Interview with Anthony Chow, Newegg Commerce. Bringing Value and Technology Together

As e-commerce companies grow and target new markets, they should constantly adapt to the rapidly evolving online world. Technical problems aside, retailers should always keep in mind the value with which they are appealing to their customers. The value of the company is the DNA of the company. It guides the business, whether through automation efforts, partnership initiatives, or marketing tactics. Meanwhile, only 31.9% of consumers believe there is a tangible difference between vendors.?

So how do you maintain business performance while creating new value propositions in the face of potential disruptions? Let's turn to the big names in the industry and find out how they're coping with the challenges of the day.

Recently, I spoke to Anthony Chow, a CEO at Newegg Commerce. Newegg is a full-service provider in IT, logistics, marketing, and customer service with a customer base of over 40.3 million members.

While discussing values and technology, we explored Newegg's perspective on what's going on in the e-commerce ecosystem, logistical challenges and how they are being solved, how to implement word of mouth in a modern way, microservices, and what trust signals are for customers shopping on Newegg.

Nice to meet you, Anthony! As I know, your leadership has guided Newegg through some of its most transformative years. Could you please tell us more about your career path at Newegg and in e-commerce in general??

My background is in corporate strategy and investment, specifically reengineering how e-commerce companies do business. I have been involved in Newegg since the very beginning. I was Vice President of Newegg’s North American business from 2006-2008, then led Newegg China operations until 2011.?

I left Newegg to start as CEO of OTTO Group Greater China, a subsidiary of one of Germany’s largest online retailers of fashion and lifestyle products.?There, I introduced many Western brands into key Asian markets.?

In 2015, I was appointed Vice President of Haier China, a global home appliance and consumer electronics manufacturer. There, I pioneered technology related to O2O (online-to-offline retailretai).?

In 2019, I returned to Newegg to lead the company. So far,?I have redesigned the global platform to unite direct sales and the marketplace. I have also restructured the organization into a domain-centric model. Newegg has since undergone a substantial financial turnaround and is listed on NASDAQ.

Throughout my career in e-commerce, I have emphasized attention to detail in my management. I use three words to define my approach: execution, execution, and execution.?I’m a process guy. I love automation. These are the key elements of e-commerce as I see them.?

In addition to IT development, at Newegg, you'll be involved in several other areas of e-commerce: Marketing, Logistics, and Customer Service. Could you please tell us what business needs you're currently observing in each of these areas?

?I will speak about how we are meeting customers’ needs in how we bridge US customers with overseas manufacturers and sellers in Asia.?

Marketing needs revolve around introducing new products and brands to the US market.?We have an in-house studio team that produces product images, video, and editorial content for different points in the customer journey. From a performance marketing perspective, we are able to earn a lot of traffic without buying clicks or paying a sales commission due to our investment in original content.?

More and more tech-savvy customers are putting the realization of business value at the heart of what they do, and Dinarys is no exception. How do you manage to shape your company's value proposition to meet the needs of your target audience??

For Newegg Partner Services, the target audience is overseas manufacturers selling their products in North America.?These companies are missing the infrastructure and expertise to market and sell their products where we do business.

Our value proposition is to address every pain point related to cross-border e-commerce. We have a?3PL for warehousing and fulfillment across all major sales channels. We offer marketing services to create targeted campaigns and produce original content. We offer web services to build and manage a standalone e-commerce presence, a staffing service to scale customer service and fulfillment operations, services for processing cross-border transactions, and more—all in one platform.

I also believe a great online shopping experience comes from the interaction between consumers and the platform and among consumers and their peers—especially for Millennials and Gen-Z. With this in mind, we launched a live shopping program. Every weekday, thousands of viewers engage with the brand and make purchases in the app during the show. Other examples of original content include unboxing videos, original series like Newegg Now, and Gamer Lounge, sponsored live streams, and more – it has inspired over seven hundred thousand subscribers on Newegg YouTube.

It takes robust e-commerce technology to succeed in search engine rankings. What do you think is the best solution for digital retailers when it comes to high visibility?

There are so many different elements of a successful SEO strategy. At the highest level, retailers should routinely publish unique content that is useful to the reader.?They should adhere to the technical advice that Google has made available. It is always good to delegate operations to personnel with specialized expertise.???

