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In this episode, James Gurd and Paul Rogers discuss examples of innovative and creative executions in ecommerce. They highlight features and designs that enhance the customer experience, add value, and drive smarter business decisions.

The examples include Lily's Kitchen, Atoms, Gymshark:, Rimowa, Civilist Berlin, Patagonia, Nudie Jeans, Motel Rocks & Djerf Avenue.

The episode emphasises the importance of standing out and creating points of difference in ecommerce.

Key takeaways:

1. Innovation in ecommerce involves finding creative executions that enhance the customer experience and drive smarter business decisions.

2. Features like personalised feeding guidelines, stock notifications with product recommendations, and complex product configuration can add value and improve the customer journey.

3. Collecting and utilising product reviews can provide valuable insights and help counter conversion barriers.

4. Customisation options, engaging storytelling, and interactive elements can make the shopping experience more enjoyable and memorable.

5. Size profiling, curated looks, and brand value storytelling can help customers find the right products and connect with the brand's values.

6. Attention to design details, such as animations, iconography, and typography, can create a unique and engaging website.

7. It's important to stand out and create points of difference in ecommerce to drive better outcomes and customer engagement.

In this episode, we discuss BigCommerce's latest product release with Jordan Sim, VP of Product Management, and Joe Comins, director of strategy at leading SI Codal.

The conversation covers topics such as the current direction of BigCommerce's product strategy, the integration of Makeswift into the Catalyst framework, the flexibility and control provided by the visual editor, the workflow management tools, and the advancements in B2B functionality.

Jordan and Joe highlight the importance of providing an unopinionated and flexible platform for businesses to customise their storefronts and manage content.

BigCommerce is focused on B2B strategy, offering unique use cases for manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers. They are working on creating a marketplace for B2B and B2C experiences. BigCommerce is also developing AI technology to speed up the B2B quoting process.

They are expanding their multi-storefront functionality to support localised blogs, shipping methods, and variant product data. The ability to have subdirectories in domains is supported through Headless and will be available on Stencil in the future.

Tune in to hear directly from the people shaping BigCommerce's product strategy and implementing solutions for ecommerce businesses.

Key takeaways:

• BigCommerce's product strategy is focused on helping customers sell more and equipping them with tools to navigate the challenging retail landscape.
• The integration of Makeswift into the Catalyst framework provides a visual editing experience for composable storefronts, making headless builds more accessible to marketers.
• BigCommerce offers flexibility and control in managing content across the store, allowing developers and marketing teams to customise the visual editor based on their needs.
• The platform provides workflow management tools and publishing controls, enabling collaboration and efficient content creation.
• The advancements in B2B functionality, such as advanced account hierarchy, custom roles, and open-source fire port, cater to the needs of larger B2B enterprises and provide flexibility in mimicking their business structures and workflows.
• AI technology is being used to speed up the B2B quoting process.
• BigCommerce is expanding their multi-storefront functionality to support localised blogs, shipping methods, and variant product data.
• Checkout extensions allow for customisation without the need for a custom checkout.
• BigCommerce is also investing in feed dynamics, including a connector to the Shein marketplace and instant commerce for same-day delivery and in-store pickup.

Ecommerce is a fast-paced industry, with constant change, new market entrants and incumbents updating their products with new features and fixes.

James & Paul spend a lot of time looking at ecommerce strategy and technology, talking to agencies and technology vendors, so this series is a digest of what they’ve found interesting, what ecommerce teams should be thinking about, as well as highlighting interesting stories and cool tools they come across in their day-to-day work.

In this episode we cover the general, more positive market mood in the ecommerce industry. Inevitably we reference the dominance of Shopify in replatforming projects, the positive outlook for agencies, and the growth of other platforms like BigCommerce and Centra.

We also discuss interesting technology developments, including the launch of Blueprints by Patchworks and the ecommerce design subscription by Grebban. We then cover Amazon Prime Day, drone delivery, and collaborations between non-competitive businesses.

Key takeaways:

1. Shopify continues to dominate the replatforming market, but other platforms like BigCommerce and Centra are also seeing growth.
2. The market mood for agencies is more positive, with an increase in inbound leads and a surge in new projects.
3. Interesting tech developments include the launch of Blueprints by Patchworks and the ecommerce design subscription by Grebban.
4. Amazon Prime Day saw significant growth in mobile sales and a surge in high-ticket item purchases.
5. Drone delivery is gaining traction, with Amazon receiving FAA approval for longer flights and beyond visual line of sight.
6. Collaborations between non-competitive businesses, like Card Factory and Just Eat, are opening up new distribution channels.
7. Shein is suing Temu for selling counterfeit products, which affects brand reputation and drives up costs for brands.
8. Vervaunt's Pulse event in New York is expanding, offering a platform for ecommerce professionals to connect and learn.

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Roshni Patel, Head of Ecommerce at Wild Nutrition, joins the podcast to discuss her background and the evolution of ecommerce at Wild Nutrition.

She shares insights on the company's strategy shift after raising private equity, the importance of building the right teams and expertise in-house, and the challenges and benefits of using third-party apps in their tech stack.

