Crafting Irresistible Experiences for Your Customers
Valentine’s Day is all about love—the kind of love that is deep, lasting, and transformative. At BORN, we believe that the relationship between a brand and its customers should be just as captivating. The way we work is designed to make your customers fall head over heels for your brand, drawing them in with stunning design, seamless experiences, and meaningful connections. Just as love is built on beauty, elegance, and attention to detail, so too are the customer experiences we create.
At the heart of BORN Group’s approach lies a deep understanding of what motivates people. We design digital journeys that are as visually alluring as they are functional. Our team combines creative vision, innovative content, and seamless commerce solutions to craft experiences that are not only engaging but unforgettable. Whether through striking photography, compelling video content, or elegant digital design, every project we touch is created with the goal of leaving a lasting impression—much like the warmth of a heartfelt note or the spark of a first kiss.
Simplicity:
The Ultimate Elegance
In matters of the heart, simplicity is often the most powerful form of expression. The same principle applies to the work we do at BORN Group. We believe that the best experiences are those that feel effortless, intuitive, and beautiful. Our team works closely with your brand to strip away the excess, focusing on what truly matters and designing experiences that speak directly to the core of your audience’s desires.
We specialize in cutting through the noise, helping your brand stand out in a crowded digital landscape. Through our award-winning approach, we simplify complex challenges, creating elegant and seamless interactions that make every touchpoint a joy for your customers. Whether it’s a stunning digital ad, a beautiful product photograph, or a cohesive brand identity, our designs are created to be visually striking and emotionally resonant.
Crafting Visual Journeys That Captivate
The beauty of love is often seen in the smallest, most meaningful details—and that’s exactly how we approach every project at BORN. Our creative direction, from photography and styling to video production, is designed to transform your brand into something visually irresistible. We understand the power of imagery; a single photograph or video clip can speak volumes about your brand’s essence and connect with your audience in ways words never could.
From luxurious product shots to compelling lifestyle videos, our work is designed to captivate. We take pride in our attention to detail, from sourcing props and building sets to crafting the perfect lighting and styling for every shot. We create not just visuals, but moments—moments that convey your brand’s story, evoke emotion, and make your customers fall in love with what you offer.
Connecting Creative, Content, and Commerce
Just as love is built on connection, a successful brand experience is built on the seamless integration of creative, content, and commerce. At BORN, we connect these elements in a way that drives results. We understand that every customer journey—whether it’s discovering your brand, interacting with your content, or making a purchase—must be smooth, intuitive, and delightful.
Our customer journey consulting helps you identify and refine every touchpoint, ensuring that each interaction is designed to foster a deeper relationship with your audience. By blending creativity, engaging content, and ecommerce solutions, we create transformative, user-centric experiences that evolve with your customers’ needs. This holistic approach enables us to deliver digital journeys that are not only beautiful but also strategically aligned to meet your business objectives.
An Experience That Lasts
Much like the best love stories, the experiences we create at BORN are designed to leave a lasting impression. Our focus on customer experience design ensures that your brand isn’t just another fleeting encounter—it’s an ongoing relationship, one that deepens over time. Through concept visualization, digital design, video production, and more, we bring your brand to life in ways that make customers return again and again.
Every element of our work is designed to create a connection, to evoke a response, and to make your customers feel something. Whether it’s through the fluidity of a garment captured in motion, the shimmer of a timepiece, or the elegance of a beautifully styled product, we understand the power of an image—and the importance of making that image unforgettable.
Make Your Customers Fall in Love
This Valentine’s Day, why not give your brand the gift of love? Let BORN help you create digital experiences that are as captivating and beautiful as a love story. Through our combination of creative vision, content strategy, and seamless ecommerce, we’ll help your customers fall in love with your brand, over and over again. After all, in the world of business, the best kind of love is the kind that drives lasting, meaningful connections—and we’re here to help you craft that experience.
