Author: Soumya Srivastava

The eCommerce industry has witnessed significant technological advancements in recent years. An interesting example would be Nike’s augmented reality-based solution called Nike Fit. According to the company, three out of five people wear the wrong shoe size, and they developed this to address such problems when people shop online. 

It wasn’t just Nike; other leading brands, such as Gucci and Adidas, are also exploring new ways to expand their reach by creating non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the Metaverse. 

All these reflect the role of technology in eCommerce in providing customers with an exceptional experience. As the competition in the eCommerce industry continues to grow, businesses need to adopt innovative approaches to meet changing customer demands.

However, 2022 has seen its share of political and economic crises, such as the Russian-Ukraine war and the recession in the U.S.A. 

The big question is will these factors impact the digital commerce industry in 2023. If yes, how and what measures can businesses take to be least affected by the results? Apart from that, what are the other latest eCommerce trends that will dominate the industry? We will answer these questions in this blog, so let’s start with top eCommerce trends in 2023.  

1.) Unified Commerce

Unified commerce means bringing all your sales channels, payment systems, products, and customer interactions together on a single platform. It involves connecting your backend system to all the customer touchpoints (online and offline) they use to view and buy products. The ease of a single platform allows the consumers to purchase, receive and return items on their chosen channels. One of the key advantages of unified commerce is that it allows real-time critical data to flow between different channels. 

The centralized platform offers various benefits:

• It gives a holistic view of the inventory and stocks, making it easier to view and update stocks in real-time.
• You can access data insights across multiple touchpoints that help understand customer behavior and other performance KPIs.
• Saves resources and time invested otherwise in integrating various other platforms.
• Connecting online and offline sales channels drastically improves the customer experience leading to customer loyalty and higher spending.

The information can help chart effective marketing strategies, improve operational efficiency, and mitigate the hassle of managing numerous resources to help your business scale. 

2.) Improved customer service

For any business to thrive, retaining customers is more cost-effective than acquiring new customers. However, for B2B businesses, the buying cycle is long and exhaustive, and there is a huge dependence on building long-lasting customer relationships. Good customer service is one of the simplest ways that help you retain your customers and have consistent revenue growth. As per a report, 72% of B2B buyers state that real-time, always-on customer service is key to boosting customer loyalty.  89% of consumers are more willing to make another purchase if they have a positive customer service experience. Interestingly,  good customer service can make customers more accepting of mishaps such as shipment delays. 

Having powerful customer service can greatly help retain the existing customer base. The customer should also be able to choose their communication channel, be it mail, phone, chat, or social media.  In 2023 businesses will have to work towards providing their customers with seamless customer service and reach them where they are available. 

3.) Personalization for brand loyalty

Personalization has already been a game changer for the eCommerce industry in the past few years. And moving forward, the personalization game will even become more critical.  Marketing strategies such as ABM (Account-based marketing) take a different approach to personalization, and it helps you determine accounts that have the potential to be the biggest revenue generator for your business. Using this technology, businesses can send personalized content to decision-makers of these accounts on the platforms they are active.

Common ABM strategies include:

1.) Identification of the key accounts 

2.) Content marketing strategy relevant to individual accounts

3.) Defining customer journey map 

4.) Leveraging behavioral data for creating customer personas 

5.) Developing the right content that inspires action 

4.) Impact of inflation on average order value 

Inflation in the U.S. has been at its record high in forty years. But how does it impact an eCommerce business? Let us understand this from a business perspective which is that during inflation, there is a direct decrease in purchasing power. It directly impacts manufacturing costs, and businesses might struggle to retain and gain clients. 

As per reports, the rising prices and the economic downturn have recorded payment delays of 10.5 days in the B2B eCommerce industry, and in 2023 this will continue to increase. When there is financial uncertainty, shoppers need extra assurance, and businesses should work on price optimization. 

Some steps that the companies can take to balance out their profits are: 

1.) Introducing deals and offers such as discounts on buying bundled items

2.) Do an inventory audit to identify the best sellers and those that don’t sell a lot. The key is to focus on the products that bring in maximum profits.

Read more: How we Automated the Commission Process for a B2B eCommerce retailer?

