An interview with Udo Rauch: “Every retailer who wants to innovatively tackle digital change should take a closer look at commercetools.”
Udo Rauch: “With our innovative headless e-commerce platform, we offer a modern and flexible technology for fast but also long-term success.”
commercetools has evolved from an insider tip to the fastest growing global e-commerce software provider. The cloud-based e-commerce technology is remarkable. Numerous, very successful customer projects, including those for Audi, Yamaha and Geberit, bear witness to this. For several years, foryouandyourcustomers in Europe has relied on commercetools for its customers.
At Australia’s leading e-commerce event, Online Retailer 2019 Conference & Expo, from 24 to 25 July 2019, the two companies will come together and present an exhibition stand in Sydney. Interested parties can get to know the team from foryouandyourcustomers Melbourne and Sydney, but in particular also Udo Rauch and Clara Lim from commercetools. As Managing Director at commercetools, the former is responsible for the international growth of the Munich-based technology provider.
commercetools at a trade fair
Jonathan Moeller: Udo, the name commercetools is unknown in Australia. Nobody here has the feeling that the market lacks another e-commerce system. Now your company presents itself for the first time to the trade audience down under. Who should get to know commercetools? Udo Rauch: Every retailer who wants to actively and innovatively tackle digital change, create exciting customer journeys and provide services like “Service à la Amazon” should take a closer look at commercetools. With our innovative headless e-commerce platform, we offer a modern and flexible technology for fast but also long-term success. We are convinced that our offering will be of great interest to critical and innovative Australian retailers.
Jonathan Moeller: What do you see as the strengths and advantages of your e-commerce technology over the competition? Udo Rauch: Thanks to this cloud-based headless e-commerce platform, our customers are able to take their business to the next level, saving time and money, and are able to offer personalised and inspiring shopping experiences across all their channels: from mobile apps to language assistants, chatbots, AR/VR and IoT applications to car commerce. Interestingly, we do not provide our customers with a standard solution out of the box. commercetools is rather the inventor of microservices. Our customers can access more than 300 services for their e-commerce projects and use them in a very simple way. Our modular architecture enables companies to set up flexible and scalable new business models, create services such as offers and adapt them in real time and without interruption. This application of software not as a standard package with standard functionalities, but customisable through our services, is one of the unique selling points of commercetools.
Jonathan Moeller: And so is the Australian market still lacking this offer? Udo Rauch: In the past, we have received enquiries from potential customers from Australia whom we have not been able to serve adequately to date. Many online retailers are now aware that they are far from realising the full potential of their software – with systems that are no longer state of the art and with which it will be difficult to compete with Amazon. Companies have recognised the advantages of cloud-based functionalities that enable continuous development and wants to focus more on Software as a Service, which enables a much higher degree of agility and flexibility. These are exactly the benefits that commercetools offers its customers.
commercetools Team
Jonathan Moeller: How would you describe the typical commercetools customer? Udo Rauch: commercetools now has more than 200 customers from a wide variety of industries and each of them is special in their requirements and needs and therefore in a way unique. The majority of our customers rely on commercetools when it comes not only to building a simple web shop, but also to successfully utilise a multitude of different touch points that access the same data streams, the same inventory and the same product data. These are challenges that every multichannel company today has to master.
Jonathan Moeller: Especially when using cloud-based applications, the issue of trust in the respective provider plays an immensely important role. How does commercetools create the necessary basis for this? Udo Rauch: Through transparency and openness. Of course, trust is one of the most fundamental themes in our business. We are obliged by law alone to take data protection measures, to carry out technical organisational measures and to have these checked by the legislator. We guarantee our customers that they will be served via one platform, but that they will still be completely separated from each other. This means: A customer can trust us 100 percent that we will neither use their data nor make it available to other companies. In the end, however, trust is something that develops between people and not between institutions. This is also why we invite our customers to our office in Berlin at any time, where the commercetools software is not only developed but also operated, where each customer can get their own impression of how we handle their data.
Jonathan Moeller: How can you get a view of commercetools and your offerings before the exhibition Online Retailer starts? Udo Rauch: commercetools also differs from other providers in that every potential customer can test our software free of charge for 60 days. In addition, we offer detailed documentation about our services on our website. You can also easily register, ask questions and contact our team: https://commercetools.com/.
Jonathan Moeller: Thank you Udo, for the interesting conversation. We wish you and your team continued success. Especially here in Australia!
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