Marketing automation is an emerging trend. It seems that marketers, platforms, and agencies are all trying to get it under control. One of the ways is by taking advantage of the various solutions that marketers can implement with the help of MarTech companies. From personalized emails, secure storage of user data to targeted marketing and creating a seamless customer service experience using WhatsApp, there are several steps marketers can take. One such company is Netcore Cloud, which helps brands develop and steer their strategy around three pillars: customer acquisition, engagement, and retention.
According to regulatory filings accessed by Tofler, Netcore Cloud's operating revenue grew 7.53% to Rs 7,029.8 million in FY23 from Rs 6,538.2 million in FY22. However, the company's net profit declined 15.6% to Rs 665.9 million in FY23 from Rs 789.5 million in FY22. (Edited excerpts)
How would you define marketing for a B2B brand, especially in terms of customer retention and loyalty? How is Netcore's strategy different from the typical lead generation focused strategies seen in India?
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The potential that a comprehensive customer engagement and experience stack like ours can offer certainly requires a lot of education. Understanding the capabilities and potential of using such a technology stack is crucial today. That’s why one of my biggest areas of focus is market-oriented education. What makes things complicated from a marketer’s perspective is that today’s consumers interact with brands through multiple touchpoints. Explaining this fundamental complexity and educating the market on how to manage it is paramount. Another area that is growing rapidly is generative AI. Given its relevance for ecommerce marketers, the potential it offers is immense. We are focused on educating our clients on how Gen AI can revolutionize their marketing strategies and enhance engagement with consumers.
Does Netcore leverage WhatsApp for Customer Experience (CX) compared to popular CCaaS or CPaaS solutions in India? If not, what is the difference in your approach? And secondly, with the implementation of the DPDP Act and the possibility of having to erase customer data on request, how prepared is Netcore to comply with these new regulations and what measures has it taken to address these challenges?
Our recently published report revealed that 80% of consumers now purchase through channels other than traditional websites like Shopify and marketplaces. More and more people are completing the purchase process using platforms like email, WhatsApp, and Instagram. This change in consumer behavior is important for marketers to understand. It highlights the need for marketers to leverage these new-age channels to create more interactive and engaging experiences.
E-commerce as an experience has expanded beyond consumer-facing interactions and marketplaces to include a variety of communication and social media tools to become a full-fledged shopping experience, forcing marketers to rethink how they deliver experiences to consumers across these diverse platforms.
From a data perspective, all these platforms have started asking for explicit consent during the purchase process. These platforms enforce this consent across channels. On the backend, they act as technology partners to help marketers better understand and target the right products with the right content to the right consumers across these channels. This ensures a more effective and personalized marketing strategy across all touchpoints.
Have you come across any instances where customers have requested for their data to be erased or do you feel there is still a lack of awareness among users regarding this option?
No, we have not seen any such cases so far. But there are many instances where brands tend to spam users on these channels. These channels have set very high standards when it comes to spam control as there is a high chance of them being misused if they do not adhere to the policies. For example, Whatsapp has set very high standards when it comes to spam control and this automatically means that the brand has now officially created a channel and is adhering to the spam regulations set by the channel.
Everyone from Gupshup to Sprinklr to Infobip is using WhatsApp to deliver customer experiences. How do you differentiate your approach from other platforms?
While the basic connectivity is provided by multiple partners, what we can do is help customers [plug in information. For example, let us take a beauty commerce platform as a customer. Beauty commerce platform plugs in their first-party data which means their base of 100 million customers. Then they use our platform to do all the segmentation and journey creation that is creating specific targeted cohorts of buyers, or other parameters like recency, frequency, monetary values etc. Then using our platform to deliver the right kind of segments on channels like WhatsApp. That is the crux of it, the customer intelligence that we have in the back which is aiding the customer, in the case of the beauty commerce platform, to be able to send the right kind of message to the right kind of consumer on WhatsApp is how we are making the difference.
How is Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) monitored and managed in a B2B environment, considering the high investment and critical importance of retention, which often makes it challenging for organisations to transition to new systems?