5.) Environmental concerns and sustainability

The climate crisis is one of the crucial issues looming worldwide. The eCommerce industry has also played a significant role in increasing the carbon footprint. The transportation and logistics industry is a major contributor to CO2 emissions in the U.S. and accounts for 29 % of greenhouse gases. With increasing awareness about the environmental impact, people have become more mindful of sustainability and ecological balance. They are ready to pay more or buy from brands that focus on these factors. 

It is a great opportunity for brands to build brand loyalty and differentiate themselves from competitors. They can opt for eco-friendly and sustainable practices such as: 

• Creating packages using packaging materials that are eco-friendly and sustainable such as 
• Making provisions for buyers to choose sustainable shipping options (e.g., “Ship all items together in one package, rather than sending them based on their availability”)
• Making it easy for people to reuse and recycle items. 
• Adding labels to packaging asking the consumers to reuse and recycle

6.) Dynamic pricing

Dynamic pricing is also called real-time pricing, where the price can change in real-time based on factors such as the demand and supply ratio, currency fluctuations, etc. It allows businesses to control their pricing and offer the right price to the specific customer at the right time. It will be a significant step in helping businesses maintain revenue and get the least affected by inflation. Businesses should conduct extensive research before they implement dynamic pricing in their system. It includes thoroughly understanding the competitor brands and customer base and identifying the sweet spot between being enticing and profitable. 

7. ) Social Commerce

As per a report by McKinsey, social commerce is set to grow three times as fast as traditional eCommerce platforms. It is already set to reach 1.2 trillion dollars by 2025 from its current $492 billion. Influencer marketing is one of the major aspects of social commerce that drive user engagement and sales.  When a product is recommended or endorsed by an influencer or creator, the buyer automatically trusts the product and is ready to buy it.

Investing in social commerce is definitely needed because it helps with customer engagement and boosts sales. But it also impacts the customer journey that businesses will need to take into account when they incorporate social commerce into their business.  Let us understand it how. So, in a traditional setup, when a buyer discovers a product, he heads to the brand-owned channels, such as their website, or app, to complete the purchase. But with social commerce, the consumer stays in the respective platform such as Instagram, Snapchat or Facebook to complete their purchase.  It might affect the direct-to-consumer relationships for brands, and to combat it, businesses will need a holistic approach to influencer partnerships and for social-first content.  

8.) Visual Search

Visual search allows users to search using images and is commonly used through tools like Google Lens. With 62% of Gen Z and millennial customers seeking visual search capabilities and 23% of Google search queries yielding images, this trend is rising. Despite this, only a small portion of about 8% of eCommerce brands have incorporated visual search into their website.

To stay ahead of the competition, eCommerce businesses can optimize their website for visual search. Major eCommerce platforms like Magento and Shopify offer visual search features that can be easily integrated into your website.

Some of the ways that you can prepare your website for visual search are: 

1. Adding images to your sitemap so that it can be crawled by Google 
2. Adding alt text to your images to give the right context
3. Sizing the images in the right sizes
4. Caption images with relevant keywords
5. Modify chatbots to accommodate visual searches

9.) Rise of Mobile Commerce (m-commerce)

One of the most popular eCommerce trends for businesses is going to be m-commerce.  If we go by the numbers, a report by Statista suggests that by 2025, mCommerce will account for over 10.4% of all retail sales in the US.  it is also one of the leading eCommerce trends in India, with an estimated eCommerce sales of $38 billion in 2020. Mobile Commerce isn’t a new phenomenon but something that is gradually happening for years now. As more and more people are getting used to smartphones and the internet being no more premium service, there has been a significant shift in the mobile consumer base. With time the average hours spent on mobile devices will only rise, pushing the growth of mobile commerce. So, eCommerce businesses should leverage platforms to connect directly with customers on mobile devices. It must include social media apps, SMS and Whatsapp messaging that initiates one-on-one conversations. 

Businesses in 2023 will majorly focus on improving the customer experience, sustainability, and stabilizing profitability. Unified commerce will keep gaining traction, and more and more businesses will look forward to unifying their various platforms for a seamless customer experience. Other technologies, such as blockchain, will keep evolving. 

FAQ

Since our establishment in 2014, our Engineering team has grown 10x, written more than 1 million lines of code, built more than 100 digital commerce applications, and contributed to growing monthly revenues. Meanwhile, we have constantly strived to make our teams autonomous and processes efficient while maintaining our delivery timelines and quality standards.

