Latest / The Retail Podcast / Crafting Authentic E-Commerce Experiences

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Crafting Authentic E-Commerce Experiences · The Retail Podcast

0:00
Hey, so I think it's going to go, it's going back right now.
0:03
It's going to go towards impersonal perfect.
0:05
Yeah, it's going to go to human driven again because it, it, it
0:10
looks too fake. It's it's not real People like
0:14
they like to buy from people. They don't like to buy from
0:17
corporations. Hello and welcome to the Retail
0:30
Podcast. I've got a big smile on my face
0:33
because we've got an authentic, real show for you.
0:36
Do they don't that the others aren't authentic or real?
0:39
It's just already, from the few minutes that we've had before
0:41
they're the start of the show, I could tell that we're in for a
0:45
treat today. And we're lucky enough to be
0:48
joined by Dave Munson, who's the founder and CEO and president of
0:53
Saddleback Leather. Hopefully, Dave, that's correct.
0:56
I've got that right. Well, you couldn't have got it
0:57
wrong. That Lady was all Yeah.
1:01
We'll take that as a win. And also I'm joined by Senior
1:05
Director of Brand and Content Marketing, Melissa Dixon from
1:08
Big Commerce. Hi Alex, Thanks for having me.
1:11
Absolute pleasure. So what we're going to do is
1:14
traditionally when we talk about e-commerce and digital,
1:17
sometimes I think people get lost in this sort of where's the
1:21
customer, right? Where is the person we're doing
1:23
all of this for? And so for me to have the
1:25
opportunity to have Someone Like You, Dave, who has gone through
1:29
the journey of not only have you got beautiful products, but you
1:33
also have bought those beautiful products online.
1:37
And if you haven't had a chance, please go and have a look at
1:40
Saddleback's website. Their, their products are
1:43
beautiful. And I'm, I'm hopefully, you
1:47
know, once I'm in the US, I'll be getting online and getting
1:50
myself a satchel or something. But anyway, the relationship
1:53
between e-commerce and product sometimes gets lost.
1:58
And So what I'd like to do is spend some time with Dave
2:01
talking about his journey on, you know, the the challenges
2:05
that he faced as a the CEO president of this brand that's
2:09
growing every year, going from strength to strength.
2:11
But it's not always easy and there are challenges and you
2:14
have to overcome that. And then we'll focus with big
2:17
commerce in terms of how they help Saddleback.
2:19
We will start with Saddleback first and then we'll come to
2:22
you, if that's okay. Melissa, absolutely perfect.
2:25
Thank you. So Dave, I was just talking
2:28
there about the the challenges in terms of Saddleback leather
2:32
and and what you face from an e-commerce perspective as your
2:35
store group. Can you just sort of shine a
2:38
light on that for us? What did that look?
2:40
Like so when I started Saddleback, I started selling
2:44
pretty consistently in 2003. And so website, my website was
2:50
eBay, Yeah, and. Then at least then that's run
2:54
off people. I should, we should have laughed
2:55
cause some people do pay, yeah? And then, you know, I just
2:58
thought, well, if you just have a website, people just start
3:00
coming to it. And.
3:01
But I didn't know about, you know, all of the technical
3:04
things. A friend of mine made him.
3:06
Yeah, kind of like a, it was like a third grade extra credit
3:09
project website. And it was kind of working.
3:12
There were a lot of websites, you know, then and as as many,
3:17
you know, and, and it was everything is more pure.
3:19
And so. Yeah.
3:22
Then we got onto different platforms and we finally came to
3:25
big commerce and had needed an, ER, full ERP.
3:28
We've tried somewhere else. I don't want to disparage the
3:30
awful and horrible company that I was with before that was.
3:36
Cool. Oh my gosh.
3:40
And so, but we found big commerce and and we tied that in
3:44
with Acumatica. They tie in real nicely and it's
3:47
just so everyone so easy. Everyone's just like.
3:50
So that's been really helpful to have something you can use.
3:53
We had a space shuttle before and there 1000 switches
3:57
everywhere and I didn't know which ones did what.
