Latest / The Retail Podcast / Unpacking Globalisation, AI in E-commerce - 'You Don't Get, If You Don't Ask'. Quickfire Digital- Shopify Plus specialist and European E-commerce Agency of the Year

Transcript

Unpacking Globalisation, AI in E-commerce - 'You Don't Get, If You Don't Ask'. Quickfire Digital- Shopify Plus specialist and European E-commerce Agency of the Year · The Retail Podcast

• 0:00
  Retail forecast, a global conversation hosted by Alex
• 0:04
  rezze Van Veen. Hello, and welcome back the
• 0:07
  retail podcast. It's a great honor to meet
• 0:10
  someone who is not only a shining example of the path that
• 0:14
  any entrepreneur would like to take.
• 0:16
  But someone who's actually from what I saw.
• 0:19
  When I spoke at his event, someone who's laying the
• 0:23
  foundations of the future retail with in e-commerce and within a
• 0:26
  specific platform. So without any further Ado.
• 0:30
  Let me bring Nathan to the stream.
• 0:33
  Hey, Nathan. How you doing?
• 0:35
  Thanks, I'm very well. Thank you.
• 0:36
  Thank you for having me. How are you really good?
• 0:38
  Average, I was just starting to talk about how not only.
• 0:44
  I mean, you took, when you have these gigs when you turn up and
• 0:46
  talk or you're part of a panel, you sort of have an idea of the
• 0:50
  company or the group of people, but I had no appreciation for
• 0:54
  the depth of community that you've created, not only within
• 0:58
  the retail space, but Then the partner ecosystem of people you
• 1:02
  know Paving the way for the future of retail.
• 1:05
  So these are future retailers and we'll talk about some of
• 1:08
  your customers and your partner's.
• 1:10
  But for those who don't know, Nathan, Lomax or quickfire,
• 1:14
  digital, why don't you give us a quick, you know, overview of who
• 1:18
  you are and your Agency for sure.
• 1:22
  Thank you. So as I said, my name is Nathan,
• 1:24
  co-founder of quickfire digital, there's three co-founders within
• 1:27
  the agency, so you've got Fred who looks after he comes
• 1:29
  Strategy, Martin systems process Finance, all the bits I'm
• 1:33
  useless at and myself. New business growth sales,
• 1:37
  essentially trying to scale the agency to ever want to take it
• 1:39
  to. Now, the agency started, the
• 1:41
  first of June 2017, and if I take you back for five years
• 1:44
  before then, I was at that crossroads, that that many
• 1:47
  students find when they get to, that 18 years old.
• 1:49
  Do they, or do they not go to university?
• 1:52
  And I personally have views at the kind of educational system
• 1:55
  is broken in a way that was very lucky to go to a private school,
• 1:58
  but they kind of sign. Towards University as the only
• 2:01
  option and I know that it's getting better now.
• 2:04
  But at the same time University, I didn't think was right for me
• 2:06
  and I wanted to start my own business.
• 2:08
  So I did some traveling. I came back and I just went
• 2:12
  straight into it and I appreciate that many people.
• 2:14
  May not have the self confidence or self believe to do so, and I
• 2:18
  believe that was largely because my parents have been in the
• 2:20
  world of Entrepreneurship that last 40 years have run hotels
• 2:23
  and some of the conversations we have today around customer
• 2:26
  service and values and how we look after our clients exec
• 2:29
  Surah you See a threat, right? Which is been over me from a
• 2:32
  young age of looking after people, when they check into the
• 2:34
  hotel excetera. So, set up the agency as almost
• 2:38
  a freelancer back in 2012, grown as a bit of a lifestyle, I'd
• 2:42
  like to have the most fantastic life and when I say that like
• 2:45
  the opportunities I had, as a young 18 19, 20 year-old and
• 2:50
  good revenues working great clients, it was fantastic, the
• 2:53
  trouble is it's very much for lifestyle.
• 2:55
  Okay, so I would get back and I dreamt of this open plan office,
• 2:58
  will these heads and I'd walk And while this is what was
• 3:01
  created and actually, the team we've built that were built a
• 3:04
  remote team out in India, fantastic Bunch, you couldn't
• 3:07
  find more hard-working people, they were brilliant but actually
• 3:10
  it just it didn't fulfill me. Neither actually, if I'm going
• 3:13
  to grow and sell this agency at the moment, the value is just
• 3:17
  with me. So how can we create an agency?
• 3:19
  That's beyond Nathan as a brand and actually at the time that
• 3:22
  the Nate the brand was cool, Nathan Lomax.com.
• 3:25
  So Supply me okay, we're going to have to stretch past this.
• 3:27
  So sure enough roll forward to the first of June.
• 3:29
  B-17 and I Rebrand to quickfire digital and about a week later,
• 3:34
  we merge with two others and took on two, other co-founders.
• 3:37
  The idea was at the time, I didn't think I could justify a
• 3:40
  50 60 thousand pound developer but what I could justify was
• 3:44
  someone to take some Equity, right?
• 3:46
  That's what we did. Little did I appreciate
• 3:50
  understood concept of economies of scale?
• 3:52
  But little did I appreciate how quickly the agency would gain
• 3:55
  traction. So originally, we were doing
• 3:57
  everything for everybody. You need a PPC campaign.
• 4:00
  Paying you wanted to paid social campaign.
• 4:01
  You will need a website WordPress Shopify.
• 4:04
  Whatever it was, you wanted it with, do it over time.
• 4:07
  We learned the importance of Nisha.
