers, not just younger buyers

With growing competition, e-commerce players will also have to fight harder to

attract new consumers. Despite its robust growth and rising popularity, e-commerce

still remains limited to a section of the population.

Capture older consumers and retain younger ones

The internet user base in India is tilted toward the younger population, with 75%

below 35 years old. However, consumers over 35, who are more financially

independent and have higher spending power, are emerging to be just as important.

According to our survey, consumers in the age group between 31 and 54 years old are

the highest spenders, while consumers below 30 buy more frequently.

Attract small-town shoppers

Although the internet user base is still largely urban, the rural user base is growing,

with rising internet and smartphone penetration rates.

For all the major e-commerce players, the majority of orders come from small cities.

One leading e-commerce player gets more than 50% of its orders from non-metro

cities. It has set up dedicated rural distribution centers to deliver products received

from small towns, and has partnered with the India Post to facilitate delivery.

Target women

Online shopping has so far been skewed toward male buyers, but changing lifestyles
and the rising number of women in the workforce are changing this. The survey

showed that women who shop online buy marginally more frequently than men. But

they influence buying decisions much more than men.

4. Understand buying patterns to drive volume

Although different consumer segments often use the same e-commerce platform,

differences in their buying behaviors continue to persist. And different product

categories also display different characteristics, such as frequency of product

purchases, ease of purchasing online and average purchase size.

Define targeted consumer segment

Online shopping carts for men and women tend to vary, as they prefer products in
different categories, and consumers choices also vary across age groups.

Understand inherent characteristics of product offerings

Electronics, especially mobile phones and tablets, and lifestyle products (apparel,

shoes and accessories) are among the most popular categories online. The popularity

of electronic products can be attributed to factors such as attractive offers and

discounts, plentiful options and low product differentiation. The popularity of

lifestyle products can be attributed to their comparatively low price, the flexibility to

use cash on delivery and the ease of returns.

In contrast, furniture and food are considered by both consumers and retailers as

better categories for in-store purchasing, although this mindset seems to be

changing.
 5. Cashless transactions are crucial for sustainable growth

Another crucial factor for consumers is multiple payment options. Cash on delivery

(CoD) has been instrumental in making online shopping popular in India. CoD

transactions account for around 60% of overall sales in the Indian e-commerce

market, much higher than in, for example, China, Brazil or the US.

However, our survey showed that middle-aged shoppers (31-54 years old) prefer

cashless transactions (credit or debit cards or net banking). These shoppers are more

financially independent and comfortable with cashless transactions. CoD shopping is

popular with younger shoppers, who typically don‘t have credit cards, and those

older than 55, who are hesitant because of cybersecurity concerns.

6. Targeted media is needed for effective communication

Online retailers must customize communication and promotion strategies to fit

targeted consumers‘ patterns. An advertisement‘s impact depends in part on the

channel through which it is conveyed.

Top five influential modes of communication or promotion

1. Television

2. Family and friends

3. Promotions and offers

4. Social media
5. Other (e.g., email, SMS)
Social media influences younger buyers
74%

of consumers younger below the age of 21 said that social media influences their
buying decisions.
7. It’s not about discounting alone

India‘s still-young e-commerce market has grown in part because of marketing

strategies such as heavy discounts and free home delivery. However, this has often

come at the expense of profitability.

The discount-based model is effective only in the early stages to attract consumers.

As competition intensifies, e-commerce players will need to gradually reduce

discounts and provide new value by addressing consumers‘ needs.

 WEEK 6-TYPES OF ONLINE BUSINESSES 3
GLOBAL ECOMMERCE MARKETPLACE REPORT

Global online marketplaces like Alibaba, Amazon, eBay, and Rakuten and their competitors
accounted for roughly 50% of online retail sales globally last year and that share is forecast to
grow to about two-thirds in the next five years. Marketplace dominance is such that many
shoppers start their product search at a marketplace, rather than at an all-purpose search engine
or retail shop website, according to the report. Alibaba leads the pack of top online marketplace
platforms, with over twice the gross merchandise volume of second-place Amazon in 2016.

Asia leads the global trend toward marketplaces. Surveys cited in the report reflect that many
shoppers in China, India and Japan made half or more of their online purchases through
marketplaces. Shoppers worldwide point to product variety and price as motivators for turning to
marketplace options. Though Alibaba and Amazon are the leaders of this trend, the marketplace
space is shared by many platforms such as eBay, Etsy, Wish, and Rakuten and others.

Further, traditional brick and mortar retailers such as Walmart and Sears are expanding their
marketplace options online, and there are various regional and country online retail platforms
such as MercadoLibre, Flipkart, Allegro and Jumia contributing to the forecast growth.

Questions Answered in this Report

 How much of global online retail sales was generated on marketplaces in 2017 and what is the
projection for 2022?
 What role is played by marketplaces in cross-border E-Commerce?
 Why do online shoppers buy from marketplaces instead of retailer websites?
 What are the leading E-Commerce marketplaces worldwide?
 How much gross merchandise volume is generated on Alibaba's marketplaces compared to
Amazon's?
Key Topics Covered:

1. Management Summary

2. Global E-Commerce Marketplace Trends

3. Top E-Commerce Marketplaces

Companies Mentioned

 Alibaba Group Holding

 Allegro Group Sp. z oo
 Amazon.com Inc
 ContextLogic Inc.
 eBay Inc
 Etsy Inc.
 Flipkart Online Services Pvt. Ltd.
 JD.com Inc
 Mercadolibre Inc.
 Otto Group
 Rakuten Inc.
 Takealot Online (Pty) Ltd.
 Walmart Inc

Giant tech companies are set to

dominate the Internet of the
present-future
In an internet where everyone is connected with anyone else
and where we‘re getting to the upper limit of attention time
available (with screen time approaching 6 hours a day in the
US), efficiency in connecting people with products and services
is key.

Thanks to their data-centric nature and to the huge network

effects that allow them to train machines and algorithms with
an insane amount of data, Google and Facebook now
dominate — and are on track to monopolize — global advertising,
ensuring all of us can easily get connected with
the right(?) product and services.

Amazon is continuously growing its footprint to the extent of,

eventually, putting out of business, this year, the largest number
of retailers in history. We‘re finally noticing that retail as we
know it (disconnected from the overall — digitally powered —
 buying experience) is cursed.
Giant tech companies are therefore dominating the business
landscape, and the most interesting aspect perhaps is that they
are continuously growing their feature base. Here‘s the
point: huge tech giants have something that other companies
don‘t have, they‘ve network effects (and enormous user
bases), and the agility to test and prototype new ideas rapidly.

While a traditional giant company may have the first, it‘s likely
failing on the latter; while a nimble tech innovation company
may have the latter will always have to bounce back to GAFA to
be able to leverage on their network effects to distribute and test
new ideas to wider markets.

Facebook now encompasses all the aspects of our socially-

connected life, Amazon now sells directly under its brands — or
child brands — things such as baby wipes, batteries, or bed linen.
Tech innovations such as AI, machine
learning and conversational interfaces (all on the rise) will
provide GAFA with even more potential to create seemingly
personal relationships with customers, increasing their
potential to deal with long tails with highly customized services
and self-customization tools to let customers make the
tweaks that they couldn‘t anticipate.

God only knows what will happen when the penetration of IoT
and connected devices will really cross the chasm: everything
wants to be connected, and when it‘s connected, it will be owned
by the GAFA.

Soon machines will be able to fake human relationships

We now have an internet made of enormous platform-

infrastructures, connecting entities in their huge ecosystems,
providing them with the possibility to find each other precisely,
and to trade value to an extent we never experienced before.

What’s left?
A few days ago, my good friend and italian digital icon Fabio
Lalli, blurted on Facebook that with giants like Facebook now
encompassing everything social and spurring new features
continuously (at least test-validating them), it‘s really hard for
entrepreneurs today to think of something new and valuable,
and be able to overcome the bullying of the GAFA bringing it to
the market.

Similar reflections could probably be made for e-commerce

entrants confronting with and Amazon, or business automation
innovators facing the market domination of Salesforce, or
similar giants.
So what’s left for us to invent in this internet?

The effect of the penetration of the GAFA, in parallel with the

everlasting effort of existing incumbents to componentize and
digitalize their business through APIs (we spoke about
this here) is leaving modern entrepreneurs with an interesting
set of tools to leverage on:

 the possibility to connect part of existing industrial

business processes, through APIs, in more complex value
creation models
 the possibility to easily reach customers thanks to the
efficiency of advertising and GAFA distribution
 the possibility to leverage on abundant open code
base and Everything as a Service

Despite ―vertical‖ transaction-based marketplaces such as

Airbnb and the likes have demonstrated that a
clearly designed strategy and mission can achieve global growth
and impact, I‘m skeptical there‘s still a lot of room for
entrepreneurs to come up with a simple idea that can disrupt
these transactional markets.
This may be hard, first because most of those simple markets
are now already crowded with exceptional brands, and,
furthermore, because it will be easy for GAFA and the likes —
 including these huge global transactional marketplaces like
Airbnb — to jump into an adjacent market by enabling “just
another” transaction type among their networks (think
of Facebook Marketplace feature or the recent move of Airbnb
into travel experiences).

It didn’t take much to Airbnb to move from beds and houses to

experiences.

