#421 Innovating Gifting: Vera Modenova on AI, Social Commerce, and Empowering Local Sellers

[00:00:00]

Mehmet: Hello and welcome back to a new episode of the cto show with Mehmet today I'm, very pleased joining me from the united kingdom. I Welcome today vera modenova vera Thank you very much for being with me on the show today You are the COO of Flowwow, but before you know, we deep dive in a very exciting world of e commerce and you know retail Would like you to introduce yourself, tell us a little bit more about you, your journey, and you know, what you're currently up to.

Mehmet: So the floor is yours.

Vera: Yeah. Hi Mehmet. Thanks so much for opportunity to have this conversation with you. My name is Vera, as I said. And COO of Flowwow so let me just have a minute to explain what's Flowwow. It's a kind of marketplace where you can find different kinds of cakes, flowers. And now some handmade things, which you can make for decorating your home.

Vera: So it's all about gifting and we operate in more than 30 countries. [00:01:00] Actually I started my career in Flowwow 10 years ago when I was about 20 years old, so it's, was while I was studying in the university. And I've I've came to Flowwow when I was, fifth, I think, person in the team.

Vera: And now we have more than 500 people who are working with us.

Mehmet: Wow. Wow. So what a journey. Out of curiosity, what, of course, like you were a student at that time, but what attracted you to be in this space? Like anything exciting you saw in this?

Vera: I was just a student and I wanted to have some job. I wanted to start my career, you know, when you know, have an experience that's quite difficult and I've came to flow out actually just for several days to hand some advertise at least on a forum and there was this Strange [00:02:00] situation when the director of this company asked me to join the office, just to help for a few days.

Vera: And that was the start of my journey. And actually we did at that time, everything that we could, because there are only five people in the company and it's a marketplace. You have a sellers, you have clients and you have to do all.

Mehmet: Right. So how have you seen, you know, things from 10 years till now, like how, how have you seen the the, the marketplace you know, evolved, especially, you know, because I also, you know, we are talking about MENA region and we try to focus a little bit on the MENA region.

Mehmet: So. How it, you know, like, are the challenges that you faced before are still there? Or like, maybe there are new kind of challenges. What about the opportunities that are driving? We know, like, you know, the e commerce market is booming. So walk me through this. You know, 10 years journey. What, how [00:03:00] was it and where do you see it going?

Vera: Yeah I think the only thing I want to say here the first one, sorry, not the not the first that our, market share, in united arab emirates now is about Six or seven percent and of course 10 years ago. I couldn't imagine that We will be in united arab emirates and in this position position of the leaders of this market it was really surprising when I understood it and 10 years ago we were just trying to make the good point product, we wanted to change the rules on this market because 10 years ago it was difficult to understand what is it marketplace.

Vera: That was Uber, but Uber just entered the market. It was also something new for the people. And, and we're operating to connect sellers to our [00:04:00] marketplace to explain clients what that were not the flower shop that you can see here. Different shops, different flowers. You can choose what you want.

Vera: We are the grant of the good service, can see the good quality, let's say. So we had to explain just the easy things at that time because people hadn't know what is it? Marketplace, why do you need them? And we were making our IT product because we're having now four different mobile apps for sellers, for clients, for careers, and one more for sellers.

Vera: But it's, a long story will be so firstly we are in IT project Flowwow. So we're pricing for the product. And it was also quite difficult because we hadn't much money. To give to the team some really qualified people who are really good products. So we had to imagine [00:05:00] ourselves everything that was fall out at that time.

Mehmet: Cool. And I'm happy to hear, you know, the, the progress you've made in the UAE in the United Arab Emirates. It's really fascinating. Now I would go a little bit touch on the technology. I know you are the CEO and I'm not expecting to go too much deep technical and actually the seat, you know, the reason it's a CTO show because we try to explain the technology in business perspective.

Mehmet: Now, in the sector you are in today, I would say Veeran that. Things are changing very fast, right? And let's start with the thing which is on everyone's mind AI, right? So AI it's been a while and people sometimes they get shocked. Oh, we didn't know that it's AI So we know that AI was in the recommendation systems and so on but it's now reshaping the way Customers have their experience through what is called hyper personalization, right?[00:06:00]

Mehmet: so Walk me through how does Flowwow leverage AI? You To enhance its gifting marketplace.

Vera: Yeah, of course, AI is a new trend in all spheres, especially in e commerce. And at Howwell, we also put AI into our product. It's not connected with a variety of products that people can see. By the way, right now, I think we're going in this way, but not but not now, now we use AI to make the easier life for our sellers because AI can help them to make the content.