• 4:09
  Okay. And actually it was in 2019 or
• 4:12
  2020. Just before endemic.
• 4:14
  So I think 2019 feels like a long time ago now and we said
• 4:18
  actually we need to become known for something if we want to
• 4:21
  break out of our local bubble and to be known in Norfolk, but
• 4:25
  want to be known nationally and internationally.
• 4:27
  You need to at least and buy something and hang our Colours
• 4:29
  to the mast. Fast.
• 4:30
  And the idea was okay, looking at the clients we've got looking
• 4:33
  at the work, we've done. What are we most enjoying?
• 4:36
  And where are we making strong margins?
• 4:39
  And for us, that was in the world of e-commerce.
• 4:41
  We were getting it more right than wrong and we're also really
• 4:44
  enjoying the work we were doing fine.
• 4:47
  We'll go down the route of e-commerce.
• 4:48
  Well, thank goodness, we did because the alternative was
• 4:50
  hospitality and lockdown. Then happens.
• 4:53
  All the hotels. Accommodation Etc.
• 4:55
  Shuts down. E-commerce goes through the roof
• 4:58
  right place. Where I Time the agency tripled
• 5:02
  overnight. Almost there was this initial
• 5:05
  period of uncertainty and then it realize blimey e-commerce is
• 5:09
  our vehicle out of the this situation.
• 5:12
  And I know about you guys, but we had Amazon Parcels turning up
• 5:14
  almost every day. It was like a little house here.
• 5:17
  And, and so yeah, e-commerce went nuts, the team quickly,
• 5:20
  scaled, and and then there were certain Milestones which I'm
• 5:24
  sure will cover today. Yeah, which can really
• 5:26
  snowballed and propelled it to where we are today.
• 5:29
  If we sort of, uh Unpack your journey from 2017 to 2022 where
• 5:34
  you win agency of the year or european.
• 5:38
  E-commerce agency of the year. What what, what contributes
• 5:41
  that? What are the factors that
• 5:42
  contribute to that Journey? What were the tools that you
• 5:46
  used or you know, what's the secret sauce there?
• 5:49
  Hey, the first thing I would say is an absolute Obsession and my
• 5:52
  other half will be Testament to that.
• 5:54
  I'm obsessed with growing and scaling this agency and building
• 5:58
  the best product clients that we can do you say.
• 5:59
  Other half. You mean like your other hand?
• 6:01
  Life is a Nicky. My partner.
• 6:04
  We live together and she is so understanding and tolerance.
• 6:09
  I can't switch off Alex. The weekends come.
• 6:11
  I remember you talking about your LinkedIn posts and how they
• 6:13
  were driving. Oh, wild.
• 6:15
  Yeah. So she just got, she's so
• 6:17
  understanding, so supportive. And that I wrote a post on this
• 6:20
  this morning, actually, that, unless you've got that support
• 6:22
  system around you, it's impossible in my opinion to grow
• 6:26
  and scale it a successful business because sometimes it
• 6:29
  is, You're 100% Focus, okay? And that's difficult, being the
• 6:32
  partner, and sometimes playing second fiddle way, you just
• 6:34
  would like some attention and some support Etc.
• 6:36
  She's gonna run challenges, got around your big cetera if you're
• 6:39
  looking to me for help but I'm so engrossed in where this
• 6:42
  agency's going and how I'm getting there.
• 6:44
  I'm absolutely obsessed. I wake up in the morning, one of
• 6:46
  the first things I think about is the agency before I go to
• 6:49
  bed. I think I think about the
• 6:50
  agency, reminisce, shower in the morning.
• 6:52
  I'm thinking about the agency, but I'm thankful for my
• 6:54
  Saturday. I'm thinking about the agency,
• 6:56
  which explains one more Christian Billy is significantly
• 6:58
  dropped. But yeah just I'm just obsessed
• 7:01
  with it and I'm obsessed with it for a number of reasons.
• 7:04
  One is because I love the world of e-commerce and I'm currently
• 7:06
  a passionate about driving change within that space to is
• 7:10
  that I love connecting people and building communities and
• 7:12
  we're starting to get some really nice traction there.
• 7:14
  Yeah, there isn't you'd love what I do.
• 7:16
  I love, I get to Sunday and I don't have those Sunday Blues.
• 7:20
  I think I'll crumbs. It's Monday, I genuinely think.
• 7:22
  Come on. It's Monday.
• 7:24
  What we're going to do? How we're going to make a
• 7:25
  positive impact this week. I'm big into gratitude
• 7:28
  journaling, and ever since I've done that, I've started Had to
• 7:30
  realize that I have a really fantastic.
• 7:32
  It's not just I mean just a gratitude.
• 7:34
  I mean I think I know what it is, is right in what you had
• 7:36
  before, but it was eventually. I'm like, why did you do that
• 7:39
  way Wherever I Go? Which is, and it just every day.
• 7:43
  It says, what do you do when you wake up its here, what are you
• 7:46
  grateful for? How are you going to make today
• 7:48
  great and what's your positive affirmation?
• 7:50
  So that's the morning routine. Got.
• 7:51
  And then the afternoon routine is ideally.
• 7:54
  Before you go to bed, what was your good deed you did today you
• 7:57
  how we're going to improve and what are the Great things.
• 8:00
  You experience that day and every day, I just document those
• 8:03
  and I flicked back and I'm like, yeah.
• 8:06
  There's been some tough moments today.
