Roberto Fumarola is a veteran of the eCommerce industry, with experience starting in 2001 and evolving to the founding of Qapla’ in 2014, together with Luca Cassia.
Qapla’ is an innovative SaaS platform that enables eCommerce businesses to streamline the entire order shipping phase, thereby enhancing the end-user experience. By connecting directly to the eCommerce site or marketplace, Qapla’ enables the management of more than 450 couriers, while the advanced editor allows the creation of customized emails and tracking pages that, through post-shipment marketing strategies, lead to an average sales increase of 7 percent. In short, respectable results for online stores that play the game of success based on sales and customer loyalty.
But what, then, is the secret of success for an eCommerce? We could only ask Roberto Fumarola directly. Here is his interview.
Roberto, thank you for your availability. Let’s cut to the chase, what are the main needs that an eCommerce manifests in the order management phase (receiving, preparation and shipping)?
When an eCommerce reaches a certain volume of orders, the basic need is to optimize the operational flow, minimizing errors and resource utilization and maintaining a high level of service. To make growth sustainable, it is necessary to automate the process of order fulfillment (including label printing), organize workflows by managing different channels separately, and achieve centralized control of all shipments in progress with a real-time alert system on problems that may arise or errors, such as incorrectly typed addresses. Increasing volumes is possible, then, only through the definition of rules that simplify the work and optimize the budget: the merchant can, for example, set up conditions according to which a shipment is entrusted to one courier instead of another. In general, moving from manual, case-by-case management to an automated workflow that is at the same time constantly monitored makes it possible to take that decisive step in the development of an online business.
We recently read about the acquisition of Transactionale to strengthen Qapla’ strategies in post-delivery marketing. Would you like to tell us about that?
This is a very important step in broadening the range of marketing potential offered by our tool. Qapla’ is positioned as a hub to which all the merchant’s after-sales services can be connected given the strategic centrality of communications about the progress of shipments, the most read along the entire Customer Journey.
Transactionale is a partner we have been working with from the very beginning, as our solutions complement each other perfectly: with Transactionale, it is indeed possible to insert a “reward banner” in emails and tracking pages that allows access to a series of reserved offers on a network of non-competing stores; the customer receives an additional benefit and the merchant gets a fee based on the lead acquired from other shops. In an environment where advertising costs are expected to increase by 30 percent between now and 2025 (source: Statista), eCommerce cannot ignore the value of acquired customers in order to work on loyalty and lower customer lifetime value in the face of rising acquisition costs. The adoption of Transactionale together with Qapla’ enables acceleration toward this direction.
Let’s talk about returns, an often sore point for eCommerce. How do you think it is possible to optimize them and turn them into an advantage not only for end customers, but also for stores?
The return process is a key moment of contact with eCommerce and is for all intents and purposes part of what we call the Delivery Experience. The customer is for some reason dissatisfied with the product, so the service needs to be convenient and smooth. One way to reduce the number of returns, and streamline the process when really needed, is to define very precise limits on return conditions at the outset and automate the user request phase within those same limits. The team will then not have to go through every case, and a customized landing page can be provided where the customer can select the items to be returned, the reasons, and how to return them, to get the label and return instructions themselves. An easy return can be one less barrier to another potential new purchase. Should you have a network of stores, it may be a good practice to make them a return point, in a drive-to-store strategy. There another game is played there: if the experience in the physical point is positive, starting from the welcome to how it is decorated and how the products are displayed, the customer will be induced to make new purchases there, even if that was not their initial intention. Remember that a satisfied return customer is well-disposed toward a new purchase, whether online or offline, in a cross-channel perspective that is indispensable today.
Qapla’ and GEL Proximity recently announced the integration of the platforms through which merchants using Qapla’ can take advantage of more than 200,000 Pickup Points and Lockers for shipments and returns. In your opinion, what is the added value of Out Of Home deliveries for eCommerce?
The added value is considerable in many ways:
- Dramatically decrease failed delivery attempts and resulting inventories, since there is no longer a need for a recipient to be present when the package arrives;
- greater environmental and economic sustainability through fewer required deliveries and fewer miles traveled by couriers;
- greater convenience and flexibility, as customers can choose the pickup point that is most functional for them and go there when they prefer.
Ultimately, the transportation process is streamlined while gaining the customer experience, which has 200,000 more choices. Thanks to the integration with Qapla’, the user can search and select the preferred pickup point from a map or menu during checkout on the site.
Qapla’ is also rapidly conquering international markets. What similarities and what differences stand out most, in your opinion, compared to the domestic market?
Compared to years ago, the gap in technology and propensity toward online shopping between Italy and other European countries is slowly closing, although there is still some way to go (eShoppers in Italy are 62% of Internet users, compared to 78% European average, according to ECommerce Europe). A similarity between the Italian and Spanish markets, on which we have been present for more years, is the increasing concentration of eCommerce sales in the big players: 44% and 42% of annual online sales were made in the country’s top 5 stores (data: ECDB, 2024), versus lower figures in, for example, France and Germany (29% and 38%, respectively). This makes it very difficult not only to climb the ladder for small- to medium-sized eCommerce, but also to maintain market share for high-volume sellers. The battle is played on enhancing one’s customer database and building loyalty to one’s brand and service, certainly not on price.
One difference with other eCommerce marketplaces that may partly balance the dominance of multinationals is still a certain attachment toward Italian brands and products. As for Italy’s logistics competitiveness, according to the Logistic Performance Index compiled by the World Bank, the country’s position is stable, at 19th place, with good performance on tracking & tracing of deliveries and punctuality and lower scores on cross-border shipments and operations. In this we have yet to catch up with other European countries (Finland ranks first, we are also ahead of Germany, France, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands, among others). The growth of eCommerce in Italy, even in its expansion across borders, can only come through an efficient supply chain and Delivery Experience in general.
Qapla’ means “Success” in Klingon, a language spoken in the Star Trek universe. In conclusion, so what is the secret to success in eCommerce?
The key to success in eCommerce is to convey value along all stages of the Customer Journey and to take particular care of the time interval from final click to checkout to delivery, when the customer’s attention is at its highest.
This has, in fact, a fundamental weight in increasing lifetime value, a KPI that should be the beacon of any merchant strategy in a period where acquiring new customers is increasingly difficult and expensive. The eShopper will remember the last interaction with the brand, then the assistance during shipping, the choice and convenience of the delivery mode, and the communication about tracking, if this is curated and personalized according to preferences. We hope that this will be less and less of a secret and more and more of a widespread knowledge for all the growth of the eCommerce ecosystem.
We thank Roberto Fumarola for his availability and look forward to the next interview!
