For the second episode of our ongoing season of Marketing Podcast, we had a chat with Alex Luna, VP of Digital at Evereden. With over ten years in e-commerce and digital marketing under his belt, Alex shared some of his expertise about the digital world.
Here's a breakdown of our conversation:
The Power of Collaboration
Alex spoke about the importance of collaboration between partners. He highlighted how working closely with the Evereden team has led to significant contributions and innovative solutions.
Everybody needs to work hand in hand to nurture a sense of unity within the team, This to him, is what drives mutual growth and success.
The Journey through E-commerce
To put it shortly, Alex has done it all.Â
From his early days at Louis Vuitton to his current role at Evereden, his journey through e-commerce has been diverse and enriching. He touched on the importance of adaptability, having worked with big brands and startups. And all that varied experience has given him a 360-degree view of how digital business works.
Finding Success in Digital
When asked about his favorite aspect of digital, Alex highlighted his love for data. He spoke about the power of using data-driven insights to steer the ship. With digital platforms giving us instant feedback, Alex told us how crucial it is to crunch those numbers and tweak our strategies on the go.
Advice for Startups
We also asked for some advice aimed at aspiring startup founders. According to Alex, you need to focus on a few key strategies that truly move the needle. Rather than spreading resources thin across numerous channels, you need to learn what works best for your business and scale accordingly.
This approach allows startups to achieve sustainable growth and avoid getting lost in the noise. At the end of the day, it's about quality over quantity.
The Future of Digital
Looking ahead, Alex predicted a rise in the use of AI in digital business. However, he also went on to remind us that while AI offers powerful tools for automation and efficiency, nothing beats that human touch. Authenticity is still key in a world full of bots.
Listening to Customers
One of Alex's daily routines includes diving deep into customer reviews. It’s important to understand the reasons behind customer purchases and use this feedback to work on your marketing strategies. When you listen to customers, you can work on addressing their needs and build stronger bonds.
Want To Connect With Alex?
Alex can be found on LinkedIn under the name Alexandre Luna. He welcomes conversations and enjoys chatting with peers in the industry!
Connect with Digicom:
We at DigiCom are obsessive data-driven marketers pulling from multi-disciplinary strategies to unlock scale. We buy media across all platforms and placements and provide creative solutions alongside content creation, and conversion rate optimizations. We pride ourselves on your successes and will stop at nothing to help you grow.
Transcript:
Hemant Varshney (00:01.134)
Alex, thanks for jumping on our podcast this week. Very, very excited to have you on call. You are a partner of ours that delves very deeply into all things digital, all things we do, forever Eden. And what's great is I get to learn a lot from you as you're asking some of these questions or it forces us to dig or think different. And so.
You know, I'm very excited to have you on today.
Alex (00:33.101)
Now, thanks, thanks, Herman, for having me. Super happy to be here too. I learned a lot from you guys too. And I think it's our relationship and collaboration is proved that the whole thing about being part of the same team actually is possible because I do feel like you guys are part of my team. And I like to think that I'm also an extension of your team.
Hemant Varshney (00:53.006)
100 % there. There are questions that you have asked us, which we've looked to solve for, which has impacted also other partners we work with in the sense of, oh, we should be thinking about something in this way, right? Which is really great to be challenged and asked and really appreciated.
Alex (01:16.173)
And you guys have been super open to it as well. That's another thing, like everything that asks you to look into, you do it and you come back with a very strong proposal or answer or insights or follow up question, which is definitely also helping me to think better about the business too.
Hemant Varshney (01:32.27)
Amazing. So for our listeners, can you please tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey through e -comm and marketing?
Alex (01:42.157)
Yes, sure. So I'm currently the VP of digital for e -Reading and I've always been in e -com digital marketing, always been a bit of a nerd. And my journey has started in e -com at Louis Vuitton, long time ago, more than 10 years ago now. I was part of the digital content team and I transitioned into a proper e -com role a few years later.
And actually I was in New York. I used to live in New York and I worked for LVMH at Christian Dior. So I've been with big brands at the beginning of my career when digital was pretty new. So we had lots to do. We had lots of testing, lots of learnings. It was really, really cool. Bigger budget as well. And then I transitioned into more like a startup world where...
I moved to London in the UK and I worked for a fashion company as the head of digital. And it was a startup. So when you, when you walk in a startup, you do a bit of everything, which I really, really liked actually. And, and then I continued my journey into a hotel again in digital and now even where it's a premium family skincare brand. And I lead up the digital business for the brand and same thing.