• 8:07
  Yeah. It's been a tough call or
• 8:09
  difficult client whatever it's going to be a team member or a
• 8:11
  little sick. You know, what's been some great
• 8:13
  moments as well and all those great moments are captured in
• 8:16
  his book, got you. So when you look at in terms of
• 8:19
  the actual leading up to the the award, it's just what you see is
• 8:24
  Obsession, right? That was there.
• 8:25
  Like one thing that you've got. I see Obsession.
• 8:28
  I see incredible. Really hard work.
• 8:31
  But I also am a big believer in this match.
• 8:33
  If you don't ask, you don't get Alex and actually, for us coming
• 8:36
  up to that award first things first.
• 8:38
  We had to firstly choose that we wanted to go down the Shopify
• 8:42
  route. So they're discouraged as
• 8:43
  bravery. There's a kind of relentlessness
• 8:45
  to say, you know, what? We are going to put our Colours
• 8:47
  to the Mast. Because too many people try and
• 8:49
  be vanilla doing things or people.
• 8:51
  And then wonder why they can't penetrate the first million
• 8:53
  pound. So that to me is the first thing
• 8:56
  we then have this Relentless pursuit of actually We'll be
• 9:00
  going to be the best and I guess that's from playing a lot of
• 9:02
  sports and sports at a good level.
• 9:04
  As a child. Yeah.
• 9:05
  I don't just want to be the player that's playing and is
• 9:08
  this average, right? I want to be the best.
• 9:10
  And so for me, that's amazing. We're now in Shopify.
• 9:13
  How do you be a place partner? The 8 + Partners in the UK.
• 9:17
  I want to be one of them. So then you go on this
• 9:19
  Relentless pursuit of becoming a plus partner, and if you ask
• 9:21
  Carlos, her partner manager, she got introduced to us a probably
• 9:25
  said the three or four emails a day for a good six months.
• 9:27
  I'm just asking question, what's up, what's a plus?
• 9:29
  What's a plus-one? What in Shopify ecosystem, you
• 9:32
  have plus agencies, which is supporting Enterprise level
• 9:35
  builds, right? And there are signs to a plus
• 9:38
  manager plus partner, when like Carlotta for us who looks after
• 9:43
  the agency and helps answer any questions.
• 9:45
  Now, I think she's there for going about how check in once a
• 9:48
  quarter. See how you getting on?
• 9:49
  Yeah, that was enough for me. I was like Carlotta every week.
• 9:52
  Hey, getting on. What's new?
• 9:54
  What's coming up? So that was the first piece we
• 9:57
  then reached out to head of Shopify Amir at the time and
• 9:59
  Political Shamone, if you don't ask, you don't get in this life.
• 10:03
  Alex, I said, you know, wash my own, we're running a webinar.
• 10:06
  Everyone's going online. Nothing's happening, offline.
• 10:08
  I'd love you to speak at our van at this time.
• 10:11
  I don't think we're at plus partner, barely, anyone knew us?
• 10:14
  We're just starting in the world of Shopify.
• 10:16
  Suddenly, the head of Shopify. Amir is on a webinar with us
• 10:20
  that positions us in a fantastic position as a point of
• 10:23
  authority. But this is, this is what I'm
• 10:25
  looking at here, Daniel, so far, this is real.
• 10:28
  We're in that webinar. The lovely lady bottom right is
• 10:31
  Shamone had a lovely Cool J Cal from launched online.
• 10:34
  Great PBC agency had done so many from gym class coffee and
• 10:38
  just for you, are you Shopify exclusively?
• 10:43
  We are now, yeah. Okay, they've got your big, big
• 10:47
  commitment for the agency to say.
• 10:49
  You know what, we are going to go away from building new stuff
• 10:52
  with in other platforms. Now, occasionally there will be
• 10:57
  a thread back to e-commerce. Yeah.
• 11:00
  But I would say, now, 95% of the stuff we do is eCommerce
• 11:03
  focused, got you. So, I think yet, we started
• 11:06
  doing all this content, it was all the webinars there and all
• 11:09
  these different concept we're putting out.
• 11:11
  And it was really just about educating and paying it forward,
• 11:14
  and we'll talk about personal values.
• 11:15
  But for me, that's one of my most important.
• 11:18
  Personal values is to relentlessly.
• 11:19
  Pay it forwards, without expecting anything in return.
• 11:23
  Yeah, I think you can get into that mindset of doing that and
• 11:27
  just keep doing that and just persevere.
• 11:29
  With it, the results, toxic compound.
• 11:32
  And now it's this rather ridiculous snowball.
• 11:35
  And I'll tell you a little story about that shortly.
• 11:37
  Yes. Oh yeah.
• 11:38
  To we get to this this nomination.
• 11:40
  And we're nominated for at the time, I was nominated, as the UK
• 11:43
  rising star, and I was fortunate enough to win that within the
• 11:47
  world of agencies and in Europe. And then a one that and then we
• 11:50
  put the agency in for uke cam agency the year and European
• 11:55
  each competency the year one that you gave one flew out to
• 11:58
  Europe took The team is convinced.
• 12:01
  We were going to win. Just before I thought Alex, how
• 12:04
  embarrassing if we didn't win a flown out that email.
• 12:06
  That God that would be awful, would put them up in hotels.
• 12:08
  All sorts anyway, had a few glasses of wine.
• 12:11
  A name came up. We didn't win it.
• 12:13
  I was devastated because not only am I have a confident
• 12:18
  exterior, I guess, deep down there are still some
• 12:21
  insecurities like many of us and I was devastated.
