Join Luigi and Matt Dornfeld from Feedonomics in this engaging conversation with valuable insights on creating an effective omnichannel strategy for your brand.
Matt shares his experience at BigCommerce and how their M&A strategy led to the acquisition of Feedonomics, why the platform plays such a crucial role for merchants and the importance of bridging the education gap for B2B merchants.
From Google Ads to more complex channels, Matt and Luigi explore a wide range of omnichannel opportunities for B2B merchants to leverage as their brand expands.
Discover the keys to investing in the right tools and gaining the necessary education to make confident decisions without feeling overwhelmed.
Efficiencies and integration are imperative for business growth, and we delve into the complexities of investing in platforms like Feedonomics. Learn about the benefits of automation, improved data integrity, and reduced human errors. The conversation also covers the importance of considering long-term business goals and the potential for redeploying personnel to focus on higher-value activities.
Don't miss out on these invaluable tips on using the same product data for both Google Ads and post-purchase communication strategies.
Matt Dornfeld on LinkedIn
Feedonomics
Watson Weekly Podcast
Join Luigi and Matt Dornfeld from Feedonomics in this engaging conversation with valuable insights on creating an effective omnichannel strategy for your brand.
Matt shares his experience at BigCommerce and how their M&A strategy led to the acquisition of Feedonomics, why the platform plays such a crucial role for merchants and the importance of bridging the education gap for B2B merchants.
From Google Ads to more complex channels, Matt and Luigi explore a wide range of omnichannel opportunities for B2B merchants to leverage as their brand expands.
Discover the keys to investing in the right tools and gaining the necessary education to make confident decisions without feeling overwhelmed.
Efficiencies and integration are imperative for business growth, and we delve into the complexities of investing in platforms like Feedonomics. Learn about the benefits of automation, improved data integrity, and reduced human errors. The conversation also covers the importance of considering long-term business goals and the potential for redeploying personnel to focus on higher-value activities.
Don't miss out on these invaluable tips on using the same product data for both Google Ads and post-purchase communication strategies.
Matt Dornfeld on LinkedIn
Feedonomics
Watson Weekly Podcast
Hi, welcome to the Big Commerce podcast. Hello and welcome to a brand new episode of the Big Commerce podcast. I'm your host, luigi, and in today's episode I'm joined by Matt Dawnfeld from Feed Nomics. Feed Nomics is a feed management tool, and in today's episode we're going to be talking about how B2B merchants can capitalise on the opportunities offered by Omni Channel and the tools needed to make sure that the Omni Channel strategy is a success. I hope you enjoyed the show and let's get to it.
Speaker 2:Hi Matt, welcome to the podcast, thank you. Thanks for having me. How are you Doing? well, we're up bright and early, we've got a flight later today, so full day, but I'm excited to kick it off. Here we are actually.
Speaker 1:And you're off to Chicago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, i've got the retail innovation conference this week, so I'll be in Chicago through Thursday afternoon.
Speaker 1:Excellent. Good luck with that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they'll keep me busy, I'm sure.
Speaker 1:So you're from Feed Nomics one of our partners. Why don't you tell us a bit about yourself and a bit about Feed Nomics?
Speaker 2:For sure. I'm a senior director. I lead our tech partnerships at Feed Nomics, and Feed Nomics is really an enterprise data transformation and syndication platform, which basically means we help our clients take their product data, enrich it, optimize it and then send it to a destination, And that destination could be Google or TikTok or Facebook or Amazon or eBay, Walmart, or it could be even another tech solution, So it could be an ERP or search and merge platform, email marketing platform and so forth.
Speaker 1:Excellent, which, at a time when A everyone's talking about data and B everyone's talking about omni, is critical Because, fundamentally, you eliminate things like CSVs and spreadsheets, but also make sure that the relevant data goes to the correct destination, as you call it.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Yeah, i mean, the big focus for us is on conversion and experience, and hopefully those things are going hand in hand. But we often find that when you optimize the product data catalog and then get that into the right place, the right destination, that's when you see results, and so we're really hyper focused on delivering that kind of performance on the behalf of our clients And that's rapidly expanding beyond standard retail and more so into B2B and other spaces, as of late as well.
Speaker 1:Excellent, and you used to be at BigCommerce as well. You're now at Feedonomics. Feedonomics was acquired by BigCommerce.
Speaker 2:That's correct, yes, Yeah Yeah, it was a busy time for us a couple of years back. But Sharon, who leads the revenue or get Feedonomics really? she ran the M&A strategy from the big commerce side. So previously I ran on the channel business development for the big commerce team. So basically, if you saw BigCommerce in the news with Walmart or TikTok or someone like that, that was our org going to market with those partners.
