Several days ago our team attended eCommerce expo presentations to learn more about current and future ecommerce dynamics . As we go through our notes again, these are some of the highlights:
PWA is a major trend in Magento eCommerce
First things first, we participated in the “Meet Magento Greece” conference to keep up with upcoming Magento eCommerce trends and solutions. We were pleased to see that PWA (Progressive Web Application) was the hotest topic among Magento developers and clients. Alex Tse from Scandiweb presented their theme for Magento PWA eshop which is one of the most complete solutions at the moment. We are already working on our first PWA project so stay tuned!
Greek e-commerce market trends
[Katerina Fraidaki-Greca]
The average annual spend per shopper is increasing in Europe and has reached 1464€. In its largest part, this increase comes from North Europe where the average spend is 2046€. In South Europe, the average annual spend per person is barely 1030€.
Top eCommerce categories for 2018 are, according to a research from Greca, ΣΕΠΠΕ, ELTRUN:
Hotel, Travel, eFood, Fashion, Technology, ePharmacy
The omni channel effect is a reality merchants cannot underestimate.
ROPO effect (Search Online – Purchase Offline) is 70%
Showrooming (Search Offline, Purchase Online) is 25%
Ecommerce dynamics in the Irish market
[Lorraine Higgings MKC communications]
Ireland is a market with a big gap in terms of ecommerce, so there is a big opportunity for eshops.
While 850.000€ are spent online each hour, 650.000€ leave the country. This is due to the following reasons: Only 22% of Irish firms have a website and approximately 3 out of 4 firms do not have an eshop enabled. On the other hand, 63% of Irish consumers think that businesses should have a website.
eBay for Greek Sellers
[Anna Pelkin, eBay Israel]
There are 10.000 Greek Sellers on eBay. Every 29 sec, a Greek is selling via eBay. Collectibles lead the way with 310.000 products and autoparts follow with 90.000.
What Greek people buy on eBay: Cellphones, Home & Garden
To build trust, sellers have to follow the general ecommerce rules in their product listings:
1. Describe the product in detail
2. Add multiple photos
3. Have crystal clear Policy – Pricing – Shipping – Payment.
On the other hand, eshop owners have to take into consideration the product’s nature and to not try a one-fit-all approach in their shop. With the wonderful examples of Kipling and Lenovo, Mrs. Anna Pelkin highlighted the user experience differences resulting from the fact that Kipling’s customers want inspiration while Lenovo’s customers want information.
The go-to-market approach Mrs. Pelkin proposed is to establish presence in one country first and then expand in other markets. But the first step is always to find the comparative edge.
Why your customers are your best marketers
[Anne Tempelmeier, Hubspot]
Anne Tempelmeier’s presentation was the one which we have long been waiting for. She shared Hubspot’s insights on “why your customers are your best marketers”. Every sentence was valuable, but we’ll share the one that needs to be heard the most: Hubspot stopped using the traditional funnel about a year ago. Now, say that again: Hubspot stopped using the funnel. What about you / us?
And probably one of the most important quotes that were heard in the room was the following: “Your happy customers want to help you”
Magento Community
Mrs. Marsha Naidoo, COO at Mage Mojo, talked about the growing contribution of Magento Developers in the Magento Community. She also shared some interesting facts about Magento, its market share (a whopping 30% which accounts for 100.000 eshops) and ways to contribute to Magento community.
Adobe + Magento = Power
Mr. Ami Verma, co-founder of Techies India Inc. gave an interesting talk about the future of the two powers, Adobe + Magento and what it holds for merchants, developers and agencies. Being an ecommerce agency using the total solution of Adobe suite + Magento we found his talk so useful.
Programmatic marketing trends
Mrs. Aleksandra Beyer Nunes from The Economist talked about programmatic marketing and discussed interesting ideas for out-of-home programmatic and how voice search will alter programmatic distribution. We totally agree with her statement “Transparency is the new currency”.
How to align your content strategy with consumers’ moments of consumption
The talk “How to align your content strategy with Consumer Moments of consumption”, of Mr. Federico Oliveri from Social Bakers was one that our Digital Marketing Manager couldn’t wait to watch! Using a case study from a well known brand in the dairy industry he showed how to leverage gamification to increase engagement and drive qualified traffic from Facebook.
The communication inside the team and the use of data to optimize it is a factor of success according to Mr. Oliveri.
And let’s move on.
Other aspects of ecommerce marketing
Demetris Stefani from Hivebreed stated the data proving that “Digital is a life disruptor” (maybe the biggest one). He also shared the futurist’s framework for strategic planning.
Andraz Stalec from Redorbit talked about a common false assumption regarding online traffic. We definitely left this speech with practical tips on how to use brand stickiness reports in Analytics to improve your eshop and how to spot the 12 types of search users. The takeaways from his talk could make a difference in multibrand eshops. Quoting him “Bad assumptions lead to failure and not PPC tactics” and “Forget Converters. Focus on the 98% that did not convert.”
Luca Brighenti from B4Bind developed an interesting thought that “personalization isn’t smarter engagement. It creates silos of consumer communication”
The two presentations of Balkan eCommerce managers Hristo Radichev & Svetlozar Dimitrov were focused on the global expansion of Greek eshops and their solutions.
The exceptional case study of Zalando
We were privileged to attend two speeches of Nidhi Arya and Pavlo Kuznyetsov about Zalando, which is a case study on how to disrupt a market. Zalando is changing the relationship with fashion by focusing on the “social good” aspect that consumers are increasingly aware about. And among other interesting facts, we are keeping the 500 billion dollar opportunity in circular fashion.
All in all, we cannot but say a big thank you to the speakers for sharing their know-how with us!
Quoting Richard Stallman: Sharing knowledge is the most fundamental act of friendship.
