Issue #8
In this issue: Gossip from our eCommerce community | Meme Strategy | The morphing trade-show | Buying tech v Selling tech
Welcome to #norocketships issue 8. We have as many merchants and customers reading this as we do SaaS & tech peeps, so we're re-balancing over the next few issues to take that into account.
Welcome to the new financial year, and may the great AI Venture Capital games begin!
Gossip
Here’s a quick overview of the chatter within the Commerce Futures community this last 6 weeks or so. I write this because the group is part of our DNA and something we hold very dear - also we are mostly observers (so we love the insight given our lack of effort).
Amazon scammers
Protecting your brand is becoming a cause of concern to many, and although Amazon offers several ways of protecting yourself there are scammers abound.
GA4
Nobody apart from a very few are ready yet. June is coming fast :(
Hiring
eCommerce is hiring again. After 6 months of fear and loathing there appear to be green shoots. Anyone looking for a new role please message Jamie Hancox who tends to help where possible.
Growth (performance marketing)
We will tackle this head on at The Hundred, but growth marketing using paid channels is really hard - so brands are focused on repeat purchase at full price. This metric has taken over from CAC for some.
What’s interesting of course is there is little or no tech here. As far as mid-market eCommerce is concerned there is no burning bridge, nothing broken - just a background sensation that things take too long and cost too much.
The winners from the 60+ conversations that this writer has had whilst talking to customers about The Hundred & MACH TWO are the following vendors: Cloudinary, Storyblok, Advanced Commerce & Contentful. These are vendors who seem to do that rare thing - make customers smile when they’re spoken about - positive vibes only.
Meme Strategy
We love a meme - the guy in this month’s coming ABM meme is Robbie Flower. He joined us just a few months ago and has happily engaged in the process. For us, creating our own memes is a team-building thing. Our first meme (Jamie in a Jacket) involved just 3 people. The latest one probably 6 of us, and by the end of the summer every team member will have contributed creatively or in the meme itself.
We may even make the meme part of our initiation process for new starters.
Memes for life 🙂
The Morphing Trade-Show
Trade shows, and our approach towards them - are changing. In the last 24 months the attitude from exhibitors and attendees alike has shifted, and we think will continue to shift. Trade Show owners need more in their armoury apart from a big hall and a decent database. The growth in influencer groups such as Rethink Retail is proof that a little content stardust really helps to grow the social presence of a show like RTS in London next week.
Equally, our Commerce Futures business is in talks with a couple of show owners to deploy our community to generate content for their main stage in 2024… watch this space 🙂
More importantly, we are starting to see the landscape change. In Europe it will be surprising if Shoptalk continues in 2024, whilst Seamless (as a conference/show hybrid) is still embryonic. Some SaaS companies are starting their own shows, notably Nxt Retail in Q4 this year which is linked to commercetools.
We think that most big shows will start to look hard for satellite activities which keep them relevant across the year, very much like WBR is doing in North America. Many exhibitors see greater value from side events than the main gig, but the organiser sees no revenue from this activity - frustrating for sure.
For delegates, who frankly no longer “need” to spend a day getting sore feet, the options are endless. Researching online is anonymous (with the benefits that brings), rfp’s are simpler and a credit card funded POC can tell you a great deal more than any chat at a trade show. So - what’s in it for them? This writer can only see one thing - efficiency. It’s no wonder then that some shows are recruiting up to 200 speakers from customers, not for content so much as to ensure they have some delegates to sell.
Enough - more Trade Show shizzle in the autumn
Buying Tech v Selling Tech
We always start every engagement with a client by talking about the problems that they solve. You’d be surprised how often this proves tricky to get to the bottom of.
If you do not watch or follow Chris Walker from Refine Labs who speaks brilliantly about this area we suggest you do. Here’s a link.
Refine labs have built some very sensible “Buying funnels” to replace MQL / SQL etc… but many people in software reading this and other articles too often hear the message “It’s not about you”, but it never goes in and stays there. Reference salespeople writing whole series of irritating emails about their SaaS tool, it simply gets on everyone’s nerves - and as we describe it at Commerce Futures you’re just “annoying at scale”.
How about this for an analogy? Buyers and sellers of digital products & services should be introduced by Cupid, not a Pimp 🤣.
Abusive word of the week
'Mudguard' - Shiny on the surface but mucky underneath (not a good look)