BORN’s creative mavens captured ‘Comedian’ by Maurizio Cattelan for Sotheby’s (And Yes, It Involves a Banana)
An Article by BORN Marketing
Art, at its core, is meant to provoke thought, stir emotions, and occasionally, raise an eyebrow or two. So when the irreverent and decidedly ‘out-there’ piece Comedian by Maurizio Cattelan (the banana taped to a wall, for those living under a rock) hit the auction scene, it wasn’t just the art world that was taken aback, it was the entire internet. But here’s a twist in the story: we are priviledged to now reveal that the iconic image of that edible piece, famously photographed in all its duct-taped glory, wasn’t captured by just any photographer. Nope, the auction photography was shot by BORN’s photographer, Mark Babushkin. That’s right, the team behind cutting-edge digital work, design, and branding was behind the lens for one of the most talked-about art pieces of the century.
The Tale of a Banana, a Wall, and the World of High Art
For the uninitiated, Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian,made its debut at Art Basel Miami in 2019, and it did not go unnoticed. Two of the three editions, which involved ripe bananas affixed to a wall with a strip of duct tape, were sold that year for a mind-boggling $120,000 (one later “eaten” by a performance artist, David Datuna, because of course). As bizarre as it may sound, the piece sparked a flurry of commentary on the nature of art itself—
‘Comedian’ by Maurizio Cattelan, shot by BORN’s Mark Babushkin for @sothebys in November 2024
Is it a statement on consumerism? Is it an art-world joke? Is it a comment on fragility and impermanence? Or, more simply, is it just an incredibly expensive banana?
When Sotheby’s was going to auction with the second edition of Comedian during “The Now and Contemporary Evening Auction”, they turned to the creative experts at BORN to capture the piece. And while BORN’s usual creative work involves digital experiences, design, and immersive storytelling, this time, the agency took on the task of documenting the very thing that was challenging the boundaries of both art and commerce. We knew that shooting it for this groundbreaking auction with our longstanding client, Sotheby’s, required wit, warmth and precision in support of the artwork’s incendiary reputation.
Shooting the Banana
Housed at Sotheby’s York Avenue HQ in a bespoke arched structure, Comedian waited for its turn in the spotlight alongside works by Monet, Picasso, and Warhol. But surely photographing and retouching a banana should be the utmost in simplicity for experts in fine art and luxury? Not quite. Concepting, handling, lighting, shooting and delivering pixel perfect imagery of this ultra-valuable, even notorious, piece was handled as carefully as any master’s work.
As commented by BORN’s Head of Photography New York, Benjamin Fraker – “Capturing these images required extra precision”. “During the photo shoot, we worked with a department specialist to retape the banana to smooth out wrinkles in the duct tape. We knew we had to get the perfect shots as the Comedian is ‘the masterpiece of the moment’ – and the pictures did indeed go viral around the globe.”
From Digital Innovations to the World of Fine Art Photography
BORN isn’t your typical advertising agency. It’s a hybrid creative studio with the magic touch of combining high-end technology and cutting-edge creativity. Under Tech Mahindra, we specialize in creating compelling digital stories and immersive experiences across platforms—but shooting art for Sotheby’s? That’s something else entirely. So, how did a team known for high-tech, futuristic projects get involved in photographing Comedian, a piece that had more than a whiff of, shall we say, absurdity? While a traditional art photographer might have approached this task by focusing purely on the aesthetics or fine details of the piece, BORN’s creative directors took a more holistic, narrative-driven approach to the shoot. After all, this wasn’t just about capturing a banana; it was about capturing a cultural phenomenon that raised questions about value, meaning, and the very fabric of the art world. We were tasked with immortalizing this oddball art piece in a way that matched its disruptive, boundary-pushing nature.
‘Comedian’ attracting huge interest, shot by BORN for @sothebys in November 2024
A Little Tech, A Little Art, A Lot of Humor
The shoot itself was not without its challenges, as anyone who has ever tried to photograph a banana might imagine. How do you make something so simple, so banal (pun intended), look profound? How do you frame a piece of art that is already poking fun at the pretensions of the art world itself? The answer was a combination of creative lighting, perfect timing, and a touch of humor.
