The pandemic has brought about an acceleration in digital transformation and companies need to stay robust and agile during these changing times to meet customer expectations now more than ever. Conscious consumers are voting with their wallets and choosing the most progressive companies with the most competitive UX, the most innovative CX and the most empathetic understanding of the value of data and privacy with environmental and data concerns at the forefront. 

Parcel Perform’s Founder and CCO, Dana von der Heide, attended Savant eCommerce Berlin 2022 for the first time this week. She has gathered some key features and valuable insights from the event such as the post-Covid impact on ecommerce and marketing, tracking customer behavior, the relationship between ecommerce and sustainability, and many more.

Savant eCommerce Berlin 2022

Savant eCommerce Berlin took place from 5th-6th April 2022 with over 30 industry-leading speakers and panelists sharing their experiences in person at the live event. The cross-industry event discussed key topics like post-pandemic acceleration, sustainability, AI for customer experience leadership and rethinking supply chains, among others.

Post-COVID Impact on Ecommerce and Marketing

The morning started off with a panel discussion on post-pandemic ecommerce excellence plans where speakers from Gucci, notebooksbilliger.de, Bayer and HAYS AG shared about the lessons they learnt from the pandemic and how their businesses have thrived since. 

Dr Andrea-Victoria Noelle, Global Head of eCommerce, Bayer noted that there was a lack of demand for cold medicine, but the demand for multivitamins was rising, resulting in them adapting their business and marketing positioning to suit customer demands. Particularly in times of crises, consumers measure their customer experience against the way businesses — that they frequent and depend upon — deliver experiences and services to meet their new needs. Since the pandemic has forced businesses to shift online, it is also especially crucial for customers to see this change in the channels they utilize virtually. Parcel Perform relates to this initiative as we are responsible for being the leading delivery experience platform for businesses worldwide.

Sustainability and Social Commerce as Growing Trends in the Ecommerce Industry

The pandemic has shaped the future of businesses by fast-forwarding the scale and speed of digital transformation. This was mainly evident in the way employees had to work remotely, streamline workflow processes and transform business models. Needless to say, the ecommerce industry also felt the boom of the digital economy when COVID-19 struck. Lockdowns resulted in the growth of the social commerce trend and people gained a stronger sense of environmental awareness amidst the pandemic, leading to more sustainability efforts.

On sustainability, Dr Stefan Fraude, Head of Category Management Europe, Digitec Galaxus AG revealed that more than 90% of a retailer’s environmental impact occurs outside of their direct control. This Austrian based company has since expanded to become a market leader to all of Germany. Digitec’s resale model has proved successful in combating the negative impacts of e-commerce.

As sellers generate store credits that then can only be used on their platform, this creates a closed ecosystem for the business. The company also benefits from additional benefits such as boosting sustainability, fostering customer interaction and retention and increasing profitability in their resale model. Digitec Galaxus’ model proves that sustainability has a high impact beyond business bottom lines and transfers to the customer, or in their case sellers, leveraging a higher customer loyalty in the long run.

Sustainability is a growing trend amongst ecommerce businesses today, reflected in the form of redesigned business models, product packaging and more. Last month, Parcel Perform’s partner, Shopify, invested in 9 climate technology startups in a bid to accelerate carbon removal solutions. As environmental awareness becomes increasingly important, more companies in the industry need to make the continuous and conscious effort in committing to more eco-friendly initiatives.

Another social commerce trend that has taken the industry by storm is live shopping. It is a frictionless shopping experience that encourages and enables consumers to have a two-way communication with their favorite brands through social media. Jörg Heinemann, Innovation Evangelist, OTTO participated virtually to share tips on using social commerce to boost operations and how it will develop in 2022 during his presentation.  

Importance of Differentiation in Post-purchase Experience

Fabian Nosing, Head of Customer Centric Marketing, notebooksbilliger.de also spoke about their supply chain challenges with many shipments originating from Asia and how they had to find new stock and new commercial models to cope with the diminishing stock piles. The pandemic affected buying by casuing people to stockpile 2-3 years worth of product life cycle. This pushed retailers to purchase more to meet rising demand, however, after the pandemic buying reduced to normal. This coupled with the political crisis and the war in eastern Europe, has caused retailers to face a volatile environment. 

Many brands, such as notebooksbilliger.de, are heavily  investing in their brand visibility and utilizing SEO and paid media to differentiate their business. This is largely important as brand differentiation is essential in providing a certain level of value to your customers and it helps your company to distinguish itself in a saturated marketplace.

Privacy Implications Affect how Companies Approach Customer Lifetime Value

In a thought leadership session, Jörg Nottebohm, Industry Lead Retail & Travel Germany, Contentsquare shared about analyzing big data to drive customer acquisition and ROI (return on investment). He spoke about GDPR (general data protection regulation, in German also known as DSGVO) implications and customers’ recent preference to avoid cookies which limits the tracing of customer behavior on a website. This means that merchants need to find new ways to track and analyze their customer behavior. He also covered the topic of prioritizing business needs and supporting real-time interaction experiences through the use of AI. 

Christina Schönfeld, Country Director DACH, Algolia also provided insight into the challenge of gaining customers that most businesses are facing. She places emphasis on customer retention and the need to focus on keeping our customers loyal. 

Understanding and Adapting to our New Normal as a Key Player in the Ecommerce Industry

At long last we had the great opportunity to engage, in person, with various industry leaders at the conference. We understand that it is a priority for businesses to equip themselves with the best tools, skills and connections to navigate a post-pandemic world. In this new age of AI-powered ecommerce, we need to optimize its potential to improve analytical insights, create a more personalized customer experience and generally make better business decisions.

Keep a keen eye on our LinkedIn page and Blog and stay tuned for our updates on the upcoming events that we will be attending. 

Savant eCommerce Berlin 2022

5 - 6 April 2022

Berlin, Germany