1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,680 Thanks for joining us on another episode of ecommerce Australia. 2 00:00:02,680 --> 00:00:05,080 This is going to be I've got a couple of announcements to make 3 00:00:05,440 --> 00:00:08,160 and then I'm just going to go through my learnings from Retail 4 00:00:08,160 --> 00:00:10,880 Fest. Now it's the Monday after Retail 5 00:00:10,880 --> 00:00:14,520 Fest the week before and if you haven't been to Retail Fest, I 6 00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:17,000 highly, highly recommend it in 2027. 7 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:21,320 It's just three days of positive energy, people that are getting 8 00:00:21,320 --> 00:00:24,120 there to do business, but also just to share knowledge and 9 00:00:24,120 --> 00:00:26,480 really support each other. You get an understanding of 10 00:00:26,480 --> 00:00:30,000 what's working, what's happening in the market and, and there's 11 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:34,240 just so many expert, there's so much expertise in, in one room. 12 00:00:34,240 --> 00:00:36,800 So not only that, the weather is fantastic. 13 00:00:36,880 --> 00:00:38,520 They organise great weather for us. 14 00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:42,240 I, I see my friends down here in Melbourne absolutely got soaked 15 00:00:42,240 --> 00:00:45,840 and was pouring down rain. And meanwhile we were out in 16 00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:48,800 Broadbeach and 28° having the time of our lives. 17 00:00:48,800 --> 00:00:51,160 So I highly recommend Retail Fest. 18 00:00:52,120 --> 00:00:54,080 I've got a couple of announcements to make off the 19 00:00:54,080 --> 00:00:57,600 back of it and then I'm going to go into the takeaways, Retail 20 00:00:57,600 --> 00:01:00,600 Fest and what I learned and perhaps you guys can apply to 21 00:01:00,600 --> 00:01:02,640 your businesses. So the first one, I'm starting 22 00:01:02,640 --> 00:01:05,480 my own E commerce business now. This is something that I've been 23 00:01:06,240 --> 00:01:09,240 wanting to do for a few years, especially since doing that the 24 00:01:09,240 --> 00:01:13,160 E Commerce Australia podcast and talking to all these inspiring 25 00:01:13,160 --> 00:01:14,760 founders. It's something that I kind of 26 00:01:14,760 --> 00:01:16,880 been racking my brain going what's a product? 27 00:01:17,400 --> 00:01:19,680 In the end, it's probably just an excuse. 28 00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:21,840 Just got to pick a product and try and execute on it. 29 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:24,680 So I'm going into the men's grooming space or something that 30 00:01:24,680 --> 00:01:26,600 I guess I use on a day to day basis. 31 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:30,960 Little bit more details later as they come, but I really want to 32 00:01:30,960 --> 00:01:33,240 share every step of the journey along the way. 33 00:01:33,440 --> 00:01:35,080 The podcast will still remain the same. 34 00:01:35,080 --> 00:01:37,880 We're still going to get some great and great interviews, some 35 00:01:37,880 --> 00:01:40,200 founder stories that I'm really excited about to share with you 36 00:01:40,200 --> 00:01:43,000 guys coming up as well. But as a as a footnote to that, 37 00:01:43,280 --> 00:01:44,960 anything that's sort of happening in that ecommerce 38 00:01:44,960 --> 00:01:47,920 business along the build, I'm going to share that journey with 39 00:01:47,920 --> 00:01:49,760 you guys. So this is me putting it out 40 00:01:49,760 --> 00:01:51,880 there live, so live and published. 41 00:01:51,880 --> 00:01:54,280 So there's no backing out now, but I'm very excited. 