BORN’s photographer had to take into account the subtle play between simplicity and complexity. A banana on a wall may seem like a one-dimensional gag, but when captured through the lens, it becomes a statement. The carefully chosen lighting illuminated not just the banana but also the air of absurdity surrounding it. The final photograph was crisp, clean, and made the banana appear almost sacred, as if it were some divine relic in the world of modern art.
Replace as it Rots
With a pre-sale high estimate of $1.5 million, crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun (@justinsuntron) outbid six other bidders to close on an astonishing $6.2m (fees included).
Alongside taking home the world’s most expensive perishable, Sun was given a starter kit for the sculpture, including a banana, a roll of duct tape, a certificate of authenticity and detailed instructions for displaying it, including that ‘it will be the buyer’s responsibility to replace the banana as it rots’ – not least because of Sotheby’s 5-year post sale Authenticity Guarantee. Sun said he would eat the banana – as indeed, at least two other viewers of the piece have done before as it travelled global galleries.
The sale by Sotheby’s auctioneer Oliver Barker at the house’s Upper East Side on 20 November 2024
So, what’s the takeaway from this whole delightful, absurd, and strangely profound story? First, never underestimate the power of tech and creativity coming together in unexpected ways. Second, in the world of art, anything can be a masterpiece—whether it’s a finely crafted sculpture, a deeply symbolic painting, or even a fruit snack taped to the wall.
And finally, a reminder that the next time you find yourself standing in front of a piece of art that seems too strange to understand, just remember: BORN might be behind the lens, turning the ordinary into the extraordinary, with a little help from a banana. Because, as it turns out, even in the world of fine art, sometimes you just have to peel back the layers.
Generative AI for Rich Personalization: Transforming Customer Experience
By Osvaldo López, Marketing Strategist, BORN Group
Introduction
In the rapidly evolving landscape of digital solutions, generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) has emerged as a powerful tool for creating rich personalization experiences. As consumers become increasingly discerning, businesses must adapt to meet their expectations. Generative AI not only facilitates this adaptation but also redefines how organizations engage with their customers, fostering deeper relationships and driving business growth.
Understanding Generative AI
Generative AI refers to algorithms that can create new content—such as text, images, or entire experiences—based on the input data they are trained on. Unlike traditional AI systems that primarily focus on recognizing patterns, generative AI can produce novel outputs that mimic human-like creativity. This capability opens numerous possibilities for businesses, particularly in tailoring interactions and products to individual customer preferences.
The Importance of Personalization
Personalization is no longer a luxury; it has become a necessity. With the sheer volume of choices available to consumers, organizations that can deliver personalized experiences gain a competitive edge. Personalization enhances customer satisfaction, increases engagement, and drives loyalty. Studies show that companies excelling in personalization can experience a revenue uplift of up to 15%.
How Generative AI Enhances Personalization
1. Dynamic Content Generation
Generative AI can create tailored content in real-time, allowing businesses to deliver unique experiences to each user. For example, in retail, it can analyze customer preferences and generate personalized product recommendations, promotional emails, or targeted advertisements, increasing conversions and fostering a sense of connection with the brand.
2. Predictive Analytics
By leveraging generative AI, organizations can analyze vast amounts of data to predict future customer behavior. This capability enables businesses to proactively tailor their offerings to meet evolving needs, such as streaming services generating personalized playlists based on viewing habits.
3. Enhanced Customer Interactions
Generative AI can improve customer service through intelligent chatbots and virtual assistants that simulate human-like conversations, offering personalized assistance based on individual histories and preferences, enhancing the overall customer experience.
4. Content Customization at Scale
In media and publishing, generative AI can produce a range of content variations tailored to specific audience segments, distributing personalized articles, videos, or social media posts that resonate with diverse demographics.
5. Product Design and Development
Generative AI can inform product design by analyzing consumer feedback and trends, identifying market gaps, and creating products that closely align with customer desires, leading to successful launches and greater satisfaction.