Roshni also talks about the role of consultations in driving customer acquisition and retention, the tactics used to turn first-time customers into subscribers, and the focus on personalisation and CDPs in their future roadmap.

Your takeaways

• Building the right teams and expertise in-house is crucial for the success of an e-commerce business.
• Regularly reviewing the tech stack and evaluating the value delivered by third-party apps is important for growth and efficiency.
• Consultations play a significant role in driving customer acquisition and retention, especially in the supplements industry where customers may need guidance.
• Tactics like quizzes and personalised experiences can be effective in upselling and increasing the subscription basket.
• Reporting on metrics like churn, LTV, repeat purchase rate, and AOV is essential for tracking the success of a subscription-based business.
• Expanding into international markets requires careful consideration of regulatory and compliance factors, as well as market demand and product localisation.
• Future plans include exploring CDPs and personalisation, optimising the quiz experience, and maximising the value of first-party data.

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Ecommerce personalisation tech has progressed rapidly, with a wide range of vendors to choose from. However, personalisation is often reliant upon pushing product recommendations based on prior and current browsing, and purchase behaviour.

But...

Not everyone visiting your website has purchase intent, and those that do will be in different stages of their decision cycle. Continuing to treat everyone as a high intent buyer isn't an optimal customer experience and is likely to be losing you potential customers.

In this podcast we talk about predicting user intent to improve on-site segmentation and conversion. Our guest, David Mannheim, is the founder of Made With Intent, a tool focused on understanding user intent. The conversation covers topics such as the problems with generic pop-ups and blanket discounting, the importance of segmenting customers based on intent, and the integration options for the tool. David's vision for the future is to embed predictive intent in ecommerce and change the perspective of the industry.

Key takeaways:

1. Understanding user intent is crucial for effective on-site segmentation and conversion.

2. Generic pop-ups and blanket discounting are not always the best approach and can be annoying for users.

3. Segmenting customers based on their intent allows for more personalised and targeted communication.

4. Made With Intent integrates with various platforms to provide data insights and improve customer experiences.

5. The future vision is to change how businesses optimise their websites.

Tune in for an interesting and lively debate on user intent.

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In this episode, James Gurd interviews experienced digital marketing strategist Anna Wilson about the role of offline media in ecommerce.

Anna explains the rise of the fractional CMO role, the changing role of offline media in the digital age, and the appeal of direct mail in a crowded digital space.

The podcast will help you understand the relevance of print formats for different audiences, the importance of personalisation in retention strategies, and the measurement of offline marketing success.

We also touch on the role of programmatic direct mail and the challenges and considerations of sustainability in print campaigns.

Key takeaways:

• The fractional CMO role has become increasingly popular, especially in the ecommerce space.
• Offline media, such as direct mail, is gaining attention and becoming more relevant in the crowded digital marketing landscape.
• Direct mail offers a unique opportunity to stand out and engage with customers in a tangible way.
• Personalisation is key in both acquisition and retention strategies, and direct mail can be tailored to specific audiences and demographics.
• Measuring the success of offline marketing campaigns is relatively straightforward, as it involves tracking responses and analysing the impact on sales and profitability.
• Programmatic direct mail is an emerging trend that combines the benefits of automation and personalisation in offline marketing.
• Sustainability is an important consideration in print campaigns, and there are options for offsetting the environmental impact of direct mail.

James & Paul interview Hannah Tickle, an experienced experimentation leader who's currently the Experimentation Team Lead at Trainline.

The episode discusses the role of experimentation in ecommerce, the importance of ownership of within organisations, and the impact of hypotheses, testing speed, and data analysis.

Hannah shares insights on building a culture of experimentation and the benefits of using a custom testing stack. She also touches on the challenges of incorporating user feedback and the importance of understanding the limitations of qualitative research.

Takeaways:

• True experimentation is essential for ecommerce businesses to improve strategic planning and prioritise product development.
• Experimentation should be centralised to ensure accessibility and consistency.
• Strong hypotheses are data-backed and focus on testing concepts rather than specific things.
• Testing should be fast, light, and big, with a focus on impactful changes rather than small tweaks.
• Understanding and analysing data is crucial for effective experimentation, and it's important to consider both quantitative and qualitative feedback.
• Building a culture of experimentation requires consistency, responsiveness, and support from senior leadership.

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Let’s set the scene for this podcast. Operational efficiency is critical for ecommerce success. James recently moderated a panel at Dark Matter Commerce’s Commerce Fusion event, exploring the business case for investment in better automation with Green Feathers Ecommerce Director, James Ewens.

The topic for that panel was, "Say goodbye to excel and error-strewn manual work. Hello to automated retail and growing fearlessly".

The conversation was popular with the audience, so we decided to extend the discussion with James Ewens to ultimately answer the WHY, WHEN, WHAT & HOW of evolving from manual and spreadsheet based approaches to running key processes, to increased automation using modern technology.

Although we often joke about Excel or other manual systems managing a business, sometimes it’s the right thing to do given where that business is at. However, scaling on manual processes adds risk and businesses need to identify when it's time to change, and what change is required.

Both James' have first hand experience of large digital transformation projects and give advice on spotting the signs that change is required, the risks of not changing fast enough and the benefits of investing in better systems and processes.

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