Initially, our teams were divided into separate research and development, bug fixing, and new feature enhancement groups. However, this structure had some limitations, such as increased difficulty in managing bug fixes, longer resolution times due to a lack of end-to-end involvement, and limited knowledge-sharing opportunities. To address these challenges, we have adopted a more comprehensive approach, where each team works on a diverse range of tasks, promoting efficient knowledge sharing and broadening their technical expertise.

How have we structured our teams to function efficiently? 

We have three development teams, namely Guardians, Shapeshifters, and Alpha. Each of our teams has a mix of developers, testers, and designers. Each team is a mix of experienced and mid to entry-level engineers. This framework has helped us create the perfect dynamics in the team where each team can handle the end-to-end development and delivery process.  

Our objective is to form cross-functional, self-sufficient small teams that can work independently towards their objectives. Each team member has a well-defined role and responsibility, fostering a sense of ownership. The team leader’s role is to communicate the problem and its underlying purpose, then facilitate a collective brainstorming session to generate a solution. Our approach to managing our teams is built on trust in our people and their abilities and a focus on motivating them to deliver their best work.

Agile majorly focuses on three factors customer satisfaction, quick feedback loop, and continuous improvement. 

How do we strive to be better every day?

Agile isn’t just a methodology that many of us believe in, but it is a mindset that helps you become more efficient and productive and helps people bring forth their best work. It involves making small and continuous changes every day, and the Agile tools and platforms are an aid to do it. At Tecstub, agility is a core value. Our focus is always on continuous improvement. During the retrospective meeting, the entire team collaborates and answers the following questions:

• What worked well for us?
• What did not work well for us?
• What actions can we take to improve our process in the future?

Getting answers to these questions and transparent communication helps create an environment where everyone has an equal say and can put forward their thoughts. Since the goal of Agile is continuous improvement, retrospective meeting with continuous progress tracking has always helped us improve our processes and delivery times, where everybody is equally involved at every stage of development. We believe that for a team and an organization to thrive, the goal shouldn’t be “To not make mistakes” instead, it should be to fail fast and learn from them.

How do we tackle complex business problems? 

We have always taken up new challenges, and our development team has always worked its best to devise smarter and more effective solutions. For example, when we have a complex challenge and our development team isn’t sure of the right action plan to make it work, we run a  Spike . A Spike story in agile is an R&D process where the team takes time to analyze and understand the problem and tries to break it down into smaller stories. But to avoid unwanted delays, we set definite timelines for the  Spike story to complete. 

The goal is not to come up with the answer right away, but to figure out how much time it will take to finish a story. After that, the information and research are shared with the people in charge and their teams. This becomes part of our regular routine and helps us save time and make our stories more accurate.

The Sprint review processes to foster better communication and collaboration within teams 

We have different teams working on different modules for the same project, but during the development phase, all teams work separately.  However, each team is working towards achieving a common bigger goal, and every team must understand the system as a whole and what the other team is doing. Therefore, our sprint review meetings are organized every alternate Wednesday when all teams come together and discuss the functionalities that they have implemented. The main goal of this meeting is to create transparency and foster better communication and collaboration within the teams. 

How do we maintain constant collaboration and communication with our clients? 

We have a 15-day sprint release cycle, and the product owner closely works with the client to discuss and understand his requirements. Once he gets an idea of what needs to be done, he conveys the same to the development team and creates a backlog during the refinement meetings. Each development team member contributes equally to the brainstorming session to devise the right and most effective solution.

It gives the product owner a clear picture of how long it will take and helps determine priority tasks accordingly. Then, if the development team isn’t sure of any details or faces any roadblocks, he iterates the same to the clients. Since we develop and release the product frequently with the constant communication, everyone involved in the process knows the progress. As a result, it gets easier to pin down bugs or issues earlier in the development phase. 

Being Agile has a huge advantage – it lets us help our team do their best work. People like to feel valued and heard, and not be restricted to just following orders. Agile allows our team members to take charge. Having an autonomous team leads to greater job satisfaction, creativity, and overall well-being.

We believe in reaching the destination together, irrespective of the path.  It has helped us establish a transparent environment where each individual is involved in the complete development cycle, unlike the traditional siloed software development approach.

We are thrilled to announce the rebrand of TecStub and its story. We have begun this new chapter to signify our major milestones over the years, our vision for the future, and what we aspire to become. 