Vera: It's not about the photos, but it's about all the texts. So if you want to have some information about your product you don't need to write it. You can just ask our system. To put information automatically or [00:07:00] to give some, filters, for example, that this product is good for the birthday, this is good for the Easter, this one is good for the St.

Vera: Valentine's Day, and so on, so on, so on, so to make different filters for our people and to help find the products if they want to type something there. And of course AI is used by our support team who are communicating with also sellers, because sometimes they can help them to make better pictures, so they just take the original pictures, original photos, and going through AI, we're making it a little bit better, but not but not changing them.

Vera: It's the main rule that we have. And of course All the job are doing inside for a while to make some maybe text presentations, programming people also using AI in their [00:08:00] everyday life. Right.

Mehmet: Right. Of course. Yeah. Everyone is using AI. Now one thing which is very well known about the UAE and the rest of the Middle East that we've kind of mobile first.

Mehmet: So what strategies like have utilized to optimize the mobile first customers?

Vera: Firstly, we made eight years ago, the first mobile app for the clients. And we're at, at that time, we were not using marketplace or marketplace for florists and about flowers. And we had in the market, why, why are doing it?

Vera: People don't need to buy flowers twice a year. They buy it one time and a year, and it's good. So they don't need mobile app. So it was Very strange for the extras from the market that we're doing it. But now more than 60 percent of our orders are on Apple mobile app. And of course we have [00:09:00] also Android.

Vera: So in summary, it's about 80 percent of orders are making through mobile apps. Okay,

Mehmet: that's good. You know, like it seems like very forward thinking, you know putting the mobile first also from that time, which is really impressive now because when we talk about retail, you know, and, you know, e commerce in general.

Mehmet: So, recently we start to see some other emerging technologies like AR. Or augmented reality. Are you, are you integrating any features or similar tools to improve the customer engagement and the conversations Vera?

Vera: no, we don't use the use AR. We don't use VR.

Vera: It can be used in our, some marketing projects, but not in the product. Actually we don't find a really good place for this yet.

Mehmet: Okay, not yet. So nothing on that side.

Vera: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or only in some [00:10:00] marketing projects that could be. Okay.

Mehmet: Okay. I got it. No, no worries at all. So now another thing which is booming is like social commerce.

Mehmet: Like people goes to platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and try to, to buy. So how do you approach social commerce to connect with the consumers in the MENA region? What's your approach for, you know for this for this kind of people who more attract to doing shopping on the social media applications

Vera: Actually, working on different social medias projects in flower wall because our marketing team has really big budgets to communicate with influencers, for example, in Instagram and TikTok and Facebook and so on, so and so on, and different absolutely in different places.

Vera: And, we have lots of integrations about, [00:11:00] 70 every month. Integrations with the influencers, so only in Instagram and Facebook platforms and, actually we don't use now, for example, Instagram shopping or in the Snapchat, I also know that there's such opportunity because, the whole product, is quite difficult for this.

Vera: You know we don't have, the same goods in all the cities all over the world. So the first we need the people the customer to understand in which city he wants to make delivery in. Only after we can show him what products we have here, what sellers we have we have here.

Vera: So it's because we're having Korean delivery that's why it's. It's quite difficult for us to use such applications as Instagram shopping, for example. And we're trying to [00:12:00] communicate with these people who are in social media, within the influencers.

Mehmet: Right. Another thing which I should have asked you maybe before now acting in the MENA region.

Mehmet: So we have a lot of cultures, right? So there's people from different countries, from different places. So how. How easy or hard was to understand and, you know, to put, you know, what everyone likes, you know, from, from the platform perspective on both sides of the marketplace and how much was the amount of help you get from the data that you were collecting.

Mehmet: So if you can explain a little bit this to us, Vera.

Vera: Actually for us, it's fantastic. I really love United Arab Emirates because there are lots of different nations. There are lots of different people who are living in this country. It's because that we're a gifting platform and gifting marketplace.

Vera: And in the United Arab Emirates, we collect all, [00:13:00] all the holidays that are during the year in different, different countries. For example, I know that Mother's Day in, united Kingdom and in United Em also on the 23rd of on the 21st of March. March. But yeah, but in the u it's in May and we know that we have some people who are living, right?

Vera: Yeah, who American, but living in United em. So we see that people want to buy in this date also flowers, and they can rotate with March day. And it happens everywhere because, we have some local holidays for example, national days and national day of United Arab Emirates. It's Ramadan, it's Eid al Adha, but also we see that people can celebrate the Chinese New Year, Chinese, Valentine's Day or maybe Easter even and when you're a gifting platform at [00:14:00] looks really good for your business Hold this a whole over the year.

