Newsletter N° 16
E-com tech costs will only continue to rise. Learn how to control the budget & expenses before they spiral out of hand.
Why are your tech stack costs so high?
It’s the end of 2024. The budget planning time.
Budgeting isn’t easy as everything is getting more expensive.
Not only bread and eggs; your e-com tech stack too.
Gartner reports that worldwide IT spending is growing by 7.5% in 2024. Most of the cost increase is due to Gen AI, which is costly for software companies to develop (consider only the load on data centers). It bumps up the license fees for the customers like you.
But forget AI; fundamentally everything in e-commerce is driven by tech.
It’s the backbone of your business and provides the rails to your customer journey.
That’s what makes the e-com tech budget hard to estimate & control.
90% of the time, the allocated initial budget is too small, which leaves everyone frustrated.
As a result, tech becomes perceived as a cost center: an expense group that’s too high. In a perfect world, the executives have more realistic expectations.
Here are some tips for digital leaders:
1. Don’t Make the Common Mistake: Calculate the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) carefully. Many e-com executives focus only on software acquisition and setup costs, but there are many more elements, like team onboarding, maintenance, and ongoing support. Our webinar shows how to measure TCO properly.
2. Master the Art of Pitching & Negotiating: In executive meetings, align your proposal with different stakeholders beforehand to get their buy-in. Always connect your tech costs to business outcomes.
3. Identify the Sources of Business Complexity: Areas of complexity—like managing 5,000 SKUs or launching in new markets like Japan—are your cost drivers. Ensure they don’t drain your budget without delivering enough value.
Coming soon: Tech Stack Navigator
Next month, we’re launching the Conway Tech Stack Navigator—a database of +200 e-commerce systems covering every layer of your tech stack (marketing, sales, logistics, and more). Here’s why it’s worth the wait:
Many companies are lost in all the details and struggle to understand how they fit with their business needs.
Quality software products that will be vetted over time;
Curated for all company sizes, from basic to advanced tech stack levels;
Clearly defined use cases to help you filter and compare the right solutions.
Join the notify list for early and free access:
Interested in a tech stack audit?
Contact our digital consultant Coen.
Tools & Tactics
We select helpful tools and useful new ways of working. Find a signal in the noise of software.
01 Loop
Move on from unusable supply chain data and uncontrollable spending. Centralize all your freight, parcel, and financial data into Loop to automate decisions, uncover insights, and power profit.
02 Kick
With Kick, automatically categorize transactions, track expenses, generate financial reports, and provide insights for better decision-making.
03 Tl;dv
tl;dv’s AI notetaker is like having multiple ChatGPT meeting agents. One to auto-update the CRM, another to draft follow-up emails, or yet one that sends feature requests or competitor mentions straight to your inbox.
Brand Radar
We review modern consumer brands. Today, we're diving into the DTC dental care space, a category making serious moves to challenge corporate giants.
Laro
Claiming to be part of conscious luxury movement, this brand is the Aesöp of dental care.
Quip
Quip brings simple design innovations to electric toothbrushes that traditional brands like Oral-B haven’t cracked in years.
Bite
Bite uses a very classic DTC strategy: take a boring product and change it’s form to make it interesting. So now we have toothpaste bits.
Trends & Strategy
Curated content from the information overload we call the Internet.
Insights and inspiration on business, e-commerce, and investing.
Google revamps shopping feature with AI-powered product curation
5 min read
“The updated Google Shopping experience features AI-created briefs that offer a combination of product recommendations and advice from sources across the internet based on search queries. Users’ homepages will also include personalized feeds, including shoppable products and videos.”
Full article
Personalization done right
20 min read
“More than 80% of respondents in a BCG survey of 5,000 global consumers say they want and expect personalized experiences. But two-thirds have experienced personalization that is inappropriate, inaccurate, or invasive.”
Return fees are unpopular with consumers — what are the alternatives?
10 min read
“If the Markarian team notices one customer ordering the same item in multiple sizes — a frequent indicator that all but one will likely be returned — the customer care team will reach out to them. They will ask the customer for their measurements and offer to help them better understand their size.”
Full article
Visually appealing
NIO House in Amsterdam is the Shanghai-based car manufacturer’s second location in the Netherlands. It occupies a landmark seven-story building in the city’s Canal District. Originally built in 1891 by architect Jan van Looy, the structure has been renovated with interiors by MVRDV. The design features a color gradient inspired by NIO’s "Blue Sky Coming" slogan, transitioning from earthy tones to a bright blue rooftop pavilion, designed by Gerrit Rietveld in 1933. Above the car showroom, you'll find a spacious café and a kids' corner.