Our journey 

Tecstub started in 2014 with a vision to empower eCommerce businesses to take the first step in their digital transformation journey. Since our inception, we have successfully delivered complex eCommerce business solutions that are both technologically ahead of their time, robust and scalable. When we look back at our journey over these years, we see our clients’ and partners’ unprecedented growth and the impact they are creating. For example, one of our B2B eCommerce solutions is currently processing 5000+ orders daily and has grown to become a global industry leader.

Over the years of developing eCommerce solutions, we have understood that the right mix of technology, processes, and people is the key to business innovation. It is also our magic sauce to success that has helped us progress and grow.

Why did we rebrand?

Since we have significantly evolved in terms of our expertise and services, our existing branding didn’t effectively communicate the same message to our audiences.  Therefore we decided to update our story and write a new one that truly resonates with who we are, what we offer, and where we are headed. We wanted to have a brand identity that showcases the expertise we have acquired over the years and aligns with our refined vision, mission, and value proposition. 

Our rebranding is much more than a new logo, website, and revised color palette. It defines what we do and who we are at the core as a team. Our team has expanded tenfold since we set foot in the industry, and now have a stronger engineering team of visionaries, engineers, and outliers whose expertise spans diverse skill sets with one aim: to deliver excellence. We have always strived to create a collaborative work environment to empower individual strength and achieve a common goal. Our people are our backbone, and we are continuously honing and building our expertise and skill sets in new-age technologies. 

A significant change that has helped us transform our operations is the adoption of Agile software development methodology. It has become an integral part of our culture and has helped us refine and fasten our processes. Also, it was quite early in our journey that we saw the infinite possibilities that technology offers.

Our vision is to develop a digital commerce ecosystem with microservices at the core to enable any business. A digital commerce ecosystem is an integrated set of systems that work together to enable the process of selling and buying. It includes everything from the front end, where the customer visits the website and orders products, to the backend systems that manage the warehouse, logistics, and inventory. All these systems need to work seamlessly to serve customer orders faster and more efficiently. To make this happen, we are constantly innovating, keeping n mind the solutions, and using latest technology frameworks such as Microservices, DevOps, Cloud computing, and more to shape our vision of reimagining eCommerce.
Although we have rebranded, our core values and purpose remains unchanged. 

We care deeply about what we do and the impact we have in building a better, more sustainable future for our clients, people, and communities. With commerce at our core, together, we design, build and implement end-to-end solutions to help enterprises move to their ‘next’!  

Introducing the new brand identity :

Our Purpose

To deliver on the promise of “Build Together, Build Next!”

We have always believed in being partners with our clients, walking with them in their journey, offering them end-to-end solutions, and helping them grow and scale.  And this is what our tagline conveys  “Build Together, Build Next!”

The new logo and what it represents

Our logo is our visual identity that communicates our forward thinking approach and vision of helping enterprises move to their next. The TEC part is in bold, depicting our deep expertise in technology, and the building blocks come together as a forward-pointing arrow representing the futuristic nature of the solutions we create.

As we conclude our rebrand story, we would like to thank our employees and customers who have been integral to our journey and helped us become what we are today. 

Interested to join our team? Head to our career page for the latest open positions. 

For business inquiries, please fill out the form on the contact us page.

In this article, our ace Visual Designer from the marketing team Thilak takes us through his career journey, role at Tecstub, and creative process. 

Tell us about yourself

I was born and brought up in Chennai, and I  am an electrical engineer by degree and a designer by choice. I have been in the designing domain for the past 4 years, and since then, I have been transforming ideas into a design. I like connecting with new people, visiting new places, and playing football.  I am quite comfortable talking to anyone and mix with people quite easily.

What has your career journey been like?

I pursued a traditional education path and obtained a degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. However, studying power systems, circuits, and resistors left me uninterested, and I realized this wasn’t my calling. Surprisingly, design never crossed my mind as a career option during my growing-up years. It wasn’t until after finishing my degree that I was introduced to design by my brother, who was already a seasoned designer.

He encouraged me to try my hand at designing and introduced me to various tools and platforms, teaching me the basics. My first project was to design a logo, and as I immersed myself in the process, I found delight in the details, such as color choice, placement, and contrast. This sparked my curiosity and I took it upon myself to learn more through online resources. I became familiar with design platforms like Adobe and Illustrator and with practice, my skills improved.

How did Tecstub happen?

