AI-powered returns processing in futuristic retail warehouse with holographic displays

parcelLab Unveils Returns Forecast AI: Revolutionizing Retail Returns Management

June 27, 2024June 25, 2024 Brent W. Peterson

parcelLab unveils Returns Forecast AI, a groundbreaking tool that leverages artificial intelligence to revolutionize retail returns management, offering unprecedented visibility and control over the returns process.

Navigating Amazon Success with Cartograph: Insights from Chris Moe

June 19, 2024June 18, 2024 Brent W. Peterson

Welcome to an insightful episode of Talk Commerce, hosted by Brent Peterson. In this episode, Brent engages in a compelling conversation with Chris Moe, the CEO and founder of Cartograph—a leading Amazon agency specializing in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. Their discussion revolves around the dynamic world of Amazon, focusing on evolving trends in the food and beverage sector, the intricacies of digital advertising, and strategies for maximizing visibility and sales on the platform.

Key Takeaways

The importance of crafting compelling creative content to enhance product visibility and conversion rates on Amazon.
Insight into trends in the food and beverage industry, including the rising popularity of keto and innovative product formats.
Strategies for managing Amazon reviews to maintain consumer trust and product credibility.
The evolving landscape of Amazon advertising and the introduction of Amazon Marketing Cloud.
Anticipated challenges and opportunities for Amazon sellers in light of new fee structures and market conditions.

About Chris Moe

Chris Moe is the visionary CEO and founder of Cartograph, an agency dedicated to helping brands navigate the Amazon ecosystem. With a background in finance and consulting at McKinsey & Company, he leverages his expertise to drive growth for CPG brands. Cartograph, founded in 2017 and based in Austin, Texas, offers end-to-end support in strategy, pricing, SEO, advertising, operations, and logistics. Their mission is to assist brands in growing products that are beneficial for people and the planet.

Detailed Episode Summary

Brent Peterson opens the episode by welcoming Chris Moe, who provides an overview of Cartograph’s operations. Chris explains that his agency focuses on managing Amazon pages for a wide range of CPG brands, encompassing everything from supply chain management to full-funnel advertising.

Crafting the Perfect Creative

A significant part of the discussion centers on the concept of “collective creative,” where Chris emphasizes the critical elements of product presentation on Amazon. He covers the significance of images, titles, star ratings, prices, and shipping speeds. According to Chris, these elements together form the first impression for potential buyers and are crucial for achieving higher conversion rates. He explains:

“Your best e-commerce products are small, light, and expensive, but making sure that products meet consumer expectations is equally crucial.”

Trends in the Food and Beverage Sector

Chris delves into emerging trends within the food and beverage industry. Highlighting the market’s transition from traditional forms to more innovative formats like clear protein and gummies, he notes:

“Innovation in food and beverage is about small, impactful changes that cater to evolving consumer preferences.”

He also touches on the challenges of replacing liquid products with powdered alternatives, despite the logistical and cost benefits, due to consumer preferences for ready-to-drink products over do-it-yourself mixes.

Managing Reviews on Amazon

The conversation shifts to the management of customer reviews on Amazon. Chris underscores the difficulty of maintaining high ratings in certain categories, suggesting that authenticity and transparency are key. He shares:

“Amazon is a reasonably honest place; long-term, you cannot fake a bad product.”

Strategies for soliciting genuine reviews, such as Amazon’s Vine program and product inserts requesting reviews, are explored. However, Chris cautions against overly aggressive tactics to avoid breaching Amazon’s policies.

The Evolving Amazon Ecosystem

Chris provides insights into the evolving landscape of Amazon advertising, particularly the introduction of Amazon Marketing Cloud. This new tool allows brands to construct specific audiences for display advertising and offers deeper analytics on consumer behavior.

“Moving from interesting insights to actual incremental impact is challenging, but tools like the Amazon Marketing Cloud can be game-changers.”

Challenges and Future Trends

Discussing the recent changes to Amazon’s fee structures, Chris highlights the significant impact of these adjustments on sellers’ profit margins. He notes:

“Amazon’s new fees are causing ire among sellers, particularly the charges associated with lower inventory levels and the cost of cross-country shipping.”