Implementing Generative AI for Personalization
1. Data Collection and Management
The foundation of effective generative AI lies in high-quality data. Organizations must invest in robust data collection and management systems to gather insights on customer preferences, behaviors, and feedback, enabling meaningful outputs.
2. Selecting the Right Technology
Businesses must evaluate and select generative AI tools that align with their objectives, considering factors such as ease of integration and scalability.
3. Creating a Culture of Innovation
Successful implementation requires a cultural shift within organizations, encouraging employees to experiment with new technologies and embrace data-driven decision-making.
4. Monitoring and Iteration
Personalization requires ongoing monitoring and refinement. Organizations must continuously analyze the effectiveness of their generative AI initiatives and adjust based on customer feedback and performance metrics.
Challenges and Considerations
While generative AI offers significant opportunities for rich personalization, it also presents challenges. Privacy concerns are paramount; organizations must navigate data protection regulations and ensure ethical use of customer data. Striking a balance between leveraging AI capabilities and maintaining a human touch in interactions is crucial, as the best results often come from a hybrid approach where AI enhances human creativity.
Conclusion
Generative AI is revolutionizing how businesses approach personalization. By harnessing its capabilities, organizations can create richer, more engaging experiences that resonate with customers on a deeper level. As the digital landscape continues to evolve, embracing generative AI will help businesses meet today’s consumer demands and position them for future success.
At BORN, we have vigorously embraced AI and possess deep expertise in the field. We can help your brand fully leverage generative AI, ensuring that your personalization efforts are both effective and innovative. Together, we can navigate the complexities of the digital world and create meaningful, sustainable experiences that will set your business apart.
Every year the stakes are higher and competition for sales is more arduous. Site performance is one of the most important factors that define customer loyalty, improved conversion to sales, and growth in market share.
There are currently around 20 million ecommerce websites globally with 2 billion consumers placing orders yearly for an estimated 5.5 trillion dollars in global sales (2022). (Similarweb)
With ever-growing stakes and more competition in the ecommerce race, your online storefront needs to be powered by a high-performance platform to stay ahead of the pack.
BORN XDS has been engineering and developing global award-winning enterprise ecommerce sites for over a decade, we know exactly what it takes to beat the competition and how to design performance enhanced sites that win over customers.
“Improvements to your site’s performance will directly impact customer experience and will lead to greater revenue for your company”
PerformanceDriven Revenue
Why site speed and performance are important and how they impact your profits
1. Revenue Increase
Investing in site speed optimization can positively impact a company’s revenue by improving conversion rates, reducing cart abandonment, boosting user engagement, enhancing user experience, optimizing mobile sales, and increasing organic traffic. Greater sales in any industry resulting from these factors increase revenue and enables a constant revenue stream throughout.
2.User Experience
Fast-loading websites provide better user experiences which increase customer satisfaction and engagement. Slow sites lead to higher customer bounce rates (a metric representing the number of users leaving a site without interaction). Performance improvement on a site makes the navigation more interesting and fluid for customers. Users have become accustomed to fast-loading websites and have little patience for slow ones. When a website loads quickly, users can access the desired content or complete their tasks efficiently, leading to higher satisfaction levels. Fast site speed minimizes frustration, reduces waiting time, and ensures a smooth browsing experience.
3.Conversion Rates
Studies show that even delays in website loading time can lead to significant decreases in conversion rates. Faster websites facilitate smoother navigation, quicker product searches, and faster checkout processes, which contribute to higher conversion rates and ultimately more sales. Increased load time of 1 to 3 seconds raises the risk of customers leaving by 32%, that number increases to 123% with a 10 second delay. This shows just how appreciative customers are when you provide them with an efficient experience, and how unforgiving they can be about performance issues.
4.Search Engine Ranking
Search engines, like Google, consider website speed as one of the factors when determining search rankings. Faster websites tend to rank higher, leading to increased organic traffic and visibility. Improved visibility can attract more potential customers to your ecommerce site, positively impacting profits.
