E-Commerce Evolution in B2B | TGG S3 | Infidigit

Speaker A: Marketing should know a basic SQL, basic query because they can do their own data research now which can bring to Indian businesses is a platform from where they can buy any product because when they actually do a trade with an international brand, they do get the product in a very high cost and we can get it the same thing in a very low cost and the reliable service. Right? So this is the core of the business.

Speaker B: Hello everyone and welcome to yet another episode of the Growth Genius, the podcast brought to you by Infidigit, where we share growth stories in marketing and business. Our today's growth genius is someone who has been at the cusp of things since the start of her career, be it e commerce, edtech, med tech and now B2B online platforms. So without further ado, join me in welcoming the CMO at industry buying Ms. Ruby Gupta. Ruby, welcome to the Grow Genius podcast. Thanks a lot for your time and we are truly delighted to have you here.

Speaker A: Thank you. Thank you so much, Mehul. I'm grateful that uh, I'm the part of this podcast with you today.

Speaker B: Pleasure.

Speaker A: Thank you for the uh, for the invitation.

Speaker B: So Rubhi, I wanted to understand, you know, how do you define your current role at uh, industry buying?

Speaker A: Great question, but uh, I think it's very difficult to define the role at this level. So if we go with a designation, it's uh, a CMO role where um, like the role of a CMO is also changed as we evolve to the digital ecosystem. Right. So in the core sense it is like managing the brand, uh, internally, externally, making sure the customer experience is good. Right. Uh, but as we are into the digital world, uh, the core is I'm also responsible actually that is my core. KPI is the growth and revenue for the organization. So uh, and all other things, which is your brand enhancement, improvement along with experience of a customer, NPS score comes along with it because all of these things are connected. Right. So if an organization is growing, if uh, the revenue numbers or uh, the growth is happening, all other levels are actually interconnected. Right. So uh, if I have to define the role, it's uh, sometimes it feels like this is the organization I'm running because the sense of ownership, at least for me, is very high wherever I worked before as well. So um, it seems like everything is revolving around you. Uh, because the first touch point is marketing for any brand to come up with. After that, your experience with the product, your experience with the company is secondary. Uh, the delivery of the product is secondary. The first one, when a user interact with the brand on A digital world is like responsibility of the marketing team. So hence this is a very crucial role. Along with this uh, here at Industry Buying I also take care of overall UI ux, uh of the, of our website or app. And uh, this is because um to some sense in today's world uh product is with marketing, right? So it has to be integrated where from where the users are coming from, what they are doing, the understanding of the Personas of the user very closely. So I work very closely with the tech teams or the product teams to actually bring it together. The learnings which we get from the marketing, the insights which we get for marketing and put it in the journeys, right? So that becomes a second third layer and obviously business teams, um, coordination with them because uh, uh unlike other companies or other industries where I worked before I have used the product which I am selling. Uh but at Industry Buying we sell products which I have never seen, I have never heard uh, like the bearing like of um M which are being used in factories. Right. So we have might have learned about it or read about it in, in some uh books earlier but not, not using it as of now. So the understanding of the core product is very less so and where uh, the expertise of the business teams or category teams comes very handy and they understand the product much better. So how do we understand the core issue or a pain point of a customer using that product, how what are the things he might be looking for when he's researching for the product? So uh, that's the fourth layer which comes together, which has to come together otherwise they will not work along with this. I also work very closely with HR on few projects uh to bring up the overall organization health. Uh and since uh we're just growing up uh the values, the core values of the organization should grow up with the team. So uh, that is also uh one of the additional responsibility which I'm taking care of right now. So in a nutshell it is uh, like wearing multiple heads at the same time.

Speaker B: Very interesting and uh, thanks for sharing that. Ruby, your career has transitioned throughout different industries, right? So uh, can you tell us more about your professional journey?