Chris also touches on the burgeoning field of retail media networks, predicting that Amazon will face increasing competition, particularly in categories where it has historically struggled, such as apparel and groceries.

Personal Commentary and Analysis

Listening to Chris Moe’s insights offers a valuable perspective on the complexity of selling on Amazon. His expertise uncovers the stark reality that success on the platform requires meticulous attention to every aspect of product presentation and consumer interaction. The episode serves as a reminder that while Amazon offers vast opportunities, it also poses significant challenges that require strategic navigation.

Memorable Quotes

“Amazon is like a reasonably honest place; you can’t fake bad products.”
“The best e-commerce products are small, light, and expensive, but they must also meet customer expectations.”
“Innovation in food and beverage often revolves around small, impactful changes that align with consumer needs.”

Engaging the Audience

Interested in getting more in-depth insights from industry experts like Chris Moe? Make sure to listen to the full podcast episode on Talk Commerce. Subscribe to our podcast for more enriching conversations and stay updated with the latest trends in ecommerce and digital marketing.

Final Thoughts

In this episode, the complexities of navigating the Amazon marketplace are laid bare. Chris Moe’s expertise sheds light on the importance of strategic product presentation and innovative solutions to meet evolving consumer demands. While challenges like new fee structures and increasing competition from retail media networks loom large, the opportunities for growth and success on Amazon remain abundant for those who can adapt and innovate.

Retail executives network and collaborate at eTail's 25th Anniversary Conference

eTail Expands U.S. Production Team, Propelling Next Phase of Growth

June 13, 2024 Brent W. Peterson

Worldwide Business Research (WBR) has expanded its U.S. production team for eTail, promoting Kristin Schoenstein to eTail Chief of Staff and Elizabeth Robillard to eTail Portfolio Director. Leucepe (Leo) Martinez also joins the eTail Palm Springs team, bringing international perspective from eTail Toronto and London.

AI-powered product discovery transforming ecommerce in EMEA

Constructor Experiences Rapid Growth in EMEA: Driving Ecommerce Success with AI Product Discovery

June 4, 2024June 4, 2024 Brent W. Peterson

Constructor, the leading AI-powered product discovery and search platform, announces rapid growth and momentum in EMEA, helping ecommerce companies improve product discovery with personalized AI solutions.

The Top 3 Things Event Organizers Must Know to Boost Ticket Sales with Ashley Stanford

November 25, 2024May 14, 2024 Brent W. Peterson

In this episode of Talk Commerce, I had the pleasure of chatting with Ashley Stanford, the co-founder of Ice Cream Social. Ashley is a seasoned expert in the event industry, having worked with TicketSocket, a white-labeled ticketing and events registration platform, before launching her social referral widget designed to turn customers into brand influencers.

This conversation delved into the unique challenges and opportunities that have emerged in the event industry since COVID-19. Ashley shared valuable insights on how event organizers can adapt their strategies to thrive in this new landscape.

The Shift in Event Marketing

“COVID has been an interesting time in events,” Ashley remarked. “It was a downer, but it also led to the silver lining of peeling Ice Cream Social off from TicketSocket and making it its own company.” She also highlighted some key trends that have emerged from the pandemic:

“There’s three things in particular that I’m finding with events and marketing right now. One, you have to be smarter with your budget than ever before. You really want to create a lot of buzz and create a lot of leads before you ever go on sale for your event.”

This resonated with me as well. We see a lot of events struggling to make back the budgets they had before COVID. It’s critical to make sure your dollars are being spent wisely, and maximizing lead generation upfront is a great strategy for getting more bang for your buck.

Ashley also stressed the importance of optimizing marketing timing, emphasizing that today’s audience doesn’t plan as far in advance as they used to.

“People will buy tickets more last minute, more so than ever. So you want to make sure that your budget is split in a way where you’re heavy on the peaks of your sales cycle.”

This ties into the need to be smarter with your budget. Allocate your resources strategically, targeting the most impactful periods in your sales cycle.

Finally, Ashley stressed the importance of delivering a truly memorable experience.