One day I received a call for an interview from the Tecstub HR team. Since I am based in Chennai, getting to interview for a Gujarat-based company was slightly strange. But since the interview was virtual and the position was remote, I went for it. My interview experience was very smooth, and it felt more like a conversation because everyone on the panel made me feel very comfortable. The interview was conducted by the head of marketing, who is also my manager and the organization’s CEO. 

During the interview with Tecstub, I was asked not only about my professional background but also about my personal interests. When I mentioned my love for traveling, Kiran Soni, the CEO of Tecstub, offered to recommend some must-visit destinations.

I was impressed by the company’s openness and clarity about its vision for rebranding and what my role would entail. Their approach and drive left me feeling confident about joining the organization. And now, I am here to share my story. 🙂

Tell us about your role as a Visual Communication Specialist at Tecstub 

Working at TecStub is an entirely new experience because it is an IT consulting firm specializing in building eCommerce web applications, while my experience was usually in advertising and creative agencies. The organization has greatly evolved over the years in its expertise and services. But, the existing brand image doesn’t communicate the same message, so they have been working on a rebrand. Visual identity is an essential branding element for any organization as it helps to communicate what the brand is all about and helps unify the multiple aspects of a business through consistent visuals.  As a visual communication specialist, my role involves helping build a new visual brand identity that communicates what the brand stands for.  

At the start of my journey at Tecstub, I acquainted myself with what goes behind the development of eCommerce web applications and became well-versed in Agile software development methodology. It was essential to comprehensively understand the work process to lay the foundation for my creative process. Additionally, I also understood how the creative messaging of IT should look and have incorporated those elements into my designs.

Since I started working, I have been involved in all marketing initiatives, from designing business presentations to handling social media creatives to designing emailers, web pages, brochures, Linkedin banners, video creation, and more. 

Throughout my journey at Tecstub, my manager has provided insightful feedback that has enabled me to expand my understanding of design from different perspectives. At Tecstub, I have the creative freedom and independence necessary to excel in my work.

What does your creative process look like? 

My creative process starts with deep analysis and understanding of the target group, the platform, and the core message.  When I create a design, I try to understand what it is talking about and then try to give the gist of the content through my design. I focus on 70% design and 30% content rule.  When I design the graphics for our social media page, I use a minimal design approach and fewer elements to communicate the overall message. A user who sees a graphic should get the idea without reading the content.  The three things that define my job would be Creative, Attractive, and Emotive.  

What are your future goals?

I am currently focusing on the TecStub rebranding initiatives and looking forward to developing a new visual identity for TecStub that communicates its true story. The one future goal always constant for me is to keep creating, learning, and evolving. Because someone has rightly said, “You can’t use up creativity the more you use, the more you have.”  

This was Thilak’s career and growth story, all the way from Chennai. He even visited the office in Ahmedabad during a work-from-office week in August and got to know everyone better. We’ll be sharing more stories of our amazing employees and their paths to growth, so make sure to follow us on LinkedIn.

Also, did you know we are hiring? Check out our career page for new openings and join our team. 🙂

“The Hybrid work model has proved to be a blessing for me as a new Dad.”

This time we got in touch with our SEO team lead, Vivek Suthar, who has been spearheading the SEO marketing initiatives at Tecstub.  Vivek belongs to Khedbrahma, a town in Gujarat,  and has been a part of the TecStub team since December 2017. He has been continuously involved in various SEO activities, such as website audits, keyword research, and link-building strategies. On the personal front, he has recently become a new dad.

So, let’s dive into what a typical workday in his life looks like and how his life has changed after becoming a dad, and here is what he shared with us.

Tell us about your role at Tecstub

I handle the SEO campaigns of our clients to boost their website visibility in search engines and help them meet their business goals. I have worked at Tecstub for four and a half years, and since I started working, my role has evolved greatly.  Since, SEO is an integral component of online marketing and is governed by so many factors that it takes a considerable amount of time, and constant learning to thrive in this field. Fortunately, at Tecstub, I got several opportunities that have helped me learn new marketing techniques and hone my skills in this domain.  It feels great when our hard work pays off, and we can get results by cutting through the powerful Google algorithms.

What does your typical work day look like?

I wake up at 7 am, following which I freshen up and devote some time to God. A few minutes of meditating and praying in solace brings me joy and inner peace. After offering my prayers, I have breakfast while going through newspapers and getting updates about what is happening worldwide. Post my breakfast, I start prepping for my work day.