Speaker A: Yes. Uh, so here uh, before I begin my answer I should say that I have been very grateful to all the opportunities which I got uh during my career from beginning till till now. So I have been into industries at their very pivotal times from beginning to till now because when digital happened I just started my career and I was one of the few uh people who actually in India got their first certification in AdWords, uh in top 10. Uh, like I think there were 20 people which who we appeared together for the first uh certification in AdWords at that point of time. Right. And uh, the first project which I have done is with uh, Expedia uk. Uh and uh, travel was the only industry which was online that time. Uh because that was the easiest and that too not in India, it was in UK US it was happening and we got trained with uh, professionals in UK from UK itself. So which made us our basics very clear. Uh-huh. Because the uh, the foundation uh for the learning anything was very core. We unlearned it from uh, from very experience, uh everything like from beginning to end. Uh, like actually creating keyword is something which was an art at that point of time. Google was very, not very uh predicting at that point of time. You have to write the keywords. So from there to my first client side experience, simply learn. Um, is an edtech and uh, edtech was just starting at that point of time and I was there then moved to Myntra, uh when E commerce was booming uh in India. And uh, I moved to Myntra when they were coming back to their from only app journey. So they are coming back to uh, web. That was the time I joined them. And um, Myntra is an organization which has been very uh, very crucial for my, for my overall career. Uh so uh, because they have uh, given that kind of opportunity, if anybody wants to learn, they can learn. Right. So it is very open in terms of doing experiments and giving suggestions. So and that was a pivotal time also for E Commerce. Then spinny happened. A uh, midlife happened actually first and medical industry was booming at that point of time. So uh, and after that that a spinny happened. Used car industry. And this was the time of COVID uh after people coming back from COVID And that was the time actually for used cars because the financial crunch was there and people were okay to actually try out the new used cars. Right when that. That is the time I was there. Right. And now with industry buying, uh, because B2C E commerce in India is cracked, uh people have that much of confidence of buying things online. B2B is still struggling and has lot many challenges. I think in future, in next two, three years it will start booming a lot from here. So I should say along with taking risk taking ability to uh, calculated risk which I have taken and uh, universe have been grateful for me to giving those opportunity at the right time. So my journey has been very interesting till now. If I look back and sit down, think it has Been very interesting.

Speaker B: Yeah, I mean you were there at places which uh, you know, were just at the cusp um, of you know, uh, getting into I would say a growth mode or a hyper mode, so to say. So be it Edtech or you know, uh, be it uh, even E commerce for that matter. Used cars again, you know, is very novel concept especially when you look at the E commerce and used cars put together. So that's very interesting. Uh, thanks, thanks for sharing those uh, milestones of your career with us. And coming to the next question, I want to understand uh, how crucial do you consider industry buying's role within the B2B E commerce ecosystem and what particular obstacles do you foresee?

Speaker A: So Mehul, um, if we put it in, in the context that this industry is yet to solve, Nobody has cracked B2B E commerce in India yet. Um, and the ingredients which are required to actually make the right recipe to solve this uh, uh, problem or issue or crack the business, industry itself. Uh, I think industry buying has all the right ingredients because the basic of this business is not supply chain. It's not the service, it's not anything else. It's the. The core is the product assortment. Um, why I say so because in this industry the frequency of buying the same product is very less because every day your factories, some product will not work and the other ones will be working. Right? And uh, every factory or every machine requires different kind of tools or different kind of attachments, etc. Etc. Right? So unlike uh, B2C where the frequency of buying is higher, the same product. So you buy similar products at multiple frequency Here that's not the case. There are few products which are bought every month. But the large uh, assortment is something which is the key now with industry buying. Uh, our partners who are investors also which uh, is Monotara Japan and Granger us, we get access to all kind of products in the world. So be it any, any tool, any kit, which, whatever it is, be it, which whatever brand, uh, international, national, we have access to anything right now which can bring to Indian businesses is a platform from where they can buy any product. Because when they actually do a uh, trade with an international brand they do get the product in a very high cost and we can get it the same thing in a very low cost. And the reliable service, right? So this is the core of the business. So I think industry buying has the right ingredient. Any other things which are your supply chain, operations, service levels, these are the things which can be controlled by anybody. So uh, these are more process oriented rather than Anything else. Right. So those are the things which could can be done. Right. And the marketing is something which is easy to crack although there are. So the actual problem uh, I should say the blocker is the mindset right now of a user because um, the generation which is little older, right the businesses are running in generations to generations and generations. Uh however now with startup coming up so hugely in India, uh we do see many companies coming up every year, new new setup of manufacturing, new setup of services of suppliers, etc. But uh, there is a huge pool of users who are from the last generation. So it is very difficult for them to change the mindset from changing their offline vendor to the online vendor. Right. So that is the only uh blocker I should say, uh, something which is little difficult to actually have the solution for.

