Skip to main content
In Article, CRM & Customer Experience

Startup trends 2024: Innovations in e-commerce CX

Enterprise e-commerce solutions have to be holistic, comprehensive, relevant, and up-to-date with customer needs and market trends. In order to deliver an end-to-end suite of applications and services, large e-commerce vendors have to maintain a clear strategic partner approach.

At SAP, innovation is a core element of our partner strategy. In order to offer customers a relevant ecosystem of partners, we always scout for solutions that are both innovative and enterprise-ready to complement our offerings. To deliver on that commitment, in 2017 SAP established SAP.iO, with an ongoing mission to build the company’s next generation of partners.

Here are five startup trends for 2024 in the e-commerce space, represented by startups that graduated the SAP.iO program and are now certified SAP partners.

  1. Personalization – Jebbit
  2. Customer advocacy – Mention Me
  3. Immersive experiences – Obsess
  4. B2B commerce – Zoovu
  5. Video commerce – Smartzer

Startup partnerships lead the way in e-commerce innovation

E-commerce has come a long way, but we can expect even more innovation ahead as startups set their sites on ways to improve it as consumer needs and habits change.

New technologies, with AI likely playing a big role, will help brands deliver seamless, personalized, and interactive e-commerce experiences that drive loyalty and sales.

Read More…

In New York, CRM & Customer Experience, Technologies, Foundries

Online Shopping Is Arduous: AI Makes It Easy

While AI isn’t an automatic slam dunk panacea for every business problem, one thing it’s incredibly gifted at is sifting through tons of information to help people quickly find the product of their dreams.

Anyone who’s searched for a product, be it an e-bike, laptop, or washing machine, is all too familiar with choice paralysis from information overload. Imagine instead, landing on a website and conversing with the smartest salesperson in the world available 24/7, who asks the right questions to give you the right product as fast as possible. Meet Zoovu, an AI-powered platform that helps B2C and B2B companies match customers with the exact product they’re looking for.

“Our cloud-based AI product discovery platform helps customers connect to their customers by surfacing the right product,” said Lamees Butt, senior vice president of global alliances and channels at Zoovu. “We remove choice paralysis by simulating the kind of in-store shopping experience that you would get with the most knowledgeable salesperson.”

Butt said that global brands, retailers, and manufacturers realize on average a 200% conversion uplift in customer purchases, and an increase in average cart value by 47%. One power tool company increased customer engagements by an estimated 65% in over 35 global markets.

Read More…

In New York, CRM & Customer Experience

Zoovu is a Lead Partner in SAP Industry Cloud

The partnership is expanding as global companies increasingly look to unlock new revenue streams and reduce direct sales costs through more automated and intelligent e-commerce platforms. Until now, the complexity and number of products offered by most manufacturers and large-scale B2B organizations required highly skilled sales teams to educate customers and convert inquiries into sales. By harnessing the power of SAP and Zoovu technology, customers can easily transform large, complex product catalogs into highly accurate and continuously optimized digital sales environments.

Zoovu was invited to join the SAP.iO Acceleration Partner Program last year and the platform quickly jumped to the top 2% in the SAP® Store. Building on this strong market demand, Zoovu has been elevated to SAP partner for SAP’s industrial cloud portfolio.

Read More in its original language here…

In Success Stories, Foundries, CRM & Customer Experience

How Tech Makes Shopping Quick and Easy for Bosch Customers

Benefits of e-commerce include reaching new customers and better personalizing service. But what if your customers need – and have spent decades relying on – the in-store expertise of your associates? To find a very specific product? For use with another very specific product? To accomplish a very specific task?

“More and more of our users are coming online…[and] they still want to have the similar guidance and the systems they had in-store,” Ganna Lobachevska, the touchpoint owner of Product Finder and Product Guidance at Bosch Power Tools Accessories, told SAP at NRF 2023 for a new video. “Our overall goal is to make it easier for our users to find the right accessory for their job.”

Of course, making something easy to do on the front end is seldom easy to build on the back end. And that was Bosch’s challenge when helping online shoppers narrow their search for the perfect jigsaw blade, drill bit, or abrasive wheel from a truly massive accessory portfolio.

“Any company with a wide range of products has to think how they can simplify the user journey…and how they can make it easier for the customers to find the right product,” Lobachevska said. “With the Bosch Accessory Advisor, we provide a solution that makes it easier and faster.”

Building that easier, faster solution meant finding a high-tech way to satisfy a peculiar demand by online shoppers.

When Brick-and-Mortar Set the Bar (Almost) Too High

Selecting a specific power tool accessory for a specific job – and ensuring it’s compatible with your specific power tool – are big reasons that people historically shopped at brick-and-mortar stores, according to Lobachevska. It makes sense, right? You can consult with a knowledgeable human sales associate.

But Bosch’s e-commerce customers expect the same in-store-style expertise via a quick and painless online exchange, according to Lobachevska. And she doesn’t seem worried.

“The Accessory Advisor guides the user through a series of very simple questions,” Lobachevska said. “In the end, they have three perfect recommendations for the work they want to do.”

It’s pretty much an online conversation that yields the right product, according to Lobachevska. And Bosch found the right tech – and partners – to make these virtual dialogues happen.

Tech to the Rescue

“We realized that there is a need for a better user guidance,” Lobachevska said of Bosch’s decision to go with Zoovu, a Boston-based digital commerce search platform and partner solution in SAP’s industry cloud. “It offered us the best.”

Zoovu’s Semantic Studio translates technical jargon into e-commerce-friendly prose, which saves time for both Bosch data managers and shoppers. A few artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted questions later, and these accessory hunters have enjoyed a smooth, seamless customer experience.

“This means that our customers spend less time searching for a product,” Lobachevska said. “And when they purchase the product, it’s the right one and they are more satisfied.”

This increases efficiency, according to Lobachevska. It also cuts down on returns and poor online reviews.

Read More…

In CRM & Customer Experience

How Zoovu secured Spotlight Status and became the fastest riser in the SAP Store in 2022

It’s hard to look at the last 6 months here at Zoovu and not be incredibly proud of what we’ve built and continue to build, we announced a $169 million Series C round with FTV Capital  to continue establishing ourselves as the go-to solution for Discovery experiences and we’ve continued to strengthen our partnership with SAP.  As of August, Zoovu is featured in the SAP Store as the Spotlight solution for their over 425,000 customers.

As I mentioned in our post about participating in SAP’s SAP.iO program this past spring, I’m a firm believer in the idea “We are Better Together.” When an SAP customer integrates Zoovu, we both benefit from showcasing how solutions work together to provide everything a business needs to thrive and meet their customer needs and expectations. In essence, SAP and Zoovu complement each other and supercharge customer experiences as a unified solution.  For this reason and more (read on to find out), SAP continues to highlight Zoovu as a game changer for their customers to supercharge content discovery with a variety of experiences powered by AI and semantic knowledge.

When I look at the value of Zoovu in the market and specifically for SAP’s customers, it’s a trite but true pandemic lesson: the digitization of sales impacted businesses of all types, those who sell to consumers and those who sell to businesses. For B2B organizations, they were scrambling to adjust to a digital first world and facing the reality of “how do we communicate and sell complex offerings online?” for the first time.

This shift of streamlining operations to drive business cost savings while still making impact requires a solution like Zoovu. By tackling time and money drains on businesses, such as providing continuous enrichment of product content and enabling self-service content discovery experiences, Zoovu is an incredibly powerful platform for any business selling on digital channels. Regardless of selling model, we automate any sales conversation and content discovery at scale.

Read More…