Unravel the complex world of multi-channel and omnichannel strategies in e-commerce as we venture on a thrilling exploration with industry experts Halie Adams from BigCommerce, Dmitry Alasania from Skyvia, and Luigi Moccia from Calashock. Discover the fundamental differences between these two strategic approaches. Our experts illuminate how multi-channel strategies hinge on customer engagement across diverse channels, while omnichannel strategies offer a unified, cohesive experience allowing customers to interact with a brand on their terms.
Get ready to debunk common misconceptions around multi-channel strategies and arm yourself with tips on how best to educate stakeholders. Luigi, leveraging his extensive experience, shares essential insights on resource allocation, time quantification, and the critical role of testing different channels. We delve into the importance of integrating data from various systems to optimize customer engagement and build your brand while overcoming potential roadblocks.
Fasten your seatbelts as we navigate the dynamic terrain of e-commerce and omnichannel experience. From exploring the rising trends of buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) and click and collect, to discussing the impact of customer feedback and the importance of personalizing the customer experience, it's a ride you don't want to miss! The episode concludes with an exploration of Jacob's Law of UX and its implications for your e-commerce strategies. We assure you this episode is a treasure trove of insights that will empower you to stay ahead of the curve in the ever-evolving world of e-commerce.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hi, welcome to the BigCommerce Podcast.
Hello, welcome to brand newepisode of the BigCommerce
Podcast.
I'm Luigi, your host, and todaywe're doing a rerun of a recent
webinar that I was on calledExpert Talk Multi-Channel vs
Omni-Channel.
Conquer your e-commerce channelstrategy with BigCommerce and
SkyVir.
(00:22):
Enjoy the audio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
As you can see, I have a slide up.
We are doing a multi-versusOmni Expert Talk about
conquering your e-commercechannel strategy.
We have Hayley Adams fromBigCommerce.
She's the senior agencyenablement manager.
We have Dmitri Alasanya, headof product growth at SkyVir.
(00:46):
We have Luigi Mocha, thefounder and chief executive
officer at CalShock.
Awesome, I'll let you guys inthat order, just do a quick
intro while people come in.
I'll go from there.
I'll get things started, okay.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
I think I'm first here.
My name is Hayley.
I work at BigCommerce.
I am based in London, but I'vebeen working at BigCommerce for
over seven years in variousroles across sales and marketing
.
Now I get the pleasure ofworking with our amazing agency
partners on all of our thingsaround BigCommerce and
(01:31):
positioning, selling and allwhat's coming latest in
e-commerce.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Awesome Thanks, hayley, okay.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
I think I'm next.
Hi there, my name is Dmitri.
I'm head of product growth atSkyVir.
Skyvir is a universal clouddata integration platform that
creates seamless dataintegration pipelines connecting
business apps and databasesthat don't have native
connections.
Today, together with CalShockand BigCommerce teams, we are
(02:02):
going to discuss all ins andouts of multi-nominational
approaches in modern e-commercebusiness.
My goal here is to tell as muchas I can about the data
integration processes that cometogether with planning a
multi-war omnichannel strategy.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Thanks, Dmitri.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Awesome.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Thank you, my name is Luigi, founder of CalShock.
I'm really here from.
I've seen a lot of merchants,so I hear the stories, I hear
the challenges, the questionsthat they often have when it
comes to omnium multi-sauce.
Hopefully, from my experience,I can help some merchants case
some clarity as well.
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Thanks, luigi, as Dmitri, I think, jumped into the
most detail there, we're goingto be jumping in and talking
about the multi-versusomnichannel strategy for
e-commerce.
What is each, what are thedifferences, which one's right
for you and when?
Some of the data integrationand e-commerce platforms,
specific details that come alongwith that, as well as
(03:09):
potentially how an agency canhelp and more insights as well
on that whole journey.
I'll jump in first.
We'll jump into the definitionand comparison.
This one's a question forCalShock.
But, luigi, can you tell uswhat is the difference between
multi-channel and omnichannel?
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Yeah, sure, fundamentally there is a lot of
overlap, I guess, or gray airaround it, but the way to look
at it is around, I guess one isa bit more tangible and the
other one's less tangible.
If we're looking aroundmulti-channel, it is pretty much
working on the engagement withthe customer, with the prospect,
(03:50):
whoever it is.
It is around building thatcommunity, building that brand,
being able to market to thatcustomer, maybe on different
channels, whether it's on social, whether it's on email,
marketing engagement or SMS, andreally tailoring that part of
the equation to the customer.
The Omni is being omnipresent.
(04:12):
We're seeing it a lot at themoment and obviously COVID was a
massive driver where overnightpretty much the whole world had
to go from being a face-to-facewith retailers predominantly,
but even on B2B face-to-faceexperiences, now saying,
actually, you've got to have tobuy online.
They really had to harness thatsemi-Omni-channel perspective
(04:37):
overnight because they're saying, right, you can now order
online.
We've been at bricks and mortarstore for the last 10, 15, 35
years.
You now have to order online.
Then we went into that phase ofslowly opening up, saying, right
, you can order online and youcan come and pick up in store.
Then obviously what that meantwas that actually?
(04:57):
You can order online and youcan return in store, or you can
buy in store and return online.
It's offering that tangible,unified experience.
To say, right, I have arelationship with brand X or
retailer Y or whatever the thingis.
You haven't got to say but if Ibuy online, I have to go and
return online.
If I buy in store, I have tobuy in store.
(05:19):
It's basically right.
I've got a relationship with abrand and I can choose what to
do on my terms, because I canbuy on social media and I can
buy in store.
I can buy on the website, I canmaybe buy through the app, I
can buy through a pop-up, ifthey do those kind of things.
Alternatively, I can returnthrough the various channels as
well.
Fundamentally, it's obviouslynot that simplistic.
(05:40):
My approach is to keep thingsas simple as possible.
I think in an age where we arejust thrown with so many
definitions and acronyms andeverything, I think simplicity
at the moment is reallyimportant.
Fundamentally, that's what itis.
Are you engaging or are youoffering an experience?
Those are the two distinctionsthat I would make.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Yeah, agreed, that was great.
Thanks for pitching in on that,Haley.
A question for you.
I wanted to hear a little bitmore about how specifically do
multi-channel online channeldiffer in terms of customer
experiences and engagement.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Great question.
For those who don't know, bigcommerce is an e-commerce
platform.
We focus fully on thee-commerce aspect and have
amazing partnerships across thespace too, and the Google,
tiktok, meta, all, snapchat, etcetera.
We work very closely with thoseteams as well.
I've done a lot aroundmulti-channel management and
(06:41):
omnichannel management.
Looking further on to what Luigisaid around multi-channel and
omnichannel, omnichannel is thatunified commerce.
If we're talking about customerexperience, omnichannel puts
customer experience first.
It's going in as a strategy,understanding every single touch
point that you as a brand mighthave with a customer and then
(07:05):
ensuring that your brand isconsistent across each one of
those touch points.
Where are they at the storetoday?
Did they then surface theappropriate ad?
Whenever they're on Instagram,then when they go to Google, are
they also saying that?
Right, it's that whole list ofyou.
That's the same seamless brandexperience, which, in turn, is
different than multi-channel,which is what we used to say all
(07:25):
the time.
Right, when it focuses oncustomer experience, that's more
business focus.
We're omnichannel.
The customer is in the center.
Multi-channel is really thebusiness.
I want to open up to a newchannel.
I want to grow to a new channel.
That is, I'm extending toAmazon, for example or I'm
extending to Google, which isgreat to get that brand
(07:46):
awareness right, but in that thecustomer really isn't at the
center.
It's how do I sell more on thespecific channel?
In terms of customer engagement, I would say that the better
one is omnichannel, but ifyou're just trying to focus on
getting started to and customers, multi-channel is another
approach.
That's perfect.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah, I love that distinction.
It seems that people seem tograduate from multi to omnie,
and that tends to be the case.
I fully agree, and I love thedistinction.
Let's jump into, now that weknow the definitions or what
they mean.
Let's jump into some of thebenefits of multi and omnie
which is right for you or for aspecific merchant this one's for
(08:29):
big commerce, and then I'd loveyou to pitch in as well,
dimitri, after Haley.
What are the advantages of eachspecific approach?
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Yeah, so I think originally, as Luigi said, omnie
is everything.
It can be very overwhelming.
I know a lot when I've workedwith merchants in my role here
at BigCommerce.
It's overwhelming to think of adifferent channel and every
channel has a best practicestrategy.
Also, getting all that customerdata is hard.
It's hard to have that singularview of your channel, which is
(09:00):
something that the team here canhelp with.
But multi-channel I would thinkof that as the good first step.
If you're only selling on thewebsite, which a lot of brands
are, they have a single channel.
The first step is going toanother channel.
Because if you have amulti-channel approach, we've
seen a 90% increase in sales.
Like if you are selling amultiple channels, your products
(09:21):
are in more visible eyes.
So it's just going to makesense.
I would say open up a newchannel first, test that out and
see, and then after that youcan see what the opportunity is
to grow for omnichannel and getto that goal where you then have
that unified view of yourcustomer where I'm putting the
(09:42):
appropriate spend to be able togrow.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Great advice.
I totally agree, Dimitri.
Can you put your point as well?
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Yeah, I would like to add on top of that that
multi-channel marketing.
For me it's all about beingflexible and adaptable.
Just like a yoga master, withmultiple channels at your
fingertips, you can easilyswitch things up and cater to
different customer groups.
You can speak their language,use the right channels that they
love and deliver messages thattruly resonate with them.
(10:16):
It's like having a magicalbackup tricks and adapts to
whatever your customer want.
So flexibility is the name ofthe game here, I would say.
And speaking about theomnichannel marketing, here I
would say that it's all aboutthe personalization.
It's all about knowing yourcustomers like the back of your
hand.
With an omnichannel strategy,you gather data from different
(10:37):
channels websites, social media,emails, you name it and here
comes the fun part you use thatdata to create personalized
experience.
You give each customer thatspecial treatment they actually
deserve.
It's like having a personalshopper who knows exactly what
you like and gives yourecommendations that make your
(10:58):
heart sing.
So talk about feelings.
Special, right, yeah?
Speaker 2 (11:04):
I agree, I agree Very personalized, but you know, and
that's, I think, the benefit ofa lot of these channels, and as
we develop more and more, youknow you have more ways to
connect with the customer, andthat seems to be kind of at the
core of it.
So I'm there for thatpersonally, haley, I wanted to
(11:24):
ask you are you able to sharesome real life examples or case
settings, kind of showcasing thepositive impacts of each
strategy?
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Yeah, definitely so.
I think, initially, when you'regoing to launch online, right,
there's a lot of customers.
When the first point of line,larp, is an example, it's a
water bottle, a really coolwater bottle.
I think it's made a globalpresence too self-cleaning, but
that's an approach that's like adigitally native brand that has
(11:52):
these specialized water bottlesand they were considering which
channel can I grow on besidesjust my website, right?
So, just starting out,launching online, they went to,
you know, instagram and Twitterand Facebook.
They found the right channelsthat would work for their
business.
So that's kind of themulti-channel approach is just
you're starting out and you'reseeing who can I target.
They did an ad campaign acrosseach of the channels Brand voice
(12:17):
of I think it was a drink,brilliantly.
So there's case study we have.
If you type in Mark thecommerce, you can find it
through the details.
But just a really greatapproach to have that vision
initially launched and then alsotry to find a campaign and have
that consistent voice acrosseach.
In terms of Omni Channel, Iwould say we're seeing this a
(12:38):
lot more.
So there's a lot more examplesin Omni Channel, because I think
a lot of brands, especially inthe mid-market and enterprise
space, understand that this isreally where the strategy is
going and where they need to be.
An example there isBagley-Michka, so fashion brand,
hopefully known pretty globallytoo.
But they knew their demographic, like they really understood
(13:02):
their customer, and they sawthat their customer was on
Instagram and so, when they werelaunching onto new channels,
they did the research and theydid the right campaigns and they
had all this viewpoint right.
So they used data so that theycould track where their
customers were at, targetingtheir appropriate campaigns at
the right time to have a lot ofsuccess too.
I can share to the case studyas well.
(13:23):
You could literally Google toBagley-Michka big commerce.
You can see the results.
But just another great examplethat talks about finding the
right channel and thenmaximizing that channel and
looking to see where yourcustomers are to then tailoring
your app.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Yeah, I totally agree , and it seems like for those
types of endeavors, youdefinitely have to be very
proactive about all of thoseefforts and really kind of look
at the data and iterate on that,which is, I think, where the
world in e-commerce is headedanyway, awesome.
I wanted to jump into somemisconceptions about Multi and
(14:01):
Omni channel.
Hey, this will be another onefor you, but what are some
common misconceptions aboutMulti and Omni and how can they
hinder effective channelstrategy implementation for
merchants?
Speaker 3 (14:14):
I think from this one .
