E-Commerce Revolution with Maier Bianchi - 90

In this episode of the D2Z Podcast, join host and Gen Z entrepreneur Brandon Amoroso as he delves into the dynamic world of e-commerce and web development with special guest Maier Bianchi, the founder of Bemeir, a digital commerce and UX design agency. Get ready to embark on a journey through the ever-evolving landscape of online commerce.

Maier Bianchi shares his captivating journey into e-commerce, from early family exposure to his family's Halloween store to becoming a technology and web development expert. With years of experience across various e-commerce platforms, Maier offers unique insights into the market's evolution.

Discover the shifting dynamics of e-commerce platforms, including Shopify's remarkable ascent in recent years, and how each platform caters to specific industry needs.

Explore exciting e-commerce trends, like the concept of e-commerce empowerment and the significance of loyalty and membership programs in building strong customer communities.

Join us for a deep dive into e-commerce's competitive landscape, future possibilities, and Maier's impactful project, 'Hearts of Commerce,' dedicated to raising awareness about congenital heart disease within the e-commerce community. Stay ahead in the ever-changing world of e-commerce and web development.

Timestamps:

🎙️ Introduction to Maier Bianchi and Bemeir - (00:00:00)

💼 From Family Business to E-Commerce Development - (00:02:20)

💻 Learning HTML, CSS, and Web Development - (00:03:07)

🚀 Journey to Starting Bemeir - (00:04:33)

🔄 Evolution of E-Commerce Platforms - (00:05:48)

🛍️ Shopify's Dominance in the Market - (00:06:01)

🔌 Importance of Integration and Scalability - (00:09:55)

💲 Pricing and Negotiations with E-Commerce Platforms - (00:10:26)

🚀 E-commerce Trends for 2024 - (00:13:22)

🤝 Loyalty and Memberships - (00:16:14)

🤝 Collaborative Commerce - (00:17:12)

📦 Building Second Orders and Customer Communication - (00:18:38)

🌐 Ecosystems of E-commerce Platforms - (00:22:08)

🌍 Impact vs. Making Money - (00:28:18)

🚀 The Future of E-commerce Platforms - (00:31:32)

❤️ Hearts of Commerce Project - (00:36:17)

Maier Bianchi

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/maierbianchi/

Bemir - https://bemeir.com/

Cryptan Labs - https://cryptanlabs.com/

Hearts of Commerce - https://www.heartsofcommerce.org/

Brandon Amoroso:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonamoroso/

Web - https://brandonamoroso.com/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/bamoroso11/

X - https://twitter.com/AmorosoBrandon

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

I'm Brandon Amoroso and this is the D2Z podcast Building and growing your business from a Gen Z perspective. Hey, everyone, thanks for tuning in to D2Z, a podcast about using the Gen Z mindset to grow your business. I'm Gen Z entrepreneur Brandon Amoroso, founder and president of Retention of the Service Agency ELECTR. Today I'm talking with Mayor Bianchi, founder of Beemire, an e-commerce and web development agency specializing in digital commerce, UI, UX design, Magento II, Shopify and a whole lot more. Thanks for coming on the show.

Speaker 2: 0:39

Thanks for having me on, Brandon. Hi, I'm Mayor Bianchi, millennial entrepreneur and agency founder. Pleasure to be here. I think you said it best. That's what we're focused on. We're a full service e-com agency focused on those platforms and more Just excited to chat today. Also, this little tiny plug is I'm big on spreading awareness about heart disease in the e-commerce world, which is something we could talk about, but basically just all about trying to do good things as well as run a great company.

Speaker 1: 1:08

Nice. Can you talk a little bit about how you got into e-commerce to begin with and why you decided to start your own business?

Speaker 2: 1:15

Sure, I've been working in e-com and retail for the last 20 years. I grew up in a family business. There was a Halloween store in New York City so I got exposed to a lot of the machinations in the back office side of things like the purchasing, receiving, shipping, buying, it and that sort of stuff in the early stages and they were an early adopter of e-com. They had it running out of their POS system. So that was my first direct touches with e-com in terms of hearing a success story or seeing some early adoption. So that was Omni Channel before. It was cool, right, or that was something where it was shipping and receiving from the same location and there was an in-store experience. And then I kind of was always into technology and computers as a kid video games etc. And in liked multimedia and art and that type of stuff and so through high school and then young college just got more in that lane. And then there was a certain point where I started teaching myself HTML, css and development type of stuff Was also working on that website. It was an ASPnet based cart and I got to do a lot of the operations, like you know the shipping, receiving, fulfillment, customer service and the development and the infrastructure side. So that kind of gave me that perspective.

