Hey, so I think it's going to go, it's going back right now.
It's going to go towards impersonal perfect.
Yeah, it's going to go to human driven again because it, it, it
looks too fake. It's it's not real People like
they like to buy from people. They don't like to buy from
corporations. Hello and welcome to the Retail
Podcast. I've got a big smile on my face
because we've got an authentic, real show for you.
Do they don't that the others aren't authentic or real?
It's just already, from the few minutes that we've had before
they're the start of the show, I could tell that we're in for a
treat today. And we're lucky enough to be
joined by Dave Munson, who's the founder and CEO and president of
Saddleback Leather. Hopefully, Dave, that's correct.
I've got that right. Well, you couldn't have got it
wrong. That Lady was all Yeah.
We'll take that as a win. And also I'm joined by Senior
Director of Brand and Content Marketing, Melissa Dixon from
Big Commerce. Hi Alex, Thanks for having me.
Absolute pleasure. So what we're going to do is
traditionally when we talk about e-commerce and digital,
sometimes I think people get lost in this sort of where's the
customer, right? Where is the person we're doing
all of this for? And so for me to have the
opportunity to have Someone Like You, Dave, who has gone through
the journey of not only have you got beautiful products, but you
also have bought those beautiful products online.
And if you haven't had a chance, please go and have a look at
Saddleback's website. Their, their products are
beautiful. And I'm, I'm hopefully, you
know, once I'm in the US, I'll be getting online and getting
myself a satchel or something. But anyway, the relationship
between e-commerce and product sometimes gets lost.
And So what I'd like to do is spend some time with Dave
talking about his journey on, you know, the the challenges
that he faced as a the CEO president of this brand that's
growing every year, going from strength to strength.
But it's not always easy and there are challenges and you
have to overcome that. And then we'll focus with big
commerce in terms of how they help Saddleback.
We will start with Saddleback first and then we'll come to
you, if that's okay. Melissa, absolutely perfect.
Thank you. So Dave, I was just talking
there about the the challenges in terms of Saddleback leather
and and what you face from an e-commerce perspective as your
store group. Can you just sort of shine a
light on that for us? What did that look?
Like so when I started Saddleback, I started selling
pretty consistently in 2003. And so website, my website was
eBay, Yeah, and. Then at least then that's run
off people. I should, we should have laughed
cause some people do pay, yeah? And then, you know, I just
thought, well, if you just have a website, people just start
coming to it. And.
But I didn't know about, you know, all of the technical
things. A friend of mine made him.
Yeah, kind of like a, it was like a third grade extra credit
project website. And it was kind of working.
There were a lot of websites, you know, then and as as many,
you know, and, and it was everything is more pure.
And so. Yeah.
Then we got onto different platforms and we finally came to
big commerce and had needed an, ER, full ERP.
We've tried somewhere else. I don't want to disparage the
awful and horrible company that I was with before that was.
Cool. Oh my gosh.
And so, but we found big commerce and and we tied that in
with Acumatica. They tie in real nicely and it's
just so everyone so easy. Everyone's just like.
So that's been really helpful to have something you can use.
We had a space shuttle before and there 1000 switches
everywhere and I didn't know which ones did what.
And this is just there are 1000 switches.
But that just though like fly go forward to go backwards.
It's, it's, it's really simple to you.
So we really enjoyed. That's really helped us out a
lot that when that when there's so much stuff, it's like having
data, when there's so much data, you don't know what to do with
any of it. Got you.
It's low. Just the the most important
thing to write in front and that's that simplifying our
business was, is, is what's been helpful.
Did you see obviously the products and, and when we put
the video out, I'll have some footage of your products so
people can actually, you know, keep talking about your
products, But ultimately for me, it's about feel about smell
about the look of these products, right.
So how, what what was going through your mind when you were
sort of crafting the E the customer experience online, you
know, tailoring your e-commerce platform to meet?
I think they are unique demands. I, I guess you and perfumes, you
know, in, in the sense that you want people to smell stuff, but
you want to buy them online. How did you, what did that look
like for you in terms of these tools that you've mentioned?
How did you create that seamless shopping experience?
Yeah. So what I found is that if
people like you, then they will buy from you.
People when they walk into a church for example, within the
1st 5 minutes they'll they'll decide whether they're going to
come back or not. And we have when they come on to
the website to let people know what you're all about and with
the textures of the website, the colours of the website, the the
great and glorious front photo, we don't, we don't have a
carousel going around because only we found only 1% of people
click on that. But we want the happy smiley
place. This is where I want to be.
That's me right there. I want that in my life.
Go, you get that. And then they go look around for
something that they want to buy. We want them.
So we're very relational. So we want warmth.
We love people. We really, really love people.
And so we want warmth. We want to let them get to know
us. So I have our Saddleback story,
which is a really interesting business story, how we start it.
That's kind of our highlight. So we highlight my dog.
The the story of my dog blew in every eyes when they read it.
And so we try to make it real personal and warm and swear they
go, I like these people. There's something about them
that I like, tell stories. So because we're only online,
they can't smell it, you know, they can't paste it, lick it,
then nothing. So it is like you want to do all
of that. So, so yeah, we have to make it
warm and personable. And that's, that's our our key.
That's what we strive after all the time.
Dave, do you, I, if you don't mind, I should have done this
right up front. Could you?
It's just when you said the story, I, because I've spent
some time on your website, I've just taken for granted listening
some of the watches of this have all been to your website and
they've seen your story and you know about how your, how you,
how it all came to life for you. Would you mind just taking us
through that? Just if you don't mind, just
like, just spend a few minutes of bringing that bit to life.
Yeah, sure. So, so I was teaching English
down in Mexico in 1999 and I, I was 28 and I thought, and I
thought I need a bag, you know, to carry around my school book,
books. And I walked everywhere.
I think I had like a jet sport backpack or something from
college. And so I thought, what would
Indiana Jones carry? And so that guy's a man and, you
know, and everyone I bought a whip when after I saw the movie,
I went to Mexico and I have Tijuana and bought a whip from
the, the market there. And I was like, OK.
And so I looked around for a bag, couldn't find one like the
one I I had in my head. And I didn't know that I liked
designing at the time. I just knew that I, I, I thought
everyone could see things in their head like that.
So, so I found a guy making bags and I said, hey, could you make
up this bag? If, if I sketch it out and I
don't want any breakable parts. And so, you know, our slogan is
they'll fight over it when you're dead.
But I didn't have it yet. I just said, you know, when I'm
dead and, and the grandkids are rummaging through my office and
they're fighting over things, I want them to fight over this
bag. Oh, wow.
And so, and so, yeah, he made it in 1999.
And then when I got back to the up to Portland, OR where I'm
from, people were four or five times a day asking me, excuse
me, Sir, where can I find a bag like that?
That is amazing. Where can I get one or where can
I get 1? And I thought, hey, so I, I
mean, I was a youth pastor. So I thought, I thought, hey,
this would support my, my youth work and I wouldn't have to
raise money. I wouldn't have to get a job.
I can go anywhere. So I, I started having some more
made, I moved to Juarez, Mexico with my black lab.
Yeah. And we slept in a little 300, no
$100 a month apartment on the floor, no air conditioning, no
heat, just on the floor for three years.
And all the money I was saving though, I was sending down
putting it into the Bank of his father and son.
They would send bags up on the bus to to the Juarez bus station
and then I would get them and take them to El Paso.
And I sold them on A at a friend's mechanic shop at night
on eBay. And in 2006 I was in Panama
doing some photos of the bag and a suitcase that I had and and I
met my wife on Myspace. I checked.
Myspace. Oh my.
Goodness, I was like oh hubba hubba, shoot pretty.
So started talking, flew to San Antonio, TX and started kissing.
And next thing you know, we got married and just a few months
later. And then nine months and 15
minutes later, we had our little daughter.
And we, yeah, just been a in 2008, we started the factory in
Mexico where all day memories are.
And it's, oh, it's this beautiful part of the country
and but tanneries everywhere and everyone knows leather shoe
manufacturing capital. And so we started the factory
there because no one cares about your, your stuff as much as you
do. So we, we started making our own
things and it's just been growing ever since.
And we just celebrated 16 years with our own factory.
Oh, wow, last month. No, no, this earlier this month.
And so we have a lot of the original employees now we have a
school with a, a school there. It's an all English homeschool
curriculum. So for all of the kids of the
employees to give them a English is a big, huge deal.
And we have marriage classes and parenting classes and we have
counselling because we love our people.
And so ministry never stopped. I just used to be with youth,
but it just continued on in a different way with our people at
the factory. So.
That's fantastic and it actually lends itself to the sort of the
question. So as you've gone on this
journey, if I, if I understand this quickly, you've always sold
online, is that is that correct? Exclusively online, yes.
And so obviously we were in focus on your previous provider
who was who was a very tough experience for you and they'll
and you were with eBay. Can you just tell me in what do
you look for then? Because you must have some, I
don't know, secret Spidey sense that tells you that these are
the sorts of in order to improve the website.
I mean, I know you said you use data for the carousel, for
example. You know, you weren't getting a
lot of clicks and carousels. So that's not where we're going
to focus. How do you decide on where you
are focusing? So on conversion rate, because
the goal of a business is to make money.
Like if you don't make money, then if you can't leave the
company to making money, then at the end of the year, then who
cares? All of the activities you do if
you don't make money. So it's a lot easier to get to
convert more of the customers that you already get to the
website than to get more, more people to the website.
So working on viral videos and all of that sort of thing.
That's that's nice and everything.
And do an NCO that that helps get more customers in.
Yeah, once they get there, if you can, you go from 2% to 4%
and you just doubled your sales for the whole year.
Yeah, holy cow. And so split testing and doing
all kinds of just what, what? So we're looking at marketing.
We go, yeah, we go what, what videos will help people to make
a decision today and we work on what will have the most impact
for which product. So we look and which colour.
And so for a flight back, for example, one of our briefcases,
which is the best colour and then we'll go on that colour and
then we'll do a video explaining and taking all the questions
that customer service asks gets asked about it so that people
don't ask customer service and they, and it's really easy,
easy, easy. So that's where we focus is more
on conversion rate than anything else.
This is one of the questions that I'm I'm sort of just made
me think of in terms of your digital touch points through or
your path to purchase like the, the mission that people go
through your store. You mentioned data earlier.
Do you feel that you have enough data now on the bringing the
invisible and making that visible as people go through
your store? Are you happy with that level of
visibility that you have now? You know, it's always changes.
It's always changing. I, you know, when the iPads
first came out, someone, one of my friends said, dude, you'd
crush it if you had an iPad case.
I mean, there's nothing out there.
There's like you would do so well.
And I go, it was like the iPad 2 and I go, but I do have an iPad
case. He goes, no, you don't.
I looked at all of your website and I couldn't find it.
And so I made it visible. I made it like on the top
navigation iPad cases got you sold thousands of them.
Yeah, totally right. Sold thousands.
So it's my fault if, if I can't, if I, it's not their fault that
they just they're too dumb or something to find it.
It's that I had 7 drop downs to get to it.
Yeah. And so, so yeah, no, that's,
that's a big deal. People finding and a lot of
things they don't know that they need it.
Yeah. Like we have this little, this
little serving little tray here, little ballet tray.
OK all. Yeah, yeah.
And and pipes and cigar cutters and stuff and no one.
I didn't know I needed it until I got till I designed it.
It was like, holy cow, it is awesome.
And now, yeah, we sell oodles of them, but people don't know they
they need it until they find it. So part of the really thinking
through and of course thinking through what, what is the most
profitable. Also, our trunk is not very
profitable, but it's, you know, $5900.
But I would rather sell this little serving little ballet
tray all day long over a trunk because I more profitable.
The data I use is, is which pieces are more profitable.
So at the end of the year, if I focus on which briefcase, which
duffel bag, I focus on, not necessarily trying to show
everything to everyone because they can't see it all.
I got you. Well, I mean, again, we're
coming up to hopefully this episode will be out in the next
couple of weeks. I think it'll probably be out
next week. So it'll be well in the, you
know, Christmas period. Christmas people are Christmas
shopping. I'm just curious the data that
you use for colours and again, because you've been doing this
for so long, where are you, what, what, what's sort of
driving that for you? And do you see any trends for
this Christmas that you think, you know, I don't know, there's
a colour that's really from your website, you're pulling that
insight and then that's going to go into your holiday season,
marketing or e-commerce? Yeah, so we used to do
snowflakes going, coming down on our website, you know, Yeah,
you'd absolutely, I'm hearing yeah, little, but all of those
little details make it like holly around around the the our
logo. It slows down our our load time
a little bit, but it just makes people smile.
If you can make people smile and Yep, and have warmth and have
smiley pictures of people smiling, they're happy they're
with other people. That's what everyone wants.
So like this leather right here, it's a has a warmth to it as
opposed to like a a greyish brown.
It just feels warmth. Fireplaces Reds will have a lot
of Reds in Christmassy red. Everyone just likes red.
So warmer, warmer colours. Red's not serious.
Yeah, I think people like warmth.
Got you. When you when you look to the
future of e-commerce, do you see any major?
Do you, I mean, I'm, I'm asking you to look into your looking
glass. Well, what do you see the major
trends? I see it's gonna swing from just
I I think it's gonna swing away from no personality to heavy.
It's gonna go back. Right now it's it's swinging
towards AI driven content. Yeah.
And every word is perfect and it flows like perfectly.
Everything's perfect. But that's not real life.
Yeah, well, don't make mistakes. People make mistakes.
People use commas and and they they're live and they maybe
ramble a little. So I think it's going to go,
it's going back right now. It's going to go towards
impersonal perfect. It's going to go to human driven
again because it, it, it looks too fake.
It's it's not real people like they like to buy from people.
They don't like to buy from corporations and so I think it's
going to go back to very being very personal and and less
corporate. OK.
So it's, it's really, really interesting.
We're obviously we're talking about Christmas and, and the,
and the holiday season in general because it's let's look
at it as a festive season with the economy and the backdrop of
the economy. I know we've got the election in
a couple of weeks, but life is still tough for for a lot of
people out there. I'm just curious how you go
about your pricing strategy. Your you mentioned about your
profit strategy, if you like, you know, selling the trays over
the the big suitcase or or trunk, that's what you call it
trunk. I'm just curious what how do you
decide especially in like a tough economy where, where
people are very price or yeah price conscious?
Yeah. So we found 299 is it?
You'll sell way more at 299 than you will at 300.
So as in like two 299 not 299? $299 you.
Sell 9290. Nine.
Yeah, right. Candy bar now, yeah.
But two. Yeah, 299.
Yeah. Someone will, someone will buy
something. It's kind of a a spontaneous so.
Well, they have been good to be this year.
I'll get something like that. But 319, 329, anything over
that, it starts getting like, think about it, it's height
right now. Do I really need this?
But with retail therapy, I'm sad, I'm depressed, I don't feel
good. Everything's tough.
I haven't had any luxury in my life.
What the heck, I'm going to buy something and they want to feel
nice. And so when people and when so
we we are promoting selling. Our average order value went
down this year over prior years, this year and last year over the
years before because we started focusing on selling lower, I
started designing lower dollar pieces, still high quality.
We didn't lower quality at all, but things that bring people
joy. So I would rather sell 1010
little ballet trays than sell 11 briefcase.