Honestly, what we see mostwhenever we're having a
conversation with a merchantthat's just considering their
whole strategy for growth, firstoff, they say, well, I need to
be on, for example, I need to beon Amazon, right, this global
marketplace, I have to be there.
But for some brands maybe youdon't Like, maybe it's expensive
(14:35):
to be there, right, and yourprofit margin is not great, so
is that the right channel foryou?
So I think people see these bigbrand channels like I need to
be this, I need to be Google,and Google probably, yes,
obviously, but maybe Amazon.
What is a more relevantmarketplace for you, right?
And where are your customers atso they might think of
everything and turning oneverything at once, or turning
(14:57):
on just the big ones that arejust globally large, and I think
that's a big misconception inthe strategy is be smart
research where your customersare at, have those buying
interviews, like, get that realprofile of the personas that are
shopping for you and thepersonas you're looking to
target and then invest in thosechannels, because everyone's
(15:18):
going to have a strategy that'sfit for their business and the
channel strategy should alwaysbe not set it up and I've been
selling now here for a year andthat's how it is.
But test it continuously and befree to say that didn't work,
so I'm going to invest somewhereelse.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Yeah, totally.
And then just kind of as well,once you check off or, let's say
, feel you have grips on achannel, you can start adding
other ones that, of course, areof interest where your users are
shopping, once you've doneagain the research.
So it's all kind of based ondata, which again I love, and we
can use that to push ourselvesforward even more Awesome.
(15:57):
Now I know I haven't asked youanything in a while, so let's
pop a question over to you Canyou provide some insight on how
to overcome some of thesemisconceptions and educate
stakeholders?
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Yeah, I just wanted to add a couple of things.
I made some notes on both.
Alain D'Metri mentioned whichwas kind of knowing your
customer.
I think that's where it all hasto start from and I said it
before.
But I've done workshops whereMerchant has an idea of what
their customer or customers looklike, because you can have two
or three different types ofcustomers and you run different
(16:33):
target persona exercises andthey leave that exercise,
haven't realized.
They've had misconceptions forthe last five years and they've
had luck, I guess, in somerespects.
So knowing your customer is soimportant and it's not too
difficult but it's not reallyeasy.
It's not a well-is-supply womenbetween the ages of 22 and 28.
(16:55):
You've got to kind of go intodeeper into the emotive elements
as well, both from a B2B and aB2C perspective.
So I think that's probablywhere you need to start from and
I think we're all in agreementin that.
And what feeds that also isdata, and you've mentioned data
and D'Metri has mentioned dataas well, and I think we're
living in an age where we arejust bombarded by data from
(17:17):
different systems and what amerchant needs to do is unify
that data and, I think, agree onwhere their source of truth is
going to come from.
So I'll give you an example.
We sometimes get requests frommerchants that maybe migrate
from another platform to becommerce.
They still get to learn theropes and they'll say analytics
(17:39):
tells me I have an X amount ofvisitors and X amount of orders
and big commerce tells me I'vegot Y amount of visitors and Y
amount of orders.
So you know there's a bug,there's something wrong.
Analytics not.
That's not the case.
The source of truth there hasto be big commerce, because big
commerce took that order.
So you know, it might be thatthey've got a cookie blocker, it
might be that they actuallydidn't make it to the order
(18:00):
confirmation page because theywere going into a tunnel because
of a train.
So all these what ifs?
And you have to say right, mysource of truth is big commerce.
And big commerce is telling methat this person has spent 5,000
pounds a year with me.
Now you can then go ontoanother level and say but
actually this person also buysfrom us on Amazon, potentially.
(18:20):
So that source of truth nowbecomes, potentially becomes
outdated, that data from bigcommerce should feed into
another system that says right,I'm pulling in data from Amazon,
from eBay, from othermarketplaces, social media,
whatever.
So that data piece you needsomewhere.
You need to approach itholistically but just also be
quite diligent and say these arethe metrics we're going to
(18:42):
follow and that's not changingfor the next three months until
we review it.
Because otherwise you can justgo in and you're really excited
day one to be like look, we'vegot like 1000 different KPIs and
I guarantee you, by Friday youjust want to chuck that system
out the window.
So there are ways to go aboutthat.
But you really need to berealistic with what data you can
(19:02):
track and where you're going totrack it from Going to Halley's
point, around kind ofmarketplaces and testing.
I think it also comes down toresources.
It's great, like you said, Ihave to be on Amazon, I have to
be on eBay, I have to be on thismarketplace or whatever.
The most important thing isunderstanding, a that we all
(19:24):
have the same 24 hours a day and, b, that the problem with time
is that it's really difficult toquantify.
So you might think Amazon is.
We're bringing in an extra 100Ka quarter on Amazon.
Well, first of all, the feesare quite high, like you said.
But B, how much is that 100Kcosting you in terms of time to
(19:47):
service.
Is it causing any problemswithin the business?
Yeah, actually, if we work itout, it's not worth our while
because we're earning a lot lessper person maybe, or per hour,
than just doing it on ourwebsite or maybe doing it in
another marketplace.
So all these kind of thingsthat maybe not so clear, because
if you buy a pen for 10p andyou sell it for five, it's there
(20:10):
that you've sold it below cost.
But with time it's different,because we're all you know,
we're all well, I'll do, I'llwork late.
No, we need to be more diligentand say actually, with those 24
hours a day, take away how muchwe sleep, whatever, maybe the
eight hours a day don't work inthe nine hours, 10 hours, what
can I achieve and what's goingto give me the most output?
And that's when you starttesting different channels and
saying do you know what?
Maybe that pop-up isn't worthit because I've got to get up at
(20:32):
five in the morning to set up,to do all these things, and
maybe online is the way forward,vice versa.
So I think it's really beenhonest with yourselves and just
trying to manage yourexpectations and saying I would
love to be on 16 differentchannels on TikTok, on Instagram
, on Facebook but the reality isI'm better off doing one, doing
(20:54):
it well, making mistakes,correcting the course, learning
and then applying those lessonsto channel number two and again,
kind of iterating, because itis you know, if you see someone
spinning plates, the guy doesn'tget like or the girl doesn't
get six, you know bowls andstart spinning all at once.
It's one and then another, andthat's the way you need to
approach it with the omnichannelas well.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Yeah, I totally agree .
Thanks for pitching in, luigi.
I want everyone to pitch in.
This is a panel discussion, soif you ever have points on other
people's points, please addthem.
So, yeah, thank you for that.
But yeah, it kind of resonateswith what Haley said really
being diligent, researching,having it based on data, which
channels you're going out tofirst, not putting too much on
(21:41):
your plate, making sure that youkind of get to grips with one
and it is the right investmentbefore you go into other ones.
And I think that just kind ofpretty much answered the next
question I had on which strategyshould merchants choose to
start their channel strategy?
If you have anything to add tothat, absolutely, but I think
it's the name of the game isbasing on data and kind of
(22:02):
getting started off reallydiligently in terms of knowing
where to go and not putting toomuch on your plate.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Well, I mean, let's look at this then.
If I can chime in sofundamentally, there's different
types of markets.
There's B2B, b2c, d2c as well.
So, depending on what approachyou're taking, you've got
different channels as well.
So if you are a B2C merchant,you will invariably say, right,
(22:29):
our website.
Maybe we have a brick andmortar store.
Maybe you look at marketplaces.
Now, the reason why you've gotto be careful with marketplaces
and this is where the multichannel element comes in is if I
decide to start selling onAmazon tomorrow, amazon's
customer is buying my product,but that's not my customer, it's
(22:51):
Amazon's customer.
Because if Amazon tomorrowdecide, hey, look, you know
we're going to take a productand make it better, or you've
not been.
You know hitting your metrics,you're too slow, you've lost the
amount of customers that Ispeak to that are over leveraged
on marketplaces, saying, I see,you know my customers love me
on Amazon, it's like right wrong, they're not your customer, but
(23:12):
you need to try and bring themon to your website.
Maybe you know staying withinthe guidelines of Amazon, but,
as in, like you know, trying tobuild that community where the
multi channel comes in.
So having a social mediapresence, engaging with those
customers, that's that elementthere.
But the marketplace, the peoplethat buy from marketplaces, are
not your customers.
So, and now the marketplacesare really taking off, you know,
(23:32):
with the likes of KingfisherGroup as well Launch your Market
.
You've got to be really carefulwith this because do not assume
that that's your customerNumber one.
If you're in a B2B market, thenyour channels are going to be
different.
Yes, you will have a website,but maybe you'll have a
distributor channel.
So, again, maybe thosecustomers that are buying your
product through your distributorare not your customer.
And so that's where, again, themulti channel comes in, where
(23:55):
you say, right, you know mybrand of pen, micron.
You know I distribute throughstationery shops, but actually
I'm going to work on a multichannel strategy to have the end
users, you know, kind of engagewith me on.
I mean, I don't know how youknow you would do that on a
social media, but you know, sothat you've got that
communication, that relationshipwith that customer and you may
(24:17):
not want to sell to themdirectly, but that's the multi
channel approach.
So those are kind of things toadd in.
Again on how to approach it isyou really and it goes down to
like, like we've all said,knowing your customers, like,
where are those eyeballs, whereare those people buying?
You know there's no point in meas a, you know as a B2B.
You know if I sell, you know,hypothetically, you know if I
(24:42):
sell a product being really kindof ludicrous here but maybe
kind of incontinence pants justto put it out there my target
market may not want to buy thoseproducts on social media.
I may be on social media, whichis the multi channel, but I may
not want to sell on socialmedia, which is the omnichannel.
It may be that I just want tokind of, you know, bring
(25:03):
visibility and reduce the stigmaand all this kind of stuff, but
actually my omnichannel isgoing to be my website or
potentially the marketplace.
So again, it's understandingwhere are those customers, you
know, likely to buy from?
And it goes back to Hallie'spoint about iterating and making
sure you understand.
Don't just assume that becauseyou're on there it'll stick and
if it's not working there'snothing wrong with saying we
(25:23):
tried.
You know, let's put our effortssomewhere else, because you may
find that the next place you goto hits gold and you'll be
eternally grateful that youdidn't continue wasting your
time on that previous channel.
So yeah, I do want to add thatin to kind of clarify.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Yeah, no I think really complex.
I think that's good we do to it.
On that, it made me think it'syou have like the right approach
or the right strategy for whoyou are as well.
So, for example, I was talkingto a coffee brand and they sell
distribute coffee beans likethey have their own store.
They had a distribute coffeebeans to other areas right, but
(25:57):
then they also do like a breezeto training.
So it's like a combinedbusiness approach and one
channel that was reallysuccessful for them, or it's
really successful in each area,is like TicToc and Instagram
reels, like why is this relevant?
Because people that, like Ilove coffee, I like to play
around with the V 60 and chemicsand brew my own cup, so I'm
(26:18):
looking for this content.
So, if I'm going on Instagramor or a TicToc, I'm searching
like best practices to use achemax, like how can I grow a
good cup of coffee If thisperson then, you know, is that
thought leader there?
They're using that channel andlearning from them.
They're also promoting theirschool.
They're also promoting theirproducts.
So, again, it's just another wayof like thinking of your brand
(26:40):
and getting that out there andbeing creative like where, where
could my target buyers be?
And also another thought in adifferent area is like a big
building supply of merchants.
You know that you might notthink where you know they're
probably not selling online atall.
You can find, like unique areasthat then took their business
online and they're focusingwhere other customers at.
(27:01):
Maybe they have like DIYbuilders during the pandemic.
How are they targeting to them?
Maybe TicToc is the cool too,because someone's shifting
through of how do I do this homerepair, oh, and then how do I
buy the product that I can thendo my home repair without having
to go to a store, you know.
So think of those approaches inthose unique channels that your
(27:21):
buyers might be on that youmight have thought I don't think
this is a channel at all for me, because it might be.
Or LinkedIn, right, that'sanother channel that's very
relevant for B2B, facebook,creating Facebook groups and
targeting those and our channelstoo.
So just other approaches rightfor you know, if you're like oh
yeah, fashion, I get it.
You should be on these channels, but there's many other
(27:42):
verticals and segments that anomnichannel approach will really
help you with all your sales.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Totally agreed.
Thank you both for pitching in.
I know now I haven't askedDimitri anything for a while,
and this one's more on theimportance of system integration
and data flow, so I thinkperfect time.
Why is data integration crucialfor successful multi-ourmney
channel strategies?
Speaker 4 (28:08):
Sure, I would like to pitch over this.
It's you know the topic that Iknow the best, actually.
So data integration in generaland ETL and ULT processes in
specific play a very importantrole in both omnichannel and
multi-channel marketing.
I would like to give you abrief overview of how companies
(28:31):
configured these processes forboth approaches.
In multi-channel marketing,companies gather data from
various channels, such aswebsites, social media, mobile
apps, emails, etc.
This involves using differenttools and platforms, like
analytics tools, crm, erpsystems, api integrations and
(28:51):
other.
