Shaping eCommerce with IronPlane IronPlane

Kicking off our series on how to get the most out of your Agency, Tim speaks with Jared Shields Head of Projects at eCommerce agency IronPlane. In this segment, they focus on the following topics:
• Why is your agency relationship important?
• Client and agency stakeholders
• Why a strong client team lead is essential
• The basics of good bug reporting
• How to manage things that go wrong (and something will go wrong)
• Why a positive relationship encourages a successful project
• A few words about agency billing
• Waterfall vs Agile projects
• Don’t bottle things up.

In this episode Tim talks with Beth Shero, CEO of Shero Commerce about the critical elements of a strong client/agency relationship. Topics discussed in this podcast include:

• Importance of aligning with an agency and providing excellent customer service and value.
• Different paths agencies can take, narrowing or expanding their focus, while maintaining customer service as a core value.
• Discussion on bugs in eCommerce development and the need to have a qualified team, minimize technical debt, and set expectations upfront.
• Building trust, goodwill, and communication in the agency-client relationship as a partnership.
• Advice on transitioning from one development team to another.
• Old-school waterfall projects and Agile development in eCommerce.
• Importance of good code management, security, and documentation to avoid reliance on a single person.
• The significance of trust and mutual partnership in the agency-client relationship, and the need for clear expectations and open communication to foster success.

In this episode of Shaping eCommerce host Tim Bucciarelli  welcomes back Isaiah Bollinger from Trellis to discuss optimizing the client-agency relationships. 

Key topics discussed in the podcast conversation are:

eCommerce Agency Specialization and Services: The discussion focuses on how some agencies choose to maintain a narrow focus on their area of expertise, while others like Trellis transitioned from niche areas to becoming full-service, addressing strategy and marketing in addition to eCommerce platform design, development and implementation.

What is a Full-Service Agency?: The concept of a "full-service" agency is explored, with Isaiah explaining the services Trellis offers and the areas where they currently have gaps. They discuss the challenges of being truly full-service and the importance of building partnerships with experts in specific areas.

Selecting the Right Agency: The conversation covers the considerations and challenges businesses face when selecting agencies, including the trade-offs between freelancers and agencies, expertise, and alignment with the agency's business model.

Rates and Expertise: The discussion touches on the rates charged by agencies and the distinction between agencies and staff augmentation. The importance of aligning past experience with the client's needs is emphasized, and the challenges of finding full stack developers and relying solely on freelancers are mentioned.

Characteristics of a Good Client and Agency: The qualities of a good client are discussed, including understanding the agency's business model, valuing different roles, and actively participating in the project. The characteristics of a high-quality agency are also highlighted, such as building long-lasting solutions and considering future scalability. The importance of project management and having a balanced team is emphasized. The section concludes with a discussion on openness, honesty, and candor in agency-client relationships.”

On the latest episode of Shaping eCommerce, Tim Bucciarelli had the pleasure of interviewing Matthew Eisnor, Dir of Global Alliances at Algolia. On the podcast, they talk about:

- The history and relevance of search
- The Algolia ICP
- Search for B2B
- The difficulty in managing the tens of thousands of long-tail search queries
- Why chatGPT is likely too expensive to scale and run search

#ecommercesolutions #ecommercesoftware #ecommerceproducts  #ecommercetechnologies #enhancedsearch #seo #seoproducts

Find Algolia at: https://www.algolia.com/

On the latest episode of Shaping eCommerce, Tim Bucciarelli had the pleasure of interviewing Michael Potters, Senior Strategic Partner Manager at Gorgias. On the podcast, they talk about:

- His experience being a Gorgias customer and then transitioning to his current role
- The Gorgias ICP
- The plug and play nature of Gorgias that increases time to value
- How Gorgias differs from Zendesk
- How Gorgias powers communications across the entire customer journey

#ecommercesolutions #ecommercesoftware #ecommerceproducts  #ecommercetechnologies #customerservice #customersupport #gorgias

Find Gorgias at: https://www.gorgias.com/

On the latest episode of Shaping eCommerce, Tim Bucciarelli had the pleasure of interviewing Stefan Schinkel, Chief Revenue Officer at dotCMS. On the podcast, they talk about:

- The origins of dotCMS
- dotCMS's ICP
- An ideal content stack
- What sets dotCMS apart from the competition
- The types of businesses best suited to headless architectures
- What's next for dotCMS

#ecommercesolutions #ecommercesoftware #ecommerceproducts  #ecommercetechnologies #headless #composable

00:00 Shaping eCommerce with Stefan Schinkel, Chief Revenue Officer at dotCMS
3:17 dotCMS: a hybrid headless CMS and API-first platform
6:21 Who it’s best suited to (mobile apps, intranet, customer portals)
10:23 A common content stack
17:27 Why choose dotCMS
23:34 What eCommerce platforms are best suited for dotCMS
29:19 Types of businesses that benefit from headless architectures
35:54 Features on the dotCMS roadmap
43:22 Where to learn more about dotCMS

Find dotCMS at: https://www.dotcms.com/