Sebastian Lyner of Emplicit On 5 Things You Need To Know To Build A Highly Successful eCommerce Website

An Interview With Rachel Kline

Video is becoming the most popular way for online shoppers to consume product information from brands, and user-generate video content is already the most trusted source of product recommendations. Designing and building ecommerce experiences around video content drives user engagement and increases sales.

It has been years since eCommerce has changed the face of commerce. The pandemic pushed businesses away from the traditional model even more. The unfortunate reality is that most eCommerce websites will still fail. What are some things to keep in mind to build a highly successful eCommerce website? In this interview series, we are talking to leaders of eCommerce businesses who can share their strategies on creating a very successful eCommerce website. As part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sebastian Lyner, VP Commercial Director at Emplicit.

Sebastian Lyner joined Emplicit in March 2022. He brings over two decades of digital marketing experience with clients in just about every vertical. Seb has managed the creation of complex ecommerce platforms and teams running 8-figure marketing omnichannel marketing campaigns but is equally at home helping incubator brands establish and grow. He brings an entrepreneurial outlook having started two agencies and worked in different types of agencies and in consultancy roles.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we begin, can you please introduce yourself? Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

I’ve spent my career moving back and forth from London to New York, working in agencies of all shapes and sizes, including starting my own. I began in traditional direct marketing and CRM agencies, so it was a natural progression to move into the digital side of things as it emerged, and then into ecommerce.

It has been said that sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?

I remember back when you only saw high-res (press) proofs right before printing. I had to call the client from the printers and tell them the model’s white shorts in one of their photoshoot images left little to the imagination. This would have been caught if the team had reviewed the high-res photo proofs. This was my first lesson to always proof everything.

Recently some AI-generated copy for a listing said the product made “babies taste great”. Further proof that ‘proof everything’ really is the lesson that keeps on giving.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

I’ve worked with many sources of inspiration over the years. The ones who impacted me most were those who clearly cared about the wishes of team members, and who helped you achieve your goals. I’ve tried to emulate that approach. Hopefully my team members agree.

There are some classic lines that I remember and still use today. My first boss, Julie, said, “If you take care of the finances, then everything else takes care of itself”. She was right. Another great boss, Julia, said, “Contact report the shit out of everything. It creates accountability and people can’t change their minds later.” She was so right.

Ok, fantastic. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. What does your eCommerce company do? What was the “Aha Moment” that led to the idea for your current eCommerce business? Can you share that story with us?

Emplicit is an ecommerce agency that specializes in marketplace management and marketing. We help ecommerce brands reach their maximum potential by delivering highly specialized channel expertise tailored to their unique needs. As I like to say, this means we’ll run your ecommerce business as though it was our own money.

I decided to join the Emplicit team because I saw how they create opportunities for brands by staying ahead of the curve given the pace at which ecommerce channels like Amazon, social media, and ecommerce platforms are now evolving.

What was your original vision for your company? How does it help people? What pain point(s) were you trying to solve for your customers?

The company that evolved into Emplicit started out as an Amazon seller. Other sellers started to use our services, and eventually we adopted the agency model, shifting from selling our own products to ecommerce management and marketing exclusively for other brands.

Typical client pain points are obviously sales and margin related, but digging deeper you can see what drives these pain points. There are now literally hundreds of individual factors which impact algorithmic performance, organic and paid rankings, click-throughs, and conversions, all of which contribute to sales and margin. No one person can possibly keep abreast of all these factors, their relative importance, and understand how they interconnect.

Emplicit solves this challenge by having a team of subject matter experts and the agency model enables clients to benefit from 10% of 10 experts, rather than 100% of 1 generalist if they hired internally.

There are more than 12 million eCommerce businesses out there. What do you think makes your company stand out? What are you most proud of? Can you share a story?

There are probably fewer than 200 Amazon specialist agencies out there and even fewer full-service agencies, so the competition isn’t as fierce as it is for ecommerce brands. However, we recognize that clients still have a choice. Emplicit stands out by being a special breed within full-service agencies. Some agencies manage only content, SEO, catalog updates, and paid marketing, but we manage clients’ seller accounts on their behalf, running their brand management, case management, brand protection, customer service (24/7), and inventory and logistics.