Then the collected data may beunstructured and require
transformation for furtheranalysis and usage, and this
station involves data cleansing,transformation and emerging
data from different sources.
And then, of course, processdata is loaded into data
(29:12):
warehouse or centralizedplatform for further analysis
and usage, and here the data canbe consolidated and linked with
other information systems, suchas CRM, dmp and other marketing
automation tools, for example.
And in omnichannel marketing,actually similar to
(29:34):
multi-channel marketing,companies collect data from
various channels, but in thiscase, in case of omnichannel,
the focus is on identifyingcustomers and their
cross-channel relationships, andthis may involve using unique
identifiers such as emailaddresses, phone numbers, social
media accounts, etc.
(29:55):
And, again similar tomulti-channel marketing, data
undergoes transformation toensure consistency and linkage
across channels, and the maingoal here is to create
consistent and accurate customerprofiles across all these
channels.
And then data is loaded into acentralized platform or system
(30:15):
that allows the company tomanage all communication
channels and provide a seamlessand connected experience for
customers.
That we mentioned at thebeginning of our conversation
today.
This can be a marketing andautomation platform, crm,
european system or specializeddata management system.
So it's important to note thatin omnichannel marketing, there
(30:40):
is a greater emphasis on dataconsistency and creating unified
customer experience acrosschannels.
Data integration in anon-michannel strategy can be
more complex, as it requiresaccounting for and managing the
relationships between differentdata sources and communication
(31:01):
channels.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Cool Louie.
Yeah, that one's much moreinvolved.
Louie, can you just discusssome of the challenges and then
as well the benefits ofintegrating various systems and
data sources?
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Sure.
So I think the first one isprobably around.
Well, I guess the first one isa misconception of cost.
So it's not as expensive as youthink it is.
It's not cheap.
But I think at the end of theday, if you look at the systems
that are being built, they're aninvestment.
So you don't go in saying, well, this is a cost, the fact that
(31:39):
I'm getting this data is a cost.
No, that money you're spendingwith the provider, the money
you're spending with theintegration between, like
Dimitri said, the CRM and theECON platform, should help you
make better decisions, maybefeed out to systems.
Hypothetically, if you'resetting out email marketing
campaigns and you know thatcustomer behavior, maybe you can
(32:02):
start tailoring andpersonalizing that experience.
So probably say, is the cost,is the misconception?
The second one I think has tobe around just that paralysis by
analysis.
It's kind of like there's justtoo much data.
So again it goes back to mypoint about saying, right, just
choose the data and stick to it.
Don't go for that shiny objectsyndrome, which is kind of well,
(32:24):
actually got a new piece ofdata now.
So like, look, that could makeeverything full.
Just make sure you scope it outproperly.
One of the things that we hearin certain territories and
jurisdictions and others isaround the privacy for data.
So make sure that you're notbeing ignorant privacy laws,
(32:45):
because at the end of the day,all this trickles down to kind
of knowing your customer andhaving a data on them, trickles
down to kind of having a pieceof information that could
identify that person.
So make sure that you are doingthings the right way.
Don't just Google it.
It's worth spending thethousand dollars or euros or
pounds with a lawyer and justsay, look again, it's an
(33:09):
investment, because being suedis a lot more expensive.
Or even if you're not beingsued, just kind of having to get
involved.
It's just not worth theheadache.
So make sure that kind of youget that understood, because I'm
not a lawyer and I still getconfused sometimes, and there
are especially in North America.
There are a lot of laws nowcoming into place on a state
level.
We're all familiar with kind ofthe California privacy laws,
(33:30):
but now we're looking atVirginia and other states as
well that have come in.
So from that perspective, justmake sure that you're really on
top of that.
And then finally, it comes downto resources.
Just be realistic with what youcan and cannot achieve.
It's better to do two thingsreally well than try to do five
things, and we see it a lot withmerchants.
(33:51):
There's a lot of excitementaround this new thing, but the
reality is that, again, we allhave the same 24 hours a day.
We're not going to work 24 hoursa day and the automation
element is really critical.
Realistically, are you going towant to export a CSV from big
commerce and export a CSV fromHubSpot or whatever CRM, your
(34:12):
system and gorgeous andeverything, and put it all
together or just say, right,let's connect them up and let's
get the data, and if you canautomate that, you reduce human
error, you reduce the value.
Even when that person was illor was on holiday or whatever,
the data didn't get pulled.
Because if you make acommitment to being driven by
the data, it will help you, butyou need to make that commitment
(34:33):
to be driven by the data.
It can't just be a nice to have, you need to make sure that
that commands the way that yourun your business.
So yeah, nowadays, with systemsthat connect to that, with APIs
, when we scope out systems, thefirst thing we do is what are
the APIs like?
And again going back todifferent territories and
jurisdiction.
There are some countries inSouthern Europe that we work
(34:56):
with that are still talkingabout CSI.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
Why is it so?
Actually, because we really seea lot of cases when companies
import data from CCIs to becommerce and vice versa.
It's just because their ERPsystems are old or legacy.
They implemented the ERP systemlike a few thousands years ago
(35:23):
and implementation of a new one,of a fresh, new one that
supports APIs and all the stuff,requires a lot of investments
and they are just looking forsome cost-effective solutions.
They are just configure dataintegration pipelines where they
automatically export data fromtheir old ERP systems to some
(35:44):
file storage that we support andthen they automatically detect
these files and import datameaning write data to be
commerce upon the technical orbusiness need of merchants.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Just on that, dmitry, it's exactly that.
I'm aware that there's a cost.
It's not that it's going tocost you, you know, 5,000 pounds
.
We've got a merchant in Irelandthat we're working with and
they migrated for ERPs and thisis a big investment you know six
figures.
The reality is it's like, howmuch return are you going to get
from investing in that?
You've got to think, you mustbe sometimes held back from the
(36:20):
fact that you've got two orthree people managing the system
because it's so antiquated,because you're running, you know
, csvs or whatever, or XMLs.
It's just sometimes you need to, you know, have a really
good-looking mirror and just sayyou know, are we doing things
like you said earlier, the waywe're doing it, just because
it's always been like that, orare we actually at the forefront
in innovating?
(36:40):
And any business that doesn'tinnovate at the end of the day
disappears.
We, you know, we did aninternal presentation about
strategy for this year and it'syou know what the blockbuster
and BlackBerry and Xerox andKodak all got in common they
didn't innovate.
Now that's on a slightlydifferent level, but the point
being, you constantly have toinnovate and if the new
technology, which you know, thecost of which is fundamentally
is going down, you know, allowsyou to harness those APIs and
(37:04):
plug them into different systemsPLS, erp, wms, it just it makes
sense.
So the point being kind of, youknow, with technology these
days and the APIs that areavailable and we're really happy
that API, that BigCommerce isreally investing in the APIs,
like they were good anyway, butnow they're really granular V3s
and that's helping us to developthings for our merchants.
(37:26):
But fundamentally it's helpingthe merchants be able to run a
more automated, more efficient,more data-driven business.
Because, again, when you've gotall these pillars, when you've
got all these different systems,you need to start centralizing
them.
Whether it's through a WMS, youknow inventory when you're
adding products, do you?
You know, do you go in and addit to a website and then go into
your marketplaces and if you'reselling on different countries,
(37:48):
do you go in?
No, you kind of need thoseefficiencies in the back and so,
yes, cost comes into it.
But I think integration issomething that merchants need to
look at really carefully andjust say, right, what can we
connect to?
Does it not have a connection?
Right, let's evaluate whetherthere's a better alternative,
because otherwise you are justholding yourself back, and I can
(38:08):
have little sympathy forcompanies that are just plainly
refusing to invest and innovate,because I see that with certain
clients that they just don'twant others at the forefront.
It's like we're aware we wantto build others.
We've always added this way itworks for us.
That's why you're not growing,because you're doing the same
(38:30):
thing.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Yeah, and I love that kind of quote.
You know change is constant, soit's always there.
We do have to adapt as thingsroll.
So really, Haley, wanted to getyour thoughts, since you've
been quiet for a bit so Ihaven't asked you anything.
Let's say that way how canmerchants evolve their
multi-channel approach into anomni-channel strategy?
Speaker 3 (38:54):
Great question.
I know we've touched quite abit on this, but I would say
just to make it simple here oneis five areas.
Think of five steps to go frommulti to omni.
The first thing we said themain difference is customer.
Omni is customer centric.
The first step that I would dois ensure that you have a really
(39:16):
great view of your customersand your customer touchpoints.
Have you looked back at yourstrategy?
Do you know all of yourcustomer touchpoints?
Have you done that?
Experience yourself of yourbrand.
Gone to your Facebook then goand browse as if you were a
first user.
Recommend that first.
Understand each customertouchpoint.
(39:37):
After that, come up with astrategy for each touchpoint.
As Luigi said, I get rabies.
I start brands like maybe ifyou're selling in-comments
products, maybe someone isn'tgoing to buy that on TikTok or
Instagram and then share it withtheir friends probably not, but
it might be something thatmaybe that's where the ad comes
up, because that's when they'rebrowsing late at night.
Maybe that's a good ad to talkfor it, but then the purchase
(40:01):
maybe is then on the website,because that seems more
confidential.
Who?
Speaker 1 (40:04):
knows.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
Understand, identify the customer, the touchpoints,
understand what the purpose ofeach touchpoint is Is it brand
awareness or is it to purchaseThen make sure you have the
right systems in place, becauseif you're going on each channel
right, it is all about that databeing connected and having a
good area of where your data isacross all systems.
(40:26):
So if you're doing an ad here,is it leading to a purchase
OmniChannel?
You would have that view to beable to answer that question.
So even to make sure all ofyour systems are working and
talking and that's where Luigimentioned APIs is critical.
If you don't have it open,there's no way that there can be
talking between systems.
So, right systems in place.
You know the customer, you knowthe strategy, you have the
(40:46):
systems, execute, test it out,put it in the market and then
sure you have everything setright.
So if you are going to belaunching this large campaign
like maybe you're opening uponto a new system, you're
launching this campaign makesure that you have things
allocated appropriately, likeinventory, in the right spot if
you're doing a big paid campaignsomewhere.
(41:06):
So make sure that that's all.
And then five test and learnConsistently.
Take that approach, test andlearn, try something new.
Give yourself a break too.
Like, if you go into this firststep, don't think that in a
month in that one channel you'regoing to get a great return on
your ad spend.
Like, give it some time, maybea few months, to see, because
(41:28):
anything like it's going to takea little bit of time and then
you can evaluate it after like aquarter or two quarters and
evaluate was that the rightstrategy for me?
Speaker 2 (41:42):
Sorry, I was muted.
Thank you, Aileen, I reallyappreciate that.
So, in terms of kind of lookingat some of the challenges faced
by merchants, luigi, can youshare some common hurdles and
obstacles that some merchantsmight face in implementing these
multi-uromni-channel strategies?
Speaker 1 (42:00):
Yeah, I think, kind of piggybacking on what Halle
said, it is understanding whatchannel is going to serve what
purpose.
So not just a blanket say okay,what we do on our website we're
going to do on Amazon, we'regoing to do on other marketplace
, we're going to do in-store.
Because that's not the case.
I like to think I know a fairamount about e-commerce, but if
(42:21):
you ask me to go and startmerchandising a retail store
like a bricks and mortar store,I haven't got a clue.
So it is a different approachand you have to be aware of that
.
But the one thing to alsoremember is you've got to make
it a consistent kind ofexperience.
You can't just say in-store,everything's really nice, your
package, they get a nice paperbag that's taped the gift wrap
(42:43):
and actually when we said itonline, we just chuck it in an
envelope and the carrier thatdoes what they want with it and
it goes down.
It's everything.
You have to be consistent fromthat perspective.
And also these days it's aboutchoice, so making sure that it's
easy for customers to be ableto switch between channels.
So if somebody that like, again, there are customers that are
(43:06):
loyal to Amazon, but there arealso customers that do it as a
bit of a necessary even andthey'll go, maybe buy from that
retailer or fly whether I shouldbe saying this or not, I don't
know.
So from that perspective, it'smaking sure that the customer
has got that choice to be ableto find you online but to buy on
social media.
And if they don't like buyingon social media, for one reason
(43:27):
or another, they don't likebuying online.
Maybe they can go in-store.
If they're like all the viceversa if they make an effort to
go into town to buy off thestore but actually the service
isn't there or the stock isn'talways there, then to be able to
buy online really easily, youunified customer account.
If somebody's buying in-storeand they've got points, they
want to spend those online, sobeing able to give them and it
(43:50):
all goes down to data andintegrations as well.
So it is about not kind ofblanket covering everything and
saying it's the same, but at thesame time trying to make it as
simple as possible what we comeup against slightly just on
quick divergence when we dousability and UX user experience
exercises.
Jacob Nielsen is a usabilityexpert and he does a Jacob's Law
(44:13):
of UX, which is, most peoplespend most of the time on other
people's websites.
So when we're designing awebsite or when anyone is to be
designing a website, you kind ofwant to stick to some rules
that people are used to.