Speaker 2: 2:35

And then, in around 2010, went to work for a pure play online retailer that was doing kitchen, bath and lighting, got to get more hands on with marketing pixels, adwords, more front end development, and then in the end of the first year, there we were moving to Magento one at the time Magento Enterprise and I kind of got tasked with that project and so that was a full, deep dive, crash course into e-com and getting away from SAS at the time, but it wasn't as free as the SAS we work with now, like Shopify and big commerce, and you know it was much more restrictive, like just to add a pixel to your checkout was a change request and cost a lot of money, and so we wanted the freedom of open source and Magento at the time, and so that's how I got into it, was working there doing a lot of the CTO type of stuff, like helping run the website, helping make the technology decisions and execute the vision of the leadership.

Speaker 2: 3:27

And then in 2014, I was like, hey, I really like helping people, I really like making websites, want to go on and start freelancing.

Speaker 2: 3:34

That's how this company was founded and then quickly got hooked into some key clients like Weedmaps, which is a big player in the cannabis space, and they were more in, had a real software development culture, going from startup to enterprise. So I learned about agile and project development, student product development and a lot more like robust company structures and working on big software teams, and so that was really formative became more of a back end developer. Then I went to work for one more big company and then it was like I decided hey, I want to be at the, the fulcrum of business and technology, and so I moved away from being a developer personally and started focusing more on the overall project lifecycle, and that's also around the time when the agencies started becoming more of an agency and thus be Meyer was born 2017, since then been growing it in a much more like. The company was founded in 2014. But I meant this version of what you see today really was incepted then and has just been growing since.

Speaker 1: 4:33

Yeah, it's similar to you know, when I first started, there was an agency, but it really wasn't just me, and then at a certain point it became, like you know, an actual business with more than one person.

Speaker 2: 4:43

And it's pretty remarkable how that happens, like what they're like. It could be a key client or a key situation, or I'm sure there was something that catalyzed that for you, right?

Speaker 1: 4:51

I mean just the money available to be able to hire that that first team member. Basically, exactly so it was first. Like you know, five to 10 employees were were tough because we never really you're like hiring almost retroactively or like you're hiring to fill roles that you maybe already sold against or things like that, whereas you know now being in a position where we can hire forward looking, that definitely makes things, you know, a lot easier. But you've had a lot of exposure to Ecom and earlier on than me, so I'm like we dabbled in the commerce and some other things. We were never a real partner with any of them and became a Shopify plus partner.

Speaker 1: 5:36

And you know, we only use Shopify really from 2019 onwards. So, with your exposure to some of the other platforms, how has the market changed over the last, you know, five years? Because it feels like to me the writing on the wall is sort of most roads are leading toward Shopify, Even though five years ago it feels like there's a lot more competition with Shopify, especially in the enterprise market.

Speaker 2: 6:01

Yeah, I would say that's a really good question, because back in 2014 around was my first exposures to Shopify and back then it was far less capable of a platform as it is now and same thing like Magento was one way back then. This was prior to Magento two, and then there was kind of like an intertwining of fates or a different level of development in the market and I would say, as you started, like you said, going towards 2019, 2018, 2017, you saw Shopify slowly creeping up into more of that mid market and and I would say that big commerce was always around, but they didn't try to be the big commerce you see today, I would say, until I don't know somewhere in that same timeframe, right Like, and so Salesforce commerce cloud grew a lot as well. I know that was something else and it became that, and so I would just say there's definitely been more diversity and freedom of choice to do similar things with similar platforms. But then I agree with you that I've seen Shopify become the answer for a lot of businesses, both small, large, medium, and that's a testament to how they've developed that platform, right Like the fact that there's 2000 engineers, the quarterly product updates, the, you know like, even if there's a deficiency in the platform, there's some situation to address it, or they're at least adding the basic tent pole service so that a small entrepreneur could take advantage of it. But then when you want something bigger, you go to a partner like Klaviyo, for example. They have an email solution built in, but if you're really trying to get serious about email, you're going to go to a real ESP from there.

