Convert Group – Helping Retailers and Brands Grow Sales, Streamline Collaboration, and Seize Data-Sharing Opportunities
Convert Group empowers retailers to establish stronger relationships with brands across multiple online and offline channels. The company helps brands and retailers in the eCommerce space to:
- Develop sales-accelerating business strategies
- Successfully collaborate with their brands
- Allocate time and resources more wisely
Personal Background
Panayotis Gezerlis is the Founder and President of Convert Group. Together with his co-founder Elena, their CEO Andreas, and the rest of the team (who they call Converters), they are on a journey to establish the global standard for how retailers and brands collaborate with data.
What Keeps Convert Group’s Team at Night?
“After Convert Group’s 3rd year as a start-up, I am happy to say that I have been managing to sleep well at night again,” proudly shares Mr Gezerlis.
Successful validation of their model, better people, better processes, and an ethical way to run the business are elements of good sleep!
Even today, Panayotis may still lose a night or two of sleep if he’s not fair to a colleague, or the team has disappointed a client.
What Problem Does Convert Group Solve?
“We are a SaaS in the DaaS space,” says Panayotis Gezerlis. The team is creating a way for transparent and effective data-driven collaboration between brands and retailers in omnichannel retail.
Convert Group developed a platform called eRetail Audit Marketplace, where Brands pay a subscription (revenue shared 50% to retailers through them) to access top retailers' real-time data. Datasets include:
- Enriched transactional data
- Basket analytics
- Market shares
- Marketing Impact
- Customer journeys
Mr Gezerlis believes that Convert Group’s quick retailer onboarding and first-mover advantage in eCommerce provide them today with a competitive edge in the lucrative data monetisation market.
Beginning of Entrepreneurial Journey and Current Status
Convert Group started their journey as eCommerce consultants, working with clients across 13 countries. These were mostly brands like Philip Morris, J&J, L’Oréal, and others, that were striving to understand eCommerce.
“One day, which seems like it was only yesterday, L’Oréal asked us for market shares in the eCommerce channel. There was no provider for this, globally. This changed our company, from a consulting firm to a SaaS start-up, as we designed the initial version of our eRetail Audit Suite,” shares Panayotis Gezerlis.
Later, Convert Group sold their consulting business to EY, after being completely obsessed with the lucrative opportunities of SaaS entrepreneurship. Even more impressively, just last month, Convert Group managed to open three new countries.
Client Success Story
Pierre Fabre, one of the biggest global pharmaceutical and cosmetics companies, needed a way to assess the effectiveness of online campaigns with actual sales through retailers at SKU level and allocate their marketing budgets accordingly.
Through Convert Group’s eRetail Audit Marketplace, Pierre Fabre gained access to critical metrics, such as the evolution of their category sales, order volume, and market share in real-time.
The results were nothing short of impressive:
- 108% growth in orders (vs. 33% for competitors)
- 2% uplift of market share units
- 671% increase in the revenue generated per every dollar spent on advertising
Biggest Achievements
“I will break the norm and not brag about clients, countries, ARR growth, or NRR, though our SaaS metrics are great,” humbly says Panayotis Gezerlis.
He considers Convert Group’s announcement as Europe’s 4th Best Workplace for Small and Medium-sized Companies by the Great Place to Work Global Institute and The Economist in 2021 as their biggest achievement.
Tipping Point That Impacted the Company’s Vision
Convert Group’s first client, L’Oréal, asked them three times to create a way for them to have visibility in eCommerce and market shares.
The first two times, Convert Group responded to them that it was impossible, as there was no such solution in any country globally.
“The 3rd time they asked, I had to change my ‘Can’t Do’ mentality to a ‘Let’s give it a try’ approach,” shares Mr Gezerlis.
Today, Convert Group has 92 clients across 14 countries in Europe, Africa, and Latin America. 15 out of the 20 biggest FMCG multinationals are the company’s clients in the countries they operate.
The goal of Convert Group
The company’s goal is to become the global “currency” of how retailers and brands collaborate.
Impact of the Current Situation on Convert Group’s Business
The company has never looked at external factors as an excuse. The pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the recession, a bad government, and an unfavourable law are things that impact everybody.
“I believe our negative selves are the enemy,” says Mr Gezerlis. If his company, his team, or he become greedy, loses touch with reality, stops being obsessed with their clients and is not respectful to our colleagues, then that’s the only impact that he’s afraid of.
For any external factors, micro or huge pivots are a good way to go.
Has Tech Tour Assisted Agora Care in Their Journey?
“I was positively impressed by the level of investors and their questions during our pitches. Also, you guys are very well organised in everything you do – congrats on this,” concludes Panayotis Gezerlis.