And it's easier to sell 10 little ballet trays than one
briefcase. I got all.
And so, so we've been promoting lower dollar, still high
quality, lower dollar stuff to our people and it's been
successful. That's phenomenal.
So. So something for everyone, as
they would say. Yes.
Right. OK, fantastic.
Melissa, I know that big commerce does a lot of research
for the holiday season and you, you must have so much back end
data that you you have. I'm just curious what what types
of trends are you seeing for this 2024 holiday season?
Yeah, well, I, I wish I had all the data.
We have a lot, a couple things are really standing out.
So first and foremost, you know, we always talk about, oh, it
seems like the holidays start earlier every year.
They do, you know, I think we've seen this for a couple years
now, but retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Target, they're rolling
out, you know, huge shopping events in October.
So that's really a standout thing.
We also know that I believe it was, I think it's NRS reported
that nearly half, like 45% of holiday shoppers plan to buy
items before November. I mean, we're almost in November
now. So I, I, it's likely, you know,
held true. But I think, I think what that
means for these brands and retailers is that kind of just
like Dave said, holiday sales, pricing, promotions, discounts,
they remain essential to incentivize shoppers in this
season. So Cyber Week also, those five
days between Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, those are still
huge. It's still the biggest shopping
week of the year. We see that with our big
commerce customers, the broader industry trends reflect that.
So it's really important for these brands and retailers to
sort of strike a balance between the early promotions and also
the big like traditional holiday deals.
So basically just the span of the holiday season is longer
than it used to be. So that's a big one that that
has a really notable impact on on shopping trends.
And then also another one worth calling out, I think is the
increased demand for flexible payment options.
Like that's huge. Dave spoke a lot about check out
and that is that's critical. So we're talking about things
like digital wallets, the NPL, and that's buy now, pay later,
even crypto, You know, I would say all of those are key.
Buy now, pay later has really interesting data around it.
The most recent forecast that I read, which I think was in
August, the US buy now pay later market is projected to reach 94
billion this year and then exceed 100 billion in 2025.
This is massive and it's, you know, it's not for every
shopper, it's not for every business, but it's important to
see how these trends are growing because really the overarching,
the overarching trend is the need for flexibility.
So either it's BNPL or whether it's digital wallets, it's all
about making sure that your customers have the options that
they want. And then the last standout trend
that I'll really mention this should come as no surprise to
anybody, but mobile commerce is just keeps going up.
Like I, I was looking at, I think I use E marketer a lot to
pull data and six in 10 US consumers are using mobile
wallets to make payments this year.
So mobile is, is just on the rise.
And that's of course going to be crucial for, for the holiday
season. In fact, I don't know if you, if
you recall this Alex or Dave, but last year, last holiday
season was the first year that mobile sales overall surpassed
desktop. That's a big deal.
You know, it, that was just last year.
It was, it was the first year that we did that.
So that it was 51% last year. It's projected to be 53% this
year. So what that means is that
having that mobile friendly experiences is absolutely a
must. So that's, you know, mobile
friendly design, smooth navigation, a layout that
basically works seamlessly on any screen.
Melissa, I've got a question about that.
I'm sorry, interrupting. Sure.
Do you have that by category or like are people buying yachts on
their on their phone or are they buying like is it, is it skirts?
I mean, yeah. So.
Really, what is it? Yeah.
So definitely look at, if you're interested, look at like NRF
data, they always have, they always have the best.
And then there's also Salesforce and Adobe for our big commerce
data. And in the broader industry
trends, what we're seeing is that people are becoming more
and more comfortable buying those big purchases.
