Vision India 2020: Oishi

During the dotcom heydays, two companies had caught my eye: online diamond jewelry retailer BlueNile and online gift retailer RedEnvelope.

Forbes Column 08: How Technology Can Save Retailers

My new Forbes column How Technology Can Save Retailers gets into online brand engagement, focus groups, inventory planning.

Deal Radar 2008: Figleaves and Specialty e-Tail

(I want to preamble this piece by saying that when you read it, please don’t be surprised if Google AdSense starts pushing lingerie ads to you. It is not a very smart algorithm!) Figleaves.com is the world’s largest online retailer of branded intimate apparel. It includes Aubade to La Perla to Zimmermann. Users can shop

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Deal Radar 2008: Zappos Wants to be Amazon When it Grows Up

You have heard me talk about the verticalization of the web. Here’s a good example of a brand built on that premise. Zappos.com is the #1 online footwear retailer. Apart from retailing around 1,100 well known brands of shoes, boots, sandals, and athletic footwear, it also retails accessories including socks, wallets, belts, designer handbags, and

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Deal Radar 2008: Bill Me Later – Blessed by Amazon

Bill Me Later is a safe and convenient payment system that allows people to purchase on the phone or over the web. The service is in direct competition with eBay’s PayPal. It was recently judged as the sixth-fastest-growing U.S. firm by Inc. magazine. It has around 200 employees and is based in Baltimore. Bill Me

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Re-engineering the Book Business: Blurb CEO, Eileen Gittins (Part 2)

SM: What was the market landscape like when you founded the company? EG: Well for one thing, Blurb was a very contrarian play at the time. VCs were funding blogging platforms and social networks and online plays – and here we were taking bits back into atoms. But fortunately I had good relationships in the

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