“You need to put on a great event. You need to have a great track record, a great history. A lot of events that used to sell really well are struggling now. Your event really needs to activate all five senses.”

This is crucial for events in the post-COVID era. With so much competition for people’s attention, events need to deliver unique, engaging, and memorable experiences to stand out and keep attendees coming back.

Ashley is a strong advocate for social referral marketing. She believes that traditional influencer marketing is becoming less effective, and that the real power lies in activating the word-of-mouth marketing potential of a brand’s existing customer base.

“An influencer does not need to have any social media. An influencer can be just any person. That’s what we’re trying to help events realize and activate within their customer database.”

I’ve always been a believer in the power of referrals, and I really like Ashley’s approach to gamifying this. By providing tools that empower attendees to easily share their experiences with friends and family, both on social media and through messaging apps, event organizers can tap into a vast, untapped network of potential customers.

Ashley highlighted the importance of strategic sponsorships that align with the event’s audience and goals.

“You wanna think about sponsors for your event that very much align, has very similar raving fans, of people who would like to come to your event because they’re going to have a captive audience of the exact people you’re trying to reach.”

This is a key to success for any event, but it’s especially crucial in the post-COVID world. By partnering with brands that share your target audience, you can leverage their existing network to expand your reach and attract new attendees.

Furthermore, Ashley emphasizes the importance of making it easy for sponsors to participate in your marketing efforts.

“You wanna make it so easy for them to help you that you give them a whole package. Hey, here’s some pre-written social media posts customized for each platform. Here’s a folder of images. Here’s a blog post.”

By providing sponsors with ready-to-use marketing materials, you can ensure that they are actively promoting your event and maximizing their investment.

Final Thoughts

Ashley’s insights on navigating the post-COVID events landscape are invaluable for anyone involved in the industry. Her emphasis on strategic planning, creative marketing, and leveraging the power of social referrals offer a compelling roadmap for success.

For a deeper dive into these ideas and more, be sure to listen to the full podcast episode. I hope this blog has inspired you to think differently about event marketing in the post-COVID era.

Let me know your thoughts on these insights and share your own event marketing experiences in the comments below!

Power of Sophisticated Commerce: Insights from Spryker’s SVP of Product with Elena Leonova

May 7, 2024 Brent W. Peterson

In this episode of Talk Commerce, Brent Peterson sat down with Elena Leonova, the Senior Vice President of Product at Spryker, to explore the world of complex ecommerce solutions and the art of effective product management.

“Ultimately, what they want to do is they want to run digital commerce, how they’ve been running their commerce practice in general. And that also means that in most of the cases, the available solutions that fit everybody don’t work for them.”

Elena Leonova

Navigating the Complexities of Sophisticated Commerce

Elena shared her insights on how Spryker, a digital commerce platform, caters to the needs of large enterprises with intricate business models and processes. She highlighted examples of Spryker’s customers, including those selling to dealers, powering small grocery shops, and managing supply chain complexities for industrial-grade printers.

“We built our platform to specifically be extensible in all those places to solve for those complexities.”

Elena Leonova

The Evolution of Product Management Across Platforms

Brent and Elena discussed how Elena’s product management experience evolved as she transitioned from Magento, an open-source platform, to BigCommerce, a multi-tenant SaaS solution, and now to Spryker. They explored the challenges and opportunities that arose in each environment, from managing an ecosystem of partners to navigating the data-rich world of SaaS platforms.

“The role of the product manager is to make sure that we as software company make the right decisions. Ultimately, we’re building a product or a platform that is going to last for many, many years.”

Elena Leonova

Mentoring the Next Generation of Product Managers

Elena’s passion for product management extends beyond her work at Spryker. She shared her insights on the importance of understanding the nuances of platform products and the need to balance customer-centric thinking with commercial viability.

“Besides just kind of what we just talked about, the platform products, a lot of people also don’t realize that product management is not about just building the product that customers love. You build products that you ultimately need to sell to customers.”

Elena Leonova

As the podcast drew to a close, Elena invited listeners to connect with her to discuss platform products and explore product management mentorship opportunities.

