Eight valuable insights from ecommerce leaders and professionals

We have officially wrapped up season one of the Power Talks Podcast (Sponsored by ShipStation) in which I engage in bite-sized discussions with industry leaders and professionals as they share their exclusive insights into the dynamic world of ecommerce. 

I spoke to a variety of brilliant ecommerce leaders and professionals and learnt so much from their insights and expertise and their journeys.

Here I’ve compiled one unique and valuable insight from each episode.

Episode One: Ryan Gracie Chief Marketing Officer / MyDeal

In our discussion, we covered a variety of topics and he is a real pro in the marketing field, but one thing that stood out to me was when Ryan shared a really valuable piece of advice for leaders pushing through tough times. “I’m a firm believer that we worry about the things that we can control, we can’t control the interest rates are going up, we can’t control that” he told me. “People have less money, we can’t control that. It’s harder to acquire our customers, but we can control the things that make that happen on our site and we can control all of the inputs into those measures…we just want to know that we did everything that we could in our power under our control to make sure they were the best that they could be.”

Ryan shared more insights into the world of marketing, leadership, and marketplace’s in Episode One here: Spotify | Apple Podcasts

Episode Two: Jane Cay Founder / Birdsnest

Jane was one of the early adopters of ecommerce sales, and has adapted to all its evolutions. She told me she sees the next paradigm shift as being advented by Ai. “I think we’re up for another paradigm shift. That sort of concept of a virtual style support and the sophistication that Ai is bringing into technology now, I think is probably the next the next jump, and the next jump for expectations around how customers interact with and find the right products. You know, how, how should that interaction be? And can it be even more seamless and less playing with filters and more kind of feels like a natural conversation?”

You can find more ecommerce insights from Jane in her episode here: Spotify | Apple Podcasts

Episode Three: Stephanie Lang Marketing Director / BlackMilk Clothing

In our third episode of Power Talks, I sat down with Stephanie Lang, Marketing Director from BlackMilk Clothing, the pioneers of Geek Chic, responsible for the infamous Galaxy Leggings, and a company that has been continuously leading the way for inclusive, stylish, alt fashion for over a decade with an unstoppable cult following across its platforms.

We spoke about social media and building a community around your brand. My personal key takeaway was Stephanie’s groundbreaking claim that Cargo Pants are the new Galaxy Leggings, but an insight that might resonate with our broader audience is Stephanie’s take on building a community online through authenticity.

“I don’t think when the brand started, there was a specific strategy in place, it was just a way to connect with people and start a community. And definitely, as we’ve matured, we have a much more strategic approach to the way that we do. But the same foundations are there and, and why I think we’re successful. Word of mouth means that people actively find us on social and come across us. But the secret for us is just knowing what’s important to your community, engaging with them authentically and inclusively and making sure that your content is fun and informative, like we like to call it edutainment – entertaining people as well as educating them.”

You can find more insights from Stephanie’s episode here: Spotify | Apple Podcasts

Episode Four: Charlie Ganzen Director / Lovehoney

In our fourth episode of Power Talks, I spoke to Charlie Ganzen, ANZ Director of sexual wellness company Lovehoney. He shared insights into the company’s advertising challenges and the stigmatisation of the industry, he highlighted Lovehoney’s unique position in that industry, and compared Australian shopping trends on a global scale.

I was really interested in Charlie’s role as Director of ANZ in a global company and what challenges are unique to the Australian market. He identified shipping as a major challenge and revealed some interesting data around that. “A lot of people will probably forget how large Australia is geographically. And whilst we’re a relatively smaller population, if you were to compare the UK with, with Australia, the population is approximately 85 million in the UK compared to our 25 or thereabouts. But you could fit the entire UK geography into Queensland. So we have unique shipping challenges and logistic challenges.” 

Find out how Lovehoney plans to tackle the issue in Charlie’s episode here: Spotify | Apple Podcasts

Episode Five: Kelly Slessor / Ecommerce Coach

With years of experience under her belt and her finger constantly on the pulse of all things retail, I asked Kelly about the biggest challenges in ecommerce, how to overcome them, and her thoughts on all the latest tech.

She told me one of the biggest challenges for the ecommerce industry right now is conversion and revealed some confronting statistics. “At the moment on average conversion rates are sitting at around 1.5 percent. And they’ve been very unstable, I would say across the board, it’s 1.5 to 2 percent and they’ve been very unstable. We saw some massive drops early on in the year, so if 100 people come to your website, only two of those people will buy, which if you compare that to in store, it’s a massive drop.If 100 people come into your physical store, around 30 people will buy. We’ve seen that conversion rate really unstable for the last probably six months and a lot of retailers are being impacted by that.”

You can find Kelly’s advice on how to overcome challenges like this here: Spotify | Apple Podcasts

Episode Six: Brandon Soo Ecommerce Manager / Total Tools

In the sixth episode of Power Talks, I engaged in a discussion with Brandon Soo, Ecommerce Manager at Total Tools. We discussed website optimisation and the intricacies of handling an omnichannel network.

We spoke about how game implementing a strong omnichannel strategy was Total Tool’s real turning point that made it the retail giant it is today. “A game changer for us was moving to that omnichannel experience where we could bring everything together and look at a coordinated approach to approaching our customer,” he told me. “That came with personalisation and taking a different approach. We needed to be in front of our customer with the right product at the right time through the channels that they come to us.”

Brandon shared some fantastic insights into how Total Tools really optimised that omnichannel experience here: Spotify | Apple Podcasts

Episode Seven: Stacey Crommelin Head Of Digital & Customer Experience / Taking Shape

Stacey shared some fantastic insights into Taking Shapes operations, and one thing I was really curious about was translating the brand’s exceptional in-store customer service into a digital form for its online store. “It is hard to nail exceptional customer service online,” Stacey told me. “I think it’s what all retailers are really looking for. Internally at Taking Shape, there’s the mantra of delivering that exceptional customer service. The business aims to live and breathe that in all of the interactions. But yes, online, it’s harder to achieve. And so what we’re working on is building out those trust elements online and delivering a more human experience when our customers come in store, especially through the personalisation.”

You can find out what strategies Taking Shape are implementing to achieve that here: Spotify | Apple Podcasts

Episode Eight: Adam Posner CEO / The Point Of Loyalty

To conclude our very first season of Power Talks, I engaged in a very timely conversation with loyalty expert Adam Posner as he shared his fantastic insights into the world of loyalty as customers flock to loyalty programs to make savings.

One thing that really stood out to me was his statement that loyalty is not a program, but an outcome.

“It’s a behavior,” Adam told me. “You spend more, you spend more often with the brand or the business. It’s transactional, it’s a behavior. Then loyalty is also a belief – it’s that love, trust and recommendation of a brand, it’s much more emotional. And finally, loyalty is identified with the brand’s purpose and a feeling, a sense of belonging towards the brand.

So being part of the community, so behavior, belief and belonging are the three outcomes of which there’s a range of dimensions, but that’s how I define loyalty. And, and as you can hear from there, the word loyalty program is not part of that definition.”

Adam goes on to explain how to build out a strong loyalty program using those three Bs, and offers advice for fostering a loyal community here: Spotify | Apple Podcasts

You can find all these fantastic episodes and find out more here.