I should add that the younger generation finds information on more channels apart from search engines. For this reason, we place emphasis on content marketing designed for consumption on social platforms, such as live shopping programming and video production.?

Today's customers do demand an omnichannel experience to fully immerse themselves in their preferred shopping medium. Which automation solutions can help them seamlessly unite all touchpoints in one central system?

Newegg is a pure play e-commerce company, and our customers connect with us through our website, mobile site, and app. They frequently switch between these channels along the customer journey. For example, customers may browse product comparisons on the desktop site, and finish the checkout on their mobile device using Apply Pay or another supported payment method. For this reason, continuity features have been an important part of our development so that users experience consistent browsing and shopping trails across all channels and have their post-purchase communications in one place.??

We also believe that modernizing the mobile experience means allowing customers to interact with our brand and their peers in real time. With this in mind, we have launched live shopping programming on our app and on social platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and others. In addition, Newegg Gallery offers a Pinterest-like experience where customers can show off their custom PC builds and engage with each other.?Content is used for educational purposes as opposed to for transactional purposes only.?

Which measures do you take to modernize the mobile experience you offer?

Personalization is such an important part of the mobile experience. The products and brands the customer has purchased or browsed, the informational content that they view along their journey—we use this data to tailor the mobile experience to the unique interests and preferences of the customer. For viewing preferences, we were among the first to offer dark mode and enlarged font display in the mobile experience.?

Our next steps involve development of in-app chatting features to enhance communications between customers and third-party sellers. The goal is to make it as easy as possible for customers to connect with Newegg and our marketplace ecosystem.?

Word of mouth remains probably one of the most important channels for e-commerce brands. How can word of mouth be leveraged within the marketplace model to drive sales??

Word of mouth is the oldest and best form of marketing.?For us, user-generated content is front and center in the shopping experience.?We have over 4.5 million customer reviews on the products available on our site. Reviews often include photographs and a good amount of detail. We also have reviews for sellers who do business on our site. These are useful trust signals for customers shopping on Newegg.?

Additionally, the Newegg Gallery is a space for?users who want to show images of their custom builds and tech setups.?Another opportunity is our live shopping program that airs each weekday. Hosts showcase a number of products every episode, and viewers can ask questions and interact with them in real time.?

Speaking of logistical challenges, COVID -19 has significantly affected and, I'd say, changed the e-commerce supply chain, as well as the coming recession processes around the world during the war in Ukraine... Cross-border supply networks account for up to 30% of the total value added in Europe.

How do you think this crisis will change the e-commerce industry?

This year we witnessed how consumer buying behavior was affected by macroeconomic forces that resulted in softening demand. On the supply side, sanctions stemming from the war in Ukraine increased, saturating the market with products. Both presented challenges to digest; we optimized our operations to keep costs in check in response to market conditions.?

What is the difference between US and EU consumption, in your opinion??

In my personal observation, Europeans tend to be more conscious of what they consume.?US customers are more price sensitive; they enjoy the act of shopping and purchasing. As a result, the US is heavier with marketing activities. Europeans are less price sensitive. Quality is their top concern. ???

Could you please share some ideas on how to future-proof the logistics of an e-commerce business while reducing the workload???

The past few years have forced us to look ahead and plan for the future.?Some of the most important things are?diversifying the supply chain and carrier base, prioritizing free and fast shipping, increasing the fulfillment footprint to get closer to the customer, regionalizing inventory so it is balanced across the network and building processes for reverse logistics.?

What technologies or/and approaches do you think can be most useful to support the concepts of sustainability and responsible consumption??

In our logistics network, we lean on our vendors to help us support sustainability goals. We are working with them to offset our carbon footprint with the goal of becoming carbon neutral.?Also helping to reduce environmental impacts are?automation,?warehouse efficiencies,?shipping efficiencies, and advances in inventory planning technology. ?

It was a groundbreaking conversation, full of details about how leading names are adapting to new changes in marketplace development, marketing, logistics, and customer service. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this. With the way you’re implementing your business values, I’m sure you will succeed despite everything. Keep it up!

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