Many traditional business models are being buffeted by new technologies, but probably none more so than retail.  Retail ecommerce, now accelerated by the growth of mobile commerce, has wreaked havoc by disintermediating retail supply chains that are significantly cost intensive and generally providing a better, smarter, customer experience to boot.  Amazon is of course the major cause of this disruption and it has intensified its pressure on traditional models by keeping margins low, and more importantly, building a great customer experience as only digital can enable today, by which I mean real time rhythm and superior customer targeting.

For major retailers in any industry, a new digital monetization wave is coming: mobile commerce.  To date, the impact of mobile on commerce has been primarily digital advertising (describing, for example, much of Facebook’s current market value), which will of course continue to be important.  While mobile commerce is still nascent in the U.S., penetration is already dramatically increasing.  One just has to look to China, where Alibaba now generates over 42% of its sales ($4.2 Billion per quarter) via mobile commerce.  All this is driven by, at its core, the fact that marketers would rather sell than advertise.