Inside Commerce: Ecommerce Strategy, CX and Technology Podcast

In this ecommerce podcast, Paul & James explore how Wordseed has pivoted from providing marketplace technology to a brand discovery platform. Tune in to listen to co-founder Harry Beattie discuss the operational and technology implications of changing business models, how they enable content creators to launch their own branded websites and how what the plan is for their recent acquisition of the Bombinate marketplace platform.

It’s common for the chosen SI (systems integrator) partner for a replatforming project to provide design resource and manage the development project end-to-end. However, not all agencies have sufficient depth of design skill or breadth of experience to satisfy the client’s needs, especially for luxury brands where brand experience is as important to the project as the ecommerce functionality. In this scenario, the client will partner with a design specialist to deliver visual designs to the development agency.

Each approach has its own set of pros and cons, and in this episode we’re talking about how to align design & dev agencies to minimise the risk of designs not being fit for purpose or adding unnecessary cost to the build phase to shoehorn visual designs into an ecommerce platform and set of front-end templates.

Tl;dr what we cover:

Personalisation covers a wide range of ecommerce use cases. Often it's discussed in the context of product personalisation, that is refining the products shown to shoppers on websites and via digital marketing channels like email based on their user profile, what they've previously bought and browsed. Increasingly, ecommerce teams are looking for ways to provider deeper personalisation of the shopping experience to reward customers and encourage greater loyalty, in other words improve retention rates.

In this ecommerce podcast, we explore how Maverick is helping ecommerce retailers get results by delivering personalised video at scale using its AI platform. Maverick enables retailers to record a single customer video, then personalise based on name, and distribute to its customers via email marketing. Maverick also plans to roll-out its tech to additional distribution channels like SMS and WhatsApp, and enhance the elements in the video its customers can personalise e.g. which product they bought.

Listen to co-founders Debarshi and Eitan explain why they launched the platform, how retailers are using it and where they see AI-driven personalisation in ecommerce headed.

The ecommerce platform landscape is ever shifting and there have been a lot of new vendors entering in the past few years, responding to the increase in demands for flexible, scalable technology stacks. In this episode we give you an insight into a composable commerce API for developers, Commerce Layer. Tune in to understand where Commerce Layer fits and how its proposition, being developer focused, is different to some of the other mainstream platforms like Shopify, Adobe, BigCommerce etc. 

Listen to founder, Filippo Conforti, explain the genesis of the platform, their go-to-market strategy and where the platform roadmap is headed.

It's safe to say that website performance has a direct impact on customer experience and conversion rate, there's plenty of data out there to make the correlation. However, performance can become fragmented and compromised given how many systems make up an enterprise ecommerce implementation, from back office systems supplying source data to 3rd party apps and widgets performing specific front-end functions like UGC feeds and customer reviews. 

In this episode, Paul & James sit down with Tal Ofer, Senior Partner Manager, and Zuzana Samaj, Senior Solutions Engineer at Cloudinary. Cloudinary's mission is to help companies unleash the full potential of their media to create the most engaging visual experiences. The podcast covers key DAM related issues faced by ecommerce businesses, the impact of DAMs on speed and performance, the use of AI in digital asset management and integrations with ecommerce platforms.

SMS marketing has seen strong growth in the past few years, as marketers look for differentiation given how crowded email inboxes are. At the same time, shoppers are looking for simple ways to pay online to speed up checkouts and make life easier when shopping on mobile devices. For this episode, we sat down with Osa Gaius, Founder and CEO at innovative SMS payment specialist Parrot.

Parrot is an end-to-end payment solution that leverages SMS to drive easy checkout and a higher frequency of recurring purchases. Listen to Osa explain Parrot’s SMS solution, how it benefits ecommerce teams, how it integrates with their existing tech stack and the commercial model and impact.

Beerhawk is a fast growth DTC business selling craft beer and a beer dispenser to bring the pub vibe to homes and offices. James & Paul sat down with MD Alex Nelson to understand what's driving the sales growth, how the business operates its ecommerce stores, how and why it's using Magento and how it is balancing the use of development resources between its in-house engineering function and external partners. 

Delivering a seamless cross channel experience is a strategic imperative for omnichannel retailers but operational complexity makes it hard or expensive to achieve, usually due to challenges integrating disparate technologies. In this episode we explore the partnership between OMS specialist Fluent Commerce and in-store experience platform Mercaux. Mercaux recently launched a universal shopping basket solution that integrates with Fluent's OMS platform, so we interviewed Shaun Britton, Global Sales Director at Mercaux and Jamie Cairns, Chief Strategy Officer at Fluent, to understand who it's designed for, how it works and what benefits merchants can expect.

When the word ERP integration is mentioned in an ecommerce project, it either creates a surge of panic and fear, or people assume it’s just a simple case of sending data between two systems and underestimate the potential complexity and impact. In this episode we interview Luke Hodgson, a specialist in managing ERP & other systems integration projects for a wide range of clients.

We discuss when a business needs an ERP and when it doesn't, the pros and cons of using one vs. not and how integration projects can be de-risked. Tune in to learn for Luke's practical experience as the founder of both Patchworks and HighCohesion.

Data migration is an essential part of all site migrations. However, it’s not always focused on enough during Discovery resulting in a lack of detail in statements of work, which can cause problems further down the line in the project, for example scope and cost creep. In this ecommerce podcast, Paul & James share their advice and project experience, discussing what a good data migration looks like and covering the different types of data businesses need to plan into their migration and what to look out for to do this effectively.