A lot a good insights in this article. Some random thoughts: We have a company here in SLO with a network of niche ecommerce sites (http://www.tennis-warehouse

A lot a good insights in this article. Some random thoughts: We have a company here in SLO with a network of niche ecommerce sites (http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/ http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/ and similar). It was founded before Amazon and they're making a ton of money. You just don't hear about it in startupland. Obviously the author is a little biased about the proprietary merch. angle. Personally, I think NastyGal and ModCloth (and similar like Ruche) are going to be big winners (i.e. IPO). They have huge loyalty and are already moving into the proprietary merchandise angle where the author puts Bonobos (NastyGal has their own line of clothes now). I love Warby Parker but they will need to move beyond just glasses at some point. One sector I've never understood is the flash sale sites. To me, they seem nothing more than an ecommerce version of Ross/TJ Maxx/Marhalls/outlet stores with some pretty CSS. Granted, TJX and Ross are both public companies with double-digit billion market caps, so there's something. I just never found them intriguing personally. EBay seems like the one that really needs to get up-ended. I know a lot of startups are trying to do it via mobile–but is that the best route? I bet most of these other up-and-coming players still do the bulk of their business via desktop browsers vs smartphone (would LOVE any metrics anyone has on this).