If just 4 percent of Facebook’s 1.7 billion global users turn to

Marketplace to buy and sell used cars, Facebook would pass
reigning giant Craigslist, as well as Autotrader, Cars.com and
eBay Motors.
From Autoweek.com

All these considerations make me think that the upcoming one

is really the age of the so-called market-networks. As you may
know, the term market-network, was coined by James Currier,
efficiently describing something that (in his own words):

 ―Use SaaS workflow software to focus action around

longer-term projects, not just a quick transaction‖
 ―Promote the service provider as a differentiated individual,
helping to build long-term relationships”

Market networks essentially rethink, facilitate and transform all

the complex business processes and social
workflows that will never be interesting to GAFA (due to the
high fragmentation and niche nature of the opportunity)
radically improving the overall experience of users and — often —
 professionals involved.
Early examples of market-networks include the
famous houzz.com, Angelist, honeybook as mentioned by James
in his seminal blogpost, but also growing brands like lendinvest
or opendesk.

GAFA vs Market Networks impact growth model

Differently from GAFA and the likes, that substantially grow

their impact by trying to climb the value chain with feature
pullulation, still being attached to the idea to be attractive to
anyone, market networks start by providing high value to a
restricted group of users (more in general to a niche market)
and then grow their impact by trying to grow their ecosystem‘s
size, oftentimes creating multi-national branches.

We can reasonably expect the market networks of the future to

be able to leverage more on integrating utilities, telco, retail and
other traditional industries through APIs and smart contracts,
growing their potential and the value generated for participants.
A bit of foresight — The Infinite Tail
The evolution of the internet infrastructure is pushing the
concept of the long tail as we know it even further. We could
argue we‘re evolving into what could be called an ―infinite tail‖.

Having everyone connected to anyone else in a shared

space of trade, and having enabling technologies at hand to
leverage on almost infinite ―resources as a service‖ —
 increasingly also in the ―real‖ world thanks to API integrations
and smart contracts — is going to annihilate the cost of
organizing trade among uncoordinated entities.

We can expect then, to evolve into an age where ever-larger

global, social and technological infrastructures — soon to
be decentralized thanks to technologies like the blockchain —
 will power small markets in what we could call, indeed,
an internet of markets.

In these small markets— be it a small consulting company

working with ten key customers, a digitally enabled artisan
carefully creating products for her small fanbase or, a music
artist living off local shows and special vinyl record sales —
 reputation will be the key enabler of this infinite tail economy
and players will thrive on strong ties and long term
relationships, exactly the context that market networks
should be set to address, most likely with a decentralized
approach (empowering myriads of different small networks)
that doesn‘t necessarily need network effects to exist and thrive.
Now seemingly alienating technologies like AR or VR will end
up helping us bring presence to remoteness, tearing down the
last barriers to a world of thriving, relational, infinite small
markets. At that moment in time the evolution towards a real
global market age will be completed and we‘ll be out of
the Taylor bathtub forever.

Platforms of the future may be different in shape and strategy

but we can be reasonably sure that they will still need to be
designed around the idea that relationships play a central
role in modern business.
 CASE STUDY-AIRBNB
The Airbnb founder story is one of the most inspiring stories of the 21st
century. Against all odds, with no investors and thousands of dollars of
credit card debt, the founders had to resort to selling cereals to keep the
company afloat. It took almost two years before Airbnb saw some traction.

How Airbnb started

The Airbnb founder story is one of persistence, determination, fear and
most of all, hustle. Let’s go back to the start. It’s late 2007 in San
Francisco. Airbnb founders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia just moved from
New York. Without employment, they were having trouble paying their rent
and were looking for a way to earn some extra cash.They noticed that all
hotel rooms in the city were booked, as the local Industrial Design
conference attracted a lot of visitors.

The youngsters saw an opportunity. They bought a few airbeds and quickly
put up a site called “Air Bed and Breakfast.” The idea was to offer visitors a
place to sleep and breakfast in the morning. They charged $80 each a
night.The idea succeeded and the first Airbnb guests were born: a 30-year-
old Indian man, a 35-year-old woman from Boston and a 45-year-old father
of four from Utah sleeping on their floor.
Soon after, Harvard graduate and technical architect Nathan Blecharczyk
joined the team as the third co-founder. They faced a major problem: the
site only had two users, one of them was Chesky. They initially launched at
SXSW, and only received two bookings.
After changing the website, the company launched again in August 2008,
not long before the Democratic National Convention in Denver. The first
comment on the launch publication on TechCrunch illustrates what people
thought of the idea.

The idea was to cater to the thousands of people that came to the
convention, Obama supporters hosting Obama supporters. Over 600
people stayed at Airbnbs, but the success was short lived, as Airbnb
founder Brian Chesky explains in the video below.

Airbnb founders receive their first funding

The Airbnb founders managed to make a whopping $30,000 selling the
Obama O’s and Cap’n McCains. They also came up with some pretty funny
jingles. Check out the landing page they used and listen to the jingles.
Airbnb raised it’s first funding, $20,000 from Y Combinator. They are still
making only $200 a week and decide to use the money to travel to New
York, their biggest market, to meet their users. They discover that the main
problem is that the pictures of most listings aren’t good. They buy a camera
and go door-to-door to take better pictures of the listings.
It’s January 2009 and the incubator invites the three founders to join its
winter session for three months of training. At the same time, Paul Graham
at Y Combinator tries to convince venture capitalist Fred Wilson to invest in
Airbnb. Amazingly, you can read the actual email conversation that
Graham and Wilson had.
Wilson decides to pass, missing out on what would have been a huge
winner. After meeting Chesky & co, he asked them to leave a box of the
famous cereals. The box now serves as a reminder for Wilson not to make
this mistake again, as he describes in a blog post published two years later.
Airbnb finally starts taking off
After visiting their users in New York, the company finally gets some
traction. The focus is changed from shared spaces to all types of
accommodation. It’s March 2009 and Airbnb has 2500 listings and close to
10,000 registered users.
As they say, the rest is history. Airbnb history. The most recent
statistics show that Airbnb now has over 2 million listings in over 190
countries and 34,000 cities. Airbnb hosts have hosted over 40 million
guests. The company is worth an estimated 25.5 billion, based on the latest
round of funding of 1.5 billion.
Here’s a cool overview of Airbnb’s timeline.
WEEK 7-MID SEMESTER EVALUATION
 WEEK 8-INTERNET MARKETING STRATEGIES
The top 10 internet marketing strategies
As digital marketing is becoming more and more necessary for a company,
not understanding the best way to drive your business forward can really hurt
your chances of success. If you are looking for a way to improve your digital
marketing efforts, here are 10 of the highest performing strategies that can
bring more people to your website, allow you to connect with new or returning
customers, and create a digital marketing strategy that works.

Use the Right Web Design

We don’t often think about web design as a marketing tactic, but it can
influence the amount of time and attention a user will spend on your page.
Your website is the center of all your digital marketing efforts, so if your page
is not clean, easy to read, and interesting, it won’t matter how much time you
put into strategy development – you’re still going to lose customers. Create a
website that is up-to-date, attention-grabbing, and most of all, mobile friendly.

Search Engine Marketing and Optimization

Search engine marketing and optimization allow your name and website to
appear on a list of search engine results. With a strong SEO strategy, your
company website will become associated with the keywords used to find your
services. This increases your chances of being the company an individual
chooses to work with when selecting a company that offers your services or
products.

Affiliate and Associate Programs

An affiliate or associate program doesn’t make sense for every business.
However, if you do use these, you can quickly see your marketing efforts
improve without needing to do much yourself. With an affiliate program,
people who believe in your company can share your information and grow
your market on a commission-based platform.

Coach or Consultant
If you’re not an expert in digital and internet marketing, ask someone who is.
There are hundreds of internet marketing coaches and consultants available
to you, many of whom can give you a consultation about what you should
change to see success. For small business owners who need to focus on
other business systems, a coach or consultant can be extremely helpful.
Email Marketing
It isn’t enough to just send out emails. You will want to consider
various email lists that cater to the specific needs of each individual and can
present a personalized approach to your campaign. Take a hard and clear
look at the purchasing habits of your customers and use that information to
develop your strategy.

Opt-In Email List

An opt-in email list allows customers to come to you and sign up to receive
email campaigns and correspondence. This allows you to connect with new
customers or clients.

Articles or News Stories

Having your name and information listed in other locations on the web can
help you grow your company and business. This makes your name visible in
an area where customers and clients are already looking and also allows you
to become a trusted source of products or services.

Write Online Press Releases

When you use online press releases, you’re getting your information out there
in a formal setting. This allows newspapers, blogs, or other media sources to
see your information and write posts about your company without you needing
to put in the effort to connect and claim a story.

Contests and Giveaways

People love contests and giveaways. Anytime you can encourage marketing
from your customers in exchange for a free product or service, you will usually
see a surge in purchases or connections.

Maintain a Blog
Your blog should be used for a number of reasons, including allowing you to
consistently post new keywords and optimize your search engine strategy.
More than that, your blog becomes somewhere you can offer advice, share
bits of information, and really connect with your customers. A lasting
relationship begins with trust and your blog is a great way to build that.

A strong online marketing strategy will help you to boost your business and
start seeing more customers, connections, and clients. These 10 strategies
have been proven to help companies gain new exposure. By following the
above tips you'll be on your way to creating a concrete internet marketing
strategy that could boost your business substantially.

