This year’s BigCommerce Partner Summit was the biggest EMEA event organised to date with attendees from all over Europe flying in to be part of the ever growing community. The tagline for the event was the Power of Partnerships and the BigCommerce team definitely delivered on that promise. The event was filled with insightful discussions on the main stage and breakout sessions, lots of phenomenal dancing and highly anticipated announcements around the roadmap and how BigCommerce will be part of the evolution of AI in ecommerce. The GPMD team enjoyed the event and we came away with several key takeaways.
1. What’s in Store for BigCommerce - Five Key Imperatives
To kick off the event, CEO Brent Bellm highlighted BigCommerce vision and strategy for the future, which is centred around five key imperatives:
These five imperatives were featured in sessions throughout the day. Alongside them, several sessions were dedicated to the use of AI and partner integrations in creating highly personalised and engaging digital shopping experiences. One talk we found very insightful was given by Director of Product Management, Derrek Pearson, who talked about what functions they are working on to enhance the user experience. From leveraging AI for product descriptions to using it to work on generating reports with predictive analytics and stronger data sets, BigCommerce’s roadmap has quite a few highly anticipated items on it that both our customers and our team are looking forward to.
One aspect of the talk that resonated with us was Pearson discussing BigCommerce’s approach to AI. It was great to see that there were guidelines that had been defined, which gave us an insight into their strategy and help set expectations.
2. Enterprise Ecommerce Simplified - Focusing on Agility and Innovation
Having been appointed as President of BigCommerce just over a month ago, many of us were looking forward to hearing from Steven Chung and what his vision for BigCommerce was. With a wealth of experience and a track record of success in leading technology companies, his addition to the team signifies a strong commitment to driving BigCommerce's growth and innovation. Chung talked about his time at Demandware and how it compares to where BigCommerce stands now. He emphasised the importance of agility and speed to market and how having a robust partner network is a key success factor in keeping pace with innovation.
3. The Role of Partnerships at BigCommerce
To wrap up the day, the BigCommerce Executive Panel, consisting of CEO Brent Bellm, VP of Marketing Meghan Stabler, VP of Product Troy Cox, President Steven Chung, SVP & GM of UK and EMEA Mark Adams and VP Partnerships EMEA Michaela Weber, and Director Marketing EMEA Elizabeth Azide as the moderator, discussed the importance of partnerships for BigCommerce in serving larger enterprises and global brands. They highlighted the value of technology and agency partnerships, emphasising their commitment to delivering for clients and fostering mutual growth.
In terms of innovation, the panel talked about continuing to improve integrations with third-party apps and technology partners, empowering merchants to provide localised and highly personalised experiences and multi-language support. The company's expansion strategy includes enabling partners to enter local markets and offering support for market entry strategies.
One thing Bellm specifically highlighted was how crucial customer feedback and involvement is in shaping BigCommerce's direction. The company is actively seeking insights from customers and currently rolling out community boards, product voting, and customer innovation boards, ensuring that their platform develops to meet the evolving needs of their customers.
4. Insights from White Stuff's Ecommerce Transformation
The spotlight session of the event was a fireside chat with Steve Borg, the CIO from White Stuff, moderated by Mark Adams. During the interview, Borg discussed how the company transitioned from a traditional brick-and-mortar retail model to a thriving online presence.
White Stuff's decision to select BigCommerce as its ecommerce platform was a pivotal one. The company recognised the importance of integrating customer data into a unified platform to enhance marketing and customer experiences. Borg talked about how he loved that with BigCommerce he had the option of preconnected and prebuilt components and integrations, but still had the flexibility he needed. Borg also discussed his powerful tech stack and how he carefully chose BigCommerce technology partners Amplience, Constructor, Bloomreach and Vue Storefront to ensure the right mix to help White Stuff successfully revamp its digital presence. The efforts paid off and in an impressive feat, the replatform took a total of just 6 months time.
Key takeaways from White Stuff's journey include the significance of collaboration, selecting technology partners aligned with the company's goals, addressing challenges proactively, and focusing on the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). The transformation led to substantial improvements in website speed and conversion rates, highlighting the tangible benefits of their efforts.
5. Internationalisation Strategy Insights from La Perla
In another great session, Lee Longhurst, Head of Ecommerce Development at La Perla, a client that has been with BigCommerce for many years, shared the brand’s internationalisation strategy. The company initially expanded into 40 markets, focusing on Europe, Asia, and America. Instead of creating separate stores for each market, they adopted a cluster-based approach, grouping markets by language, currency, and product type.
La Perla's "stencil-first" approach and component-based system allowed them to efficiently manage multiple markets while customising content based on regional preferences. They leveraged global ecommerce solution providers to add additional currencies and payment methods, expanding their market reach.
Their meticulous approach to internationalisation emphasised brand consistency, addressing challenges such as returns and sizing differences, and involving customer care teams in translation efforts.
Summary
Overall, the BigCommerce Partner Summit was jam packed with content and future developments and we really enjoyed our day there. After the conference, we headed to the Klevu afterparty and were able to catch up with many of our industry partners and share insights with them. Since starting our partnership journey with BigCommerce in 2019, we’ve seen the community successfully grow over the past 4 years and are already looking forward to next year’s Summit.
