We are seeing the first lockdowns of European countries coming to an end. The main (and, hopefully, the only) wave of the coronavirus pandemic is starting to pass and now is the time to think about what comes next and what steps we should take. How will eCommerce look after COVID-19? Listen to a leadership talk with Fabian Geyrhalter from FINIEN and Tom Kartwatka from DIVANTE.

With our guest, Thomas Leskowsky, we discuss modernizing and growing eCommerce in smaller, European countries which are a few years behind the global leaders. Along with our host, Marcos Bravo C., we try to understand the reasons behind the slower development of eCommerce in some ecosystems and think about ways to speed them up. 

Thomas Leskowsky is Head of Community Management at A-Commerce, a company specializing in strategic consultancy and strengthening the eCommerce community in Austria. 

How does the eCommerce ecosystem look in Austria? What happens on a market built from old, family brands like Swarovski? How can these companies can catch up with global leaders and react to changes like GDPR or cloud services? How do they deal with multichannel behaviors of customers? What are the challenges for young companies in Europe? How can they find their unique spot on the market? Does Austria have enough developers and eCommerce experts? How can they gain these, or any other, competencies which they may lack? 

We present answers to these, and many more questions, in this episode of eCommerce Talks. 

This time we met with Matthaus Bognar to talk about the growing role of personalization in building trust and engagement of buyers. Along with our host, Marcos Bravo C., we ask him about connecting different types of data and using AI-powered tools to understand users' needs and deliver them personalized communication.

Matthaus is Head of Global Enterprise and Business Development at Nosto, one of the leading providers of personalization solutions. Based in Finland, the company moved its focus from European to global markets in the past years. Matthaus observed with fascination the diverse behaviours of users in Europe and the U.S., and matches them with different approaches of companies using personalization. 

Is personalization a magic button that will answer the needs of your clients? How do the brands in the U.S. and Europe approach omnichannel and personalization? How do they use data and AI to adjust solutions to various user behaviors? How to start using personalization in the business without investing millions? What is the right way of working with behavioral data and transaction data? And what is the role of experiments, on-site recommendations and AB testing in creating a unique and personalized user experience?

You will find the answers to the above questions, and tips on how to implement tools for personalization in your eCommerce, in this episode of eCommerce Talks. 

Events and conferences recommended by Matthaus Bognar:

Online marketing rockstars in Hamburg - https://omr.com/en/ 

K5 in Berlin - https://www.k5.de/en/ 

DMEXCO in Cologne - https://dmexco.com/ 

Along with Marcus Lorenz, we dive into the secrets of growing eCommerce stores from startups to fast maturing businesses with astonishing results, featuring the example of Lampenwelt. 

Marcus Lorenz started Lampenwelt in 2014, when this rising star of eCommerce had only three people in the IT, headquarters in the owner's garage and was selling its products on eBay. Since then, Lampenwelt has achieved amazing success and makes over EUR 100 million in revenue. What were the key elements of this growth? How do they build solutions close to the customers' view? How did they approach technology and complete their teams? How did they settle and stabilize their technology? And most of all, how did they use microservices to construct their IT structure and make it ready to grow and scale globally?

You will find all these answers in this episode of eCommerce Talks. 

Podcasts and books recommended by Marcus Lorenz:

- Kassenzone by Alexander Graf - https://www.kassenzone.de/ 

- Digital Kompact - https://www.digitalkompakt.de/podcasts/ 

- 7 habits of highly effective people by Stephen R. Covey - https://www.amazon.com/Habits-Highly-Effective-People-Anniversary/dp/1511317299 

 Episodes directory ➡ http://divante.co/talks 

Roman Zenner, industry analyst from commercetools and author of Tech Shop Blog, is the guest of this episode of eCommerce Talks. Along with our host, Marcus Bravo C. they discuss tools for expanding eCommerce in terms of both business and technology.

What are the best ways to grow brands in eCommerce? How to listen to and answer the right users' needs? What are the best hosting technologies for the future? How to ensure the security and safety of future technologies? How to move away from monolith architecture and take a modern approach without losing business constancy? Why can overthinking technology hurt your business?

For the answers, check out the podcast and be sure that microservices, cloud solutions, and the customer-centric approach are essential threads in this conversation.

Podcasts recommended by Roman Zenner:

- Exciting Commerce by Jochen Krisch and Marcel Weiß - https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/exchanges-by-exciting-commerce-e-commerce-digitalisierung/id577304616 

- Kassenzone by Alexander Graf - https://www.kassenzone.de/ 

- ShopTech Blog by Roman Zenner - https://shoptechblog.de/about/roman-zenner/ 

- The Jason & Scot Show by Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg & Scot Wingo

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-jason-scot-show-e-commerce-and-retail-news/id1058718804?ign-mpt=uo%3D10 

Reach out to Roman Zenner at https://romanzenner.blog/

This time at eCommerce Talks, we host Martin Himmel, a consultant and Managing Partner at ecom Consulting GmBH, to talk about digital transformations, their major blockers, and companies that failed in the transition from the offline to online worlds. 

What are the reasons for failure in converting a business to digital commerce? What criteria should we take into account while selecting eCommerce solutions? Is it just about technological transformation? Or maybe we should focus on people and processes within the company? How deep and profound should the transformation be? What is the point from which you cannot turn back?

Look for the answers and examples of companies that failed, as well as those that succeeded and mastered their digital journey to perfection in this episode of eCommerce talks. 

Podcasts recommended by Martin Himmel:

- Exciting Commerce by Jochen Krisch and Marcel Weiß - https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/exchanges-by-exciting-commerce-e-commerce-digitalisierung/id577304616

- Kassenzone by Alexander Graf - https://www.kassenzone.de/ 

- ShopTech Blog by Roman Zenner - https://shoptechblog.de/about/roman-zenner/

In this episode of eCommerce Talks, we meet with Sander Mangel,  Chief of Technology at Vue Storefront and famous for being a long-time Magento Master.

Being in eCommerce for over 12 years, Sander has gained amazing experience as a developer, tech lead and now as an evangelist of modern technologies. Along with our host, Marcos Bravo C., they explain the concepts of microservices, headless and service-oriented architecture (SOA), and how they're changing the environment of eCommerce. They also take a look at the leading eCommerce platforms, like Magento, Shopware or Hybris, their adoption of the headless approach and other modern technologies, and why some of them were bought recently by software giants. 

As our guest predicts, the headless approach will grow in the foreseeable future, and so, together, we look for the answers on their usage and impact on eCommerce. How to securely use microservices and SOA to improve performance or rebuild old, monolithic architecture? How will microservices and SOA impact the security of IT architecture? And how to easily change applications to a  microservice-oriented architecture?

Get the answers from this episode of eCommerce Talks. 

Reach out to Sander at the eCommerce oriented events (https://divante.co/news/events) or at Twitter: @sandermangel

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In this episode of eCommerce Talks, we talk with Felix Kreyer, the founder of Digital Spike and ex. VP Markets Zalando, on the impact of innovations in today's fashion eCommerce market.

Along with our host, Marcos Bravo C., we ask about the role of technology and innovations in the growth of fashion brands, like Zalando or Marc O'Polo, and discuss the journey from a small platform to market behemoth. What is the winning approach that the founders should take? Who are the people that should be hired first? Can these business models be successfully copied in other companies? And can rising brands compete with giants like Amazon?

Listen out for the answers and the hands-on tips of Felix Kreyer in this episode of eCommerce Talks.

Podcasts recommended by Felix Kreyer: