Blog
July 20, 2020
K5 is the key industry event for e-commerce, bringing together retailers, brand providers, founders, and industry experts to exchange ideas. What is it all about? Nothing less than the future of online retail!
Practical knowledge sharing, with many concrete use cases, provided participants with new strategic insights—in line with the slogan #LearnFromTheBest.
In addition to information and networking, the focus was also on industry observation: forecasts and new services were presented, and solution providers introduced themselves.
This year, due to the current situation, K5 had to reinvent itself and take place online. We provide a summary of the first K5 Digital, discussing new trends and forecasts as well as the characteristics of successful online shops.
New implementation
In the K5 studio, Sven Rittau, co-founder and MD of K5, together with Jochen Krisch, publisher of Exciting Commerce, interviewed founders and top executives. New trends and strategies were discussed during the practice-oriented exchange.
K5 partners presented themselves at the K5 sessions and masterclasses. The program included informative presentations on topics related to the day-to-day business of many online shops, providing concrete added value for the audience. The sessions were conducted via Zoom, enabling interactive exchange between speakers and listeners via chat.
Spryker@K5: Selected industry representatives presented themselves and their concepts for successful online retail. In addition to best practices, Alexander Graf reflected on e-commerce topics. Overall, the focus of this virtual stage was on discussion and collaborative learning.
In addition to providing information, interactivity was a key feature of K5: the K5 roundtables offered a platform for discussion on specific topics in smaller groups. Chat functions during the individual sessions were supplemented by four different group chats, divided according to areas of interest – “Retailer meets Retailer,” “Brand meets Brand,” “K5 Orga,” and “Search & Find” for software and tool providers or for exchanging contact details.
In the K5 live ticker, retail experts had their say and shared their assessments and comments on the current program directly in the event web interface – an entertaining addition to knowledge exchange and networking.
Over 75 sessions took place on the various virtual stages. More than 30 speakers were invited, including Olaf Koch, CEO of Metro AG, Vanessa Stützle, CDO of the Douglas Group, and Andreas Schobert, CTO of Hornbach.
Proven content
The overarching goal of K5 was to provide a platform for e-commerce experts to present and discuss new trends and developments and learn from practical experience in order to promote successful online commerce in the future. The online event therefore covered various industries, such as fashion, sports, construction, and hobbies, and offered information and exchange formats.
The presentation “Shops vs. Marketplaces vs. Platforms: The Three Generations of E-Commerce” by Alexander Graf, Spryker Systems GmbH, focused on the different potentials of e-commerce formats. The assessment of implemented omnichannel strategies was sobering—success is more likely to be found in niche markets. The paradigm shift towards the new relevance of speed and automation was also discussed. In this context, different commerce generations were also presented, which differ primarily in terms of the inventory risk they take. Services that originate not in e-commerce but in the field of communication and entertainment are increasingly entering the market. The new shop functions of social networks are a good example of this. Since these services are limited to an intermediary function, the inventory risk is correspondingly low. Changes in customer behavior are leading to increased technical requirements. An analysis of various platforms shows that a company’s revenue correlates with the number of IT employees. The lesson: IT is key.
The session “The new shopping platforms – an update” with Jochen Krisch comes to similar conclusions: social media platforms have enormous potential to develop into the new shopping platforms. For retailers and suppliers, this means that they need to learn from these media formats and the players who are successful in them. The role of content creators has grown enormously, and retailers and brands need to be aware that they are competing with influencers, so to speak, in the battle for customers’ attention. Adapting to new media usage behavior is also a prerequisite for e-commerce success—it should be noted here that each device has specific usage behavior that must be addressed. To be successful, it is of course necessary to communicate effectively what problems the company or product solves for the user. But in addition to the message, emotionalization and entertainment are becoming increasingly relevant. Not only the brand and product experience needs to be digitized, but consulting services are also affected: conversational commerce is identified as a topic of the future here. E-commerce therefore remains an industry that is constantly changing and always presenting new challenges. Accordingly, agility and flexibility are the key characteristics for long-term success.
