Thomas on Rooijen over E-commerce, AI and Agencies

This is a translation of the above interview

Henry
I am very honoured to have Thomas here on the other side. Thomas, especially because of your views, it may also have been a reason to start this interview series. Look, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Could you introduce yourself, Thomas?

Thomas
Yes, sure. I’m Thomas van Rooijen, owner and partner of FRMWRK, an e-commerce agency in Rotterdam. We’ve been in this business for 28 years. I always say that I am something of an internet fossil, running around all these years. Over the years, of course, I’ve seen a lot, from the digital business card to now, focusing on e-commerce. That, in a nutshell, is who I am and what I do.

Henry
Very nice. I would say, you are certainly not a fossil. But the market is not a fossil either; on the contrary, there is a lot of development. What developments do you see in e-commerce?

Thomas
Let me put it this way: maybe it is good to look a little bit at how we as an agency look at the market. We have a slightly different vision than many other agencies. We actually say that e-commerce is more than just an online shop. In fact, this means that we see many challenges in e-commerce companies, such as product, marketing, logistics, customer relations, strategy, data and compliance. These are all elements that an e-commerce entrepreneur has to deal with. I look at e-commerce from that perspective. Many other agencies often only focus on the front end of e-commerce, i.e. the spectrum around the webshop and marketing. Of course, there are great developments going on there, also in the field of AI. But what we also find interesting are back-end developments.

Recently, we conducted a survey with a number of partners among some 400 e-commerce companies, entrepreneurs and managers. This showed that the playing field of revenue versus margin is currently very important within e-commerce. In the early stages of a small e-commerce business, you are often focused on revenue and acquisition. But as you grow, you notice that margin plays a crucial role. You should actually be working on margin in that early phase. We see that the successful growth companies are already paying a lot of attention to this, and that is also based on data. They work very data-driven, which is an interesting insight that we got from that.

Henry
Super, that sounds great. So you’re looking at the whole chain and you’re talking about data. What impact does AI have in that? Do you see anything happening there yet?

Thomas
Yes, definitely. AI is now unimaginable. Sometimes I say it feels like a panacea within companies. You see it in all facets. On the front end, as I just said, in personalisation, where AI plays an important role because a lot of data needs to be analysed. But also on the back end, for example in logistics and customer service. That is an area where AI is currently booming. It was already there, but more and more companies are realising that deploying AI is interesting for cost savings on the one hand. On the other hand, you can see that the focus on customer service and customer satisfaction is also increasing. Through AI, they can automate repetitive activities such as customer service queries. For example, a common question is, ‘Where is my package?’ This is a standard question that can be well automated with AI. This allows employees within an e-commerce company to focus more on creativity and more complex questions, which can further optimise customer satisfaction. We see that 64% of e-commerce companies are currently already working with AI or want to start with it. This is no longer hype or trend; it is now well established.

Henry
Nice to hear. In the e-commerce developments you see, and you just gave a hint, you as an agency are looking at the whole chain, from logistics to deliveries, and especially at margin. You have a fantastic vision about agencies. Can you briefly explain it in the context of e-commerce developments and AI?

Thomas
I try to be brief. We as an agency have also evolved over the years. When we define our ‘why’, we say we want to empower e-commerce entrepreneurs to do what they do best. We realised that if you only deal with the front end, the webshop and marketing, you are not serving the full e-commerce spectrum. Therefore, at some point we decided to further support e-commerce entrepreneurs. We do this across eight axes: product, technology, online marketing and sales, and actually a bit of online business. We also look at customer relations, customer retention, logistics, personnel and organisation, strategy, data and compliance. Compliance is an area of expertise that is often underexposed, but it is important to consider. From that perspective, we set up our business concept and help e-commerce entrepreneurs through their growth programme to grow to the level they envision. This can be revenue growth, but also margin improvement. We do not do this alone; we have an ecosystem of partners around us, which enables us to provide these services. This is also why we speak at different events, such as shipping platforms, because these are interesting platforms for e-commerce entrepreneurs who want to learn more about logistics. This is a different way of looking at e-commerce for us.

Henry
Yes, beautiful. You become much more of a director and stamper for the whole chain.

Thomas
Absolutely. That’s exactly what we want to be. We also call ourselves the e-commerce director. This means we know Who, What, Needs to execute at What time. The three Ws are central to us, and that’s really from that director’s role. You’ve summed it up well.

Henry
Fantastic! Eight axes, three Ws, and you help companies take a big step forward.

Thomas
Yes, that’s right.

Henry
Thank you very much for this clarification, Thomas. I’m super happy with it.

Thomas
My pleasure. It’s nice to talk to you about this like this.