42 00:01:54,280 --> 00:01:57,320 So I'm looking forward to kind of getting that moving in the 43 00:01:57,320 --> 00:01:59,680 right direction. Maybe that's what Retail Fest 44 00:01:59,680 --> 00:02:00,680 does. It inspires you. 45 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:03,120 I've got a couple of meetings this week with a couple of 46 00:02:03,120 --> 00:02:04,960 suppliers that have been recommended to me. 47 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:07,440 So I'm sure I'll keep you guys all in the loop. 48 00:02:07,440 --> 00:02:09,280 I bet everyone's on the edge of their seat. 49 00:02:09,280 --> 00:02:12,360 Secondly, there's a new style of episode that I want to introduce 50 00:02:12,360 --> 00:02:15,520 into the podcast while still keeping the the current format 51 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:18,320 that we've been going for coming up to five years now. 52 00:02:18,400 --> 00:02:20,600 I'm sure that there's a lot of people listening to these 53 00:02:20,600 --> 00:02:23,800 podcasts and we get some great guests and founder stories. 54 00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:26,840 But perhaps your E commerce business isn't going either the 55 00:02:26,840 --> 00:02:29,720 way you'd like it to, isn't growing as quickly or you're 56 00:02:29,720 --> 00:02:32,160 stuck on some areas and you're like, Jeez, I really like some 57 00:02:32,160 --> 00:02:35,360 help in that in that space. Well, there's a new episode I'm 58 00:02:35,360 --> 00:02:36,880 going to call the Bush Telegraph. 59 00:02:36,880 --> 00:02:39,920 I really like to keep that Australian feel to it. 60 00:02:40,160 --> 00:02:43,520 But the Bush Telegraph is also, you know, is is a community that 61 00:02:43,520 --> 00:02:47,200 helps when somebody is is stuck or when someone needs some help. 62 00:02:47,200 --> 00:02:51,400 Then that Bush Telegraph, as we colloquial is the colloquial 63 00:02:51,400 --> 00:02:55,400 colloquial term for it. I can't say that the Bush 64 00:02:55,400 --> 00:02:59,480 Telegraph was a was a, you know, an old, olden days term that 65 00:02:59,680 --> 00:03:02,560 that you know, you you post a problem and then everyone sort 66 00:03:02,560 --> 00:03:05,360 of gets around it. So if you are a founder, if 67 00:03:05,360 --> 00:03:08,760 there's a particular area of business that you're stuck, I'd 68 00:03:08,760 --> 00:03:10,320 love you to invite you to come on. 69 00:03:10,320 --> 00:03:13,840 We can chat through your founder story, the poker, how your 70 00:03:13,840 --> 00:03:18,560 business is going so far, and off the back of that, really tap 71 00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:20,960 into our community. We've got so many experts that 72 00:03:20,960 --> 00:03:23,560 we can call on and we can get two or three of them on. 73 00:03:23,560 --> 00:03:26,960 We can work through that in a podcast episode because chances 74 00:03:26,960 --> 00:03:30,760 are if you're stuck in a certain spot or position or revenue 75 00:03:30,760 --> 00:03:34,240 number or gross profit number, someone else is probably stuck 76 00:03:34,240 --> 00:03:38,080 in that same situation as well. So a, you get access to some of 77 00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:42,400 the best talent in Australia, be great content and see it helps 78 00:03:42,400 --> 00:03:44,840 your business. So is that if that is something 79 00:03:44,840 --> 00:03:48,120 that you're interested in either DME on Instagram, just look up 80 00:03:48,120 --> 00:03:52,760 remarkable digital on Instagram, or I'll put a link to my contact 81 00:03:52,760 --> 00:03:55,120 page in the show notes. Just send me a quick message 82 00:03:55,120 --> 00:03:58,400 with with what's the issue with your with your store And we can 83 00:03:58,400 --> 00:04:00,880 jump on, have a quick call conversation about it. 84 00:04:01,200 --> 00:04:03,320 And then I can get the appropriate people in and we can 85 00:04:03,320 --> 00:04:05,720 record the podcast. So you get a podcast from that. 86 00:04:05,960 --> 00:04:08,440 You get some free advice and some free content as well. 87 00:04:08,440 --> 00:04:11,200 So it's a good deal. And you, yeah, looking forward 88 00:04:11,200 --> 00:04:13,680 to doing a few Bush Telegraph episodes. 89 00:04:13,680 --> 00:04:19,640 I really like the name Retail Fest and some takeaways that you 90 00:04:19,640 --> 00:04:21,760 could perhaps think about for your business. 