Ecommerce in High Gear with Nowma, a Strategic Ally
Estimated reading time: 9 Min
Nowma is a rare bird—a relatively small marketing agency that delivers big results. It is guided by a philosophy of customer care and attention, while also understanding the importance of educating clients to achieve the best outcomes.
And although its world—marketing—is all about selling other people's strengths, they are incredibly aware of their own weaknesses and have managed, with a wisdom that contrasts with their youth, to team up with strategic allies to power their business.
Cubbo is proud to count among these allies, and today we have the pleasure of sharing a bit of Nowma's story. To do so, we spoke with Jose Manuel Nosti Quintero, its founder.
Frank: Let's start at the beginning. How and why was Nowma born?
Jose Manuel: I am the founder and I also have a business partner. Nowma was born because I spent three years working at a very large agency—McCann Erickson—and then at a boutique agency.
At that boutique agency I had the opportunity to learn everything about operations and business. From there I decided to launch my own venture and connect with my partner. In 2022 we celebrated our third anniversary.
Frank: What makes Nowma different as a marketing agency?
Jose Manuel: My partner worked at Netflix in Los Angeles about six or seven years ago, right when Netflix hit its stride, and she has enormous know-how in trends, post-production, and the creative side. I think that is one of our biggest differentiators compared to other agencies: we have a very strong creative side. That is why we have developed very successful campaigns.
I know very well that there are thousands of agencies, but another strong point that makes us different is the absolute dedication we have to the client. I worked at a mega agency, then at a boutique agency and at a family business, and I brought from those experiences the discipline and the knowledge that the client must be listened to, that you must be there for them, that you must help, guide, and accompany the client at all times. That does not mean we will do every whim—on the contrary, we always seek to educate the client and help them be more efficient. But it does mean that if work has to be done on a weekend, it gets done.
And the last major competitive difference of Nowma is the team. We are a team defined by two characteristics: young people who are extremely well prepared. We run a very rigorous selection process and then we help and encourage continuous training for our team. Because we are results-oriented, we have to present the client with realities, facts, and achieved objectives—and for that you need a well-prepared professional team.
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Lessons from experience
Jose Manuel learned from his marketing experience across two very different spectrums: a global mega marketing agency, the famous McCann Erickson, and a boutique agency. From this mixed experience, Nowma was born.
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Frank: How did you get to Cubbo?
Jose Manuel: Nowma is an agency that started focused on digital strategies and social media management. However, with the pandemic we had a huge flow of clients looking for management of their ecommerce through Shopify. That is how we arrived at Cubbo.
We came to Cubbo because we had clients who asked us not only to handle their ecommerce from a marketing perspective, but also to manage the site, including logistics and final delivery. We did not have much experience in logistics and decided to look for an ally that would ensure effective operations and let us step back from that area, knowing logistics would be in the best hands.
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Turning crises into opportunities
Nowma has a remote-work format that has helped them stay 100% operational, even during the hardest moments of the Covid crisis.
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Frank: How has working during the pandemic been? It has all been about the ecommerce boom, right?
Jose Manuel: Yes. Totally. Clients have mostly been ecommerce. And we have achieved it largely through word of mouth. We have a sister agency called Getmore, with Alejandro Moreno, with whom we have an operational alliance similar to the one we have with Cubbo as well. That is how clients who need marketing support and services reach us from them, and we provide the solutions.
Frank: How do these alliances work—can you tell us a bit more? It is very interesting to see how Nowma has created an ecosystem of allies in a win-win format for everyone.
Jose Manuel: Yes, exactly. Getmore builds stores—Shopify ecommerce—but they do not do marketing or drive traffic, because that is a different area. That is where we come in: we do the marketing and help those stores start selling.
There is also symbiosis, synergy at many levels. For example, sometimes Alejandro and the Getmore team recover or create a basic store for a client in a difficult situation and pass them to us. We increase their traffic and sales. And when their profile improves, when their profitability increases, we send them back to Getmore so they can now build a more optimized and powerful store.
We have developed that same ally principle for growing businesses with Cubbo as well.
Nowma and Cubbo: a results partnership
That flexibility and naturally cooperative spirit that Nowma has resides precisely at the heart of its alliance with Cubbo. As Jose Manuel explains, many clients who came to this marketing agency also faced problems managing their online stores. In other words, beyond having difficulties with the marketing of their ecommerce, these clients did not know how, could not, or preferred others with more experience to help or manage their ecommerce for them.
Among the management tasks, there was one area where Nowma had no practical experience: logistics. That is why they sought support from an ally that delivers results and acts with integrity, because Nowma's clients were all active stores that needed to keep going and increase sales. There was no room for error here. And in that world of results, Nowma came to Cubbo.
