I spent 8+ years leading buying teams at Am*zon across healthcare, food, baby, home, kitchen, apparel, shoes, jewelry etc. For folks thinking about entering the ecommerce game, here are a few areas that haven't been solved:

1. Discovery - marketplaces are great for selection but bad for browsing. When you can type in "air pods" into the search box, the top search result is air pods and you're done. But if you're not sure which brand/model you want...good luck combing through 100s of pages.

2. Merchandising - physical retailers like Target are amazing at drawing you in with those end caps at the end of aisles. Most ecommerce retailers are great at algorithms but not so good at human judgement.

3. White Glove Delivery - anything requiring installation, assembly, set-up etc. Have you used geek squad at best buy and been thoroughly underwhelmed? How many hours have you spent assembling furniture? Yup, me too.

4. Inspiration - Retailers like Home Goods make it interesting by bringing in fresh merchandise, and creating a "treasure hunt". Shoppers flock here for the love of shopping. When was the last time you were inspired by a huge online marketplace? Etsy may be the closest.

5. Consultancy - high consideration products with a heavy design element and big price tags, require a higher touch sales process. Think interior design, home theatres, landscaping, even fashion. Bots aren't going to cut it. Stitchfix may be the closest here.

6. Luxury - most brands hate Amazon. Trust me I've been on the other side of that table as CEOs have told me they are a necessary evil, that they wont sell unless every other retailer on earth is out of business etc. etc. Making a brand friendly site is what is powering Shopify.

7. Ethos - is this a sustainable brand? Are they minority owned? Ethically sourced? Made in the USA? Consumers care about these details. Most retailers and brands arent great at telling this story. It's mostly a data issue.