Providing integrated store management services generates efficiency, limits suppressions, and increases sales. For example, listings are created with expert compliance and case management input — often with direct input from Amazon — so the product copy is optimized for responses while being less likely to be flagged.

There have been a number of clients for whom we’ve overcome sales hurdles by integrating marketing with inventory. We’ve been able to maintain sales velocity (which is so important for Amazon algorithms), by coordinating media spend, fulfilment methods, and inventory levels, while avoiding being out of stock — a kiss of death on Amazon.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things you need to know to build a highly successful eCommerce website? Please explain each in detail.

1) GREAT GOOGLE LISTINGS BOOST CONVERSIONS

The first tip for a successful ecommerce site is not about the website experience itself, but your representation within Google’s organic search results.

Ranking organically is obviously important for ecommerce success, but the right organic listing will increase click-throughs and sales, and because engagement drives organic ranking, this can drive a positive feedback loop. Indeed, this one approach can generate a 25% or more increase in click-through rates, which will translate directly into sales. It’s efficient too, because optimizing organic search results only needs to be done once for all your product detail pages (PDPs).

Take the trtl Travel Pillow. It is the highest ranked single product when you search “travel pillow” ranking just behind the SEO powerhouses of review sites and some big news sites. Clearly trtl’s product page is heavily optimized, with keyword-rich, unique and educational content (the type of content that Google loves). However, the organic result itself ensures that consumers are most likely to click through. It contains a clear product image, plus rich snippets for rating score and number of reviews, price, delivery information, returns information and stock information. These not only educate the consumer up-front, but ensure the consumer knows what they are clicking on, meaning fewer bounces, deeper engagement, and higher sales conversions.

To achieve this, you first need to include all of that content on your PDPs, which means you might need to invest time and money on attracting reviews, for example. Then you need to ensure that Google can ‘read’ it all, through meta data, structured data/schema markup. For ecommerce platforms like Shopify, there are apps for this, or you can add it yourself on non-hosted ecommerce platforms. This structured data also provides SEO juice, so this one thing can really contribute to success.

2) MOBILE-FIRST SITES WILL OUTPERFORM DESKTOP-FIRST SITES

Mobile devices now account for the just over half of website traffic in the US, and mobile use for ecommerce is not far behind at 43.4% of sales. Depending on your product and target audience you could see those numbers be 20% or 30% higher. Mobile payment methods have made the checkout experience more convenient, but mobile shoppers still say that mobile e-commerce experience could be better.

The problem is that many ecommerce websites begin life as desktop sites with mobile UX and functionality entering planning and design halfway through the process. Mobile should be the first iteration in UX and design and should drive the underlying technical specifications. This is because it is easier to scale up (adding more blocks to a module or expanding content), than to scale down (remove or condense content).

To design mobile-first, every page should have an information hierarchy, so that the primary content is always included, with secondary content added on larger screen sizes. Although mobile users may require different content than desktop users, e.g. limited video content or requires an action to load, a content-first approach will ensure a good mobile experience. In addition to an information hierarchy, mobile sites require a strict visual hierarchy where the important content is displayed more prominently.

Mobile sites should act like apps, making use of off-canvas navigation, expandable widgets, AJAX calls, and other interactive elements on screen to access information without requiring users to refresh a page or scroll for days. Additionally, touchpoints should be big enough for all fingers, large or complex graphics should be avoided, and hovers for the desktop interactions should be used sparingly.

The last thing a mobile site needs is speed because network data and even mobile Wi-Fi isn’t as fast as an ethernet connection. Site speed comes from ensuring premium hosting, a CDN, and restricting apps or add-ons which can dramatically slow sites.

Simply put, if your website is good on a mobile device it will perform and will be easy to translate to all devices.

3) BUILDING A SITE AROUND VIDEO CONTENT WILL INCREASE SALES

Video is becoming the most popular way for online shoppers to consume product information from brands, and user-generate video content is already the most trusted source of product recommendations. Designing and building ecommerce experiences around video content drives user engagement and increases sales.