Speaker 1:Excellent, cool, very well over there, and especially now, kind of as OmniChan has taken off and all the different channels that merchants need to be on, there's never been a more important time for merchants to utilize a platform that not only makes it possible to integrate with these various systems but also, i think, manageable, because that's something that can sometimes be a barrier for a lot of merchants is that they'd love to be omnipresent.
Speaker 1:It's just they don't have the bandwidth or maybe the know-how to be able to capitalize And, as you said, it's not just feeds to things like Google or marketplaces, you're also talking about, like, erp systems. So you're not necessarily just for B2C, are you? You can actually support every type of merchant.
Speaker 2:Exactly, i think, if you zoom out from Channelsworld, which is where a lot of the conversation tends to happen, especially online.
Speaker 2:Really, what we're talking about is taking data from one place and reaching it and then moving it to a new place for the purposes of, again, experience and conversion.
Speaker 2:I think what I've started to find really interesting about B2B is, as I've gotten deeper and deeper into it, is how are manufacturers moving their product data into the hands of their distributors and being creative and thoughtful about what that experience is as more manufacturers go online and more distributors sell those products also online? So, to your point, being omnipresent and doing it in the right way is becoming, and has been, very, very important, and the folks that invest in the tools and the strategies and the education to get ahead will. And so, to your point, actually, what we see quite a bit of is is the education gap. The how tends to be one of the major blockers, and in the phenonomics world, we offer full services here. So we partner with our clients directly to help them do a lot of these things and enable the how, just as we would partner with agency partners like McAlloch-Hopkin and others to enable those experiences on the behalf of clients too.
Speaker 1:I think that's really important thing that you do there, because I hear stories from merchants sometimes that they've tried to self serve And, again, whether it's a resource or, like you said, education, or is just they haven't done it correctly. And one of two things happens the product was no good or it didn't work. For us, And it's not no, it just the product is good. It didn't work because maybe you didn't get the support or it wasn't implemented correctly Or, you know, maybe you misunderstood the best way of approaching that.
Speaker 1:Last week we had our mutual colleague from BigCommerce, Lance, on talking about B2B. Bigcommerce is doing a big push on B2B And as an agency we work with a lot of B2B merchants as well And I think OmniChannel historically has been very B2C focused. But now that B2B is really accelerating on the B2B side, I'm sure you'll agree, state in the obvious that B2B merchants need to start understanding and harnessing that OmniChannel strategy. So would you like giving us kind of an overview of what an OmniChannel strategy for a B2B merchant kind of entails or what it looks like, or maybe some examples naming or not naming, but you know of merchants of yours?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, i think you know. First thing I'd call out is you know, especially for for Federnomics, we're working with clients across any e-commerce platform, So we're completely agnostic. And so in that world we're working with a lot of Magento merchants, shopify, salesforce, commerce Cloud and beyond, just as we would with a big commerce client, but the platform almost doesn't matter. They all have the same challenges from an OmniChannel perspective because everyone's kind of learning at the same time. So I think, to directly answer your question, the really the goal here for B2B clients is to not overcomplicate it and to get comfortable with investing in new channels and new tools to enable the outcomes they're hoping to get.
Speaker 2:My background is in inventory and order management And what we frequently saw was the investment in cheap solutions or cheap self-serve solutions might address, you know, a challenge in the moment, but typically sets the client or the merchant, the business, up for failure long term because those tools aren't really future looking, they're not ready for three years worth of growth, they're working really for today And what you know our role is to make sure we're advising about what those tools should look like as we build out into the future. So typically the way we approach it is at Federnomics. We offer something called OmniChannel consult, so it's a free service. Whether you work with us or not, we're happy to work with you and help outline what the future could look like. So you know, we invite anyone B2B, b2c and so forth to come to us, lay out their text. We'll actually go through a diagram of what tools you're using today, what tools you might want to consider in the future, based on your category and your growth goals, and then we'll work backwards out of that to figure out where do you exist today, where do you want to exist in the future, and then how do we help you get to that point?
Speaker 2:So I think the easiest thing to think about in the near term is how you think about Google ads. If you're standing up a website for the first time, ultimately at some point you're going to want to drive traffic to that site And you're going to need to invest in channels and solutions that help do that. Again, for some merchants and some businesses, self-serve might do the trick. A lot of platforms, including BitCommerce, offer self-serve integrations into third-party ads channels like at Google. But ultimately again to your comment brands grow and they grow really fast, especially in B2B, and so preparing for the future and the services and the needs that come about as a result of that growth is something you can do right now.
Speaker 2:So my recommendation is pursuing a website, especially and you're going digitally, going online, consider Google ads, and then, as you grow and grow, you may want to consider other alternatives.