3:59
And this is just there are 1000 switches.
4:01
But that just though like fly go forward to go backwards.
4:05
It's, it's, it's really simple to you.
4:07
So we really enjoyed. That's really helped us out a
4:09
lot that when that when there's so much stuff, it's like having
4:12
data, when there's so much data, you don't know what to do with
4:14
any of it. Got you.
4:16
It's low. Just the the most important
4:18
thing to write in front and that's that simplifying our
4:21
business was, is, is what's been helpful.
4:24
Did you see obviously the products and, and when we put
4:28
the video out, I'll have some footage of your products so
4:30
people can actually, you know, keep talking about your
4:32
products, But ultimately for me, it's about feel about smell
4:36
about the look of these products, right.
4:38
So how, what what was going through your mind when you were
4:42
sort of crafting the E the customer experience online, you
4:45
know, tailoring your e-commerce platform to meet?
4:48
I think they are unique demands. I, I guess you and perfumes, you
4:52
know, in, in the sense that you want people to smell stuff, but
4:54
you want to buy them online. How did you, what did that look
4:57
like for you in terms of these tools that you've mentioned?
5:00
How did you create that seamless shopping experience?
5:04
Yeah. So what I found is that if
5:07
people like you, then they will buy from you.
5:10
People when they walk into a church for example, within the
5:12
1st 5 minutes they'll they'll decide whether they're going to
5:15
come back or not. And we have when they come on to
5:17
the website to let people know what you're all about and with
5:22
the textures of the website, the colours of the website, the the
5:26
great and glorious front photo, we don't, we don't have a
5:29
carousel going around because only we found only 1% of people
5:33
click on that. But we want the happy smiley
5:37
place. This is where I want to be.
5:39
That's me right there. I want that in my life.
5:43
Go, you get that. And then they go look around for
5:45
something that they want to buy. We want them.
5:48
So we're very relational. So we want warmth.
5:53
We love people. We really, really love people.
5:56
And so we want warmth. We want to let them get to know
6:00
us. So I have our Saddleback story,
6:01
which is a really interesting business story, how we start it.
6:05
That's kind of our highlight. So we highlight my dog.
6:10
The the story of my dog blew in every eyes when they read it.
6:14
And so we try to make it real personal and warm and swear they
6:17
go, I like these people. There's something about them
6:19
that I like, tell stories. So because we're only online,
6:23
they can't smell it, you know, they can't paste it, lick it,
6:26
then nothing. So it is like you want to do all
6:28
of that. So, so yeah, we have to make it
6:31
warm and personable. And that's, that's our our key.
6:35
That's what we strive after all the time.
6:37
Dave, do you, I, if you don't mind, I should have done this
6:40
right up front. Could you?
6:41
It's just when you said the story, I, because I've spent
6:44
some time on your website, I've just taken for granted listening
6:48
some of the watches of this have all been to your website and
6:51
they've seen your story and you know about how your, how you,
6:55
how it all came to life for you. Would you mind just taking us
6:58
through that? Just if you don't mind, just
6:59
like, just spend a few minutes of bringing that bit to life.
7:02
Yeah, sure. So, so I was teaching English
7:04
down in Mexico in 1999 and I, I was 28 and I thought, and I
7:08
thought I need a bag, you know, to carry around my school book,
7:11
books. And I walked everywhere.
7:13
I think I had like a jet sport backpack or something from
7:15
college. And so I thought, what would
7:17
Indiana Jones carry? And so that guy's a man and, you
7:21
know, and everyone I bought a whip when after I saw the movie,
7:24
I went to Mexico and I have Tijuana and bought a whip from
7:27
the, the market there. And I was like, OK.
7:31
And so I looked around for a bag, couldn't find one like the
7:33
one I I had in my head. And I didn't know that I liked
7:36
designing at the time. I just knew that I, I, I thought
7:39
everyone could see things in their head like that.
7:40
So, so I found a guy making bags and I said, hey, could you make
7:44
up this bag? If, if I sketch it out and I
7:46
don't want any breakable parts. And so, you know, our slogan is
7:49
they'll fight over it when you're dead.