Growth Hacking for Ecommerce: 20

Tactics You Can Try Next Month

1.Highlight What Customers Think

2. Write Guest Posts

3. Send Thank You Cards

4. A/B Test Your Product Pages

5. Use Exit-Intent Pop-Ups

6. Request Shares With Order Confirmations

7. Send Social Engagement Ask Cards

8. Send a “Buy Again” Email

9. The Personalized Homepage

10. Set Up a Referral Program

11. Cross-Sell and Upsell

12. Show How Customers Are Shopping

13. Set Up Retargeting Ads

14. Create Urgency to Fuel Sales

15. Offer Content Upgrades

16. Launch Seasonal Campaigns

17. Show Trust Badges

18. Incentivize Your Checkout Page

19. Reduce Input Fields

20. Embrace Conversational Commerce

https://www.sellbrite.com/blog/growth-hacking-
ecommerce-20-tactics/
 WEEK 9 – INTERNET SALES STRATEGIES
The internet has completely flipped the buying process on its head. In 2000,
a Pew Research Center study found that only 22 percent of Americans were
shopping online. Compare that to a more recent 2016 study that found that 79
percent of Americans make online purchases. Brick and mortar stores are
closing. Shoppers now prefer shopping from the comfort of their homes and
on their smartphones.

These changes present an opportunity for entrepreneurs. You no longer need

a physical storefront to have a thriving business. Here I’ve broken down the
basics of five different options for online sales.

Selling on Amazon
The basics
Amazon is the most famous ecommerce website. With $135.99 billion in net
revenue last year, it’s also safe to say that Amazon is dominating the etail
industry and crushing its competitors.

How it works
For selling products, you’ll need to choose between Amazon’s two selling
plans. At $39.99 per month, the Professional Plan is best suited for
entrepreneurs with a higher sales volume (more than 40 items sold per
month). The Individual Plan is better for smaller scale vendors. Users pay
$0.99 for each item sold. After selecting your plan, create your account and
register. You have the ability to sell products that are already listed on
Amazon or upload new items.

Amazon is also the No. 1 place for authors to sell books, musicians to sell
recorded music and film makers to sell independent films. Amazon provides
self publishing through its partner Createspace.

Benefits
Selling on Amazon has countless advantages for budding entrepreneurs.
Many consumers prefer to buy through a website like Amazon which they
know and trust. You also reap the benefits of Amazon’s high web
traffic. Being listed on Amazon gives your company exposure to a big new
pool of potential customers.
Selling on your own store
The basics
Some entrepreneurs prefer to establish and manage their own online stores
using an ecommerce solution. Magento, Shopify and Woocommerce are the
most popular platforms for doing this.

How it works
Ecommerce platforms allow you to use a personal domain to set up an online
storefront. They each have customizable themes to choose from, or you can
create and upload your own theme. Using the platform, you upload your
products, track inventory and fulfill orders.

Benefits
These platforms allow you to have a unique website that matches your brand
and vision. In addition to this personal freedom, these sites also act as a CRM
solution. They seamlessly integrate with apps such as Google Shopping and
MailChimp as well as with social media platforms. They have different
pricing plans, allowing you to choose the plan that best fits your needs.

Selling on Facebook
The basics
Facebook has over one billion users, making it a great selling space for
entrepreneurs. With Facebook Store, users can make purchases right from
your page.

How it works
Setting up your Facebook Store is very easy if you already use an ecommerce
solution like Shopify or Magento. Add the Facebook App to your store
through your website and it’ll import your items directly to your Facebook
Store. Don’t have an ecommerce site? That’s okay, too. You’ll just need to
get the Facebook Store app and set it up that way.

Benefits
Your business already has a Facebook page, so why not turn it into a sales
opportunity? After all, your customers probably visit Facebook more than
your website. You can now reach them even when they’re not in ―shopping
mode.‖ Also, Facebook has sophisticated analytics that provide you with
useful traffic reporting data.
Selling online courses
The basics
Online courses and certifications have become increasingly popular. Take
advantage of this by trend by selling your courses through websites like
Udemy and Skillshare.

How it works
Udemy allows entrepreneurs to upload PDFs, audio files, videos and
PowerPoint presentations as course materials. It also has a message board
that facilitates communication between students and instructors. Instead of
monthly payments, Udemy collects 50 percent of your course sales if the
site promotes it. If you promote your own courses, Udemy only takes 3
percent of your revenue.

In Skillshare, courses are segmented into short, pre-recorded videos and

culminate in a class project. Instructors earn royalties based on number of
minutes their course videos are watched each month, and also make
money on enrollment referrals.

Benefits
People like elearning because of the flexibility and convenience of taking a
course at their own pace. Traditional classroom learning simply isn’t possible
for parents or people who work full-time. Udemy and Skillshare have both
iOS and Google Play apps, allowing students to learn on the go on their
smartphones. These sites also have huge customer bases, giving your course
plenty of exposure. Udemy has a reported 15 million users, and Skillshare
has 2 million.

Selling ebooks
The basics
More entrepreneurs are selling ebooks. Self-publishing allows people to write
books without worrying about literary agents and publishers. Apple’s iBooks
and Google Play are two of the most commonly used ebook stores.

How it works
Selling your book on iBooks is easy. After completing a simple online
signup, you’re able to sell your book. Apple takes a 30
percent commission per sale.
With Google Play, you can sign up to be a seller using an existing Google
account. Your book will be available for preview on Google
Books. Publishers keep 52 percent of the revenue from their ebook sales.

Benefits
Selling ebooks democratizes the book industry. It’s much easier to self-
publish than get your book picked up by a publisher and distributed in
bookstores. With ebooks, you have control over your earnings, as you’re able
to set your own book prices. Readers also like ebooks as they’re often less
expensive than a paperback or hardcover book and allow them to read
wherever they are without having to carry a book everywhere.

Choosing the best online selling opportunities

As you can see, you have many choices for where and how you sell your
products and services online. All of the platforms I’ve described are solid
options and have helped millions of entrepreneurs establish successful online
businesses.

The key to making any of these work is to first decide what works best for
you. Do you have a flare for ecommerce? Do you understand how to sell
products? Which products to sell? Do you understand inventory, promotions
and the rest that comes along with being a eretailer?

Or, maybe that is not for you. Maybe you are more of a creative person. You
have a story to tell, a book to write, a painting to paint? Then selling on
Amazon, Etsy and the like may work best for you.

If you have loads of professional experience and want to teach the world,
then developing and marketing a course may be your best bet. There are
literally thousands of options here, so do your research and understand what
pays best, where your audience is, how you need to produce with video and
other content.

In the end, the choice is up to you. But, whatever you choose make sure that
it aligns with your entrepreneurial brand, your experience and resources.
10 Sites to Sell Your Products
Online: What’s Best for Your
Business?

1. Amazon
Amazon is a titan of online retail, and likely one of the first places that comes to mind when
you consider selling products over the internet. Along with a wide reach for finding potential
buyers, Amazon offers an easy-to-use selling platform for numerous product categories,
including beauty, books and home improvement, just to name a few.
Amazon’s marketplace program is split into two tiers.

For individual sellers who plan on selling fewer than 40 items per month, Amazon charges a
flat $0.99/item + a referral fee ranging from 6 – 45% (with an average fee of 15%) depending
on the product category you’re selling in, and are eligible for the Fulfillment by Amazon
service, which lets Amazon store your products, handle customer service, shipping, and
fulfillment for all of your online orders through Amazon.com

2. eBay
Founded in 1995, eBay is one of the most familiar and long-standing ecommerce
marketplaces. While almost any item can be listed on eBay, sellers offering rare or branded
items—including vintage goods and collectibles—tend to do best with the service.
The fee for selling on eBay is 10% of the total sale value, up to a maximum charge of $750.
If you plan to list more than 50 items per month, you should note that insertion fees of $0.30
per item may apply.
Power sellers, however, however should explore the eBay Stores option, where in exchange
for different monthly fees, sellers will have an increased number of items that can be listed
for free, and lower insertion fees for items that go over the limit.

eBay Stores allow sellers a wide variety of customizations for their eBay storefront, including
a banner image, featured products, larger product photos, product categorization, a customer
newsletter and more.

3. Sears.com
Many retailers are surprised to learn Sears has allowed smaller retailers access to their
audience of millions through its own popular marketplace program.
For $39.99/month, you can list your products in almost any category that Sears sells, and
your products will appear on Sears.com, the Sears Mobile app, and in kiosks found
throughout Sears retail locations.

Outside of the monthly fee, Sears only charges on a performance basis, with a standard 2.5%
interchange fee, and commissions ranging from 5.50% – 17.50% depending on the category
you’re selling in.

Retailers such as Mercent.com have said ―As the 3rd largest online marketplace with millions
of unique and loyal monthly shoppers, Sears is a key online shopping channel for Mercent
and its portfolio…‖.

4. Etsy
In the past few years, Etsy has made a name for itself as the de-facto marketplace for people
selling handcrafted items. Etsy’s online marketplace features 12.3 million products and hosts
875,00 merchants at any given time.
One of the benefits of this marketplace is that buyers are searching for items with a
―homemade‖ feel, and the number of active buyers has grown steadily in the past few years.

Etsy charges $0.20 per item listed + a transaction fee of 3.5% of the selling price and any
add-ons such as gift-wrapping. This transaction fee does not include shipping or taxes.
Unlike some of the other marketplaces mentioned previously, Etsy does not offer a
subscription program for power sellers, instead opting to keep it’s rates uniform across all
merchants. If you’re considering selling on Etsy, check out these marketing tips from an Etsy
power user on the Quickbooks Resource Center.

6. Wish
With an audience of over 32 million consumers in the US and Europe, Wish has become a
popular destination for mobile shoppers to buy electronics, fashion, clothing, accessories and
more.
Given the popularity of the mobile app, Wish’s algorithm works to put your products in front
of ―relevant consumers based on their demographics, purchase behavior, and wishlists.‖

According to the company, ―Hundreds of thousands of consumers spend thirty minutes

browsing products on Wish every day.‖ meaning you’ll be exposed to users who are primed
to shop. Wish is also risk-free in that you are no fees unless you make a sale.