5.Mobile Commerce
New studies show that nearly 80% of all online purchases are being made through smart mobile devices. Mobile users often have limited bandwidth and slower internet connections. Optimizing your website for mobile devices and improving its speed can enhance the mobile shopping experience, leading to higher conversion rates and increased revenue from mobile users.
6.Customer Trust and Reputation
A slow-loading website may create doubts about the professionalism and reliability of an ecommerce business. Customers may question the security of their personal and financial information when using a poorly performing website. A fast and responsive website helps establish trust and credibility, leading to repeat business and positive word-of-mouth recommendations.
7.Better Site Management
Faster loading times make it easier for your team to manage and update the website, reducing the time spent on site updates and maintenance tasks. This efficiency allows you to focus more on personalized targeted marketing, product management, and customer support, ultimately driving higher profits.
8. Operational Efficiency
Improved website performance and speed can also benefit the operational side of your ecommerce business. To maximize profits, it’s crucial to regularly monitor and optimize your site’s performance, focusing on factors such as page load times, server response times, and overall user experience. Conducting regular speed tests, optimizing code and images, utilizing caching techniques, and investing in robust hosting infrastructure are some strategies to improve website performance and speed. [BORN can help you implement and manage these complex steps]
“…even the most passive online consumer is too savvy to tolerate bad performance“
Consumers know what they want;
they expect you to provide it!
Today, every individual, whether just a casual internet user or daily online ecommerce customer, has their own expectations, needs, wants, and demands when it comes to the user experience they have come to expect; from bespoke personalized landing pages to personally tailored shopping carts, to pinpoint targeted and customized user journeys. In 2023, ecommerce business better be able to meet those unique expectations.
We often see brilliantly designed ecommerce sites that have beautiful aesthetics with award winning interfaces get totally ruined by back end failure with slow and cumbersome checkout systems that totally hinder the sales process (if not lose sales altogether). It’s the classic “form over function” dilemma, and today, even the most passive online consumer is too savvy to tolerate bad performance. This isn’t to say that ecommerce sites should consider function over UI/UX design, but rather that the two MUST complement each other to create a fast, beautiful, user-friendly streamlined digital sales experience.
The competition is intense and the leaders set the pace!
According to Similarweb, 4 out of the top 10 most visited ecommerce sites worldwide are Amazon marketplaces (Amazon.com, Amazon UK, Amazon Japan, and Amazon Germany). The Reason: ease of use, a naturally intuitive and personalized UI/UX, and the delivery of a nearly faultless performance, which gives every single user a repeatable, simple, and hassle-free shopping experience for every visit and purchase.
Amazon closed $514 billion (US Dollars) in global online retail sales in 2022, and It dominated nearly 40% of all online retail in the US, the next highest single operator being Walmart at 6.3% (Statista.com). While Amazon’s platform will probably not win on its looks, it does offer comfort in its simplicity and ease of use. A one or two word search inside the site’s marketplace almost always delivers perfectly ranked pages of expected results. That search can then be easily filtered by cost, shipping dates available, free shipping vs paid, brand names, ratings and reviews, and previous purchases. One click adds the item to your cart, another click checks you out. No need to worry about tracking that purchase, Amazon will send you automated updates on when the order was received, fulfilled, shipped and “out for delivery”.
$514 billion
(US Dollars)
40%
Online retail in the US
Offer comfort
in its simplicity
Search
delivers perfectly ranked pages
Hudson’s Bay Company : Performance must be measured!
Among the hundreds of award-winning projects BORN XDS has produced, our work with Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) showcases how much improved performance can affect ecommerce websites.
HBC is the parent company of the iconic online and brick-and-mortar fashion stores, Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks OFF 5th, and The Bay. With estimated yearly sales revenues of $9.5 billion, Hudson’s Bay had very good reasons to want to ensure they stayed competitive.
When Hudson’s Bay came to BORN XDS, they had an ambitious goal of improving the response time of their different ecommerce websites by 30%.