Mario Träger from the webworks agency provided background information and specific recommendations for action on the topic of “SEO for online shops.” The results pages of online search engines (SERPs) are constantly changing: While a few years ago, organic search results were displayed at the top of the page, now only paid content can be found there. This is even more pronounced in the mobile version than on the desktop. So what is the significance of SEO, i.e., search engine optimization of your own web content, nowadays? Even though its importance has declined and new channels (e.g., social media, affiliate marketing) have been added, SEO remains a relevant part of a successful marketing strategy. However, the challenges are great and often come in the form of adaptations to Google’s algorithms: these updates usually lead to significant losses in website visibility. Mario Träger provides an overview of the SEO topics of the future: Indexing management is currently very relevant, and website operators should ensure that only truly relevant pages are indexed by Google, i.e., analyzed and taken into account for the evaluation of the website. It is advisable to compare the indexed pages with the pages listed in the sitemap in order to detect possible indexing errors. Mobile first should be the basic understanding of all website operators. Whether it is implemented in the form of a separate app, responsive design, or different landing pages, a mobile-friendly website should be a top priority, as this forms the basis of Google’s page ranking. This is also due to changing usage habits—more than 50% of searches are performed on mobile devices. To enrich and customize the appearance on the results page, snippets (meta title, meta description, rich snippets, and featured snippets) must be set. This can positively influence the ranking and better reach the user. Mario Träger divides keyword scaling into different phases: After enriching the websites (e.g., product/category page), additional landing pages can be created (e.g., glossary, magazine) in order to optimally utilize the identified keywords. In addition to current topics, the ranking factors from 2021 onwards are also discussed: In this context, website and online shop operators should already be focusing their attention on user-friendliness and the associated Core Web Vitals defined by Google as new KPIs. Specifically, it’s about when the main content loads and how stable the visual layout of the page is during loading. Equally relevant is how long it takes for the browser to respond to the first user interaction (e.g., clicking on a button or link). These KPIs are already integrated into common tools and can be viewed using the PageSpeed Insights tool or Google Search Console. In general, the success of an SEO strategy depends on knowing your own KPIs, following a structured approach, and having the right expectations—because SEO is not a sprint, but rather a marathon.
Best practices and strategies currently used by successful online shops show that the focus is increasingly shifting to the customer: the user experience is crucial and requires the shop to be easy and intuitive to use. At the same time, an emotional quality is needed that inspires customers and encourages them to make a purchase. This requires originality and creativity as well as technical know-how for implementation.
New navigation options are proving successful here: horizontal scrolling or swiping through product variants and images mirrors the display formats used on social networks and can also be used for navigation bars. Relevant elements, such as the shopping cart, can be permanently anchored on the screen so that they are always accessible and part of the customer’s perception. The design of the navigation elements and page layout should, of course, correspond to and support the respective brand or platform. But no matter which features are implemented, fast loading times are crucial for the user experience. Content and services are also customer-focused: comprehensive product information is provided both in text form and directly in the image. A large selection of different variants as well as suggestions for combinations or additional items help to expand the shopping cart. Clothing, for example, is presented on different models to offer a means of identification. User-generated content, such as reviews from other customers (or experts), is integrated and has a direct influence on the purchase decision. Demand can be stimulated by displaying additional counters that provide information on how often the product has already been purchased within a defined period. Emotionalization is also an important aspect: companies can use storytelling to their advantage by comprehensively discussing and illustrating either the product or, for example, their own founding story. Original content (images, brochures, videos, etc.) can also be a successful strategy, but requires a corresponding amount of effort in creating and managing the material. In summary, successful e-commerce requires an easy-to-use and at the same time unusual shopping experience that best reflects and supports the respective brand or platform.
Summary
K5 Digital was a successful online event with exciting sessions – congratulations to the organizers, who implemented a new format so successfully in such a short time. In the wrap-up, the organizers also gave a positive assessment. Some of the new online formats, such as the live ticker as an additional outside perspective, could also be incorporated into future physical events. The conclusion is “The future is bright.”
Nevertheless, everyone agrees: the physical trade fair has become a popular fixture in the e-commerce sector – not only because of the exciting topics, but also because of the networking opportunities and successful supporting program in Berlin. Many people miss this – especially since 2020 marked the 10th anniversary of K5. We at Onedot are therefore all the more delighted to welcome you in person to our booth at K5 in Berlin on June 22 and 23, 2021.