My work usually starts at 9.30 am, I take a glance at Google analytics and search console to grab a check on the website traffic. I keep track of various website performance metrics such as bounce rate, post-click data, conversion rate, etc. All these details help me develop an SEO roadmap for optimizing the website and getting the most profitable traffic. After this, I go through my email and have a quick review of Jira tasks. Accordingly, I create my to-do list for the day and note the points to discuss in our daily stand-up meeting.

I connect with my team at 10 am every day, where we discuss the day’s plan and any roadblocks that might need attention. My field of work is constantly evolving, specifically the Google search algorithms. As an SEO professional, I need to keep myself updated about the latest updates, so I always invest time going through the latest marketing blogs and other resources and tracking new updates. As the day progresses, I take a lunch break at about 1 pm and then return to my working schedule. We have a review meeting weekly that is usually a progress check on the important website metrics and planning ahead where all team members discuss SEO strategies or suggest changes that can help improve the overall KPI’s of our ongoing projects.

What do you like the most about the Hybrid work model?

The best part about working at Tecstub is that I can choose my work model. Sometimes I work from the office, while other days  I work from home. I didn’t realize how good this work model was until I became a new dad. I get to spend much more time with my newborn while balancing my work duties. The flexibility and freedom of work help me to be more productive and efficient. When I work from the office, I interact with my team members, which is often needed for appropriate knowledge sharing and effective communication.

How has life changed after becoming a dad?

Life has taken a 180-degree turn since I became a dad; honestly, life has never been so joyful. The priorities have changed, and there have been a whole set of new responsibilities, and I am enjoying every bit of it. Once I wrap off my work for the day, I take over my daddy duties and spend time with my little bundle of joy. 

Want to work with us? Visit our career page to explore open positions.

Hiren Vadher is an iOS mobile app developer at TecStub. He is from Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and joined the TecStub development team in February 2018. Since he started working, he has worked on various technologies such as iOS, Swift, Firebase, Bluetooth technology, Flutter, Dart, UIkit, Storyboard, and Auto Layout. He is passionate about his field of work, enjoys playing chess, and is a health and fitness enthusiast.

So, we connected with Hiren and asked him to take us through a day in his life and share some snippets from his work and personal life. Here is what he shared with us.

Tell us about your role at TecStub

I have worked as a Mobile app developer at Tecstub for the past four years. My role entails developing, testing, and building advanced applications for the iOS platform. Since app development is a continuous process that doesn’t end even when the app is published, I continuously work towards improving the application’s performance. I also work with cross-functional teams defining, designing, and shipping new features. I am always looking for opportunities to learn new technologies and upskill my technical knowledge, and at Tecstub, I get to do it all. I have felt the freedom to experiment and find plausible solutions is one of the things that makes me enjoy my work. 

What does a typical workday look like?

I like to indulge in some outdoor activities as I often have to spend my day sitting for hours. So, I start my day at 6 am with a brisk morning walk, followed by a quick workout and cycling for an hour. After my fitness routine, I read the newspaper and have breakfast with my family. 

Once I reach the office, I start by checking my emails and preparing my plan for the day. Then, I log into Jira to review my assigned tasks and issues I might need to discuss in the daily standup meeting. At 10 am, I connect with my team, and we discuss the ongoing project progress and any roadblock that might hinder the work progress. In case of issues, we as a team try to devise an apt solution. At Tecstub, our work methodologies ensure transparency and open communication within teams. As a result, it makes the work progress smoothly. I enjoy the new challenges at work that help me explore the vast landscape of app development.

At 1 pm, I have lunch with my colleagues, and after that, we play fun games to beat the post-lunch blues. At 2.30 pm, we have our backlog refinement meeting, where we discuss any task-related queries and create the plan for subsequent development modules. Whenever I get time, I brush up on my knowledge in my field of work by going through blogs about iOS development. 

Before I wrap my work for the day, I check the work progress and make notes for the next day. Then, finally, I head home at 7 pm. Once I reach home, I watch movies or series or spend time with my friends and family.  

Want to work with us? Do, visit our career page to explore open positions.

We recently wrapped up our work-from-office week, which was all about meetings, work, and a lot of fun. Since many of us have been working from home for a good two years, experiencing office life all over again was a welcome change. It was a happy reminder of the good old days. But it also taught us some key lessons we didn’t know we needed.