Speaker B: So it's like a behavioral change right that happened with E Commerce that you know the touch and feel, uh, requirement, uh, you know uh, for fashion was suddenly now uh shifting to an E commerce platform where you just see the styles in various angles and then you uh, take your buying decision.

Speaker A: So that's the behavioral change which is very easy to actually get as we move around. Right. And with the next generation coming up I think it's easier because we do see the adoption of the new organization is easier for us. The older organization is little difficult to catch hold because they are 80%, 90% of procurement happens offline so they do not come online at all. So that is the only uh problem I see for C right now. I don't see any other issues uh

Speaker B: and that's probably a big opportunity also if you can tap that market.

Speaker A: Yes, yes, great, nice.

Speaker B: Uh, Ruby wanted to understand you know uh, in your kind of business uh, how important is the role of influencers uh you know in marketing the product.

Speaker A: So influencer is uh, is important. Ah right. At leave in the B2C context it is very important. They are very important uh, and they have become the marketing, uh they come into the marketing mix when you do the media uh for any company but lately uh, the experience which has happened in multiple uh instances where people have lost their hard earned money because of influencers in few examples. And as the new generation coming up I do also see a little more awareness with them taking advice from any influencer and they understand this, this is marketing. Right. So however if I talk about only in the context of industry buying uh, influencer it might be an important lever, uh, but this will not be a social influencer because uh, we are not dealing with one on One we are dealing with an organization so it has to be a very authority driven influencer, uh not a social uh, driven influencer. So someone from a great brand or somebody who understand that business very closely. And it will be a very segmented approach because one industry, we tackle all kind of industry, textile, food, etc. Etc. So every industry will have a different set of uh, authorities who can talk about us. Right. So uh, so overall influencer strategy. Right now we are not thinking about it but maybe in some next six months, one year of time if we want to think about will be very segmented approach and, and it will take a lot of time to actually figure out the right influencer for us.

Speaker B: That will be very interesting to see in a B2B context actually. You know how you get influencers online?

Speaker A: Yes, yes. Because uh, uh I have seen a lot many YouTube influencers in this industry but when you listen or hear and see the videos you do not get any confidence that this will fly. Right. So. And they do not go along with the brand as well. So very difficult. Right. I have not able to find the right influencer till now.

Speaker B: Got it. So. And where do you see organic search in the journey of building and growing a B2B online platform?

Speaker A: Organic. Organic is something which is like uh. So in our context at least on industry buying Meghul, um search is something where the journey begins because whenever uh, we have asked, uh, have done interviews with customers, the basic thing when they come online is the time when they are not finding the product with their existing vendor, they come online, they search it on Google and that's where the journey begins. And if I put it in organic sense then it's a cherry on the cake because it's come free of cost. So and as I mentioned we have around 20 lakh products which are live on the website which makes like huge opportunity of traffic uh, which can come to us free of cost from Google or. And actually we have a good percentage of traffic from Bing also opportunity is very huge in organic for us and uh, there is not much competition also there's not much competition as well. So I should say if, if we solve the. There are certain issues at our side mostly uh, on the website or certain things which we are working upon. If we solve those things we should be able to save a lot money spends from Google paid marketing which can be used into other media because uh, there are searches which for which uh, even um, like there's nobody. There is no competition at all. All right, so um, I see a huge opportunity for Organic side at industry buying right now.

Speaker B: Thanks, thanks for sharing that. Uh Ruby, I wanted to understand you know what is your take on AI in marketing a B2B online platform like industry buying.