Speaker 2: 7:32

And same thing with, like Magento. Magento is an open source product that was bought by Adobe and so in the Adobe transformation, a lot of things change like they. They. They took the enterprise product and rebranded it as Adobe commerce, and then the open source as Magento to open source. And so why that's critical is you have these life cycles where platforms go through boom and bust cycles. So the early stages of Magento two were really rough because a lot of brands upgraded before they should have, because they were either pushed or there were external factors. But then, as you know, projects get a product, get a maturation. So now we're Magento two sits in 2023.

Speaker 2: 8:11

Is you usually see brands using it who need something more custom or have a multi site, multi store type of situation or other? Really you know, hey, we need our platform to work for us in this way and we want to conform it to those standards. It allows you to do that. Versus historically with Shopify, you had to do a lot of workarounds, you had to have a lot of external systems or ways to tie it all together. But even now I think Shopify is going through a period where you're able to do much more on the platform and there's more features like B2B or there's commerce components and the way they're trying to go after certain enterprise segments. It's just like it's. It's checking a lot of boxes and you can do most of the things you need to do. I would just say, from a licensing or model standpoint, there might be restrictions which keep you from using it if you're a certain type of business, but once you get to a certain level, I feel like those you know those deals get done in the back room.

Speaker 2: 9:01

And then big commerce.

Speaker 2: 9:04

It pitched itself as the open sass and it was a you know, a flavor by flavor competitor to Shopify.

Speaker 2: 9:10

But where I think it hasn't kept up is like the front end experiences and you know some of the administration features, that which it was better than Shopify before. Shopify has now maybe papered out, papered those up, and so you're seeing a lot of aggression in the market space where Shopify is making these hey, free six months if you're on big commerce, which is what we saw with Shopify going after the Magento market segment back in 2018, very similar strategy, you know, like luring people off with really great deals and it's a great platform. So I don't know. I just think the landscape, it's a good time to be a business because you have more tools and freedom than you had in the past, even if there's like less avenues to go down. The avenues that you can go down, check all your boxes, and there's a robust network of partners. And I think that's what's also important is integrations, and how painful it's going to be to expand your platform is something that really goes into those decisions.

Speaker 1: 10:04

Yeah, and you can get, you know them to be pretty competitive, I feel like, you know, since there is that back and forth in terms of you know, not parody, but Most of the platforms now check a lot of the boxes so you can start to put the screws to them a little bit more when it comes to pricing and you know, and things like that, especially the larger you get. But it feels like it's been something easier for you know, companies that started out serving SMB's to work their way up market versus, you know, an upmarket solution trying to come downstream. I haven't really seen that done, you know, necessarily successfully.

Speaker 2: 10:42

That's really true because, at the end of the day, there's certain barriers to entry there.

Speaker 1: 10:48

So what are the certain like? What industries are you typically working within? Is it all over the place or do you have, like specific verticals that you're typically?

Speaker 2: 10:56

working, yeah. So so I would say we've. One thing that I like about my career is I've gotten a chance to work on a lot of different kinds of businesses and see what the similarities and the frameworks are. But then there's always gonna be niche specifics to industry. So right now I would say we're doing some really cool work in fashion, automotive, cpg, food, also like B2B side, and I would say so. Then that really it's industry transcendent, like we don't just say, oh, we're focused on just health and beauty, or we're just focused on fashion, because I feel like there's nuances and Neish use cases within, but then the way you solve those might have similarities. Or maybe because we think globally, we look at the different tools and how they all dovetail.

Speaker 2: 11:40

So I would just say I like e-commerce for what it does for people, meaning like this is a product that's serving another group of people. It's not like you just make a website for the sake of making a website. That website is designed to do something for the end consumer. Vice versa, I think about the people operating the website who are the people day to day that are gonna be updating it, what are their needs? What are the customer service teams needs, and so on and so forth and that's why the way I kind of view it visually in my Mind is that kind of challenge and so that's not really niche specific. But then, for example, sizing and the you know, sizing and fitting clothes and returns might be a very specific challenge to the fashion industry.

Speaker 2: 12:21

Versus in the Consumer packaged goods space. It might just more be about growth and getting people to adopt their products and give them what they call, I guess, wallet share or whatever, like hey, why am I buying this brand of caffeinated mint and how do I keep them buying this brand of caffeinated mint? It's not like a niche specific challenge. It's more about dominating your market segment. So, versus, say, automotive, well, that's all about compliance with laws, that's all about how, what vehicles is this part fit? How is it? You know all those other types of niche specific. So I would say it's a, it's a mix.