So here are the four key learnings from our work from office week that we have curated after connecting with everyone :

1.) The power of knowledge transfer

When we work remotely, everyone is focused on doing their tasks and has less scope to tap into other team members’ unique knowledge base. 

But as we worked together in the office, we realized how easily knowledge flowed within the teams and across cross-functional teams without extra effort. Even the spontaneous chat sessions during the lunch or coffee break led to a lot of sharing and crucial learnings and lightbulb moments. It made us understand various aspects of the same project that weren’t apparent to us otherwise. Knowledge sharing helped us find better ways to accomplish a task.

Many of our employees from the development team got to learn new technologies and tools such as GraphQL (an open-source data query and manipulation language), TestFlight (an online service that helps mobile test apps), creating mircoservices, and the parallax effect. It helped them in breaking the silos, understand what each team is doing and broaden their technical skill set.

2.) Good communication is the core of efficient teamwork

When all our employees worked in the same workspace, there were a lot of in-person team meetings and brainstorming sessions. If someone was stuck somewhere or had a mental block, they always had the option to resolve it right away because their team was right there. The ease of communication made processes faster, which was often a challenge in a remote setup.

Also, we organized interesting team building games and activities that led to some friendly banter, further strengthening team bonding. The employees got to know each other beyond work, which helped them overcome unwanted hesitance. Everyone also got the chance to meet cross-functional teams and understand what they do and how each team plays a crucial role in contributing to the organization’s bigger vision.

3.) Understanding the company’s vision help establish the right work mindset

As Tecstub has been expanding at a phenomenal pace, there have been a lot of internal developments. But most of the employees didn’t get the chance to get acquainted with the latest advancements. The office week involved several town hall meetings and presentations from various departments and clients that gave employees a better understanding of where Tecstub is heading, the expectations of the clients, and a roadmap of the future. It made them understand how their efforts can contribute to the bigger picture. When employees deeply connect with the company’s vision and goals, it helps them align themselves and understand the value of their work.

4.) Meeting cross-cultural people broadens your vision

One of Tecstub’s core values is promoting inclusion and diversity in the workplace. Our teams are a mix of individuals from different backgrounds and cultures. So, during the work-from-office week, everyone got a chance to meet people from all around India and understand their unique perspectives and cultures. The cross-cultural conversations were often the funniest highlight of the day, where expressions and emotions spoke more than words.

As we come to the end of the blog , we would like to add that working remotely is always great, but when you sit with your colleagues beside you, the work becomes fun, and learning becomes effortless. Also, it instills a sense of belonging and makes you feel more connected with your team and other people in the organization. Interestingly, when we asked our employees if they would like more such workation weeks, the response was a 100% yes!!! 

Want to work with us? Do, visit our career page to explore open positions.

“ I have experienced the best of both worlds working from home and the office.” – Kushal Patel

Kushal Patel joined TecStub as a fresher in August 2017 as a software developer. Since then, he has worked on various technologies like PHP, Firebase, AWS and GraphQL. He works in hybrid mode, choosing his days to work from home once or twice a week.

Here are a few snippets of how a day in his life looks like at TecStub.

Tell us about your role at Tecstub

As a software engineer at Tecstub, my role involves developing and deploying software modules for various eCommerce platforms. During my five years at Tecstub, I have worked on multiple technologies and tools to create solutions that meet the evolving needs of modern eCommerce businesses and drive business growth. It feels great when we see our solutions being used to automate various labor-intensive processes and solve the complexities that come with an eCommerce business.

What does your typical work day look like?

I usually start my day at 6.30 am, and I like spending some time on my balcony to set the tone of the day right. I try to catch up on the latest news while having my breakfast before I start my work day.

Working at Tecstub

“At TecStub we follow Agile methodology for software development that involves meetings such as stand-up, retrospective and refinement. All these meetings help us stay organised and keep a track of our progress. My day is usually packed with meetings where we connect with our team, discuss the progress, and create the plan for subsequent development modules.

I typically start my work at 9:30 am. The first thing is to check Slack and emails to get an update on the tasks for the day. I also login to Jira and accordingly create my plan for the day and note anything I need to discuss with my team.

At 10 am, we have our daily stand-up meeting where each development team member briefs about what they are working on and discusses any issues that might be blocking the progress. In case of any road blockers, we devise a plan to resolve them. The regular stand-up meetings are quick and last for about 15 minutes.