Brent’s Takeaway: Elena’s deep dive into the complexities of sophisticated commerce and her insights on the evolving role of product management were incredibly valuable. Her commitment to mentoring the next generation of product leaders is truly admirable and showcases her dedication to advancing the industry.

WordPress Tags: ecommerce, product management, platform products, Spryker, Magento, BigCommerce, sophisticated commerce, enterprise commerce, mentorship

https://youtu.be/pG9AQ2rIv_0

Key Takeaways:

The complexities of sophisticated commerce and how Spryker addresses them
The challenges and opportunities of product management in open-source, SaaS, and platform environments
The importance of balancing customer-centric thinking with commercial viability in product management
Elena’s commitment to mentoring and sharing her knowledge with aspiring product managers

Don’t miss this insightful conversation packed with valuable lessons for anyone interested in the world of ecommerce, product management, and platform-based solutions. Watch now and unlock the power of sophisticated commerce!

Revolutionizing Resale: Wilson Griffin on Recurate’s Sustainable Fashion Mission

April 27, 2024 Brent W. Peterson

In this episode of Talk Commerce, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Wilson Griffin, CEO and founder of Recurate. Wilson shared his insights on the resale market, sustainable fashion, and how Recurate empowers brands to embrace circularity.

The Environmental Impact of Fashion

Wilson highlighted the massive environmental footprint of the apparel supply chain, particularly in the fashion industry. He emphasized the duty of brands and enablers like Recurate to optimize manufactured product use.

“The apparel supply chain fashion in particular, but this is true of other industries as well, is it has a massive, massive environmental footprint. Just the amount of raw materials and resources that go into manufacturing the products that we buy.”

We can significantly reduce the industry’s environmental impact by extending product life cycles and reducing dependence on manufacturing new items.

Bringing Brands into the Resale Economy

Historically, brands have been excluded from the resale economy, with platforms like eBay and Poshmark facilitating secondhand sales without brand involvement. Recurate aims to change that by helping brands manage their own resale programs.

“What we’ve set out to do is help those brands to participate in this. So all of a sudden brands are incentivized to make higher quality goods that will last longer because they’re actually going to benefit from the second, third and fourth sales.”

By connecting brands with the resale market, Recurate enables them to benefit from multiple product life cycles, incentivizing the production of higher quality, longer-lasting goods.

Resale OS 2.0: Streamlining the Resale Process

Wilson introduced Recurate’s latest offering, Resale OS 2.0, which provides modular solutions for brands to integrate resale into their existing e-commerce ecosystem. With features like seller influencer closets and the ability to quickly launch resale programs, Recurate is making it easier than ever for brands to embrace circularity.

“The way that we, uh, work with brands is we’ve we fully integrate into their sort of e-commerce ecosystem tech stack. Uh, what that means is that we have access to a lot of that brand’s information as far as, you know, customer purchase history, the brand’s catalog.”

This integration allows brands to leverage customer data and product information to optimize their resale offerings and meet customer demand.

The Future of Sustainable Fashion

As we move into 2024 and beyond, Wilson sees a significant opportunity for brands to invest in sustainable practices and embrace the resale market. By offering secondhand products alongside new items, brands can grow their revenue without increasing their environmental footprint.

“There really is no incremental water usage or greenhouse gas emissions to sell a product a second time. All of that environmental impact went into the first sale of that product.”

https://youtu.be/UKrY7PvlzH0

Brands prioritizing sustainability, transparency, and innovation in their supply chains will be well-positioned to thrive in the growing resale economy.

As a fervent advocate for sustainability, I believe that the work Recurate does is crucial in transforming the fashion industry. By empowering brands to embrace resale and circularity, we can significantly reduce the environmental impact of the apparel supply chain while still meeting consumer demand.

I encourage listeners to check out Recurate’s website and reach out if you’re a brand interested in launching a resale program. As consumers, we can also support brands that offer resale options and prioritize sustainability.

To hear more of Wilson’s insights and the full conversation, be sure to listen to the complete Talk Commerce podcast episode. Let’s work together to revolutionize the fashion industry and create a more sustainable future.

