Disrupting the Disruptors

10 years ago when the dot-com bubble burst, and with it a slew of services claiming to disrupt various levels of the retail value chain, a small number of sustainable, truly disruptive e-commerce models managed to survive. Many of these companies - the Amazons, eBays, and Zappos of the world - live still, some stronger than ever, and have left in the wake of their survival a ghost town of physical retail chains unable to compete with the prices and underlying cost structures of their digital counterparts.

But these once disruptive founders of the e-commerce industry are now retail giants whose services have become less innovative and less convenient, making their formerly unbreakable grip over the e-tail industry ripe for innovation and, yes - disruption. And with this ripeness, a bevy of new services have cropped up to serve a generation of savvier online shoppers demanding more sophistication out of their e-tail experience. Amazon, amongst others, was able to gain traction and steal market share due to their huge economies of scale, impressive logistics, and low-cost distribution centers which all allowed for incredibly competitive prices. And don't get me wrong, no one can beat Amazon when it comes to buying the book you want, at the cheapest possible price, with the fastest possible shipping. But what about being inspired to buy something you didn't know you wanted?

A consumer seeking to discover a new product within the abyss that is the Amazon product-catalog is in for a hopelessly frustrating experience - aided only by reviews from strangers whose tastes mean nothing to us. Part of what is so compelling about the retail experience is the effect that the styling and curating of merchandise has on us shoppers. We feel inspired by trendy manikins, encouraged by (good) salespeople, and even - in the case of IKEA - compelled to consume more by intelligent store layout. One exciting feature of effectively executed digital media properties is the proximity to our social graph, our favorite bloggers' likes and dislikes, and data about our own personal shopping habits. Svpply, Goodreads, Bagsnob, ShoeDazzle, and Boutiques.com are but a handful of new companies with different business models all seeking to leverage the relationship between these inspiration sources and the transactions they drive.

The mainstream e-commerce experience is begging for a layer of personalization and stylish curation to add to its low prices, and fast shipping - it's begging to be disrupted. And while retail has never been the business of media companies, inspiring, curating, styling, and recommending always has - be it through magazines, television, news or even advertising. Besides, if Amazon can successfully take-on the business of media companies through becoming a publisher and tackling online video, who is to say that media companies cannot take-on retail through adding a commerce element to the tastes they already inspire.