[Step by Step] How Do I Build an eCommerce Tech Stack? feat. Scott Hill, SVP of Product at Brightpearl

In the first episode of Season 2 of Step by Step, Scott Hill, SVP of Product at Brightpearl is on the show to talk about Brightpearl, the technology ecosystem, and how this season of Step by Step is going to teach our audience how to build an eCommerce Tech Stack!

Main Takeaways:

• Scott Hill, the SVP of Product at Brightpearl, joins Phillip and Brian in this episode of Step by Step.
• What are some of the topics that will be covered in this season of Step By Step?
• Brightpearl empowers retailers by automating all of their back-office operations and allowing them to focus on growth rather than problem-solving?
• Where do you start when it comes to building your technology stack?

What is Brightpearl?: A Brief Rundown:

• Brightpearl is a retail operations platform that helps retail brands, retailers, and wholesalers automate all of their back-office operations.
• Essentially, Brightpearl takes over everything after the consumer presses the buy button.
• Once the order has been made, Brightpearl takes care of order management, inventory management, integrated financials, and workflow automation.
• Brightpearl creates excellent efficiencies for its customers do they can focus on growth and not worry about the logistics of operations.

Scott's Story: The Journey So Far:

• Scott has been with Brightpearl for about seven years and is in charge of all product management within the company.
• Some of his responsibilities are taking the product to market, working with customers and partners, and figuring out how to build and what to build.
• His first position at Brightpearl was a very brief stint in technical support, but he moved very quickly to pre-sales (but he was always going after product).
• Before starting at Brightpearl, Scott was academically looking into computer game design and found that product design was mostly game design (but with fewer aliens).

The Reason Behind It All: Why Is Brightpearl Behind this Step By Step Season?:

• Brightpearl is focused on the technology ecosystem and wants to work with and highlight the other technologies that its customers might want to use for all of the activities that Brightpearl doesn't cover.
• Brightpearl has found a common theme in the fact that technology is essential to the success of a business. Still, even the most technologically savvy merchants don't know how to navigate the complex world of the technology market.
• There is so much innovation happening, so how do mid-market merchants navigate through the market?
• It's challenging to run a business today because of just how many technological factors and channels need to be considered when setting up your technology stack.

Goals for the Series: What Can You Expect to Take Away?:

• The hope is that this series will equip people with the knowledge of how to navigate their way through the market.
• This is not a vendor recommendation series but rather an agnostic overview of the experience that likeminded retailers go through when trying to grow their business.
• The series will also be a great starting point for retailers and brands to be able to go off and do their research to find what works for them.
• This series is the first part of Brightpearl's project, which will then lead to the launch of a new study of mid-market merchants in the United States.

High-Level Topics: A Sneak Peek at What's To Come:

• Selecting what to sell and product sourcing can be considered where the story starts as it is choosing the right product and finding ways to grow efficiently.
• Different seller profiles have different motivations, and finding a way to differentiate amongst your competitors is another topic that will be covered.
• Collaborations are a new way to introduce new products in a low-risk way by partnering with other brands to diversify their product portfolio.
• When is the return not worth the risk when expanding your product offerings?

Winning the Content Game: Diversifying Your Portfolio for Niche Audiences:

• Content adds to the value of your product and differentiating it, which then benefits your assortment.
• There are a lot of things happening right now that are focused on creating an audience first and then selling products to that established audience.
• Bloggers are turning into billion-dollar retail powerhouses, and we are now at a point where anyone who can amass an audience around a niche topic can create a brand.
• If you have the right tools, you can stay lean in your operations and be very successful.

The Ins and Outs of Order Fulfillment: The Brightpearl Process:

• The two main reasons why this portion of your business is so essential are efficiency and increasing customer lifetime value.
• The more efficient someone is at managing and shipping their orders then the less money they will have to spend on inefficiencies.
• With the cost of acquisition going up, there has been more focus on increasing customer lifetime value.
• Merchants need to make sure they deliver on their promises, and you need to be equipped on the backend to live up to your word.

Diving Deeper: More On Customer Acquisition:

• The main challenge regarding acquisition is its cost, which is only going to keep rising in the future.
• Once traffic hits an eCommerce site, then your customer acquisition strategy needs to be spot on to most efficiently acquire your customers.
• Everything should be built to increase the order value and basket size through branding and messaging with zero friction.
• This is the main topic in the series where there is the most saturation, so how do you figure out what is going to deliver a return?

The Power of Data: A Crucial Part to Any Business:

• Everyone wants to know how well they're doing, so they need support to prove that their decisions are lucrative.
• Data allows brands to understand what they need to ask themselves and what questions they are answering with the data they collect.
• Knowing what you should not be doing is just as important as knowing what is working.
• A significant problem that merchants see is the overall completeness of the data they have.

The Post-Purchase Process: Increasing Customer Lifetime Value:

• It costs about five times more to acquire a new customer than it does to earn repeat business from an existing customer.
• Most brands focus on customer acquisition, but the focus should primarily be shifted to customer retention.
• Technology is saturated on the front end when it comes to acquiring but tends to be less saturated when it comes to winning the repeat purchase.
• How do you execute such a positive experience for a customer that you then get them to purchase four more times?
• Support has become the new sales when it comes to customer retention.

Brands Mentioned in this Episode:

• Brightpearl

As always: We want to hear what our listeners think! What is a step you can take today to improve the knowledge regarding your technology stack?

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