Speaker 2:So in the retail space more B2C we see a lot of wild things. Right, you may want to consider a lot of TikTok and Facebook and Snapchat and Pinterest and so forth, just as you might see investment in marketplace ads as well. And so, as your B2B merchant may be considering selling auto parts at scale, maybe eBay starts to become more and more attractive to you for their auto division you may also want to consider eBay ads, right, and similarly, if you start selling something at wholesale to Walmart or to Amazon, you may want to consider Amazon ads and Walmart ads respectively. So I find that the first thing that I tell clients is well, it's not over complicated. Let's just figure out where we are right now, figure out what those growth goals are between now and even the end of the year, and then figure out the right channels and tools to help back our way into that target without over complicating about all the bells and whistles that you typically see and hear about in the retail space especially.
Speaker 1:I think it'd be quite daunting for someone to have to feel like they're jumping in both feet and, you know, having to drink from the fire hose, because kind of omni is Everywhere you omnipresent, but actually it's going to be. Unless you've got a massive team and massive resources. It's not going to work, as you say, if you just try to do too much. So let's start from back. Me, keep it simple, as the saying goes, and just work your way up. And From our perspective also, you know, when we replatful merchants on to be commerce, there's no point them drinking from a fire hose because then they feel like they're just not in control and That that you know, spinning all those plates becomes really difficult. It's like just gaining some confidence, understand, being a position where you can make those judgment calls yourself and, you know, not so reliant on third parties, and then move on to the next thing and continue from there.
Speaker 1:And one of the points you mentioned fundamental, which comes down to agility, whether it is kind of a self-serve or a custom solution is Is they lack that agility to be able to make those changes? because now you're not saying, well, let's just change our e-con platform or a pimp data or whatever you're saying, we have to change our whole infrastructure right, and You know, even though they're not necessarily a composable and build the fact that everything is so ingrained in everything else because they've kind of wallpapered over wallpaper over wallpaper, it's just, it's just too difficult to start taking little things out and making those changes, whereas I think you know, from a feed-numbers perspective, you're saying look, you know, we've got that agility, because you don't have to, you know, plug into all the systems that we plug into, but when you're ready, we just open that door, we open those floodgates.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. And so I think, when you think about the tech stack architecture I'm sure these are things you've consulted on as well as let's, you know, eliminate Breaking points and figure out we are where the systems might be weak or not even talking to each other in some cases, and then directly enable those internal experiences. And so Helping systems talk to each other and getting the right data to the right system, the right time and the right format Can also impact external outcomes. And so, again, these are all. This is super in the weeds, right, these are.
Speaker 2:These are challenging topics, they're not easy, but, as I like to tell clients, if you're not getting the answers, you need to run your business from your vendors. You're working with the wrong vendors. And so, in my case, at Pheonomics, you know, we we see this a lot, where someone You know is trying to grow 30%, has a tool, has a team, but still can't quite go from zero to one, from idea and conception to delivery and results. And so, to your point, like, you could, of course, get really creative and make all these tweaks to the site and all these things, but stick to the ABCs, you know. Ask the questions to your vendors, put it on that, give them the homework. That's why you've hired them in the first place to go and help address those questions.
Speaker 2:I mean, then I think you'd be surprised at the result. But the first step, i think, is actually trusting your vendors to give you the answer that you need to run your business, because You know the. You know again, if you're investing in a channel for the first time, that can be scary. If you're investing in new tools for the first time, some of which you maybe didn't know even existed prior to purchasing, that can be scary, and so it's. It's about addressing, i think, those concerns to enable the long-term growth that you're really trying to drive for your business.
Speaker 1:I think it's fair to say that historically B2B marketing has been very different, very unique, and It's having to learn The digital marketing space a bit better. So social media, for example, is pretty much a must have for a B2C brand or a D2C brand, but for B2B it's still fairly New territory and at the same time, maybe the strategy is just our own point. Maybe it's about publishing. You know that PD. I mean I've seen these. You know the publishing PDFs or the publishing product images, but they're not really harnessing the opportunity that social brings.
Speaker 1:To a new mention, tiktok, i mean final be, it's got a couple of problems at the moment, but fundamentally all these social media platforms that we've Associated with a particular type of demographic are actually relevant now for B2B marketers. And so If we kind of say you know the first layer of of on the channel strategy is kind of you know that the, the traditional, you know PPC ads are Google being and so on, then I guess the next level up is social media. So you know social media ads, like you said on tiktok and Facebook and and so on, how can B2B merchants capitalise on everything kind of beyond Social media for for achieving kind of omnichannel success.
