Venca It is one of those mythical companies that, due to its very long history, occupies a place of its own in the hearts of the Spanish people. ORn pioneer of catalog sales that has been able to adapt with remarkable success to the reality of eCommercewhich in 2019 took a further step in its digital transformation by betting on a model with more and more followers: the marketplace.
Since then, Venca has not stopped evolving and growing, and that is why we wanted to invite Nuria Bello, their Marketplace & Brands Manager, to find out, firsthand, how they are doing it…. to do so well.
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6:11 You have a lot of experience in very powerful brands in the sector: PromoFarma, Mascoteros and now Venca. Tell us a little about your professional journey until you got here.
I started in 2014, at PromoFarma. I was there as a content manager, with a very good team and the opportunity arose, they opened a veterinary section, a new project: Promoanimal, a different eCommerce but one more category. At that time we wanted to link pharmaceutical products with more veterinary products within the online modality.
From there, we drifted a bit and the magnificent idea of going with Mascoteros, where I was six years. We created the marketplace, we did a great job. We reached a lot of sellers, a good turnover was made.
And a few months ago, I changed to Venca, an incredible challenge. I arrived when the project had already launched in rotation, but we still have to mature the project and consolidate the marketplace.
8:26 How is the digital part structured?
In 2016 it was decided to digitize the company and now we have the advertising team, the email team, which is composed within the marketing department and the CRM part, paige, immex. Then we have the IT team, BI.
Also, the purchase structure part, the product development part that corresponded to the own collection part, the , which would be the entire markets, sellers part. Finally, we have the marketplace department, which is where we develop the market part. We are a team of 7 people and growing.
9:46 What does a marketplace manager do?
On the one hand, there is the Venca collection, where you have to battle with visibility, positioning, both within Venca itself and outside. Now we have launched to Portugal, so we are full with the launch.
It’s a lot of work but it’s rewarding when you see the results and you see the sellers that you are introducing. When they make their first sales, the desire and enthusiasm with which they enter, because Venca is a well-known brand and the recruitment process is easy. The pandemic has accelerated everything, brands are used to having their products, not only on their channel or on their website, but also having one hand in hand, on Amazon.
12:18 What traffic does Venca move on its website?
Nothing sells itself. Everything has to have a marketing strategy, visibility and make the product known. Depending on the seller, some actions or others are offered. It is not the same, a seller who has a well-known brand, a seller who is interested in digitizing their business or a seller who wants to make their brand known.
16:48 Venca was born as eCommerce and then the marketplace was created. How do they coexist?
We have the Venca collection in a specific category, that is, our core is fashion. We complement other categories, with the marketplace part: footwear, home, bathroom and tableware coexist in the home.
But “rest”, “furniture”, “appliances” are categories closer to the marketplace part. Depending on the strategy we have, we balance to one side or the other.
Each one has its shipping policies, its conditions of returns and shipping costs. At checkout, the seller’s shipping costs appear. And if you enter the seller, the shipping and return policies appear. The shipping cost part is the only friction we can have. In collection we have free shipping costs from 20 euros. Depending on the seller, they set their shipping policy.
When you have something that you exclude, obviously it generates friction, because in the end you are communicating a campaign that does not bring together all the products. But not something that we have a greater impact on customer service.
23:52 With fashion and the problem of sizes. That is always the great challenge in this sector, I see that here you have an effort with size guides. Do you have any kind of technology to improve it?
We have a generic size guide suitable for Venca. We put a lot of emphasis on this, because it is a high percentage of returns due to sizes. Linked to fashion, it is important that we have this updated information.
On the part of Venca, we have the standard size and we have a quality department. In marketplace, we have two ways to do it. First, the specific size guide, when we have a unified brand, which has a very established size pattern, we give it visibility and unify the specific size guide of this brand. And second, if it’s a bit more generic or product-specific brand information, we put it as an image in the last product image.
24:45 Returns to 100 days, I had only seen it in mattresses. How is it in fashion that is more complicated?
The return in fashion is something super common and this It was a measure that was taken with the pandemic, because we had to reinvent ourselves, but we must assess whether it is convenient to maintain the return at 100 days. It has been a plus, but now we have to go back to the one we have always worn.
With the part of sellers we have everything. Some charge returns at a standard price and others who assume them. They have their return policy with the customer.
34:37 What requirements do you ask sellers to enter your marketplace?
Three pillars are dispensable:
First, customer service. We have said that it was the responsibility of the seller, but the customer does not stop buying at Venca, so they also help us to do the part of the brand. If they do not meet certain requirements and they do not treat the client as we want, Venca penalizes them. Customer service is super important and not only consultation, but also post-purchase experience.
Second, the price. It makes no sense for us to make an effort to acquire traffic and an exercise in visibility, if we do not have the same prices as the competition. We cannot have a seller that is in Walmart, Amazon and Venca, but in Venca it is more expensive.
Third, the communication. A seller can be forgotten if they do not generate traction, they are not autonomous in creating promotions, catalog activation, keeping their stock updated, replicating promotions that they do in other channels. Entering a marketplace is not uploading your catalog and that’s it. A good seller is uploading your catalog and working with this catalog within the marketplace.
37:12 Do they try to coordinate the campaigns that you plan so that the sellers also replicate them?
We have a calendar of promotions on the main sites and we share them twice a year. We communicate more specific actions. For example, We are going to carry out a youth collection action, we capture the sellers who have a more similar product and we send it to them. We are making an impact based on what we are seeing and the catalog that we are having.
In the spaces that we have exclusively for the marketplace, we are playing with each one of the sellers that we want to drive and we want to direct sales for those sectors according to the occasion.
43:47 In marketplaces, there is always talk of the concentration of purchases within Amazon. In Europe there are many vertical marketplaces, do you think we will be able to stabilize that cultural difference vs. the United States?
Complicated question. I believe that what is not on Amazon does not exist and if you want something different you go to Amazon. But there are categories that are more rooted in Amazon. On Amazon I’m going to look for something very specific and if it’s there I know it exists and I’m going to compare where I can find it on other sites.
I think it will split into two. First, in very standard categories, such as fashion, footwear, where we already have more images of highly penetrated brands within the market and second, others in which Amazon does not have a niche. We will evolve, there will be a boom and they will grow, but those who have done the best job will remain and many will fall by the wayside.
45:37 What are the challenges you have in Venca?
We have to mature the project, we have to grow with seller, in billing and that the niche is getting bigger and bigger. ANDhe biggest challenge is to grow in categories that are not yet fully exploited, such as “small appliances”, “furniture” but that we can still work and work well. Also, exploit the core business part, which is where they really know us and we have the hottest point.
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