So whereas in the beginning, maybe pre pandemic, it was, you
know, mostly just fashion or small goods, we're starting to
see the industry starting to see larger purchases becoming more
common on mobile. People got more comfortable with
it during COVID, and now across generations, they're starting to
embrace it. So yeah, it's really interesting
to watch. So those are a few of the key
trends that we really see. And of course, you know, I mean,
retailers are still gonna have their fair share of challenges
like every year talked about economic uncertainty,
macroeconomics, you know, and they're still always planning
for traffic surges and demand. But I think that what it all
comes down to whether you're whether you're leveraging, you
know, some of the latest technologies, whether you're
adhering to these trends, trying to apply them to your business.
It's really about during the holiday season, I think just
having that clear communication with your shoppers to manage
their expectations and just, you know, telling them, telling them
when things are going to arrive. Having really clear best sellers
like you talked about Dave with the iPad case, like that's a
perfect example. And make sure your site's
optimised for search and, you know, merchandising and having
your best sellers out there communicating those discounts
and just strong communication throughout.
If you were going to make a list, I say the top five things
for the trends that you're saying that I need to be getting
my business aware of or ready for trading or the holiday
season. Well, I say five.
Maybe it could be less, it could be more, but I'm just curious
what, what are those features that I need on my e-commerce
site to hit those? Yeah, great question.
I would argue that in a lot of the data back to the sub, Dave,
you, you kind of spoke to this too.
Check out is the most critical point, right?
And you want to remove all friction.
So I would say overall it's the checkout experience.
Now a huge piece of that is having the flexible payment
options. So for example, we at Big
Commerce, we just launched Fast Lane by PayPal.
That's a good example of one. We're actually, I, I love how
Big Commerce is always innovating with payments too.
And with our partners, we were actually the first e-commerce
platform to launch Fast Lane by PayPal.
So that's really exciting 'cause we're trying to stay on the
forefront for our customers so that they can deliver the best
experience to their customers. So check out and payments is in
in my mind and based on everyone I've spoken to and all the
number one absolutely hands down.
These like Fast Lane are really interesting because it's just
this immediate purchase where you know, you don't have to put
in any information. These are just things that
during the holiday season especially, people have a lot of
shopping to do and don't want the friction.
So I would say payments and checkout are #1 I would also say
that I do think optimising for mobile is huge.
It a must and if you know there may be delays like people may
have put things off like we're seeing now that like I was just
saying if mobile purchases or eclipsing desktop this is no
longer a nice to have. I was just talking to one of our
customers actually leading a panel on mobile commerce last
week. One of our customers homedics,
great brand and the the woman that I was speaking with was
talking about the fold does not exist.
You know, for so many years we lived by this idea of the fold
and merchandising and now it's, you know, it's obsolete.
So designing for any device, especially mobile forward is be
great. I think too there's also, I
would say what's also paramount and this, this is not a trend,
but just the direction of e-commerce and commerce in
general is just optimising for Omni channel commerce and the
connectivity between channels. I mean, that's, that's huge.
You know, we have a big commerce, one of the ways that
we're helping people. We have our subsidiary brand
Feedinomics, which for many is like a feed management solution,
which is so fantastic. And I, I just want to, this is
one that I just want to like scream it from the rooftops
because I'm like, wait a second, why isn't everybody using this?
It's basically what it does is like harmonises your product
data across all your channels. It automates and optimises your
product catalogue to ensure that your product listings are
showing up accurately and optimise across all these
channels. Everything like marketplaces,
social, you know, your website ads like anywhere.
So that means your products are that much more discoverable.
And implication is then you know, you're reaching more
people, you're making more sales.
So I think Omni channel connectivity is is another one
that's paramount. And yeah, Wilson to us for five.
I'll keep going. I mean, I do think that AI
powered functionality like there's there are so many use
cases that are so much broader than people even realise that
you just give brands the the competitive edge.
But, you know, I think there's tools like Cleveland Bloomreach
and search string that like analyse browser behaviour and
provide tailored product searches and personalised
merchandising and recommendations.
Like, you know, that's, that's different, that's a different
thing than using AI to create content or which, you know,
there's nothing wrong with that either.