I started by doing a bit of everything, acquisition, retention, all the channels possible. And it's been a lot of fun and I'm very happy actually. I started my career in Ecom and it was the right move for me.
Hemant Varshney (03:18.03)
That's amazing. It really, it spans, there's a lot of breadth and depth in terms of your experience, right? And all of the different places, whether it's creating digital transformation for a business or leading, right? In digital, what would you say is the part of digital that you love? For example, for me, I love running.
Alex (03:26.157)
name.
Hemant Varshney (03:46.51)
paid media or talking to clients, very much I like digging into the data, right? Like I love that part of digital. Other people like creating ads. Other folks love to work through e -commerce and set up all of the operations. Like what do you love in digital?
Alex (03:52.429)
Yeah. I get it.
Alex (04:07.117)
I think I love the data, man. I'm a bit like you, I'm a bit of a nerd. And I think what I like about data is, and this may be very specific to digital, is you can have instant feedback on what you do. So you set up a test, there is a million things to learn. And that's maybe the main thing with digital is, of course there is lots of experts, but at the end of the day, the data is king and the data is telling you who's right and what you should do next. And what I like about digital is,
Hemant Varshney (04:18.414)
Yup.
Alex (04:36.333)
most of the things you try are trackable. So then you can have instant feedback. Is it working? Is it not working? And I think it makes my job easier, but also harder because then if it's not working, you quickly have to pivot because you know it's not working. So you should try something else. And at the same time, you learn by having this instant feedback and you can grow by building on successes that are trackable, where you have evidence that the...
that the stuff you're doing is working. And as a nerd that I am, I like this stuff. I like having access to all the little details, the little details. It's fascinating. It's really fascinating.
Hemant Varshney (05:14.286)
That's it.
Hemant Varshney (05:19.406)
Yeah, and you know, it's how do you build a program, right? I think we've talked a lot about like a stepping -steer approach, right? Where it's like, instead of growing like linear or exponential and those are, you know, the gold, it's like, okay, how do we ladder up the small wins that turn into bigger wins that turn into bigger wins? And okay, right now there's a...
Alex (05:40.973)
That's true.
Hemant Varshney (05:43.406)
like market slowdown or an account slowdown or X slowdown. So like, how do we pull back and optimize and then, okay, what are the next sets of wins in market right now, right? So it's, yeah, it's always getting that data and that response fairly quickly, you know, within like two, three days, like we almost always know what's actually gonna work or what's not, where we should be pivoting.
Alex (06:07.245)
No, that's true. It gets addictive. Actually, that's one thing I just realized. It gets addictive. Like, you know, the first thing I do, man, every morning, I just log on to the analytics and I dig into the analytics straight away. And then you find something else and then it opens another door. And then you get through this other door, which opens another door and you can get lost in the amount of data we have. So it can be dangerous, but it can also open lots of opportunities. And it's just a good way to know.
about your business, know about the work that you do, because it's really frustrating for anyone to do a lot of work without knowing if it's working. Are you on the right track? Are you just getting lost in something that doesn't really matter? At least for us, we have the luxury to know quite instantly if we are on the right track or if we should do it. And I really like this, really like this.
Hemant Varshney (06:59.374)
Yeah. Yeah.
Hemant Varshney (07:04.334)
So as you've been going through your digital journey and of course leading all things growth and Ecom at Evereden, what is a piece of advice you can give to startup founders or to heads of growth or folks that are starting their digital journeys? And I know maybe it's a couple different answers for each person, but what are a couple pieces of advice you can?
give folks that are looking to build their business digitally.
Alex (07:37.581)
If you're looking to build a business, there's a million things you could be doing. There's a million things you could consider. There's a million channels. There is a million strategies, tactics, tools that you could be implementing and looking into. And I think that can become a trap where you just get lost. And I think my recommendation would be find two, three things that really move the needle for your business and get really good at it.
before you start doing a million things. So of course, digital, you could be looking at paid media, you could be looking at SEO, you could be looking at CRM, email, SMS. You could have a loyalty program, you could do subscription, you could do so much, but it's actually really difficult to make everything work. And if you're a startup, you really don't have the resources, the budget to make everything work. So I would say try a few things.
And then once you find two or three channel or tactics that are working, just focus your attention on scaling those. As an example, like if you do paid media, I would start with the basic, making meta works, making Google works before you can go into a TikTok, a Pinterest, a Snapchat. There is just so many things that require a lot of testing, learning. It has a cost at the end of the day in terms of ad budget, in terms of creatives, in terms of...
team members as well or partners, it's really difficult to have everything working right away. So I think my advice would be be patient, find a few things that are really working, make them work really hard for your business, and then get them to a point where you can then move on to the next.
