Cuppa Commerce

Dallas-based Daniel Vitiello [http://linkedin.com/in/daniel-vitiello-64457b130], along with his business partner, Brandon Warman [https://www.linkedin.com/in/bwarman/], has founded two startups (so far), both in the food/grocery space. Daniel and I chat about lessons learned during the development and launch of Handground [https://handground.com/], their coffee grinder, and how their latest venture, mobile app Cooklist [https://www.cooklist.co/], may revolutionize both grocery shopping and meal planning while helping consumers eat healthier, spend less time shopping, and save money. In this episode, we discuss: * How Daniel and Brandon got their start in business and as entrepreneurs, including launching a new manual coffee grinder, Handground (available via Amazon) * Taking learnings from Handground, how Daniel and Brandon surveyed people passionate about cooking to test their initial ideas for a food/cooking app * How joining the TechStars accelerator program in 2018 – including working with Target – helped drive the initial launch of the Cooklist mobile app * Two recent developments that make an app like Cooklist possible: * Grocery store loyalty program data being made available online * Widespread availability of home delivery for groceries * How Cooklist currently solves two primary pains: * Figuring out what you can prepare using ingredients/products already on hand * Tying selected recipes to your (online) shopping list, while accounting for what’s already in your fridge and pantry – and as a bonus, potentially comparing order prices across grocers (more retailers are being added later this year) * How the just-released Cooklist meal planner feature recognizes that consumers don’t always cook “meals” but sometimes just heat up a frozen pizza or eat some yogurt * Benefits to grocers, including (a) having customers who get more from their purchases and (b) reducing the friction involved in buying groceries and getting them home * Grocers have been losing “stomach share” for many years * Why Cooklist looks to avoid business models that profit primarily from selling consumer data, preferring to provide a valuable service they’re willing to pay for directly and maintaining trust * What a future Cooklist – part personal chef and part omniscient planner/shopper – might look like * What future innovation in this space is coming, including current pilots of in-home delivery of groceries

After a long career with Elsevier, Amanda Wolff [https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandalwolff/] is now the CMO for OneSpace [https://www.onespace.com/], a tech startup that specializes in helping consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies improve product and content visibility on Amazon and similar online retailers. We chat about what’s happening in the CPG ecommerce space today and accelerating changes in how consumers shop for and buy these products online. In this episode, we discuss: * How delivery services (e.g. Instacart [https://www.instacart.com/]) and click-n-collect capabilities are impacting fast-moving consumer goods like beverages * Ways OneSpace works with clients to establish or evolve their ecommerce operations, ensuring they optimize their online content on a regular cadence * Where your products sit on a “digital shelf” and their search rankings can change every day or even during a single day, requiring constant vigilance * The process of optimizing product content and getting it out to retailers so it’s available for online shoppers * In addition to its content distribution platform, OneSpace content creators actually develop rich product content or optimize baseline content available from manufacturers * Traditional CPG content was pushed to consumers and is rather emotive and high level; however, online shoppers “pull” content using search, so content presented in search results needs to be more detailed and drive purchase * Industry disruption caused with a move to sell directly to consumers online vs. going through the large retailers * Much of this has been driven by industry upstarts, emerging digitally native vertical brands who use social commerce and influencers to tell their story directly to consumers and build demand outside of traditional retail channels * How larger CPGs are using acquisitions to bolster their direct-to-consumer (D2C) offerings and skills * Some dangers of working with large retailers, particularly Amazon, including retailer-owned white label products * The importance of access to consumer data, including what they are searching for * OneSpace leverages this type of search data to drive effective content creation * Why optimizing your product content for voice search is now less of a concern than changes to retailer programs like Amazon Vendor Central and Seller Central * How ecommerce teams in CPG companies can provide a more holistic view of the consumer for organizations which have traditionally been segmented by brand * Why Amanda believes the coming year will bring more innovation with grocery and fast-moving product delivery options in North America, catching up with service levels already seen in the UK and Europe