7:50
But I didn't have it yet. I just said, you know, when I'm
7:52
dead and, and the grandkids are rummaging through my office and
7:55
they're fighting over things, I want them to fight over this
7:57
bag. Oh, wow.
7:58
And so, and so, yeah, he made it in 1999.
8:02
And then when I got back to the up to Portland, OR where I'm
8:04
from, people were four or five times a day asking me, excuse
8:08
me, Sir, where can I find a bag like that?
8:10
That is amazing. Where can I get one or where can
8:12
I get 1? And I thought, hey, so I, I
8:14
mean, I was a youth pastor. So I thought, I thought, hey,
8:17
this would support my, my youth work and I wouldn't have to
8:21
raise money. I wouldn't have to get a job.
8:23
I can go anywhere. So I, I started having some more
8:25
made, I moved to Juarez, Mexico with my black lab.
8:28
Yeah. And we slept in a little 300, no
8:31
$100 a month apartment on the floor, no air conditioning, no
8:35
heat, just on the floor for three years.
8:38
And all the money I was saving though, I was sending down
8:41
putting it into the Bank of his father and son.
8:43
They would send bags up on the bus to to the Juarez bus station
8:47
and then I would get them and take them to El Paso.
8:49
And I sold them on A at a friend's mechanic shop at night
8:52
on eBay. And in 2006 I was in Panama
8:56
doing some photos of the bag and a suitcase that I had and and I
9:01
met my wife on Myspace. I checked.
9:04
Myspace. Oh my.
9:06
Goodness, I was like oh hubba hubba, shoot pretty.
9:09
So started talking, flew to San Antonio, TX and started kissing.
9:15
And next thing you know, we got married and just a few months
9:19
later. And then nine months and 15
9:23
minutes later, we had our little daughter.
9:25
And we, yeah, just been a in 2008, we started the factory in
9:30
Mexico where all day memories are.
9:32
And it's, oh, it's this beautiful part of the country
9:34
and but tanneries everywhere and everyone knows leather shoe
9:39
manufacturing capital. And so we started the factory
9:41
there because no one cares about your, your stuff as much as you
9:44
do. So we, we started making our own
9:46
things and it's just been growing ever since.
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And we just celebrated 16 years with our own factory.
9:52
Oh, wow, last month. No, no, this earlier this month.
9:55
And so we have a lot of the original employees now we have a
9:59
school with a, a school there. It's an all English homeschool
10:03
curriculum. So for all of the kids of the
10:05
employees to give them a English is a big, huge deal.
10:09
And we have marriage classes and parenting classes and we have
10:12
counselling because we love our people.
10:14
And so ministry never stopped. I just used to be with youth,
10:17
but it just continued on in a different way with our people at
10:21
the factory. So.
10:22
That's fantastic and it actually lends itself to the sort of the
10:26
question. So as you've gone on this
10:28
journey, if I, if I understand this quickly, you've always sold
10:31
online, is that is that correct? Exclusively online, yes.
10:36
And so obviously we were in focus on your previous provider
10:40
who was who was a very tough experience for you and they'll
10:44
and you were with eBay. Can you just tell me in what do
10:48
you look for then? Because you must have some, I
10:51
don't know, secret Spidey sense that tells you that these are
10:55
the sorts of in order to improve the website.
10:58
I mean, I know you said you use data for the carousel, for
11:01
example. You know, you weren't getting a
11:02
lot of clicks and carousels. So that's not where we're going
11:05
to focus. How do you decide on where you
11:07
are focusing? So on conversion rate, because
11:12
the goal of a business is to make money.
11:15
Like if you don't make money, then if you can't leave the
11:19
company to making money, then at the end of the year, then who
11:23
cares? All of the activities you do if
11:25
you don't make money. So it's a lot easier to get to
11:28
convert more of the customers that you already get to the
11:30
website than to get more, more people to the website.
11:34
So working on viral videos and all of that sort of thing.
11:37
That's that's nice and everything.
