Report of the Webwinkel Vakdagen 2020

I remember it well. In 2009 we were there ourselves with a booth. What a crowd. Since then, I have been present every year for 2 days and have been informed extensively, made new contacts and renewed existing contacts. Always very inspiring and motivating.

To keep some structure in my story, I follow the primary themes of the trade show. In addition, I pay attention to the primary goals of any web shop owner: more visitors, higher conversion rates, lower costs in delivery and service, and satisfied customers.

What is striking this year is that there are more providers of links to marketplaces, solutions for post-payment and instalment buying, logistics and ever smarter packaging.

B2B e-commerce

As a B2B salesman you usually have frequent and intensive contact with your customer. In addition to a webshop, we can therefore provide excellent support for your internal and external sales staff with the Vtiger CRM system.

With your Magento webshop you want to approve customers before they can buy at their own specific prices and conditions. In addition, it can be interesting to link with online marketplaces.

In essence, B2B is still based on companies doing business with each other as efficiently as possible. But in today's digitized world, it is more than a fill-in-the-blank form. More and more, the behavior of business buyers resembles the behavior of consumers. Therefore, knowledge of seo, sea and cro is becoming increasingly important to be successful with a business webshop as well.

Content & branding

When you know how to create good and relevant content that arrives and connects with your target group, you gain trust and authority as a brand and you get into the picture (Attention). This way you get more visitors to your webshop, people like your content and want to know more about your company or brand (Interest). And if the desire (Desire) is big enough they will buy (Action).

Content can exist in different forms such as blogs, articles, white papers, case studies, reports, videos, gifs, static images or infographics. Which form is right for you depends on your target audience, the goal and the message you want to convey.

At the fair I came across many providers who produce text, translations, photos, also editing and in 3d and video content. I personally find InZert 3D worth mentioning, they make real 3D Visualizations and 3D Holograms. Also StickyLock with Augmented Reality and Orangevine for E-commerce video hosting.

International cross border

Doing international business is more than just setting the parameters for logistics and VAT. However, doing business internationally is already a lot easier than it was five years ago. Consumers or companies still prefer to trust a provider from their own country. Make sure you connect to the local culture and make sure you adapt your content accordingly. This goes further than just the language.

• Make sure your design fits the available Technical infrastructure and Speed.
• Arrange Customer Support and Service. After all, every customer in every country have their preferences.
• Payment preferences differ from country to country. Where there is a preference for credit card payments in one country, contactless payments may be much more popular in another.

All payment providers, logistics providers and content producers are increasingly taking into account factors that are country or culture bound.

Data driven insight & personalization

It is becoming increasingly important to use personalized content and advertising. That is why you also see more and more providers in this field surfacing that collect, analyze data and then use it to segment, persuade and predict. This allows you to target (potential) customers by better responding to customer needs, thus increasing your conversion and repeat purchases.

The company Optiply caught my eye with a system for forecasting & Purchasing software. Dataedis and the Vicus-supported Akeneo Product Information Management (PIM) provide your web store with crucial data to optimize the assortment, price level and specifications. You can make this transparent per subcategory and even product level in the frequency you want. Good product information contributes to increase conversion, increase sales and optimize your margin.

Also present was Icecat, the content provider that we have had a link with for years through our VOSBA VendorConnector to automatically enrich product data.

Logistics & fulfillment

It is already no longer "ordered today, delivered tomorrow. Customers want to be able to specify when and where they want to receive their purchases. Hence, time period delivery and pick-up points play an increasingly important role. Choice in logistics also means that more data must be available and reliable. In addition, all those data connections must work at lightning speed (reliably and in real time).

From order to delivery, the promise made must also be fulfilled. You can do that yourself, but also outsource to well-known (such as UPS, DHL, PostNL) and less well-known logistics service providers. You will need to have your own inventory management in order and show the correct information to the customer.

In Europe alone, delivery preferences differ from country to country. In the Netherlands, people prefer home delivery, but in France the majority of online customers pick up their products at the supermarket.

Picqer Warehouse software helps you to neatly manage and deliver the orders placed.

Sendcloud unburdens you by connecting your shop to DHL, PostNL, DPD, UPS, Sandd and Red Je Pakketje. Send worldwide and save time (and money) on your shipping process.

Transsmart Delivery Management Software is connected to more than 400 postal, parcel and LTL / FTL carriers, offering more than 5,000 different carrier services. Most of our customers are located in the Benelux, Germany and the UK and together they ship from and to over 150 countries worldwide. Transsmart promises a fast and smooth plug-in integration with Magento. We look forward to that.

