EP052 Decisions Decoded: Why Your Ecommerce Needs an Agency Now
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[00:00:00] Darin Newbold: All right. Good day and welcome to Commerce Today. My name is Darren Newbold. And uh, no, All right. Good day and welcome to Commerce Today. My name is Darren Newbold. And uh, no, it is not a doppelganger once again, but I do have a fantastic guest with me today. Our very own director of e commerce solutions, Daniel. Daniel, just welcome to the show. We're happy to have you. 

[00:00:22] Daniel Korzeniowski: Thank you. Thank you for having me tonight.

[00:00:23] Darin Newbold: Well, hey, I wanted to, uh, we have a fun topic it's all about our, uh, our merchant friends and really, Looking at the decision making process and basically decisions decoded. Why do merchants need an agency now? And as you and I were prepping for this and kind of going through it, we talked about some of the challenges that agencies are facing.

[00:00:46] and that e commerce directors are facing and some of those gaps. So Daniel, kind of from your perspective, what, uh, what does that end up looking like? 

[00:00:54] Daniel Korzeniowski: well, there are many challenges that, uh, potential, uh, merchants and their e commerce directors can experience. Um, one of them are technological complexity and dealing with it.

[00:01:05] E commerce platforms and technologies are, you know, constantly evolving. And directors like like me need to stay, uh, you know, at the top of all of this, you know, understand latest trends, updates and, emerging technologies and remain competitive. another thing is that, uh, you too. You know, care about your customers and their security and compliance with increasing frequency of cyber threats and ensuring security of customer data is a significant challenge.

[00:01:36] And I know that directors, uh, must navigate complex data protection regulations and compliance standards to safeguard user information. And that's just two of many I could, you know, go. With this all day long, I mean, one last I will just bring up to our, conversation is, uh, multi channel integration, right?

[00:01:57] Managing a presence across various online channels, and, you know, that poses integration challenges and e commerce directors need to optimize multi channel strategies for consistent brand experience. 

[00:02:09] Darin Newbold: So, so in your experience, do you find or does it happen that an agency may not be brought in? In a timely manner to these conversations and that's, I mean, so that these challenges we know exist that you just shared and many more because we got a whole page of them that we can, uh, we can share with you in the show notes, but they don't come forward maybe as quickly or they don't bring in the agency.

[00:02:37] And is that what you're finding? Is that what, is that where kind of some of those problems really kind of start to hit? Yeah, 

[00:02:43] Daniel Korzeniowski: especially when there are decisions being made inside a company and those decisions are not taking into consideration the blind spots. And it's really important to engage with an agency as early as possible get to know what you don't know pretty much.

[00:03:03] And I can give you an example if you want. we are working with a, with a company and this company, Had a complex product structure and a complex, uh, setting for these products in their current implementation of e commerce with ERP and, a site with, with e commerce sites of, let's say, unknown, platform.

[00:03:24] And they are making decisions right now and about how to formulate the, their data and their ERPs. Um, in order for, uh, for that data to be transferred to the front end, but they only consider they know how from the day from today, they don't know what they don't know. They are not on Magento for that instance, for Adobe commerce and the understanding of the data and how it flows from one system to the other is limited to what they have today.

[00:03:56] And in one of our conversation, what we discovered is that. What they are doing, we'll have to repeat again once we migrate to Adobe Commerce. And they, they didn't understand why. And I explained that to them in that conversation, but that shows that there was something that they didn't know about new platform data.

[00:04:18] They are planning to migrate that they already chose that they are. You know, talking to Adobe for a license. and we pretty much saved a ton of work and a ton of money with, you know, providing that insight, to them. Now we can make a decision that will limit the work, done on their ERP system that would not have to be in future duplicated in their Adobe Commerce implementation.

[00:04:40] So 

[00:04:41] Darin Newbold: that's awesome. So what you're, what you're telling me is, is that by, by engaging an agency, by engaging in this case us, but engage by engaging an agency early as part of that decision process, we can avoid basically doing double work. And, and so that's, that's huge. And it saves a ton of money because if we help them with the first time and then we have to help them a second time, it's a, it's a cost both ways and it's a huge internal cost for them.

[00:05:12] Daniel Korzeniowski: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly as you say. And I have another example of a client that we work with. 

[00:05:18] Darin Newbold: Well, I have a few. I could probably talk all day on this, but, uh, but yeah, please tell me this. Yeah, 

[00:05:23] Daniel Korzeniowski: yeah. This, this example talks about how a A company. Avoided huge costs for a platform that would incur more costs in the future and would not give them what they really wanted.

[00:05:36] And that was due to, Adobe, or Magento back then, or their management system being pulled out. Um, you know, this product is no longer offered. And this company wanted to, needed to, Have alternative and they were searching for an alternative and thanks to our cooperation with them. We've built an application for them.

[00:05:57] That's specifically designed for their needs. Plus, it uses newest technologies Uh, for front end work that can be utilized in the warehouses on the tablet. So, that's using all the data that they already have within Magento or Adobe Commerce, as well as utilizing the same team. So they are not forced to have multiple teams to manage their multiple applications.

[00:06:23] Darin Newbold: And that's a situation, uh, if I remember correctly, that. the client in this case started to go down a, started to go down a path and it was once there was a pause that we were able to help them see this, this different way of looking at the whole problem and really coming at it from a different perspective.

[00:06:42] Is that kind of what happened in that whole thing? 

[00:06:44] Daniel Korzeniowski: Yes. Yeah. We really like working with this customer and we just went, beyond what we typically do to find a better solution to them that would cost less in the long run, and that would fit. You know, all their needs instead of just, kind of bending the business to what applications out there offer 

[00:07:03] Darin Newbold: well, and it's a reminder to our entire mission of bringing peace of mind.

