On today’s episode, Kunle is joined by Guillaume Cabane, a SaaS Growth Hacker with over 2 decades of online selling expertise. He has been a growth advisor to high Growth SaaS Startups including G2, Gorgias, Metadata, Madkudu and also worked for Apple.

All businesses, whether eCommerce, DTC or otherwise, grapple with an ever present challenge: “how do we compete?”. Competing on price is difficult, as the race to the bottom has eroded margins almost completely. Competing on product is also easier said than done, because creating a truly innovative product requires huge investments in R & D. So in a market where there is no room in pricing and products are more or less standardised, how can we compete?

To answer this question, ask yourself, if given a choice would you buy a certain product from Amazon or a smaller-relatively unknown store? Chances are you would say Amazon. Why? Because you know what to expect in terms of customer experience. A seamless, hasslefree shopping experience is enough to win over customers.

In today’s episode, Kunle and Guillaume discuss how creating a seamless, responsive and easy experience for customers can be a key driver of growth. Guillaume talks about what eCommerce can learn from SaaS and also shares some key CX metrics to track for driving growth.

Here is a summary of some of the most important points made,

• • A common mistake founders make is trying to do everything for everyone
  • Your business should focus on an under-served part of the market
  • Quicker response time reduces cost of doing business
  • Frequent product launches create an impression of rapid growth
  • You don’t always need a finished product to have a launch
  • Focus on measurable metrics like response time, resolution time and repeat rate
  • There are data gaps in the market that new companies can target

Covered Topics:

On today’s interview Kunle and Guillaume discuss,

• Growth mindset for eCommerce
• Marketing strategy for underdogs
• Using Gorgias to boost eCommerce CX
• Key metrics for CX
• Potential gaps in the market
• The Position Approach to community building

Timestamp:

• 09:45 – Meet Guillaume
  • Selling things online for over 20 years
  • Focus on growing faster and more efficiently
  • “The thing that matters is how you can grow faster and more efficiently than everyone in you market”
• 11:40 – His journey at Gorgias:
  • Met the founders while mentoring
  • “The common mistake founders make is trying to do everything for everyone”
• 13:50 – Growth mindset for eCommerce:
  • Don’t start off trying to be Amazon
  • Identify an under-served part of the market
• 15:00 – How Gorgias beats it’s biggest competitor Zendesk
• 16:00 – How disruptive is Gorgias:
  • Reduce time to respond to customers
  • Helped reduce cost of doing business
• 18:40 – Disruptive marketing strategy for underdogs:
  • It’s all about getting and holding the attention of your target market
  • Rapid iterations backed by marketing
  • Product launches creates an impression of rapid growth
  • Stresses out the competitor
• 22:30 – Launch tips:
  • Work backwards from the launch date
  • You don’t need a finished product for launches
• 27:00 – Boosting CX with existing customers:
  • eCom businesses are overly focused on the product, and forget about the experience
  • Utilise tools to boost experience of buying, returning and using
• 29:20 – “There’s nothing as bothersome as waiting for days to get a response”
• 30:15 – How Gorgias helps eCommerce businesses:
  • Automate upto 50% of tickets
  • Integrate with all your backend
  • Drives TAT of your team
  • All social channels in one stream
• 36:05 – How top clients are using Gorgias:
  • Utilizing the chat widget to resolve queries in real-time
  • Reinforce brand values
• 39:40 – Key metrics for CX
  • Focus on things that measurable (response time, resolution time)
  • Repeat rate
  • Repeat customer margins
• 42:00 – What can eCommerce learn from SaaS:
  • Intense personalisation of marketing
  • Making changes in real time
  • Leveraging Data-backed marketing
• 48:25 – Potential Gaps in 2021:
  • Analytics for eCommerce
  • Integrating data from disparate sources
  • Automating Testing of funnels
• 54:35 – Usage trends in 2020:
  • Many established verticals were forced to move online
  • Opportunity for brands to create relationships with previously offline customers
• 57:00 – The Position approach to building a community
• 60:15 – Upcoming launches on Gorgias:
  • App store with an open API
• 61:00 – Thoughts on Live Streaming

Takeaways:

• There are potential business opportunities in eCommerce Analytics
• Response time, Resolution time, Repeat rate are key metrics to track
• Quicker response time reduces cost of doing business
• Frequent product launches create an impression of rapid growth

Links & Resources

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cabane/
• Gorgias
• Drift
• Intellimize
• Segment
• Polar Analytics

Tweetable Quotes:

“The thing that matters is how you can grow faster and more efficiently than everyone in you market.”

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