In an age where you can create and edit videos on your mobile phone in minutes, the production of video content for your ecommerce business doesn’t require significant investment and can be created alongside product photography — videos of models showing off your products will be viewed more than traditional hero image with zoom function. As well as product videos, you can create ‘how to’ videos which demonstrate features and benefits, for use these as product assets or in FAQs.

You can encourage or incentivize customers to produce video reviews and demonstrations, for use on your PDPs — on Amazon you can even have your videos appear on your competitor’s listings. You can also utilize UGC in social media advertising (if your Terms of Use allow). Alternatively, you can use influencers for the creation of video content because it typically guarantees better quality content and favorable comments.

In the future AI-created video content will be used on your website and within social media ads, but right now AI is more useful for enhancing content and ensuring consistency. In the meantime, a video content strategy should be a critical component in any ecommerce strategy.

4) OPTIMIZED SITE SEARCH IS CRITICAL TO PRODUCT DISCOVERY

All ecommerce platforms come with search capabilities with filtering and sorting options, but many out-of-the-box search features lack the ability to really help customers find what they need. When 43% of visitors default to site search and users of site search convert at almost twice the rate of those who don’t use it, a great site search experience can boost sales. The right site search for ecommerce will make user’s lives easier by interpreting their search queries and shorten the path to purchase.

To optimize the site search experience there are six steps you should take.

1. The search bar should be prominent and easy to use, especially on mobile.
2. The search results page should allow faceted search, i.e. users can refine their search by adding additional search terms, and allow filtering and sorting of results.
3. Synonyms and regional language differences should be added to the product metadata. You can use search analytics to determine what users are searching for and adjust your metadata accordingly (you can even add or remove products or categories based on these insights).
4. Utilize AI-driven predictive search (i.e. autocomplete) and error correction to avoid customers giving up if they don’t know how to spell something.
5. Develop merchandising rules and potentially include product recommendations on search results pages — such as related products or cross-sells.
6. Show reviews and ratings in search results to increase click-throughs.

Picking the right tool can be tricky and some require considerable investment — options include Coveo, Bloomreach, Solr, and Elastic Search. Which you select depends on your platform, how much you want to customize the experience (and whether you have development budget or want to simply customize via settings). Some provide personalization options which tailor search results based on previous behavior and others utilize NLP to allow search to understand the user’s intent.

Whichever route you take, optimizing the site search experience is one of the easiest and most effective ways of improving the customer experience and increasing conversion rates.

5) A FRICTIONLESS EXPERIENCE SHOULD GUIDE EVERYTHING YOU DO

This last recommendation is a strategic approach which can be applied to all parts of the online customer journey. Consumers will always take the path of least resistance and leave a website if tasks become too onerous, so by making the desired path to purchase as frictionless as possible, you will avoid bounces and abandoned carts.

The product detail page (PDP) is the single most important page on an ecommerce website. It’s where many visitors should arrive if you have optimized your site for SEO, is a key paid traffic destination, and is the main conversion point. The PDP needs to present all the information a customer might ever need without becoming overwhelming, while providing prominent CTAs and a clear path to purchase.

• Creating informational and display hierarchies and separating product information into features, benefits, specs, instructions, FAQs, etc. will enable users to find what they need.
• Including video content and social proof via UGC and reviews will provide the support.
• Product recommendations at the bottom and “frequently bought together” options will increase basket size and ensure that customers are satisfied with their purchase.
• Including estimated shipping costs or clarifying at what spend shipping is free are great ways to avoid drop-outs once users see the shipping costs (unexpected shipping costs are the top reasons for cart abandonment).
• Consider offering a Buy With Prime button — this shortcuts the whole checkout process for users, and communicates that shipping will be fast and free.

The PDP should not become a dead-end, so it should provide ways for customers to move to other products, dive deeper into brand or feature information, or contact someone via live chat if they can’t find what they are looking for.

An efficient and effective checkout process is the easiest way to turn add to baskets to sales. The focus should be on simplicity and speed. I’ve always felt the ‘one-page’ or ‘one-step’ checkout was a misnomer because it’s obviously a multi-step process, but communicating where users are in the process and making skipping back and forward easy are key.