7. Bonanza
With 25,000 registered businesses, Bonanza is a great choice for retailers who specialize in
fashion, home, beauty and art.
With Bonanza’s tagline being ―Find everything but the ordinary.‖ shoppers can expect to find
unique, and often offbeat items on this online marketplace.

For sellers, Bonanza charges no listing fees, however, the company does collect a 3.5%
closing fee on sales under $500. For higher-value transactions, Bonanza charges a flat fee of
$17.50 plus 1.5% of the sale amount over $500.

While it may not boast the name recognition of Amazon or eBay, Bonanza, according
to Wheretosellonline.com, does receive roughly 2.2 million visitors per month, and was rated
―The Best Place to Sell Online‖ in a 2016 survey by eCommerceBytes.
One reason may be because Bonanza offers a suite of very seller focused tools, such as a deep
integration with Google Shopping, an image background remover, and an automatic product
sync with other online marketplace tools.

Bonanza has also been featured on Entrepreneur, CNN, Lifehacker, Mashable, and many
other reputable outlets, making it an option worth considering when picking an on online
marketplace to sell with.

8. Newegg
Known primarily as an online marketplace for computer hardware, electronics, tech gadgets
and gear, 17 year old Newegg.com has become the first choice for many technophiles looking
for a great deal.

Founded in the year 2000, Newegg boasts having over 32 million customers, and reaches 50+
countries.

Newegg offers a free option for their seller program, along with two paid options.

The free tier allows you to upload up to 5,000 products, and gives you access to their seller
portal and data feed, allowing you to bulk upload your items, manage listing creation, process
order shipments and returns, and edit your pricing.

Free tier merchants are also allowed to participate in Newegg’s promotions, and can advertise
on Newegg’s homepage, through on-site banners, within the featured sellers area, or in their
Daily Deals section.

At $29.95/month, merchants can choose the Professional tier and upload up to 25,000
products. In addition to the other benefits of the free tier, Professional provides merchants
with a dedicated account manager, a premium seller store, access to Newegg’s premier seller
program, and discounts on fulfillment and shipping label services.
What’s more exciting at the Professional tier however, is that merchants also become eligible
for participation in NewEgg’s curated marketing programs, meaning your products could be
featured in NewEgg’s social media, blog posts, newsletter and other select marketing
services.

For high-volume merchants, there is the Enterprise tier which is $99.95/month and offers all
the same benefits as the previous tiers, but offers unlimited product uploads and better
discounts on NewEgg’s fulfillment and shipping label services.

In addition to NewEgg’s monthly fee, they charge an additional 8-15% on each product sold,
depending on the product’s category.

9. Wayfair
According to the National Retail Foundation, Wayfair was the #32 online retailer in the world
in 2017, ranked directly under Sears, making this a great marketplace to consider, especially
if you’re in the home goods & furnishing vertical.

Founded in 2002, Wayfair differs slightly from the other programs on this list, in that
Wayfair is a dropship seller, meaning you would fulfill the orders on Wayfair’s behalf, and
would make a profit on the sale.

Because of this business model, public information about product margins on Wayfair’s
products are scarce, however, according to this reddit thread from 2016, the site generates
roughly 21 million visitors per month, and according to their own press release, made 4.3
billion in net revenue from September 2016 – September 2017.

If you manufacture your own homeware products, Wayfair is well worth looking into.

10. GoAntiques
If you sell antiques and vintage goods, you may want to consider utilizing
the GoAntiques online marketplace.
Promising no commissions or listing fees, GoAntiques instead charges a flat fee with basic
membership starting at $24.99/month.
 WEEK 10 – INTERNET OF THINGS
Hacking the internet of things:
https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=aLEVVTB5hFl

What is internet of things:

What is the Internet of Things?

The Internet of Things, or IoT, refers to the billions of physical devices

around the world that are now connected to the internet, collecting and
sharing data. Thanks to cheap processors and wireless networks, it's
possible to turn anything, from a pill to an aeroplane, into part of the IoT.
This adds a level of digital intelligence to devices that would be otherwise
dumb, enabling them to communicate without a human being involved, and
merging the digital and physical worlds.

Special Report: Harnessing IoT in the Enterprise

You can download all of the articles in this series in one PDF. It's free to
registered ZDNet and TechRepublic members.
Read More
Pretty much any physical object can be transformed into an IoT device if it
can be connected to the internet and controlled that way.

A lightbulb that can be switched on using a smartphone app is an IoT

device, as is a motion sensor or a smart thermostat in your office or a
connected streetlight. An IoT device could be as fluffy as a child's toy or as
serious as a driverless truck, or as complicated as a jet engine that's now
filled with thousands of sensors collecting and transmitting data back to
make sure it is operating efficiently. At an even bigger scale, smart cities
projects are filling entire regions with sensors to help us understand and
control the environment.

The term IoT is mainly used for devices that wouldn't usually be generally
expected to have an internet connection, and that can communicate with
the network independently of human action. For this reason, a PC isn't
generally considered an IoT device and neither is a smartphone -- even
though the latter is crammed with sensors. A smartwatch or a fitness
band or other wearable device might be counted as an IoT device,
however.

What is the history of the Internet of Things?

The idea of adding sensor and intelligence to basic objects was discussed
throughout the 1980s and 1990s (and there are arguably some much
earlier ancestors), but apart from some early projects -- including an
internet-connected vending machine -- progress was slow simply because
the technology wasn't ready.

Processors that were cheap and power-frugal enough to be all but

disposable were required before it became cost-effective to connect up
billions of devices. The adoption of RFID tags-- low-power chips that can
communicate wirelessly -- solved some of this issue, along with the
increasing availability of broadband internet and cellular and wireless
networking. The adoption of IPv6 -- which, among other things, should
provide enough IP addresses for every device the world (or indeed this
galaxy) is ever likely to need -- was also a necessary step for the IoT to
scale. Kevin Ashton coined the phrase 'Internet of Things' in 1999, although
it took at least another decade for the technology to catch up with the
vision.

"The IoT integrates the interconnectedness of human culture -- our 'things' -

- with the interconnectedness of our digital information system -- 'the
internet.' That's the IoT," Ashton told ZDNet.

Adding RFID tags to expensive pieces of equipment to help track their

location was one of the first IoT applications. But since then, the cost of
adding sensors and an internet connection to objects has continued to fall,
and experts predict that this basic functionality could one day cost as little
as 10 cents, making it possible to connect nearly everything to the internet.

The IoT was initially most interesting to business and manufacturing, where
its application is sometimes known as machine-to-machine (M2M), but the
emphasis is now on filling our homes and offices with smart devices,
transforming it into something that's relevant to almost everyone. Early
suggestions for internet-connected devices included 'blogjects' (objects that
blog and record data about themselves to the internet), ubiquitous
computing (or 'ubicomp'), invisible computing, and pervasive computing.
However, it was Internet of Things and IoT that stuck.

How big is the Internet of Things?

Big and getting bigger -- there are already more connected things than
people in the world. Analyst Gartner calculates that around 8.4 billion IoT
devices were in use in 2017, up 31 percent from 2016, and this will likely
reach 20.4 billion by 2020. Total spending on IoT endpoints and services
will reach almost $2tn in 2017, with two-thirds of those devices found in
China, North America and Western Europe, said Gartner.

Out of that 8.4 billion devices, more than half will be consumer products like
smart TVs and smart speakers. The most-used enterprise IoT devices will
be smart electric meters and commercial security cameras, according to
Gartner.

Another analyst, IDC, puts worldwide spending on IoT at $772.5bn in 2018

-- up nearly 15 percent on the $674bn that will be spent in 2017. IDC
predicts that total spending will hit $1tn in 2020 and $1.1tn in 2021.

According to IDC, hardware will be the largest technology category in 2018

with $239bn going on modules and sensors, with some spending on
infrastructure and security. Services will be the second largest technology
category, followed by software and connectivity.

What are the benefits of the Internet of Things for business?

Occasionally known as the Industrial IoT, the benefits of the IoT for
business depend on the particular implementation, but the key is that
enterprises should have access to more data about their own products and
their own internal systems, and a greater ability to make changes as a
result.

Manufacturers are adding sensors to the components of their products so

that they can transmit back data about how they are performing. This can
help companies spot when a component is likely to fail and to swap it out
before it causes damage. Companies can also use the data generated by
these sensors to make their systems and their supply chains more efficient,
because they will have much more accurate data about what's really going
on.

"With the introduction of comprehensive, real-time data collection and

analysis, production systems can become dramatically more
responsive," say consultants McKinsey.

Enterprise use of the IoT can be divided into two segments: industry-
specific offerings like sensors in a generating plant or real-time location
devices for healthcare; and IoT devices that can be used in all industries,
like smart air conditioning or security systems.

While industry-specific products will make the early running, by 2020

Gartner predicts that cross-industry devices will reach 4.4 billion units,
while vertical-specific devices will amount to 3.2 billion units. Consumers
purchase more devices, but businesses spend more: the analyst group
said that while consumer spending on IoT devices was around $725bn last
year, businesses spending on IoT hit $964bn. By 2020, business and
consumer spending on IoT hardware will hit nearly $3tn.

For IDC the three industries that are expected to spend the most on IoT in
2018 are manufacturing ($189bn), transportation ($85bn), and utilities
($73bn). Manufacturers will largely focus on improving the efficiency of their
processes and asset tracking, while two-thirds of IoT spending by transport
will go toward freight monitoring, followed by fleet management.