Speaker 1: 12:54

Got it. That makes sense. What are some of the trends that you're seeing, then, across the board? You know this year and some of the things they're looking forward to next year.

Speaker 2: 13:03

Well, trends on the platform level or the landscape level, or yeah?

Speaker 1: 13:08

I would say more so in terms of I mean, I think we touched on platform a little bit already. I would say more so specific strategies or tactics that you're deploying with merchants that are generating some outsized returns.

Speaker 2: 13:22

Okay, well, I have some specific areas that I'm really excited about and I'll get into those. And then I also just think we are going to see natural contracting and expanding of markets, meaning, like, what level of ecom is ecom for the sake of ecom and what level of is it? Hey, this is the next great brand story, or this is the next great thing, and so I think, when judging which way people get into selling online Really has a big impact on that. So what I mean is, if you have, for example, you started your brand on Amazon, but now you want to go to Shopify and open up your first direct-to-consumer experience, there's a whole world of things you can take advantage of. Or let's just say, hey, you're in, you've been operating, but now you need to get more profit or you need to squeeze more out of your platform. There's another world, and so I would say, for those just starting out, choose the framework that allows you to grow your business in the way that keeps your business Continually operating or hitting your revenue targets, meaning you might start from the ground up and invest in marketing or invest in Different tools like that. So, for example, I'm constantly excited about new entrance to market. Like I know, send lanes been around, but it's nice to know there's alternatives for Clavio that are going after the same market share, for example. So in the email and SMS space, I'm excited to know that there's a healthy competition so that dominant players don't just become the standard and there's not enough Thought. And then, for example, in the payment space. You're seeing constant new innovations there, right Like Clarna was big years ago, but now PayPal is doing new stuff for stripes doing new stuff. We're in the Shopify space shop. If I was constantly innovating how you use shop pay and more Find out pay later and more paying for and more of that stuff, even though it's already been a thing, it's just you're seeing that stuff either hit critical mass or run into a change that's gonna impact the industry.

Speaker 2: 15:14

Another thing is the use of AI. I know that's the topic on everyone's mind, meaning like review, mining and Taking more data that you get from your customers and what they bring you and being able to do more with it. I think that this isn't, if we want to say anything about 2024, soundbite. It's the era of e-commerce empowerment. No, never before have you been able to do so much with so little and, I think the smartest brand operators and teams are going to use that to create economic advantages for themselves in what's going to be a difficult economic climate in 24, or continue to be a Dynamic and changing climate, because no one can really predict the future, but I think that's where you're gonna see People rise and fall or things grow. So I'll just say that.

Speaker 2: 15:59

And then two areas that I'm personally excited about our loyalty and memberships, subscriptions and doing more with those kinds of tools and companies, and how brands can constantly innovate new ways to build communities with their Customers and engage with their customers. I think so much of the face-to-face and Actually building up who are my customers and how do I talk to them Gets lost when you're thinking in a macro level like, hey, I need to grow my brand, I need to do this. What about the actual people that shop there? What about the actual stories behind it? And I think a lot of brands are doing nice things with that and social content.

Speaker 2: 16:36

And then other stuff I'm really bullish on is mobile. You know, like companies like tap card or other entrance to the market, like at brew, there's a lot or a global like you know, there's a lot of companies out there doing more and more with mobile apps, and I think that's an area I'm really bullish on. You know, like for me that is cool. And then you're also seeing a lot of this new concept of collaborative commerce and and kind of being able to turn every site into a marketplace or sell more products or get your product and in other channels, and so I think multi-channel is something I'm big on for 2024 as well.

Speaker 1: 17:12

Yeah, the app sort of comeback has been Interesting to see, plus the fact that push notifications don't come with the same cost of like SMS marketing, which has been getting more and more expensive. Yeah and then you know direct mail as a means of not only new cost. But also retention. Yeah, since season, pretty great results with them, which is kind of funny because it's just so yeah that's why we need school.

