Neal Goyal

The single best source of data...Your Customers. Being the lifeblood of any brand, there is so much opportunity to learn from them. Often times, brand leaders make decisions based on prediction or "belief." When the most valuable possible dataset is sitting there right in front of them (their customers), providing the insight into the best strategy. Collecting data accomplishes a few things. It gives a brand insight into what customers really want, how they can iterate upon their product, or even what products to launch in the future. Plus, asking the customers directly makes them feel part of a broader brand community, that not only tells them the brand is listening, but makes them feel like a party of the brand story. It's a win-win.

Fast-growing Shopify brands are integrating AI to enhance operational efficiency and deliver personalized customer experiences. AI enables analyzing vast amounts of customer data to identify patterns, predict shopping behaviors, and tailor product recommendations to individual preferences. This level of personalization makes customers feel valued and understood, significantly boosting their engagement and purchase likelihood. Shopify merchants need to understand customer behavior in-depth, from identifying peak shopping times to understanding which products are most likely to be bought together. By leveraging these insights, brands can optimize their marketing strategies, inventory management, and overall customer engagement approach.

Shopify's Partner Community. The ecosystem has become so strong, where brands have countless options to leverage agencies that are flush with talent, service offerings, and options. More importantly, Shopify does an incredible job nurturing that ecosystem while also having a vetting process in place to ensure high quality of work delivered by their elite agency partners. Its the perfect hybridization of tech and professional services that set brands up for success.

Hot take here... The UI for your website, is NOT the right experience for all of your customer cohorts. Your website is designed to appeal to anyone and everyone that may have a chance of buying. But when you look at your loyal customer cohorts, they deserve a differentiated experience. They don't need all of the same top of funnel CTA's that exist on a standard site. This is where a brand's mobile app comes in, which can have a UI and experience hyper-personalized for that loyal customer. If that returning customer feels like you understand them, and receives that personalization of the experience to their tastes and needs, they end up increasing the loyalty with the brand even further.

In Ecommerce SaaS, do everything in your power to place yourself in the shoes of the brand, and the brand's team members. Too often are individuals trying to "sell" their solution. Rather, hyper-empathy in the sales process is what will make you standout as someone who understands, can solve real challenges... and most importantly... stand out as someone who CARES.

What gets my attention when interviewing a candidate... When the candidate has done enough research to perceive a certain challenge we are trying to solve for, and then presents a plan of how they will contribute to solving that challenge. This requires a supreme level of research of the company, solution, customers, and value propositions. If the candidate can apply that research into a well orchestrated narrative of how their unique experience will help further those initiatives and fill gaps in our strategy... I'm all ears.