So we know that if we click onthe logo, which is normally in
the top left-hand corner, we gettaken to the home page.
Most people don't have a homebutton anymore.
So all these little things.
(44:33):
Don't think that I'm going tomake it really unique and start
confusing.
And it's the same when it comesto kind of an omni-channel
experience.
Don't make it unique, but don'tmake them think and don't make
them kind of wonder whyeverything's so different.
It was so much easier to buyin-store or in the app or
whatever it is.
Because, also, if thosecustomers are buying on
(44:55):
marketplaces or on channelswhether it's an additional cost
to you, and they're refusing tobuy three-year-old channels
because the experience isn'tthat good, again you just throw
money, leave money on the tableby saying, well, we don't want
to invest in an improvedexperience, so don't make them
all the same, but try tomaintain some commonalities so
they can switch quite easily.
(45:16):
Bouchers points all the like.
They'll have to create anonline account and an offline
account and so on.
But then also, like we saidbefore, personalization is a big
one, so don't just assume thatthe marketing should be the same
for everyone.
With email marketing, it's soeasy nowadays to personalize the
experience.
With platforms like BigCommerce, it's really easy to
(45:38):
personalize the experience withthings like Customer Group.
If you're creating like a VIP,if somebody is spending your top
10% of customers, maybe they gointo a VIP group so they still
get that kind of omni-channelexperience.
It's to go onto WebSense, butmaybe they get access to some
new products where they get somebetter pricing.
That's where that kind ofmulti-channel approach because
you're engaging with them, youlet them know about these
(45:59):
different programs andincentives.
So sometimes it can be a bitdaunting, saying it's way too
much for me.
Other times it's kind of like,well, I can do it all, let's
just go, because platforms makeit really easy to go on TikTok,
facebook, instagram marketplacesand within 10 minutes you can
be selling on seven or eightdifferent channels.
The problem is when thatmanagement kicks in is where it
(46:20):
becomes really, really difficult.
So the heart of it all has tobe who are you serving?
Is my dad likely to be going toTikTok buying, I don't know,
baking products, pasta unlikely.
But if that's your targetdemographic fashion, coffee if
that's where you're at yourcustomers' eyeballs are then
(46:41):
100% do it.
But just really reallyunderstand.
What I see a lot of merchantsnot doing is real life feedback
from merchants.
You can use NPS scores, netPromoter scores, so we've all
had them, from zero to 10, howwould you rate us an Esq?
Anyone that rates your nine to10 is a promoter.
(47:02):
So they'll actively go out andsay you've got to try this
coffee.
Whether you drink coffee or not, you've got to try this coffee.
I think it's seven and eight,which is passive, and then one
to six of detractors.
I think that's the way it works.
So basically, those people aresaying do not buy that product
from that brand.
They'll actively go.
Now the problem with NPS isyou'll get the ones that really
don't like you and the ones thatlove you, but they'll give you
(47:23):
feedback.
The delivery was slow, thewebsite was buggy, it costs too
much, it arrived damaged.
All this feedback that youwouldn't actually get because
you assume when the packageleaves your warehouse it's nice
and clean and tidy and itdoesn't matter how it arrives.
So NPS is a really easy thingto do, but also send out when
you're email marketing like anotice, to say look, we want to
(47:49):
collect some feedback.
Would you mind doing a10-minute survey, whether it's
online or whether it'sface-to-face with Zoom, and
incentivizing with a voucher orsome cash or some product?
Whatever it is that is soimportant?
And one of the things that isnot related to this, but is
related more to usability.
But this is the reason why reallife feedback is important.
There was a system that wasbeing developed and they did
(48:13):
usability testing in person atpeople's houses, and one of the
reasons this is really importantwas that the users could not
find the login and register area, and the reason is the
demographic was slightly olderpeople who wrote their passwords
on post-it notes and put themin the top right-hand corner of
their screen covering the loginand registering button.
(48:33):
Now, if you told somebody on aZoom call or if you interviewed
someone on a Zoom call, youwouldn't have the data.
Actually, I can see that youcan't see it because I'm sitting
there.
So this is why you can't assumeand the amount of merchants
that I speak to who assume thatthat's the way it's always been
done.
You can't assume that yourcustomers haven't got other
problems that you're not awareof.
(48:54):
So just get in touch.
People will either want to helpyou or they won't, and the ones
that won't you can leave alone.
The ones that do will gladlytell you how can I make your
life easier, how can I makethings better.
I mean, who wouldn't want tocontribute to that?
So, again, it goes down toknowing your customer.
But get in touch with them, andpeople love buying from people.
People are from people.
So if you can put a face at abrand and say, look, we want to
(49:17):
make it better, I'm the founderor I'm the e-commerce manager,
whatever it is, they will gladlyhelp you Totally agree.
Speaker 3 (49:23):
Does that answer your question?
Speaker 1 (49:24):
I think it's a bit of a concern as a Ramudong.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
Yeah, yeah, totally, I totally agree.
Thanks for pitching in Greattips For market trends.
I wanted to ask Kaylee aquestion on what current trends
you're observing in multi-anomnichannel.
Speaker 3 (49:41):
Okay, a couple here.
So I think one is just a buzztrend everywhere, right, like AI
is just like the buzzword ofthe year.
You know you have to go herealways anywhere in e-commerce
and just generally tech space.
So that's one thing is peopleare adopting AI or thinking of
how would I use this to helpsimplify processes, like help
(50:05):
simplify writing descriptions orputting you know the titles in
there.
I don't think that's the best.
My goal here, right, I don'tknow that that's the best use,
like, maybe if you have tons ofproducts, that is okay, if
you're having tens of thousandsof products and you don't have
the time to do this.
But as we go back topersonalization, I would say, is
that human element ofunderstanding your customers and
(50:26):
like truly focusing on whatmight be best.
So that's one trend that Ihaven't fully bought into yet in
terms of writing descriptionsand, coming from marketing as
well, I think it's reallyimportant to know your customers
and then also craft that.
Another trend, I'll say Ihaven't seen it as much here,
but it's the buy online, pick upand store, click and collect,
(50:49):
and also whenever you'repurchasing online and returning
in store too.
So I see that with a lot oflike big box retailers here in
the UK, where they do have areally amazing experience on
when I'm buying.
I think I can buy and pick upand return anywhere and it's
awesome.
I don't see that much formerchants outside of just those
(51:11):
really big brand names here,right.
So like a Liberty, you know, orlike an M&S, you know I could,
you could do that.
So that's another thing, and Iknow it's hard to implement that
approach too, because you haveto have a really good connected
system that tracks your localinventory.
But that's another area I wouldfocus on as well.
(51:32):
And then the third thing is thatbuying experience too.
So we've talked a lot aboutlike getting to sale and Omni
channel, but also like thatconnected after the sale.
So when the customer gets theproduct, like that unboxing
experience, are you encouragingthem to share, like on their
(51:53):
Instagram afterwards, orencouraging them to share
because I've got this amazingexperience?
So that's something that wastrending for a while.
I haven't been, I've heard ittalked about in a bit, but
that's also just a very preciouslike way that you can control
your brand and connect thosebranded experiences with your
customer, especially forretailers that maybe are smaller
(52:16):
and you have the time to havethat individual, personalized
approach.
So there's a couple of areas.
Maybe one of the three is a fitfor you, depending on how large
you are or what sector youfocus on.
Speaker 2 (52:29):
Yeah, totally agree.
And from my point of view,those will all just become
bigger and bigger.
Speaker 1 (52:34):
And I just added, coming again from an agency,
perspective, because we dealwith merchants, obviously on a
database, and have done fornearly 15 years.
And what Ali kind of mentionedabout you know, the, the buy
online, pick up a store, theBOPIS or the clicking collectors
, we call it more here in the UK.
There are things that we've hadto kind of work with over the
(52:57):
years with our merchants,especially during COVID.
And what really is helping usas an agency and also helping
our merchants is big commerce,is kind of investment within the
omnichannel space.
So things like themulti-location inventory and the
buy online, pick up and storewhich big commerce offers, makes
(53:19):
it easier for those merchants.
So when Ali says it, obviouslyyou know it's mainly for the
bigger merchants.
Well, actually big commerce canoffer this to the smaller ones
as well and we only work withbig commerce.
So you know this is notnecessarily me just talking
about big commerce because Iwant to, but it's because the
only platform we work with andit's helped our merchants and
it's helped differentiate theplatform as well where you can
(53:40):
now start offering thisomnichannel experience out of
the box, you know.
So your customers can say Iwant to pick up five of these
from this store and I'm buyingonline, and they will get
accurate inventory.
They will get you know theopening time, the location, any
special information they cancall.
So it makes it much easier forus as an agency to implement
these things now because wedon't have to build them out,
(54:01):
but also it makes it just anoption for merchants to say use
it or don't use it, but it'sthere.
You haven't got to startinvesting in different apps and
building out differentinfrastructures anymore.
It's there, fine.
It may require somecustomization and it goes into a
data center within big commercebecause it'll tell you whether
it's a collect order or adelivery order and then again,
through systems like Skyvi, youcan plug it into your CRM and
(54:24):
you add that to the picture tothe profile of your customer, or
even if you've got, like a data, you know, a customer data
platform, you're justcentralizing that data and
building our picture.
So, again, the reason why thosenative elements are so important
is because it can go straightdown into the data.
If we build out this systemthat allows you to do buying
online, pick up, a store or amulti-location inventory, how
(54:47):
can we make sure that that datais going into the right systems
and it's constantly beingmanaged and updated?
So all this stuff that's out ofthe box feeds out into
different systems.
So I just wanted to make thatclear, because it's not all the
commerce platforms are madeequal, but I just wanted to kind
of highlight how small thingslike multi-location inventory or
(55:07):
buy online, pick up and storefunctionality can make a big
impact in how merchants runtheir business.
So that's why I'm going to goahead and highlight how
merchants run their business.
Speaker 2 (55:18):
Yeah, I totally agree .
Just so everyone knows.
I'm just going to share myscreen with some contact details
from all three organizationsand all four participants here,
so feel free to take those down.
Reach out as needed.
Also, feel free to pop in anyquestions that you might have.
The panelists would be happy toanswer them.
And while you're thinking ofthose, I wanted to ask Dimitri
(55:40):
as well, a question if you canhighlight emerging technologies
or practices or shaping theindustry.
Speaker 4 (55:47):
Sure, in recent years , more and more companies are
hiring SaaS products in order todo their business and actually
I'm more than a mature companynow have like a few dozens of
them sometimes SaaS platforms orproducts and use and this
triggers actually the APIintegration.
(56:08):
So I would say the APIintegration is still a pretty
relevant trend and actually theAPI enables seamless
communication between differentsoftware systems, and API is a
low business to connect theirbecome a store with other
applications such as inventorymanagement, crm and marketing
(56:30):
permission tools, facilitatingdata synchronization and steam
lighting operations and, ofcourse, data analytics and
business intelligence.
Advanced analytics tools andpractices play a crucial role in
harnessing data from e-commerceplatforms like e-commerce and
by integrating with analyticsplatforms, businesses can gain
(56:55):
available insights into customerbehavior, their sales patterns
and marketing effectiveness,allowing them to make
data-driven decisions tooptimize their operational and
operations and drive growth.
And I would also like tomention the attribution models.
There is also a trend ofbuilding custom attribution
(57:16):
models that can give answers tobusinesses how effectively they
are marketing campaigns performand how they should allocate
their budget to use it wisely.
Speaker 2 (57:34):
Amazing, amazing.
Thank you, dimitri.
I had a question come in aswell.
I think this is a good one forHaley.
Basically, they're asking doyou think merchants should be
getting onto threads?
It's possible early to knowwhich audience is there, so it's
better to get in early or waitand observe.
Speaker 3 (57:54):
That's a good question, I think.
Yeah, I think if you have thetime, like as Luigi mentioned
earlier, you only have so manyhours per day, but I think it
never hurts to be an earlyadopter.
I mean, I would say eliminateif you wanna just get on it
yourself, explore it and startjust interacting and engaging.
Yeah, that's what I would sayis a safe bet to do.
(58:16):
But yeah, at any time goinginto a channel.
If you are going into a brandnew channel, it is super early
on.
Know that if you are investingin it, like investing time or
money in it, there's a lot moreof a risk of don't expect like a
predictable return.
Know that it will be a risk.
So I would say, look at thoselike minimal investments that
you can do there, Just exploringand getting to know the
(58:38):
audience.
That would be my recommendation, Unless Luigi or Tmitri have
something to add there.
Speaker 2 (58:43):
Yeah, great advice, great advice, Awesome.
Yeah, really appreciate it.
Hopefully that helped.
So I wanted to let everyoneknow there's gonna be a winner
for a pair of Skullcandyheadphones.
They'll be chosen at randomafter this and we'll reach out
to you through email as well aspost on LinkedIn about it, so
(59:04):
keep an eye out for that.