Frank: Explain a bit what exactly Cubbo has brought you.
Jose Manuel: Through these clients for whom we offered ecommerce management services, we ran into the problem of how to handle logistics. The reality is that it made no sense for us to start doing logistics ourselves, nor did we want to. So we looked for an ally, a partner, that would provide a complete solution. Cubbo was the answer.
Also read: D&C Home, conquering Colombia with efficient logistics
Frank: So Cubbo handles the full ecommerce logistics for you—is that correct?
Jose Manuel: Yes, for the ecommerce stores we have placed in Cubbo's hands, they do everything. This is ideal because we can focus on what we really know how to do: helping the ecommerce increase sales and build its brand. And we know the operational side is well taken care of.
At the marketing level we offer results, and therefore at the logistics level we also look for results. That is why we are partners with Cubbo—because they deliver results.
Frank: Was there something you required from Cubbo as a mandatory condition to work with them?
Jose Manuel: Yes. When we started with them we asked them to do something they were not doing yet. We needed the logistics service for our clients. In other words, Cubbo had to handle logistics for us, in our name, without creating any problem or disruption for us. That was the idea. And they did it.
And something else happened with them that surprised me a lot. When I looked for Cubbo I knew what a logistics company was, but I never imagined a logistics company could offer me the same services and the same quality that Amazon offers an end user: that they could prepare kits on request, bundles or specific product packages in each order, that same-day delivery was possible, that we and our clients would have tracking with messages on our phones telling us your order has shipped, is on the way, has been delivered, etc. It was a very pleasant surprise to see the level of technology and solutions at Cubbo.
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Recognition for their quality
Nowma has earned its place in the marketing world through hard work, and among its clients it counts prominent brands such as Grisi, two Four Seasons hotels, and Cali Rosa tequila, a brand owned by Adam Levine, lead singer of Maroon 5
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Frank: What is your market? Obviously Mexico, but you also have brands or ecommerce abroad.
Jose Manuel: Well, in fact most of our campaigns and ad spend are on the East and West Coast in the United States, because we have several U.S. clients. Our target market is in all border states with Mexico and in the United States.
But we have also had clients in Colombia and in other regions of Latin America. Today you can have your company in Colombia and your marketing agency in Mexico perfectly. This opens up many opportunities to have capable marketing allies and does not restrict you to one region.
Frank: I suppose that flexibility to penetrate any market helped you a bit during the start of the pandemic, right?
Jose Manuel: The truth is that for us the pandemic was very hard at first. At the beginning of the pandemic we were really affected because we worked with many physical stores that were car dealerships: Ford, Honda, Toyota, etc. We had Mexico's largest car dealer group with us. And when their stores closed, it was really bad. We had to reduce the company by 70%.
During that early pandemic period and with the first lockdowns, with physical stores closed, many clients paused social media campaigns. Because they thought: why keep campaigns running and spending if in the end you cannot sell. We also had many restaurant clients who were closed.
It was in 2020 that we started with the ecommerce side. And at the beginning of 2021 we started to see a very interesting surge because we offered other services and reached several clients belonging to very large companies—for example the Grisi case, where we started with one of their brands and now we have 11. And we grew from there. Today we are doing better than pre-pandemic.
Also read: Camita Bienestar, delivering pet products in hours
Frank: What advice would you give an entrepreneur reading this?
Jose Manuel: Do not be afraid. I know it sounds very cliché, very classic. But it is very important. Not being afraid is what has allowed all the successful companies and people we know to succeed.
Everyone started from zero. And when I say do not be afraid I do not mean jump in blindly. I think you have to be very organized and learn from your mistakes, but you need to try. Another piece of advice would be that if you have the opportunity to do A/B testing before launching your business, that would be very good. I think doing that lets you invest little money, research, and see if there is really a market need for your product.
Because your product can be amazing, it can be very cheap, it can have the best branding and taste delicious, but if there is no need, it is dead. Or at least without a very clear customer journey, it will be complex and much longer term.
Looking for an ally to power your delivery process, fulfillment, and customer satisfaction? Do not hesitate to contact us—we are the best fulfillment center for ecommerce in Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil. Just click here.
During 2021 at Cubbo:
* Our clients recorded 21% savings in operating costs
* 97.1% of products received were processed and ready to sell within 24 hours.
* We achieved a 99.7% shipping fulfillment rate
* We recorded order preparation accuracy of 99.9875%, that is, 1 error every 8,000 shipments.
* 60% of our deliveries in Mexico City were made the same day
* We made nationwide deliveries in 1.3 days on average