[00:07:08] that was definitely the whole goal of that. So let me back up just a little bit. We talked about it just some, but what would cause what do you think? Maybe we're kind of going a little off script here, but what do you think would cause merchant? Okay. e commerce director what would cause them not to want to Involve their agency.

[00:07:29] what do you think their thought process might be in that? 

[00:07:31] Daniel Korzeniowski: It all comes down to trust And money, I would say As always 

[00:07:36] Darin Newbold: pretty much into that, right? So 

[00:07:38] Daniel Korzeniowski: speaking of let's start with money involving an agency In the early stages is considered Pricey because you don't know what you want yet and you're already paying someone to help you figure it out, right?

[00:07:51] So you think I believe agents, sorry companies and and then merchants and their directors or managers responsible for Migrations implementations and so on they consider this cost too much They can do something in house and then hire an agency to implement their ideas. What they don't consider very often is that their decision in that moment have limited amount of data and hiring in an agency, even for discovery phase, could be helpful to save you a ton of money in the future.

[00:08:26] future And that's one thing. The trust thing is, It's not as easy as it sounds to find an agency that you can trust and ask them to help you figure out a way out of your complex situation, simplify processes or whatever, and in a way that will not tie them to you or you to them. Meaning they will always try to find, you know, the best service for you that they can implement.

[00:08:53] And I think finding an agency that can help you with figuring out the way forward without, being tied to them, right? it's, simply very difficult. but in the process of discovery, even pre sale discovery, I think you can clearly see who you can trust and who's trying to help you truly help you and who's trying to pull you into a process of, selling.

[00:09:18] Darin Newbold: No, that, that makes total sense. And, and Josh and I actually, uh, there's a previous episode. So, uh, that's out there that talks about some of this and you're echoing many of the things that we talked about, talked about there. So as we kind of start to, uh, put this all together, what do you think merchants that are listening here, what could they do right now?

[00:09:40] What would be that, what would be a couple of things that they could take action on that, that might help them? Especially as we're closing out the year, 2024 is, might as well be next door because it is, as they're looking at that, they're looking at their budgets and projects, what could they do? To uh, to maybe better prepare them for uh, for next year and all that it has in store.

[00:10:02] Daniel Korzeniowski: I believe. You know, companies have or will have or had their annual meetings or, things like that, where they define goals, some goals for upcoming year, upcoming three years, upcoming 10 years. And. I would highly recommend go to your agency of choice or, you know, send a request to talk to, to an agency.

[00:10:29] Give them your goals and ask them how they can contribute to achieving your goals without. pretty much any involvement in the early stage in telling them, Hey, I want you to build a site for me. Tell them your goal and see what happens then. 

[00:10:46] Darin Newbold: Yeah. Sharing early, sharing early and often is, uh, is definitely a mantra that you'll hear often here over and over again here at, uh, Commerce today.

[00:10:56] And, and I think, I think that really hits it is helping me, the merchants, the directors there, helping them recognize. And take a moment of pause that they don't, one, they don't have to know it all. And it's okay to bring in, bring in the outside help. And even if it's in a pre sales type of scenario. So that there aren't the, the level or there's no cost involved.

[00:11:25] So that it's a exploratory or brainstorming or. You know, goal setting type of approach because that sounds that sounds kind of like what you're what you're saying there, Daniel. Is that right? 

[00:11:36] Daniel Korzeniowski: Yes. And I have another story. We were talking to a, to a client recently who didn't really had a goal or a need for our services.

[00:11:48] And we've, we've seen an opportunity there. But based on the conversation and what the customer told us, we said, Hey, we could do this thing for you. It was more on the back end, but because your systems are working well for you right now, your front end is meeting your needs, it's driving you to sales you want, sit with it for a year.

[00:12:12] If you need it in the time, you know, help with what we see where we see the opportunity and you would like to explore that path with us and see where that can get you, we're here for you, but right now we don't want to sell just for selling because there's nothing. We can kind of improve there, right? 

[00:12:32] Darin Newbold: No, that makes total sense.

[00:12:33] And that's and that's again, part of our mission of bringing forward that peace of mind. And sometimes that peace of mind means that there's nothing for us to help you with, at least at this time with Daniel, um, kind of giving you just a second to think about this. What are kind of the final, final thoughts that you'd want to leave with with our listeners around?

[00:12:55] Um, The decision making criteria, getting an agency involved early and, and doing the very best they can to position themselves for 2024 and beyond in the best ways, 

[00:13:07] Daniel Korzeniowski: I would say, if you don't have someone that's responsible for e commerce, specifically e commerce and having a director of e commerce within your company, definitely get involved with, with any agency that, um, you trust or build a trust with an agency.

[00:13:25] And. And try to plan all your actions, taking the agency into consideration. You don't have to always listen to them, but having the information handy is always a good thing. 

[00:13:37] Darin Newbold: Excellent. Excellent. Well, Daniel, thank you so very much. I very much enjoyed having you on the show. It's been, uh, it's been great.

[00:13:45] Want to just remind all of our listeners that, uh, hey, as you have a chance, please, uh, uh, and I always forget all the social media. So thumbs up, like us, repost, share, all of the above, all of those, uh, groovy things. And one last thing I will say is I do want to invite our listeners. If there's a topic that you're particularly interested in, and I know we've invited you to share your kind of experiences.

[00:14:11] But please, if there's a topic or something specific that, uh, that you have an idea on that you'd like us to explore, especially to hit up Josh or, or anyone, uh, we would love to hear it. So with that, guys, I hope and I want to wish you all a very happy holiday time period and best wishes, all the safety and all of the grooviness there.

[00:14:31] And with that, uh, have a great rest of, uh, your day and a great rest of your, your year. And we'll catch you next time on Commerce Today.