Prestashop Soledis Agency – Interview

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Our series dedicated to web agency interviews continues. Today, it is Yann Tertrais, CEO of the Soledis agency, who presents his agency specialized in e-commerce and web marketing. If you are wondering how to increase your online sales or improve your web traffic, the rest will interest you!

Prestaxhop Soledis agency

Summary

Can you introduce yourself in a few words and describe the agency?
SOLEDIS

I have been running Soledis since 2012 alongside Yoann SAMSON, one of the founders. Soledis is an E-Commerce and webmarketing agency. As a Platinum Prestashop and Google Partner, our goal is to improve, for each of our clients, their traffic, their conversion rate, and their online sales turnover.

How do you differentiate yourself from other agencies?
There are only about twenty Platinum Prestashop agencies in the world, and about ten in France: this seems to me to be an important first element of differentiation! Our team also includes experts in greece whatsapp lead specific fields, particularly in B2B e-commerce and ERP connectors. The fact that we are also a web marketing agency gives us a global sensitivity to the issues of online visibility and e-commerce. We are not simply integrators of technical solutions, we also have (and above all!) a marketing expert's eye on the e-commerce or influence activity of our clients. Finally, our references speak for us: 400 clients of all sizes, a satisfaction rate of 99.2% and great stability!

What advice would you give to a project leader who is comparing different agencies?
To choose the right web agency , you must first look at its seniority. The more experience it has, the less you will pick up the pieces: there have been others before you! Then look at its certifications: OpenSource web experts, like Prestashop , surround themselves with the best agencies to constantly improve their solutions. Prestashop also provides training for developers from its certified agencies, which is a guarantee of technical quality for the customer. And finally, don't hesitate to ask for quotes and compare the details of the offers: this is often indicative of a methodology and expertise. So 3 criteria in my opinion: experience, certifications, methodology.

Could you simply explain to our readers the main phases of creating a website?
Before getting started, you need to know what you want, where you want to go, and what resources you can count on. From there, you go through a phase of analyzing business needs, written in an exhaustive specification. This sometimes seems a bit long, but in reality it involves projecting all the client's needs for their online business, so these are rich discussions on the company's development prospects! In this step, the role of the project manager is essential: you have to ask the right questions, anticipate the slightest needs. The client's involvement is also essential. It is also in this step that we validate the CMS, the modules, the hosting mode, the associated services, etc.
Second step: development and configuration. You have to customize the container and configure its functionalities.
Third step, data (product sheets, images, customer accounts, etc.): whether the site is a creation or a redesign, data must be created and taken, and, very often, adapted. The objective is to "fill" the site. All this is done on a development server, meaning that the site is not yet online.
Last step: taking control of the back office and then going online. The client will be trained in the use of the back office of their website to be able to keep it going over time.
Finally, when everything is ready, the site can be put online.
So 5 steps to create a website: Analysis of business needs, development of the site, data recovery then back office training just before putting the site online.

Have you had to face significant difficulties when launching a project that you had not anticipated at the start?
At Soledis, we spend a lot of time on preliminary analysis, the discussion stage that is used to write the specifications. This stage takes time but the objective is precisely to avoid unforeseen events.

The most common mistake is a gap between the initial estimate and what is validated after the specifications. This rarely happens, the last time was 2 years ago… This is the difficulty in properly estimating the business aspects impacted in the online sales site. Whether it is logistics, product volume or options, purchasing funnel, there are many pitfalls! To overcome this, our method is simple: establish a climate of trust that allows us to tell each other everything, but also to take the time to understand each other well…

You are a Prestashop Platinum Partner, what does that actually change for the customer?
This certification assures the customer that the Soledis teams have been trained directly by Prestashop, that they have significant experience and all the expertise necessary to meet any need in a Prestashop online store . We have many great references (Danone, Bolloré Group, etc.) but also many lesser-known and equally successful companies! In addition, Soledis and Prestashop work hand in hand to improve the CMS according to the user issues of customers. This is also the strength of an open source CMS, it evolves all the time!

Prestashop is not a specialized BtoB solution and yet it is one of your areas of expertise: how do you do it?
When we selected Prestashop as a basic solution, we were well aware of this lack. Drawing on our experience as a publisher, particularly BtoB, we therefore developed specific BtoB features. Moreover, some of them have become modules sold on ADDONS , the Prestashop shop.