Digital commerce company Vaimo recently expanded its membership from Epicenter Stockholm to Epicenter Helsinki. We had a chat with their Country Manager Marko Rytkönen, who has been working at Vaimo since its first steps in Finland ten years ago. He explained how digital commerce has been embraced by the majority of companies in the past decade.

Vaimo was founded in 2008 in Sweden. It has grown from a 3-person start-up to a global digital commerce partner. Currently, Vaimo employs 600 people across 15 countries.

“Since the beginning, the idea of Vaimo has stayed the same. We are at the heart of digital commerce and customer experience, and that is what we still do today”, Marko Rytkönen explains.

Hence the company name Vaimo.

“The founders have a Swedish Sámi background, and the word vaimo means heart in Sámi. It’s a funny coincidence that in Finnish it also means wife”, Rytkönen describes.

Vaimo landed in Finland 10 years ago through a merger. Currently there are 65 ‘vaimoers’ in three offices in Helsinki, Jyväskylä, and Oulu.

Vaimo invests a lot in their company culture, and has even put it in a culture book -format which is publicly available at their career site. Vaimoers are keen on learning new skills and developing both professionally and personally, which is also the core of Epicenter. Their decision to move in was easy when the suitable space became available.

“We liked the Epicenter central location and the atmosphere. The service was excellent and we loved the sense of community. I’m looking forward to all the upcoming training and events”, Rytkönen says.

Experience is the king across channels

In the first years of its existence, Vaimo was focused mainly on technology in e-commerce. In the beginning, many companies did not necessarily even have an online store.

“At that time, our customers were looking for the technology for the first time and we were a lot more focused on training the basics of e-commerce and technology. Nowadays companies are already aware that the digital experience is as important as the physical one. Many customers are already in the second round – updating, renewing or changing the original technology. They invest in the digital environment with a business-driven mindset”, Rytkönen continues.

As digital commerce has progressed rapidly in the last ten years, the emphasis on Vaimo’s business has naturally shifted towards a more strategic approach. Today, Vaimo is more of a strategic partner than a technology house.

“The digital business is growing and getting even more experience focused. As online shopping has multiplied during the pandemic, it was the last push for many companies to realize that they should invest in an online store or invest even more in the existing one’s customer experience. The consumers don’t hesitate to vote with their feet or their keyboard if the customer experience is not great”, Rytkönen describes.

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Vaimo is launching new groundbreaking services

Vaimo is expanding their portfolio – the new year will bring new products and new services.

“Our offering and team will be significantly increased and even wider in competence in analytics, product management, and business development. Next year, our customers will receive even more comprehensive services from us”, summarizes Rytkönen, and continues:

“Together with our strategic partners, we are going to invite some of our potential and current clients to a digital commerce focused event here at Epicenter, where we will launch our new trailblazing service. It’s great that there is an opportunity to organize your own events inside the office building.”

Rytkönen believes that we are moving towards a multi-channel world.

“One big question is, how to get the customer experience working between different touch points combining the physical and the virtual world. We have woken up to this thematically and started investing in a different way than before”, he outlines.

Being so deeply entwined in the virtual world, it’s no wonder that Vaimo and other digital commerce players are the first ones to implement new technological possibilities.

“To some extent, AI and AR can be seen as our everyday companions. For example, AI-based intelligent search engines and product recommendation engines have already been available for several years. 3D buying and trying out products online is coming and they will certainly become more common in the near future”, Rytkönen predicts.

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