Roy Rosinnes wants to help business owners do something about their leaking revenue. This leak stems from several issues that the company usually doesn’t know about until they find out they’re losing money. According to a Shoppimon report, the company says the usual e-commerce store is losing 12.4% of yearly revenues due to these unseen issues.
A seasoned entrepreneur, Roy Rosinnes has spent more than 20 years building software startups and leading organizations in international companies. He also co-founded Shoppimon, an AI-based monitoring service for e-commerce stores.
With Shoppimon, Roy Rosinnes can help e-commerce store owners mitigate these issues before they start losing hunks of money. The company can these issues as soon as they crop up, immediately alerting stakeholders about these issues that might affect the store page’s workflow.
Roy Rosinnes says that the company can distinguish these issues according to their significance, as well. The company’s technology can alert users immediately if the store is facing major issues. On the other hand, they can wait for a while before alerting users if the problem is not as big. The tech is sufficiently advanced, too. For example, it knows that missing images could cause more harm if they occur on product pages, compared to the homepage. From that knowledge, Shoppimon can give customers accurate and solid feedback so that they can take relevant steps.
Thanks to its tech, Roy Rosinnes and Shoppimon are well-situated to handle website monitoring and delivering analytics and insights into the performance of e-commerce sites.
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Jerome Knyszewski: Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
Roy Rosinnes: Sure, happy to. I actually started my career as a developer in a hardware-based telco tech company. They needed a way to manage and configure their over-the-air telephony systems and I was the first developer they hired to kick off their first all-software project. We started developing a full-blown Network Management system from scratch and grew very rapidly. As the organization grew, I grew with it; I learned a ton about how to build teams, design software and manage projects as well as customers.
I then joined a startup company called Identify Software and moved to Tokyo to help build the territory. I was the only one “on the ground” and it was an amazing experience, personally and professionally. I learned how to manage sales, partners, and how to interact with R&D from a customer-facing position. Identify had an amazing monitoring product which helped the largest companies in the market understand their software better. It could record and replay running code in production environment — which was not something you could do at the time. It did require a lot of expertise though to operate, configure and understand — I guess this is what eventually led me and my co-founders to the idea behind Shoppimon. We thought — what if we had a product that’s smart enough to understand what it sees, know how to configure itself and then deliver insights on the data it collects? This is how Shoppimon got started.
Jerome Knyszewski: What was the “Aha Moment” that led to the idea for your current company? Can you share that story with us?
Roy Rosinnes: We realized that although monitoring systems are becoming the norm, they are all trying to be as generic as possible and encompass all possible software to help developers in whatever they develop. They treat all software equally — “we’ll monitor your transactions, you figure out what the data means and let us know what to track”. And although this makes sense, it falls short when trying to help professionals manage their business that just happens to run on software.
We thought “what if there was a monitoring system that is not generic but is rather built specifically for the business it is monitoring. It will be able to configure itself, automate the majority of the tasks and, most importantly, deliver valuable insights automatically”. Looking at the rapidly growing e-commerce space, we decided to build a “built for commerce” monitoring system. In a way, this brought me back to my time in the telco company building a Network Management System — an expert system — for a specific purpose. Shoppimon was that — for online stores.
Jerome Knyszewski: Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?
Roy Rosinnes: Building a business from scratch is hard. You start out with an idea and you never know what you’re going to encounter as your business grows. Is my idea right the right one? Will I be able to fund it? Will customers like what I’m building? How will I compete? — these are just a few of the questions I used to think of on a daily basis. I am not a guy that’s lacking self-confidence — but trust me, it’s very hard not to doubt yourself when starting something new in the tech industry.
And trouble, pitfalls and hard times will always be there along the way — it’s just part of the process. Much like getting to work through traffic in the morning, you can count on things to not always flow as you’d like them to…
For me the way to get over these doubts was comprised of 2 main things; 1) A strong belief in the idea and the fact that this is how things should be managed in online businesses and 2) My coworkers, board members and investors. I was very lucky to have great people around me that wanted me to succeed and did what they can to help me get there. I had Shahar Evron, my co-founder, with me from the get go and I had some great, professional people in my board of directors.
Jerome Knyszewski: So, how are things going today? How did your grit and resilience lead to your eventual success?
Roy Rosinnes: Shoppimon today is a known brand name in the e-commerce space. We succeeded in building a great product that fits right into what great e-commerce stores need. We are able to help great brands achieve their online goals and we have amazing first-line e-commerce agencies as partners.
Jerome Knyszewski: Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?
