Answering to the eCommerce Challenges in the DACH Region

In 2020, eCommerce markets in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, also known as the DACH region, reached a consolidated volume of more than €100 billion. That’s more than ever before and more than any other language area in Europe. With this, the DACH market also accounts for a quarter of eCommerce sales in the U.S. So, it’s only the next logical step to position Divante on the DACH market and to intensify our activities with new customers in the German-speaking region.

Over a year ago, Sabrina Janssen, Head of Sales DACH, started to work with German-speaking customers to implement their digital projects. Since March, Markus Lorenz, General Manager for DACH at Divante, has now made the essential step to operate successfully and independently in the region.

In this interview, the DACH team members introduce themselves and tell us more about their goals and challenges for Divante in the DACH market.

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Markus Lorenz

General Manager DACH

LinkedIn

Why did you choose Divante?

I was a client of Divante first, and I was impressed by the culture and innovation of the company. That was also visible to me in the office in Wrocław. Being a part of the strategy to be a ‘top of mind eCom company’ and building an excellent team for Germany supported my decision.
What Divante products and services cover today's eCommerce needs?

I think that Divante can support the whole eCom capabilities for our fantastic clients. We´re able to deliver superb UX/UI experience, realize that by using PWA with sexy technologies like commercetools, support the product experience journey with PIM applications, and can do new things with our Innovation Lab.
Which eCommerce trends that we’ve observed lately are the most important in terms of the pandemic? How do they change the eCommerce market? Do you think they’re temporary, or will they stick with us for longer?

In general, the pandemic has pushed the eCom sector a lot. From my observation, social selling and conversational commerce are pushed because people love sharing with each other while shopping. Also, the higher expectations of the clients regarding the user experience are driving a lot of modernization activities in the back-end environment to sync, for example, lead and delivery times as well as stock and price data.
Why do you think Divante needs to be more known in the DACH region? Why do you think it’s essential to build this awareness?

Divante has a solid track record and is proven to work with hot technologies in great teams. I believe these capabilities are worth sharing on the German market.
We, as Divante, can deliver leading technology with the best value for money.
What are your biggest, or one of the biggest, goals for 2021 in Divante?

Hiring the right teammates for the ‘A’ team, which is almost done, getting our actual projects live in DACH, and developing new ways of cooperation with our clients.
What are your first impressions after the first two months at Divante?

I was stoked from day one about our values: drive, vibe, next, and teamwork. The people who I work with on a daily basis are reflecting those, and I also request any new teammate to act upon these core values. This gives us a ‘doer’ attitude so we can move forward.
Do you think that only big companies should react to changes that we observe right now? Is it safe for smaller companies, too?

I guess that every company, no matter their size, realized through the pandemic that digitalization initiatives have to be pushed forward. So, I would expect that every company, depending on its size and state of its digital maturity, has a glimpse of its digital plan for the future. Relating directly with their customers and knowing your customer has to drive all business and digital decisions. In the end, it’s about being faster in adjusting the user experience for the client. More prominent companies have to invest in fast pace infrastructure enablement, such as composable commerce. Smaller companies may focus on building the right thing by ‘build, measure, learn.’ This is also a valid point for the big ones, but I expect those companies had a checkmark on this topic.
What are the biggest challenges that eCommerce businesses are currently facing? How can you and Divante support them?

Being constantly in the position to adopt new technologies and pivot your eCommerce infrastructure towards the market needs is a massive challenge for IT decision-makers. On the other hand, it is crucial to understand your customers. Divante can help our clients by building a super UX/UI solution and transfer this solution into a composable eCommerce architecture. Backed by the experience of our growing team, we solved those challenges already on a large scale while also working on the client-side. So, our clients are participating from actual experience.

Sabrina Janßen

Head of Sales DACH

LinkedIn

Why did you choose Divante, and what do you do?

As Head of Sales DACH, I take care of our new clients and partners and coordinate communication with the client and our team here at Divante. I joined Divante in January 2020 after a nine-month sabbatical because I saw this big opportunity of what we can build here in DACH and the value the company can bring to clients in this region.
What are your biggest goals for 2021 at Divante?

We want to grow our DACH presence in 2021 by including new members in our DACH team and a German legal entity. With these plans established, we will have a great combination of native-speaking support on a strategic level and our excellent delivery specialists in our HQ.
What Divante products and services cover today's eCommerce needs?

Divante is leading when it comes to the topics of headless and composable commerce. We started early with this topic by creating the PWA Vue Storefront and Spartacus front ends together with SAP. For us, it's all about innovation and shaping the eCommerce of the future. And we currently see this with the trend towards a flexible, modular eCommerce structure we have been dealing with for quite some time now.
Do you think that trends we observe in eCommerce caused by the pandemic are temporary, or will they last even when life goes back to normal?

They are for sure not temporary. The pandemic has just shortened the timeline for changes. eCommerce is a fast-developing area, but over the past 12 months, companies needed to react very quickly and had to take actions they otherwise would have taken later.
What are the biggest challenges that eCommerce businesses are currently facing? How can you and Divante support them?

There are quite a few, as always. We see that with the overall eCommerce market development, shoppers also get more demanding. So, creating an appealing customer experience plays a crucial role for eCommerce companies. Another challenge is how to deal with an increasingly complex IT architecture and infrastructure environment. Not everyone has the knowledge and resources in-house to handle these topics properly, and Divante can support merchants regarding all these challenges.

Reinhard Joswig

Head of Technology

Why did you choose Divante, and what do you do?

Because my old employer is a customer of Divante, I had been aware of the company for some time. My impression of Divante was always positive, and I perceived the company as a pioneer in headless/composable commerce. Markus and I have known each other for several years. When he moved to Divante, he told me a lot about his challenges. We quickly realized that I could contribute to the development of the company with my many years of experience. Besides my tasks in the DACH unit, which include support in pre-sales as well as technical consulting for our customers, I will help Divante to continue to focus on the right technologies in the future.
What are your biggest goals for 2021 at Divante?

For the DACH unit, this year, I would like to contribute to winning many new interesting customers and successfully completing ongoing projects. I believe this is important especially in the early phase of the DACH initiative to maintain Divante's positive image in the DACH market. In terms of future technologies and possibly services we offer, my goal is to establish a technology board format this year that will serve as a compass for the company and help us to make the right technology decisions.
What Divante products and services cover today's eCommerce needs?

I think the topic of composable commerce is something that many companies are concerned about, but they’re stuck in old technologies. Many old, established top dogs, like Magento, have a hard time against headless pioneers like commercetools or Elastic Path. On the other hand, commercetools and co. have a hard time communicating the benefits of a headless solution to customers in the German midmarket. This is where Divante has the opportunity to offer customers all facets of composable commerce.
Do you think that trends we observe in eCommerce caused by the pandemic are temporary, or will they last even when life goes back to normal?

I think, to some extent, the trend will continue but not at the same level. Many people have hopefully had positive experiences in areas where eCommerce may not have been a topic before. For example, with medicines. On the other hand, I think that in some areas, such as home improvement stores or food, many people will return to stationary retail.
What are the biggest challenges that eCommerce businesses are currently facing? How can you and Divante support them?

I think the biggest challenge for many retailers will be the competition against the big players, like Amazon. Amazon is setting new standards year after year and it will be hard for most companies to keep up. At Divante, we have a powerful team to help these companies keep up both commercially and technologically.”