Innovation is the go-to word in ecommerce. Not only do ecommerce brands have to adapt to changing marketing trends, they also need to stay up to date with rapid technological progress.
Damiano Raveenthiran knows a thing or two about innovation. As the Founder and CEO of Startup Slang, Damiano has worked with design development services for over 2000 merchants including brands such as Dyson, Panasonic, and Glu.
We are delighted to welcome Damiano to The Ecom Show. Tune into episode 63 to hear our podcast host and CEO, Daniel Budai, and Damiano discuss:
✔️ Damiano’s Entrepreneurial Journey
✔️ Choosing the Right Marketing Agency
✔️ Using Innovative Technology
✔️ Startup Slang’s Checkout Boosters
✔️ 3 Steps You Need to Succeed in Ecommerce
Like most entrepreneurs, Damiano began freelancing. He’s always been interested in websites and technology, but it was only after he finished school that he began seeing how he could create a career in ecommerce.
After Damiano describes it as a ‘lot of trial and error’, he joined Fiverr as a freelancer in 2016. From learning how to build Shopify stores on YouTube, to developing his skills and experience on Fiverr, Damiano began earning 6 figures in his first year of joining the platform.
Damiano says he’s very grateful to Fiverr for getting him to where he is today. In 2017, he founded Startup Slang. What began as a design services platform evolved into the ‘full stack’ ecommerce agency it is today.
There is a heck of a lot of marketing agencies out there. There are pros and cons of those who offer more specific services and those who have a more generalist approach.
Damiano says that any agency that has the full ecommerce supply chain will have some services that are better than others. Startup Slang, for example, began with design and development, so naturally, their design and development is the strongest in their stack. Coupled with Damiano’s focus on automation, Startup Slang had strong foundations for its evolution into a growth package for startups.
Damiano’s advice is to look at company structure. It’s not about knowing if something is ‘better’ or ‘worse’, it’s more about discerning whether their strengths are channeled towards the processes you’re looking for.
One of Damiano’s proudest ventures involves a furniture store. Furniture ecommerce, Damiano explains, is one of Startup Slang’s strengths. Once you solve problems for one store, you’ve solved most of the problems for the others.
Startup Slang connected one of their furniture stores in the US with a mobile game where users can design their own home decor. This allowed players to purchase in-game furniture using in-game currency. The app has about 3 million players per day, so it’s been a fantastic extra source of revenue for Startup Slang’s client.
Damiano’s case study gives a clear message to any merchants looking for agencies: look for agencies who have an innovative approach. Thinking outside the box in terms of marketing channels and technology really pays off.
Talking of innovation, Damiano chats to Daniel about Startup Slang’s new checkout boosters.
When you run a marketing campaign, you’re going to have a lot of people that don’t go through the entire funnel. That is, there are a lot of abandoned carts.
Damiano noticed that many of his clients had millions of dollars waiting in abandoned carts. An ecommerce store has the option to send out abandoned cart flows via email and SMS, but that’s usually where the touchpoints stop.
Startup Slang experimented with calling up customers who abandoned their carts. An abandoned cart call generally had 3 outcomes:
Even if a customer didn’t complete their transaction, their reason for not doing so offered great data for sales funnel improvement. Startup Slang saw fantastic results for their merchants, even doubling conversion rates in many cases.
Watch this space for StartupSlang’s upcoming Abandoned Cart Caller app!
Over the last 3, Damiano has worked with over 2000 merchants. It’s safe to say he knows startups, and he knows ecommerce. Damiano advices that failed ecommerce startups miss 3 crucial steps:
If you don’t figure your product out, you’re doing a disservice to your brand and customers. Don’t start with anything else, not even your website, until you know your product.
Once you know your product. Make sure your content - videos, photographs, text, design etc is top-notch. Use everything necessary to talk to your audience.
Now we could talk about CRO until the cows come home. Once you’ve done the initial work of making sure that your customer/product experience is perfect and the content is really speaking to your audience then you’ll have a much higher success rate. Also - never forget good customer service.
Thank you so much for joining us, Damiano. If you want to find out more about ecommerce and web development, connect with Damiano on LinkedIn or visit https://startupslang.com/.
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