Building a Secondary Ticketing Business From Spain: Ander Michelena, CEO of Ticketbis (Part 1)

Spain’s economy has been devastated, and it is really up to entrepreneurs to build it back to health. Anders Michelena is doing his part.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your personal story. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of circumstances?

Ander Michelena: I was born in northern Spain. I moved to Madrid when I was 12. I studied in a French school. I then studied at one of the biggest economic universities in Spain for my bachelor’s degree. It was a five-year program of which I spent a year at Marquette University, Milwaukee. That is where I met my wife.

>>>

Thought Leaders in E-Commerce: Eugene Laney, Head of International Trade Affairs at DHL Express (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Any other trend that you want to discuss?

Eugene Laney: I just want to point out a study where we looked at the trends in global e-commerce. Some of the more interesting trends pointed to the importance of finding a market. We noticed that a lot of the goods that are sold out of the US go to Germany and UK. We also saw what the demand for products in different countries was like. In places like China, they depend more on the reviews of products whereas in Germany and UK, they just do searches on the product price. I’ll definitely invite you to take a look at the Shop The World study because there are some very interesting trends that you can see within the e-commerce environment. >>>

Thought Leaders in E-Commerce: Eugene Laney, Head of International Trade Affairs at DHL Express (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Essentially, what you’re saying is, there could be another third-party logistics provider involved that is handling all the fulfillment and inventory. You do the shipping part. At the same time, you still work directly with the website owners and not with the fulfillment players.

Eugene Laney: Depending on the needs of the customer, it can change. Even with large corporations, they may have a variety of providers based on their products.

Sramana Mitra: We’re talking about small merchants.

Eugene Laney: What I’m saying is the model is still the same. It doesn’t really change. You sit and figure out who can give you the best service and also who can meet your current needs. >>>

Thought Leaders in E-Commerce: Eugene Laney, Head of International Trade Affairs at DHL Express (Part 2)

Eugene Laney: We also have a hybrid model where we have customers working with e-commerce companies using those companies as their domestic mailboxes. You have an individual who might be in the UK and wants to purchase a number of e-commerce goods from a domestic-only retailer who sells through e-commerce. Their goods would then be consolidated in the US held by that e-commerce mailbox. Then that e-commerce company would then use DHL or other logistics providers to send all of that products to him. It’s like a consolidator type of model. Those are the new models that we see emerging now.

>>>

Thought Leaders in E-Commerce: Eugene Laney, Head of International Trade Affairs at DHL Express (Part 1)

E-Commerce is a global phenomenon today, and over the next decade and more, it will become more so. Eugene talks about the trend from the perspective of one of the top logistics vendors.

Sramana Mitra: Welcome to the Thought Leaders in E-Commerce series. Why don’t you introduce yourself to our audience and tell us what you’re working on. We’ll take it from there.

Eugene Laney: I’m the Head of International Trade Affairs for DHL Express here in the US. I have two responsibilities. One is to represent DHL Express here in Washington DC before Congress as well as US embassies. The second part of my role is export promotion where I work with our sales, marketing, and media as well as operations team to develop products and services to help SMBs as well as large corporations to >>>

Thought Leaders in E-Commerce: Suchit Bachalli, CEO of Unilog (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: The other interesting slice of the market view that you’ve provided is this whole world of people who are not doing e-commerce. They’re slow adopters that you’re now bringing fresh onto the Internet. That’s a very interesting world. Given that you’re operating in a territory that is a lot more behind than where a lot of the early adopter market is, what other white space areas do you see in your orbit where you would point entrepreneurs who are starting today to look at providing solutions?

>>>

Thought Leaders in E-Commerce: Suchit Bachalli, CEO of Unilog (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: As your primary playing ground, right?

Suchit Bachalli: Right. One of our earlier adopters Mayer Electric are based out of Birmingham, Alabama. I think they’re $800 million in revenue. They just had a regular website. There was no commerce and no way to buy anything online. Today, they have the full commerce solution. They have a native mobile app. Interestingly, one of the things they do is tool crib management on site. They use our application. Boeing would just use our mobile app to scan your PC codes and do fulfillment purchasing. Refreshments would be ordered through the mobile app.

>>>

Thought Leaders in E-Commerce: Suchit Bachalli, CEO of Unilog (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: We’re with you. One thing you’ll find is that our audience is a sophisticated audience. We know the space. I got your point that you are trying to provide something that is more comprehensive to the mid-market that can give a lot of the functionalities that is available in the higher-end of the market at a fraction of the cost. My question is, given that is your positioning, are you telling me that there is no other player in that market? That’s hard to believe.

>>>