The Commerce Club – 27th March 2019

The Agenda

11:00 – REGISTRATION & NETWORKING with refreshments

11:30 – #TCC WELCOME from Ian Fanning & Chris Booker – DeeperThanBlue  

We explained that we wanted to provide a forum where people could come along and find out how digital technology can be used to add value to their business.  The forum aim is to be an excellent networking and knowledge sharing opportunity, with meetings every quarter, with guest speakers, industry experts, and hands on sessions.  Chris Booker, DeeperThanBlue’s Sales & Marketing Director explained who DeeperThanBlue are and introduced Ian Fanning from DeeperThanBlue Digital Solutions.

11:40 – THE MOVE TO SaaS by Mark Adams, Vice President & General Manager, Europe – 

Mark Adams introduced BigCommerce as a leading Commerce platform and explained why the SaaS approach is so appealing to the market, both from a financial and Customer Experience perspective.  Mark explained how the SaaS financial model turns the ‘on-premise’ financial model on it’s head, allowing Customers to spend much more of their investment on revenue generating activity as opposed to spending that money on things like licensing and hosting.  He also explained that with a SaaS approach, change can happen much quicker and be in front of customers earlier to gain ground on your competitors.

12:05 – THE SMALL STEPS TO FASTER PROMOTIONAL AGILTY IN RETAIL by Darren Hitchcock, Digital Expertise General Manager (UKI & Nordics) –

Darren Hitchcock explained how a headless approach is being adopted by many companies to provide greater flexibility in the way they engage with their customers.  He talked through a number of examples where companies are doing this well and the benefits that they are seeing from it, particularly with ensuring content is put in front of customers quickly and efficiently without the need of IT skilled resources.  Darren explained how the modular approach to building up the commerce platform is one which is cost effective and also providing great value to companies instead of purchasing an entire commerce system which isn’t 100% utilised.

12:30 – 20 minute Break

12:50 – HOW PERSONALISATION & EXPERIMENTATION TO A GLOBAL AUDIENCE IS KEY TO IMPROVE USER EXPERIENCE by Dave Gorman, responsible for Global E-Commerce at Liverpool FC  (*any opinions expressed are personal views and not of the club)

Dave Gorman from Liverpool Football Club (LFC) talked through how Dynamic Yield has helped then grow online revenues significantly over the past 12-18 months.  He explained that the recommendations engine has allowed LFC to sell more to existing clients, as well as personalise their experience significantly.  He talked through various customer experience examples of this ranging from a brand new customer who has never visited the site, through to an existing customer who regularly visits the site and purchases.  He talked through how any company selling any type of product can benefit from this technology and see their revenues increase significantly as a result.

13:15 – #TCC Close

Ian Fanning closed the forum with an overview of DeeperThanBlue and urged attendees to provide feedback so we can make the forum even more engaging and rewarding going forward.  Ian also made a call for speakers for future events on subjects that people would find interesting, the free bar was then opened for networking and discussions.

13:45 – COMPLIMENTARY BAR & BUFFET LUNCH