Ideally you offer as many payment methods as budgets will allow based on standard charges and per-transaction fees. You should offer easy access to guest checkout. The Lululemon website brings users straight to guest checkout if they are not logged in (and displays a widget asking if users have an account), rather than pushing account creation.

Streamlining these two critical stages in the purchase pathway will increase the chances of users buying from you because they will spend more time learning about your products and less time on the bothersome transactional process.

If there were one part of the eCommerce website development process you would have spent 50% more time on, what would it be and why?

Testing.

I’ve been part of the development of hundreds of client websites, and while everyone recognizes the benefits of testing, it feels like you never quite manage to squeeze in all the testing you want to. However, I’d settle for 50% more budget than 50% more time, because I believe that delaying launch only delays the sales increases the new website brings. Besides, you can, and should, continue to test once you’ve launched.

Can you share a few examples of tools or software that you think can dramatically empower emerging eCommerce brands to be more effective and more successful?

The assumption is that many emerging ecommerce brands don’t possess the budgets to invest in higher-end enterprise ERPs like JD Edwards, MS Dynamics, NetSuite, Oracle, or SAP. However, at the same time, many of these brands have multiple ecommerce channels to manage including their website, Amazon, Walmart, Target, Google Shopping, Facebook shopping and other social media apps. It can be resource-intensive to manage even a relatively small catalog across multiple channels, and processing orders from multiple channels is even more complex.

There are tools such as Feedonomics which facilitate the management of your catalog across multiple channels without the need to use integration middleware. One step up are tools like Linnworks, which act as mini ERPs. Linnworks allows you to manage your inventory and orders, and automate key processes, again seamlessly integrating with every ecommerce platform out there — something that not all enterprise ERPs do.

Brands that automate the basics are free to concentrate on the important things like tracking, reporting, analyzing, and planning.

What are the most common mistakes you have seen CEOs & founders make when they start an eCommerce business? What can be done to avoid those errors?

A common mistake we see some brands make is over-confidence in their own product(s). Having a realistic assessment of your strengths and weaknesses versus the competition will enable appropriate product and pricing strategies, guide decisions on which products you are willing to accept less margin on and inform messaging and the content of your CRM program. Remember not all consumers love your product as much as you do.

When creating an omni-channel marketing strategy, some brands can be too strict and apply a blanket ROI across channels, which can end up restricting your media choices and limiting your ability to reach new markets. Obviously, ROI should be your main metric, but amortized across your entire marketing spend. To avoid the trap of efficient marketing that drives few sales, create formulas to calculate what cut-off points are acceptable for different channels, and try to use a blended attribution model. The challenge, of course, is determining on which channels, when, and for how long you tolerate a less favorable ROI.

In your experience, which aspect of running an eCommerce brand tends to be most underestimated? Can you explain or give an example?

Facilitating communication between teams. Marketing operating in isolation may revel in selling-out a SKU, but in reality, they have just impacted the UX and SEO of your website, or worse, black-marked a product on Amazon. Having the content team and paid media team compete for the same keywords can be a waste of effort and budget. Team-wide weekly stand-ups can facilitate collaboration and avoid blockers.

Another aspect of running an ecommerce business which is underestimated is the need for subject matter experts (SMEs). Using generalists means tasks take longer, and the result may only be 80% effective. (I can’t see any client being happy to waste 20% of their marketing budget.) Of course, I might be biased because bringing in SMEs is essentially the agency business model. However, at the same time, we are upfront when we need to bring in a partner to support a client’s needs. For example, setting up website conversion tracking is a super-niche skill and is only typically required post-launch, so we outsource that and are honest to clients that we use a specialist freelancer.

If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

Oh gosh, so many enormous things the world has an incentive to change, but people can’t be bothered to for some reason.

However, something a little more practical is for companies to treat job applicants like human beings. Give them reasons as to why they were not interviewed, provide feedback on interviews, be upfront about salary, be clear on timings, and don’t ghost them. They are job hunting for a reason and they can benefit from your help, even if you are not able to hire them.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

I contribute regularly to our blog (emplicit.co/resources/blog/). I try to keep off NY Post’s Page Six, and my Reddit username is a secret.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!