IoT spending in the utilities industry will be dominated by smart grids for
electricity, gas, and water. IDC puts spending on cross-industry IoT areas
like connected vehicles and smart buildings, at nearly $92bn in 2018.

What are the benefits of the Internet of Things for consumers?

The IoT promises to make our environment -- our homes and offices and
vehicles -- smarter, more measurable, and chattier. Smart speakers
like Amazon's Echo and Google Home make it easier to play music, set
timers, or get information. Home security systems make it easier to monitor
what's going on inside and outside, or to see and talk to visitors.
Meanwhile, smart thermostats can help us heat our homes before we arrive
back, and smart lightbulbs can make it look like we're home even when
we're out.

Looking beyond the home, sensors can help us to understand how noisy or
polluted our environment might be. Autonomous cars and smart cities could
change how we build and manage our public spaces.

However, many of these innovations could have major implications for our
personal privacy.

The Internet of Things and smart homes

For consumers, the smart home is probably where they are likely to come
into contact with internet-enabled things, and it's one area where the big
tech companies (in particular Amazon, Google, and Apple) are competing
hard.

The most obvious of these are smart speakers like Amazon's Echo, but
there are also smart plugs, lightbulbs, cameras, thermostats, and the
much-mocked smart fridge. But as well as showing off your enthusiasm for
shiny new gadgets, there's a more serious side to smart home applications.
They may be able to help keep older people independent and in their own
homes longer by making easier for family and carers to communicate with
them and monitor how they are getting on. A better understanding of how
our homes operate, and the ability to tweak those settings, could help save
energy -- by cutting heating costs, for example.

What about Internet of Things security?

Security is one the biggest issues with the IoT. These sensors are
collecting in many cases extremely sensitive data -- what you say and do in
your own home, for example. Keeping that secure is vital to consumer trust,
but so far the IoT's security track record has been extremely poor. Too
many IoT devices give little thought to basics of security, like encrypting
data in transit and at rest.

Flaws in software -- even old and well-used code -- are discovered on a

regular basis, but many IoT devices lack the capability to be patched, which
means they are permanently at risk. Hackers are now actively targeting IoT
devices such as routers and webcams because their inherent lack of
security makes them easy to compromise and roll up into giant botnets.

Flaws have left smart home devices like refrigerators, ovens, and
dishwashers open to hackers. Researchers found 100,000 webcams that
could be hacked with ease, while some internet-connected smartwatches
for children have been found to contain security vulnerabilities that allow
hackers to track the wearer's location, eavesdrop on conversations, or
even communicate with the user.

When the cost of making a device smart becomes negligible, these

problems will only become more widespread and intractable.

The IoT bridges the gap between the digital world and the physical world,
which means that hacking into devices can have dangerous real-world
consequences. Hacking into the sensors controlling the temperature in a
power station could trick the operators into making a catastrophic decision;
taking control of a driverless car could also end in disaster.

What about privacy and the Internet of Things?

With all those sensors collecting data on everything you do, the IoT is a
potentially vast privacy headache. Take the smart home: it can tell when
you wake up (when the smart coffee machine is activated) and how well
you brush your teeth (thanks to your smart toothbrush), what radio station
you listen to (thanks to your smart speaker), what type of food you eat
(thanks to your smart oven or fridge), what your children think (thanks to
their smart toys), and who visits you and passes by your house (thanks to
your smart doorbell). While companies will make money from selling you
the smart object in the first place, their IoT business model probably
involves data, too.

What happens to that data is a vitally important privacy matter. Not all
smart home companies build their business model around harvesting and
selling your data, but some do.

And it's worth remembering that IoT data can be combined with other bits
of data to create a surprisingly detailed picture of you. It's surprisingly easy
to find out a lot about a person from a few different sensor readings. In one
project, a researcher found that by analysing data charting just the home's
energy consumption, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide levels,
temperature, and humidity throughout the day they could work out what
someone was having for dinner.

IoT, privacy and business

Consumers need to understand the exchange they are making and

whether they are happy with that. Some of the same issues apply to
business: would your executive team be happy to discuss a merger in a
meeting room equipped with smart speakers and cameras, for example?
One recent survey found that four out of five companies would be unable to
identify all the IoT devices on their network.

Badly installed IoT products could easily open up corporate networks to

attack by hackers, or simply leak data. It might seem like a trivial threat but
imagine if the smart locks at your office were refused to open or the smart
weather station in the CEO's office were to create a backdoor into your
network.

The IoT and cyberwarfare

The IoT makes computing physical. So if things go wrong with IoT devices,
there can be major real-world consequences -- something that nations
planning their cyberwarfare strategies are now taking into account.

Last year, a US intelligence community briefing warned that the country's

adversaries already have the ability to threaten its critical infrastructure as
well "as the broader ecosystem of connected consumer and industrial
devices known as the Internet of Things". US intelligence has also warned
that connected thermostats, cameras, and cookers could all be used either
to spy on citizens of another country, or to cause havoc if they were
hacked. Adding key elements of national critical infrastructure (like dams,
bridges, and elements of the electricity grid) to the IoT makes it even more
vital that security is as tight as possible.

Internet of Things and big data analytics

The IoT generates vast amounts of data: from sensors attached to machine
parts or environment sensors, or the words we shout at our smart
speakers. That means the IoT is a significant driver of big data analytics
projects because it allows companies to create vast data sets and analyse
them. Giving a manufacturer vast amounts of data about how its
components behave in real-world situations can help them to make
improvements much more rapidly, while data culled from sensors around a
city could help planners make traffic flow more efficiently.

In particular, the IoT will deliver large amounts of real-time data. Cisco
calculates that machine-to machine connections that support IoT
applications will account for more than half of the total 27.1 billion devices
and connections, and will account for five percent of global IP traffic by
2021.

Internet of Things and the cloud

The huge amount of data that IoT applications generate means that many
companies will choose to do their data processing in the cloud rather than
build huge amounts of in-house capacity. Cloud computing giants are
already courting these companies: Microsoft has its Azure IoT suite,
while Amazon Web Services provides a range of IoT services, as
does Google Cloud.

The Internet of Things and smart cities

By spreading a vast number of sensors over a town or city, planners can

get a better idea of what's really happening, in real time. As a result, smart
cities projects are a key feature of the IoT. Cities already generate large
amounts of data (from security cameras and environmental sensors) and
already contain big infrastructure networks (like those controlling traffic
lights). IoT projects aim to connect these up, and then add further
intelligence into the system.

There are plans to blanket Spain's Balearic Islands with half a million
sensors and turn it into a lab for IoT projects, for example. One scheme
could involve the regional social-services department using the sensors to
help the elderly, while another could identify if a beach has become too
crowded and offer alternatives to swimmers. In another example, AT&T is
launching a service to monitor infrastructure such as bridges, roadways,
and railways with LTE-enabled sensors to monitor structural changes such
as cracks and tilts.

The ability to better understand how a city is functioning should allow

planners to make changes and monitor how this improves residents' lives.

Big tech companies see smart cities projects as a potentially huge area,
and many -- including mobile operators and networking companies -- are
now positioning themselves to get involved.

How do Internet of Things devices connect?

IoT devices use a variety of methods to connect and share data: homes
and offices will use standard wi-fi or Bluetooth Low Energy (or even
Ethernet if they aren't especially mobile); other devices will use LTE or
even satellite connections to communicate. However, the vast number of
different options has already led some to argue that IoT communications
standards need to be as accepted and interoperable as wi-fi is today.

One likely trend is that, as the IoT develops, it could be that less data will
be sent for processing in the cloud. To keep costs down, more processing
could be done on-device with only the useful data sent back to the cloud --
a strategy known as 'edge computing'.

IoT data and artificial intelligence

IoT devices generate vast amounts of data; that might be information about
an engine's temperature or whether a door is open or closed or the reading
from a smart meter. All this IoT data has to be collected, stored and
analysed. One way companies are making the most of this data is to feed it
into artificial intelligence (AI) systems which will take that IoT data and use
it to make predictions.
For example, Google is an AI in charge of its data center cooling system.
The AI uses data pulled from thousands of IoT sensors which is fed into
deep neural networks, which predict how different choices will affect future
energy consumption. By using machine learning and AI Google has been
able to make its data centers more efficient and said the same technology
could have uses in other industrial settings.

IoT evolution: Where does the Internet of Things go next?

As the price of sensors and communications continue to drop, it becomes

cost-effective to add more devices to the IoT -- even if in some cases
there's little obvious benefit to consumers. As the number of connected
devices continues to rise, our living and working environments will become
filled with smart products -- assuming we are willing to accept the security
and privacy trade-offs. Some will welcome the new era of smart things.
Others will pine for the days when a chair was simply a chair.
 WEEK 11- BLOCKCHAIN AND
SMART CONTRACTS
The BlockChain and Us | Manuel Stagars:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iF73cybTBs

The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin:

Documentary.

Bitcoin in Uganda:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrRXP1tp6Kw
 WEEK 12 – INTRO TO NEW AGE DIGITAL BUSINESS

– CHAT BOTS

How Businesses are Winning with Chatbots & Ai

Businesses are finally starting to get value out of using chatbots.

Companies like Sephora, Nitro Cafe, 1–800 Flowers, Marriott, Snap-
Travel, and Coca-Cola are starting to see returns.

Marriott currently has 3 different chatbots and they are working on more.
After seeing some very big early wins, 1–800 Flowers is going all in by
developing bots for each major channel. All in all, bots are finally starting
to win businesses over and according to an Oracle survey, 80% of
businesses want chatbots by 2020.

There has been a lot of hype around chatbots and artificial intelligence
with little to show for it …. until now. There are 7 big areas in which bots
are helping companies and I will share each of them here with you.
Finally we are starting to get clarity on the value that bots can bring and
by and large the value is mostly B2B.