Speaker 2: 17:39

But that's why we got to keep the US postal service alive. Man Like you can't just treat it like a commodity. Like we built that. You know, like the pony express, like the mail had to get delivered no matter what, and I think it's cool that there's tools and services bringing that into the digital realm, or thinking of, you know, number 14 in a 20-point sequence as send a postcard like I like that. It means like I like that. It makes people think and you don't have to just be so digital.

Speaker 1: 18:06

Yeah, and it's more personal, it feels like to, and there's no other services as well That'll do the handwritten letters and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah, the. You know the. For me, like you know, that leads into like surprise and delight, but I'm sort of bearish on surprise and delight and would prefer that most brands communicate ahead of time. You know, like what's coming in, order number two, because then you get to use that as leverage to get more people to actually make that second order, versus, you know, hiding it and then only the people who are already going to make that second order regardless, are getting it.

Speaker 1: 18:42

So, like that's what we've been trying to do with a lot of brands we work with, is, you know, building out that second, third, fourth, fifth, etc. Like post purchase journey and then letting everyone know from the get go, if you keep buying from us, like that's literally all you have to do, just keep buying. These are the things that will happen for you, whether it's based off of order milestones, based off of, you know, lifetime value and then hyper communicating that through the transactional communications, just everything.

Speaker 2: 19:09

Like if you get to order 50, the CEO is going to show up at your house, man, like with a briefcase. You know, like that would be cool, like no, I think that's good because it's gamification in a way, or it's at least creating some kind of altruistic ranking. Like I agree with you. It's like, you know, when you go somewhere and you see some VIP thing happening and you're like, why didn't I know about that? You know like, oh man, I. That makes me wish I did this sooner. So if you're telling people, hey, on your third order, we're going to give you this gift, you might find a reason to steer that second order or steer that third order into the, into the way. That's a really good point.

Speaker 2: 19:44

Yeah, yeah, the you're saying like, instead of somebody seeing that one person on social who got the monogram gift. Like same thing with Shopify, right Like you see those people pop up like oh, congrats on your 50,000 orders, or whatever those you know, pendants and milestones they give out, making that more clear, like hey, if you invest in growing your platform, we're going to reward you with awards or whatever.

Speaker 1: 20:07

I think it's just a mindset shift a little bit as well, because you take a look at, you know, a lot of businesses still are hyper focused on getting that first purchase and on paid media optimization. And they might have, you know, tens of thousands of customers who have ordered 10 times or more, but those customers get the same treatment and same experience as anybody else you know. You could make, you know, triple off of them, versus chasing the folks out there who don't even care about your brand yet.

Speaker 1: 20:34

So 50 is ordering again a call from the CEO. I would hope that's true, but it's often not the case.

Speaker 2: 20:41

Well, and that's what I'm. My point was something I said earlier is, like what makes people so uncomfortable these days to just pick up the phone and be like hey, you know, hey, nice to see you, mrs So-and-So, like I saw I'm calling from here. I saw that you ordered this. Don't worry, I'm not trying to sell you anything, nothing's wrong. But we just wanted to chat about your experience and, like you know, creating that more personal relationship is something that's not. It just costs time, but it doesn't cost you money to build those kinds of connections and find out what people really think or how they feel about the brand and vice versa. Like you said, you know, automating that in some way or making sure people that are rewarded for being loyal customers is, I think, so important, and it's not just a point system, it's not just that, it's like something more tangible.

Speaker 1: 21:30

Yeah, I agree. So, given that you are working within, you know these different platforms. What do you think about the sort of lack of ecosystem that exists in? You know platforms outside of Shopify? And what I mean by that is like, if you're a e-commerce app, it feels like you build for Shopify first and foremost and then like, maybe if you get big enough within Shopify, then you move to. You know, oh, we'll support this platform as well, or support this other platform as well. Do you think that's true or like you know, how does that impact things?

Speaker 2: 22:11

I would say, that's a very loaded question because it I could lead my response can make me look like a fanboy for other platforms, like, really like it, ain't like that. So I would put it to you like this I would say that is driven by the vision of a single founder or the people funding that founder. Meaning you go to a VC, hey, I want to build this thing. Or they're like, cool, you need to do it on Shopify because that's where the money's at. So then you're going to stick to that, because you were told to stick to that. And if you're going outside of that, well, hey, you're not committed to building your vision, right. And then if you're a solo founder, hey, I only have so many hands. How can I support this many integration? So I'll give you a good example.