Speaker A: So AI has been a buzzing word mehul for the last couple of months I should say now every, every day there is some uh article on AI coming up right. So uh when I talk about uh into industry buying where we have done few experiments on ML as well as we are working on few projects on AI, uh and I, I think it's. We can treat AI as extended teams, extended arms to us. Uh the, the biggest project which we are looking forward and uh working towards in AI is the content enhancement right with when Google yesterday has uh sent the core update around content which says that the content has to be uh useful and should not be duplicated and uh, should be real and human uh content. But, but still I think if done correctly with human uh we should be able to scale uh up our content because as I said for 20 lakh products writing content from human is. It will take years actually. So if we work together with AI and uh, uh if we set the right process and write checkpoints uh and do the uh project I think be able to do the project faster and uh, that should, that's the way we are thinking to actually leverage AI in right now. And the second will be doing similar thing for image as well. So this is the first project we are starting um and uh, whatever small experiments we have done till now they have given the good results. So I think we can actually take up uh it.

Speaker B: I mean the gist of the matter is that you know AI per se is going to be an enabler to enhance business practices rather than being uh, uh something which is actually going to take away jobs.

Speaker A: No, no no, they will not take away jobs. I never, I don't think. But every, every person has to step up and do things which are uh not copy paste right. So that copy pasting jobs will go away. Uh so everybody has to think and learn and that's, that's the actually work everybody should be doing. Humans should not be working on the things which is, which can be duplicated.

Speaker B: Right. And um, uh Ruby, coming to the next question. As digital marketing evolves, what emerging trends do you anticipate uh shaping the future and how is your brand actively adapting to stay ahead of the curve?

Speaker A: So uh, I would actually put this with the behavioral change uh as the Gen Zs are coming up and millennials are going away and but I uh don't Know how many, what kind of generations are coming up now, right? So the behavior has, is changing every day like because the way we were. They are not like that. They are very, they are very experimental, right. They, they don't have any brand loyalty because they, it's not about uh, them but it is like they, they are open to experiment. Right. They are very um, doing things, taking risks with everything. Right. Every now and then uh, very aware of. Not like unlike us. Right. So at least I should talk m about myself. So I am not. Might not be that aware like my son is. Right? So though. And they do a lot of research, right. Because that came up handy with them as they have uh, growing. Right. I started searching when I was in 12th standard or 11th or on college itself. But they have been doing it from the beginning. Right. So and another thing is the patience is very less. Uh also the focus. Right. Uh is also very less with this generation. Right. So since so many things the behavior itself is changing. I think the overall digital ecosystem will change a lot around it because as you see the brands which are the uh, legacy brands, like they are losing their uh, market share because uh, the new generation is actually adopting to new newer products, newer brands. Right. Um, there are people who are shifting maybe from Colgate to a very newer brand of uh, toothpaste. Right. And like at our house also we buy multiple brands and to just to dry. And it's not about whether it will be bad or good. But at least my parents will not buy any other brand. They will not. So now since we are doing it, I will see the next generation will do it more often like new brand, you should try etc. So it brings up a lot of competition and consumer brand has to be uh, on, on their toes to actually meet the expectations. Right. Uh, so digital will revolve around it and as we see the marketing spends will, will increase humongous on digital and will be shifting to digital because the legacy brand is also adopting to digital because that's the only touch point they see with millennials, right? So so many things are happening VR, AR, uh and what kind of hours are coming in the world. So the experience itself is just changing. So and uh, with also technology is evolving like and data security is coming up to a large extent Cookie. Uh, less world is about to come. So multiple challenges. Uh, but good, good challenges and healthy competition. Right. Everybody has a chance to show up because people are okay to actually test out. So I think that will change a lot many things in digital. Uh and I would say for industry buying, it will be a blessing because people are okay to test. Right. And I, as I m mentioned in my earlier conversation, uh, if somebody is open to try online, uh, they will not find the product anywhere else other than industry wide. So I think uh, it will be a um, blessing for us, uh, as we see and the next generation growing up on the store.