Where Chatbots are Winning?

1. Ecommerce & Online Marketing

Ecommerce Chatbot
The ecommerce space has begun using chatbots in a number of ways that
are quickly adding dollars to their bottom line. Let‘s look at the early
success stories:

 1–800-Flowers: reported that more than 70% of its Messenger

orders derived from new customers!
 Sephora: increased their makeover appointments by 11% via their
Facebook Messenger Chatbot.
 Nitro Café: increased sales by 20 percent with their Messenger
chatbot which was designed for easy ordering, direct payments and
instant two-way communication.
 Sun’s Soccer: Chatbots drove nearly 50% of its users back to their
site throughout specific soccer coverage; 43 percent of chatbot
subscribersclicked through during their best period.
 Asos: increased orders by 300% using Messenger Chatbots and got a
250% return on Spend while reaching 3.5x more people.

So how are marketers and ecommerce stores

using bots?

Ecommerce Chatbot Trends

Email Substitute: Messenger Chatbots have higher open rates and click
through rates than email. As a result many online marketers have begun
using chatbots as a way of getting website visitors information via pop-
ups. Once the user engages, they will be sent down a sales funnel bot
style.

Messenger Marketing

Sales Funnels: Just like email marketing, bot marketers are using sales
funnels to segment audiences and sell products. In bots the sales funnel is
interactive and dynamic. When a user says no, it is easier to find out why
and send them to a different part of your funnel which can convert them
at a later date.
Content Gamification: Since chatbots are interactive, they can make
content more interactive and personalized. They can teach you something
valuable, take you on a journey, and improve the relationship you have
with a brand. As a result, we are seeing a lot of brands create experiences
which tell a story and lead to a sale. Call of Duty used this strategy in
launching their new game Call of Duty: Infinite War.

Content Marketing on Messenger

“We wanted to give our fans playing Call of Duty the first peek at the
next game and a unique way to interact with one of the characters from
the upcoming Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare,” said Tim Ellis, the chief
marketing officer of Activision Publishing, in a press release sent to
GamesBeat. “Messenger gives us the opportunity to engage directly
with our fans in an interactive adventure that has never been done
before — in Call of Duty or on Messenger. It’s been a lot of fun to see the
community rally to work with each other and with Lt. Reyes on
Messenger.”

This strategy was so popular that they received over 6 Million messages
in the first 24hrs! This Messenger content campaign directly lead to sales
of the new Call of Duty game!

Relationship Marketing: Bots are far more personal than using social
media, like Twitter, or even email. It‘s natural for users to project human
characteristics on a chatbot and even develop feelings. As a result, brands
really have the unique opportunity to develop a more personal
relationship with users which increases customer loyalty.
…Now this is where the fun begins…
How Chatbots are Increasing Sales
Ecommerce Chatbot App

Chatbots are increasing ecommerce sales in a really big way. There are a
number of features that help bring this about. Here are the big ones:

 Upselling & Downselling: After a customer buys they are 33%

more likely to buy again. This makes upselling right after a purchase a
great opportunity to increase sales.
 Abandoned Cart: A whopping 68% of shopping carts are
abandoned. Email has been a great way to recover abandoned carts
recouping as much as 50%. Now chatbots are joining the process and
as a result of higher open rates and click rates, they are sure to
increase this number.
 Lead Generation: Messenger discovery can be a powerful way to
get even more exposure for you brand. Additionally, Facebook has
been suggesting bots as questions in conversations. For example, if
you tell your friend you want to watch a movie, Facebook shows the
Fandango Bot!
 Personalization & Predictive Analytics: Chatbots are a great
way to segment your audience and put each of your personas in
tailored experience. According to an Accenture report, consumers are
75% more likely to buy from a retailer that recognises them by name
or recommends options based on past purchases. A great example of
this is Amazon‘s ―frequently bought together‖ and ―customers who
bought this item also bought‖ prompts. Furthermore, a report by
McKinsey estimates 35% of Amazon‘s consumer purchases come
from product recommendations based on such algorithms.
 Increased Retention Rates: When it comes to retention, bots are
beating apps single handedly. Bots have the advantage of being
transient, you don‘t have to download them, sign up, etc… this low
barrier to entry and low friction makes it easier to use them when you
want on your terms. Additionally, as long as the experience and value
proposition is good, it easy for the bot to contact you and start a
conversation.

Chatbot Retention Rates

Keys to Success
The goal here is to start with a few really big wins and then grow your bot
solutions to take advantage of big data and personalization.

Smart Messaging: This is one of the most important and least

discussed value propositions of a good chatbot. Essentially, the messages
should be smart which means that they have 2 inherent characteristics:

 Highly Valuable: The message is so valuable that your audience will

be mad if they did not receive the message. For example, your
banking bot should warn you if there there is ‗irregular activity‘ on
your account. A message like, ‗We see transactions coming from
Barcelona, Spain. Are you traveling?‘ would be ideal.
 Preventive: Messages that aim to solve a problem before the
problem occurs. Everyone hates overdraft fees! A banking bot can
help you avoid overdraft fees by sending you a warning message
before the overdraft occurs. Currently, HiCharlie, does just this.
Whenever a user is about to have an overdraft fee, HiCharlie, will
send them a message like this, ―Hi John, looks like you are about to
incur an overdraft fee! Transfer $77 to your checking account before
end of day account to avoid the fees!‖

2. Customer Service

Customer Service Chatbots

Companies are saving as much as 29% on customer service by deploying

bots, according to McKinsey! BI Intelligence estimates that chatbots will
equate to a $23 billion in savings from annual salaries.
Additionally companies can automate 36% of sales representative
positions, resulting in total annual estimated savings of at least $15
billion from salaries.
Customer Service Bots are a No-Brainer with
an almost instant ROI
These are HUGE Savings and the trend will only increase. According to
an IBM survey 65% of US millennials prefer going online to get support,
rather than speak to staff in-store, so it's clear that there is an appetite,
for this technology and businesses can benefit in really big way.

Let’s take a few real life examples:

 Rodgers Wireless: had a 60% improvement in customer service

 Globe Telecom: increased customer satisfaction by 22% while
decreasing call volume by 50% using a Facebook Messenger Chatbot.
Employees productivity increased by 350%.

Chatbots Saving Comapnies Money

How Companies are using Customer

Service Chatbots
 Customer Service with Smart Handoff: Most customer service
calls can be broken down into the 80/20 rule where the same
questions are asked 80% of the time. The best use of the technology
right now is in automating the easy questions that get asked over and
over again with a live agent takeover whenever the bot can not answer
a question. When the bot is stumped, it automatically sends the
question to a live agent and then listens to the answer and learns how
to answer this type of question in the future. The most powerful
aspect to this use case is that the system gets smarter over time and
can handle more and more questions automatically!
 Internal Help Desk: What happens when a customer service agent
doesn‘t know the answer to a questions? Often times they ask an
internal help desk and as you can imagine the internal help desk also
gets the same questions over and over again. Bots can help both
internal and external customer service teams.
 FAQ Automation: No one reads FAQ pages, what they do is email
your company the question. Using AI we can now take a document
and answer any questions regarding it. In fact, one of my partners did
this with Wikipedia. You can ask his Wiki bot questions like, ‗Where
is Barcelona‘ and it will automatically answer it!
 Confidence Scores: How does the bot know if it should answer a
question or hand it off? When a question comes in the bot will look to
see if it can answer it and ascribe a confidence score to its answer. If
the confidence score is below our pre-set threshold, it will
automatically send it to a live agent and listen for the answer. It will
then compare the agent‘s answer to its own and improve! Using
confidence scoring with reinforcement learning is key.

Key to Success
Start small and focus on the a handful of questions that would really
make a difference if automated. Often times companies will start with the
internal help desk in order to validate their models. Make sure to have an
automatic live agent takeover when necessary and once you are seeing
returns, reinvest in a self learning system.

3. Travel, Tourism & Hospitality

Hospitality Chatbots

Chatbots are slowly becoming a big hit in the hospitality and travel
industry. They are beginning to offer a higher-end user experience at a
lower price point. One the biggest wins for bots are that they increase
customer satisfaction and brand loyalty while lowering costs via
automation.

Let’s look at a few examples of winners in the space:

 Snap Travel: $1,000,000 in Bookings

 Marriott: Use of chatbot services at the company has grown 85%
month over month since the technology was launched via Facebook
Messenger.
 KLM: Increased customer interactions by 40%, helped 15% of
customers get their boarding passes via Messenger while improving
Net Promoter Score.
 Wynn: Adding Amazon Echo‘s to over 5,000 Rooms.
 Waylo: 50K Month in Revenue

Bots in this space are being successful on a number of critical fronts: 1)

They Increase Revenue 2) Increase customer satisfaction 3) Increase
Engagement and Brand Loyalty and 4) Lower Costs via Automation. Here
is how companies are using the technology today.

