Marketing, Technology and Logistics: the winning formula of eCommerce

Meeting promoted by Celeritas and organized by DIR&GE

The DIR&GE Think Tank “The harmony between marketing and operations: key to the success of eCommerce”, has brought together eleven managers from different sectors to reflect on how the Marketing and Logistics departments can work together with a common objective: customer satisfaction.

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The current market, and Information online As a growth strategy for many companies, they result in increasingly complex and dynamic scenarios.

 

El eCommerce is causing innovations in last mile deliveries, in which speed has become a key value and a differentiating factor.

 

In this context, the strategy of Marketing of a company must be fully aligned with the department of Logistics. The mission of both is the same: to contribute decisively to offering customers the best goods and services and achieving a complete user experience. Awareness of the role of these two departments and their interrelation with suppliers and customers is a basic point for the correct flow of information and products throughout the company. supply chain.

 

To discuss how they should work jointly Marketing and Logistics, executives from companies from various sectors met this Wednesday, April 26, to share their experience and knowledge in the Think Tank “The harmony between marketing and operations: key to the success of eCommerce”, impulsed by Celerites and organized by the reference space of the management field DIR&GE.

 

Moderated by Juan Carlos Lozano, CEO of DIR&GE, the meeting included the participation of Paula Gianardelli, Percentile Operation Manager; Victor Rovira, Logistics & Production Country Manager – Spain at Decathlon; Eloy Mariaud, Director of eCommerce at Imaginarium; Kristine Atraste, eCommerce Manager at Pikolin Home; Manuel Puente, Head of Non Food eCommerce at Grupo DIA; Rosa Maria Hontoria, Purchasing and Logistics Director of Pisamonas; Alberto Pérez, Cofares eCommerce Manager; Rafael Sánchez, Director of eCommerce at Carrefour Spain; Dorinda Martinez, Director of Operations at Celeritas; Ricardo Gomes, eCommerce Warehouse Manager at Lidl; and Alberto Torres, Founder and Manager of PortobelloStreet.

 

Marketing and logistics, rowing in the same direction

 

If there has been an opinion that has generated unanimity throughout the ThinkTank, is that the harmony and communication between the Marketing and Operations departments must be perfect. Rosa Maria Hontoria, Director of Purchasing and Logistics at Pisamonas, points out that, otherwise, “you may be surprised that the Marketing department has put a product on the front page, which due to a delay from the supplier will not be able to arrive on time. We must try to avoid these situations as much as possible.” For Eloy Mariaud, Director of eCommerce at Imaginarium, “in eCommerce we have to speak several languages: Technology, Marketing and Business. The relationship has to be very close, and ensure that the interlocutors from each department speak face to face.” For its part, Kristine Atraste, eCommerce Manager at PikolinHome, has introduced the concept of engagement. “For me it is the key word. Before, Logistics and Marketing were independent departments, but now they have to work together, we cannot develop Marketing strategies without knowing if we are capable of offering a good shopping experience.”

 

He agrees on this Manuel Puente, Non Food eCommerce Manager at Grupo DIA, who considers that the separation between both departments is obsolete. “Now Marketing has an operations profile, since we have realized that delivery can be a competitive advantage of your eCommerce".

 

 

 

Planning and communication are emerging as the keys to successfully carrying out eCommerce strategies, while technology becomes the best ally to predict customer behavior and meet their expectations.

 

 

In this sense, the participants have addressed how, on many occasions, the last mile is used as a Marketing tool. Alberto Torres, Founder and Manager of Portobello Street, considers that “sometimes the competition puts pressure on you. You have to facilitate customer service, offering different options for delivery, payment, timing... But the problem with this is that sometimes, with so many options, we end up complicating life for the consumer."

 

In this Marketing and Logistics equation, Dorinda Martinez, Director of Operations at Celeritas, considers it essential to include the logistics provider: “it happens in different circumstances that shipments will double from one week to the next, and it would be very productive to share these forecasts with the logistics provider.” A question that, according to Ricardo Gomes, eCommerce Warehouse Manager at Lidl, can also be cultural, “because it is the eCommerce something relatively recent in Spain. In situations of greater demand it is difficult to look at other departments, and not focus on our priorities.” In any case, conclude Dorinda Martinez, information has to flow not only from eCommerce to the supplier, but also vice versa: “At Celeritas we are trying to obtain feedback from the last mile, collecting the opinions of the Commerce customer, and systematizing it to make a qualitative report that can add value to our partners.”

 

Technology, an ally of consumer satisfaction

 

In view Rafael Sánchez, Director of eCommerce at Carrefour Spain, the eCommerce They have entered a race for speed, but often without listening to what the client wants. Something that new technologies can remedy. “Currently we have a lot of data, the question is deciding what to do with it. There are many technologies, but few companies that already have them integrated into their strategies. Carrying out isolated initiatives is easy, but to integrate them a change of mentality is necessary, which in many organizations is not easy.”

 

To Victor Rovira, Logistics & Production Country Manager – Spain de Decathlon, the important thing about data is knowing how to use it, with the added difficulty that “our computer systems are not always prepared to add algorithms quickly and flexibly. Many things are done today, and many more can be done, but you have to be willing to invest.”

 

Furthermore, knowing the customer is essential for the success of an eCommerce. Paula Gianardelli, Operation Manager of Percentil, has explained how the new technologies are applied by the department of Business Intelligence: “We analyze what type of product the customer is interested in. Depending on how you navigate the website, we offer you some discounts or others to encourage you to purchase.”

 

Alberto Pérez, eCommerce Manager at Cofares, agrees that “the first thing is to know your ecosystem, to be able to change your plans and act based on your customers.” Something complicated, she adds, when each department has its own objectives. “Hearing a knock is not the same as getting up to open it.”