‘Onlife’ 15th E-commerce Conference, 5-6 June 2018, Visegrád (Part 2)

Visegrád was the host of the 15th Ecommerce Conference, which was organised by Ecommerce Hungary on 5-6 June 2018. There were nearly 50 presentations and workshops on the 2-day programme. Ecommerce Hungary president Sándor Nagy was the keynote speaker, who told: the most important message of e-commerce in 2018 is that there are no boundaries. He added that the conference wanted to show how to think without geographical borders and be successful in the international market. Ecommerce Hungary’s most important mission is to create a forum for sharing knowledge and experience, so that companies can become more successful in their everyday work.

Piotr Tyminski, Citibank’s digital head in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and Wijnand Jongen, co-founder and president of Ecommerce Europe were the next speakers. Mr Tyminski named those four key factors which make an online shop successful: building customer trust, offering positive experience, making buying from abroad possible and flexible delivery conditions. He added that it is also essential to integrate those automatisms into the processes of online shops which are fundamental in the international market.

Mr Jongen spoke about the radical transformation of retail trade, and how ‘online’ and ‘onlification’ are setting its new directions. He declared that there is no online and offline any more – there is onlife instead. He revealed that by 2021 total online b2c sales are forecasted to reach USD 4.479 trillion. The number of online buyers is expected to increase from the 1.66 billion in 2017 to 2.14 billion in 2021. Last year the biggest market player was still China. Mr Jongen clarified that selling online wasn’t only about technology: it is the shopping experience is where new economic paradigms, robots and artificial intelligence use meet.

Péter Seprenyi, the head of Virgo Systems Kft.’s e-commerce division spoke about ways and techniques to increases sales. He underlined the importance of daily repricing and told that strategies need to be changed flexibly and rapidly to react to market changes. Máté Tőzsér, business development manager of iProspect Magyarország gave an insight into the sales potential that lies in content marketing. He revealed that US businesses that publish at least 16 new blog posts a month realise 3.5 times bigger sales.

János Arany, the head of SAP’s Hybris division used real-life examples to illustrate how image as a data source can support sales, marketing communication and even customer service.

 CEU professor Dr György Bőgel introduced the possible ways of using data-based artificial intelligence via the innovative sales mechanism of online fashion shop Stitch Fix®.

Marianna Pajda, managing director of Csomagküldő.hu Kft. revealed that in European online shopping more and more customers are motivated not by the price but by comfort and saving time. Consumers spend 30 hours a month online and from this as much time is used for shopping as for reading the news. About the growth in online FMCG sales she told: this trend also shows that people want comfortable shopping.

 Norbert Pfeiffer, co-owner and managing director of Lupfe Kft. gave a presentation about the advantages of delivery by drones. He detailed what can be important for logistics companies in this type of delivery.

Mészáros Gábor, customer experience manager of Extreme Digital told that measuring customer satisfaction provides retailers with invaluable information about shoppers.

Ákos Váróczi, the owner of store furnishings company Váróczi Üzletberendezés shared practical knowledge about how to give maximum experience to shoppers in an offline environment.

Szigeti Ferenc, managing director of MS E-Commerce spoke about the omnichannel strategy and how development projects by Media Markt and Saturn build a so-called ‘services bubble’ around customers.

István Kolozsi, founder and owner of the agency FDS approached e-commerce from a sociological aspect.

 Orsolya Nemes gave a presentation about generational stereotypes and the need to redefine them. Mall.hu managing director Iván Rédey shared his experiences in crisis communication – speaking about brand reputation and restoring group cohesion.

For a roundtable discussion Extreme Digital’s co-founder Balázs Várkonyi joined Mr Rédey and Mátrix PR’s communication specialist Dóra Vas asked them about everyday communication, crisis situations and managing ‘trolls’. //