Hemant Varshney (09:24.622)
Yeah, that's amazing advice. I've been speaking a lot about channel market fit, right? And so in marketing classes, university, it's always like, hey, what is price, place, product? And then also like you're looking for product market fit. But I think in today's world, there are so many channels that you can consume.
whether it's content, it's by products, right? And I think today, and I'm bringing this up because you spoke about meta in Google. I think today it's less about full -scale product market fit and more channel market fit. And what does that mean, right? There might be a specific product category that works way better on Instagram than it does on say, TikTok, right?
And that's just because the audience on each of these platforms can be so vastly different. And sure, you have different like optimization and targeting layers, but you know, in terms of channel market fit, you can find channels that work really well with a specific product class and grouping that you can scale and scale and grow the business around. And then only to take that product to move it somewhere else. And you know, it might work, it might not work. You have to test and learn, but you know,
Alex (10:42.317)
this.
Hemant Varshney (10:49.966)
Channel market fit, I think is very important. What are your thoughts around this?
Alex (10:55.821)
I agree and you have brands who've built a business just on TikTok shop as an example because they knew that the product they had spoke to an audience who is on TikTok but might not be on another channel. Like for some products it's an instinct, it's a quick buy. You just see the product, you love it but you have to see the product to think about it. You're not going to search for it on Google because you might not even be aware that it exists.
Hemant Varshney (11:01.326)
Yup.
Alex (11:25.837)
But then you see a live demonstration and then you have a really cool set of assets, videos and content that you see on TikTok that really sell the product. Because there's the only way to really sell the products is to demonstrate the value, how to use the results. But you didn't even know this kind of product existed. So for a brand who has this kind of product, there is no need to do a Google search type of thing or display or getting lost in SEO and all the things. It's just finding the right channel.
where your audience is. And I would say maybe the thought process is what's the best way to demonstrate the value of the product? Is it video? Is it recommendation from a doctor? Because if you are in a healthcare industry, you need some authority to push your products. And the authority might be harder to build on TikTok because why would I trust just a random guy on TikTok? I need to trust a doctor for this kind of thing.
or someone who's an expert professional. So really think about what's the best way to show and demonstrate and prove the value of your product. And then think about the platform that allows you to do it. And you're right, you can't be everywhere because some platforms will just not be relevant to you. That's, that's making the competition as well. It's another thing. If we expand to, let's say Amazon, Amazon has so many different brands and different products. A product might be.
terrible for Amazon because the margins are terrible. The competition is so vast that you have no chance if you're not an early adopter. And the platform and the shopping experience on Amazon might not be the best fit for your kind of product because you need to experience it. You need to try it. You need to smell it. You need to see the results. So you really have to think, where should I be present? And what's the best way to show the value of the product I'm selling?
Hemant Varshney (13:23.374)
Yeah, and I love that you brought up show the value of the product, right? Because with consumers just going through the troves and troves of content that they're looking at, you only have a short amount of time to tell the value of your product and get your brand across to get someone to click and then want to digest more information, right? And more information and more information. So yeah, no, getting the value across is very important.
Alex (13:53.485)
history.
Hemant Varshney (13:53.742)
I love that you said that. Where do you see digital going in the next two to five years? What do you see becoming a little bit more and more prevalent?
Alex (14:04.109)
You know, I've been, I've been thinking about this one and of course I'm going to say AI, but AI, the way I see it is, I think it opens the door to a lot of people to get into the digital e -comm space. And I'm going to give you an example. I'm thinking someone tomorrow wakes up and say, Hey, I want to launch an e -comm business. They don't need to have experience to be able to launch the e -comm business. You can have a whole website coded for you, launched for you in a matter of
a day, not even a day. So I think what's going to happen is you're going to have a lot more sellers that are going to have websites, social media accounts. So you'll have a lot more competition. And I think it forces every one of us to think, how can I show the difference and the value again, coming back to the value of the product? How can I differentiate myself to the thousands of sellers that are going to open a website very easily, who are going to have access to
automated tasks using AI. And we can use it as well, of course, like everyone can use ChudgeBt and all the AI tools to create content, videos and all that. But then it becomes a question of we all have the same weapons. How can we be better than others? Because before you had expertise, you had experience that was something that no one else could leverage because it's yours. But now everyone can catch up on that.
Hemant Varshney (15:17.294)
Yes.