I wanna thank all the panelistshey, tmitri Luigi for hopping
on.
I wanna thank all theregistrants and attendees as
well.
We'll keep these coming.
Hopefully this was a value, butI do look forward to speaking
to you all more soon.
Speaker 1 (59:23):
Thank you for listening to the BigCommerce
podcast.
If you've enjoyed today'sepisode, please leave us a
review on your favorite podcastplatform and make sure you're
following us on social media, onInstagram and on LinkedIn.
If you've got ideas orsuggestions for future episodes,
please send us an email info atthebigcommercepodcastcom or on
our social media platform.
Speaker 3 (01:00:03):
Music.
Hi, welcome to the BigCommerce Podcast.
Hello, welcome to brand newepisode of the BigCommerce
Podcast.
I'm Luigi, your host, and todaywe're doing a rerun of a recent
webinar that I was on calledExpert Talk Multi-Channel vs
Omni-Channel.
Conquer your e-commerce channelstrategy with BigCommerce and
SkyVir.
(00:22):
Enjoy the audio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
As you can see, I have a slide up.
We are doing a multi-versusOmni Expert Talk about
conquering your e-commercechannel strategy.
We have Hayley Adams fromBigCommerce.
She's the senior agencyenablement manager.
We have Dmitri Alasanya, headof product growth at SkyVir.
(00:46):
We have Luigi Mocha, thefounder and chief executive
officer at CalShock.
Awesome, I'll let you guys inthat order, just do a quick
intro while people come in.
I'll go from there.
I'll get things started, okay.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
I think I'm first here.
My name is Hayley.
I work at BigCommerce.
I am based in London, but I'vebeen working at BigCommerce for
over seven years in variousroles across sales and marketing
.
Now I get the pleasure ofworking with our amazing agency
partners on all of our thingsaround BigCommerce and
(01:31):
positioning, selling and allwhat's coming latest in
e-commerce.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Awesome Thanks, hayley, okay.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
I think I'm next.
Hi there, my name is Dmitri.
I'm head of product growth atSkyVir.
Skyvir is a universal clouddata integration platform that
creates seamless dataintegration pipelines connecting
business apps and databasesthat don't have native
connections.
Today, together with CalShockand BigCommerce teams, we are
(02:02):
going to discuss all ins andouts of multi-nominational
approaches in modern e-commercebusiness.
My goal here is to tell as muchas I can about the data
integration processes that cometogether with planning a
multi-war omnichannel strategy.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Thanks, Dmitri.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Awesome.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Thank you, my name is Luigi, founder of CalShock.
I'm really here from.
I've seen a lot of merchants,so I hear the stories, I hear
the challenges, the questionsthat they often have when it
comes to omnium multi-sauce.
Hopefully, from my experience,I can help some merchants case
some clarity as well.
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Thanks, luigi, as Dmitri, I think, jumped into the
most detail there, we're goingto be jumping in and talking
about the multi-versusomnichannel strategy for
e-commerce.
What is each, what are thedifferences, which one's right
for you and when?
Some of the data integrationand e-commerce platforms,
specific details that come alongwith that, as well as
(03:09):
potentially how an agency canhelp and more insights as well
on that whole journey.
I'll jump in first.
We'll jump into the definitionand comparison.
This one's a question forCalShock.
But, luigi, can you tell uswhat is the difference between
multi-channel and omnichannel?
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Yeah, sure, fundamentally there is a lot of
overlap, I guess, or gray airaround it, but the way to look
at it is around, I guess one isa bit more tangible and the
other one's less tangible.
If we're looking aroundmulti-channel, it is pretty much
working on the engagement withthe customer, with the prospect,
(03:50):
whoever it is.
It is around building thatcommunity, building that brand,
being able to market to thatcustomer, maybe on different
channels, whether it's on social, whether it's on email,
marketing engagement or SMS, andreally tailoring that part of
the equation to the customer.
The Omni is being omnipresent.
(04:12):
We're seeing it a lot at themoment and obviously COVID was a
massive driver where overnightpretty much the whole world had
to go from being a face-to-facewith retailers predominantly,
but even on B2B face-to-faceexperiences, now saying,
actually, you've got to have tobuy online.
They really had to harness thatsemi-Omni-channel perspective
(04:37):
overnight because they're saying, right, you can now order
online.
We've been at bricks and mortarstore for the last 10, 15, 35
years.
You now have to order online.
Then we went into that phase ofslowly opening up, saying, right
, you can order online and youcan come and pick up in store.
Then obviously what that meantwas that actually?
(04:57):
You can order online and youcan return in store, or you can
buy in store and return online.
It's offering that tangible,unified experience.
To say, right, I have arelationship with brand X or
retailer Y or whatever the thingis.
You haven't got to say but if Ibuy online, I have to go and
return online.
If I buy in store, I have tobuy in store.
(05:19):
It's basically right.
I've got a relationship with abrand and I can choose what to
do on my terms, because I canbuy on social media and I can
buy in store.
I can buy on the website, I canmaybe buy through the app, I
can buy through a pop-up, ifthey do those kind of things.
Alternatively, I can returnthrough the various channels as
well.
Fundamentally, it's obviouslynot that simplistic.
(05:40):
My approach is to keep thingsas simple as possible.
I think in an age where we arejust thrown with so many
definitions and acronyms andeverything, I think simplicity
at the moment is reallyimportant.
Fundamentally, that's what itis.
Are you engaging or are youoffering an experience?
Those are the two distinctionsthat I would make.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Yeah, agreed, that was great.
Thanks for pitching in on that,Haley.
A question for you.
I wanted to hear a little bitmore about how specifically do
multi-channel online channeldiffer in terms of customer
experiences and engagement.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Great question.
For those who don't know, bigcommerce is an e-commerce
platform.
We focus fully on thee-commerce aspect and have
amazing partnerships across thespace too, and the Google,
tiktok, meta, all, snapchat, etcetera.
We work very closely with thoseteams as well.
I've done a lot aroundmulti-channel management and
(06:41):
omnichannel management.
Looking further on to what Luigisaid around multi-channel and
omnichannel, omnichannel is thatunified commerce.
If we're talking about customerexperience, omnichannel puts
customer experience first.
It's going in as a strategy,understanding every single touch
point that you as a brand mighthave with a customer and then
(07:05):
ensuring that your brand isconsistent across each one of
those touch points.
Where are they at the storetoday?
Did they then surface theappropriate ad?
Whenever they're on Instagram,then when they go to Google, are
they also saying that?
Right, it's that whole list ofyou.
That's the same seamless brandexperience, which, in turn, is
different than multi-channel,which is what we used to say all
(07:25):
the time.
Right, when it focuses oncustomer experience, that's more
business focus.
We're omnichannel.
The customer is in the center.
Multi-channel is really thebusiness.
I want to open up to a newchannel.
I want to grow to a new channel.
That is, I'm extending toAmazon, for example or I'm
extending to Google, which isgreat to get that brand
(07:46):
awareness right, but in that thecustomer really isn't at the
center.
It's how do I sell more on thespecific channel?
In terms of customer engagement, I would say that the better
one is omnichannel, but ifyou're just trying to focus on
getting started to and customers, multi-channel is another
approach.
That's perfect.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah, I love that distinction.
It seems that people seem tograduate from multi to omnie,
and that tends to be the case.
I fully agree, and I love thedistinction.
Let's jump into, now that weknow the definitions or what
they mean.
Let's jump into some of thebenefits of multi and omnie
which is right for you or for aspecific merchant this one's for
(08:29):
big commerce, and then I'd loveyou to pitch in as well,
dimitri, after Haley.
What are the advantages of eachspecific approach?
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Yeah, so I think originally, as Luigi said, omnie
is everything.
It can be very overwhelming.
I know a lot when I've workedwith merchants in my role here
at BigCommerce.
It's overwhelming to think of adifferent channel and every
channel has a best practicestrategy.
Also, getting all that customerdata is hard.
It's hard to have that singularview of your channel, which is
(09:00):
something that the team here canhelp with.
But multi-channel I would thinkof that as the good first step.
If you're only selling on thewebsite, which a lot of brands
are, they have a single channel.
The first step is going toanother channel.
Because if you have amulti-channel approach, we've
seen a 90% increase in sales.
Like if you are selling amultiple channels, your products
(09:21):
are in more visible eyes.
So it's just going to makesense.
I would say open up a newchannel first, test that out and
see, and then after that youcan see what the opportunity is
to grow for omnichannel and getto that goal where you then have
that unified view of yourcustomer where I'm putting the
(09:42):
appropriate spend to be able togrow.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Great advice.
I totally agree, Dimitri.
Can you put your point as well?
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Yeah, I would like to add on top of that that
multi-channel marketing.
For me it's all about beingflexible and adaptable.
Just like a yoga master, withmultiple channels at your
fingertips, you can easilyswitch things up and cater to
different customer groups.
You can speak their language,use the right channels that they
love and deliver messages thattruly resonate with them.
(10:16):
It's like having a magicalbackup tricks and adapts to
whatever your customer want.
So flexibility is the name ofthe game here, I would say.
And speaking about theomnichannel marketing, here I
would say that it's all aboutthe personalization.
It's all about knowing yourcustomers like the back of your
hand.
With an omnichannel strategy,you gather data from different
(10:37):
channels websites, social media,emails, you name it and here
comes the fun part you use thatdata to create personalized
experience.
You give each customer thatspecial treatment they actually
deserve.
It's like having a personalshopper who knows exactly what
you like and gives yourecommendations that make your
(10:58):
heart sing.
So talk about feelings.
Special, right, yeah?
Speaker 2 (11:04):
I agree, I agree Very personalized, but you know, and
that's, I think, the benefit ofa lot of these channels, and as
we develop more and more, youknow you have more ways to
connect with the customer, andthat seems to be kind of at the
core of it.
So I'm there for thatpersonally, haley, I wanted to
(11:24):
ask you are you able to sharesome real life examples or case
settings, kind of showcasing thepositive impacts of each
strategy?
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Yeah, definitely so.
I think, initially, when you'regoing to launch online, right,
there's a lot of customers.
When the first point of line,larp, is an example, it's a
water bottle, a really coolwater bottle.
I think it's made a globalpresence too self-cleaning, but
that's an approach that's like adigitally native brand that has
(11:52):
these specialized water bottlesand they were considering which
channel can I grow on besidesjust my website, right?
So, just starting out,launching online, they went to,
you know, instagram and Twitterand Facebook.
They found the right channelsthat would work for their
business.
So that's kind of themulti-channel approach is just
you're starting out and you'reseeing who can I target.
They did an ad campaign acrosseach of the channels Brand voice
(12:17):
of I think it was a drink,brilliantly.
So there's case study we have.
If you type in Mark thecommerce, you can find it
through the details.
But just a really greatapproach to have that vision
initially launched and then alsotry to find a campaign and have
that consistent voice acrosseach.
In terms of Omni Channel, Iwould say we're seeing this a
(12:38):
lot more.
So there's a lot more examplesin Omni Channel, because I think
a lot of brands, especially inthe mid-market and enterprise
space, understand that this isreally where the strategy is
going and where they need to be.
An example there isBagley-Michka, so fashion brand,
hopefully known pretty globallytoo.
But they knew their demographic, like they really understood
(13:02):
their customer, and they sawthat their customer was on
Instagram and so, when they werelaunching onto new channels,
they did the research and theydid the right campaigns and they
had all this viewpoint right.
So they used data so that theycould track where their
customers were at, targetingtheir appropriate campaigns at
the right time to have a lot ofsuccess too.
I can share to the case studyas well.
(13:23):
You could literally Google toBagley-Michka big commerce.
You can see the results.
But just another great examplethat talks about finding the
right channel and thenmaximizing that channel and
looking to see where yourcustomers are to then tailoring
your app.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Yeah, I totally agree , and it seems like for those
types of endeavors, youdefinitely have to be very
proactive about all of thoseefforts and really kind of look
at the data and iterate on that,which is, I think, where the
world in e-commerce is headedanyway, awesome.
I wanted to jump into somemisconceptions about Multi and
(14:01):
Omni channel.
Hey, this will be another onefor you, but what are some
common misconceptions aboutMulti and Omni and how can they
hinder effective channelstrategy implementation for
merchants?
Speaker 3 (14:14):
I think from this one .
Honestly, what we see mostwhenever we're having a
conversation with a merchantthat's just considering their
whole strategy for growth, firstoff, they say, well, I need to
be on, for example, I need to beon Amazon, right, this global
marketplace, I have to be there.
But for some brands maybe youdon't Like, maybe it's expensive
(14:35):
to be there, right, and yourprofit margin is not great, so
is that the right channel foryou?
So I think people see these bigbrand channels like I need to
be this, I need to be Google,and Google probably, yes,
obviously, but maybe Amazon.
What is a more relevantmarketplace for you, right?