CEO Sonal Puri [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonalpuri/] of Webscale [https://www.webscale.com/] shares how her company helps B2C and B2B sellers of all sizes manage their cloud infrastructure globally, helping them take advantage of the cloud’s almost infinite scalability while optimizing costs, security, and performance. In this episode, we discuss: * As a startup, how Webscale is disrupting the digital infrastructure space as “the digital cloud company” for more than 1000 online stores globally * Webscale’s ability to manage applications in the public cloud on behalf of customers across all the “hyperscale” cloud providers, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Alibaba Cloud, and others * The company’s experience with online commerce is key to helping clients manage their infrastructure for maximum benefit with minimal cost * Large hyperscale providers are providing very reliable, scalable cloud infrastructure/hosting on demand, while Webscale runs its own services on top:  security, predictive autoscaling, performance, caching, content optimization, bot management, etc. * Webscale provides an easy-to-use interface/portal for customers * It also ensures cloud computing consumption is always right-sized so customers don’t pay for more than they use * Infrastructure as a commodity or utility, like electricity, allowing retailers/brands to pay only for what they need, when they need it * How today’s technology and cloud offerings allow smaller retailers to access the same tools as leading global brands, leveling the playing field * Why it makes sense to use a vendor like Webscale to manage your cloud infrastructure * Migrating applications to the cloud from traditional hosting models can be confusing and challenging * Costs start to add up quickly if you don’t manage your infrastructure actively * Security concerns are only escalating and require constant monitoring * 24x7 global support includes expertise across multiple clouds * Why even the data layer no longer presents scalability issues if the infrastructure is set up correctly, even for retailers who see 20x or 30x traffic spikes during peak seasons * Migrating infrastructure to the cloud typically takes anywhere from 1-2 weeks up to 2 months, depending on complexity and the amount of testing required * With good business requirements, Webscale quickly figures out the right solution using available providers * Why Sonal believes the infrastructure market will undergo further commoditization and look more and more like a utility, with probably three hyperscale providers and perhaps a small group of very targeted cloud providers (e.g. a health cloud or database cloud)

This time I spoke with three commerce veterans who share their experience transforming how small- and medium-sized businesses offer an Amazon-like shipping/delivery experiences and compete with ecommerce giants: Raphael Neff [https://www.linkedin.com/in/raphaelneff/], owner of ChessHouse.com [https://www.chesshouse.com/]; Akhilesh Srivastava [https://www.linkedin.com/in/akhilesh-srivastava/], founder and CEO of Fenix Commerce [https://fenixcommerce.com/]; and Vince Cavasin [https://www.linkedin.com/in/vcavasin/], head of marketing for Fenix. In this episode, we discuss: * How Fenix “democratizes Amazon features for the masses” and helps mid-market retailers differentiate themselves with a better delivery and fulfillment experience * Why delivery considerations/options should appear on product pages and not just in checkout, since delivery is a major purchase consideration * ChessHouse.com has experienced a 37% improvement in conversion rate, much of which Raphael attributes to Fenix * Overall, Fenix customers average: * 14% improvement in end-to-end conversion (shopper on product page who submits an order) * 38% improvement in cart abandonment rates * 21% increase in shipping revenue * Large decrease in pre-purchase inquiries to customer service * The importance of not only presenting enticing free shipping thresholds but also offering “reasonable” shipping upgrades for speedy service * Up to 40% of retailers using Fenix see customers paying for Fenix-calculated, enhanced low-cost shipping, even when a free option is available * A firm delivery date is attractive versus an ambiguous range (“5-7 business days”) * Testing various price points – while also considering internal delivery costs – is key to finding the sweet spot with your customers * How Fenix uses machine learning to augment data available from the retailer to determine the probability of shipping dates being accurate * The retailer has control of many parameters, based on weather events and seasonality and similar factors * It takes about 1 year of data to get accurate predictions * Ways Fenix can provide additional data about actual performance, which often drives operational improvement and improves bottom-line results * Why Fenix takes a consultative, collaborative approach with each retailer to ensure Fenix is leveraged for maximum impact

As data experts with both consulting and client-side experience, both Patrick Ezell [http://linkedin.com/in/patrickezell] of Bridgetown AI [https://www.bridgetown.ai/] and Andrew Duffle [https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-duffle/] of Data in the Raw [https://dataintheraw.com/] are excited by how retailers and direct-to-consumer brands can leverage all the capabilities offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google and other emerging technologies to build a winning commerce strategy – if you embrace change and hire people passionate about data. In this episode, we discuss: * The origins and focus of both Bridgetown AI and Data in the Raw, and how they differ from other offerings on the market * Key evolutionary improvements for data from a digital commerce perspective * Plummeting costs of data storage and compute with AWS and Google offerings * Rising demands for online privacy and rollout of GDPR and similar laws/regulations * Higher consumer expectations for a tailored and compelling online experience * The need to invest in smart, passionate data science talent to maximize the effectiveness of today’s tools and data capabilities * Finding/grooming data talent when you can’t afford, or find, PhD-level data scientists * The necessity for all digital commerce professionals to become data conversant, if not data fluent * Why it is imperative that brands (not platforms) own their own data * Where automation can be applied using data and related tools * Why, if you completed your last big BI initiative 5 years ago, you are now “generations” behind in what’s possible with data * Why the near future promises: * Massive growth in microservices, which will put pressure on expensive and monolithic legacy platforms as new, innovative players come to market * That more companies will bring all data in-house as solutions scale quickly and more cheaply * A more level data playing field, allowing smaller retailers to have the same insights and capabilities of the Fortune 100 enterprises