11:39
And do an NCO that that helps get more customers in.
11:42
Yeah, once they get there, if you can, you go from 2% to 4%
11:47
and you just doubled your sales for the whole year.
11:49
Yeah, holy cow. And so split testing and doing
11:53
all kinds of just what, what? So we're looking at marketing.
11:57
We go, yeah, we go what, what videos will help people to make
12:01
a decision today and we work on what will have the most impact
12:05
for which product. So we look and which colour.
12:08
And so for a flight back, for example, one of our briefcases,
12:12
which is the best colour and then we'll go on that colour and
12:16
then we'll do a video explaining and taking all the questions
12:19
that customer service asks gets asked about it so that people
12:23
don't ask customer service and they, and it's really easy,
12:27
easy, easy. So that's where we focus is more
12:30
on conversion rate than anything else.
12:32
This is one of the questions that I'm I'm sort of just made
12:35
me think of in terms of your digital touch points through or
12:39
your path to purchase like the, the mission that people go
12:42
through your store. You mentioned data earlier.
12:46
Do you feel that you have enough data now on the bringing the
12:50
invisible and making that visible as people go through
12:53
your store? Are you happy with that level of
12:56
visibility that you have now? You know, it's always changes.
13:02
It's always changing. I, you know, when the iPads
13:05
first came out, someone, one of my friends said, dude, you'd
13:08
crush it if you had an iPad case.
13:10
I mean, there's nothing out there.
13:12
There's like you would do so well.
13:14
And I go, it was like the iPad 2 and I go, but I do have an iPad
13:18
case. He goes, no, you don't.
13:21
I looked at all of your website and I couldn't find it.
13:23
And so I made it visible. I made it like on the top
13:26
navigation iPad cases got you sold thousands of them.
13:31
Yeah, totally right. Sold thousands.
13:33
So it's my fault if, if I can't, if I, it's not their fault that
13:39
they just they're too dumb or something to find it.
13:42
It's that I had 7 drop downs to get to it.
13:45
Yeah. And so, so yeah, no, that's,
13:49
that's a big deal. People finding and a lot of
13:51
things they don't know that they need it.
13:54
Yeah. Like we have this little, this
13:56
little serving little tray here, little ballet tray.
14:00
OK all. Yeah, yeah.
14:02
And and pipes and cigar cutters and stuff and no one.
14:07
I didn't know I needed it until I got till I designed it.
14:10
It was like, holy cow, it is awesome.
14:14
And now, yeah, we sell oodles of them, but people don't know they
14:17
they need it until they find it. So part of the really thinking
14:21
through and of course thinking through what, what is the most
14:24
profitable. Also, our trunk is not very
14:27
profitable, but it's, you know, $5900.
14:29
But I would rather sell this little serving little ballet
14:32
tray all day long over a trunk because I more profitable.
14:37
The data I use is, is which pieces are more profitable.
14:41
So at the end of the year, if I focus on which briefcase, which
14:44
duffel bag, I focus on, not necessarily trying to show
14:48
everything to everyone because they can't see it all.
14:51
I got you. Well, I mean, again, we're
14:53
coming up to hopefully this episode will be out in the next
14:56
couple of weeks. I think it'll probably be out
14:58
next week. So it'll be well in the, you
15:00
know, Christmas period. Christmas people are Christmas
15:03
shopping. I'm just curious the data that
15:05
you use for colours and again, because you've been doing this
15:09
for so long, where are you, what, what, what's sort of
15:12
driving that for you? And do you see any trends for
15:15
this Christmas that you think, you know, I don't know, there's
15:18
a colour that's really from your website, you're pulling that
15:21
insight and then that's going to go into your holiday season,
15:24
marketing or e-commerce? Yeah, so we used to do
15:30
snowflakes going, coming down on our website, you know, Yeah,
15:33
you'd absolutely, I'm hearing yeah, little, but all of those
15:37
little details make it like holly around around the the our
15:42
logo. It slows down our our load time
15:45
a little bit, but it just makes people smile.