Speaker 2: 22:49

We built our first piece of software recently and it's for it's it's air. You know air call. So we are the official integrator of air call and Magento too. And it's because air call used to make their own and then they dropped it and we saw an opportunity to bring that functionality back. We got the green light to do it and then we brought it to market. That being said, if I want to do the same thing tomorrow for Shopify. Shopify it would be another set of you know deliverables, another set of um programming to do it. So I would just say like, let's look at O'Kendo now. O'kendo great reviews, platform, right, really cool entrance to the Shopify and market space. They've blown up since they started. We're a partner. I would love it if they were on Magento, because then if someone's designed to replatform or we want to invest in growing that stack, then we can now be experts in something that has utility past one platform.

Speaker 2: 23:48

For example, klaviyo, really smart company, integrated with everyone very early on and when I say early on, I just mean before everyone had heard of it Like it was already integrating with Magento two in 2020. It was already integrating with big you know, like they knew where they were going as a company and so that probably helped them become more ubiquitous, because email solutions are more about meeting people where they are right. Mailchimp integrates with everything List, track, dot, digital, et cetera and so I would say that to me is kind of like how you define yourself, and so I just think Shopify is such a big market share and it's such a big place to operate that the elitism of oh, this is the best and only platform gets confused with what I said before, which is resource challenges and focus challenges, and so I would say it's about the chicken and the egg. If you have a really good customer to support or you can see a base of customers you're going to support, that's what's going to make you want to enter into another market, but you have to do it at the right time, and so I would just say I look at it both ways right. So there's new entrance to market and Shopify, such as shop lift.

Speaker 2: 24:57

Shop lift dot AI is an AB testing solution. What makes them so incredible to me is it's the first AB testing solution I've seen that is not platform agnostic, it's platform centric, and they actually use the theming structure and the schema and the settings and all the things. That makes Shopify a pain to operate from an AB testing standpoint, where you're going to have to do code based solutions. Well, guess what? Now an admin can actually run those more sophisticated split testing that they've always wanted to run, without a developer, for example, or with a minimal developer impact, and so I would say that's where only doing that on Shopify allows you to do that, because you can't do that with another platform for whatever reason, or you could, but it's going to be limited. And so that's some of the areas where I think Shopify is amazing and how it empowers the ecosystem. And so, for example, you do have really robust ecosystems and other platforms like big commerce, like Magento, you see, like tons of extension providers, tons of vendors, like it's not like there's a lack of solutions. But that's what makes me usually consider building on Shopify.

Speaker 2: 26:01

First is the fact that I know if a brand, who's especially just starting a new website or a new presence, if we put you on Shopify, we are going to be able to get you connected to whatever you need at the pace you grow, and only if you get to some point where you hit some major roadblock is Shopify going to be a bad fit for you. Then why wouldn't I choose that 99 times out of a hundred? Because I can get you the postcards on step 13 if you're on Shopify, but I won't be able to get you that if you're on another platform. Well, isn't that a shame? Because I, for example, there was a fitness company I was working with. They were in home personal training and digital personal training right Like virtual personal training, and I was like hey man, you're using this esoteric fitness system or you're using this other system. Wouldn't it be cool if you just forget how to do this on Shopify? Because now you're going to have an advantage on every other one of your competitors because this suite of thousands of apps or just you know, hundreds of best in class apps becomes available to you.

Speaker 2: 26:55

And so that's where, I would say, that's why it's an attractive ecosystem to build in, because there's already built in market share and there's also other competitors who you can go toe to toe against, whose position isn't necessarily safe in the market. Or if there's something that truly hasn't been invented, then at least you know there's enough of an audience to build it. Like, for example, we have a product we want to put out on Shopify that's more aimed at the agencies and developers, but once again, it's such a popular ecosystem that I know there's a target, addressable market. It's just how do you meet those demands or how do you find those people? But hopefully that was a load. It wasn't as loaded as I thought. It was actually a really fun question, it's always a little bit loaded.

Speaker 1: 27:34

I mean, I'm biased towards Shopify, obviously. Is that where most of my expertise is? Yeah, but you don't seem like one of those elitists that literally out here every day talking bad things about everyone else.