How Companies are Using Chatbots & Ai

 Engagement Ecosystem: Marriott is creating a chatbot ecosystem
that engages customer before, during and after their trip. Someone
might use the chatbot to check availability for a visit to a Marriott
hotel in Chicago, for example. Whether they ended up booking or not,
the chatbot might later send links to personalized content such as
articles about Chicago‘s top restaurants, tours or other local
experiences to explore. Once they book, the bot can let them check
into their room, request guest services, order from the restaurant,
suggest activities, and after they check out it will gather feedback and
even ask them about any future trips they are planning or their dream
vacations. Owning the experience from beginning to end and keeping
the conversation channel open is key!
 Radical Personalization: One of the biggest challenges that the
hotel industry faces is differentiation. Simply put, most customers
compare hotels based on price and most often go with the best value
(combination of price, brand, location) which puts hotels in the
awkward spot of competing on price. Radical personalization will
change all of this. Hotels will be able to offer unique personalized
packages based on a person‘s interest and bundle a number of
activities together, in one package, that the customer would do
anyway. For example, when me and my wife went to Chicago, we had
dinner at Alinea (9th Best Restaurant in the World) and saw
Hamilton, the musical. In the future, a travel bot will know our
 preference and the reason why we‘re traveling and offer a more
personalized package and a better value. By offering personalized
packages like this, hotels can avoid competing on price.
 Predictive Analytics: Imagine that you are stuck at the airport due
to a flight cancellation, what would you do? In 2014, Roof Inn used
public weather and flight data to predict which customers would face
flight cancellations. Based on the results of this predictive analysis,
Red Roof Inn launched a targeted marketing campaign aimed at
mobile-device users in the areas most likely to be affected by harsh
weather. With predictive analytics we can solve problems before they
happen and offer a very unique and compelling value proposition to
users in real time.
 On Property Recommendations: Hotels are starting to use next-
product-to-buy algorithms. These algorithms can analyze historical
data to determine, for example, that a customer enjoys an early-
morning coffee and is likely traveling with a spouse, and then use that
customer‘s cell phone location data to deliver a buy-one-get-one-free
offer just as the customer walks by the hotel coffee shop in the
morning. Moreover, there are additional opportunities to wow the
client by dispatching a pre-ordered room-service dinner as the guest
enters the lobby, or alert housekeeping that a room is available for
cleaning as soon as a guest has departed.
 Customer Service Chatbots & Voice: The top 5% of travelers
who spend 50 to 100+ nights a year, do so at the most premiere
hotels, without consideration of price. The majority of this group gets
their own personal concierge whom they can call anytime and for
anything! For the rest of us, chatbots can offer a similar high quality
service at a much lower price point. Hotels are already rolling out
these types of bots which can provide a great customer service
experience, suggest places of interests, and help you get things done
via chat and voice. Moreover, since the technology holds state, this
means you can pick up the conversation on messenger, email or via
Echo in you room without having to repeat yourself -the system holds
state.
 Smart Pricing via AI: One of the biggest opportunities is to use
predictive analytics and deep personalization to optimize pricing. For
example, a hotel might all of the sudden have an excess of rooms
available due to a last minute cancellations as a result of a flight
cancellation. To remedy the situation, the AI might drop the price and
entice a list of locals to spend the night at the hotel at a special rate.
4. Banking, Financial Services & Fintech

Master Card Chatbot

Fintech has begun disrupting the financial services and chatbots are the
latest medium to fuel the disruption. According to Gartner, consumers
will manage 85% of the total business associations with banks through
Fintech chatbots by 2020. Juniper‘s new research, Chatbots: Retail,
eCommerce, Banking & Healthcare 2017–2022, forecasts that chatbots
will be responsible for cost savings of over $8 billion per annum by 2022,
up from $20 million this year.

Many of the top banks such as Bank of America, Chase, Visa, Mastercard
Capital One, American Express, Ally Bank, Barclays, Paypal already have
bots.

Let’s look at a few examples of winners in the space:

 Chase: JPMorgan has numerous bots! COIN, has saved over

360,000 hours of manpower and its simple bots work by parsing
emails for employees, grant access to software systems, and handle
common IT requests like resetting passwords and more. Bots are
expected to handle 1.7 million access requests this year, doing the
work of 140 people.
 HiCharlie: This bot keep track of your finances so you don‘t have
to. On average Charlie saves users $80 per week!
 Sweedbank: Their chatbot, Nina, handles 40,000 conversations a
month and resolves 81% of the issues.
 Trim: Trim is Financial Assistant bot that can help you reduce
expenses and even negotiate bills on your behalf. Trim has a 94%
retention rate!

How Fintech Companies are Using Chatbots

Smart Messaging: First and foremost, bots can help warn you about
issues and dangers with your bank account. For example, if there are
unauthorized charges coming from Rome, the bot can send you a
message and find out if in fact you‘re in Rome.

Companies like HiCharlie are taking this a step further by warning you
about bank fees, overdraft fees, and other upcoming charges. To avoid
these fees, simple tell the bot to move money from one account to
another and just like that you have saved money.

Personalized Tips & Suggestions: The Banks of America bot can look
into your account and give you suggestions on what to do with your
money. It can give you a cost breakdown of where you are spending your
money, how much your spending on servicing debt, and how you can
move money around in order to save more money. Check out the video
below:

Negotiator: Trim is one of the most popular bots and it works by

focusing in on saving you money. It analyzes your spending habits and
offers ways to reduce costs such as canceling memberships that you no
longer use. Additionally, it can negotiate some of your bills for you, such
as your Comcast Bill. It has saved users over $1,000,000 in the past 30
days.

Customer Service: Bots offer 24/7 customer support and can answer
account questions and offer insights and suggestions thereby lowering
costs and improving customer experience.

Internal Chatbots: Banks are starting to use chatbots internally to help

automate tasks. The program, called COIN, for Contract Intelligence,
does the mind-numbing job of interpreting commercial-loan agreements
that, until the project went online in June, consumed 360,000 hours of
work each year by lawyers and loan officers. Additionally, Chase, has
created number other bots that solve problems like password reset,
parsing employee emails to improve efficiency, grant access to software
and much more.
5. HR & Recruiting

HR Chatbot

One of the most exciting verticals for chatbots is recruiting and human
resources management. Bots are helping at each step of the employee
lifecycleand in the process decreasing HR head counts, decreasing costs
and improving employee engagement.

According to a survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource

Management, 38% of HR respondents said the primary challenge they
face is ―maintaining high levels of employee engagement.‖ Part of the
problems is that most employee self service HR systems are old,
antiquated and hard to use which leads to employees asking the HR
department for simple requests. Bots are solving this problem by
becoming a middle layer that can integrate with existing systems, while
offering a much easier user experience for employees. As a result, Bots
are improving engagement while decreasing the amount of time HR reps
spend on requests by 30–50%!

Let’s look at a few examples of winners in the space:

 Maya: Automates recruiting steps such as sourcing, screening &

scheduling. Save 75% of your team‘s time.
 SGT STAR: US Army is using a chatbot to help answer questions
and enlist future soldiers.
 SAP: This is a bot for managers that helps streamline tasks like
employee look up, time logs, pending hours, etc. Additionally,
employees can change address, request a vacation, or perform other
self service.
 Wade & Wendy: AI chatbots that helps recruiting and employee
development.
 Loka: This is a Slack bot that can answer HR related questions such
as ‗who is my insurance provider‘, etc.
How HR Bots are Helping Companies:

Bots for Employees

Recruiting: Chatbots and artificial intelligences are helping automate

the recruiting process. For example, Tara.ai, used this approach to find
and evaluate a developers on Github. The Ai system would evaluate the
developers code, background, and give them a quality score.

Pre-Screening: About 75% of job applications are unqualified for the

job that they are applying for. Chatbots can engage applicants and pre-
screen them to make sure that they are qualified for the job by asking
them a few simple questions. Wendy does just this, she is like a hiring
assistant that understands the identity of your company and intelligently
vets and delivers candidates who compliment your mission and culture.

Employee Training & Development: Training and developing an

employee is an expensive, time consuming, investment. Chatbots like
Wade, are simplifying the process by onboarding new employees to the
company acting as an always-present advisor. Wade, recognizes that an
employee‘s career is equal parts journey and destination, and grows with
the employee through their career.
HR Bot

HR Resources: One of the biggest use cases is HR Automation via

Chatbots which allows companies to automate 30 to 50% of time HR
Reps spend answering such requests.

 Documentation Requests: Whenever an employee wants to see

their W2, last paycheck stub, or any other document the bot
automatically respond 24/7.
 Personal Information Requests: Often times employees will
have questions regarding PTO, their benefits details, 401k, insurance,
etc.
 Update Personal Information: Employees can update their new
phone number, address, marital status, etc.
 Process HR Requests: Bot can automate requests for PTO,
vacations, sick days, etc.
 Proactive Problem Solver: Bots are also solving problems before
they occur! For example, if an employee forgets to clock out, the bot
can remind them. Additionally, bots can help validate working hours
in states that require employee sign off. During W2 season, the bot
can send out a reminder to update personal information before the
W2 are sent out.
 Feedback & Reviews: Bot can get feedback and reviews from both
employees and managers. Additionally, employees can make
suggestions, ask for help, give feedback, and focus on ways to improve

their performance .

6. Chatbots as Assistants

Chatbot Assistants

A subgroup of chatbots are already being designed to helps perform

specific tasks. The best way to think of these bots as service providers that
you can hire to do a job or task for you. Often times these tasks are
internal and B2B.

Internal chatbots are on the rise and have the potential to fundamentally
change the way we work. Currently, 45% of all job related task are
automatable using already existing technology. Simply put, automation
and bots are already starting to change the way we work and this is just
the beginning. This is one of the most exciting areas for bots.

Examples of Bots as Assistants:

 X.ai: Ai assistant that schedules appointments for you.