• 12:25
  Roll forward, two weeks and they run the big European e-commerce
• 12:29
  Awards. This was for small e-comm
• 12:30
  agency. Did your job, he commented.
• 12:32
  See right? And I was still a little bit in
• 12:35
  a strong and I thought we've been hard done by, so they
• 12:37
  message to say yeah kind of conversation.
• 12:40
  Ours are won't be attending. I'm not going so fond of your
• 12:44
  throat or developer am not going.
• 12:46
  Anyway the next edit email to say where do you want us to send
• 12:48
  your trophy to you've what? And I wasn't you idiot.
• 12:51
  You stupid like like just drop the ego.
• 12:54
  Why didn't you go? You missed it?
• 12:56
  So yeah we actually got send your word in a post and attend.
• 13:00
  Amazing, Accolade for the agency.
• 13:03
  Estimates are all the hard work that's gone in over the last
• 13:05
  five years and now it's really given us the foundation to kick
• 13:10
  on again, okay. And that's the thing that was
• 13:12
  this back to this Relentless Pursuit and this Obsession for
• 13:14
  scaling, the agency, great, we've done that.
• 13:17
  What's next and that can be healthy, that can also be
• 13:21
  incredibly unhealthy because a personal value for me is all
• 13:24
  around growth, and growth can be great.
• 13:27
  Growth can also be a problem too far.
• 13:29
  It's growth, can be an issue. Okay, we have to balance.
• 13:32
  Now, is what's right for the agency, versus what's right for
• 13:35
  Nathan? Yeah, for Nathan is growth
• 13:37
  growth growth and all exciting. What's right for the agency is
• 13:40
  not so much growth because actually last year we think
• 13:44
  we're 35% 40% over Target conditional.
• 13:47
  We said less is more month one. We're about 90% over Target.
• 13:51
  So it's like, okay well we need to slow down.
• 13:53
  We need to not grow so fast, but the opportunities get coming and
• 13:56
  it's really something. So then you resource for them,
• 13:58
  etc, etc. So yeah, that's kind of running
• 14:02
  up to how we got to the awards, we won the awards, fantastic.
• 14:05
  And now that's been a great stepping stone to bring some
• 14:08
  brilliant brands on board that have seen the Accolade.
• 14:10
  The one thing I would say in hindsight is people look at the
• 14:13
  award and they put you on a pedestal.
• 14:16
  Yeah, you're the European e-commerce ages of the year,
• 14:19
  which means for the agency. There's a massive focus on
• 14:21
  delivery. Okay, you have to get it right
• 14:24
  and in life people, go to work. They try their best but the
• 14:28
  human they make me. States.
• 14:30
  Again, I'm not excusing people to make loads of mistakes for
• 14:33
  sure, but at the same time, people are human and they do
• 14:36
  make mistakes. And I myself have to constantly
• 14:39
  remind myself that. No one comes to work to do a bad
• 14:42
  job, okay? They're all doing their best.
• 14:45
  Try as we might sometimes people drop the ball and that to me
• 14:49
  really gets me because a lot of this stuff I feel and take
• 14:52
  personally and back to this Obsession.
• 14:54
  Yeah. If someone I think it can be the
• 14:56
  most basic thing I'd say, don't put a full stop at the end of
• 14:58
  the sentence, whatever. It's going to be.
• 15:00
  I just take it, personally, I just I just feel like it's a
• 15:03
  feeling we could do better and you're constantly striving quite
• 15:06
  tough to work for on hindsight. You know.
• 15:11
  I think I certainly wouldn't share it kind of public with the
• 15:15
  team. I would never say I like what
• 15:17
  you've done that for blah blah blah.
• 15:18
  No just yeah. If I miss the full stop.
• 15:21
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 15:21
  I've never I've never be calling someone at the office by myself.
• 15:28
  We don't do that again. An incredibly High bar.
• 15:31
  And so, when things are not at that high bar, you feel that,
• 15:34
  you know, there's something amiss.
• 15:35
  It's not, right? And I thought of you both, if
• 15:37
  you roll it back to the childhood, you look at the kind
• 15:39
  of growing up in a hotel excetera, The Experience starts,
• 15:43
  the moment, I guess, pulls down the drive.
• 15:45
  Okay, so you've got to think so for me, I'm in the sales, but
• 15:48
  I'm at the foot and let's start some, give it that lovely
• 15:50
  experience. I would you like a cup of tea on
• 15:52
  a rival? Come here to chocolates and
• 15:54
  biscuits. Hope your journey was alright,
• 15:55
  let me carry your bags. Yeah, I need to make sure the
• 15:58
  second they check into that room.
• 15:59
  It's also spotless and then when they have been coming for
• 16:02
  dinner, the food prep, nicely and everything else.
• 16:04
  And that's when we I use a lot of restaurant and food analogies
• 16:07
  in the agency because I think there's a lot of crossover.
• 16:10
  Yeah, I got you and it's interesting when you look at the
• 16:13
  journey, I mean again not for an.
• 16:17
  I don't know if you've got offices in London but for not a
• 16:20
  headquartered agency in London where you know the predominant,
• 16:24
  the majority of the agencies are you've got some really big
• 16:27
  customers snugs feeling. La Juicy Couture and some really
• 16:32
  nice up and gramming up-and-coming Brands as well,
• 16:36
  which are again, hadn't had no idea but like Tyler when I was
• 16:39
  looking what they're doing, super cool, but what do you put
• 16:43
  that down to in terms of you must have gone through a journey
• 16:46
  of, you know, small medium-sized Enterprises to now, large
• 16:50
  Enterprises. And if you can give us a an idea
• 16:53
  of the, the turnover. So what did you start at what
• 16:57
  type of turnover? Where these Shopify?