91 00:04:21,959 --> 00:04:23,480 Yeah. Who who impressed me and what 92 00:04:23,480 --> 00:04:25,360 lessons did I did I take away from it? 93 00:04:25,440 --> 00:04:29,600 The first point I want to say is that those live site audits, 94 00:04:30,120 --> 00:04:32,400 Studio Walker running those all weekend. 95 00:04:32,400 --> 00:04:35,400 But we, they had some amazing panellists on there. 96 00:04:35,800 --> 00:04:39,480 There was two people that I sat there, sat down into that live 97 00:04:39,480 --> 00:04:44,080 site audit room for about 45 minutes and just the information 98 00:04:44,520 --> 00:04:47,920 that they were giving the E commerce store business owners 99 00:04:48,360 --> 00:04:51,160 was just incredible. And I just, I, I hope that those 100 00:04:51,160 --> 00:04:54,680 store owners went away and implemented some of that because 101 00:04:55,360 --> 00:04:57,880 you know, you that will cost you thousands and thousands of 102 00:04:57,880 --> 00:04:59,600 dollars and, and so much experience. 103 00:04:59,600 --> 00:05:03,880 So it was Carla Penn Kahn from Profit Peak and Heather Ehl from 104 00:05:03,880 --> 00:05:06,480 nutrition warehouse. I've not had the the pleasure of 105 00:05:06,480 --> 00:05:08,160 meeting Heather, but certainly Carla. 106 00:05:08,160 --> 00:05:11,120 We've had on the podcast numerous times before, but they 107 00:05:11,120 --> 00:05:15,720 were absolutely just spitting absolute facts and and some of 108 00:05:15,720 --> 00:05:18,440 the insights that they gave individual store owners. 109 00:05:18,440 --> 00:05:20,480 I really hope that they went away and implemented that 110 00:05:20,480 --> 00:05:23,360 because that advice is absolutely priceless. 111 00:05:23,360 --> 00:05:27,400 So the best bang for buck thing you can do next year at Retail 112 00:05:27,400 --> 00:05:31,320 Fest is go along and have a look at those live site audits, get 113 00:05:31,320 --> 00:05:35,600 your own website audited. But even just listening to what 114 00:05:35,600 --> 00:05:38,680 they were talking about in that customer journey, worth its 115 00:05:38,680 --> 00:05:41,880 absolute weight in gold. So first, that's my first tip. 116 00:05:41,880 --> 00:05:45,760 Great job, Heather and Carla. Collections pages is my second 117 00:05:45,760 --> 00:05:47,720 tip. And this came from one of the 118 00:05:47,720 --> 00:05:50,200 recommendations around the live site audits. 119 00:05:50,560 --> 00:05:53,200 So collections pages, a lot of the times, and this is more 120 00:05:53,200 --> 00:05:56,720 particular if you're stocking other people's brands, a lot of 121 00:05:56,720 --> 00:05:58,960 times you have branded collections pages, but you 122 00:05:58,960 --> 00:06:02,640 perhaps don't have the more generic ways that people search. 123 00:06:02,640 --> 00:06:06,000 And the best example I can give might be like a, a hair product. 124 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:10,280 So American American crew or Kevin Murphy as an example, you 125 00:06:10,280 --> 00:06:13,160 might have those brands stocked on your website by way of 126 00:06:13,160 --> 00:06:16,680 collections page. But do you also have the way 127 00:06:16,880 --> 00:06:19,840 that people are searching for? In this case, it might be, you 128 00:06:19,840 --> 00:06:22,440 know, a matte finish, right, for your, for your hair. 129 00:06:22,520 --> 00:06:25,160 And so just make sure that you've got both the brand 130 00:06:25,560 --> 00:06:28,240 collections pages, but also more generic ways. 131 00:06:28,240 --> 00:06:31,280 So it gives you more pages live and it gives you more chance of 132 00:06:31,280 --> 00:06:35,200 being visible across SEO and AIO and just a nicer user 133 00:06:35,200 --> 00:06:38,200 experience. Next one was I did a panel with 134 00:06:38,200 --> 00:06:41,320 some of the team from PayPal on the buying 4. 