At the Coalface Podcast - eCommerce Tech & Trends

Chris Jarvis is the Founder of uReturn - https://ureturn.ca uReturn is a new, Canadian startup SaaS platform designed to efficiently automate and manage the returns process for (primarily) eCommerce and Omnichannel merchants You can think of uReturn a bit like a reverse logistics order management system The entire goal of uReturns is to make returned, resalable items available to sales channels as fast as realistically possible via smart routing and returns logic uReturns goes way beyond traditional returns UX platforms and dramatically enhances the experience for both merchant and customer In this episode, Jason and Chris discuss how the reverse logistics industry is badly broken and how uReturn intends to help fix it

Tom Coburn is the Co-Founder & CEO of Jebbit - https://www.jebbit.com Jebbit is a 'Quiz Commerce' SaaS platform for eCommerce Jebbit allows merchants to create interactive quizzes and gamification experiences that gather zero/first party customer product preference data to create a hyper personalised, guided shopping experience Jebbit allows merchants to recommend the right products, to the right customers, at the right time, in the moment based on product preferences the customer provides in real time In this episode, Jason and Tom discuss how and why merchants can and should gather detailed customer preference data in a fun, customer friendly way and then use that data to personalise the customer journey now and into the future

James Taylor is the Founder & CEO of Particular Audience - https://particularaudience.com Particular Audience is a dynamic eCommerce website personalisation platform for commerce Particular audience also helps merchants personalise the customer experience across other digital platforms and services via native integrations with 3rd party marketing tools Particular Audience is a true 'Search & Merch' platform, personalising the customer experience across site search, category merchandising, product recommendations and content In this episode, Jason and James discuss how important it is to personalise the experience for each and every customer if they are to feel valued, appreciated and ultimately brand loyal

Mike Angell is a Co-Founder & CTO of Fractal - https://www.fractal.is Fractal is a new Gaming NFT Marketplace Mike's well known Fractal co-founders are: Justin Kan (co-founder of Twitch), David Wurtz (founder, Charm.io) and Robin Chan (Founder & GP, Goat Capital) Mike is a legend in the eCommerce space and this is his 2nd time guesting on the Pod (he was also on E81) - he is our first ever repeat guest Fractal co-founder David Wurtz was also a previous guest on E96 of the Pod In this episode, Jason and Mike discuss how Fractal came to be, how he got involved and how he thinks Web3 will dramatically impact commerce as we know it

Subbu is the Founder & CEO of Zycada - https://www.zycada.com Zycada is SaaS based website performance optimisation platform Zycada uses completely unique and proprietary technology to help accelerate websites by fully caching them all around the world, ensuring the content is being rendered from close to the site visitor Zycada differs from traditional CDN's in that it even caches dynamic content and data ensuring performance is not compromised by having to fetch this dynamic data in real time In this episode, Jason and Subbu discuss the root causes of site performance issues and how businesses can solve for them for better web rankings, customer experience and ultimately sales and profit

Sam is the Founder of GiveTree - https://www.givetree.io GiveTree is a coming (launch planned for April 2022) social good and fundraising NFT marketplace platform combined with a social good focused Metaverse platform Sam had a vision to combine charitable fund raising and NFT's - GiveTree is the fruit of that vision Sam went from knowing almost nothing about NFT's to building a HUGE Discord community around his project in a matter of weeks - such is the power of the Web3 In this episode, Jason and Sam discuss all things Social Good/Impact, Web3, NFT's, how Discord plays an essential part of most successful Web3 projects, how Crypto underpins Web3 transactions and how no one really knows how Web3 will turn out yet This is the first of many episodes dedicated to Web3 and key players in the space