Vera: It's wonderful

Mehmet: Yeah I think like it's a dream for any retailer or anyone in the e commerce Business because you have always something to celebrate and we are very I would say fortunate here in the UAE to be able to having all these you know, people from all these countries and nationalities and different places that we all celebrate.

Mehmet: And, you know, like the, just it's a small part from me. So we always, you know, like to celebrate with these people because they are colleagues to us, friends to us. So always, you know, as you said, we feel every week we have something to celebrate, which is, which is, which is, yeah, really, really amazing. I want to, you know, ask you, what's next for Flowwow.

Mehmet: Like you transitioned from a floral marketplace to a global gifting platform. So what's next for Flowwow, Vera?

Vera: As I [00:15:00] said that we are operating in more than 30 countries and we have countries which we are focused in the most. It's United Arab Emirates, of course, in the first place. It's Brazil.

Vera: It's a United Kingdom. It's Spain. And in many region, it's Turkey. And, these are the main countries for us. So for the next year, 2025, but we're still trying to find some more countries where our product market fit will work good. For example, we're looking for, Saudi Arabia. But we don't have yet Arabian localization.

Vera: So it's the first thing we need to do before testing this market. As you see in the United Arab Emirates to have the share market six, seven percent without Arabic localization is no problem because a lot of people are from different countries all over the world are coming here. And actually our plan for the next year, is to [00:16:00] increase our sales Sales in United Arab Emirates by 300%.

Vera: So if we are going to do it, we will have about 20, 25 percent of the markets in United

Mehmet: Arab Emirates. Wow. Wow. That's very ambitious. And let me ask you, how do you see the whole market going? I mean, the gifting trends, you know, how, where do you see it going in the next, I

Vera: think it depends on every country.

Vera: It's quite different because in you know I'm now living in London in the United Kingdom and here, lots of people are using internet here, really good. It works Amazon, and it's very expensive to start doing something in e commerce on this market. But for example, if we're talking about United Emirates as far as I understand that only 67 percent of [00:17:00] purchases are making through the internet.

Vera: So there is a really great potential. And the whole market of e commerce in United Arab Emirates, it's about 17 billions of dollars, so it's really quite big, but it's going to grow, to grow, to grow. So in this way, the whole MENA region, we we really think that's good because also we see that not so far ago, some major global players like Shane or Demo have entered the MENA region market and also.

Vera: Dalabat had an IPO in November of this year, if I'm not mistaken, so It's happening now,

Mehmet: as we speak. Yeah,

Vera: yeah, yeah. So, so as we see that global big players are also interested in this market and it means that, we're thinking right, that it's going to increase only.

Mehmet: Absolutely. So the, the, I would say the [00:18:00] trend is going up indeed for, for the region, for UE and for the rest of the MENA region, indeed.

Mehmet: Now I'm going to shift gears a little bit, talk about something else with you, Vera, which is about your leadership. And of course, like, as I said, and you mentioned in the introduction, this is a huge, huge, huge, like, success starting at a young age while being a student. And You became a CEO and advocate for women in tech.

Mehmet: So let me ask you about your leadership style to maintain, you know, you know, to grow the team first and maintain the customer satisfaction. So what are like your principles to achieve this?

Vera: Actually, it's not a very usual, that's not a very common thing, but I'm trying to be with some people like a friend.

Vera: So not being too close, but being in a really, really good relationships. And actually it helps to get information about the whole company. [00:19:00] What's helping there usually, because people are coming to you to just give some information, some things that they maybe don't like, or, but they mention it and it's really important.

Vera: For example, now we have, when we're having more than 500 people, sometimes we can see some culture problems that. People don't understand our culture and I'm the first people to know about it only because I'm really good in relationships with lots of out of manager, top management. And, I haven't seen it on I haven't seen the same with, some of my partners, so in different companies who is working like a COO, CEO, doesn't matter. It's quite the same. And I'm trying to find the people who are really ambitious and whom I can rely on. So it's all about being open [00:20:00] mind. It's all about trust. I think that's why it is really important that it works for me.

Vera: It doesn't work for everybody.

Mehmet: That's cool. That's cool. And you have also this ambition where you know, to have more woman in successful woman in tech, I would say, right.

Vera: Yeah. And actually I've got two years ago, a baby. So now I'm now I'm also a mom and I'm trying to being, at the same time with my family and with my job and to increase everything.

Mehmet: Yeah. You know, yeah. Like kudos to you. And, you know, because I always like have huge respect for, you know people like yourself, where I hope. Try to run family and business at the same time. So thank, thank you. Right. So, want to ask you, if someone is listening to us today and you know, they are thinking about entering the MENA region, especially UAE, what advice you give you would [00:21:00] give to them?

