Issue #9 - The “Hedge your bets” issue.
In this issue: Commerce Futures Gossip | Generative AI | The Partnership Placebo | Shoptalk Europe Chatter | H2 Sales Targets
A little re-intro for those new readers. #NoRocketships is a newsletter from Buyingtime - an ABM agency working in the tech sector, and our sister brand Commerce Futures, a boutique events business delivering gorgeous gigs across Europe and the U.S.
We try to be amusing, honest and a little bit punchy. And we’re not afraid of the truth.
CF Gossip
We like starting with this, so we’ll carry on (until we get bored). The last few weeks have been crazy busy for us, AWS dinner, Copenhagen dinner, London for our “Getting To Know You” dinner. The chatter has all been about loyalty, customer focus (trying to get the business to see beyond the weekly trading numbers), how to reduce the slightly creepier personalisation tech from people’s stack (but still use 1st party cookies).
To that end, here are some often-heard thoughts from the world of eComm/brand retail recently:
How about we stop stalking customers and start earning their engagement with great creative and a better brand?
We’re focused on our stores and making them brilliant. Part of that brilliance is about connecting to the online business, but it’s in that order, not online first.
Loads of chatter about peak this year and how D2C will stop discounting in an attempt to protect their brand (see above) - the comment is that last year online was down anyway, so if it’s down and at least margin improves this year it’ll perform better overall
GA4 and the fallout to paid search. Commerce Futures is running some loyalty sessions for community members which are full. With a waiting list.
Generative AI & Payday Loans
I think in the tech world we all have rather different expectations from this sudden revolution. I think VC’s are hoping this will yield the biggest payday since…fill in your own answer here…
Our Search/Merch clients are all releasing AI-profiled tooling, but as we engage with potential customer, the big shift is that as a result of Chat GPT they have all SEEN it work, AI is no longer just PR - so now it’s having an effect, and boy does it need to demo well. Please please SaaS make sure that you have “generating” in your demos 🙂
Finally, as the media bills this as a Google v Microsoft battleground, surely we also include Meta and TikTok… anyone under 30 is actually (sadly) using these platforms for discovery more than anything else, including Amazon.
Hedge Your Bets - The Partnership Placebo
The new API-first tech stack has emerged as a challenge for Partner & Alliance teams everywhere. An agency we know well was managing 85 certified partners 7 years ago (back in the Magento Two days), but nowadays has double that - with more high quality point solutions to come.
Just as one example - at Shoptalk Europe the team from Walmart Commerce were launching a “Pick up in Store” app that connects to OMS, has few competitors and will have ASDA as a customer out of the blocks… very appealing, but yet another partnership to manage.
The reality is that most partnerships are placebos, created to meet a set of KPI’s that matter little and rarely make a meaningful contribution. We’ve long advocated for a new approach to partnerships where (perhaps) one could marry the Commercetools criteria of old (where connectors had to be built in house), to the Big Commerce “family” vibe - creating a small group of partners on a joint mission.
Anyway - watch out for the placebo everyone… you’re just being thrown a bone. Real partnership is quite another thing entirely.
Shoptalk Europe Chatter
Hot off the press a first hand view from Barcelona - For the merchants reading this is the offspring of a big U.S. eCommerce conference/trade show, which has previously failed to deliver in Europe.
We are pleased to say that they did a good job in Barca. Enough merchants bribed to attend (570 euros for T&A provided you took 8 1:1 meetings) that the venue looked full, and they’d spent a fortune on catering, drummers and good wifi. We anticipate that next year the exhibitors will return, and we believe it will stay in Spain, so some other trade shows will breathe a sigh of relief that they won’t be invaded with a Shoptalk that has deep pockets.
The only often-repeated criticism was that the 1:1 meeting setup was tawdry, with speed dates that often had a pretty reluctant customer attendee.
For those of us in events, the 13 minute keynote where you get 20 mins of content in 8 slides and a faster delivery is all good from us.
H2 Sales Targets & Failed Projects
Nobody ever talks about how bad it’s been, but it has been bad for sure.
We feel for all the VC’d amongst our readers. At Commerce Futures we have the luxury of setting a FY23/24 budget that knocks us back a little from this year’s frenzied calendar. We are going back to our roots somewhat in H2 with events such as Sports & Outdoor (yummy) and a return to Milan and Paris.
For those still being hit with a totally unrealistic number in H2 we offer a few words of comfort, and we hope, some help for some. Firstly, there’s no doubt that the market is waking up. We have a community group starting to talk about a move away from the previous world’s platforms (OK, monolithic for short), but they don’t want risk… they want certainty of delivery and performance. There is little appetite for an MVP.
Search & Merch, ESP, Headless content and loyalty SaaS - if you’re behind the sales number there’s something wrong in-house - the demand is there.
Nobody ever talks about failed projects, but they’re real and those stories also spread like wildfire. We’re too classy to mention them here, but you know who you are. Shame on you for allowing profit to damage the ecosystem’s reputation. In the enterprise especially the big SI’s have a reputation for failing to deliver, and the current trend sees that happening - being MACH approved is no protection.
This issue's 'Term of Abuse'
'Blister' - Arrives after the hard work is done to take all the credit