Alex (15:32.045)
with AI and all the tools available. So it forces every one of us to think harder as to how can I offer better experience? How can I use the data that I have access to in a way that's gonna help me find the right insights so then I can speak to my consumer better or I can be more relevant or I can prove that I'm better than my competitor who offers also a beautiful website and...
and customer experience and social accounts and assets and all that stuff. I think the bar is getting higher to convert and to convince someone to shop with you. And it's funny because a few months ago I shopped from a website that looked extremely professional. It looked beautiful. Assets were amazing. And actually the quality of the product had nothing to do with the visuals. So I think, I don't know.
who is behind this website, but they've done a really good job at using all the tools and the branding, best practices and all that to convince me to shop for the first time, but I'm not going to come back to it because, you know, it's easy to get the first sale, but how do you engage me in the long term?
Hemant Varshney (16:35.982)
Yeah.
Hemant Varshney (16:41.614)
Yeah, and you know, it's, I think profitability and breakeven point on first order is it's very important, but like where brands really are able to scale and, you know, build brand awareness equity is in long -term. And a lot of that comes from the product quality and the service quality. And that is, that's very, that's very, very, very important. I think.
with the same conversation authenticity, right? Like right now.
there's a lot of influencer, there's a lot of UGC that's out there. And my hunch is we're gonna shift back to a lot more branded ads in like the next two years. And why I say this is because everybody is taking this, I'm being like, uber authentic. And at some point, I think the end consumer is going to say, what do I believe? You know?
It's just, what do I believe in and why? And I think that, I think we're a couple of years out from that mindset shift, but I think it's gonna happen at some point. It has to, right? So, I don't know, that's just, that's my hunch for 2026, 2027. So, yeah.
Alex (17:56.621)
Yeah, that is true.
Alex (18:05.005)
I love it. AI can't create. AI cannot create brand authenticity. AI cannot create, at least not right now, the quality of product that the human brain, the human vision, the hands, and just the way that we do business. AI is just a tool to help you to...
expand your reach and showcase your product but the vision itself has to come from you and that's not something that you can fake or at least you can't fake it for too long or you're gonna go bankrupt and then the real ones are gonna stay.
Hemant Varshney (18:43.182)
Yeah, just so much, you know, this field, there's always so much to learn and so much that's always changing. What's one question you wish I had asked you and how would you answer it?
Alex (19:00.781)
Maybe it was the favorite part of my days because of course every day is very different and it's filled with meetings and looking at reports and talking to the team and having thinking time and all that but I think there is one thing that I do daily of course I look at the stats and the data first thing but there's another thing that I do daily I look at the reviews.
Every day I look at the reviews and we get lots of reviews every day. And I will always look at what the customer is saying about us because I think as brands, we love to think that we know what customers love about us. But actually I want to hear it from the customer in their own words. And I'm going to go through all the products, what people say about product XYZ, ABC and say, oh, this is why you bought it. And...
I didn't know that actually this is the selling point that made you convert. And then I can use this in ads, in emails, everywhere, but I like to know what people like about the products because honestly, we all give a million reasons to buy the products. But what's the one reason that made you buy? That made you talk about the brand to your friends, to someone else.
Hemant Varshney (20:21.422)
That is incredible. And like right now my thoughts are going off where it's like, hey, can we have an export of all of these reviews and let's tag, like let's tag each of these reviews with like, you know, tag one could be, they spoke about benefits. This is a specific benefit. Tag two is this and like pivot it and look at all of those reviews and understand, okay, these are the reasons people are buying.
like you said, exactly take that information and build on our existing strategy. I think, yeah, let's definitely do that. Yeah.
Alex (21:02.413)
That's an easy one. We can even use AI for this if we want to. No, but it's true. We got to listen to customers. We got to listen to customers more.
Hemant Varshney (21:06.478)
Yeah. Yeah.
Hemant Varshney (21:13.294)
Yes.
Yeah, and it create that feedback loop. Where can our listeners find?
Alex (21:21.709)
On LinkedIn, I'm on LinkedIn. So Alex Luna, actually it might be my French name on it. So Alexandre Luna. And I'm on there. I am active. I learn a lot from my peers on LinkedIn as well. Like new tests, new releases, and always up for chats. I really like the whole conversation around the future of e -comm, what's going on right now, what might happen in the future. I think it helps us to be.
better professionals, be prepared, and also having fun. It's always fun to connect with people in the space.
Hemant Varshney (21:58.99)
Amazing. Well, thanks for jumping on our podcast. Of course. Thank you.
Alex (22:02.669)
Thanks for having me man, thanks for having me. Let's break the chat.