Eric Abensur

Eric Abensur is the CEO at Venda, the world’s largest on-demand convergent commerce provider. Venda works with a number of high profile fashion retailers such as Urban Outfitters, Laura Ashley, Clothing at Tesco and Wonderbra, delivering reliable and scalable mobile, social and ecommerce platforms and processing over $1Bn in transactions annually.

Eric took charge of Venda in 2008. He was previously Vice-President of Orange Home and Chief Executive Orange Home UK PLC following the merger of the internet and mobile operations of France Telecom in the UK. Before that he was CEO of Wanadoo (formerly FREESERVE), a leading UK Internet Service Provider.

Eric started his career in 1989 with Ernst & Young in Paris and Los Angeles, where he specialised for the Technology Media Entertainment sector. From 1998 to 2001, he was Finance Director of France Telecom Pay-TV division.

From share to sale: is social commerce worth the investment?

The social media gold rush is well underway and many retailers are still weighing up how best to approach social commerce.

With new tools being launched every month and audiences continue to grow social commerce is a tempting prospect for retailers but what sort of return can brands expect to see on their investment?

In this post, I'll explore the prospects of social retail and how retailers can capitalise on sharing.

by Eric Abensur 28 March 2013 09:12am 3 comments

Returns: the Christmas present that keeps on giving

Despite the ecommerce industry booming, retailers need to be aware of some of the potential pitfalls of an environment where consumers are unable to touch, feel or try on new items before they buy.

This, coupled with the 'cooling off period’ means return rates are much higher for online retailers than they are for their bricks and mortar counterparts.

Here are some tips for online retailers, which should help them to think and act smarter with their returns policies...

by Eric Abensur 06 March 2013 12:43pm 0 comments

Did Christmas save retail?

In this post, I'll look at Christmas e-tailing and the likely trends over the next 12 months.

Retailers must look towards implementing digital strategies into their traditional bricks and mortar approach if they want to capitlise on the potential growth opportunities online and mobile can provide.

by Eric Abensur 29 January 2013 10:06am 0 comments

Peak period lessons from Cyber Monday

Mega Monday, Cyber Monday, the day for flurried transactions, huge site traffic and flash sales. Whatever you call it, the much-discussed day has passed with a significant boost for online retailers.

The results for the 2012 holiday season have, so far, been promising. Retailers on our platform saw this Sunday nudge Cyber Monday off the top online shopping day spot as far as revenue is concerned, but both days performed exceptionally well.

by Eric Abensur 11 December 2012 09:17am 0 comments