• 17:00
  Stores doing. And what is the turnover that
• 17:03
  you're getting? Now, of course.
• 17:05
  So I'd say three years ago, just before the pandemic we're doing
• 17:09
  Shopify sites and we get an approach from a brand called
• 17:11
  Bremen watches, okay? It's a beautiful brand, a
• 17:14
  beautiful story, and they were looking for Shopify store in six
• 17:17
  weeks, and I'm sure like many people like yet will do it.
• 17:20
  No problem, what an opportunity absolutely work through the
• 17:23
  night to get it done. Delighted with the end product,
• 17:25
  launches like cetera. We then fast forward and
• 17:29
  actually really that all of a sudden we've got what if you can
• 17:31
  do for bream on, you can do it for us.
• 17:33
  Okay, so there's a bit of a stamp of approval.
• 17:34
  But at the same time by and large, we were doing standard
• 17:37
  Shopify bills between 5,000 and 15,000 pounds, okay?
• 17:42
  And the revenue wise, they're probably doing 250 to a million,
• 17:46
  okay, 2050, cater minute, we then start picking up a couple
• 17:50
  of other brands and normally what's called on a retainer,
• 17:53
  like a economic growth package, but ongoing support again,
• 17:56
  obsess over marginal, gains conversion rate.
• 17:59
  Purchase average, order value. Okay.
• 18:02
  There are three things are really want to hang our hat on.
• 18:04
  So we start picking up some other brands, so we win a brand
• 18:07
  called taller, which is fantastic.
• 18:09
  Really up-and-coming brand, I've been a client of ours, with last
• 18:11
  couple years. Amazing brand to work with
• 18:14
  really exciting business. We've when Miley Cosmetics,
• 18:18
  they've been amazing. We took them off magenta and
• 18:20
  brought them into Shopify. We then got the opportunity to
• 18:22
  work with snug sofa. We then start working with Juicy
• 18:25
  Couture, and Magnum boots and high-tech and Feeler and Toddler
• 18:29
  actually, they build a business on these kind of drops.
• 18:32
  So today what you'll see is at 12:00 midday, Tyler a dropping a
• 18:35
  brand new range and it's all off the back of their founder.
• 18:38
  A really inspirational lady could Grace, Beverly credible
• 18:41
  job at Tyler. And so, they're launching this
• 18:44
  new rates today. So that's what you see.
• 18:46
  But then we started picking up Brands and then we want Beaver
• 18:49
  Town Brewery and I'll never forget, it was actually just a
• 18:51
  Christmas just gone, we won four new brands in four days and we
• 18:56
  document everything we do on LinkedIn.
• 18:58
  Because I've come from a very ordinary background and I want
• 19:01
  to show to people. If I can do it, anybody can do
• 19:03
  it. So, when a document, the journey
• 19:05
  from the moment we start, hopefully the moment we exit and
• 19:08
  so Beaver town. We one just before Christmas and
• 19:11
  now it's the new year was super excited.
• 19:13
  The team already excited, we're doing some great work with them.
• 19:16
  All of a sudden the standard business size goes from five to
• 19:20
  fifteen thousand projects. We're now doing pretty minimum
• 19:23
  spend twenty five thousand right through 250,000?
• 19:27
  Yeah, I think actually the minimum turnover for the
• 19:30
  business now is normally a million in Revenue, right?
• 19:33
  Okay. So one to 10, 10 to 100 and then
• 19:36
  100 million plus. We normally we've got probably
• 19:38
  20% of our clients had sent to a hundred eighty percent of our
• 19:41
  clients, a one-step Mel, just taking it back to your
• 19:44
  customers. What do you think?
• 19:46
  What's the thing that they love about you in terms of in that
• 19:49
  sense? You mentioned the three metrics,
• 19:51
  right? That they are looking to get
• 19:53
  conversion. Sorry, I missed the first one.
• 19:55
  Who's I'm going to generate repeat, purchase an average
• 19:57
  order value. So essentially, if you distill
• 20:00
  it down, what we're trying to do is grow the economy store, okay?
• 20:02
  Now, what we don't do is we don't drive traffic.
• 20:05
  So one thing, I think the clients love is that we have
• 20:08
  this dedication to something, and we do it very well, which is
• 20:11
  design, build and conversion rate optimization of Shopify
• 20:14
  stores. Okay.
• 20:15
  If you want WordPress, if you want weeks, if you want Magento,
• 20:19
  fantastic, go over there. It's not right for us.
• 20:22
  Okay? So we're very clear on what we
• 20:23
  stand for. That allows us to create
• 20:25
  operation efficiency with the agency and something we're
• 20:28
  always looking to refine and improve.
• 20:30
  Yeah. But then you think okay for the
• 20:31
  client we then have this unique methodology which takes them
• 20:35
  through about 40 points which is around a Kate.
• 20:38
  What are you doing around Returns?
• 20:40
  What you doing around loyalty? What are you doing right next to
• 20:42
  mess? What are you doing around email?
• 20:43
  Where you doing around upsell cross-sell?
• 20:45
  Links, Etc. Yeah and then, you start
• 20:48
  building out the tech Partners to match those boxes.
