Dare or Die?
Alex Pesjak
Future Backward Strategy & Brand-Led Transformation VP Brand | Innovation | Change | Circularity | Platform | Ecosystem | Newsletter #EcosystemEspresso | ex-Coca-Cola | ex-Mondelez |
Buongiorno! Un (late night) Espresso per favore! Still Friday ;-)
1| Thank you for 549 Subscribers.
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2| Platform Summit Mirakl - Paris - DARE
My first encounter with the marketplace "software" folks in their "hometown". I will share some observations and images.
2| Platform Summit Mirakl - Paris - DARE
10 Observations to share!
As a guy from the mountains I really loved the Visuals...of snowy mountains...
The Summit showcased success stories of businesses that have successfully implemented the Mirakl platform, highlighting the platform's ability to drive innovation and create new business opportunities across various industries, including retail, manufacturing, and B2B.
Observation 1: Easier to attain in times of crises
Messages like:
Not what growth-spoiled platforms are used to. The positive: Marketplaces help in times like these AND act as launch pad for more, when we are through.
Observation 2: Dropship - Business Model Expansion
Dropship marketplaces were positioned as a powerful solution for businesses to expand their product offerings without upfront inventory costs, as sellers can fulfill orders directly from their own inventory or suppliers' inventory. Essentially, drop ship is a first step into Business Model Innovation.
Especially in European markets leaders often compare with Silicon Valley Businesses and global platforms. While leveraging dropship is a first step into inverting the firm. This means not only selling customers own products and services but providing access to other solutions - mostly well curated.
The positive side-effect is not only gaining more revenue, but also more traffic without cannibalisation. Even more so, given that the organisation has a chance to learn what inverting means. In a single step not the whole complexity of a marketplace is kicking in, but rather few items (see grey column above).
The teams are however getting familiar what it means to really serve partners that are also customers. It requires horizontal alignment across functions. This is probably one of the most difficult challenges businesses already face within a business, let alone outside. It is on one hand harder given pressures on short-term business in crises. On the other hand easier given a business is presenting itself to the outside. Let me draw a comparison what I observed with kids before (not only ours):
"Kids often behave well at friends homes, while within the family it is different"
Observation 3: Anything - more assortment and its limitations
In the presentation a nice evolution of platforms was shared (see below - even more beautiful mountains ;-)).
While of course Liquidity is driving satisfied demand sides which attracts more supply side again, anything without clear brand strategy is not what will make people happy.
Good proof point is the Zalando′s announcement to focus on Luxury and Premium rather than breadth of assortment. First brands that do not fulfil certain criteria will no longer be allowed to sell.
This is a great step for Zalando
A well guided brand in a marketplace economy is crystal clear on access and curation. In the context of more and more marketplaces (e.g. Fashion) good old Brand Equity and other frameworks become relevant again. Brand is a "good reputation" simply put. If you are the general store then this does not work in a world of vertical and niche marketplaces. And even Amazon is a great brand. Clear principles that you can expect and experience less on goods, but on distribution, layered services etc.
This is not great for weak brands, products and services.
The owners of those know the song too well: "De-Listing" and "Commodization". But here even harder in the context of data-driven decision making for innovations and personalisation. It is like you stop existing. This time also strong brands will be affected, if the jump to late!
LEARNING BOX:
A central job of leaders is to ensure one stays in business. Consequently not having a platform strategy (not "Make" but "Partner" as minimum) is a must. Otherwise you will not be around!
Observation 4: Diverse and growing
Looking at the examples and guests in the room and brands on the chart:
Of course, not all are successful, but USD 6 Bn cumulative GMV (Aussenumsatz in German) is not bad, especially considering +43% growth YoY.
More traffic is attracted without so much advertising spending, but because of the reasons above and the ease of filtering and personalisation increasing relevance.
Observation 5: From Marketplace to Suite
Mirakl has grown in its offering solving more problems integrated into the suite:
"The race to become a one-stop shop exists in every industry"
As customer we all know what we want: easy, cheap, convenient, fast...
Super-Apps and Marketplaces and Platforms add value. Hence, better integration, interoperability, curation and experience drives use and thus flywheel potential. No wonder, 2/3 of European shoppers prefer eCommerce sites that include an online marketplace. Why:
Some of the modules allow for very relevant strategies leveraging the technology but not for marketplace play itself. More on that in another #EcosystemEspresso
Why are so many businesses not in a sense of urgency?
Observation 6: B2B Workflows become standard
B2B is more complex as we all know. Buying centers, price differentiation, quality, regulatory constraints etc.
Software solutions are increasingly covering #configuration, #Catalog, #Ordermanagement, #Invoicing, #Tax, #Payment, #Reconciliation.
Observation 7: Assortment strategy is a core task
Marketplace owners need to be clear on what their assortment strategy is and how that ties into the Strategic Destination of the business and brand. A good example was #Yoox
Yoox is using a simple framework with 3 different lenses: OPTIMIZE(core categories) -ACCELERATE (adjacent categories)-TEST (new exploratory categories). It reminded me almost of the H1-H3 Innovation framework.
Observation 8: Operating Model and Seller Experience?!
As usual Operating Model considerations are not part of the heart of software summits. Although people, organisation, processes (budget), talent, tech and data are the core barriers. It is not the leaders do not want to get there. They do not have the light luggage to climb this mountain (to stay with the analogy of mountains).
At least some data were shared:
Observation 9: Business Model = new running business
While in the beginning it is all about design - build and exciting, it has to be a discipline early onwards. #Yoox shared a nice routine with weekly and quarterly business review in the Customer Success Team.
Observation 10: Best of conferences are outside
Meeting people and sharing openly is still the best thing. We were excited to talk to nice experts, leaders and participants to share with them our expertise, helping and inspiring them.
Sometimes there is no digital solution, so one needs to improvise:
Congrats to the team. It was my first one with Mirakl.
I loved: venue, friendly team, approachable leaders, great catering (of course France)
I wished: not so many Mirakl folks, and more easily recognisable clients, businesses (different Lanyard designs), not only existing clients, digital booking of slots with more convenience, app onboarding better managed, central reception | Info desk, more space to present and talk to clients.
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Happy Weekend!
Alex
Co-Chair #TheNTWKSummit25 From Linear to Circular Business Models | Partner & Community Lead @TheNTWK | TEDx & Int'l Keynote Speaker | Human-Digital Evangelist
1 年Thanks for the summary of this event. Sounds like it was very worthwhile!