15:48
If you can make people smile and Yep, and have warmth and have
15:52
smiley pictures of people smiling, they're happy they're
15:55
with other people. That's what everyone wants.
15:57
So like this leather right here, it's a has a warmth to it as
16:01
opposed to like a a greyish brown.
16:04
It just feels warmth. Fireplaces Reds will have a lot
16:09
of Reds in Christmassy red. Everyone just likes red.
16:15
So warmer, warmer colours. Red's not serious.
16:20
Yeah, I think people like warmth.
16:22
Got you. When you when you look to the
16:24
future of e-commerce, do you see any major?
16:28
Do you, I mean, I'm, I'm asking you to look into your looking
16:31
glass. Well, what do you see the major
16:34
trends? I see it's gonna swing from just
16:40
I I think it's gonna swing away from no personality to heavy.
16:46
It's gonna go back. Right now it's it's swinging
16:49
towards AI driven content. Yeah.
16:52
And every word is perfect and it flows like perfectly.
16:57
Everything's perfect. But that's not real life.
17:00
Yeah, well, don't make mistakes. People make mistakes.
17:03
People use commas and and they they're live and they maybe
17:08
ramble a little. So I think it's going to go,
17:11
it's going back right now. It's going to go towards
17:13
impersonal perfect. It's going to go to human driven
17:17
again because it, it, it looks too fake.
17:21
It's it's not real people like they like to buy from people.
17:25
They don't like to buy from corporations and so I think it's
17:29
going to go back to very being very personal and and less
17:34
corporate. OK.
17:35
So it's, it's really, really interesting.
17:37
We're obviously we're talking about Christmas and, and the,
17:40
and the holiday season in general because it's let's look
17:43
at it as a festive season with the economy and the backdrop of
17:47
the economy. I know we've got the election in
17:48
a couple of weeks, but life is still tough for for a lot of
17:52
people out there. I'm just curious how you go
17:55
about your pricing strategy. Your you mentioned about your
17:59
profit strategy, if you like, you know, selling the trays over
18:02
the the big suitcase or or trunk, that's what you call it
18:06
trunk. I'm just curious what how do you
18:09
decide especially in like a tough economy where, where
18:12
people are very price or yeah price conscious?
18:16
Yeah. So we found 299 is it?
18:21
You'll sell way more at 299 than you will at 300.
18:24
So as in like two 299 not 299? $299 you.
18:30
Sell 9290. Nine.
18:32
Yeah, right. Candy bar now, yeah.
18:35
But two. Yeah, 299.
18:37
Yeah. Someone will, someone will buy
18:39
something. It's kind of a a spontaneous so.
18:42
Well, they have been good to be this year.
18:44
I'll get something like that. But 319, 329, anything over
18:49
that, it starts getting like, think about it, it's height
18:53
right now. Do I really need this?
18:54
But with retail therapy, I'm sad, I'm depressed, I don't feel
18:58
good. Everything's tough.
18:59
I haven't had any luxury in my life.
19:00
What the heck, I'm going to buy something and they want to feel
19:03
nice. And so when people and when so
19:06
we we are promoting selling. Our average order value went
19:09
down this year over prior years, this year and last year over the
19:13
years before because we started focusing on selling lower, I
19:18
started designing lower dollar pieces, still high quality.
19:21
We didn't lower quality at all, but things that bring people
19:24
joy. So I would rather sell 1010
19:27
little ballet trays than sell 11 briefcase.
19:30
And it's easier to sell 10 little ballet trays than one
19:33
briefcase. I got all.
19:35
And so, so we've been promoting lower dollar, still high
19:39
quality, lower dollar stuff to our people and it's been
19:42
successful. That's phenomenal.
19:44
So. So something for everyone, as
19:47
they would say. Yes.
19:49
Right. OK, fantastic.
19:52
Melissa, I know that big commerce does a lot of research
19:55
for the holiday season and you, you must have so much back end
19:59
data that you you have. I'm just curious what what types
20:03
of trends are you seeing for this 2024 holiday season?
20:07
Yeah, well, I, I wish I had all the data.
