Pitch Challenge by Avni Barman

In Q2 2017, over twenty million ecommerce businesses generated $111.5 billion (Bureau of the Department of Commerce) in sales. However, a disturbing 97% of these online businesses failed to break $1,000 in annual sales (Digital Commerce 360). With the proliferation of tools lowering the barriers to opening online stores, anyone can participate in the growth of ecommerce, not just the big players. Creating this new online stores channel would not only resonate with Yelp’s mission to “enrich lives of consumers and small business owners,” but also attract twenty million potential new customers.

90 percent of new online businesses fail in the first four months because they struggle to identify their customers (Huffington Post). Another crippling issue is visibility. Business owners keep their online stores hidden and do not know how to correctly target their customers. Just by having a listing on the Yelp product, businesses are already taking their first step towards building their customer base.

Nowadays, every digital business platform is in direct competition with each other, from niche companies like Etsy to the giant corporations like Amazon. 44% of shoppers rely on Amazon to start their product searches by looking at user reviews and customer experiences (HubSpot). Even Instagram is hopping onto the burgeoning ecommerce trend to add to its community atmosphere. Businesses are opening storefronts on Instagram so that they may engage with customers via direct feedback, comments, and direct messages, making their shopping experience feel more personal. Yelp would win in this red ocean because it not only has the sophisticated technology to directly support all these functions and more but this implementation also sits at the core of Yelp’s mission for more than 13 years!

Most ecommerce stores are very brand heavy and brands are more likely to have the bandwidth to claim their Yelp page than commoditized stores or independent, family-owned businesses. As more businesses are added to the Shopping category, there will be increased competition for visibility and more business owners will want to claim their business in order to compete and participate in that category. Additionally, with more businesses interacting with Yelp services, they may opt to upgrade their plan and purchase ads, a supplemental source of revenue for Yelp. With the ecommerce market growing at an exponential rate and numerous businesses taking action on this new trend, Yelp must address this new market and accommodate its services accordingly.