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Hi Sam, it's great to talk to you today. Before we dive into Shalion's unique values… Sam, could you share with us your role within Shalion and how long you've been with the company?
Hi Ana Julia - You too. Thanks for inviting me. I have been with Shalion for almost 3 years now. I’ve had a few different roles since then, but always have remained within the sales team. Right now I am focused on new business anywhere within EMEA.
Now, let's delve into Shalion's unique values that make it a versatile tool for businesses of different sizes.
Shalion stands out for its dashboard customization, making it adaptable and user-friendly without the need for large dedicated teams. Could you explain how this feature allows Shalion to cater to the individual needs of each client?
The way we explain it to new clients / prospects during demos is that “what you see is not what you get”. Customisation is one of our major USP’s and for clients who have legacy data providers this is often a huge relief. This customizability applies to our offering across the entire Digital Shelf, Retail Media and Geo-location tracking.
For example, a client might ask for a Global Dashboard which tracks a few easy-to-understand KPIs for global-level executives into which each local market’s data must be fed. For our Data Visualisation team - which sits in our Barcelona HQ - this is a very easy task with an SLA of less than one week. We are also constantly sharing our product roadmap with clients in order to get their feedback and understand which future innovations are going to best solve their problems and help them to reach their business objectives.
One of Shalion's key values is continuous customer support through dedicated teams. Could you elaborate on how these teams work with clients to ensure they're making the most of the tool and gaining actionable insights for their business strategies?
One of the key discussions that takes place during the sales process is the client’s pain points and success KPIs; what is the problem? How is Shalion going to solve it? And what impact is that going to have on the client’s business? These success KPIs are passed on to the customer success team, who will further develop and expand them over the course of their monthly value-generation meetings with the client and / or their agency. This provides value on top of the dashboard and helps turn data into actionable insights.
We also tend not to reassign Customer Success Managers to different clients too often, meaning that the same CSM is going to be assigned to the same client over the course of the whole contract, which allows trust and a relationship to develop. This is how Shalion moves from being just another provider and becomes a trusted partner.
The metrics provided by Shalion, such as Share of Visibility and Share of Spend, seem to be unique in the market. Could you explain how these specific metrics help brands evaluate their performance in Retail Media and how they differ from conventional metrics?
Both modules you mentioned - Share of Visibility and Share of Spend - can be found within our Visibility module. This is distinct from the Digital Shelf. The way you can think of it is as follows; if the Digital Shelf covers the fundamentals (OOS & Availability, Pricing, Content, Ratings & Reviews etc.) then the Visibility module tracks how you stand out on the Digital Shelf (Share of Ads, Share of Search, Share of Shelf & Share of Promos).
Distinguishing between paid and organic Visibility is a novel concept within the ecommerce space, and Share of Visibility and Share of Spend are metrics that are currently being tracked by Shalion exclusively. Search results can be organic or sponsored. Shelf can be organic or sponsored. Products can be on promo or not. Even banner ads can be paid or organic; multibrand ads from the retailer, for example, are not paid display positions. Shalion can track all of these KPIs and for this reason splits its reporting between the overall Share of Visibility (organic + paid) and the Share of Spend.
It’s crucial to understand how your Share of Spend is being distributed across your retail clients and to understand how effectively it is impacting your overall visibility. An effective paid visibility strategy will complement your overall Visibility and should use media budget intelligently, to fill gaps in organic Visibility where required and to be used elsewhere where organic visibility is already strong.
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In order to implement such a strategy, first we need to understand the following; What is my organic Share of Search? Do I need to complement it with a Paid Search campaign? What percentage of the Shelf belongs to me and what percentage to competitor brands? Do I need to boost my presence with a Paid Shelf campaign? Why do I have more products on promotion than my competitors? Can I reduce my Promo spend and use it elsewhere more impactfully?
The most prominent of these Visibility metrics is the Share Of Ads. These are the Display Ads that you can find - for example - above the fold on the homepage in the form of a banner. Or It could be a Vignette displayed below the fold on a category page, or it may even be a keyword-activated Banner which will appear above sponsored search results. Shalion tracks this KPI every single day, and we are able to detect the display-type (Banner, Vignette, Butterfly, Sponsored Product Showcase etc.) and even analyse the copy within the creative to give the promotype within the Ad.
This KPI is used primarily for two functions. The first is campaign auditing. Up to 20% of Digital Ads are displayed incorrectly or not for the agreed-upon amount of time. If you have, for example, paid for a banner campaign to appear above the fold on a retailer’s homepage for 30 days - and for such a campaign you will have paid a lot - Shalion’s ad tracking can help you understand if the ad has been displayed as agreed.
Secondly, this metric offers profound Competitive Intelligence; who is advertising within my category and on which retailers? Am I over- or under-investing in a particular retailer? Is a competitor paying for a keyword-activated Display which is cancelling out a sponsored search campaign which I am running?
The answers to all of these questions help our clients understand and measure media and advertising activity within their category and in turn help them make better decisions and allow them to make deeper, longer-lasting connections with their consumers.
That's great, Sam. We really appreciate your time and insights into how Shalion adapts to different client needs, offering unique and valuable solutions to enhance their strategies in Retail Media.
I hope you have enjoyed our first interview structured around Shalion's versatility for both large and small businesses, emphasizing three key differentiators: Dashboard Customization, Customer Success & Uniqueness of our KPIs!