Speaker 2: 27:45

You know, and that's what I'm saying, there's a lot of tearing down culture that I'm seeing, and I've seen this tear down culture come from the executive leadership of Shopify, which surprises me, because I'm like why, if you're already the best, why do you feel that you're the best? Why do you feel the need to do that? And I think it's a learning moment. Like all companies go through different maturation and I also think in DTC, you have a lot of people that are like oh, look at me, I'm putting up numbers, I'm the best ever. I sold my company for X. Therefore, I'm a genius.

Speaker 2: 28:15

But really, you were there at the right place in the right time and you are a genius, but I think, because the Shopify ecosystem has minted so many millionaires and minted so many success stories. You have people within that echo chamber sitting on their laurels, but it doesn't necessarily represent the entirety of the world and I'm definitely not talking like someone like you. I see as more. Once again, yes, right place at the right time, but you did all the right things and you built something good, and now you're building something even better at drinks because you're like hey, we're taking this area of expertise and we're focusing on a certain niche, with a group of technologists who are trying to solve a certain set of industry challenges. That couldn't happen without Shopify. Like, you wouldn't have been able to get to that point if it wasn't for such a focus.

Speaker 2: 28:59

So I don't like just because we're multi-platform or we're platform agnostic to a point and I'll just be clear Shopify plus is the platform I'm focused on, plus Magento two and Adobe commerce. Those are the two. But then there are other segments we're looking at, like shop where or other growing platforms. But I would say it's not about at least I don't see it as, hey, where can I set up shop and make my million? It's where can we make the most impact. Because ultimately, like I said, these are platforms that are being used by people every day and I care about the love of the game, like doing it to provide a great experience. Doing it to provide a great experience using it. And Shopify, fortunately, has only gotten better. If it was getting worse, everyone would say, hey, it's getting worse. Like when their support gets worse, people call them out, but their product just gets better and better and better and better.

Speaker 1: 29:48

Well, I mean, I think in like 10 years you know, not all of these platforms will be around. Now I think there's. You know, at a certain point they will have to make money and you know, at a certain point the advantages that some have held over others are going to to disappear and I think maybe there will be a Shopify and one other. I don't think there's going to be Shopify plus like nine others where that's still sort of the current state that we're in right now. Yeah, but we'll see. We'll see, yeah.

Speaker 2: 30:19

And also, if we think about it, the way people shop people shop is going to evolve. There's some people forcing it faster than others, but voice, vr, ar, live stream there's so many ways that people shop in other countries which aren't successful here as much as one would think, and so I also think the people that innovate and how they transact commerce might change. Because what if the banking system changes? What if the monetary system changes? What if there's other external factors which change how consumers consume? Well, guess what? There's going to be platforms or things that meet that demand. And then we also can't discount the fact that we're seeing an age of possibly new regulation, meaning like what happens if Amazon gets broken up, or what happens if Google gets broken up, or what happens if somebody comes along and says we want to purchase Shopify for a hundred billion dollars. You know, like what happens then? Or what if Shopify starts doing that because they've been going? And so I think you're also just going to naturally see whatever is happening in the world, there's always going to be someone who wants to do something different. And when you think about open source versus not open source, when you think about hosted versus on-prem, I think those are the things that you're going to see abstracted away, and I think, for example, like, have you ever heard of this new one called Centra? They're like, uk based, expanding in the market, currently advertising like, oh, we switched from Shopify and we've never been happier.

Speaker 2: 31:46

But the point is, is how long is that going to last? Who is that really aimed at? What is the point? And I would say, well, I'm not sure, and I think those are the kind of platforms you're talking about. And then you have these ones that have been around for a long time, like, for example, same Magento two right One that I've talked a lot about on this. That's been around for a really long time. Right, that platform has been in existence since 2007. And it's constantly evolving. And there's a different groups of people stewarding that ecosystem, like there's the official corporate, adobe, and what they see for the product and how it's evolving. And then there's, hey, it's an open source product, you can fork it and do what you want with it, and there will always be that subculture. But then what happens as we go into web three? Or what happens as we go in different directions? And so, personally, that's a question.

Speaker 2: 32:30

I stay up late pondering a lot of the time what you said, because I think you have to be able to adapt and respond to societal level changes. Because, look at 2020, a golden age of e-commerce, right, golden age of remote working, golden age of new things happening brought on by an external change in the world. Therefore, you're kind of like where everyone was like, oh, the timeline has been accelerated, e-commerce is now going to go here hockey stick, and then all of a sudden, in 2022, it was like no, we're going to go back to the trend line we were already on, but you know it isn't changing the utility of it. Look at India 10 years ago, india was doing this with E-com. Now India is like the hottest, growing, biggest E-com market and so you don't think that's going to continue. It's only going to get better and then my innovations might come from there. You know, like the next shop, if I might come out of India, for example.