Speaker B: Brave new world and exciting times ahead, I guess.

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker B: Right. So, uh, we are now in the last segment of the podcast, uh, and wanted to request you to share any specific growth stories from your uh, professional journey because it has been very interesting and I would like to know one or two such growth stories which come on top of your mind right now.

Speaker A: Yes. Um, so there has been multiple stories, um, from starting to end. I actually uh, document them, few of them for, for my reference to maybe read.

Speaker B: Oh, interesting.

Speaker A: Older times. Uh, right. So I will talk uh, about two of them. Uh, one is uh, with Midlife and another is with spinny. So when I joined Medlife, uh, because I have joined uh, Medlife after Myntra, so I had a lot of uh, experience of app ecosystem. And when I joined Medlife, the app was very small app portion of revenue was very small. We were doing around 15, 20% of revenue on app and rest is on web. And that was uh, very difficult for me to digest because I have seen the segment who is buying online in Myntra and they were of like 80% of our app, uh, or revenue in Myntra. So it was very difficult to digest that why it is so small. And app, ah, brings up a lot many goodness, uh, uh, along with experience, it also brings up the savings in marketing, etc. Because once you have an app, you can reach out to customer with push notifications and the experience itself becomes very smooth. Right. And with the brand like Medlife, which is selling medicines, I was not able to digest this problem. Why it is so small. Right. Uh, so answers which I got from the colleagues is mostly that old age people do not like to app, like use app. That was, uh, the hindrance, um, which we were looking around. But then we set up some interviews, we done some surveys. It was not the same. It was not the same. Actually we have seen that for the older age. If you tell them you have to do this, just press this, they are actually okay to do it because everybody is. They're using Facebook, they're using Instagram, they're using WhatsApp.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: So for them, when we interviewed, they told us that, yes, is it, it is very simple. If you Tell me in the app open this and uh order medicine. It is very simple for me. Right. So this was the insight and then we started scaling up app did one experiment for two months to change the marketing spends towards app and lower down on web. We saw good results, we saw very good results. And then uh. We actually updated our app from uh to react native which made it actually uh. Interesting because earlier the technology was not very great. So we changed the app to react native and when I left our marketing uh our overall share on app was 2062% right. So from 6 from 15 around to 60 65% it was a great success. Uh right. So and many things like because these people are old people they just say that order online and upload the prescription. That's the thing they have to learn. That's it. And we see a very good repeat rates on app compared to web because finding website they go to other websites 10 more websites will open. Right. So this has, this was a great uh.

Speaker B: Uh.

Speaker A: Learning adoption uh of that generation on app. Uh so this is the great story which was driven at least because experience has taught us and was able to do something there. So this is one uh, uh. Instance of story. Uh second I will talk about UI UX uh because that might relate to the audiences as well because uh. That's the crux uh of improvement of any growth team actually because traffic you can bring in paid traffic, it will come.

Speaker B: Uh.