• 20:51
  Okay? So let's say you've got 40
• 20:53
  boxes, you've got rather than Tech Partners in each and then
• 20:57
  we start educating the client. So you put together a 90-day
• 21:00
  plan and you say, Alex your business, you've set that with
• 21:03
  me and said Nathan, I'd like to take this business to 20 million
• 21:06
  pound next year. Currently 14, we want to see how
• 21:10
  we can do that. And they lean on us to say,
• 21:12
  actually what we could do is if we took average order value from
• 21:14
  26 pounds, 229 pounds. Yeah, well, based on that amount
• 21:18
  of sales that takes you to 17 million, so you're getting
• 21:21
  closer now. If we improve repeat purchase
• 21:24
  of, people are buying one and a half times or two times rather
• 21:27
  than 1, we get even closer and we turn the leader further and
• 21:30
  then if we take conversion rate from 2 point, 2 to 2.5, Bob's
• 21:34
  your uncle, there's you 20 million.
• 21:35
  So we kind of just take the drum, take a bit more of a
• 21:38
  scientific approach. I mean there's massive tool.
• 21:40
  Can the agency ecosystem about Pro activity rather than
• 21:43
  reactivity? And I just ask that we walk the
• 21:45
  walk. Right.
• 21:46
  Like okay, you have a set hours each month.
• 21:48
  You have a 90-day roadmap, we deliver against the plan, you
• 21:51
  map it all out right now, ability you do it, you measure
• 21:54
  it you test it and then you grow with the client.
• 21:57
  And as long as you keep grabbing the client they continue to have
• 21:59
  your normally far. Tend to find more hours and say,
• 22:02
  well this is great but actually we don't want 40.
• 22:04
  I was next month. We want 60 because we want to do
• 22:06
  something else, you want to try this.
• 22:08
  And now our job is to stay finger on the pulse in the
• 22:10
  industry, which is why we do so much to the community stuff.
• 22:13
  Yeah. Because you need to be at the
• 22:15
  absolute Cutting Edge of where e-commerce is going.
• 22:18
  Okay, so there's nine thousand apps and the Shopify ecosystem.
• 22:21
  I can't possibly know the mall or befriend them all, but at the
• 22:24
  same time, the core players I want to be having coffee with
• 22:28
  lunches with dinners with when they have new releases when they
• 22:30
  have better features. I want to first on the cube.
• 22:33
  Okay, I'll clients benefit and then our clients go.
• 22:35
  Well, I'm going to go with this agency because not only do they
• 22:38
  have this obsession over marginal gains but actually they
• 22:41
  really care about us. They're constantly think about
• 22:43
  us. We're getting access to new
• 22:44
  features. We are getting ahead and staying
• 22:47
  ahead of the competition and that's where I want us to be got
• 22:50
  you. So, there's a couple I'm going
• 22:52
  to ask you about the future of e-commerce in a minute.
• 22:55
  But I've got a personal question.
• 22:57
  So I had to do a talk about e-commerce a couple of years
• 23:00
  back. And one of the points that I was
• 23:03
  trying to make, and it sort of came up, but your event and I
• 23:06
  just want to sort of, get your thoughts on it.
• 23:08
  So, one of the examples I use, I recorded my journey on a Well,
• 23:16
  known platform trying to buy a camera, right?
• 23:20
  And, and my point that I was making, I don't have you seen
• 23:22
  the Interstellar movie? No, I don't think so, right?
• 23:25
  So, Interstellar Earth's dying. They need to find a new planet.
• 23:28
  They find a plan. They go to a planet called
• 23:29
  Miller's planet on Miller's Planet.
• 23:32
  It's like dog years one minute on Earth.
• 23:35
  Sorry, one minute on that planet is equivalent to 7 years on
• 23:38
  Earth. My equation was I felt that
• 23:42
  e-commerce was in that sense. Right.
• 23:44
  One minute on your website. It is like equivalent to 7 of my
• 23:47
  personal minutes. So, unless engagement is there,
• 23:50
  then it's going to be very rapidly, become tedious for me,
• 23:54
  and then the second point was just as the way and this is the
• 23:58
  point that someone may not forget if it was you who you
• 24:00
  know, just as the way that catalog business has died, you
• 24:04
  know, like the Argos catalog or case catalog, you had thousands
• 24:07
  of pages of product, it didn't really die.
• 24:10
  All people did was scan it and put it online and then hope some
• 24:14
  video will create Interesting engagement and that's where I
• 24:18
  felt that e-commerce is challenged and not ability.
• 24:23
  Its ability to respond to physical retail lacks that
• 24:27
  element and but when then I'm just curious what just on that
• 24:31
  point. What are your thoughts?
• 24:33
  I think it's a brilliant question.
• 24:34
  I think that the one thing I'm seeing in particular is the
• 24:38
  mainly around personalization, okay and one thing we've lost,
• 24:41
  when it comes to omni-channel retailing is the offline.
• 24:44
  We can give that experience of You can go over, you can ask
• 24:47
  questions, you can look after people, you can get to know
• 24:49
  them, you can see them, you can style them except ra now ai and
• 24:53
  technology is moving at such a rate that they are trying to
• 24:57
  replicate this experience. Okay.
• 24:59
  So if we almost did a bit of role play and said okay I've
• 25:01
  walked into the store, I visited the website, we're onto similar
• 25:05
  Journeys, ones offline ones online someone's asked me how my
• 25:08
  day was day is in store. Your chat box has popped up from
• 25:13
  gorgeous or someone similar said how's your day?
• 25:15
  Okay, match the experience. Someone has come over to me in
• 25:20
  the store and asked if I can help with anything fine we can
• 25:23
  deliver a prompt online. We've got a similar experience,
• 25:26
  someone is now look to me and said I think you would look
• 25:29
  great in this and this is where we're starting to struggle.