Speaker 1: 33:22

Yeah, that doesn't make sense. Plus, there's like a lot of money out there and you I look at like a cartcom and they raise an absolute gigantic amount of money to be basically like an all in one e-commerce everything fulfillment, you know the platform, etc. Etc.

Speaker 2: 33:36

And then, they just need off people, right Like I don't even know what happened with cartcom.

Speaker 1: 33:42

Yeah, they did, as did a lot, though, and now these start seeing them hiring again shop, if I did, but now they're hiring again, you know, sort of the same rules. It's fascinating the difference between, like, the public companies versus the private companies. Yeah, because the public companies make, I would argue, even like knee jerk reaction decisions because of stock price, like you know, layoffs In some cases. You know, I think you know, maybe one of the Shopify layoffs was was a good thing. It was you know at, I think, every company. If you grow that quickly at a certain point, you're going to have a lot of redundancies and you're going to have a lot of you know, just areas that don't make sense. I mean, you look at the stories about meta and shit, where people were literally doing nothing for like a year and a half.

Speaker 2: 34:27

Yeah, I was in this job and I literally did. Yeah, and it's like that. Those are the stories you hear. So, no, I agree with you. Sometimes you have to shed your skin or reformulate or re-approach how you're doing something.

Speaker 2: 34:38

And, yeah, I would say like there's a lot of companies, there's a lot of money out there, and you're going to see eras again where there's funding being tossed around right, or there's people who want to invest in the next big thing. And then I'm curious, though like platforms like cartcom, I know they exist, but it's like what causes a business to consider that platform versus another, and why would you want to be in a more locked ecosystem, even though the Shopify ecosystem is very specific and locked in its own ways too, but it's like what makes you want to go outside of that and why invest in one area or another? And I think those are the things that interest me from a platform standpoint, because there's always going to be a reason. Even if, like I said before, 99 out of 100 Shopify could be a good fit for you, what about the percentages of those other people?

Speaker 1: 35:29

Yeah, that's true, it'll be interesting. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show. Before we hop off, though, can you let everybody know where they can get in contact with you or find you online First?

Speaker 2: 35:41

of all, I just want to say thanks for having me. This is a very thought provoking discussion and when I get my thing going, I'm going to have you on to continue because I want to ask all the questions.

Speaker 1: 35:50

Also, if you want to do your plug for what you mentioned at the beginning too, yeah, absolutely so.

Speaker 2: 35:54

First of all, I just want to say thanks and definitely excited to chat further in the future, and you can find us at vmyrcom, you can find me on LinkedIn, Twitter and then also me personally. The thing I was talking about earlier is I started something called the Hearts of Commerce. The idea is that, to you know, I was diagnosed with a congenital heart disease last year that I didn't know I had for a very long time. Many people will find out the hard way, either with the death of a loved one or their loved ones will, you know, find out when they pass away. And so the goal of Hearts of Commerce is to take the collective power and strength of the e-commerce community and how there's so much money, like you said, and so many people and millions of folks working in it, and try to find things that transcend those lines, because things like congenital heart disease don't affect any race, religion or creed. They're just people issues and global human issues, and just through raising awareness or just encouraging people to get more screenings, you could literally detect something to save your life before it's too late.

Speaker 2: 36:52

So I think that's like the noblest of causes, and I wanted to dedicate a percentage of my personal time towards that effort, because not everyone will be as lucky as I was to not be at risk of sudden cardiac arrest, and also, heart disease is one of the biggest killers, and so I think there's a lot of people whose lives have been touched by it. But it's a very uncomfortable subject and it should be on the open more, because the more it is, the more impact we can make. So, yeah, thanks for the opportunity, and that's a LinkedIn page right now that you can follow and anyone. Just hit me up if you want to talk about that.

Speaker 1: 37:20

So awesome. Well, thanks for mentioning that. I appreciate you coming on, Appreciate the conversation and you know we'll definitely have to do this again soon. Thank you, as always, for everybody that's listening. This is Brandon Amoroso. You can find me at BrandonAmorosocom and electricmarkingcom and we will see you next time.