In late summer, Mayfield and CRV co-hosted a dinner for entrepreneurs at e-commerce 2.0 companies, including Brit& Co, Dolls Kill, Dropship, Indiegogo, Kiwi Crate, LeTote, Massdrop, Pebble, Peek, Poshmark, The Hunt, Tophatter, Touch of Modern, Trendalytics, Udemy and Urban Remedy. These executives discussed the factors making e-commerce cool again for investors and founders, focusing on how evolving technology and business platforms (primarily through mobile devices, and social media) are changing the rules for the 6 C’s: content, curation, customization, community, crowdsourcing and crowdfunding.
New conceptions of mobile and web-based commerce are pushing companies beyond the usual “treadmill of marketing spend versus inventory buildup versus thin margins” that has previously plagued startups engaged in the art of the consumer-facing sale. As mobile becomes more of a balm for e-commerce’s traditional woes, here are a few things that entrepreneurs should consider for their budding businesses.