Global Digital Marketing & Retail by Alex 60
Inspiration from across the world for retail enthusiasts, e-commerce professionals, marketing lovers and technology fans. Welcome back! I summarized some great links again, I stumbled upon this week.
💸How to win with Marketplaces: very informative podcast
I am interested in Marketplaces already for a long time, I tend to follow a lot on it, how to optimize, how they work, strategy’s etc. This new podcast from
, is exactly on this topic. The highligths I bulletize below but it is worth a listen and do checkout the “Sean Ellis Test”!At least a growth strategy for one side of the marketplace, preferably both, but start with the hardest side. (often the supply side)
Metrics: Liquidity is how marketplaces win: Lauzier emphasizes tracking demand utilization (e.g., the percentage of search intents that convert into transactions) and identifying actionable proxies like ETAs (Estimated Time of Arrival) to predict liquidity.
What predicts the liquidity? For Uber/Lyft it was the ETA. (not the type of car)
Importance: High liquidity enhances user satisfaction and retention, creating a virtuous cycle that drives marketplace success.
Scale: Mentorship and Ambassador Programs: At Lyft, Lauzier implemented programs where top drivers acted as mentors to onboard new drivers efficiently, leveraging social proof and community advocacy to scale with fewer resources. I think this strategy can -with a little creativity- be used at many marketplaces.
The “Sean Ellis Test”: to measure if you have product market fit or not. The test is a qualitative survey collected from the customers of the business. It is a really simple test: if 40% of surveyed customers say that they would be “very disappointed” if they could no longer access the given product, then the product is on the winning side.
Control: Watch out with too much control to users, really dive into users, it might have less impact. (this is the same as product feature fit, which is now more and more common). In the pod they give an example on car type at a ride sharing platform and a “smoke machine” at a DJ selection marketplace. You can provide the selection but not limit it.
Network Effects: The value of a marketplace increases as more users join both sides.
Impact of Ignoring: An imbalance hampers the positive feedback loop, reducing the overall value and attractiveness of the platform.
Product Management Practices: European product teams may experience more micromanagement and less autonomy, affecting innovation and responsiveness.
Lauzier emphasizes how Lyft leveraged its brand to create a community of passionate drivers who became fierce advocates for the platform. This advocacy was instrumental in scaling the marketplace efficiently.
I like it, drivers who signed up, but did not finish the onboarding process, they could be called by other drivers that were ambassadors. These drivers got a little dashboard a little CRM where they could call these potential drivers.
Lenny’s podcast can be listened to here:
➡️ Check it out, I think a very nice one: the Sean Ellis test (mentioned in the pod): https://productcoalition.com/using-sean-ellis-test-for-measuring-your-product-market-fit-c8ac98053c2c
🇨🇳 China: over 50% of all robots are now installed in Chinese factories
Over 50% of all robots were now installed in Chinese factories, each machine representing a step closer or further -as you will- to a future where the country would not just make things, but innovate, adding value at every stage of production. (which I think they already do by the way).
With robotics fueling growth, the Chinese car industry for example has embraced automation to achieve scale, precision, and sustainability, qualities that many of their counterparts in the West are struggling to keep pace with.
With vision and focus on adding value, you can achieve great things.
Details: https://ifr.org/img/worldrobotics/Press_Conference_2024.pdf
🇳🇱 Emerceday october 3rd in Amsterdam
I have been invited to Emerce Day in Amsterdam (thank you organiser, Gijs for the tickets). A conference on digital marketing, e-commerce and AI in Amsterdam. There were too many presentations to visit, but from the one I did visit, I will share a few slides that I found interesting or that I think are interesting for the readers of this newsletter:
I have added a couple of slides on “Picnic” Picnic is an online shopping and delivery service established in 2015 and is founded in the Netherlands. They are very recognizible by the “cute little delivery cars”. Since its initiation, Picnic has provided a rather revolutionary way of shopping by solely delivering grocery products to the customers instead of having any physical shops. I went to this presentation because I am interestsed in features, technology, apps and I work in a related branche. So a short summary:
They actively co create: so you can give suggestions, feedback on products easily. (f.e. after a search "did you find the product you were looking for, if not give suggestion" .
