Marcus Gröning on How Footway Uses AI to Drive Innovative and Effective Marketing
In an interview with Footway’s Head of Marketing, Marcus Gröning, we gain a deeper understanding of the challenges he faces as CMO of one of Sweden’s leading e-commerce companies, as well as how the company is working to remain competitive and adapt to changing customer behaviour.
What are your biggest challenges as Footway’s CMO?
Dealing with 25 different markets every day and being able to maintain a high level of relevance for every customer, every day, across all channels simultaneously when it comes to communication, products and pricing; doing so with confidence; and following up daily on how yesterday’s campaigns performed, so that, depending on the outcome, we can identify the factors that led to the result – There are quickly a lot of ‘sub-KPIs’ to tackle in order to carry out a proper analysis.
How does Footway work to remain competitive in a rapidly changing e-commerce sector?
We are a ‘best-in-class’ player when it comes to turnover per employee, and this is partly down to the fact that we were early adopters of automation and AI support – and continue to strive to apply them wherever possible. Then there are the soft values that come into play: a culture where we dare to try new things, whilst always putting the customer first. Relevance is another key term that is receiving a great deal of attention internally, and in this context it refers to relevance to the individual customer. Our aim is to be relevant in every (or as many as possible) customer interaction we have.
What has been the most significant change in customer behaviour in recent years, and how has Footway adapted to these changes? The Footway Group operates in 25 markets and across several different customer segments. And the changes vary somewhat from market to market and sector to sector. They range widely from a declining proportion of full-price sales (there’s always a promotion on the way) to the fact that December and the Christmas shopping season look completely different now, given Black Friday. From customers trusting influencer marketing more to customers perhaps no longer trusting it. Perhaps the biggest change is that everything is constantly changing. Customers are increasingly turning to small niche shops rather than the big players – everything in between is becoming uninteresting or unclear.
How do you use AI or automation in your marketing activities to improve efficiency and the customer experience?
We try to use as much AI and automation as possible, and this has become part of the Footway Group’s DNA – if we identify a repetitive process or task, we always try to see if we can automate it, or if it involves scaling up in volume and is applicable. This applies to many areas of the company, such as dynamic daily price adjustments, translations and localisation for our 25 markets, and customer service responses that are wholly or partly AI-generated, amongst other things.
Footway faces major challenges in managing 25 markets and constantly adapting to rapidly changing customer behaviour and an evolving e-commerce sector. By investing in AI and automation at an early stage, and by maintaining a strong internal culture where the customer is always the focus, Footway has managed to remain competitive. Marcus Gröning emphasises the importance of relevance and flexibility in both customer contact and internal processes, which enables the company to be a leading player in its sector.
Featuring: Marcus Gröning, CMO at Footway
