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Keeping Our Eye on E-Commerce
Ashish Mistry
Managing Partner-BLH ventures
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
BLH Venture Partners is an Atlanta-based venture fund that focuses on early-stage technology companies. Founded in 2009 the company has a specific concentration in e-commerce
E-commerce is not just for big box retailers and major consumer brands. The $1 trillion industry now continues to experience rapid growth and is re-seeding innovation within its own sector as well as laterally.

E-tail, similar to any brick and mortar shop, is about keeping the customer at the heart of the business. However, unlike traditional retail, e-commerce has been much less personal, forcing those supporting elements around
customer engagement to become more critical.

From our vantage point at BLH, many newly formed e-commerce innovators are blending technology and marketing into customer-centric companies that hold great promise for us as investors and consumers. Specifically, we look to split our time looking at innovation taking place in the tools, platforms, and stores where engagement occurs.

TOOLS- Video is the needle-mover for driving awareness online
We see how important and successful the video experience can be for e-commerce growth. This tool helps a business close an engagement gap by creating a richer and more prolonged dialogue between the company, its products and the consumer. For example, one of our e-commerce portfolio companies, KontrolFreek (www.kontrolfreek.com) attributes 30 percent of its direct site traffic and sales directly to YouTube. This includes user-generated reviews as well as fan testimonials and unboxing videos. In fact, companies like Joyus (www.joyus.com) have taken video one step further, from being a tool to being their platform for commerce.

PLATFORMS- Mobile is obvious area for growth, but still in its infancy
So far, major e-tailers have utilized this medium by simply bringing the traditional e-commerce experience onto the mobile device. However, real m-commerce growth lies with the companies most consumers do not even know about. These companies are currently building innovative mobile experiences to help retailers and customers engage bi-directionally for product discovery as well as facilitating the purchase.

STORES-Niches are huge
Department stores are dinosaurs and we believe the real opportunity at the e-tail store level is to satisfy the experience-craving consumer beyond the initial purchase. For example, one of our portfolio companies, Acumen Brands/Country Outfitter (www.countryoutfitter.com), found its niche in Western wear by creating an immersive visual brand for boots and coupling that with five million likes on Facebook. The community aspect of Country Outfitter combined with a consumer passion for boots has resulted in a very successful company.

For these reasons and more, we see great promise in e-commerce as an investment sector for us. Our operations experience in e-commerce gives us a very real perspective in our search for the tools, platforms and stores that enhance the online shopping experience and our portfolio of companies.

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