Raphael Golan, Board Director and Business Development Director at MoneyNetint, has a seasoned history in the world of finance and economics. We sat down with him to talk about his experiences, the lessons he’s learned in his 35+ years in the financial sector and his tips and recommendations for staying relevant as the industry shifts into the ever evolving digital era.

Growing up in Israel and economics

I was born in 1959 in Jerusalem to immigrant parents - my father is from England and my mother is from Germany. After secondary school I went to the army, where I served as a tank commander and then went on to study economics in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I graduated with a BA in Economics in 1982 and almost immediately started working at one of the biggest banks in Israel, Bank Hapoalim.

Economics was something I found interesting and was a natural fit for my abilities. I’m very glad to have had and continue a long career doing something that interests me, on both a large and small scale.

The landscape of the global economy is changing rapidly, but at the core of every business transaction, one thing has, and always will, hold true - the need for ease, trust and security. These are integral for every human interaction whether it is face to face or through electronic devices.

This is especially true with the rise of ecommerce solutions, where companies depend on reliability to collect payments, pay vendors, and serve an international audience of customers in a timely manner. At the end of the day it all about people and how they interact, people do business with people, even if it’s on a computer, tablet or mobile.

We sat down with Yishay Trif, CEO of MoneyNetInt, to chat about fintech, ecommerce and how the financial world has had to adapt to meet the growing need for a borderless economy.

 

Knowing where to sell online is a bit of a challenge these days. With the e-commerce booming in the past few years, the list of online marketplaces is steadily growing. There are so many options for e-sellers to place their products that reaching the customers and selling to them should be a walk in the park. Perhaps in theory, but the reality is much grimmer. Marketplaces which incur hefty fees but don’t actually deliver customers provide a disservice to budding online sellers. As important as it is to have a quality product, it’s equally important to pick a proper marketplace to sell it.

Running a web store is no easy feat. Knowing how to differentiate yourself from the rest of the pack that is competing for the same customer base is a formidable challenge, at best. With e-commerce growth rates reaching new heights every day, things are only getting tougher for online store owners to attract and retain their customers. So, some improvements are in order. Just have in mind that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to reinventing your web store. In order to improve your customer experience and make purchasing easier, almost every corner of your virtual store needs some sort of change. So, without further ado, we’ll show you 10 ways how to achieve just that.

 Unlike its physical counterpart, an online store doesn’t have the luxury of seeing who its customers are and their habits up close and personal. Basically, an e-seller is unbeknown to a great deal of information about its visitors and customers. This is where analytics ecommerce steps in. It can vastly improve the effectiveness of the entire business operation, ranging from the marketing aspect to optimizing stores for better conversions and sales to understanding the audience.

Across the e-commerce landscape, the competitive space is getting smaller. With the big players like Amazon, Flipkart and others stamping their ground, the little guys have a tough time getting their sales up. However, it’s not just a David vs Goliath battle. With the ever-competitive market, it’s every man (store or Amazon seller, in our case) for himself. To stand out and get the piece of that sweet e-commerce pie, e-sellers needs to provide a deeper value for their customers throughout the entire shopping experience. But how?

In terms of importance, there is no metric more important for e-commerce people than ROI. Sales, traffic, conversions, and others - they all take a back seat in this case. Knowing why and how to calculate ROI comes down to common sense, really. If an investment doesn’t provide a positive return or there is another business aspect with a higher ROI, then that investment should be withdrawn and/or rerouted somewhere else.