The Fietskoeriers.nl are taking a special approach to sustainable parcel delivery. This green peloton cycles in more than 30 cities. They excel in delivering parcels in the city by bike. They know better than anyone how to do this well, quickly and efficiently. In this way, they reduce traffic congestion and keep CO² emissions to a minimum.

And of course our partners Exact Globe/Online and King Business Software for WMS and ERP Software were also at the show.

It's already no longer "ordered today delivered tomorrow. The customer wants to be able to indicate when and where he wants to receive his purchases. That is why time delivery and pick-up points are playing an increasingly important role. However, choice in logistics also means that more data must be available and reliable. In addition, all those data connections must work extremely fast (reliable and real-time). After all, you don't want a checkout in which the customer has to wait endlessly until the pick-up points are loaded.

From order to delivery, the promise made must also be fulfilled. You can do that yourself, but also outsource to well-known (such as UPS, DHL, PostNL) and less well-known logistics service providers. You will need to have your own inventory management in order and show the correct information to the customer.

In Europe alone, delivery preferences differ from country to country. In the Netherlands, for example, people prefer home delivery, but in France the majority of online customers pick up their products at the supermarket. And both your delivery and return arrangements must be flawless.

Marketing & online advertising

An important part is attracting existing and new customers to the web shop. One way of doing this is through advertising (promoting products or a service through advertising). Marketing is also measuring the needs of your customers in order to promote sales. If you advertise in search engines we call it Search Engine Advertising, in Social media we call it Social Media Advertising.

Ultimately, it's about more impressions, clicks, visitors, leads, conversions, customer retention and returns. In addition to a slew of SEO and SEA agencies, what particularly caught my eye at the show was:

• Custobar is a CRM campaign tool aimed at retailers. Brings together on-site and online data, provides a 360-degree view, has tools for analysis and segmentation, automates omnichannel campaigns and delivers intelligent product recommendations.
• Blog Brains delivers higher search engine rankings because they work SEO based (link building). Because you work with real bloggers there is room for customization, special requests, product reviews so you also receive exposure, traffic and conversion.
• Coosto delivers SaaS solutions for social media monitoring, webcare and publishing. More than 1,000 organizations use this software every day to make smarter marketing and communication decisions, increase their customer satisfaction and create content that converts.

Marketing & email automation

Marketing automation and e-mail have become intertwined in recent years. Here, marketing automation consists of creating contact moments between you and the customer where relevant content is automatically sent with the aim of increasing lead conversion. Email marketing has become part of this over the years. This is the combination between dynamic emails as part of marketing automation for the purpose of increased conversion rates.

Besides all the well-known players, the company Flowmailer caught my eye. A platform for transactional email. Create your own flow, your way to connect your customers with your brand. With Flowmailer you not only ensure that every email arrives, but every message contributes to a positive brand experience.

We ourselves prefer to do the email marketing automation from Vtiger crm. With Vtiger we realize an automatic setup of the lead generation process. The goal is to generate leads, increase conversion and cultivate prospects. We take care of the automated sending of a series of (unique) messages based on events in the customer life cycle. This is done with the aim of optimally serving the individual in order to win customers, bind customers or optimize business processes.

With email automation, of course, the content, images and salutation are personalized. All this at the right moment in the customer journey so that engagement is increased and conversion rates skyrocket.

Payment

With payments becoming increasingly digital and less physical cash in circulation, the role of a Payment Service Provider (PSP) is becoming larger and more important. For a digital payment to be frictionless and fast, a number of things are important. First, any transaction using any payment method anywhere (online or in a physical store) must be handled properly and quickly.

Digital payments should not be a barrier. That means the payment process should be as short and smooth as possible, whether online or in a physical store. More and more consumers are shopping by mobile phone. The possibility of mobile payment is therefore becoming increasingly important.

I have spoken to all the PSPs again. At the fair it was noticeable that Buckaroo was absent. Our other payment partners Sisow, Mollie, Multisafepay and Pay. were there with a nice stand. Adyen and Ingenico both had substantial stands, but they focus on the corporate market. So for our customers less in the picture. Especially mobile payments are a big theme. When you see all the goodies they have to offer you really don't want to work with the laggards anymore.

Again the question asked everywhere if and how long they will continue to support Magento1. Multisafepay has now let us know that they will continue to support us. We expect an answer from the other providers.

After payment methods such as Klarna, AfterPay, SprayPay and Billink. CreditClick is a new way of paying in installments, without any additional costs for the store. With CreditClick you can increase in-store conversion by offering a CreditClick credit facility to consumers during the checkout process. This gives consumers immediate purchasing power, which results in additional sales.