It's for some people, for some people, it's not the businesses
that maybe aren't so keen on using AI to create content, for
example, it might behove them to look into using AI to make, you
know, to have AI generated product recommendations and
merchandising and all of that. So I do think that is that's
been another huge trend that's, that's really just, you know,
shifting the way we go about utilising our data.
OK. I I'm just curious in terms of
wrapping things up when you look to and and Dave, I do have one
question for you. Don't jump off and when you,
when you, when you look at sort of 24/20/24, 2020, 25 is big
commerce like you mentioned payments, are they are there any
other areas that you're focusing on in terms of providing that
seamless shopping experience across all channels?
What what are your, if you like big bets or innovations and
enhancements that that you're going to be focusing on as you
go forward? So where are we innovating?
Yeah. I think like what you're going
to focus on in 2025. OK, so there's so a lot of
exciting stuff happening. One of the biggest ones that
we're so excited about is called Catalyst, which is our new
headless storefront solution. Then basically it's like pre
optimised for performance for SEO and it's designed to
simplify headless builds so people can get to market faster.
And a lot of people, you know, we can get into headless, but
that's a whole subject of its own.
But the, the, the point is that this is something that creates a
stronger, more effective user experience that asks people to
go to market faster. And so that solution layered
with Makeswift, which is subsidiary and that's our,
that's our no code visual editor.
You have these two entities, they're Catalyst and Makeswift.
And it basically it's a game changer, like allowing brands
and retailers to quickly create these beautiful, engaging
experiences with like 0 coding knowledge.
So Burrow is a customer that I love.
That's a good example. Their furniture, their furniture
brand too, that's utilising that.
So there's that. And then I already talked about
Feedenomics. One of the things Feedenomics is
doing though, on top of just the the standard, you know, feed
management, Feedenomics is also has a new instant commerce
offering, which is basically partnering with like brands and
retailers and marketplaces to enable same day delivery.
It's essentially to keep up with the competition and the Amazon
effect as we say. So that's something that is
going to be really useful for brands year round, but also for
the holidays, like something like that can help capture a
last minute shoppers who maybe miss the standard shipping cut
off. Also with AI driven
personalization, a couple of things we're focusing on now,
you know, we're we're dipping our toes into the AI game and
getting there with tools like we have big AI, we call it big AI
product recommendations that you know, personalise that shopper
journey. And then also there is a big AI
copywriter tool that we have, which does streamline the
creation of SEO friendly product descriptions, which is really
useful to a lot of brands when it comes to writing descriptions
and then advanced checkout tools.
That's going to continue to be an area of innovation native one
page check out and I mentioned fast Lane, which is like the
latest in our payment innovation partnerships.
So yeah, so lots of exciting things happen.
It's. Just and then it's interesting
in terms of the focus areas that you've got in terms of as in
like check out payments are some of the the trends.
Dave, again, I always make this assumption.
Are you actually in physical stores anywhere?
It's like, you know, we talk about Omni channels and
channels. Or are you pureplay online only?
No, Just yeah. Is that called pureplay?
Oh as well, we come to that. Or yeah, So yeah, we're pure
players, OK. Plan I'm just curious as an
e-commerce leader, are you looking or an e-commerce
business? Are you looking is physical
because I'm just if you're going to go through the sort of
iterations that some other pureplay E com companies have
done. No, just in our own little
little shop here, yeah. Here in and where is that?
When you say here, where is that?
We're in Azle, TX. It's near Fort Worth, Dallas
Fort Worth. OK.
So in fact, one of our customers flew in from California.
A lot of people fly in the DFW for a conference.
Yeah. And they drive all the way over
to come to the mothership to. The and how, how, how long of a
drive is that? Because I'm just planning my
next trip. It's about 45 minutes from the
airport, OK, And we're building our headquarters about 5 minutes
from here. We're going after the coolest
headquarters in the whole world. That's our goal, not the big.