20:11
We have a lot, a couple things are really standing out.
20:16
So first and foremost, you know, we always talk about, oh, it
20:19
seems like the holidays start earlier every year.
20:22
They do, you know, I think we've seen this for a couple years
20:25
now, but retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Target, they're rolling
20:32
out, you know, huge shopping events in October.
20:35
So that's really a standout thing.
20:38
We also know that I believe it was, I think it's NRS reported
20:43
that nearly half, like 45% of holiday shoppers plan to buy
20:47
items before November. I mean, we're almost in November
20:51
now. So I, I, it's likely, you know,
20:54
held true. But I think, I think what that
20:57
means for these brands and retailers is that kind of just
21:02
like Dave said, holiday sales, pricing, promotions, discounts,
21:06
they remain essential to incentivize shoppers in this
21:10
season. So Cyber Week also, those five
21:14
days between Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, those are still
21:18
huge. It's still the biggest shopping
21:20
week of the year. We see that with our big
21:22
commerce customers, the broader industry trends reflect that.
21:27
So it's really important for these brands and retailers to
21:31
sort of strike a balance between the early promotions and also
21:35
the big like traditional holiday deals.
21:38
So basically just the span of the holiday season is longer
21:42
than it used to be. So that's a big one that that
21:46
has a really notable impact on on shopping trends.
21:51
And then also another one worth calling out, I think is the
21:54
increased demand for flexible payment options.
21:59
Like that's huge. Dave spoke a lot about check out
22:02
and that is that's critical. So we're talking about things
22:05
like digital wallets, the NPL, and that's buy now, pay later,
22:09
even crypto, You know, I would say all of those are key.
22:15
Buy now, pay later has really interesting data around it.
22:20
The most recent forecast that I read, which I think was in
22:24
August, the US buy now pay later market is projected to reach 94
22:30
billion this year and then exceed 100 billion in 2025.
22:35
This is massive and it's, you know, it's not for every
22:39
shopper, it's not for every business, but it's important to
22:43
see how these trends are growing because really the overarching,
22:48
the overarching trend is the need for flexibility.
22:51
So either it's BNPL or whether it's digital wallets, it's all
22:55
about making sure that your customers have the options that
22:59
they want. And then the last standout trend
23:02
that I'll really mention this should come as no surprise to
23:05
anybody, but mobile commerce is just keeps going up.
23:10
Like I, I was looking at, I think I use E marketer a lot to
23:15
pull data and six in 10 US consumers are using mobile
23:19
wallets to make payments this year.
23:21
So mobile is, is just on the rise.
23:25
And that's of course going to be crucial for, for the holiday
23:29
season. In fact, I don't know if you, if
23:32
you recall this Alex or Dave, but last year, last holiday
23:36
season was the first year that mobile sales overall surpassed
23:42
desktop. That's a big deal.
23:44
You know, it, that was just last year.
23:46
It was, it was the first year that we did that.
23:48
So that it was 51% last year. It's projected to be 53% this
23:52
year. So what that means is that
23:55
having that mobile friendly experiences is absolutely a
23:58
must. So that's, you know, mobile
24:00
friendly design, smooth navigation, a layout that
24:04
basically works seamlessly on any screen.
24:07
Melissa, I've got a question about that.
24:09
I'm sorry, interrupting. Sure.
24:10
Do you have that by category or like are people buying yachts on
24:14
their on their phone or are they buying like is it, is it skirts?
24:18
I mean, yeah. So.
24:19
Really, what is it? Yeah.
24:21
So definitely look at, if you're interested, look at like NRF
24:24
data, they always have, they always have the best.
24:28
And then there's also Salesforce and Adobe for our big commerce
24:32
data. And in the broader industry
24:34
trends, what we're seeing is that people are becoming more
24:37
and more comfortable buying those big purchases.
