23 Oct From m-commerce to IoT-commerce

M-commerce, a « must » for companies.

Driven by the momentum of innovations such as mobile payment or geolocation, m-commerce continues to display vertiginous progressions with a turnover estimated over 180 billion euros in the world in 2015.

For businesses, becoming “mobile first” becomes an absolute necessity as this sales channel already accounts for over 30% of e-merchants’ turnover in mature markets.

If mobile has changed consumer uses and reshaped brands strategies, another tsunami of greater magnitude should impact retailers. This is the market for connected devices, more commonly known as IoT (Internet Of Things), which promises to take off even more dramatically in the years to come.

A new era: IOT-commerce.

The amount of connected devices offered to the public is growing daily. Electronic devices, including commonplace objects, such as light bulbs, become connected, reconciling hardwares with softwares. According to Gartner, the number of connected objects (excluding computers, smartphones and tablets) could generate up to $300 billion in sales worldwide by 2020.

If some objects are related to gadgets, others will revolutionise some industries offering many opportunities, such as advanced CRM or captures of new uses and markets … Some will provide a major risk for distributors: disintermediation. The most visionary distributors have fairly understood this trend, Amazon at the top of the list, which the launch in May 2015 of a new connected object after the Amazon Dash.

The European release date for the Amazon Echo is not known yet, but B.D.C was able to get one in San Francisco during a Learning Expedition. A great opportunity for us to test it before anyone.

At first glance, the latest Amazon seems like a “Siri in a black cylinder”. The features do not seem revolutionary. And yet… With the “machine learning” connected to the cloud, the Echo can continuously improve its intelligence as long as Amazon progressively integrates new applications and features in the cloud.

If Amazon Dash took possession of the kitchen sector, the Amazon Echo should take possession of the home sector. It finds its ideal place in the middle of a living room and is able to drive a set of other connected objects, becoming a vital trading tool within its own ecosystem. This Trojan role will also allow it to recover paid content and reassemble data on each of its users.

Amazon Echo’s main advantage lies in its APIs that allow it to be coupled with other apps. If the device is already compliant with a set of connected products such as Phillips bulbs or different sets of speaker brands and music softwares, new partners objects and features should multiply in the coming months. The user will soon be able to make payments orally or buy services and products. Echo opens a real voice trading space. It is the emergence of “IOT-commerce.”

Just like this unit and like Amazon, every historical tech actors of the Silicon Valley is engaged in a great transformation towards connected objects. Apple and Google will not allow Amazon to capture this strategic market alone. Possibilities are huge and we can’t wait to see the movements of the pioneers of the IOT-Commerce and its impact on historical retailers …

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