To start this project, BORN XDS conducted an in-depth performance review of their websites’ operational speeds, the front and back end technologies, and third-party integrations. During this process several performance issues were determined; which included 3rd party integration problems, connectivity issues, and product ataloguing issues.
After the BORN technical audit was concluded and performance issues were identified, the sites experienced TTI (Time to Interactive) and LT (Load time) improvements of up to 49% in key pages of the sites like Search Page, Product Array, Product Details, and Cart Page.
The following figures show the dramatic front-end response time improvements experienced by Hudson’s Bay’s key web sites, after BORN XDS’s intervention:
48% Home Page Speed
64% Shopping Cart Page Speed
48% Search Page Speed
53% Overall Site Speed
33% Product Page Speed
49% efficiency increase in key pages
Improvement in Time to Interactive
Improvement in Time to Interactive
Hudson’s Bay Company : Performance Results
As part of BORN XDS’s comprehensive audit and website overhaul, a series of back and front-end changes and industry best practices were implemented. Among many others, Java script errors and unused code packages were removed, page caching was fine-tuned, image formats were standardized, and ‘Wishlist’ features were optimized— as a result, HBC’s revenue increased by an astonishing 7%. BORN XDS has the expertise to measure real results and pinpoint the performance improvements required to enrich customer experience that result in greater revenue.
Staying ahead through Continuous Improvement
All that is gained from a robust performance rebuild can be lost over time; healthy ecommerce demands constant monitoring, testing, and care. Much like an elite athlete, a top-performing ecommerce site needs to constantly develop in order to stay ahead of the ever-encroaching competitor. Techniques and technology that win today can change tomorrow and if your brand doesn’t stay in top shape, it can soon find itself out of first place.
If your brand is ready to impress the world with the power of performance that can go the long haul, we’d love to show you how we can enhance your site for results.
You can see their ancient roots in today’s physical shopping malls, supermarkets, hypermarkets (think Walmart and Costco), and transportation hubs – places where sellers can offer their wares and buyers can find the things they’re looking for.
Marketplaces still fulfill the age-old purpose of connecting buyers and sellers, but the web and digitalization have catalyzed a revolution in how marketplaces work – and created powerful new opportunities for commerce online and in the real world.
Ecommerce giants have become household names: Amazon, eBay, Airbnb, and other platform operators demonstrate the monumental power of scaling marketplaces and of reinventing the customer experience.
At first, they grew by embracing technologies to scale product listings, transactions, and logistics. They grew even more by embracing technologies to create an entirely new kind of shopping experience with, for example, personalization, real-time notifications on multiple platforms, and robust customer support.
Moreover, today’s marketplaces generate new kinds of revenue and profit opportunities because of their enormous traffic. Network effects create a virtuous cycle, attracting third-party sellers, enabling new marketing/ merchandising opportunities, and fostering lasting change in buyer behaviors.
Read the articles below to learn more about BORN Group’s proven approach to marketplace strategy and design.
Buy or Build? Determining the Best Strategy for Marketplace Creation
By Ramy Youssef, SVP & Global Head of Marketplaces, BORN Group
The verdict is in, and it could not be more clear: Digital marketplaces represent the most effective way to expand your reach and grow your revenues. But this reality prompts an important question for any company looking to put the power of digital marketplaces to work: Should you build your own marketplace capabilities or should you buy a marketplace solution?
When it comes to software investments, the build or buy question is always a tough one, and the answer cannot be generalized. But the route to the answer is crystal-clear, as we have discovered over the course of many different marketplace projects with a wide array of clients: You must start from a position of insight and understanding – with a deep-dive along two dimensions: first, strategy and goals; second, organizational readiness.
You will already have some good ideas about why you want to develop a marketplace, but in our view, the key strategic question is this: What do current marketplaces in your sector look like, and how can you differentiate yours?
