Different experts in the field such as Santiago Sánchez, CEO & co-founder of Etailers Ecommerce; Nico Bour, CEO & co-founder of Uvinum; and Guillem Sanz, CEO and co-founder of Bebitus, participated in the event that was moderated by Jordi Garrido, Director of Business Graduate Programs at La Salle-URL.
All the speakers have agreed on the importance of focusing their efforts on the Smartphone, which is becoming increasingly strong in the digital environment. It is estimated that each user visits the mobile phone 150 times a day, according to Guillem Sanz from Bebitus, an online store specializing in baby products. And then, how do users buy? The three guests have talked about the Mobile First strategy for 2018 in which the mobile device becomes the basis of all their strategies. This concept does not only refer to having a responsive version for the mobile, but to really think about this platform in the first place and then carry out the rest of the developments. "In 10 countries there are already more mobile searches than computers, including the United States and Japan," said Sanz as an example of the majority trend. The forecast is that in the United States continue to grow the purchase through mobile to 53.9% in 2021. Nico Bour de Uvinum, has put on the table some data: 60% of its audience is Mobile, but then only the 25% of sales are through this channel.
Santiago Sánchez, CEO & cofounder of Etailers Ecommerce, has highlighted some figures of the eCommerce sector to place its importance within the strategy of companies. A first trend is that electronic commerce will continue to grow every year in more than two digits worldwide, in Spain for example, 25% in 2017. Another trend is the appearance of new sales intermediaries, such as Market Places and within these, Amazon, which is the clear leader in many markets and a benchmark and indicator for all of them. "More than 40% of the digital market in the US is Amazon," said Sánchez. In this sense, Amazon for example is also becoming one of the great product search engines, with 52%, ahead of Google that stays at 26%. Santiago Sánchez wanted to emphasize that retail is still very important, and "purchase decisions are made online but 90% of transactions are still made at the point of sale," a space where the company is working on transformation of the retail with the integration of the online in the physical space.
And if the Market Place is one of the trends, two of the Breakfast’s attendees were examples of these vertical Market Place that are becoming increasingly important. Uvinum is a wine and liquor sales website with presence in Spain, France, Italy, Germany, United Kingdom and other European countries. Its co-founder and CEO, Nico Bour, explained that currently in Spain only 1% of people buy wine online, by 12% from other European countries such as the United Kingdom, so "the possibilities for growth are very broad". For Bour another of the trends is Marketing automation and personalization, as well as a differentiating product that allows to be closer to the prescribers, but "pure intermediation is a very hard way of survival", he added. According to Guillem Sanz, the tendencies for this 2018 that they detect are based on connecting adequately with their audience, knowing them better and satisfying their needs, as well as the positioning of the company in the market that will mark the investment and necessary strategy.
Another trend that will mark this 2018 in the world of eCommerce is the Same Day delivery, just as Amazon Prime and Glovo do in the big Spanish cities. Guillem Sanz stressed the importance of product shipments in 24 hours for its Bebitus eCommerce, while Santiago Sánchez stressed that it will be a differentiating factor among large companies. Sanchez, has concluded that "it is very necessary to automate certain decision and execution processes for the vast amount of data we have" and always start by defining a strategy.
