What we have learned at GPeC Summit 2015 Conference?

GPeC Summit is the most important e-commerce event in Romania. This year, the summit took place on November 24th, and gathered over 500 participants. This year was an important year for GPeC, as in 2015 they celebrate their 10th anniversary.

At this conference, we had speakers from all areas of e-commerce, from online shops owners, online marketers to fulfillment companies and payment processors. The hot topics ranged from conversion optimization, online marketing, e-commerce tools to market data, case studies and this year’s Black Friday.

In the first section of the conference we have learned that on Black Friday this year in Romania, the highest sales took place in the IT&C, Fashion and Books categories. An increase in card payments is expected as the bank comissions are soon going to decrease and also, the couriers will have mobile POS to accept card payment.

The first keynote was of Larry Kim, who is the founder of WordStream and was named the most influential PPC expert in the world in 2013 and 2014. He is also one of the top 10 influential online marketers worldwide (according to Forbes). Larry held a keynote in which he talked about how social media is a great channel to sell your products online. The main ideas of his keynote were:

  • Social media amplifies and create awareness for your brand and it allows you to convert that awareness, by targeting your direct customers. 
  • 95% of online time is spent on content, only 5% is spent on searching.
  • We have been focusing on direct conversion in the past 15 years and not enough on assisted conversion / indirect conversion
  • Social Ads turn visitors into leads & customers and Social media advertising can work with small budgets. But first post lots of stuff and see the organic engagement. Only after, you can promote.
  • Say no to promoting junk updates – don’t promote every social update, only focus on the ones with highest engagement rates.
  • Over half a billion Facebook users are mobile and more than 80% of Twitter users.
  • Tweet more often and only promote your best posts.
  • The longer you run a campaign, the fewer impressions will generate. Fresh ads will have priority.
  • There is the snowball effect of SM. The more you do SM advertising, the more fans you will have. 
  • Don’t forget about the marketing component of PPC marketing. We need to create content first.

From Etienne Bostsarron – VP New Customer Relationships Orange we have learned what the average in Europe and USA was in 2014: every house had 5 screens and 60% of population had smartphones.

  • 90% of the customers using Facebook are using it on mobile – there should be the ads
  • 80% of Facebook revenues are from mobile advertising
  • 60% of Alibaba transactions are from mobile
  • 50% of Google searches are from mobile
  • Orange is moving from ecommerce to mcommerce
  • The smartphone is like a modern teddy bear. We are sleeping with our smartphone.
  • Time spent on mobile has exceeded the time spent on desktop and 80% of purchase journeys start by searching information online
  • Mobile is becoming progressively dominant.

From the panel in which companies from logistics were invited we have learned that cash on delivery is a big problem. Things hopefully will be simplified once with the introduction of POS to the couriers.

There is a problem related to the workforce, there is a crisis in hiring personnel and Fan Courier is now hiring from towns outside Bucharest.

Frisbo offers an e-fullfillment service, that takes care of the operational activities from the checkout until delivery. Frisbo’s biggest client has 10.000 orders/day.

Oli Gardner – co-fondator Unbounce talked about the four corners of conversion: Understanding the Intersection of Copy, Design, Interaction & Psychology.

We have learned that distraction is the enemy of conversion and that adding more links on the page decreases the conversion rate. We need to let clients choose the features and turn off the carousel auto play.

  • We need to tell people what to do, in this way Click vs no mention of click is at a ratio of 15% vs 10% and, most of all, we need to tell them specifically what to do: Click vs Click now, Download vs Download now etc.
  • The most persuasive word in English is „because”
  • Think about what makes you unique in paid advertising.

From Brian Massey – fondator Conversion Sciences, we have learned that visitors want a completely different experience for small-screen mobile devices and that forcing a desktop design down to a small screen never works.

  • The redesign process can last for months, so be patient and take your time.
  • A bad decision is to oversimplificate by removing the logo on the mobile version.
  • Change call to action from click to call (phone)
  • You need to spend time on your mobile site in order to create a unique experience.

During the panel in which the top e-commerce players in Romania (FashionDays.ro, Elefant.ro, Evomag.ro, Zoot.ro) were invited, the topics were related to this year’s Black Friday sales, which have increased, about the traffic from mobile and the importance of having a good mobile app.

Viljo Vabrit – CEO, Senior Conversion Analyst ConversionXL Agency talked about the fact that if you want to improve your website, you have to investigate the leaks it has and that there are tools do help you check that.

Omri Yacubovich – Founding Member & Head of Marketing Commerce Sciences talked about Web personalization: what works and for whom? Who are you targeting? What is the best experience? Building the right segments.

There was also a panel about what NOT to do in ecommerce and there was some advice given. The main points were: to have a performant website and with a good loading speed, to simplify the ordering process, to put the team on the website and not be ashamed of being a startup.

The last speaker was Iulian Stanciu, the CEO of eMAG who talked about the dimensions of the Romanian market. This Black Friday, for eMAG the mobile traffic was of 51%. The fashion category is growing and the possibility of return in fashion is very important. Also, it is very important to respect your promise regading the delivery.

In the evening, after the conference was over, there was the awards gala, in which more than 100 online shops participated. More about the gala and the winners here: http://www.gpec.ro/

 

Photo credit: GPeC - Gala Premiilor eCommerce Facebook page.

 

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