The answer will depend on your sector, obviously, but to take a simple example from the retail category: Amazon’s marketplace is defined by incredible breadth coupled with a consistently excellent customer experience. Customers know they can find what they’re looking for, they can buy and receive things fast and easily, and they are protected against fraud. A marketplace like Etsy, on the other hand, differentiates itself by its focus on unique, handmade, and vintage items. Customers know they can find something different when they shop at Etsy.
When thinking about your marketplace strategy, it’s crucial to distinguish between marketplace features that are commodities and those that are differentiators for your enterprise. Commodity features are basic functionalities that any marketplace should have, while differentiators are unique capabilities that set the marketplace apart in the market. “Buy it now” or “Save for later” are examples of commodity features. An example of a differentiating feature might be creating a Zero-Touch Marketplace.
Once we’ve explored the strategic components of marketplace decision-making, we look at the level of effort, investment, business expertise, and support required to implement the marketplace – in other words, your organizational readiness for this new challenge. Here, we ask questions like What are the specifics of your existing ecosystem and business model?
And we look at a slew of relevant factors including the eight we consider to be of paramount importance:
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): A comprehensive TCO analysis – looking at all costs associated with the development or purchase, implementation, maintenance, and scaling of the marketplace – helps in understanding the true financial impact over time.
Time to Market: Realistically, how quickly can your marketplace go from concept to reality? Building in-house may take longer but allows for more customization while buying a ready-made solution can significantly reduce time to market.
Resource Expertise: Marketplaces usually demand unique expertise, so we evaluate your existing in-house team’s capabilities versus the expertise provided by a vendor.
Resource Availability: Are the resources – human and technological – you need readily available, or would you have to acquire them? Addressing these issues requires assessing current workloads and the availability of specialized skills.
Feature Scalability and Relevance to Market: A key upfront step is to evaluate the ability of the marketplace to scale as the business grows and what features will be essential at launch and to future development. Your solution design must be flexible enough to adapt to future needs.
Risks: A thoughtful examination of the potential risks of both scenarios, buying and building, is crucial to the decision-making process. For example, building in-house might entail risks relating to project delays and technological challenges, while buying might entail risks related to vendor dependency and integration issues.
Opportunity Cost: As you know, whatever decision you make has an opportunity cost beyond its actual costs. What might you have to forgo by allocating resources to building or buying a marketplace?
Value Proposition: At the end of the day, the buy vs. build analysis must articulate the unique value proposition that your marketplace will bring to your organization and your customers. This part of our analysis circles back to the original strategic objectives for the marketplace in terms of enterprise strategy as well as customer expectations.
It should be clear that we are essentially agnostic about the buy vs. build decision. The analysis leads us, and our client, to the right decision. But in our extensive work in this area, we have discovered some interesting trends:
Approximately 30% of the opportunities we encounter involve enterprises that have outgrown their build model approach.
Almost all our clients, and particularly large ones (Fortune 500 enterprises) consider adopting a marketplace platform goes hand-in-hand with rethinking their business model – and this generally leads to replacing their previously built solutions.
Marketplaces mean more participants (customers and prospects), and this inevitably amplifies the requirements of platforms. Many clients that initially favored the build model, hoping to revamp an existing ecommerce ecosystem, ultimately opted to acquire marketplace platforms due to the inherent complexity and need for scale.
Enterprises that decide to build their own marketplace solutions come to appreciate the importance of separation of concerns, particularly in managing third-party sellers and providing them with the comprehensive support they need. This often becomes a key factor in their decision to adopt dedicated marketplace platforms.
Most successful marketplaces demand feature-rich platforms capable of managing the complexity that rises from more entities – company, partners, third-party sellers – and more buyer personas.
Developing a marketplace always demands ongoing investment because market trends evolve continuously. For instance, we’ve seen a growing interest in hybrid models that combine third-party (3P) and drop-shipping.
Finally, unlike the configuration of an existing platform, constructing a marketplace doesn’t add any distinctive business model or value proposition (although it does offer the opportunity to add differentiating features).