• 25:32
  Okay. Online is how does the website
• 25:34
  know this person's preferences? This person's sizing this
• 25:38
  person's color preferences, etc, etc.
• 25:41
  And now you've got certain tools and Chrome extensions and all
• 25:45
  sorts that. Can say actually I know, based
• 25:47
  on your behavior that you're a size, six shoe that you love the
• 25:51
  color green that you like certain dresses and that you
• 25:54
  don't like, I don't know. Pleated skirts.
• 25:56
  But you do like something over here, therefore, I know that
• 25:59
  actually you're going to like this type of product so in its
• 26:03
  simplest sense, online, you get tools like segments.
• 26:05
  If I another personalization engines read by both of which
• 26:08
  were at the top. We went to the essentially
• 26:11
  saying if you're a male you're going to see this website.
• 26:14
  And if you're a female, You're going to say that on site data
• 26:17
  that they're using to build their models or off-site data as
• 26:20
  in. Yes.
• 26:21
  A good question. I think they very leave.
• 26:24
  Most of it is on site and therefore, the first experience
• 26:27
  you have, obviously is a little bit of learning and then it
• 26:29
  starts with that. It goes.
• 26:31
  However, I am believing that more and more of these tools.
• 26:34
  It taking off site experiences to then try and inform what the
• 26:37
  cap. So, I think the way in which we
• 26:40
  do this particular in this cooking this world as well or
• 26:42
  the this challenge around data and Privacy.
• 26:47
  That's a real challenge, right? Because in store, we can still
• 26:50
  use our eyes and we can use common sense except ra online.
• 26:53
  We've got these blockers and these hurdles to be able to say
• 26:56
  action when a personalized experience, you know.
• 26:58
  So that to me is where actually the web needs to go.
• 27:02
  Is how do we really complete that journey and then you've got
• 27:04
  the post purchase bit. So let's say you go to the till
• 27:07
  or you go to the checkout. You having small talk at the
• 27:10
  till exception of the chance for an upsell we can do that on a
• 27:13
  classic similar. Yeah.
• 27:14
  Then it's the then it's the Boxing experience, then it's the
• 27:17
  after cell. Then it's the email to say thank
• 27:19
  you so much. Then it's the little touch, the
• 27:21
  surprise and Delight, which is when you install, you ask when
• 27:24
  their birthday was. And when their birthday came,
• 27:26
  they got a card and a little cake.
• 27:28
  Why did you do that online? You have to collect that detail
• 27:31
  detail. Sometimes you have to feed it
• 27:32
  into the CRM into a clavia or something similar.
• 27:35
  So I believe we've still got a little way to go to properly
• 27:39
  deliver a real omni-channel experience.
• 27:42
  Yeah. But you think the pandemic is a
• 27:44
  lot of talk about this. We probably move 30 years from
• 27:49
  where we were in terms of e-commerce in three.
• 27:51
  Yeah, just everything exploded right?
• 27:54
  Think is what happened with your Amazon's of the world?
• 27:57
  And people like that is we suddenly expected all our
• 28:00
  expectations just tell next, right?
• 28:03
  Everything was, I want it and I want it now and I'm going to use
• 28:06
  prime. I'm going to have it.
• 28:08
  I'm going to order in the morning by evening.
• 28:10
  I'm going to have it and now you take that and you look at all
• 28:12
  like Bodo or something like that where you can now have Same-day
• 28:16
  delivery within something like Shopify.
• 28:18
  Right? Yeah.
• 28:19
  Goodness. And catchment you want to buy
• 28:20
  something you can be with you this afternoon.
• 28:22
  I think people's patience is certainly changed from the
• 28:27
  lockdown. In my appearing in people's
• 28:29
  expectations. Have massively shifted.
• 28:31
  Yeah. Well, now that it's the first
• 28:33
  time in online history that retailers are passing back, the
• 28:38
  charges were returns, which is a whole nother conversation.
• 28:42
  I'm just conscious of time. So you mentioned, you know,
• 28:45
  you're looking. At 3,000 different plugins, you
• 28:47
  can't be experts in everything. Yeah, I'm just curious.
• 28:50
  You mentioned some of the challenges of e-commerce, you
• 28:52
  know, like the omni-channel experience.
• 28:54
  Where do you see the future? What does that look like for
• 28:57
  you? I think it's going to be that's
• 28:59
  got to be started with the AI conversation.
• 29:01
  You look at the chat to be teased at our world Shopify just
• 29:03
  really something called Shopify editions.
• 29:05
  Now, like I say, when I talk about obsessing over over
• 29:08
  Shopify and growth of the agency, when the platform you're
• 29:10
  supporting drops, 100 new features almost twice a year.
• 29:14
  You're like, wow. It's a lot to keep on top of not
• 29:17
  to mention all the nine thousand apps that molten and they're
• 29:20
  always evolving Etc. So, the first thing is around AI
• 29:24
  chat, gbt Shopify of releasing called Shopify, magic, which is
• 29:27
  allowing people to kind of have their own product descriptions
• 29:30
  written. Okay.
• 29:32
  You then start thinking about content, and how we can make
• 29:35
  sure that within Shopify has made a massive transition
• 29:39
  towards a B2B, and I will see far more retailers using beta be
• 29:43
  more as an opportunity to channel.