Speaker 2:It's a great question. I think it definitely depends on the kind of Category you're in, the kind of business you're trying to run, of course, and that'll dictate which channels to invest in and when and how, but I'd say the the two areas that come to mind for me would be investing in marketplaces and also investing in affiliate programs, and so one key thing to think about when you think about social media too, is that it's not always about selling the Products. Right doesn't have to be to see how the singular item that I happen to sell at scale is the thing I want to talk about. You can also just focus on brand or even how to videos right. So it's Enriching content that actually helps the end user figure out How is this thing supposed to work, what could I use this thing for, and explaining how this product fits into the story more broadly. So I think first is again back to over complicating. The quickest thing I think of when I think of tiktok is like an apparel merchant, right? Someone who just hops on, sell a bunch of cool products and move on. But there's a lot going on on tiktok. There's a lot of content. There are a lot of things that exist in that ecosystem that I think maybe, if not right now And into the future, b2b merchants might be able to take advantage of when they start talking about Where they fit in the ecosystem, what their products actually do, what that delivers for the end user. So if you're a distributor who happens to exist on tiktok and you're thinking about who am I selling to, that channel may also be just as just as interesting, for different reasons.
Speaker 2:Back to directly to your question. You've got marketplaces and affiliate programs right. So in the marketplaces arena you may exist in eBay, you may exist in fair, you may exist in Tundra that there are so many of these different marketplaces, some that are actually specific to B2B merchants completely, where they're focused on connecting distributors and suppliers. So I think the first step is figuring out what kind of products do I sell and where can I positively sell them, and then figuring out okay, based on the tool selection I have, can I connect to those channels, can I invest in those channels now, or do I need to adjust services, people, tools to go and enable that? And then on the affiliate side, there's something called cost per acquisition, which some folks may be familiar with, where basically the ads model is the brand is only spending when a conversion happens, and so we see this a lot in retail.
Speaker 2:I don't know how deep this goes into B2B right now, but I'd imagine, as the investment digital spend, investment in B2B continues to scale as aggressively as it is, this will come where brands are basically saying I'm gonna put my product into the world, i'm going to expose it to as many relevant people as I possibly can And, unlike Google ads, i'm only going to pay the channel when the conversion, the sale, actually occurs In a down market, especially in the retail side. That's really attractive, because now I'm only putting money into the world that I'm willing to spend to actually get a sale on my product, versus Google ads, which is more saying let me get you as much high quality traffic as possible. Some will convert, some won't, but you're gonna spend the money regardless of what happens. All of this is part of a healthy channel mix and is a lot to think about, right? So this is stuff you have to map out and think about.
Speaker 2:How much do I want to invest in digital spend this year? What kind of return do I need to drive out of that spend? And then again back to tools and services do. I have the stack in the team to be able to deliver on the thing I just mapped out, and so I think you may see marketplace ads or affiliate investment et cetera. That may not happen for two years if, based on your goals and things you have in your system, stack don't yet enable it, and so all that goes into A part of what we talk about with our clients, with the consulting and then B I'm sure similar might be conversations you have too. Would you say that that's something that comes up for you when you're talking about, hey, where should you invest now? How are you planning to do that? and backing out of that solution, 100%.
Speaker 1:we can't build a website if you don't understand the customer. If we don't understand the customer, we won't know where those eyeballs are. And, as you mentioned, kind of the not only just in a down market, but we've seen the cost of acquisition go up, the cost of digital marketing, paid ads, go up over the last few years as everyone's moving online. So the fact that kind of merchants now need to make sure that their dollars work as much, or their pounds or euros or whichever currency, work as hard as possible for them and bring them in the highest ROI. that's never been more important, because we're not just talking about a down market. We're also talking about down market with really high costs associated with it. So there's gotta be a balance between saying, well, hang on, if spending 10,000 a month this month, last year got a X amount of sales or X amount of conversions or X amount of traffic, today, that's. they probably ended up being about half that, really, And so it's kind of what we can either throw double the money or we've got to be a bit more creative or find solutions to make sure that we can make that money go further.
Speaker 1:And the great thing about marketing at the end of the day is it's all about ROI, like if it's not working, you've optimized it, then just you cut it. But to answer your point, absolutely, because I'm like I said earlier and not one to kind of get people to drink it and fire hose, because that's just inefficient. If you've got category managers and you've got a team of digital marketing managers for each different vertical or different platform, fine, but the reality is 99% of businesses don't and they have to work with the resources they've got. And we're big proponents of asking or telling merchants to leverage tools that are out there that make it easy for you, because we've all got the same 24 hours a day. So how can we work as efficiently as possible?
Speaker 1:And that's one of the great things about kind of the feed-nomics tools, is it? the tool is that it helps our merchants achieve from a lot more with less kind of less input.
Speaker 2:Yeah, i think just to your point real quick.