For all kinds of businesses in all kinds of sectors, a marketplace strategy can be a game-changer. But once you’ve decided you want to pursue this approach, the hard work lies in understanding what’s possible, what’s necessary, and how to get there. Analysis is the path to effective, more informed, and more strategic decision-making.
To learn more about the BORN Group’s approach to marketplace creation, we would love to walk you through our proven approach.
Transform Your Customer Experience into a Revenue Driver — BORN’s Approach to Success
Customer Experience (CX) and User Experience (U/X) are often used interchangeably, yet they denote distinct aspects of a client’s journey in selecting a product or service. U/X pertains to a customer’s interaction with the specific qualities of a product or service, while CX encompasses the entire journey, including every touchpoint a client encounters in the acquisition process.
In today’s digital marketing landscape, companies in Retail, Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), and Manufacturing recognize more than ever the critical roles of U/X and CX in positioning their products and fostering enduring relationships with consumers. The era of impersonal transactions is long past. Leading brands understand the significant returns that stem from establishing emotional, personalized relationships with their clients, bringing the brand closer to the customer for extended periods—sometimes for life. These relationships ensure loyalty by anticipating and catering to customers’ preferences, shopping habits, and needs. Technological advancements now make it possible to understand clients deeply and even influence their behaviour, offering numerous opportunities for business growth.
Customer loyalty, however, is delicate and directly linked to the client’s journey in acquiring a product or service. Clients demand transparent, highly personalized, and holistic experiences from the brands they choose. Therefore, companies must provide every possible engagement option their clients desire, from personal interactions to self-service across digital channels, or a combination of both.
This relationship requires high maintenance, with customers dictating the journey. A new term, Total Experience (TX), has emerged, reflecting the growing ability of customers to design their engagement journey with a brand.
For a long time, BORN has been a catalyst for change and a global leader in ecommerce digital solutions, providing the digital retail market with the technological tools necessary for brands to succeed in this dynamic environment.
Our extensive portfolio includes work that has propelled world-renowned brands in the digital market, particularly in the CPG, Retail, and Manufacturing sectors. Notable projects include third-party integrations and innovative, award-winning content for Oreo delivered in record time, and a flagship, fully connected bespoke solution for Gerber’s clients.
We created a stunning, personalized interface to enhance product discovery and user engagement for Lindt, while a complete Global Reference Architecture (GRA) build enabled Hanes to align their brands into a global standard platform, facilitating efficient website launches both in terms of delivery timelines and cost.
Ongoing collaborations such as those with John Lewis & Partners and ASOS highlight our commitment to consistent quality and efficiency. For John Lewis & Partners, we deliver assets to strict timelines across their entire ecommerce estate, and our nine-year partnership with ASOS provides a 24/7 production model that meets stringent KPIs and SLAs, delivering significant cost savings of approximately 40%.
In the Manufacturing sector, BORN has partnered with globally recognized brands like Delta Faucet, Makino, and Hillyard. For Delta Faucet Company, a division of Masco Corp., we conducted journey mapping and persona synthesis exercises based on stakeholder workshops and user interviews to better understand professional and consumer home improvement and maintenance spaces, earning high praise from the client. For Makino, an industry leader in machinery design and innovation, we enabled users to browse products, manage accounts, and receive customized pricing, while a back-office integration improved business productivity. For Hillyard, a leading manufacturer and distributor of cleaning solutions, we provided a complete eCommerce overhaul to better serve users and support seamless future growth.
BORN offers a comprehensive suite of tools and services to elevate your brand’s U/X and CX, including Machine Learning and AI, Extended Reality, IoT, Blockchain, Design Thinking, Brand Experience, Service Design, Behavioural Experience, Book of Record, Data Science & Experience, Cybersecurity, Business Process Operations, and Postproduction Services.
With offices in nine countries, a workforce of over 15,000 employees, more than 1,000 clients, and over 500 awards, BORN is the partner your brand needs to unlock remarkable new possibilities through intelligent data, human insight, and compelling creativity.
If you are interested in learning more about how BORN can support you in this, we would be happy to walk you through our proven approach.