Strategic Partnerships: Navigating the Evolving Marketing Landscape with Brian Gerstner

April 26, 2024April 25, 2024 Brent W. Peterson

Welcome back to Talk Commerce! Today, we had the pleasure of chatting with Brian Gerstner, President of White Label IQ, about the crucial role of strategic partnerships in the ever-changing marketing world. Brian’s insights into leveraging partnerships, navigating the rise of AI, and preparing for the upcoming holiday season were truly insightful.

The Power of Niche Expertise and White Label Partnerships

Brian emphasized the increasing need for specialization in the marketing industry, especially with the rise of AI tools like Jasper and ChatGPT. He believes AI will ultimately “beat the mediocrity out of all of us,” pushing agencies and businesses to focus on their core strengths and partner for specific needs.

“AI is going to not be your friend” if you’re “just getting things done and checking off boxes.”

This resonated with me deeply. As someone who has witnessed the evolution of the digital marketing landscape, I’ve seen firsthand how crucial it is to develop and excel in a niche. Partnering with experts like White Label IQ allows agencies to access specialized skills without the fixed costs of hiring full-time staff.

AI: A Tool, Not a Replacement

While AI presents incredible opportunities, Brian rightly points out that it does not replace human expertise. AI tools are powerful for content creation and iteration, but they lack the emotional intelligence and strategic thinking humans bring.

“AI is great at creating the pieces… but it’s not really great at bringing the pieces together.”

I couldn’t agree more. As marketers, we must guide and curate AI, ensuring it aligns with our brand voice, understands our audience, and ultimately serves our business objectives. The human touch is essential in crafting compelling narratives and building authentic customer connections.

Gearing Up for the Holiday Season and Beyond

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday just around the corner, Brian offered valuable advice for merchants and agencies.

“Plan ahead for next year… collect the information so that you can follow up with people so that you can grow your audience.”

His emphasis on leveraging first-party data for post-holiday nurturing resonated strongly. Building relationships with customers acquired during the holiday rush is key to long-term success.

Final Thoughts

Brian’s insights underscore the importance of adapting to the evolving marketing landscape. Embracing niche expertise, leveraging strategic partnerships, and understanding the potential and limitations of AI is crucial for staying ahead of the curve. As we head into the holiday season and beyond, remember the value of human connection and strategic collaboration in achieving sustainable growth.

Be sure to check out the full episode of Talk Commerce to hear more from Brian Gerstner and gain valuable insights for your business!

Redefining Retail: Recurate’s ResaleOS™ 2.0 Revolutionizes the Secondhand Market

March 25, 2024March 19, 2024 Brent W. Peterson

Recurate unveils its ResaleOS™ 2.0 suite of solutions, transforming how brands approach and capitalize on the booming secondhand market. Discover the groundbreaking features that streamline resale programs and drive growth.

The Rise of SHOPLINE: Powering the Future of Social-Driven Commerce

March 22, 2024March 19, 2024 Brent W. Peterson

SHOPLINE, the leading global provider of unified commerce solutions, is unveiling its latest advancements at Shoptalk, the premier global gathering of retail and ecommerce leaders. With social commerce expected to reach a staggering $2.9 trillion by 2026, SHOPLINE is strategically positioned to help brands capitalize on this fast-growing trend through its industry-leading, all-in-one platform.

ecommerce

Key Takeaways

About Chris Moe

Detailed Episode Summary

Personal Commentary and Analysis

Memorable Quotes

Engaging the Audience

Final Thoughts

The Shift in Event Marketing

Harnessing the Power of Social Referral Marketing

Beyond Social Media: Leveraging Sponsorships & Partnerships

Final Thoughts

Navigating the Complexities of Sophisticated Commerce

The Evolution of Product Management Across Platforms

Mentoring the Next Generation of Product Managers

The Environmental Impact of Fashion

Bringing Brands into the Resale Economy

Resale OS 2.0: Streamlining the Resale Process

The Future of Sustainable Fashion

The Power of Niche Expertise and White Label Partnerships

AI: A Tool, Not a Replacement

Gearing Up for the Holiday Season and Beyond

Final Thoughts