The ninth Meet Magento Germany is coming up and it will take place in the centre of Leipzig in the Westin Hotel. On 11th and 12th of May the conference will gather Magento and eCommerce enthusiasts to share their experiences and knowledge.
This year we’re sending four Inchooers to this nice little town. We’ve kind of covered all the fields since we’re sending our CEO Tomislav Bilić who just can’t get enough of Leipzig so he’s coming for a second time and he’ll be accompanied by Stanislav Mihić – Fronted developer and Davor Šimek – Backend developer. And the last, but not least, is our eCommerce Consultant Vanja Bunjevac who will share some of his expertise and knowledge to this year’s visitors in his presentation about Incremental Redesign and Product Development.
We didn’t want to leave you completely in the dark so we asked Vanja a few questions about himself, the presentation and his work in the eCommerce.
Vanja, is there anything you’d like to tell us about yourself?
Vanja: Well, I’m an eCommerce consultant at Inchoo, husband, father… I enjoy reading news, books and blogs on eCommerce, game design and frontend development, and those are my 3 essential hobbies. My passion is also fast driving so I enjoy watching Formula and sometimes I treat myself with go-karts racing.
How long have you been working in the field of eCommerce? What did you do before that?
Vanja: Hmm… I think it’s been almost 10 years now. Before that I was studying IT. If it counts, I did direct sales (door to door) of various products as a summer job when I was in high school.
In your opinion what does it take to be a good eCommerce consultant?
Vanja: Really good question. I think that as a basis you need a really good negotiating and sales skills, but you also need to know a lot about the “growth hacking” – SEO, UX, Data Analysis, all kinds of Digital Marketing, Copywriting, Consumer Psychology, Programming, etc…
So, what are you going to talk about at the conference?
Vanja: At the conference I will be talking about an approach of incremental redesign and product development that we at Inchoo are practicing more and more with our clients.
In your experience do clients prefer incremental redesign or would they rather go with a full one?
Vanja: In eCommerce industry technologies and trends evolve rapidly and staying up to date is a necessary condition for survival. Many merchants fail to keep up with trends and best practices and when they realize that they are lagging behind and losing money they usually opt for a full revamp and redesign of the site. So, initially, 99,9% of our clients want a full one…
Can you tell us a bit more about incremental redesign? Why do you think it’s the one to go with?
Vanja: When you do a full redesign of a store, two quality components of usability are completely reset for your customers – efficiency and memorability; and usability, as a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interface is to use, is crucial for every business’s conversion rates and revenue. Generally, with a full redesign you can expect to have a drop in your conversion rates and revenue because your regular customers who already learned how to use your eCommerce store will need to do it again. Some of your customers won’t have time to do it, some won’t be able to find what they were looking for, etc… With incremental redesign and product development, you gradually introduce changes to your customers so they can learn it easier. Everything is also backed up with data, so you can easier determine good changes from the bad and make the best eCommerce solution for your customers.
Are there any projects you can show us where this approach was used? Can you show us some numbers?
Vanja: Yes, but you will need to come to #MM15DE to hear about it, 😉
I’m guessing sometimes radical redesign is the only option or am I wrong? Would incremental approach be better even with a completely outdated or poorly done design?
Vanja: You are right, sometimes there’s no other choice but to go with full redesign. When ratio between the investment and gain is too big, you don’t have other choice. But when a full redesign is done, you should continue to work on your site and test a lot, so you don’t get it the same situation again after several years.
What usually gives you headaches in auditing an online store?
Vanja: When I see a double Google Analytics tracking codes on the site… that’s something I really cannot… Rraaagh! I need an Aspirin now. Thanks!
Do you have any interesting or funny (client-related) stories that you can share with us?
Vanja: This one time I wanted to do an A/B test on a store, in which the variation was not by the will of my dear client. So we spiced it a little bit and made a bet. 🙂 If variation wins I need to send a rakia and if control wins I will get a surprise gift. Luckily, variation won and I got a “Born to Win” t-shirt. And since then, the client doesn’t want to bet with me anymore…
What’s the worst state you found a web shop in?
Vanja: Huh… the worst state you say? That would be the stores in which you can’t buy anything… and they actually are out there 😉
Are you looking forward to meeting or listening to anyone specific at MM?
Vanja: I look forward to seeing the guys from the last year’s MM Switzerland, but I’m also happy about meeting some new faces.
Have you ever visited Leipzig? Is there anything you really wish to see or do? Have you already made some plans or are you just planning to go with the flow?
Vanja: No, I’ve never visited Leipzig and I am not sure what would I wish to see or do there since I was really busy lately and I didn’t have time to think about it. I’ll probably start researching Leipzig few days before the trip… but, I think I’ll mostly rely on our CEO, Tomislav, who is coming with me. He’ll probably have some plans for us since he was already there 🙂
If you are interested in meeting our team at #MM15DE, don’t hesitate to contact us.
