Group buying site

Group buying sites in the 90’s were as common as in the Groupon era. Popular sites like Letsbuyit.com and Mercata withdrew its IPO plans in 2001 and shut down. Other sites that include Mobshop.com, ActBig, Zwirl.com, C-Tribe.com. AOL  and Yahoo were already prepared to launch their own group-buying sites. Apart from Actbig.com, none of the companies made it through the dotcom crash.

In 2009, Groupon brought back the concept and it continues to stand firm as a $5 billion company.

Vertical e-commerce

Back in the dotcom era, Boo.com sold hip apparell, eToys.com sold toys, Eve.com, Reflect.com, and Beautyjungle.com sold cosmetics. Earlier, the initial days of e-commerce, the ideology revolved around selecting a category and owning it.

Amazon then made its impact as it took out the rest of the competitors. From solely selling books it’s progressed and turned into the “The Everything Store,” reining the e-commerce portal.

Presently, highly specialized e-commerce Warby Parker, Bonobos, J. Hilburn, Harry’s, Everlane, and Dollar Shave Club have fond a fighting chance against Amazon. They are thriving because they have their own specific brand that manufactures their own products. These players are category-focused that produce according to their expertise, Wayfair for furniture, Birchbox for cosmetics, Asos and Nasty Gal for trendy clothing.

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