The Place for Ecommerce Technology
2 Min Read
As I’m sure you’ve noticed, we’re simply going by Corra these days instead of “CorraTech.” Don’t get us wrong. We’re still a technology company. But we’re a lot more than that. By dropping the “tech,” we can actually say a lot more about our brand. But this entry isn’t about our new image. Our efforts just happen to bring up an interesting point that relates to the way ecommerce companies are increasingly viewing themselves.
For obvious reasons, technical expertise is an absolute must if you want to build a successful ecommerce business. But as any successful company will tell you, technology alone isn’t enough. What allows the best online merchants to separate themselves from an increasingly crowded field is not just a robust search feature or a unique product display page, but also the quality of their products and brand.
Don’t believe me? Take a look at what our old pals at Bonobos are up to. They recently built a tech product in-house that focused on personalization. While it was innovative and effective, the team that designed it is leaving to start its own stand-alone company built around the product. Surprisingly for some, Bonobos is happy to let them walk out the door. They’d rather pay for the product as a customer than continue to devote in-house resources to its development.
The underlying reason for the move would seem to be that Bonobos understands it’s not really a technology company at heart. It needs that technology to succeed, but it would rather focus its internal resources on providing great products to its customers.
It isn’t the only ecommerce company thinking this way. Ben Lerer the CEO of Jack Threads recently spoke about the current state of ecommerce in an online CEO roundtable. He said, “It’s really the products you are selling and the stories you are telling that matters.” Believe me. At Corra we know technology matters. We just think that (especially in the early stages) ecommerce companies should devote their internal efforts towards what they understand better than anyone else—their brand and products. Leave the technology to someone else.
Photo via The Founder
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