135 00:06:41,320 --> 00:06:44,880 So what a lot of brands doing in PayPal is such a trusted, 136 00:06:45,400 --> 00:06:49,040 trusted badge to have it mean it just instantly kind of gives you 137 00:06:49,040 --> 00:06:51,600 security. You know that it's not a spam 138 00:06:51,600 --> 00:06:55,520 site or it's, it's legitimate. But the paying for option is now 139 00:06:55,520 --> 00:06:59,320 really starting to take hold. And especially if you're a brand 140 00:06:59,320 --> 00:07:01,880 that has a higher AOV or your products are a little bit more 141 00:07:01,880 --> 00:07:05,520 expensive, let's just call it, I don't know, over $500 as an 142 00:07:05,520 --> 00:07:09,880 example, adding, adding some communication and some messaging 143 00:07:09,880 --> 00:07:14,480 around Paypal's buying for earlier, introducing it at the 144 00:07:14,480 --> 00:07:17,800 collection page or the product page might just help with some, 145 00:07:17,800 --> 00:07:20,160 some conversion. So, yeah, paying for is a 146 00:07:20,160 --> 00:07:22,240 legitimate option. Obviously, you know, after pay 147 00:07:22,240 --> 00:07:23,960 doing that in a similar sort of vein. 148 00:07:23,960 --> 00:07:27,000 But PayPal is very trusted and they're, they've got some pretty 149 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:30,040 cool stats around that, that paying for another one when it 150 00:07:30,040 --> 00:07:32,280 comes to payment. So, and I'll go back to Carla 151 00:07:32,280 --> 00:07:35,520 and Heather both mentioned this actually, but if you do not have 152 00:07:35,520 --> 00:07:40,400 shop pay on your store for customers to check out with, 153 00:07:40,680 --> 00:07:43,680 then you are losing revenue. It's as simple as that. 154 00:07:43,840 --> 00:07:46,920 Both Carla and Heather both mentioned that they are quite 155 00:07:46,920 --> 00:07:48,840 time poor. They're often in a rush. 156 00:07:48,840 --> 00:07:50,680 They're obviously juggling multiple things. 157 00:07:50,960 --> 00:07:54,320 If they can't check out with pay with with shop pay, they just 158 00:07:54,320 --> 00:07:57,480 won't check out at all. So a really quick win, something 159 00:07:57,480 --> 00:08:00,160 you can implement it really easy to ensure it's the most 160 00:08:00,160 --> 00:08:03,240 convenient for your customers. This one from Aaron Langer, it's 161 00:08:03,240 --> 00:08:06,920 more of a it's more of a philosophy and a way to to think 162 00:08:06,920 --> 00:08:08,920 about things. But he mentioned when I had a 163 00:08:08,920 --> 00:08:11,760 panel with himself and Guy Nappa, both who will get on this 164 00:08:11,760 --> 00:08:14,600 podcast for sure. But Aaron mentioned retail is 165 00:08:14,600 --> 00:08:18,040 detail and I just like that because whether it's a shop pay 166 00:08:18,040 --> 00:08:21,520 button on your website, whether it's, you know, showing that by 167 00:08:21,560 --> 00:08:26,400 the PayPal buying for whether it's an whether it's looking at 168 00:08:26,400 --> 00:08:29,320 your customer journeys or looking at your cross sells and 169 00:08:29,320 --> 00:08:32,880 your upsells doesn't make sense. And the more detail you can put 170 00:08:32,880 --> 00:08:36,039 into your retail experience, the better off you're going to be. 171 00:08:36,039 --> 00:08:40,240 And that comes from someone who's asked, you know, Aaron 172 00:08:40,240 --> 00:08:44,000 and, and Karen, the the founders of Arms of Eve started selling 173 00:08:44,120 --> 00:08:46,720 their jewellery in, in markets around Sydney and now they've 174 00:08:46,720 --> 00:08:49,640 opened up 9 stores and they've still got a really keen eye for 175 00:08:49,640 --> 00:08:51,040 detail. So I thought that was just a 176 00:08:51,040 --> 00:08:54,080 really nice and a rhyme. So it made it very easy to 177 00:08:54,080 --> 00:08:56,920 remember. Paul Waddy is someone who gave a 178 00:08:56,920 --> 00:09:00,560 great keynote presentation. I'm sure many of my listeners 179 00:09:00,560 --> 00:09:03,800 have probably heard of Paul. He's written a book called 180 00:09:03,800 --> 00:09:06,560 Shopify for Dummies. But I'm keen to get Paul on the 181 00:09:06,560 --> 00:09:10,000 podcast and he mentioned some some awesome things around, you 182 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:12,680 know, it was very much about knowing your numbers and 183 00:09:12,680 --> 00:09:15,440 understanding how to how to unfuck your business. 184 00:09:15,440 --> 00:09:18,520 His his exact words of that. Not that I'm, I'm big on 185 00:09:18,520 --> 00:09:20,560 swearing, but that was that was the title. 186 00:09:20,880 --> 00:09:23,240 I was so impressed with Paul's presentation. 