A rapidly evolving online retail environment has made in-depth knowledge of consumers an essentiality for brands. Swedish company Voyado has, with its focus on delivering cutting-edge SaaS (‘Software as a Service’) solutions for brands to meet those needs, achieved considerable success since it first established in 2005. Having recently launched in the United Kingdom, Karl Stone, Regional VP at Voyado UK, gives insight into the process and hands-on advice on what to keep in mind when looking to expand into a foreign market.
Voyado’s journey started in Norrköping, a small town in Sweden, with a vision to build “a company with an exceptional culture.” Over time, a marketing product in the company’s portfolio grew and became the very core of what Voyado does today – providing brands with elaborate customer insights, allowing them to optimise both on-site and in-store customer journeys. On the mission of becoming number one in the field internationally, an expansion into the UK serves as a strategic steppingstone both short and long term for Voyado. “It’s a prime place for us. Not only is it a large population that our customers will be selling to, but it’s also a very digitally mature market as well,” says Karl.
Understanding the customer profile “Wherever there’s change, there’s opportunity,” says Karl. Serving over 350 retail brands and powering 5 million searches online every day, Voyado has managed to differentiate themselves in the ever-so disruptive market of SaaS. “We have a very clear focus on our ideal customer profile and who our customers should be,” he explains. Understanding potential clients and their requirements, as well as consistently being able to articulate why they serve those needs better than their competitors, has been the constantly present key to success for Voyado. “We’ve gone into a very competitive space in the UK, but we do have a strongly differentiated offering.”
Minimising the carbon footprint With their SaaS-services, the company strive to facilitate strong and lasting relationships between retail businesses and their customers. Ensuring these software and cloud solutions run as efficiently as possible, is also key to contributing to Net Zero targets. Voyado is taking several measures, including automatic deletion of emails to keep its footprint to a minimum. “The ‘cloud’ is not an imaginary thing, it’s a server somewhere and it’s taking energy to keep it there. Automatically deleting emails delivered from our system would free up capacity on those servers, meaning it will use less energy”.
Building the right team In April 2022, Voyado officially launched in the UK, and the office in London is currently awaiting its ninth employee. Building a team with shared values, equipped with the tools necessary to navigate the cross-cultural business environment has been proven to be crucial. As a newly expanded company, Karl stresses the importance of having people on board that can manage the fast pace and frequent change of gears. “It’s quite a big challenge for people starting. You’re in a new country, quite on your own and everyone’s got to be entrepreneurial.” Apart from day-to-day bumps in the road with administrative issues such as payrolls, employees could also benefit from expecting an increased demand for volatility. “The Swedish and UK business cultures, they’re very complementary, but they’re not the same. People need to be able to get things done within the Swedish business, but when out in the UK market, they need to be able to compete out there,” Karl explains.
The importance of a strong partner network Seeking out like-minded businesses and building a robust partner network in the UK has been another essential component throughout Voyado’s expansion phase. Karl explains how forging new relationships to share insight, gathering advice and creating potential costumer introductions helps to gain a deeper understanding of the market, as well as expanding the company’s reach. “It’s really crucial, and it takes a bit of time to build the trust.” Utilising the positive reputation of Swedish and Nordic businesses as innovative and collaborative may also help companies to gain credibility in the UK market, according to Karl. “UK is a very open country in that sense. They do want some feet on the ground, they want to know they’re supported locally, but they really don’t mind where those people come from.”
Evaluating and moving forward Looking back at the expansion phase, Voyado could’ve benefited from embracing support and taking more advice from the resources available at the time. “It could’ve been more efficient if we were focused on building the business, and someone else had focus on the logistics and admin,” says Karl, although the cross-disciplinary tools he had to develop himself might be proven useful in the future. Moving forward, Voyado plans to utilise its current foothold in the UK and act as a forefront in their field. As the company continues to grow, its journey serves as a testament to the importance of strategic partnerships, people-culture and support in driving business expansion and success in the UK market.