And where are your customers atso they might think of
everything and turning oneverything at once, or turning
(14:57):
on just the big ones that arejust globally large, and I think
that's a big misconception inthe strategy is be smart
research where your customersare at, have those buying
interviews, like, get that realprofile of the personas that are
shopping for you and thepersonas you're looking to
target and then invest in thosechannels, because everyone's
(15:18):
going to have a strategy that'sfit for their business and the
channel strategy should alwaysbe not set it up and I've been
selling now here for a year andthat's how it is.
But test it continuously and befree to say that didn't work,
so I'm going to invest somewhereelse.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Yeah, totally.
And then just kind of as well,once you check off or, let's say
, feel you have grips on achannel, you can start adding
other ones that, of course, areof interest where your users are
shopping, once you've doneagain the research.
So it's all kind of based ondata, which again I love, and we
can use that to push ourselvesforward even more Awesome.
(15:57):
Now I know I haven't asked youanything in a while, so let's
pop a question over to you Canyou provide some insight on how
to overcome some of thesemisconceptions and educate
stakeholders?
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Yeah, I just wanted to add a couple of things.
I made some notes on both.
Alain D'Metri mentioned whichwas kind of knowing your
customer.
I think that's where it all hasto start from and I said it
before.
But I've done workshops whereMerchant has an idea of what
their customer or customers looklike, because you can have two
or three different types ofcustomers and you run different
(16:33):
target persona exercises andthey leave that exercise,
haven't realized.
They've had misconceptions forthe last five years and they've
had luck, I guess, in somerespects.
So knowing your customer is soimportant and it's not too
difficult but it's not reallyeasy.
It's not a well-is-supply womenbetween the ages of 22 and 28.
(16:55):
You've got to kind of go intodeeper into the emotive elements
as well, both from a B2B and aB2C perspective.
So I think that's probablywhere you need to start from and
I think we're all in agreementin that.
And what feeds that also isdata, and you've mentioned data
and D'Metri has mentioned dataas well, and I think we're
living in an age where we arejust bombarded by data from
(17:17):
different systems and what amerchant needs to do is unify
that data and, I think, agree onwhere their source of truth is
going to come from.
So I'll give you an example.
We sometimes get requests frommerchants that maybe migrate
from another platform to becommerce.
They still get to learn theropes and they'll say analytics
(17:39):
tells me I have an X amount ofvisitors and X amount of orders
and big commerce tells me I'vegot Y amount of visitors and Y
amount of orders.
So you know there's a bug,there's something wrong.
Analytics not.
That's not the case.
The source of truth there hasto be big commerce, because big
commerce took that order.
So you know, it might be thatthey've got a cookie blocker, it
might be that they actuallydidn't make it to the order
(18:00):
confirmation page because theywere going into a tunnel because
of a train.
So all these what ifs?
And you have to say right, mysource of truth is big commerce.
And big commerce is telling methat this person has spent 5,000
pounds a year with me.
Now you can then go ontoanother level and say but
actually this person also buysfrom us on Amazon, potentially.
(18:20):
So that source of truth nowbecomes, potentially becomes
outdated, that data from bigcommerce should feed into
another system that says right,I'm pulling in data from Amazon,
from eBay, from othermarketplaces, social media,
whatever.
So that data piece you needsomewhere.
You need to approach itholistically but just also be
quite diligent and say these arethe metrics we're going to
(18:42):
follow and that's not changingfor the next three months until
we review it.
Because otherwise you can justgo in and you're really excited
day one to be like look, we'vegot like 1000 different KPIs and
I guarantee you, by Friday youjust want to chuck that system
out the window.
So there are ways to go aboutthat.
But you really need to berealistic with what data you can
(19:02):
track and where you're going totrack it from Going to Halley's
point, around kind ofmarketplaces and testing.
I think it also comes down toresources.
It's great, like you said, Ihave to be on Amazon, I have to
be on eBay, I have to be on thismarketplace or whatever.
The most important thing isunderstanding, a that we all
(19:24):
have the same 24 hours a day and, b, that the problem with time
is that it's really difficult toquantify.
So you might think Amazon is.
We're bringing in an extra 100Ka quarter on Amazon.
Well, first of all, the feesare quite high, like you said.
But B, how much is that 100Kcosting you in terms of time to
(19:47):
service.
Is it causing any problemswithin the business?
Yeah, actually, if we work itout, it's not worth our while
because we're earning a lot lessper person maybe, or per hour,
than just doing it on ourwebsite or maybe doing it in
another marketplace.
So all these kind of thingsthat maybe not so clear, because
if you buy a pen for 10p andyou sell it for five, it's there
(20:10):
that you've sold it below cost.
But with time it's different,because we're all you know,
we're all well, I'll do, I'llwork late.
No, we need to be more diligentand say actually, with those 24
hours a day, take away how muchwe sleep, whatever, maybe the
eight hours a day don't work inthe nine hours, 10 hours, what
can I achieve and what's goingto give me the most output?
And that's when you starttesting different channels and
saying do you know what?
Maybe that pop-up isn't worthit because I've got to get up at
(20:32):
five in the morning to set up,to do all these things, and
maybe online is the way forward,vice versa.
So I think it's really beenhonest with yourselves and just
trying to manage yourexpectations and saying I would
love to be on 16 differentchannels on TikTok, on Instagram
, on Facebook but the reality isI'm better off doing one, doing
(20:54):
it well, making mistakes,correcting the course, learning
and then applying those lessonsto channel number two and again,
kind of iterating, because itis you know, if you see someone
spinning plates, the guy doesn'tget like or the girl doesn't
get six, you know bowls andstart spinning all at once.
It's one and then another, andthat's the way you need to
approach it with the omnichannelas well.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Yeah, I totally agree .
Thanks for pitching in, luigi.
I want everyone to pitch in.
This is a panel discussion, soif you ever have points on other
people's points, please addthem.
So, yeah, thank you for that.
But yeah, it kind of resonateswith what Haley said really
being diligent, researching,having it based on data, which
channels you're going out tofirst, not putting too much on
(21:41):
your plate, making sure that youkind of get to grips with one
and it is the right investmentbefore you go into other ones.
And I think that just kind ofpretty much answered the next
question I had on which strategyshould merchants choose to
start their channel strategy?
If you have anything to add tothat, absolutely, but I think
it's the name of the game isbasing on data and kind of
(22:02):
getting started off reallydiligently in terms of knowing
where to go and not putting toomuch on your plate.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Well, I mean, let's look at this then.
If I can chime in sofundamentally, there's different
types of markets.
There's B2B, b2c, d2c as well.
So, depending on what approachyou're taking, you've got
different channels as well.
So if you are a B2C merchant,you will invariably say, right,
(22:29):
our website.
Maybe we have a brick andmortar store.
Maybe you look at marketplaces.
Now, the reason why you've gotto be careful with marketplaces
and this is where the multichannel element comes in is if I
decide to start selling onAmazon tomorrow, amazon's
customer is buying my product,but that's not my customer, it's
(22:51):
Amazon's customer.
Because if Amazon tomorrowdecide, hey, look, you know
we're going to take a productand make it better, or you've
not been.
You know hitting your metrics,you're too slow, you've lost the
amount of customers that Ispeak to that are over leveraged
on marketplaces, saying, I see,you know my customers love me
on Amazon, it's like right wrong, they're not your customer, but
(23:12):
you need to try and bring themon to your website.
Maybe you know staying withinthe guidelines of Amazon, but,
as in, like you know, trying tobuild that community where the
multi channel comes in.
So having a social mediapresence, engaging with those
customers, that's that elementthere.
But the marketplace, the peoplethat buy from marketplaces, are
not your customers.
So, and now the marketplacesare really taking off, you know,
(23:32):
with the likes of KingfisherGroup as well Launch your Market
.
You've got to be really carefulwith this because do not assume
that that's your customerNumber one.
If you're in a B2B market, thenyour channels are going to be
different.
Yes, you will have a website,but maybe you'll have a
distributor channel.
So, again, maybe thosecustomers that are buying your
product through your distributorare not your customer.
And so that's where, again, themulti channel comes in, where
(23:55):
you say, right, you know mybrand of pen, micron.
You know I distribute throughstationery shops, but actually
I'm going to work on a multichannel strategy to have the end
users, you know, kind of engagewith me on.
I mean, I don't know how youknow you would do that on a
social media, but you know, sothat you've got that
communication, that relationshipwith that customer and you may
(24:17):
not want to sell to themdirectly, but that's the multi
channel approach.
So those are kind of things toadd in.
Again on how to approach it isyou really and it goes down to
like, like we've all said,knowing your customers, like,
where are those eyeballs, whereare those people buying?
You know there's no point in meas a, you know as a B2B.
You know if I sell, you know,hypothetically, you know if I
(24:42):
sell a product being really kindof ludicrous here but maybe
kind of incontinence pants justto put it out there my target
market may not want to buy thoseproducts on social media.
I may be on social media, whichis the multi channel, but I may
not want to sell on socialmedia, which is the omnichannel.
It may be that I just want tokind of, you know, bring
(25:03):
visibility and reduce the stigmaand all this kind of stuff, but
actually my omnichannel isgoing to be my website or
potentially the marketplace.
So again, it's understandingwhere are those customers, you
know, likely to buy from?
And it goes back to Hallie'spoint about iterating and making
sure you understand.
Don't just assume that becauseyou're on there it'll stick and
if it's not working there'snothing wrong with saying we
(25:23):
tried.
You know, let's put our effortssomewhere else, because you may
find that the next place you goto hits gold and you'll be
eternally grateful that youdidn't continue wasting your
time on that previous channel.
So yeah, I do want to add thatin to kind of clarify.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Yeah, no I think really complex.
I think that's good we do to it.
On that, it made me think it'syou have like the right approach
or the right strategy for whoyou are as well.
So, for example, I was talkingto a coffee brand and they sell
distribute coffee beans likethey have their own store.
They had a distribute coffeebeans to other areas right, but
(25:57):
then they also do like a breezeto training.
So it's like a combinedbusiness approach and one
channel that was reallysuccessful for them, or it's
really successful in each area,is like TicToc and Instagram
reels, like why is this relevant?
Because people that, like Ilove coffee, I like to play
around with the V 60 and chemicsand brew my own cup, so I'm
(26:18):
looking for this content.
So, if I'm going on Instagramor or a TicToc, I'm searching
like best practices to use achemax, like how can I grow a
good cup of coffee If thisperson then, you know, is that
thought leader there?
They're using that channel andlearning from them.
They're also promoting theirschool.
They're also promoting theirproducts.
So, again, it's just another wayof like thinking of your brand
(26:40):
and getting that out there andbeing creative like where, where
could my target buyers be?
And also another thought in adifferent area is like a big
building supply of merchants.
You know that you might notthink where you know they're
probably not selling online atall.
You can find, like unique areasthat then took their business
online and they're focusingwhere other customers at.
(27:01):
Maybe they have like DIYbuilders during the pandemic.
How are they targeting to them?
Maybe TicToc is the cool too,because someone's shifting
through of how do I do this homerepair, oh, and then how do I
buy the product that I can thendo my home repair without having
to go to a store, you know.
So think of those approaches inthose unique channels that your
(27:21):
buyers might be on that youmight have thought I don't think
this is a channel at all for me, because it might be.
Or LinkedIn, right, that'sanother channel that's very
relevant for B2B, facebook,creating Facebook groups and
targeting those and our channelstoo.
So just other approaches rightfor you know, if you're like oh
yeah, fashion, I get it.
You should be on these channels, but there's many other
(27:42):
verticals and segments that anomnichannel approach will really
help you with all your sales.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Totally agreed.
Thank you both for pitching in.
I know now I haven't askedDimitri anything for a while,
and this one's more on theimportance of system integration
and data flow, so I thinkperfect time.
Why is data integration crucialfor successful multi-ourmney
channel strategies?
Speaker 4 (28:08):
Sure, I would like to pitch over this.
It's you know the topic that Iknow the best, actually.
So data integration in generaland ETL and ULT processes in
specific play a very importantrole in both omnichannel and
multi-channel marketing.
I would like to give you abrief overview of how companies
(28:31):
configured these processes forboth approaches.
In multi-channel marketing,companies gather data from
various channels, such aswebsites, social media, mobile
apps, emails, etc.
This involves using differenttools and platforms, like
analytics tools, crm, erpsystems, api integrations and
(28:51):
other.
Then the collected data may beunstructured and require
transformation for furtheranalysis and usage, and this
station involves data cleansing,transformation and emerging
data from different sources.
And then, of course, processdata is loaded into data
(29:12):
warehouse or centralizedplatform for further analysis
and usage, and here the data canbe consolidated and linked with
other information systems, suchas CRM, dmp and other marketing
automation tools, for example.
And in omnichannel marketing,actually similar to
(29:34):
multi-channel marketing,companies collect data from
various channels, but in thiscase, in case of omnichannel,
the focus is on identifyingcustomers and their
cross-channel relationships, andthis may involve using unique
identifiers such as emailaddresses, phone numbers, social
media accounts, etc.