Speaker 2:On the efficiency point, i think that's something I've actually been thinking a lot about too, especially when it comes to tech stack architecture what connects to what and how, and so what we're seeing too is the ability for, especially in Europe like this is less common in the US, where a manufacturer may have to distribute their product catalog to distributors and Spain, the UK, germany, france, and they all have different languages or requirements per country.
Speaker 2:The map price might be the same Potentially, but there's so many other variables that go into that, and so I think one area where you may actually say How am I gonna find more budget for investment in these things? is creating more operational efficiencies based on the time And money you're spending elsewhere, and so that's one of the areas we've started to dig into more especially lately. Is you know How can, in this case, for you know makes take the product data that the manufacturer has and then begin to distribute that much more Strategically to the different distributors in different markets, based on those local requirements, would you say. I guess, based on you know, your climax and how you're working with things and kind of even the folks that listen to the podcast. Are you finding that operational efficiency is Becoming more of a hot topic where folks are trying to consolidate and streamline systems to kind of deliver? See much more seamless experiences elsewhere.
Speaker 1:Yeah, i mean, i think kind of just sitting on top of that is how much money is being spent? Yeah, because you know, fundamentally a budget is budget is only so much you can do. But one of the ways that you can make the budget go further Which is obvious is obviously gonna the efficiencies. So, you know, we have got merchants that you know Have had to cut budgets because maybe they're down sales or their costs have gone up and and they have to manage those things. But also, you know, when we look at the ecosystem that's available to a lot of merchants, there are so many efficiencies that are quick wins for them.
Speaker 1:It was that merchants working on things like spreadsheets or just, you know, having two or three different Systems that are just not talking to each other, or if they are with minimal data or maybe with a custom solution, and it just Sometimes makes you cry because it's like we're in 2023 and if you just really harness the SAS model with API's, you've just you know it is literally like going from kind of an old banger that's splatter your way to just this bullet train. Yep, the glides, and yes, there's a cost attached to that and it's sometimes difficult to Convince merchants say look, yes, you're gonna be spending more, but actually, overall, you're gonna be saving time, which you know, could, i guess, mean you know Effective workforce, or you read you know you move those people around, so right, you know longer.
Speaker 1:I mean, we got a merchant and does like three and a half four million online and was manually inputting orders into the area of the system. Oh Well, i'm dispatching them separately, but then for that the accounting side of things. And anyway, got them onto big commerce and got them onto a system that integrates with their ERP system. And the guy's laughing.
Speaker 1:He's like I'm saving two people a month And I can repurpose them. So you know, we at the end of the day you got to do what's best for the business. But he's been lucky so I can repurpose those people now somewhere else And it's not cost him the same as the salary for those two people, but it yes, you know the cost I guess has gone down. But it's the efficiency And I think that's the risk is it's not so clear cut the efficiencies because it's not like a direct that if you save here Or if you spend here you literally get rebate over here. You kind of have to wait for it to trickle down, but it's out.
Speaker 1:It's also our approach is, you know we're looking for those efficiencies because with efficiencies and with automation, if it's done correctly, also comes a lot more kind of or improved integrity. So you know less human errors, you know what happens if that person's on annual leave or if they're real Or if they've got a really busy day and they're making mistakes And you know. So actually you can look at running on more reliable data or more stable data. So it's really important for us that you know The end of the day, some is investing in a platform like the commerce, and you know they're looking at some like phenomics, that they are Making the most of that investment or saying, well, all I need is, you know, i just need some orders going and I just maybe need the total amount.
Speaker 1:It's like, look, if we've got all the ability to set all this data up, start harness it now. You have to be careful not to overload yourself with data percent. You know, like you, like you said in your Scoping sessions, it's understanding where do you want to be in three or five years time And how do we get there, because that data might help you to achieve that either quicker or certain. When you get to the You know level where you say, right now, i'm ready to make that jump, you haven't then got to reinvent things and say right Let's just, you know, let's just look into this data.
Speaker 1:So 100% agree with you that You know efficiencies is such an important factor, especially as now we're kind of under this. I wouldn't say they call it a cloud, but everyone's talking about AI. Yeah, i think you know it's not a mean thing. I think we just got to harness it and there are benefits. But you know it's talking about, you know, replacing humans. So it's that discussions already happening. Yeah, and you know, i think overall, most people don't want their staff replaced with humans, because we're all people. But it's actually understand, right? where can we get those efficiencies? Where can we leverage and harness technology that's going to help us work better? and You know how do we get there.
Speaker 2:So, You know, in some cases with the AI, you know to your point about replacing people. It can also be a redeployment of people, right?