• 29:46
  Of all the things I'm really excited about in the next 12, to
• 29:49
  18 months is how many more Brands go down the route of
• 29:51
  internationalisation I think with brexit a lot of businesses
• 29:55
  certainly here just paused and we little uncertain and what to
• 29:57
  do with cetera. Yeah I was starting to say
• 30:00
  actually with someone like an out of our has avalara to
• 30:04
  understand the taxation rules, Etc with Shopify plus and our
• 30:08
  expansion stores or which Shopify markets.
• 30:10
  And now markets Pro coming down the line suddenly selling in
• 30:14
  localized. Languages with relevant,
• 30:17
  currencies is not difficult, right?
• 30:20
  So actually the barriers to entry are reducing you.
• 30:22
  Then look at the Fulfillment options and before we know it
• 30:26
  we're in a world where little old Johnny is doing x amount of
• 30:29
  Revenue in the UK but actually they're doing great revenues in
• 30:32
  Australia. Some in Asia and there are
• 30:34
  Global business goddamn it. That's what I expect to see in
• 30:37
  the next 12. To 18 months is for more round
• 30:40
  Ai and automation a lot more round operation efficiency now
• 30:44
  does this mean redundancies? Within retailers, I don't think
• 30:47
  so. I think it means reallocation of
• 30:49
  resource to say, actually we don't need someone now to be
• 30:52
  writing product descriptions day in day out.
• 30:54
  They can you go and change their role and drive growth in the
• 30:57
  business in another way. So I think that's really
• 30:59
  healthy. I also would just err on the
• 31:02
  side of caution that your chatty beauties of the world.
• 31:04
  Aren't just going to solve things overnight right now.
• 31:06
  There's, we were talking last night at dinner.
• 31:08
  That Google can see what's been written by person versus a bot
• 31:12
  excetera. So, actually you have the base
• 31:15
  PG, Jep chats GPT will give you a base 17 of the content, fine,
• 31:20
  but if you're not changing it and making it your own excetera,
• 31:23
  then actually, it's just a bit of a black magic kind of hacked,
• 31:28
  and I think you'll get found out.
• 31:30
  So yeah, AI internationalisation the rise of beta.
• 31:34
  B. And really exploring whole says
• 31:35
  our Channel, I think is what we're going to see more and more
• 31:37
  of analects 18 months. And certainly from the leads
• 31:39
  we're seeing coming through, that's the flavor of what people
• 31:43
  looking at the only other thing I would mention is that The the
• 31:45
  whole no code Revolution, should I think more and more people are
• 31:49
  saying, like, Shopify 2.0 was rolled out which made everything
• 31:51
  from 1 modulo, great for split testing, that was a huge step
• 31:55
  forward and it made that are on retainer with an agency.
• 31:59
  You're getting them to do stuff that's going to drive growth as
• 32:01
  opposed to changing layouts of pages.
• 32:04
  Etc. The one thing I would say is
• 32:07
  that now, yeah, there's this whole model of agency to client
• 32:11
  relationship. I think clients have for getting
• 32:13
  far more Savvy and saying actually agency if Going to be
• 32:16
  with me for 20 hours. 40 hours, 6 hours, a month, whatever it
• 32:18
  is. Yeah, he's some kind of return.
• 32:20
  I'm going to touch and keep your eyes totally cetera.
• 32:22
  So a really exciting time for the world of e-commerce.
• 32:25
  People are going to be constantly bringing out new
• 32:28
  features. Consi trying to jump on the
• 32:29
  bandwagon of the next big thing Etc.
• 32:32
  But I really encourage people not to lose sight of the core
• 32:34
  principles of average order value, repeat purchase and
• 32:36
  conversion rate those three on going away anytime soon.
• 32:40
  It's a wonderful moment to end the the show on but I do have
• 32:45
  one final question. It's again, a personal one and
• 32:48
  I'm curious on your experience. Does dwell on a website increase
• 32:55
  conversion or not and I know that's subjective.
• 32:59
  But is there a correlate? Have you seen a correlation of
• 33:02
  it? I haven't and I would say no.
• 33:07
  And the reason I would say no is you I've had a couple of clients
• 33:09
  with configurators and there's a lot of talk about gamification,
• 33:14
  and we use a great tool called a DT.
• 33:17
  That's all really exciting. But sometimes they're a little
• 33:20
  bit gimmicky and the amount of people that particularly look at
• 33:23
  the car model. They'll build most unbelievable.
• 33:27
  Porsche how many people then go and buy said, Porsche ever sees
• 33:32
  dollar signs look around and get all engrossed by giving it a
• 33:35
  crazy trim and lovely exterior, excetera.
• 33:38
  Yeah, and then do nothing with it.
• 33:40
  So, yeah, for me, I still encourage all cut.
• 33:45
  All of our clients as much as possible to not forget that.
• 33:48
  Yes, we want to give people the opportunity to have a great
• 33:51
  experience online and we want them to read content and we want
• 33:54
  to educate them except Surah when it gets the Crux of it.
• 33:58
  We will get a to B as quickly as possible case.
• 34:02
  How can we get them from? Landing page, but that's product
• 34:04
  page collection page or home page through the checkout and
• 34:07
  Shopify release one page checkout.
• 34:09
  So we've attached less seem less friction, less or less friction
• 34:13
  more frictionless. Essentially, how do you get them
• 34:16
  from A to B as quickly as possible and turn them from a
• 34:19
  one-off customer to repeat customer into a raving fan and
• 34:22
  brand Advocate. That's still so important
• 34:24
  brilliant. What a great way to end Nathan.
• 34:27
  Thank you so much. Thank you again.
• 34:29
  Take care.