Peter is the APAC Sales Director for impact.com - https://impact.com impact.com is a US-based SaaS partnership management platform with 14 offices across the world including 2 in Australia impact.com helps technology vendors, merchants and agencies manage all types of partnerships and collaborations across the entire partnership lifecycle impact.com makes the creation and logistics of partnerships seamless, easy and collaborative - from Discovery to Recruitment, Contracts & Payments, Engagement, Optimisation, Analytics and beyond In this episode, Jason and Peter talk about how partnerships are the new growth hacking and how the top leaders in eCommerce don't go it alone - they do it in close collaboration with key partners that bring unique and valuable synergies to the table for mutual benefit

Sara is the CMO of Brightpearl - https://www.brightpearl.com Brightpearl is a UK based, end to end SaaS omnichannel operations platform for merchants Brightpearl encompasses IMS, OMS, WMS, POS, CRM, Demand Planning, Financial and Analytics modules You can think of Brightpearl as a SaaS ERP in steroids, designed for mid-size+ retailers In this episode, Jason and Sara talk about the state of retail and how brands can leverage modern omnichannel tech like Brightpearl to ease all facets of their business operations*This episode was recorded before the announcement in late December 2021 that Brightpearl was to be acquired by Sage

Karen is the Founder & CEO of ShipperHQ and WebShopApps Karen is an iconic tech pioneer in the eCommerce space, helping merchants improve eCommerce experiences for their customers since 2008 ShipperHQ is a SaaS platform that helps manage highly complex shipping rules, custom logic and calculations on eCommerce sites ShipperHQ is based in Austin, Texas and has out of the box integrations with all popular eCommerce platforms In this episode, Jason and Karen take a stroll down memory lane and discuss what it takes to build ground breaking eCommerce tech in a highly competitive industry while creating an environment where teams can do their best work

Rick is the Co-Founder & CEO of Field Agent - https://www.fieldagent.net Field Agent is a SaaS mobile app that connects secret shoppers with brands Field Agent was one of the first iOS apps ever created/approved and from day one it was designed to facilitate and automate the process of finding and engaging with secret shoppers to monitor and improve the brandcustomer experience In this episode, Jason and Rick discuss how brands can validate their level of customer centricity by engaging impartial agents that then document their actual experiences with that brand

Hai is the Co-Founder & CEO of Eva - https://eva.guru Eva is a full spectrum SaaS platform that helps merchants monitor, manage and enhance their performance on Amazon. Eva has multiple modules such as AI-powered Repricing, Restocking & Reimbursement Eva also offers a services layer that helps with Amazon PPC, store management and fulfillment In this episode, Jason and Hai discuss how Amazon has come to dominate in the marketplace space and how merchants can leverage it to rapidly grow their business while containing management complexity and cost through smart automation

Cameron is the Founder & CEO of PaySQUAD - https://www.paysquad.co.nz PaySQUAD is a new eCommerce Fintech and Payments platform that supports shared, social payments PaySQUAD allows a group of people to easily pay for a single online eCommerce transaction Think of scenarios where a group of people might want to do this - such as a family gift for a parent - this is what PaySQUAD is all about PaySQUAD allows payments to go shared and social using simple, mobile SaaS tech In this episode, Jason and Cameron discuss the evolution of retail eCommerce payments and how he is building a new payments empire from the deep south of New Zealand

Adam is the Co-Founder & Director of Snatchit - https://www.mysnatchit.shop Snatchit is a SaaS eCommerce Influencer Marketplace & Affiliate Platform Snatchit connects Shopify retailer websites with influencers to allow them to easily share and recommend the retailer's products to their audiences and earn commissions for doing so Snatchit connects influencers with brands via mobile app and allows them to easily benefit from recommending products they already love Snatchit is also a retail marketplace app that allows consumers to easily search, find and purchase products via shared influencer links Snatchit was born out of a chance connection and business deal with Gary Vaynerchuk In this episode, Jason and Adam discuss the changing face of influencer marketing and how brands can leverage 'authentic influence' for eCommerce growth