Speaker 2:Maybe those three purpose thing, Yeah right just focus them on more higher earning activities, and that's also part of the planning, right, that goes into your, your tech stack and beyond. Yeah, the other piece to marketing we've talked a lot about where you should exist, but there's also okay, now I exist there, what happens now, and so you know, in a lot of cases you have to set up email marketing flows, or maybe you want some sort of text. You know live chat experience on the site or beyond post purchase, and so, especially as you have merchants that are both B2B and B2C, there's dovetailing potentially between one strategy on one side of the house versus what you might deploy in another. So what we're finding, too, is there are many merchants who take that same product data that they've enriched for the purposes of Google ads, Let's say, and they also flow that same data into their email marketing tools or their review solutions or their You know, you name it any any solution that could benefit from a better catalog experience, and so now we're seeing more efficiencies around how these same merchants, the same businesses, communicate Post-purchase, or they communicate even during the by process to these, these end buyers. So I think there's a there's a lot of room to get really creative with all the newfound data You actually acquire when you start investing in your Google's or your marketplaces or what have you. And so the the life after the investment ads can also be really exciting and profitable for a lot of businesses.
Speaker 2:And I think You know, to the earlier comments we were talking about around, what's scary, and you know What could be challenging if you dive feet first, is that the reality is They're very likely could be a much greener other side here If you decide to invest early and often because you're gonna get something out of that, it's not just I'm gonna exist in this place and then we'll see it's.
Speaker 2:We're gonna exist, then we're gonna perform, then we're gonna tweak it, perform some more, and then, once we have all that data, we're gonna go retarget, we're going to go build in more customized flows and all these things Start to invoke that.
Speaker 2:Well, now, how do I do this kind of question, which kind of comes full circle, that the the idea that we're talking about Phenomics I'm sure you talk about your clients is that there's a there's a life cycle to all of this and it's quite cyclical, and so investing early and often yields these other results later. To your point, sometimes it's not one for one, but you start to pull from the results of different areas to deliver even more net new experiences, and so these things tend to grow arms and legs very quickly, which is why we recommend take that first call, start asking questions. You bring it up to your vendors because, to your point, ai and these other tools they're all going to start yielding new opportunities. And just getting creative and strategic about which ones to actually lean into is where we can really team up quite effectively to deliver the outcomes we're looking for.
Speaker 1:When you mentioned about integrating various systems. Whether it's an email marketing platform or not, the important thing around there also is having a single source of truth. You don't want to offer an omnichannel experience that's a bit fractured and segmented, because it should be unified. And if that data is all coming from a single source or a shared source, so all the different systems are getting the same data, Rather than, like I said, having different systems that don't talk to each other, maybe don't have the latest product data Some data's enriched, some data isn't Then really it's another reason why your omnichannel strategy will fail, because you're not working to your full potential. The tools are out there to offer that pure. We still see it with some big high street names where online and offline are different. Whether it's the logistics or you buy online, you can overturn online. Customers aren't interested in that. They want to know whether I see you offline online on an app in a concession stand, in a shop, Whatever it is retargeting. I want that unified experience at the end of the day.
Speaker 1:Absolutely And in that case, it is one for one.
Speaker 2:It's me and the website the retailer Totally And I think, as you invest in more channels. What I've seen a lot online is I've spent years at Ecom at this point is the difference between multi-channel and omnichannel, and they sound very similar. In fact, many cases they're used interchangeably, but, at least from my perspective, they're quite different. Multi-channel suggests that the product is at the center of the story. So you sell a product on Walmart and eBay and Amazon and your B2B site and your own website Great, whether the shopper buys from you at Walmart or on your website, there's no threading of the story there. It's just they sell the product that you sell and they purchase it at that location.
Speaker 2:Omnichannel actually puts the customer, the buyer, at the center of that story. And so, to your point, they want to know OK, i've seen you on the app, i've also seen you on the website. How do those experiences tie into each other? How does the brand acknowledge that interaction happened and then do something about it at the end, which is hopefully where you're converting, wherever you convert. But the idea is that the shopper, the buyer, should feel like they were recognized. They were acknowledged, they were engaged with wherever that first place was, and then that carried through to the next place to deliver, an experience that hopefully makes that shopper feel comfortable about coming back in the future.
Speaker 1:Really important point to remember that the distinction between Omnichannel and Multichannel, which I think, like you say, is maybe some gray lines, but it can quite easily be first or misunderstood. I've spoken with other people around our friends over at Amazon that we hypocritically love to hate.
Speaker 1:So from a B2B perspective, because we predominantly all buy from Amazon as well, amazon's moving into the B2B space. Obviously It's seeing that opportunity And I think Amazon is certainly one of the trend setters in the market. They rarely get it wrong. Obviously they do. They've been in the news, but fundamentally, in terms of their strategies, i think they've got a spot on that. That B2B buyer is also B2C And they like that B2C experience and they want to continue with that. And so we've also quite familiar with the phrase buy with Prime obviously set the standard there of wanting something now, not in three days' time or five days' time. How can something like buy with Prime fit into a B2B merchants Omnichannel experience?