At Netcore, everything we do is centred around our customers’ perspective. When we discuss Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), we deeply analyse it from our customers’ viewpoint. Comparing today’s CAC to two years ago, we’ve observed a significant increase, mirroring a trend seen across the e-commerce sector where CAC has risen by 30 to 40% annually. This escalation is largely driven by intensified competition and higher costs on platforms like Google.
Consequently, brands are increasingly prioritising retention and maximising revenue from existing customers. Instead of focusing solely on re-acquisition, brands are now keen on nurturing deeper relationships with their current customer base. Netcore facilitates this by offering tools and solutions that empower brands to enhance customer engagement and grow revenue from within.
When expanding outside India, what specific strategies does your company focus on when marketing its products in advanced countries, where they likely have already existing solutions compared to our market?
When we talk about expanding outside India, we’re leveraging some key strengths that set us apart. We’ve established ourselves as a top player in global email marketing, bringing years of industry experience to the table. What distinguishes us is our full-stack capability in customer engagement and experience platforms. We’ve integrated all major channels—email, WhatsApp, SMS, app notifications—into a single cohesive platform. This makes it easy for marketers who are now able to work seamlessly by plugging into one stack rather than having to work with multiple partners and get lost in the hassle of multiple integrations. Our strategy focuses on markets where mobile and e-commerce are booming. Take Indonesia, for instance, a vibrant, mobility-driven market similar to India, or Brazil, where WhatsApp is integral to daily communication. These markets present immense opportunities, and our product’s unique capabilities align perfectly with their needs. So, that is our roadmap to entering advanced markets, keeping in mind our offerings and capabilities.
What are the current challenges you see in the Indian market, particularly about e-commerce?
In the e-commerce space, we’re facing several key challenges. The foremost issue is the increasing Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), a significant concern for every B2C and e-commerce player today. Another challenge is the proliferation of data across multiple channels. Brands find their sales data scattered across platforms like Shopify, marketplaces, and offline stores, while advertising spend and consumer engagement data sit on platforms like Google, Facebook, and social media channels. Managing and leveraging this data complexity is a major hurdle.
Additionally, there’s a trend of low retention rates as consumers have many options and little brand loyalty. At Netcore, we’re tackling these challenges by focusing on enhancing customer experience and engagement through our platform. We drive revenue from existing customers and support growth efforts amidst rising CAC. Our expertise lies in building customer data platforms and data lakes that unify and provide a holistic view of consumer interactions. Take a beauty commerce platform, for example. We help the beauty commerce platform integrate data from online and offline interactions, social media engagements, and past purchases into a unified profile. This comprehensive view enables the beauty commerce platform to personalise customer experiences and tailor recommendations based on individual preferences and behaviours. With our personalisation and AI-driven capabilities, we ensure that each customer interaction with the beauty commerce platform is meaningful and fosters long-term loyalty in a highly competitive market.
A major concern raised was customer dissatisfaction in India when interacting with bots, particularly due to difficulties in understanding and resolving queries. How does Netcore’s AI experience address these challenges differently?
We recently launched the Netcore Co-Marketer, our AI-powered virtual marketing assistant. This tool is designed specifically for marketers, not consumers, aiming to help marketing leaders, like those at a beauty commerce platform or Forest Essentials, gain deeper consumer insights by leveraging our powerful data engine.
The Netcore Co-Marketer provides marketers with meaningful insights into consumer behaviour across various channels. It assists with brand affinity-based segmentation and optimises delivery based on user preferences. For example, if you interact more on WhatsApp and I prefer emails, the AI adjusts the delivery method accordingly.
Our AI also offers predictive analytics, which provides insights into expected sales based on the past six months’ data and trends. What previously took days of computation and logic can now be done in real-time. Additionally, it helps marketers set goal-based campaigns. For instance, it can automate campaigns to acquire customers at a specified cost, driving better conversions.
We’ve started seeing significant uplifts in conversions, with some reports indicating up to a 40% increase. This is just the beginning, and as the Netcore Co-Marketer continues to refine its capabilities, we’re getting closer to the dream of creating personalised experiences and segments of one.
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