Interview with Giannis Karalis, CEO of NetSteps: E-commerce, the evolution of marketing & the development of new technologies in Digital Commerce

NetSteps is a Premium eCommerce & Digital Marketing Agency, as its tagline states. During the 9 years of its operation and under the guidance of Giannis Karalis, it has collected in its quiver of collaborations not only big Greek, but also international brands, such as GAP, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, KIKO Milano, Funky Buddha, Migato, Galerie de Beauté, Dust + Cream, Ekdosi Psychogios, Primetel etc., but also the valuable experience brought by dealing with these brands.

From a small group of 5-6 people in 2013, to a large family of 50+ people who love to evolve and add new enthusiastic members to her team.

But what is this valuable experience that the original members of the company have gained and have instilled in the rest of the team? The answer to the above question comes from Giannis Karalis, CEO of NetSteps.

What do the big brands that NetSteps works with mean for its next customer?

A key element in NetSteps DNA is RnD (research and development). We constantly work with our customers on innovative ideas, with which we generate added value for themselves and for the next customers who will come with us. The fermentation of so many years with big brands has created in our team what we call “experience” – both in serving the current needs, but much more in predicting the next steps. these customers are the nurturer of a dynamic source of knowledge, ideas, research and ultimately development, from which everyone gains multiplier.

Performance or Content Marketing? What is the right balance between them?

Initially, the digital world was thrilled with the ability of the performance algorithms of the Facebook and Google platforms. Indeed, they brought spectacular results, creating new opportunities for small and large companies alike, as they now had the opportunity to be heard equally – regardless of brand authority. However, this era had the characteristic that the demand for a piece of “internet plot” was still small, today, this demand is huge!

Thus, with the time and the oversupply of digital services, our team realized how any hunt for optimizations is now left in the hands of computing brains. Already, AI technologies have undertaken performance optimization and it is perfectly certain that they will continue to do so better and better. The human effort in this part is decreasing and becomes more technical, with attention should now be shifted to the quality of the original content.

Today, the world of digital commerce needs to recognize the value of unique content, which without breaking the common visual forms and basic advertising words, always comes first in the appreciation of the public. As with traditional marketing, every advertising poster, brochure, card or sign came from an original idea and was based on a clever copy. So today, the real ad that impresses the public is the one that invests in exciting the mind and the eyes.

Therefore, the scales are now leaning towards content marketing, since all the big brands are already returning to this logic and it is now the central concern of our company to create special and distinctive content, which succeeds in gaining distinctions for its originality and performance. A very strong content combined with a deep knowledge of the rules of performance marketing is the golden rule of success.

Is there a customer focus today?

Definitely to a greater extent than in previous years. And in this area, the fast and cheap customer acquisition that initially governed digital commerce through advertising platforms (facebook, google) made us forget the customer: how to retain it, which is a basic principle of commerce.

We went back to this beginning and so we created it NetSteps Commerce Intelligence (NCI) Platform, with which we help marketers to understand even more customer-centricity, to run strategies, based on the evaluation of their campaigns not only in terms of turnover, but also in terms of the quality of the customer they brought. In this, based on RFM analysis, we group the customer base and answer with real data and very critical questions: which customers are in danger of losing, who are coupon lovers, who are our best customers, which campaign brings me the best customers etc. It is an important tool in the quiver of every entrepreneur and is already trusted by large companies, such as the Saranti Group, GAP and many others.

Headless Commerce and PWA: is it the next big thing in the Digital Commerce world?

Definitely yes, although it is not something new! The biggest names like Google, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Uber have switched to PWA technology years ago. We are just now living this transition to eCommerce, with Alibaba starting 3 years ago and now About You and the Galerie de Beauté in Greece.

At NetSteps we are very proud that with the implementation of Galerie de Beauté’s PWA we offer a Reliable, fast and highly engaging experience for users regardless of device. Although our name is associated with Magento, we have chosen for the implementation of PWAs a technology that is completely independent of the eShop platform, something that offers tremendous flexibility to entrepreneurs.

With Headless Commerce the trade can be done by any means: tablet, smartwatch, or in-store! The experience of the users now, but also the flexibility of the merchants to do e-commerce everywhere, quickly and easily is undoubtedly the next big thing, then!

The launch of Findbar, of which you are a co-founder, was recently announced. What problem is Findbar coming to solve?

It’s quite simple in essence: Findbar undertakes to find the product / information you are looking for in each site. If you go to the search bar today -even on large sites-, you will have a hard time (and probably will not succeed) in finding what you are looking for. It makes sense, as “search” is a very difficult problem, which in practice Google has solved for the World Wide Web. user does not want to waste time searching from the main menu and endless product pages – he wants to write (or say) “sweatshirt blue extra large” either misspelled or greeklish and see the corresponding products. This is the Findbar and it really comes to give meaning to every search term and to make the whole product directory traceable.