Speaker 2:Great question. So buy with Prime is a pretty new service offered by Amazon, where the merchant or the business can display the Prime badge on their PDPs, so basically on their products on their website. So when a shopper goes to that website and they go to check out, they'll be able to enter into, basically, a Prime experience. So they'll check out via Amazon Pay. Amazon Warehouses will actually fulfill those orders, and so the idea here is that if a shopper sees the Prime badge and they inherently know what Prime means, they're more likely to convert on the website, which is what everyone wants. And so I think the story now, ironically, as I said at the beginning of our session today, is about conversion and experience, and so in this case we're really focusing on conversion, of course, because Prime just invokes a promise. We know what Prime means. It's part of daily life at this point. So as far as how to go about engaging that, there are numerous ways to pursue it, although today it does require having inventory at Amazon's warehouses. So as a B2B business, you need to be comfortable with allowing Amazon to fulfill on your behalf. But what could be really intriguing is if you're getting started and you're trying to figure out how do I go about investing in this experience? How do I go about building up a B2C presence and start collecting more and more shopper data? It's very easy to spin up a big commerce website. For example, turn on the BioWidth Prime integration. There's a native app right within the App Store today And that experience assuming you turn on the appropriate payment options and so forth is then enabled on your website. And so, with that said, the merchants job is just make sure they get that inventory over to Amazon and enable the appropriate payment functions to turn it on, and so one path here is you might sell to Amazon 1P. They may help you with their own purchase orders where Amazon's the client. In that case, amazon is basically working on a flow here that would help those same merchants and the same businesses selling 1P to Amazon flip that inventory over to then be used for this website experience, which is completely novel.
Speaker 2:So, as you start to think about I'm B2B today, i'm interested about this new service. I want to shopper data. How do I go about doing that? BioWidth Prime is actually a very fluid way of migrating your business into this new arena, which is taking your B2B experience and B2B inventory, flipping it over into a B2C experience under the promise of Amazon and then flowing through conversion based on the experience you've enabled on your website.
Speaker 2:So for us, again back to the consulting point. This is something we talk with merchants about all the time. Currently it's available in the US. We believe in the not so distant future that'll move its way into the UK as the strategy continues to mature. But I think in general, the idea should be if you're a B2B business and you're thinking about investing in B2C and you don't do much of that today and you feel like you're missing out on shopper data or experiences or otherwise, this could be a really interesting way to begin to try that out, knowing that you've got the weight of Amazon Prime as a tool in your tool belt to go pursue those future sales with.
Speaker 1:So you're leveraging all the I guess kudos that Amazon Prime has built, the trust I guess that it's built over the years into your website and on the flip side, not just that your customers are then buying with more confidence They are obviously it can lead to high conversions, so the benefit there as well But also you're getting that data which can then again help make those decisions as you look to grow your business on that roadmap that's been agreed with you over the coming years Exactly, have you seen a kind of merchants' access stories with Buy With Prime?
Speaker 2:Yeah for sure. So on the Buy With Prime front, i'd say those experiences today thus far have been primarily focused more on the retail side of the house, but even then we're seeing upticks of up to 25%, lifts and conversion. I think there's there are a few people on most at least within the Western world focused on Prime that haven't heard of what it is, and so I think, when you think about the level of expansion they've invested in, how broad the reach of Prime is, it's hard to find someone that doesn't know what it means at this point. That said, i myself am not a Prime user, but I'd say that they've enjoyed the world that does invest in that. They do it for a reason They know what they're getting. There's a purpose behind it, and so when you take that purpose and you move it off of Amazon, put it onto your own website, that can be a really powerful tool.
Speaker 2:I think we've heard the concerns around experience, and does giving this thing up to Amazon actually impact my brand experience? And I think that's a fair question that every brand should ask themselves. But I'd also say we're in a really tough economic time, and so the goal for at least if I had a business would be on conversion and doing as much as possible to enable experience, and so a solution like this obviously focuses on conversion. That's why you're investing in Prime in the first place, but there are things you can do with this new shopper data that can drive experience, post-purchase and beyond. That, i think, can be really attractive. So a deal Again, i think it comes back to just having the right team around you at the right time. These are not easy solutions to just think about. I think there are things that involve and require inputs from third parties, like yourself, even getting in the room and understanding does this make sense for the business and then investing if so.