Abhishek (Abhi) is the Co-Founder & CEO of Okkular - https://www.okkular.io Okkular is a retail SaaS Tech Platform Okkular helps merchants dynamically/automatically enrich their products with accurate product descriptions, attributes and tags based on machine vision and visual AI with a particular focus on fashion verticals Fashion brands (particularly fast fashion) often struggle to maintain their product catalogs to keep up with the pace of product release cycles - this is where Okkular can help In this episode, Jason and Abhishek discuss the challenges facing the fashion industry in the areas of catalog data maintenance, quality and customer experience and how the Okkular solution came to be

Jason is the Co-Founder & Executive Chair of Marketplacer - https://marketplacer.com Marketplacer is a SaaS eCommerce Marketplace Platform Marketplacer is one of the very few 'turn-key' marketplace platforms in the world Many brands are now looking at starting a marketplace to expand their offering, better monetise their existing traffic or start a standalone marketplace to fill a gap in the market In this episode, Jason and Jason discuss how marketplaces have become one of the most popular eCommerce channels in the world and how brands can leverage this to their advantage!

Eric is the Founder & CEO of TextChat - https://www.textchat.com TextChat is live chat platform that alerts agents via text message in real time when a customer activates a chat session with them This unique notification systems helps ensure that remote teams never miss a chat message again TextChat is also looking at bringing their notification system to WhatsApp in the near future Live chat is a game changer for merchants looking to scale their customer service function cost effectively, while also bringing higher levels of service to their customers In this episode, Jason and Eric discuss the power of live chat and the benefits of chat to even smaller eCommerce merchants without dedicated customer service or sales teams

Bar is the Co-founder & CEO of Balance Payments - https://www.getbalance.com Balance is a specialist B2B payments platform and fintech solution provider based out of Tel Aviv B2B merchants & marketplaces have very unique payment system requirements and Balance is the first and perhaps only platform specialising in this space Balance was specifically designed to help B2B merchants and marketplaces manage B2B payment methods, types and complexity in a seamless, B2C like way In this episode, Jason and Bar discuss the explosion of B2B eCommerce and how it has created the need for more creative and innovative B2B payment solutions like Balance

Greg is the Founder & CEO of Devicedesk - https://www.devicedesk.com Devicedesk is a 6 year old, specialist B2B SaaS enterprise eCommerce & order management platform based out of Melbourne, Australia Enterprise B2B merchants have very unique needs, especially in verticals like IT products, IT services and Telcos Devicedesk was specifically built for these complex environments Devicedesk makes it easy to deploy and connect B2B eCommerce experiences with B2B buyers In this episode, Jason and Greg discuss how the rise of B2B eCommerce has forced brands to revisit their eCommerce experience to help eliminate buying friction and better emulate the B2C eCommerce experience

Shadi is the Founder & Director of Spiff3D - https://spiff3d.com Spiff3D is a SaaS eCommerce product customisation platform Spiff3D allows almost any eCommerce merchant to customise & personalise their products, thereby creating a deeper customer connection and making more profit per order Merchants can use Spiff3D to create the front end product customisation customer experience, manage back office customisation & fulfillment operations and run detailed analytics on customised product sales and margin performance, all in one, easy to use platform In this episode, Jason and Shadi discuss the rise of made to order/on-demand, hyper personalised products and how brands can leverage modern technology to differentiate their product offering and make more money in the process

Dennis is the Founder of CEO of Postalytics - https://www.postalytics.com Postalytics is a SaaS direct mail marketing automation platform - think of it like Klaviyo but for direct (physical) mail Postalytics brings the power of segmentation, marketing automation, workflows and sending to an easy to use SaaS direct mail marketing automation platform for brands Merchants can use the Postalytics interface to create direct mail workflows and campaigns, designate target recipient groups/segments and trigger off the printing and mailing functions, with end to end trackability right from the Postalytics platform In this episode, Jason and Dennis discuss how brands can leverage direct mail, automation and mail analytics to dramatically improve their brand experience and achieve messaging cut through that rivals email