Roy Rosinnes: I remember one of the first times I pitched to a larger organization. I was excited as I discussed the product with their CEO and Head of IT. I could show them real valuable data and eventually I exclaimed “So, as you can see, using our product and the data we provide you will be able to solve your software issues!”. There was a short silence as the Head of IT and CEO looked at each other and then the Head of IT gently said “Right, well, we do solve all of our software issues now as well”.
I learned that day that functioning organizations have their tested processes and method in place and they work. What we bring to the table are usually new ways of doing things, maybe accelerating or automating certain aspects of the process, but more often than not — not replacing them. This is by no means a small thing — it can very well revolutionize the way our customers work. But you should always be respectful and understand the way your customer is tackling their challenges today.
I also learned that Sushi in Japan is much more delicate and should not, by any means, be dipped in Soy Sauce or it will fall apart. But that’s a different story.
Jerome Knyszewski: Can you share a few examples of tools or software that you think can dramatically empower emerging eCommerce brands to be more effective and more successful?
Roy Rosinnes: I’d start with monitoring tools as this is my business. Make sure you have the right tools at hand to really know how the store is doing. And make sure you are alerted to issues you need to know about before shoppers are affected.
I’d also recommend choosing a leading e-commerce platform to build your store on. This ensures a lot of partners to help with all aspects of the store as well as a higher quality of a well-tested platform.
Other tools you need in no particular order:
- Google Analytics — for seeing your traffic and how users are behaving
- MailChimp — for email campaigns, newsletters and customer retention
- Stripe or Authorize.net for payments
- Oktopost for social media management
- Veeqo for businesses that require Omnichannel Management
- YotPo for loyalty and referrals
- Optimizley for A/B testing and optimization
- And Shoppimon of course… 🙂 — For monitoring and knowing exactly how your store is doing at all times.
Jerome Knyszewski: As you know, “conversion” means to convert a visit into a sale. In your experience what are the best strategies an eCommerce business should use to increase conversion rates?
Roy Rosinnes: At the risk of repeating what I mentioned before — pay as much (or indeed, even more) attention to the user journey and conversion path within your store as you do to bringing in traffic. Make sure your store is snappy and quick — that’s the first, most basic thing you need to cover. Make it fun and informative, try and make it more like a game, like buying candy. If your users are greeted with an existing experience visually, if they learn something, if they have fun while navigating your store — they will come back and they will convert more. Find your voice and your niche and deliver an experience that is simple, exciting & fun for you. Your shoppers will feel the same.
Jerome Knyszewski: Of course, the main way to increase conversion rates is to create a trusted and beloved brand. Can you share a few ways that an eCommerce business can earn a reputation as a trusted and beloved brand?
Roy Rosinnes: Very true, this is key in creating a successful business that customers love to come back to and tell others about as well. There is not magic to it really — you need to be absolutely focused on what your customers need and your unique voice. You will not cater to everyone — that’s ok — but your customers are kings and queens and should be treated as such. Invest in a super high-quality service and you will see the benefits in no time. Make sure your products are of the highest quality and meet your customers’ expectations. Replace products that fall short — in terms of quality or price — and make sure you keep innovating. If you repeatedly come through on service, product quality, price and innovation — you will build a name for yourself and a loyal customer base.
Jerome Knyszewski: Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things one should know in order to create a very successful e-commerce business? Please share a story or an example for each.
Roy Rosinnes:
- Build the right team — there is no way that I know to scale a business on your own. Putting the right team is place is crucial. You’re going to drive this thing together and you want the best people for the job on your side. Hire people that know their job better than you. Hire people that you would like to see every day when you get to the office — because you will. And you are going to spend a ton of time with these people so you quality of life — not just business — depends on it.
- Find your voice — you are bringing something new and different to the table. It’s better and unique or would not exist. Be clear about it, understand what it is and who you are as a business and find your voice, style, sound and visuals. People can see when you’re consistent and genuine and they respect that. This is why you are here in the first place.
- Partner up — find the right partners to help you run all aspects of your business. Be it an e-commerce agency to help you build your site, choose the right platform & tools or a marketing agency that fits your need whom you trust. Your partners will be guide you through it — no successful ecommerce business I know got to where they are today on their own. Choose your consultants wisely.
- Be agile — as we know oh so well, times can change. Trends change, fashions change, competition emerges and markets reinvent themselves. Be agile, know your market and target audience and don’t hesitate to shift and innovate when the need arises or opportunity presents itself. Some of the greatest companies out there started with one idea and were agile enough to identify far larger opportunities along the way and implement new ones.
