E-commerce - Publications - Faculty & Research

March 2019
Case

DayTwo: Going to Market with Gut Microbiome

DayTwo is a young Israeli startup that applies research on the gut microbiome and machine learning algorithms to deliver personalized nutritional recommendations to its users in order to minimize blood sugar spikes after meals. After a first year of trial rollout in... View Details

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Global Activities 2020

including the launch of his fashion e-commerce company, Darza. Immersion Offers Students Insight into Development in Sri Lanka In the School’s first immersion in Sri Lanka, HBS students and faculty learned firsthand about China’s Belt and... View Details

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Judges - Alumni

de São Paulo. Industry Technology, Business Products and Services (B2B), Consumer Products and Services (B2C), Materials and Resources Verticals Big Data, CloudTech & DevOps, Mobile, AdTech, B2B Payments, E-Commerce Area(s) of Expertise... View Details

01 Jun 2022
News

A Sustainable Solution for Fashion

READY TO MAKE AN IMPACT READ MORE STORIES Syrup works by integrating a retailer’s data—historical and real-time transactions and inventory, e-commerce patterns, and marketing and promotion plans, among other things—with weather, search,... View Details

Keywords: April White

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Aerospace/Defense Agriculture Auto Communications E-Commerce E-Education Energy Entertainment Financial Services Food/Beverage Health/Medical Hospitality Insurance Manufacturing Non-Profit Pharmaceuticals Professional Services Retail... View Details

18 Aug 2003
Research & Ideas

How New Managers Become Great Managers

president of the company's e-commerce business, a key strategic initiative for the future success of the company. The best managers are those who have an appetite for learning and are willing to work on themselves. This manager, like the... View Details

Keywords: by Linda Hill

February 2015 (Revised April 2016)
Supplement

Quincy Apparel (B)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Lisa C. Mazzanti

The (B) case provides post-mortem analysis from Quincy's cofounders on why their startup failed and what they could have done differently. Explanations for failure focus on Quincy's ambitious value proposition and resulting operational challenges; cofounder conflict;... View Details

Keywords: Retail; Online Retail; Women's Apparel; Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Failure; Business Startups; E-commerce; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry

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January 2024 (Revised July 2024)
Case

CloudEats: Revolutionizing the Cloud Kitchen in Southeast Asia

By: Paul A. Gompers and Adina Wong

Philippines-headquartered cloud kitchen CloudEats harbored the ambition of becoming the largest cloud kitchen in Southeast Asia, but it was considering several strategic paths forward. View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; E-commerce; Disruptive Innovation; Growth and Development Strategy; Expansion; Competitive Advantage; Food and Beverage Industry; Philippines; Southeast Asia

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June 2020
Case

Agile Consumer Product Innovation with Alibaba's Tmall Innovation Center

By: William R. Kerr, Daniel O'Connor and James Palano

Consumer products companies were beset by changes on all sides during the 2010s. Customers were increasingly turning to ecommerce platforms rather than shopping in-store. Meanwhile, nimble, digitally-savvy competitors were gaining market share by capitalizing on the... View Details

Keywords: Future Of Work; Retail; Ecommerce; Alibaba; Consumer Products; Innovation; Innovation and Invention; Product Development; Consumer Behavior; E-commerce; Consumer Products Industry; Retail Industry; China

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August 2023
Supplement

Reimagining Hindustan Unilever (B)

By: Sunil Gupta and Rachna Tahilyani

In April 2023, as the CEO and MD of Hindustan Unilever (HUL), India’s largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) firm, prepared to hand over the firm’s reins to his successor, he proudly reflected on the last decade. His quest to digitally transform HUL into an... View Details

Keywords: Experimentation; Digital Transformation; Digital Strategy; Leading Change; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business Strategy; Marketing; Performance; Competition; E-commerce; Consumer Behavior; Transformation; Distribution; Decisions; Consumer Products Industry; Asia; India

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04 Feb 2022
Blog Post

Learning from the Entrepreneurs-in-Residence as a Harvard MS/MBA Student

e-commerce. The grocery and packaged food spaces were untouched and opportune for e-commerce applications. He shared that exploring a space and carving out an idea requires you to seek out feedback from various perspectives. Acquiring... View Details

August 2021 (Revised March 2022)
Case

Camera IQ and the Metaverse: Building Augmented Reality Brand Experiences

By: Jill Avery and Rayan Nahas

Camera IQ, a camera marketing software company that empowered brands to create and launch augmented reality experiences (AREs) across social platforms, had just raised an additional $5 million to fund further product development and expand its marketing and sales... View Details

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November 2017 (Revised October 2018)
Case

Brandless: Disrupting Consumer Packaged Goods

By: Jill Avery

Brandless, an online direct-to-consumer seller of upscale private-label consumer packaged goods, offered consumers a limited assortment of values-conscious products delivered directly to their homes with the simplicity of one fixed $3 price point that promised an... View Details

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18 Apr 2024
Blog Post

African American Student Union Spotlight on Emerging Markets

about her journey before and during the MBA program. Where is your hometown? My hometown is Darmstadt, Germany. What was your pre-MBA industry and role? I began my career concentrating on developing and expanding e-commerce businesses... View Details

20 Mar 2000
Research & Ideas

Incubators: The New Venture Capitalists?

They're attracting the attention of venture capital firms, who are starting their own "venture catalyst" experiments. They're catching the eye of potential startups, looking for ways to get to market faster and with more value in the ultra-competitive View Details

Keywords: by Kenneth Liss

01 Mar 2018
News

Every Trick in the Book

negotiations, with its physical bookstores and an e-commerce site. When Demos Parneros, then COO, took the leadership reins from founder Leonard Riggio in the spring of 2017, he became the fourth CEO in four years to attempt to... View Details

Keywords: April White

23 Jan 2013
Research & Ideas

Three-Dimensional Strategy: Winning the Multisided Platform

online shoppers, fulfilling Hagiu and Wright's definition. Amazon's e-commerce website encompasses multiple models, which place it somewhere along the MSP-reseller continuum. Amazon.com is a pure MSP when it offers products that are sold... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna

10 May 2020
Blog Post

Let’s Hear it For the Moms – The Incredible Balancing Act of Student Mothers

Pre-HBS Industry: McKinsey and Fashion e-commerce Ops Proudest Accomplishment: Not having let down my dream of starting my own company this year even while dealing with class and pregnancy at the same time. Summer Internship: Starting my... View Details

14 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restarting Under Uncertainty: Managerial Experiences from Around the World

the imposed closure of most of the stores and shopping malls who had to quickly reroute their business toward e-commerce and direct delivery of products to customers’ homes. This shift heavily impacted Logistics operations, increasing... View Details

Keywords: by Raffaella Sadun, Andrea Bertoni, Alexia Delfino, Giovanni Fassio, and Mariapaola Testa