Speaker A: But how to improve the experience to increase the conversion rate. That is something which uh. Which is difficult. It's exciting. Also it gives a lot many understanding of psychology. So you learn a lot of psychology in marketing. I have never read psychology but when you work around multiple aspects here uh you learn a lot about psychology of a human. So this is an experiment or a project I should say in spinney. So at spinny the problem is not selling the cars. Actually getting the cars to sell is a problem because that's the market. The supply chain is very very small and has a lot many competition in market. Uh right. So you can. And selling a car is easier and was there in market for a longer time. But people were not buying the car online because of uh the trust issues. Right. So when somebody sells a car the journey starts by filling a lead. Uh you fill a lead on. On the website and that's how it started. So we used to have a form where every person has to fill in the car make, model that um and registration uh date etc, etc, multiple uh form fields. I think there were nine. Nine fields which we used to take and we cannot uh, like go do away with any field because those were, those are the fields which are important for business to give any estimation of the price for the car. Right? So that is also very important because without that we cannot move ahead and we cannot inspect all the cars because it's a problem. So much of bandwidth is required then. Right? So now how to increase the conversion rate of the handful of users who are coming on the website so that we get more leads. That, that is the task at hand. So we have done multiple experiments. So first one is like initially we were showing all the fields at the same time. Like a user will see all the fields at the same time that he has to fill so many fields right? So it experimented that one by one every field should come and um. Initial only will tell that there are so many fields. But uh, the daunting of so many fields at the first site itself became was there's a problem, we are very lazy. People do not want to fill all this. So uh, so that experiment actually worked well after like making the journey a little more smoother, little more fun just to click etc. Rather than drop downs that was uh, that actually has improved. Uh likewise there are few things in um, in for example if a user is looking just the price of the car right now or he is actually wanting to sell right now because that is also a bigger thing because when you buy a car you actually also check uh the selling how much it will be sell off if I sell it in two years or something like that. So people do that as well. Uh so we actually implemented one more field where we started asking whether you want to sell it immediately in three months or like that so that the uh inspections can be aligned in that sense. So and multiple UI UX smaller shifts has actually gave us 3x incremental conversion rate uh from doing such small uh experiments with colors with UI UX, uh how it should come etc. Etc. So this was a great story and they are still doing it because I still see there are changes happening on the, on the form every, every month or two months. They're still doing some experiments.

Speaker B: Great. Both are very interesting stories uh to share Ruby thank you so much for that. And uh lastly I would like uh you to share any takeaways for budding professionals uh you know before we sign off.

Speaker A: So um, it depends upon anybody's wherever they are in their professional career. But uh, whatever I am seeing right now within my team um, and uh the professionals which are who are just starting their career the focus is very less and very fragmented. Want to grow up in all the fields at the same time. Uh right. So I think marketing and um product uh are connected now. So anything which is uh whatever there are multiple fields within, within digital, the social uh normal performance, then content, then UI ux there are multiple things but whatever um a person wants to do as per the interest. Right. So it has to be end to end. Uh right. So I think in few years the layer of product manager and marketing uh manager will go away. Uh right. So uh the PRDs may be all making logics is something which an AI can do so which user what to show it will become one on one journeys as we go ahead. Right. So the logics should come from an engine not like just say that okay. If a user do this then do that There will be multiple lines. Right. So I think focus is very important uh and learning it end to end not halfway through uh which I am seeing a lot in this generation. Okay. I just learned this much. Okay. Now I want to learn another thing so that is something which is important. And another thing is detail orientation. At least as ah a company like us which who are smaller and to any startup I should say I have never worked with any bigger organization. I don't know how they operate but uh as, as the scale or any like it. With Myntra also at that point of time we were pretty good, pretty big doing around 150 to 200 cr by month. So we were pretty good big at that point of time as well. But I think detail orientation is very important uh because when we see the data from this, from here we do not see any insights. There will be all looks same, everything is good and everything is fine and there's nothing but if we dissect, think over a little more and come up with cuts which we uh, we hypothetically think might be happening that makes uh, that makes the fun right. So detail orientation I think and focus I should say the next uh coming up uh professionals should look forward towards. And the third one is learning uh analytics with, with basic coding because uh like BigQuery like analytics team is separate but marketing should know a uh basic SQL basic query because they can do their own data research they should do because that's what is required. So I think this, this is something which the, which everybody should learn when they're growing up in their business, in their career as of now.

Speaker B: Thank you Ruby, thank you so much for sharing uh your thoughts on this and uh as I said we are truly delighted to have you on this podcast. Thank you for sharing all your insights and uh, wish you all the best.

Speaker A: Thank you Mehul. Thank you so much for having me here today.

Speaker B: So, ladies and gentlemen, we come to the end of yet another episode of the Growth Genius. Who knew that in today's age we will also have B2B online platforms at that too for industrial products. And that is what this podcast was all about. Do watch the entire podcast for more insights and actionable points which probably can help you in your business as well. We are available on all online platforms, be it video or audio. The links to all of this is given in the descriptor below. Do like, share and subscribe to our content. And till, uh, the next episode of the Growth Genius, keep learning. Keep inspiring. Thank you.