This I particularly liked: they have special, I call it “experience apps”, such as a driver app to monitor driver behavior (mostly speed and cutting corners for safety) but also a runner (delivery person) app (to help with navigation, instructions, real time communication) and a service app, where they monitor and improve service (f.e. service app section for runners can have information about the customer, or they can send info back on this customer, so also negative feedback ben be saved there. They really know their customer, if a customer has a complaint with delivery the runner can directly enter this in the service app, I think very nicely done!).
They have optimized in a way that they think from logistic parts now first, so when they are low in stock of a product in the warehouse this product is lowered in search ranking f.e, all automatically so they integrate warehouse directly. When there is lots of stock it automates the promotion.
They made their fulfilment centre so that the products come to the pickers and not the pickers have to go to the products.
They use AI but they keep the customer focus and the personal touch. They also use data but they emphasised data is not everything.
They focus on small teams not bureacracy.
Most app pages are maintained by business teams not IT , took them 2 year to setup but it works now smooth including all personalisation and rules.
I watched a presentation from B2B company “Plieger” who is trying to transform the personal advice they give in stores to their “installers” online. Simply because less and less of those serviceman are available. One of the things they developed is “Homie” an online tool that gives a personalised advice and service to installers and it includes on an auto generation of an offer with the logo of the installer, that saves them time, so they can focus on their busines.
Decathlon did a presentation on CRO, including testing USP’s, something I also did quite similarly at a previous company, those are always interesting tests.
See slides in the gallery for more details.
🇮🇩 Indonesia bans Temu in favor of small medium and micro enterprises
Indonesia, particularly the Molukken, has always held a special place in my thoughts (personal reason☺️), so I tend to follow the news from the region. This week, I came across an update about Temu being blocked in Indonesia to protect small, medium, and micro businesses. Shopee, another well-known platform, has also been pushed by regulators to focus predominantly on local sellers, further supporting the growth of local commerce.
So who will benefit? Tokopedia might. Tokopedia is a home grown platform (although now largely in hands of TikTok), that might benefit. Tokopedia focuses really on SME’s and individual sellers. So Chinese products can still be sold via Tokopedia, it will be via an Indonesian seller. Tokopedia also has “mitro Tokopedia” which even focuses at “warung’s”, small neighborhoods stores/restaurants. to help them sell digitally.
While I understand the policy, as many of the micro and small shops across Indonesia will benefit from the new e-commerce regulations, as they provide much-needed protection from cheaper imports. However, this may not be favorable for the younger, more entrepreneurial generation, especially those thriving through online platforms like TikTok Shop, which offered them global reach and flexibility in reselling. In the short term, this protectionism helps local businesses, but in the long term, it could hinder innovation and competition. Fortunately, Indonesia has its own homegrown platform, Tokopedia, and with a huge population, it can support a robust local e-commerce ecosystem.
Its business model of selling products directly from factories to consumers goes against Indonesia’s trade regulation requiring an intermediary or distributor, the Trade Ministry’s domestic trade director-general Isy Karim said previously.
Minister Budi said in Jakarta on Tuesday (Oct 1) that allowing Temu in Indonesia could hurt the economy and society.
"No, Temu cannot enter because it damages the economy, especially Indonesian micro, small and medium enterprises. We will not give it a chance," he said, as reported by iNews.
Details: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/indonesia-bans-e-commerce-temu-trade-sme-4656661
📝OKR Cheat Sheet from Microsoft: How to write effective OKRs that inspire action and deliver results.
How to write effective OKRs that inspire action and deliver results. Check out this template from Microsoft that is worth a save (and usage). It’s more practial than other templates and includes a checklist.
Download here: https://adoption.microsoft.com/files/viva/goals/Writing-OKRs-Cheat-Sheet.pdf
✅Mastering Ads: quick reference for crafting great ads
I like these kind of cheat sheets, it helps you not forget elements when you are crafting an ad. Now this sheet one has most of the important elements, but social proof, that one is missing or a community aspect element if you will is lacking. Nevertheless one to save and use!
Via: boring ads: https://x.com/imboringads/status/1841187719277367734
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