Interview with Michal Jirak & Robert Johnson (Glami.cz): “If you want the users to convert, invest in detailed size description, guarantee fast shipping and allow for easy returns”
In preparation of GPeC SUMMIT 16-17-18 May 2017, we sat with Michal Jirak & Robert Johnson and asked them about the “secrets” behind the online European shopping platform Glami.cz. You will have the chance to meet and hear Robert Johnson (right, in the photo) at the GPeC SUMMIT this month, so hurry up and secure your seat now!
Glami.cz is planning to enter the Romanian market soon. For our readers who don’t know about Glami yet, can you explain in a few words what Glami does?
Online fashion is highly fragmented with several hundreds of shops on each market. People, however, want to discover and experiment. Glami brings all quality fashion brands and online retailers onto one platform. We help shoppers discover new brands and products and shop for the ones they already love. Our platform is dedicated to matching the right users to the right retailers.
Glami serves as an important source of high-quality traffic for e-shops. The key to our success is a strong development team, which can categorize products with incredible detail, using machine learning techniques. By showing the most relevant products to users, we achieve the unparalleled quality of traffic and subsequent high volume of sales for our partners.
But we do much more than that. At Glami, we have a team dedicated to creating content, such as articles about the latest trends, looks in collaboration with fashion bloggers, and sets of matching products. These inspire and also educate the shoppers about fashion, and help them make the right decisions to look the best.
In the past years, we have grown from a four-person operation to having almost 150 employees in 7 countries and facilitating over 250 million sessions last year. We have become one of the essential partners, alongside Google and Facebook, for acquiring traffic.
What do you think about the Romanian fashion e-commerce market? How does it look to Glami when you compare to other markets in CEE? Any differences and similarities that you have found striking?
The local fashion market is one of the most promising in Europe. It already is a significant size, yet has great potential for growth, especially in terms of volumes and quality of services, such as fast shipping, personal pickups, and free returns.
What is challenging for purely online players is the early launch of global brick-and-mortar brands that started in recent years. They sprint to be on-line in every country and did not give much time for more local players to grow and catch up. I expect a race between these businesses of who will provide the best omnichannel and multi-device experience for the users.
From the results, you already had with hundreds on the fashion online shops through Glami, what would you say are the important conversion factors in fashion? How important are the pictures, product descriptions and other elements in a fashion online shop’s success?
Fashion always starts with visuals. Their quality always reflects how much the seller cares. The quality retailers and brands invest in original photos to stand out; recently videos became commonplace. This attracts customers.
If you want the users to convert, invest in detailed size description, guarantee fast shipping and allow for easy returns. Instant gratification is more and more expected and you want to balance out the brick and mortar experience in this regard.
The common knowledge is that free shipping is perceived as more valuable than a discount of higher value.
What are Glami’s plans and projections for this year on the Romanian market?
Our goal is to launch the site with a strong Romanian team during June. We have already started onboarding the first partners and want to add the biggest and most interesting brands by the end of the year. We expect to bring sales of roughly 2M EUR to our partners by the end of 2017.