Vera: The first choice do it just do it because it's really great market I've been talking about it yet that lots of people from all over the world are coming here and You can find the culture problem for your business in the United Arab Emirates because it's such a society You know, there's one thing I forgot to mention it it's also because of people are coming all over the world to live in the United Arab Emirates.

Vera: We do not have any problems to attract our sellers because for example, when we are entering the US market and they were coming to American seller, he said, well, I need it. I don't have time, but if I'm coming for a Mexican person who is living in a America, there is no problem. He's just joining flower and wants to get new orders.

Vera: Yeah, more money and it works. And because lots of people come to United Arab Emirates, I think they want to do something. They [00:22:00] can't just sit in one place in the comfort zone. They need to do something. And I think that all people who are entering the United Arab Emirates as businessmen or just, you know doing something here, they need to know it and understand it so that people are really love that type, but they don't want to waste it.

Mehmet: Cool. You know, like Vera. Your energy is, is like really can be, I would say sense from even the distance, you know, you have the ambition for the business, the love for the business. And, you know, this advice you gave, like, just start, you know, I really appreciate it. Any, any, you know, final words of wisdom, anything you wished I had asked you, you want to, to mention it before I ask where.

Mehmet: People can get in touch.

Vera: Yeah. Maybe I would like to talk a little more about our marketing as [00:23:00] well, because we had some really nice cases and I think it's very important for people who are entering also this market and doing marketing here, doing QCommerce, to have it in mind, because.

Vera: So I think that people in the United Arab Emirates are really close to some part of art, maybe because we had two different collaborations. For example, one time I had the collaboration on the woman's day with a local artist. We were making postcards with her paintings and they got out just in two, maybe three days.

Vera: So it was really top of the sales on flower wall. And On Ramadan time, we made a collaboration with also local artists and we made a card game for the people to have their evenings with their family while playing the game. And it also gone [00:24:00] just in one day, I think, maybe two. So if we're talking in PR, something about artists, people in Arab Emirates really like it.

Vera: I don't know how it works because we don't see something similar in other countries.

Mehmet: That's cool. Super cool. You know, finally, Vera where people can, of course, you know, give us the website and how they can also get in touch.

Vera: Yeah. Our website is flowwow.Ae and also have mobile apps. Please download it.

Vera: It's really nice. And, actually sometimes I'm just searching just in our mobile app and find some nice things that's you couldn't imagine that you want it. So for all, yeah, flowers about some local sellers some nice things about being being, feeling nice at your home.

Mehmet: Yeah, and this is maybe enabling also the [00:25:00] the Entrepreneurs within the country who wants also to start a business.

Mehmet: So this is really super cool, right?

Vera: Absolutely

Mehmet: Cool. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, because you know, I have a you know, i'm inclined, or let's say obsessed with anything that can empower, you know, people who might want to start with something small. And I think your platform exactly does this, especially in, I'm talking about the e commerce space.

Mehmet: So this is really fantastic. Yeah. We want to say something Vera, please go ahead.

Vera: Yeah. I would say that's one of the support local sellers. It's our aim. It's the politics of our company that yeah, we want to help sellers to have more orders and to earn more. It's all about local businesses, not the big one.

Mehmet: Right. And because, you know, I always tell people, you know, these local businesses, small businesses that make the economies also grow. And, you know, thank you for, for, you know, [00:26:00] having such a Platform where you and the other co founders as well And for the links you just mentioned, of course the audience you can find them in the show notes So you don't have to take time to to search so i'm gonna make your life easy I'm gonna put all the links in the show notes if you're listening on your favorite podcasting app Or if you're watching this on youtube, you can find also on on the The description there up, you know, like I really enjoyed the conversation with you today, as I said, the energy, the, the passion you have.

Mehmet: And of course the purpose you just mentioned at the end, empowering local business is something, you know really, that is very important, I believe. And we should like encourage everyone like yourself and the rest of the team who are trying to, to, you know, make impact. We should encourage them. So I encourage everyone to go check the website and, you know, get in touch with Vera.

Mehmet: Vera, you know, this is usually how I end my episodes. This is for the audience. If you just discovered this podcast [00:27:00] by luck, thank you for passing by. Please give us a thumb up, share it with your friends and colleagues. And if you are one of the people who keep coming, it's we please, you know, keep sending me your keep sending me your feedbacks and questions. I like to see them all. Thank you very much for tuning in and we'll meet again very soon. Thank you. Bye