(29:55):
And, again similar tomulti-channel marketing, data
undergoes transformation toensure consistency and linkage
across channels, and the maingoal here is to create
consistent and accurate customerprofiles across all these
channels.
And then data is loaded into acentralized platform or system
(30:15):
that allows the company tomanage all communication
channels and provide a seamlessand connected experience for
customers.
That we mentioned at thebeginning of our conversation
today.
This can be a marketing andautomation platform, crm,
european system or specializeddata management system.
So it's important to note thatin omnichannel marketing, there
(30:40):
is a greater emphasis on dataconsistency and creating unified
customer experience acrosschannels.
Data integration in anon-michannel strategy can be
more complex, as it requiresaccounting for and managing the
relationships between differentdata sources and communication
(31:01):
channels.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Cool Louie.
Yeah, that one's much moreinvolved.
Louie, can you just discusssome of the challenges and then
as well the benefits ofintegrating various systems and
data sources?
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Sure.
So I think the first one isprobably around.
Well, I guess the first one isa misconception of cost.
So it's not as expensive as youthink it is.
It's not cheap.
But I think at the end of theday, if you look at the systems
that are being built, they're aninvestment.
So you don't go in saying, well, this is a cost, the fact that
(31:39):
I'm getting this data is a cost.
No, that money you're spendingwith the provider, the money
you're spending with theintegration between, like
Dimitri said, the CRM and theECON platform, should help you
make better decisions, maybefeed out to systems.
Hypothetically, if you'resetting out email marketing
campaigns and you know thatcustomer behavior, maybe you can
(32:02):
start tailoring andpersonalizing that experience.
So probably say, is the cost,is the misconception?
The second one I think has tobe around just that paralysis by
analysis.
It's kind of like there's justtoo much data.
So again it goes back to mypoint about saying, right, just
choose the data and stick to it.
Don't go for that shiny objectsyndrome, which is kind of well,
(32:24):
actually got a new piece ofdata now.
So like, look, that could makeeverything full.
Just make sure you scope it outproperly.
One of the things that we hearin certain territories and
jurisdictions and others isaround the privacy for data.
So make sure that you're notbeing ignorant privacy laws,
(32:45):
because at the end of the day,all this trickles down to kind
of knowing your customer andhaving a data on them, trickles
down to kind of having a pieceof information that could
identify that person.
So make sure that you are doingthings the right way.
Don't just Google it.
It's worth spending thethousand dollars or euros or
pounds with a lawyer and justsay, look again, it's an
(33:09):
investment, because being suedis a lot more expensive.
Or even if you're not beingsued, just kind of having to get
involved.
It's just not worth theheadache.
So make sure that kind of youget that understood, because I'm
not a lawyer and I still getconfused sometimes, and there
are especially in North America.
There are a lot of laws nowcoming into place on a state
level.
We're all familiar with kind ofthe California privacy laws,
(33:30):
but now we're looking atVirginia and other states as
well that have come in.
So from that perspective, justmake sure that you're really on
top of that.
And then finally, it comes downto resources.
Just be realistic with what youcan and cannot achieve.
It's better to do two thingsreally well than try to do five
things, and we see it a lot withmerchants.
(33:51):
There's a lot of excitementaround this new thing, but the
reality is that, again, we allhave the same 24 hours a day.
We're not going to work 24 hoursa day and the automation
element is really critical.
Realistically, are you going towant to export a CSV from big
commerce and export a CSV fromHubSpot or whatever CRM, your
(34:12):
system and gorgeous andeverything, and put it all
together or just say, right,let's connect them up and let's
get the data, and if you canautomate that, you reduce human
error, you reduce the value.
Even when that person was illor was on holiday or whatever,
the data didn't get pulled.
Because if you make acommitment to being driven by
the data, it will help you, butyou need to make that commitment
(34:33):
to be driven by the data.
It can't just be a nice to have, you need to make sure that
that commands the way that yourun your business.
So yeah, nowadays, with systemsthat connect to that, with APIs
, when we scope out systems, thefirst thing we do is what are
the APIs like?
And again going back todifferent territories and
jurisdiction.
There are some countries inSouthern Europe that we work
(34:56):
with that are still talkingabout CSI.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
Why is it so?
Actually, because we really seea lot of cases when companies
import data from CCIs to becommerce and vice versa.
It's just because their ERPsystems are old or legacy.
They implemented the ERP systemlike a few thousands years ago
(35:23):
and implementation of a new one,of a fresh, new one that
supports APIs and all the stuff,requires a lot of investments
and they are just looking forsome cost-effective solutions.
They are just configure dataintegration pipelines where they
automatically export data fromtheir old ERP systems to some
(35:44):
file storage that we support andthen they automatically detect
these files and import datameaning write data to be
commerce upon the technical orbusiness need of merchants.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Just on that, dmitry, it's exactly that.
I'm aware that there's a cost.
It's not that it's going tocost you, you know, 5,000 pounds
.
We've got a merchant in Irelandthat we're working with and
they migrated for ERPs and thisis a big investment you know six
figures.
The reality is it's like, howmuch return are you going to get
from investing in that?
You've got to think, you mustbe sometimes held back from the
(36:20):
fact that you've got two orthree people managing the system
because it's so antiquated,because you're running, you know
, csvs or whatever, or XMLs.
It's just sometimes you need to, you know, have a really
good-looking mirror and just sayyou know, are we doing things
like you said earlier, the waywe're doing it, just because
it's always been like that, orare we actually at the forefront
in innovating?
(36:40):
And any business that doesn'tinnovate at the end of the day
disappears.
We, you know, we did aninternal presentation about
strategy for this year and it'syou know what the blockbuster
and BlackBerry and Xerox andKodak all got in common they
didn't innovate.
Now that's on a slightlydifferent level, but the point
being, you constantly have toinnovate and if the new
technology, which you know, thecost of which is fundamentally
is going down, you know, allowsyou to harness those APIs and
(37:04):
plug them into different systemsPLS, erp, wms, it just it makes
sense.
So the point being kind of, youknow, with technology these
days and the APIs that areavailable and we're really happy
that API, that BigCommerce isreally investing in the APIs,
like they were good anyway, butnow they're really granular V3s
and that's helping us to developthings for our merchants.
(37:26):
But fundamentally it's helpingthe merchants be able to run a
more automated, more efficient,more data-driven business.
Because, again, when you've gotall these pillars, when you've
got all these different systems,you need to start centralizing
them.
Whether it's through a WMS, youknow inventory when you're
adding products, do you?
You know, do you go in and addit to a website and then go into
your marketplaces and if you'reselling on different countries,
(37:48):
do you go in?
No, you kind of need thoseefficiencies in the back and so,
yes, cost comes into it.
But I think integration issomething that merchants need to
look at really carefully andjust say, right, what can we
connect to?
Does it not have a connection?
Right, let's evaluate whetherthere's a better alternative,
because otherwise you are justholding yourself back, and I can
(38:08):
have little sympathy forcompanies that are just plainly
refusing to invest and innovate,because I see that with certain
clients that they just don'twant others at the forefront.
It's like we're aware we wantto build others.
We've always added this way itworks for us.
That's why you're not growing,because you're doing the same
(38:30):
thing.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Yeah, and I love that kind of quote.
You know change is constant, soit's always there.
We do have to adapt as thingsroll.
So really, Haley, wanted to getyour thoughts, since you've
been quiet for a bit so Ihaven't asked you anything.
Let's say that way how canmerchants evolve their
multi-channel approach into anomni-channel strategy?
Speaker 3 (38:54):
Great question.
I know we've touched quite abit on this, but I would say
just to make it simple here oneis five areas.
Think of five steps to go frommulti to omni.
The first thing we said themain difference is customer.
Omni is customer centric.
The first step that I would dois ensure that you have a really
(39:16):
great view of your customersand your customer touchpoints.
Have you looked back at yourstrategy?
Do you know all of yourcustomer touchpoints?
Have you done that?
Experience yourself of yourbrand.
Gone to your Facebook then goand browse as if you were a
first user.
Recommend that first.
Understand each customertouchpoint.
(39:37):
After that, come up with astrategy for each touchpoint.
As Luigi said, I get rabies.
I start brands like maybe ifyou're selling in-comments
products, maybe someone isn'tgoing to buy that on TikTok or
Instagram and then share it withtheir friends probably not, but
it might be something thatmaybe that's where the ad comes
up, because that's when they'rebrowsing late at night.
Maybe that's a good ad to talkfor it, but then the purchase
(40:01):
maybe is then on the website,because that seems more
confidential.
Who?
Speaker 1 (40:04):
knows.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
Understand, identify the customer, the touchpoints,
understand what the purpose ofeach touchpoint is Is it brand
awareness or is it to purchaseThen make sure you have the
right systems in place, becauseif you're going on each channel
right, it is all about that databeing connected and having a
good area of where your data isacross all systems.
(40:26):
So if you're doing an ad here,is it leading to a purchase
OmniChannel?
You would have that view to beable to answer that question.
So even to make sure all ofyour systems are working and
talking and that's where Luigimentioned APIs is critical.
If you don't have it open,there's no way that there can be
talking between systems.
So, right systems in place.
You know the customer, you knowthe strategy, you have the
(40:46):
systems, execute, test it out,put it in the market and then
sure you have everything setright.
So if you are going to belaunching this large campaign
like maybe you're opening uponto a new system, you're
launching this campaign makesure that you have things
allocated appropriately, likeinventory, in the right spot if
you're doing a big paid campaignsomewhere.
(41:06):
So make sure that that's all.
And then five test and learnConsistently.
Take that approach, test andlearn, try something new.
Give yourself a break too.
Like, if you go into this firststep, don't think that in a
month in that one channel you'regoing to get a great return on
your ad spend.
Like, give it some time, maybea few months, to see, because
(41:28):
anything like it's going to takea little bit of time and then
you can evaluate it after like aquarter or two quarters and
evaluate was that the rightstrategy for me?
Speaker 2 (41:42):
Sorry, I was muted.
Thank you, Aileen, I reallyappreciate that.
So, in terms of kind of lookingat some of the challenges faced
by merchants, luigi, can youshare some common hurdles and
obstacles that some merchantsmight face in implementing these
multi-uromni-channel strategies?
Speaker 1 (42:00):
Yeah, I think, kind of piggybacking on what Halle
said, it is understanding whatchannel is going to serve what
purpose.
So not just a blanket say okay,what we do on our website we're
going to do on Amazon, we'regoing to do on other marketplace
, we're going to do in-store.
Because that's not the case.
I like to think I know a fairamount about e-commerce, but if
(42:21):
you ask me to go and startmerchandising a retail store
like a bricks and mortar store,I haven't got a clue.
So it is a different approachand you have to be aware of that
.
But the one thing to alsoremember is you've got to make
it a consistent kind ofexperience.
You can't just say in-store,everything's really nice, your
package, they get a nice paperbag that's taped the gift wrap
(42:43):
and actually when we said itonline, we just chuck it in an
envelope and the carrier thatdoes what they want with it and
it goes down.
It's everything.
You have to be consistent fromthat perspective.
And also these days it's aboutchoice, so making sure that it's
easy for customers to be ableto switch between channels.
So if somebody that like, again, there are customers that are
(43:06):
loyal to Amazon, but there arealso customers that do it as a
bit of a necessary even andthey'll go, maybe buy from that
retailer or fly whether I shouldbe saying this or not, I don't
know.
So from that perspective, it'smaking sure that the customer
has got that choice to be ableto find you online but to buy on
social media.
And if they don't like buyingon social media, for one reason
(43:27):
or another, they don't likebuying online.
Maybe they can go in-store.
If they're like all the viceversa if they make an effort to
go into town to buy off thestore but actually the service
isn't there or the stock isn'talways there, then to be able to
buy online really easily, youunified customer account.
If somebody's buying in-storeand they've got points, they
want to spend those online, sobeing able to give them and it
(43:50):
all goes down to data andintegrations as well.
So it is about not kind ofblanket covering everything and
saying it's the same, but at thesame time trying to make it as
simple as possible what we comeup against slightly just on
quick divergence when we dousability and UX user experience
exercises.
Jacob Nielsen is a usabilityexpert and he does a Jacob's Law
(44:13):
of UX, which is, most peoplespend most of the time on other
people's websites.
So when we're designing awebsite or when anyone is to be
designing a website, you kind ofwant to stick to some rules
that people are used to.
So we know that if we click onthe logo, which is normally in
the top left-hand corner, we gettaken to the home page.
Most people don't have a homebutton anymore.
So all these little things.
(44:33):
Don't think that I'm going tomake it really unique and start
confusing.
And it's the same when it comesto kind of an omni-channel
experience.
Don't make it unique, but don'tmake them think and don't make
them kind of wonder whyeverything's so different.
It was so much easier to buyin-store or in the app or
whatever it is.