 RossIntelligence: Ross is an AI Research Assistant who can
perform legal research for law firms. ROSS users reduced their
research time by 30%.
 DoNotPay: First AI powered robot lawyer that started out
by overturning 160,000 parking tickets valued at over
$4,000,000. Now the bot performs a number of legal services.
 Tara.ai: Automates Tech Projects by hiring and managing
developers for your tech project. Average time to hire talent using
Tara is 24hrs instead of 2 weeks. Projects also run 30–50% faster
than hiring a development agency.
 Chatbot Conference Bot: Managed all of the details for the
Chatbot Conference. Automatically introduced people to each other,
increased Conference Day engagement via gamification, and
increased sales by 20%.
 Internal Agents: HR, Customer Service, Sales, Slack Bots, Fintech
etc…

How AI & Bots are helping Companies:

The majority of the use cases are B2B as companies are building AI
systems and using bots as a layer that integrates current enterprise
software with an easy to use front end which allows users to get value via
conversations.

One of the segments that is being disrupted is legals services. Companies

like Ross Intelligence, JP Morgan Chase, are using bots to automate a lot
of the legal tasks that their attorneys previously had to perform. This
amounts to a huge savings, as lawyers bill in the hundreds of dollars per
hour. DoNotPay is offering a similar service to the public where it fights
certain cases for you automatically.

In 2018, we expect this trend to get only stronger. Expect companies to

continue to develop AI and bot technologies that automate domain
specific tasks. Any task focused on predictive analytics/maintenance,
forecasting, optimization, administrative, etc is ripe for taking. Most
importantly, these projects generally have a massive ROIs!
7. IOT & Voice

Voice is quickly becoming a mega-hit and Amazon‘s Alexa currently has a

70% market share with over 20 million units sold. By 2020, it is
estimated that there will be 128 million smart speakers sold and that
Alexa alone will be able to generate $10 billion of revenues. This is a
massive opportunity for businesses.

Here are some of the things you can do on Alexa:

 Smart Home & IOT: Connect to smart devices and control your
smart appliances with your voice.
 Transportation: Order a Uber or Lyft, get a price quote
 Travel: Book travel tickets, find out wait times at airport
 Entertainment: Listen to music, play games like Jeopardy, find a
movie to watch.
 Cooking: Get food/drink recipe
 Shopping: Buy goods from Amazon, order flowers, etc.
 Order Food: Get pizza delivered.
 Fitness: 7min workout routine
 Productivity: Set reminders, create to-do lists, etc
 News, Weather & Finance: Listen to the news, weather updates,
find out your credit card balance, get stock prices.

How are business making money with Voice?

There are 3 basic ways to monetize a skill. Companies can generate
revenue by selling their goods and services. Uber, Lyft, 1–800 Flowers,
Dominos, are monetizing Voice the good ole fashion way, by selling their
product and services through voice.

If you build a popular skill, you can now charge a subscription fee for
it. Customers who are not Prime members have the option to purchase a
monthly subscription to a skill, like Double Jeopardy, for $1.99 a
month.Customers can subscribe directly from the current Jeopardy voice
app and can cancel at any time using the Alexa app.

Last but not least, Amazon will now pay you anywhere from $500-
$5000 per month depending how popular you skill is.

CHATBOTS FOR BUSINESS

Not that the idea is that new, it’s just come into hyper-focus. You could make a
case that the recent divisive election in the U.S. was as much a result based
0n disruption as it was on politics.

People have been displaced, and few things they know are coming back. We
can choose to kick the sand and curse the sky, or we can look for opportunity.

One of the biggest potential disrupters is the area of bots armed with AI or
artificial intelligence. If this topic is completely foreign to you, this might be a
great read – The $200 Billion Dollar Chatbot Disruption
This is a big topic, worthy of any Ph.D. dissertation, and it’s certainly one that
people have been talking about for many years, but now it’s here and showing
up in some very simple, yet recognizable ways. (Remember how long we
talked about the mobile revolution before it showed up as an everyday
reality?)

Anyone who has used a Siri enabled device or the like has interacted with AI.
Theoretically, Siri gets smarter based on its (her?) ability to access your data
and your requests over time. By tapping public and private databases, Siri can
find things for you based on your previously displayed likes and dislikes. In
other words, Siri is a machine that can learn.

Bots in daily use

Chatbots are the most obvious new use. A chatbot allows you to have a quasi-
conversation with a computer. Thanks to AI, it can interpret your requests, and
based on some rules outlined in the programming, direct you or answer your
requests.

Chatbots are generally built on top of already existing messaging platforms

such as Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp.

CNN produces thousands of new stories every single day. As a reader using
the CNN chatbot you can tell CNN I only want to stories about certain topics or
you can let the CNN bot pay attention to what you seem to read most, engage
with, follow, and share and have content served to you based on what they
believe you want to see.

Package tracking is an age old service relied upon by shippers and recipients
everywhere. Expect bots to start tracking your packages and delivering status
reports for everything you order via Facebook Messenger by the end of 2017.

Why chatbots?
Chatbots can put a company right where the action is – in chat and
messenger apps like Facebook Messenger or Slack. That way customers and
prospects can get the information and experience they seek where it’s
potentially most convenient for them.

In fact, bots may threaten many 3rd party apps altogether. Consumers prefer
seamless integrations and may begin to choose bot communication over
clicking to open an app.

Companies like Kik, Octane.ai, and ChatFuel are trying to bring bot making to
the masses. Publications such as Chatbots Magazine and private Facebook
Groups such as Bots are leading the charge to create an educational platform
for the fledgling industry.
 Facebook is certainly pushing the creation of chatbots built on top
of Messenger.
Bot creation is one the fastest growing areas of interest already in this very
young year.

Deconstruct everything you do

Mark my words, AI bots will displace receptionists, telemarketers, customer
service agents, social media marketers, content producers, consultants and
perhaps even sales personnel – to name a few – just as physical robots have
replaced assembly workers, warehouse workers, and laborers.

So, ask yourself a few very important questions.

 What aspects of my business could be automated by AI in the hands of an

increasingly sophisticated application that can learn?
 What experience could be automated in a way that added value, even if it
meant fewer or different individuals were needed to create and operate it?
 What aspects of any business or industry could I disrupt using AI technology?
 What website or information portal could be made infinitely more useful if it
could learn?

I’m not simply suggesting that you need to pay attention to some new trend,
I’m suggesting that many businesses need to realize that the light at the end
of the tunnel just might be something other than what you think.

AI is not another platform like social media: it’s the tip of a violent shift in the
way your customers will get information and interact with companies, products
and services.

Right now, AI and bots are still somewhat leading edge, but by the end of
2017 interaction with AI devices and bots and the potential smarter and more
personalized experiences they promise will become an expectation.
How to embrace bots for marketing
Below are a few obvious ways that I believe small businesses could start to
think about using chatbot technology to innovate and serve.

Guide prospects to right content

Your.MD gives medical advice based on the symptoms you describe
In many cases, when you’re unwell you just need the right information. If you
can’t get to a doctor, Your.MD gives you the answers you need. Make better
health decisions. Any time. Any place. For free.

Any business that produces content and gives advice could mimic this use
case.

Help people shop

Need inspiration picking an outfit?

Chat to H&M on Kik for instant outfit inspiration! Tell us a piece of clothing,
and we’ll build an outfit around it for you. Anything from joggers and jeans to
tops and shirts… we’ve got you covered! We’ll be your personal stylist for your
lazy days or for your night outs.
Again, pretty simple to see lots of applications for anyone selling products.

Want to pick your perfect bra? The VSPINK bot from Victoria Secret lets you
talk it through
“Find your perfect bra by chatting to VSPINK on Kik! Answer a few questions
about how your current bra fits and we’ll give you your perfect size, or tell us
about your day and we’ll recommend the perfect Wear Everywhere Bra for
you. We have a bra for every occasion, ever!”

Enhance productivity
Bots like those being built by Talla integrate with Slack and Office 365
allowing workers to automate many of the processes they may need to
operate. Organizations are using Talla to onboard and train employees in
more engaging ways.
 CASE STUDY – BUPA

The chatbot, named ‗Cyan‘ after Bupa‘s brand color, is listed

alongside other employees in the Skype directory. It is also
embedded as a web part on their internal news website, Centre
News Online.

Cyan understands human language and answers questions such

as ―What‘s the closest station to the new office?‖, ―How do I
contact Payroll?‖, and ―Are there gyms nearby? Do we get a
discount?‖

Tangowork worked closely with Bupa‘s comms team to plan,

build and deploy the chatbot. Workshops were conducted to
brainstorm potential questions and define the chatbot
personality. After building out the content, Bupa launched a
gradually-expanding pilot that started with just a few people
and doubled in size every week or so.

During the pilot period, both Tangowork and Bupa closely

monitored the transcripts of chatbot conversations. Whenever
the chatbot had trouble understanding, the project team would
decide: should the chatbot be taught to support this question?
Or should the user be gently redirected back towards supported
tasks?

Bupa wisely constrained the scope of the chatbot, especially in

the beginning. Del Green, Bupa‘s Senior Digital
Communications Manager, manages Cyan day to day. ―Before
our move to Angel Court, the chatbot focused mainly on the
office move: things like ‗when are we moving?‘ and ‗do I need to
pack my own things?‘ After the move, we expanded to questions
about day-to-day work in the new environment.‖
The single most common question the chatbot receives is
―what‘s the password for guest wifi?‖ The wifi password changes
frequently and many employees have found that the fastest way
to get it is to simply turn to Skype for Business and ask Cyan.

Del is pleased with the results so far. ―Employees are intrigued

by Cyan,‖ he explains. ―We already see many opportunities to
expand our use of chatbots at Bupa.‖

And what about working with Tangowork? ―We went with

Tangowork because they could get us up and running so quickly.
And Tangowork has proven to be an exceptionally easy platform
to work with. Their team was efficient and professional, and the
product itself keeps getting better and better.‖