This is a translation of the above interview
Henry
Here we are again at another series of interviews on e-commerce, the impact of AI and agencies. Very nice that Willem Ruiter from bluedesk is here to share his views. Willem, could you perhaps introduce yourself briefly first?
Willem
Certainly, Henry. Thanks for the invitation. My name is Willem Ruiter and I work as marketing manager at bluedesk. bluedesk is an e-commerce agency based in Alkmaar with over 30 years’ experience. We mainly focus on three pillars: e-commerce integrations, product information management implementations and online marketing. We enjoy doing that for our clients every day.
This piece ties in nicely with that Henry, thank you.
Henry
What e-commerce developments do you see happening in the market at the moment?
Willem
What we have seen in recent years in particular is the increasing demand for the most personalised customer experience possible. This applies not only to webshops, but certainly also in the more B2B corporate corner. It’s about taking the customer through the entire customer journey as personally as possible from A to Z. In the early days, you already saw a bit of this, for instance by using your first name in e-mails for personalisation. Nowadays, this is definitely also going with the help of AI, which is a hot topic. It is going further and further. Sometimes it seems a bit far off, but it is moving faster than all of us can often keep up with. This also has implications for how organisations should set themselves up.
Henry
You mention AI and e-commerce personalisation. Do you see any other impact of AI in your market?
Willem
Definitely. We already use AI and offer it to our customers, especially to support certain tasks involved in our work. Think of speeding up or improving development with AI. You can take personalised marketing as an example, but also within product information management. Imagine that as a company you have more than 10,000 to 20,000 products in your range and want to write unique product texts for each product. This would normally take weeks to months and often required multiple employees. Using AI, you can now achieve this much faster, changing the role of the employee. This is an important development associated with AI. It is not so much a threat to certain functions within a company, but we see it more as a kind of tool or extension for certain functions.
Henry
Yes, nice. You indicate that this personalisation and the impact of AI on e-commerce will also affect you as an agency. What else do you see as changes for agency bluedesk in these two frameworks?
Willem
In relation to AI, you mean?
Henry
Yes, and the e-commerce changes you see. You’ve already mentioned something about development and work, for example, for PIM-related issues. Are there other things you see changing in this market?
Willem
Yes, especially the roles within our company. Take my own team as an example. Where we used to spend a lot of time setting up a Google Ads campaign, we now set the framework of such a campaign quite quickly and efficiently using AI. The time that goes more into the process now, and always will be, is thinking strategically with the client. Campaign creativity or strategy development are human traits that AI can support, but cannot completely replace. I try to coach the team to use AI where it helps them achieve better results for the client. Don’t see it as a threat to your function. On the contrary, put those very pillars in place now to keep up in the future and even stay ahead. That is important for everyone in our e-commerce agency.
Henry
Yes, that’s an important point you make. I also see with others that sometimes there is a bit of a shudder among employees to deploy AI, because they are afraid for their own jobs. I hear that you guide that very well there and make it clear to the team.
Willem
Yes, definitely. It has many advantages, of course, but on the other hand you also have to make them aware of the risks. We are currently in the process of ISO certification, and for that we have to document very well how we deal with AI. For example, what information is allowed to be processed in a tool like ChatGPT? If you just throw that in blindly, it can also get out somewhere. With certain information, you obviously want to prevent that or at least make it manageable. Especially with customer data, that can sometimes be sensitive.
Henry
Thank you, Willem, for your insight into e-commerce and personalisation, and the impact of AI, including on PIM. It’s also great what you point out about the changes within your agency and that you need to be alert to them. Thanks for your insights.
Willem
Thank you for the invitation, Henry. We’ll speak again soon.
Henry
Thank you very much, Willem.
Willem
Have a nice day!