After this, I start coding, and at about 1 pm, I take a break and have my lunch. During this time, I try to unwind by indulging in reading a book or checking the news.

At 3 pm we have our refinement meeting, where we plan our upcoming development modules.

When I work from the office, we usually have a mini tea break at 4 pm accompanied by some chit-chat and snacks.

And then, as the day ends, I note any critical things and log the tasks in Jira and I sign off. After work, I spend time with my family relaxing and scrolling through my phone or reading a book.”

Signing off

One thing that working with his team has taught Kushal is the joy of the little things and how a good company culture can positively impact one’s overall growth. As the saying goes, “Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life”. The flexibility, autonomy and culture of excellence at Tecstub has played a significant role in his personal and professional growth.

We are glad to have Kushal as a part of our team, and we hope he keeps thriving in his role and reaching new heights.

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Sneha Suryawanshi is a Quality Analyst at TecStub and belongs to Islampur, a city in Maharashtra. She has been working in this field for the past two years and joined the engineering team at TecStub a few months ago. When she is not creating bug reports, she loves to read, cook, and spend time with her daughter.

We connected with Sneha to take us through a day in her life, and here is what she shared with us :  

Your role at TecStub 

At TecStub, I work as a Quality Analyst Engineer. My role entails writing test scenarios, creating test cases, and doing manual testing. I am currently working on a B2B eCommerce web solution managing more than 5000+ orders everyday. The development team is constantly adding new functionalities to meet customer requirements. I test the new features, ensure they are free from bugs, and deliver the right results. Since B2B eCommerce is complex, where businesses make bulk purchases with high order values, and several entities are involved in a single transaction, my role becomes quite crucial and challenging. 

When I write test scenarios, I need to consider all the entities involved, such as the customers, the warehouse, logistics, inventory, and suppliers. The idea is to think from the end user’s perspective and see how the customers’ will come in and out of the application during their journey and ensuring they get a great experience.

What kind of work do you do and how do you work? 

My day usually starts at 6 am when I wake up, sip on warm water, go for a brisk morning walk and spend some time reading a book. After that, I prepare breakfast and lunch, feed my daughter, and have breakfast before starting my work at 9 am. 

Starting work early means I can get accurate updates for our stand-up meeting. Our team has been following agile for quite some time now, and we have daily scrum meeting at 10 am. I share updates about my work, brief the team about what is yet to be done, and discuss any roadblocks that my team or I might be facing.  

The B2B eCommerce project I am engaged in recently acquired a new business. So, we are working on merging the products from both companies and making them available for our end customers. New warehouses are set up to accommodate and manage the new inventory, so my current work focuses on testing the module created for integrating the new stocks into our system. 

The inventory brought into the new warehouse is called a consignment and below steps are followed to complete the integration process: 

• Creating the consignment

• Adding/editing the products

• Verifying the consignment details 

• Delivering 

I have to perform a series of tests for each step to ensure that the product details, quantity, and destination are always accurate.  The complete process is data intensive and comes with several checkpoints and test scenarios at each stage. A minor error in the quantity or the target warehouse can lead to issues in serving customer orders and huge revenue losses which explains the crticality of my role. For executing the test cases, I use the Zephyr plugin in Jira. I use Jmeter for load testing to ensure that the web application can manage high demand during peak hours and promptly serve customers.

I work until 1 pm and then take a lunch break. At 2.30 pm, we have our backlog refinement meeting, where we discuss the progress, refine backlog and define acceptance criterias for the features going in the upcoming sprint. Since software development is a continuous process, we ensure that the team is always in the progress loop and there are no roadblocks due to inefficient communication. Second half also involves connecting with the developers to ty and pin down the root cause of a bug or understanding a feature in detail.

After a packed schedule of meetings and work, I log off from work at 6.30 pm. After this, I have some playtime with my daughter before I head to take over my kitchen duties and prepare dinner for the family.

What do you like the most about working at TecStub? 

Since I am a working mom, the work flexibility at TecStub allows me to balance my work and responsibilities as a mother. On the work front, TecStub’s core expertise lies in creating digital commerce solutions, a challenging domain that gives vast opportunities to learn and experiment. There is nothing more fulfilling in my work than delivering a great quality solution to our customers and knowing how crucial my role is for making this happen. 

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