Curious why? Have you got plans of what's
going to make that cool? Tunnels and swinging bridges
between the buildings and and secret rooms and we're going to
have a lot of fire and one of the buildings we're making with
solid leather leather bricks, bricks of of like straw bales
and hay bales or baling are leather scraps so the whole
building will be solid leather so yeah, stuff like that but no
the. When's that?
When's that opening? So OK.
We're hoping to have that open May 1st.
But in 25? In 20.
Yes, yes. And we have a little, you know,
you got to fix it up a little bit, but for the zip lines and
stuff. But we're, yeah, that's the,
that's the goal. But you know, just there.
And So what we do is we're strictly online.
But what I've seen is people going away from getting into
other people's stores, wholesaling B to B Yeah.
What I've seen is they pull out of that and I've seen them
opening their own stores cuz in high traffic areas, if you're
Lucchesi or some really recognised boot brand or
something, you go to a store that sells those.
But if no one knows about you, they're not going to go to a
strip mall or somewhere that doesn't have you want them to
discover you for smaller brands. So we're going to be opening,
we're hoping to open some stores in high traffic areas close by.
But the mothership will be here at the here at the headquarters.
Fantastic. So so watch this space.
Watch this space. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, But the as soon as we start saying it costs us $100 to make
it and then so we wholesale it for 200 to a, to a big box store
and then they sell it for 400. We just like, we, we, we, we
don't like that. We like the flexibility of if it
costs 100, we could sell it for 2:50.
Yeah, I got it. As you said, it has an impact on
your pricing strategy, so. Yeah, there was, you know, you
have nice stuff. But I mean, I, I like Aston
Martins, the Rolls Royces, but at the same time, you know,
they're not affordable. I wouldn't be married if I
bought 1. Of course, my, my marriage would
struggle a lot if I, if I bought 1 and so, but I wouldn't
struggle as much as someone bought a, you know, a 5A5
hundred $700.00 briefcase. If it were at $1000 or 1200, you
start getting out of the realm of like, maybe one day, yeah.
I got you perfect. So Melissa same question to you
before we wrap things up. So you mentioned as we were
talking about communication being key, I was wondering can
you obviously it is key and and all the different forms of
communication that exists out there, you know, whether it's
WhatsApp, whether it's messaging I miss, can you, can you just
expand on that whole thing for us a bit?
Yeah, I think what sometimes get gets lost in the fray of the
holidays is how crucial communication is to the customer
experience. You know, I mean, as a seller,
as a retailer, as a brand, one of your objectives, you're
trying to build trust and confidence to make sure those
shoppers feel confident enough to make the purchase right.
So that it's so crucial to be able to communicate proactively
with your customers. And what we find, what the data
shows is that if you are, if you're telling your customers
upfront, hey, maybe this product isn't going to arrive overnight,
but it's going to be here, then you know, here's here are the
updates with your order. Here is the cut off date for you
know, to get your product by the holidays.
Here is when this particularly great holiday offer ends.
People, shoppers are so much more likely to embrace that than
if you don't provide them with the chin upfront.
So I, I can't, you know, overstate that enough.
I think that just making sure that you're communicating
clearly with your shoppers like Dave talked about being liked.
And, you know, saying if people like you, they will buy from
you. And that's a huge piece of that
is if you're transparent and communicate with your shoppers.
So definitely take that to heart for the holidays, I think.
Yeah, I, I, I agree. I mean, we're not going to talk
about it, but for me, retail is a conversation and it's one that
you want to be involved in and you want people to sort of slip
into that. Like we all love those beautiful
conversations and I, I can so see why communication is so
important because you need that ongoing communication.
Dave, Melissa, thank you so much for carving out some time in
your days to have this conversation.
For me, it's been super enlightening and I look forward
to seeing you both in person. Maybe Melissa at NRF, but Dave,
hopefully in Dallas sometime I'll be there.
So let's just watch this space. Yeah, thank.
Thank you for having us. I really appreciate you
including us in what you're doing.
It was. Fantastic.
Thank you.