With SprayPay your webshop will sell more. By offering spread-out payments you expand your customer's payment options. The turnover of your webshop will grow because your products will be more accessible to a broader target group.

In3 Pay in 3 installments, 0% interest and no BKR. The first payment on the day of your purchase, 30 days later follows the 2nd payment and after 60 days you make payment number 3. Without costs, you pay not a cent more than when you pay in one time. In3 makes your favorite products accessible.

New is paying via PayByLink. Through this E-mail with payment links we can also use from Vtiger CRM to pay an invoice.

Platform economy or marketplaces

Platformization is the shift from supply-driven selling to demand-driven selling; Online spaces that try to meet customer needs as much as possible. These are platforms that are engaged in matching their customer's needs. There are also platforms that are active as sellers themselves. Within the platform economy it is not about supply, but purely about demand.

The platform economy is the new reality. Companies are increasingly faced with the choice of whether to move with it, or stick with their old ways of working. According to some, it even goes as far as bend or break.

It's pretty clear that marketplaces are becoming increasingly important. But how will you do it?

• Connection via Vicus' VOSBA middleware to your ERP or PIM system
• Link via a plug-in in your webshop
• Link through your PIM system (see our article on Vtiger and Akeneo)

We now have experience with Channable, EffectConnect and Transus linking your webshop to marketplaces and ensure automatic integration of product and order flows at various customers.

In addition, at the show I came across many other marketplace integration providers including Sellable, ChannelEngine.com. Vendiro Marketplaces, bol.com and Orderchamp wholesale marketplace

real.de is an open marketplace and, with 19 million visitors per month and 13 million products in over 5,000 categories, offers an attractive sales channel in the German-speaking world.

The Marktplaats trading platform receives over 8 million unique visitors each month, making it the largest online trading place in the Netherlands. Approximately 350,000 new advertisements are placed on the platform each day, with private and business providers providing a large and varied second-hand and new supply.

Patagona 's Pricemonitor is a web-based market observation and price review tool used by professional web shops primarily for automatic price optimization.

With EasyAds you can place your products from your webshop on all relevant sales channels such as Google Ads, Marktplaats.nl, Bol.com, Beslist, eBay, Facebook and Amazon.

ProfitWiser is an online marketing software with cutting-edge technology to sell more on Amazon. This powerful marketing tool makes managing and optimizing your assortment in various countries easier, faster and more effective.

The Bigshopper Comparison Shopping Service (price comparator) has been active since 2007, making it one of the first comparison sites.

We will be writing a separate blog on this topic here soon!

User experience & optimized conversion rate

An optimized conversion rate (CRO) is related to a good user experience (UX). This is about the interaction a customer has with a product, webshop or mobile app. This does not always have to be aesthetically optimal, as long as it ensures that the user experience is positive.

Conversion Rate Optimization is the structured process that is grafted on getting people to act once the land on your website. This process is focused on completing the customer journey on the website.

User Experience is about how a person experiences the website. User experience and interaction between the user and the website are central to this. The goal is to make the website function as intuitively as possible.

• Retail Rocket Netherlands and Raptor Services offer Realtime Personalization. and content recommendations
• Pan Oston Customer Interaction Solutions designs checkouts, self-service, information and payment kiosks
• Chatbots and Chat Services are offered by WATERMELON, LiveChat Service
• Sooqr Search Onsite search

Customer Reviews

Reviews are a special duck in the crop. Primarily it is about customers giving their opinion about your webshop and/or your products. Then other potential buyers can use this as a basis to determine whether they can come to you.

An online reputation grows by focusing on three things: building credibility, creating a good image and processing feedback. As a merchant you can thus increase your turnover and improve your web store. A combination of trustmark and reviews can easily give your web store 15% more conversion!

Of course you can do this from your own Magento webshop with a plug-in, but then you miss the functionality that the providers below offer you. Besides an independent position, the providers also make sure that the review results are visible in the search engines. Vicus can implement all these providers in your webshop. We like to help you to think about which of these providers suits you best.

• Trustpilot Online Reviews - global review platform accessible to everyone;
• Feedback Company - is a Dutch online reputation manager that helps websites and e-commerce shops grow;
• Trusted Shops - European Seal of Approval with buyer protection and reviews;
• Kiyoh Reviews - Dutch platform of DTG, fast growing;
• Stichting WebwinkelKeur Keurmerk + reviews is the modern webshop certification and review system in one.

It was beautiful days again

In short, I have visited many stands, spoken to people and gained inspiration and impressions. The team of Vicus is ready to take care of your webshop as well!

Do you want more visitors to your webshop, a higher conversion or faster and better delivery? Please contact us via the form below for an informal talk.