Speaker 1:I think that's. This is a really important thing you say there, because the OmniChannel is like anything is not a set of forget you've got to look at constantly innovating, constantly iterating and approving. And I think, from a B2B merchant perspective, you just told them how they can not just implement but also prove their OmniChannel strategy, which is absolutely getting again, i think, in a space which is broadly underestimated or misunderstood. I think those B2B merchants maybe need as much support as possible And I guess you know, convince them that it is for them, it's not for that other B2B merchant, it's something that they can capitalize on as well. Are there any kind of trends that you're seeing in the market for B2B merchants when it comes to OmniChannel that maybe new or existing? I guess entrance in the OmniChannel sphere can start preparing for Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, i think, not to be almost repetitive, but just the idea that people want to buy online. Right, it's not a new idea, it's not a new topic, it's just a reality of where we're at, not to say that's the entire industry. But if you look at where dollars are going, they're aggressively flowing into digital experiences. And so I think investing in the right platform, right e-commerce platform for yourself, like a big commerce, making sure you've invested in then the next set of tools or channels to drive traffic and volume through that site, are really critical. And so, trends-wise, i've hopped around to a few different ERP conferences and really had a number of conversations with different manufacturers and a variety of verticals, and the trend I'd say, if I had a label and a word would be curious.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of manufacturers are curious about what else is out there for them, what else they should or could be investing in.
Speaker 2:But to your earlier point around how and the things that go into that, the knowledge gap, those are very real blockers and real challenges right now to, i think, getting to that next step for the industry. So the trend for us is we're seeing a lot of brands and manufacturers push into online. We're seeing, now that they've set up the website or start to invest in those websites, they're saying now what do I do with it? And so for us, that's the Google search opportunity, these other experiences that we've talked about over the last 40 minutes or so, and the interest is growing. The budgets are there. Many folks are starting to see the volume that they would have hoped and that's going to need to be reinvested to drive more growth later. So, yeah, i wish I had a more fancy answer, but it's really brass tacks of get the website stood up, invest in the right tools to stand it up appropriately and invest it in appropriately, and then start pursuing third party channels that can drive traffic to that site to drive more volume.
Speaker 1:If people want to learn more about Fidnomics how Fidnomics can help their business, I think probably, if it's the right fit, but how it can help them start achieving their objectives, how it can start taking advantage of gaps, maybe in their strategy. What can they do?
Speaker 2:That's a number of things I think the first thing is, if they're a Calishek client, they can reach out to you and get connected directly Personally. I'm always available to have these kinds of conversations, just matdornfield at Fidnomicscom. Beyond that, one of the I have mentioned this in the beginning those free on the channel consults reach out to me, ask for a consult. We do a lot in that space where we'll walk you through your tech staff. We'll talk about channel investment. We'll also walk you through something called a feed audit where Fidnomics will actually evaluate your product feed through the Google taxonomy and we'll go through and evaluate, like a book report, how your product data is ready to perform and how it is performing today. If you're already investing in something like Google, what that will help you understand is is my product data actually in a place to begin this big growth journey that I want to embark on?
Speaker 2:In a lot of cases it's not. That's okay. That's where we come in to help make those adjustments. But, yeah, obviously, reach out direct LinkedIn email, all the things. I'm very available. But the team I'd say and the thing you should ask for is that on the channel consult, it's free, it's available now and I think it's highly relevant to where a lot of these brands and manufacturers are at today.
Speaker 2:We'll pull the links in the show notes anyway, as we linked in and the Fidnomics website.
Speaker 1:Thanks very much for your time, matt. I've enjoyed talking to and learning more about OmniChannel, which I think we're both in agreement, oh no. I think everyone should be in agreement on this is a really important strategy for e-commerce retailers. The question I'd like to ask you and is what's the latest book or what podcast are you currently listening to?
Speaker 2:that you would recommend. Great question, Watson Weekly no brainer. Rick Watson is just a tremendous, tremendous influencer at this point in the e-commerce space, posts daily on LinkedIn. I've learned immensely from reading his posts and listening to him speak. In fact, when we onboard new employees, we have a channel internally within our company called Omni News. So as you're onboarding, you actually have to read through the last month's worth of news and then tell me about it. And similarly, Rick Watson is one of very few LinkedIn profiles we actually recommend people follow from the day they join, just because it's great to listen to such a force in the industry And, in my case, actually because of this fight to Chicago, I'll get to see him speak tomorrow. So check it out. Watson Weekly huge fan, especially if you're looking to grow across B2B and B2C.
Speaker 1:We'll put a link to that podcast as well, but I enjoy Rick's content. I think a lot of the people that I'm partnered up with or connected on LinkedIn certainly within the tech side of things follow his content, so we're 100% agree on that. Excellent. Well, thank you very much for your time, matt. It's so enjoyable. I hope you make it fly to Chicago, have a good time in Chicago And give Rick our regards when you come into him.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, we'll work with shout out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we'll post them on social And thank you very much for your time.
Speaker 2:Thank you, i appreciate it. Have a blast Really. Cheers, matt, bye.
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