We had a pleasure to chat with Deniz Macura (Strategic Partner Lead E-commerce – Global Partnerships, EMEA at Google) about his professional experience, e-commerce trends, Google A
How does your architecture background help you in your current position?
In architecture you’ll face new challenges every day because no building is identical to another – each building requires a new approach and in order to solve the challenges ahead, you have to have a structured approach and an analytic thinking to understand the root-cause of issues from all angles and find a solution on how to solve the issue for good. In architecture you create something that lasts for a very very long time. All of this applies to my current role as well. None of my clients are identical and they all do face everyday challenges and usually they do look for a reliable partner to solve or find solutions that last for a very long time. In both scenarios the user is in the center of everything – and everything is built around the user and to meet customer expectations.
How does your everyday work look like?
At Google I help eCommerce Retail and Travel partners to monetize they inventory and generate more revenues. In order to do so I do consult clients on how to leverage Google products, on how to setup the right strategy to tap into new revenue streams and how to convert those strategies into action.
How big is your team?
For Germany we have a core team on the ground and several adjacent teams to support us.
What are the most important lessons learned from working as Head of Advertising Sales Development & Yield Management at eBay?
3 Things and those are more universal applicable:
a) Have a clear goal on what you want to achieve and a strategy to achieve it.
b) Hire very good people and setup the team structure in a way to achieve those goals and adjust along the way if necessary.
c) Have fun –> which means having a great open respectful team culture that is inclusive & collaborative and allows people to grow and develop.
So nothing spectacular but worked very well for me.
What e-commerce trends can you identify?
There are several things but one topic that comes up all the time and touches every part of a business is data. So in general eCommerce but especially retailers want to a) analyse b) understand and c) leverage their data better.
Data based decision making as opposed to decision based on gut feeling. Don’t get me wrong – gut feeling is good and important but make sure you back this “feeling” up with data.
So retailers obviously use that data to drive sales but the big trend I see is that retailers want to leverage their data to work closer with suppliers on trade marketing or Co-Op Advertising. And there is a big appetite from Brands and supplier on this since they also want to understand their end users better.
This can be achieved on several levels (i) Sponsored Products – based on user behaviour, interest or shopping history on that retailers page (ii) Customized content and bespoken shopping experience and don’t use the – as I call it – one site fits all approach.
How can Google Assistant revolutionize e-commerce industry?
Google Assistant in the eCommerce context is still in an early stage so I can’t predict what will happen in the future but I know for sure that as a company you should look into voice commerce so you can have a head start. Shoppers are interested in it and will make life / shopping more convenient – and if it’s easy and convenient than shoppers will adopt it.
In your opinion, how retailers are reinventing themselves to meet customer expectations?
Retail is a tough environment and customer expectations are very high. But retailers are reinventing themselves in 2 ways a) when it comes to addressing customers and b) interacting with customers – so to say pre and post-sales.
For pre-sales it is ubiquity – be where the customer is and deliver your message in a way that fits the users consumption habit (e.g. on the go watching a video etc.). For post-sales it is to meet customer expectations – and that can have all kinds of forms and shapes e.g. fast delivery – click and collect – easy returns but also thinks like loyalty programs customer engagement emails. I for example do love a personalized and friendly Emails.
Thank you for your thoughts, Deniz!
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