187 00:09:23,720 --> 00:09:25,560 Do yourself a favour, give him a follow. 188 00:09:25,800 --> 00:09:27,680 I'm going to get him on the podcast as well. 189 00:09:28,240 --> 00:09:31,120 Very excited by that because he's got great knowledge, great 190 00:09:31,120 --> 00:09:33,600 experience, and he's growing a lot of great brands in the 191 00:09:33,600 --> 00:09:36,600 Australian E commerce space. So a big shout out to Paul. 192 00:09:36,800 --> 00:09:38,960 And the last one is around cross collaboration. 193 00:09:38,960 --> 00:09:41,640 So I'm starting see some brands do this, but I think there's 194 00:09:41,640 --> 00:09:44,760 great opportunities for some smaller brands to team up 195 00:09:44,760 --> 00:09:47,840 together and collaborate, whether it's, you know, a bit of 196 00:09:47,840 --> 00:09:51,280 a shout out to someone elses business or post or product, how 197 00:09:51,280 --> 00:09:53,880 it kind of can work simultaneously with yours. 198 00:09:53,880 --> 00:09:57,080 Collaborating with other brands leverages their audience, 199 00:09:57,080 --> 00:09:59,760 leverages their social media, gives you more content. 200 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:03,240 I think it's something that again, you're not paying Meta, 201 00:10:03,240 --> 00:10:05,800 you're not paying that traffic tax, which is my last point. 202 00:10:05,840 --> 00:10:08,720 So anything you can do for creative to get more content, 203 00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:11,280 collaborate, utilise and leverage other people's 204 00:10:11,280 --> 00:10:14,360 audiences and then to yours, obviously it's going to be a 205 00:10:14,360 --> 00:10:17,400 partnership. And I think that's a great, I 206 00:10:17,400 --> 00:10:20,320 think that's a strategy to think about how that might fit within 207 00:10:20,320 --> 00:10:22,680 your business. And last one is just the traffic 208 00:10:22,680 --> 00:10:25,120 tax. So aware is becoming so reliant 209 00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:29,000 on Meta and Google ads or ads in general, and there's so much 210 00:10:29,040 --> 00:10:32,520 more to across collaboration. Marketplaces are something that 211 00:10:32,520 --> 00:10:35,520 we've touched on as well. SEO, you know, you're not paying 212 00:10:35,520 --> 00:10:39,720 per click, you're earning trust. AIO is another one, email 213 00:10:39,720 --> 00:10:43,800 marketing in real life events that there's plenty of other 214 00:10:43,800 --> 00:10:45,600 ways. So as much as you can try and 215 00:10:45,600 --> 00:10:49,000 minimise the traffic tax and the reliance on Meta and Google 216 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:52,440 because it's only going one way and that's up there might 217 00:10:52,440 --> 00:10:56,040 takeaways from retail affairs. As I said, if you are stuck or 218 00:10:56,040 --> 00:10:58,680 you're having some problems or what you need, you need to 219 00:10:58,680 --> 00:11:00,840 unfuck your business. I'm going to use one of Paul's 220 00:11:01,440 --> 00:11:03,920 Paul Waddy's lines there. Yeah. 221 00:11:04,080 --> 00:11:06,640 Come and chat to me about the Bush Telegraph episodes because 222 00:11:06,640 --> 00:11:10,200 it'll be a lot of fun. We can, you know, we can be and 223 00:11:10,200 --> 00:11:11,960 be respectful of numbers and all that. 224 00:11:11,960 --> 00:11:14,520 Obviously we're not going to publish any of that, but it all 225 00:11:14,520 --> 00:11:16,480 starts out is a quick phone call with me. 226 00:11:16,640 --> 00:11:18,800 What you need help with. I'll get some people on the 227 00:11:18,800 --> 00:11:20,600 podcast. We can talk through your founder 228 00:11:20,600 --> 00:11:23,440 story, your journey, and then we can talk about things you can do 229 00:11:23,440 --> 00:11:25,200 to implement. And I think that'll help not 230 00:11:25,200 --> 00:11:27,000 only your business, but a lot of others as well. 231 00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:29,200 So thank you. Thanks for listening as always. 232 00:11:29,200 --> 00:11:33,920 Appreciate your your client words and comments and feedback. 233 00:11:33,920 --> 00:11:35,680 So until next time, thank you.