Because, also, if thosecustomers are buying on
(44:55):
marketplaces or on channelswhether it's an additional cost
to you, and they're refusing tobuy three-year-old channels
because the experience isn'tthat good, again you just throw
money, leave money on the tableby saying, well, we don't want
to invest in an improvedexperience, so don't make them
all the same, but try tomaintain some commonalities so
they can switch quite easily.
(45:16):
Bouchers points all the like.
They'll have to create anonline account and an offline
account and so on.
But then also, like we saidbefore, personalization is a big
one, so don't just assume thatthe marketing should be the same
for everyone.
With email marketing, it's soeasy nowadays to personalize the
experience.
With platforms like BigCommerce, it's really easy to
(45:38):
personalize the experience withthings like Customer Group.
If you're creating like a VIP,if somebody is spending your top
10% of customers, maybe they gointo a VIP group so they still
get that kind of omni-channelexperience.
It's to go onto WebSense, butmaybe they get access to some
new products where they get somebetter pricing.
That's where that kind ofmulti-channel approach because
you're engaging with them, youlet them know about these
(45:59):
different programs andincentives.
So sometimes it can be a bitdaunting, saying it's way too
much for me.
Other times it's kind of like,well, I can do it all, let's
just go, because platforms makeit really easy to go on TikTok,
facebook, instagram marketplacesand within 10 minutes you can
be selling on seven or eightdifferent channels.
The problem is when thatmanagement kicks in is where it
(46:20):
becomes really, really difficult.
So the heart of it all has tobe who are you serving?
Is my dad likely to be going toTikTok buying, I don't know,
baking products, pasta unlikely.
But if that's your targetdemographic fashion, coffee if
that's where you're at yourcustomers' eyeballs are then
(46:41):
100% do it.
But just really reallyunderstand.
What I see a lot of merchantsnot doing is real life feedback
from merchants.
You can use NPS scores, netPromoter scores, so we've all
had them, from zero to 10, howwould you rate us an Esq?
Anyone that rates your nine to10 is a promoter.
(47:02):
So they'll actively go out andsay you've got to try this
coffee.
Whether you drink coffee or not, you've got to try this coffee.
I think it's seven and eight,which is passive, and then one
to six of detractors.
I think that's the way it works.
So basically, those people aresaying do not buy that product
from that brand.
They'll actively go.
Now the problem with NPS isyou'll get the ones that really
don't like you and the ones thatlove you, but they'll give you
(47:23):
feedback.
The delivery was slow, thewebsite was buggy, it costs too
much, it arrived damaged.
All this feedback that youwouldn't actually get because
you assume when the packageleaves your warehouse it's nice
and clean and tidy and itdoesn't matter how it arrives.
So NPS is a really easy thingto do, but also send out when
you're email marketing like anotice, to say look, we want to
(47:49):
collect some feedback.
Would you mind doing a10-minute survey, whether it's
online or whether it'sface-to-face with Zoom, and
incentivizing with a voucher orsome cash or some product?
Whatever it is that is soimportant?
And one of the things that isnot related to this, but is
related more to usability.
But this is the reason why reallife feedback is important.
There was a system that wasbeing developed and they did
(48:13):
usability testing in person atpeople's houses, and one of the
reasons this is really importantwas that the users could not
find the login and register area, and the reason is the
demographic was slightly olderpeople who wrote their passwords
on post-it notes and put themin the top right-hand corner of
their screen covering the loginand registering button.
(48:33):
Now, if you told somebody on aZoom call or if you interviewed
someone on a Zoom call, youwouldn't have the data.
Actually, I can see that youcan't see it because I'm sitting
there.
So this is why you can't assumeand the amount of merchants
that I speak to who assume thatthat's the way it's always been
done.
You can't assume that yourcustomers haven't got other
problems that you're not awareof.
(48:54):
So just get in touch.
People will either want to helpyou or they won't, and the ones
that won't you can leave alone.
The ones that do will gladlytell you how can I make your
life easier, how can I makethings better.
I mean, who wouldn't want tocontribute to that?
So, again, it goes down toknowing your customer.
But get in touch with them, andpeople love buying from people.
People are from people.
So if you can put a face at abrand and say, look, we want to
(49:17):
make it better, I'm the founderor I'm the e-commerce manager,
whatever it is, they will gladlyhelp you Totally agree.
Speaker 3 (49:23):
Does that answer your question?
Speaker 1 (49:24):
I think it's a bit of a concern as a Ramudong.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
Yeah, yeah, totally, I totally agree.
Thanks for pitching in Greattips For market trends.
I wanted to ask Kaylee aquestion on what current trends
you're observing in multi-anomnichannel.
Speaker 3 (49:41):
Okay, a couple here.
So I think one is just a buzztrend everywhere, right, like AI
is just like the buzzword ofthe year.
You know you have to go herealways anywhere in e-commerce
and just generally tech space.
So that's one thing is peopleare adopting AI or thinking of
how would I use this to helpsimplify processes, like help
(50:05):
simplify writing descriptions orputting you know the titles in
there.
I don't think that's the best.
My goal here, right, I don'tknow that that's the best use,
like, maybe if you have tons ofproducts, that is okay, if
you're having tens of thousandsof products and you don't have
the time to do this.
But as we go back topersonalization, I would say, is
that human element ofunderstanding your customers and
(50:26):
like truly focusing on whatmight be best.
So that's one trend that Ihaven't fully bought into yet in
terms of writing descriptionsand, coming from marketing as
well, I think it's reallyimportant to know your customers
and then also craft that.
Another trend, I'll say Ihaven't seen it as much here,
but it's the buy online, pick upand store, click and collect,
(50:49):
and also whenever you'repurchasing online and returning
in store too.
So I see that with a lot oflike big box retailers here in
the UK, where they do have areally amazing experience on
when I'm buying.
I think I can buy and pick upand return anywhere and it's
awesome.
I don't see that much formerchants outside of just those
(51:11):
really big brand names here,right.
So like a Liberty, you know, orlike an M&S, you know I could,
you could do that.
So that's another thing, and Iknow it's hard to implement that
approach too, because you haveto have a really good connected
system that tracks your localinventory.
But that's another area I wouldfocus on as well.
(51:32):
And then the third thing is thatbuying experience too.
So we've talked a lot aboutlike getting to sale and Omni
channel, but also like thatconnected after the sale.
So when the customer gets theproduct, like that unboxing
experience, are you encouragingthem to share, like on their
(51:53):
Instagram afterwards, orencouraging them to share
because I've got this amazingexperience?
So that's something that wastrending for a while.
I haven't been, I've heard ittalked about in a bit, but
that's also just a very preciouslike way that you can control
your brand and connect thosebranded experiences with your
customer, especially forretailers that maybe are smaller
(52:16):
and you have the time to havethat individual, personalized
approach.
So there's a couple of areas.
Maybe one of the three is a fitfor you, depending on how large
you are or what sector youfocus on.
Speaker 2 (52:29):
Yeah, totally agree.
And from my point of view,those will all just become
bigger and bigger.
Speaker 1 (52:34):
And I just added, coming again from an agency,
perspective, because we dealwith merchants, obviously on a
database, and have done fornearly 15 years.
And what Ali kind of mentionedabout you know, the, the buy
online, pick up a store, theBOPIS or the clicking collectors
, we call it more here in the UK.
There are things that we've hadto kind of work with over the
(52:57):
years with our merchants,especially during COVID.
And what really is helping usas an agency and also helping
our merchants is big commerce,is kind of investment within the
omnichannel space.
So things like themulti-location inventory and the
buy online, pick up and storewhich big commerce offers, makes
(53:19):
it easier for those merchants.
So when Ali says it, obviouslyyou know it's mainly for the
bigger merchants.
Well, actually big commerce canoffer this to the smaller ones
as well and we only work withbig commerce.
So you know this is notnecessarily me just talking
about big commerce because Iwant to, but it's because the
only platform we work with andit's helped our merchants and
it's helped differentiate theplatform as well where you can
(53:40):
now start offering thisomnichannel experience out of
the box, you know.
So your customers can say Iwant to pick up five of these
from this store and I'm buyingonline, and they will get
accurate inventory.
They will get you know theopening time, the location, any
special information they cancall.
So it makes it much easier forus as an agency to implement
these things now because wedon't have to build them out,
(54:01):
but also it makes it just anoption for merchants to say use
it or don't use it, but it'sthere.
You haven't got to startinvesting in different apps and
building out differentinfrastructures anymore.
It's there, fine.
It may require somecustomization and it goes into a
data center within big commercebecause it'll tell you whether
it's a collect order or adelivery order and then again,
through systems like Skyvi, youcan plug it into your CRM and
(54:24):
you add that to the picture tothe profile of your customer, or
even if you've got, like a data, you know, a customer data
platform, you're justcentralizing that data and
building our picture.
So, again, the reason why thosenative elements are so important
is because it can go straightdown into the data.
If we build out this systemthat allows you to do buying
online, pick up, a store or amulti-location inventory, how
(54:47):
can we make sure that that datais going into the right systems
and it's constantly beingmanaged and updated?
So all this stuff that's out ofthe box feeds out into
different systems.
So I just wanted to make thatclear, because it's not all the
commerce platforms are madeequal, but I just wanted to kind
of highlight how small thingslike multi-location inventory or
(55:07):
buy online, pick up and storefunctionality can make a big
impact in how merchants runtheir business.
So that's why I'm going to goahead and highlight how
merchants run their business.
Speaker 2 (55:18):
Yeah, I totally agree .
Just so everyone knows.
I'm just going to share myscreen with some contact details
from all three organizationsand all four participants here,
so feel free to take those down.
Reach out as needed.
Also, feel free to pop in anyquestions that you might have.
The panelists would be happy toanswer them.
And while you're thinking ofthose, I wanted to ask Dimitri
(55:40):
as well, a question if you canhighlight emerging technologies
or practices or shaping theindustry.
Speaker 4 (55:47):
Sure, in recent years , more and more companies are
hiring SaaS products in order todo their business and actually
I'm more than a mature companynow have like a few dozens of
them sometimes SaaS platforms orproducts and use and this
triggers actually the APIintegration.
(56:08):
So I would say the APIintegration is still a pretty
relevant trend and actually theAPI enables seamless
communication between differentsoftware systems, and API is a
low business to connect theirbecome a store with other
applications such as inventorymanagement, crm and marketing
(56:30):
permission tools, facilitatingdata synchronization and steam
lighting operations and, ofcourse, data analytics and
business intelligence.
Advanced analytics tools andpractices play a crucial role in
harnessing data from e-commerceplatforms like e-commerce and
by integrating with analyticsplatforms, businesses can gain
(56:55):
available insights into customerbehavior, their sales patterns
and marketing effectiveness,allowing them to make
data-driven decisions tooptimize their operational and
operations and drive growth.
And I would also like tomention the attribution models.
There is also a trend ofbuilding custom attribution
(57:16):
models that can give answers tobusinesses how effectively they
are marketing campaigns performand how they should allocate
their budget to use it wisely.
Speaker 2 (57:34):
Amazing, amazing.
Thank you, dimitri.
I had a question come in aswell.
I think this is a good one forHaley.
Basically, they're asking doyou think merchants should be
getting onto threads?
It's possible early to knowwhich audience is there, so it's
better to get in early or waitand observe.
Speaker 3 (57:54):
That's a good question, I think.
Yeah, I think if you have thetime, like as Luigi mentioned
earlier, you only have so manyhours per day, but I think it
never hurts to be an earlyadopter.
I mean, I would say eliminateif you wanna just get on it
yourself, explore it and startjust interacting and engaging.
Yeah, that's what I would sayis a safe bet to do.
(58:16):
But yeah, at any time goinginto a channel.
If you are going into a brandnew channel, it is super early
on.
Know that if you are investingin it, like investing time or
money in it, there's a lot moreof a risk of don't expect like a
predictable return.
Know that it will be a risk.
So I would say, look at thoselike minimal investments that
you can do there, Just exploringand getting to know the
(58:38):
audience.
That would be my recommendation, Unless Luigi or Tmitri have
something to add there.
Speaker 2 (58:43):
Yeah, great advice, great advice, Awesome.
Yeah, really appreciate it.
Hopefully that helped.
So I wanted to let everyoneknow there's gonna be a winner
for a pair of Skullcandyheadphones.
They'll be chosen at randomafter this and we'll reach out
to you through email as well aspost on LinkedIn about it, so
(59:04):
keep an eye out for that.
I wanna thank all the panelistshey, tmitri Luigi for hopping
on.
I wanna thank all theregistrants and attendees as
well.
We'll keep these coming.
Hopefully this was a value, butI do look forward to speaking
to you all more soon.
Speaker 1 (59:23):
Thank you for listening to the BigCommerce
podcast.
If you've enjoyed today'sepisode, please leave us a
review on your favorite podcastplatform and make sure you're
following us on social media, onInstagram and on LinkedIn.
If you've got ideas orsuggestions for future episodes,
please send us an email info atthebigcommercepodcastcom or on
our social media platform.
Speaker 3 (01:00:03):
Music.
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