24:41
So whereas in the beginning, maybe pre pandemic, it was, you
24:46
know, mostly just fashion or small goods, we're starting to
24:51
see the industry starting to see larger purchases becoming more
24:54
common on mobile. People got more comfortable with
24:58
it during COVID, and now across generations, they're starting to
25:03
embrace it. So yeah, it's really interesting
25:06
to watch. So those are a few of the key
25:08
trends that we really see. And of course, you know, I mean,
25:11
retailers are still gonna have their fair share of challenges
25:15
like every year talked about economic uncertainty,
25:18
macroeconomics, you know, and they're still always planning
25:21
for traffic surges and demand. But I think that what it all
25:27
comes down to whether you're whether you're leveraging, you
25:31
know, some of the latest technologies, whether you're
25:33
adhering to these trends, trying to apply them to your business.
25:37
It's really about during the holiday season, I think just
25:40
having that clear communication with your shoppers to manage
25:45
their expectations and just, you know, telling them, telling them
25:49
when things are going to arrive. Having really clear best sellers
25:54
like you talked about Dave with the iPad case, like that's a
25:57
perfect example. And make sure your site's
25:59
optimised for search and, you know, merchandising and having
26:03
your best sellers out there communicating those discounts
26:06
and just strong communication throughout.
26:09
If you were going to make a list, I say the top five things
26:12
for the trends that you're saying that I need to be getting
26:14
my business aware of or ready for trading or the holiday
26:18
season. Well, I say five.
26:21
Maybe it could be less, it could be more, but I'm just curious
26:24
what, what are those features that I need on my e-commerce
26:28
site to hit those? Yeah, great question.
26:30
I would argue that in a lot of the data back to the sub, Dave,
26:36
you, you kind of spoke to this too.
26:38
Check out is the most critical point, right?
26:42
And you want to remove all friction.
26:45
So I would say overall it's the checkout experience.
26:49
Now a huge piece of that is having the flexible payment
26:53
options. So for example, we at Big
26:57
Commerce, we just launched Fast Lane by PayPal.
27:02
That's a good example of one. We're actually, I, I love how
27:06
Big Commerce is always innovating with payments too.
27:08
And with our partners, we were actually the first e-commerce
27:11
platform to launch Fast Lane by PayPal.
27:14
So that's really exciting 'cause we're trying to stay on the
27:17
forefront for our customers so that they can deliver the best
27:21
experience to their customers. So check out and payments is in
27:27
in my mind and based on everyone I've spoken to and all the
27:31
number one absolutely hands down.
27:34
These like Fast Lane are really interesting because it's just
27:37
this immediate purchase where you know, you don't have to put
27:41
in any information. These are just things that
27:44
during the holiday season especially, people have a lot of
27:47
shopping to do and don't want the friction.
27:51
So I would say payments and checkout are #1 I would also say
27:57
that I do think optimising for mobile is huge.
28:00
It a must and if you know there may be delays like people may
28:06
have put things off like we're seeing now that like I was just
28:10
saying if mobile purchases or eclipsing desktop this is no
28:14
longer a nice to have. I was just talking to one of our
28:18
customers actually leading a panel on mobile commerce last
28:23
week. One of our customers homedics,
28:26
great brand and the the woman that I was speaking with was
28:31
talking about the fold does not exist.
28:34
You know, for so many years we lived by this idea of the fold
28:38
and merchandising and now it's, you know, it's obsolete.
28:42
So designing for any device, especially mobile forward is be
28:47
great. I think too there's also, I
28:54
would say what's also paramount and this, this is not a trend,
28:57
but just the direction of e-commerce and commerce in
29:02
general is just optimising for Omni channel commerce and the
29:07
connectivity between channels. I mean, that's, that's huge.
29:10
You know, we have a big commerce, one of the ways that
29:14
we're helping people. We have our subsidiary brand
29:17
Feedinomics, which for many is like a feed management solution,
29:23
which is so fantastic. And I, I just want to, this is
29:28
one that I just want to like scream it from the rooftops
29:30
because I'm like, wait a second, why isn't everybody using this?
29:34
It's basically what it does is like harmonises your product
29:38
data across all your channels. It automates and optimises your
29:42
product catalogue to ensure that your product listings are
29:45
showing up accurately and optimise across all these
29:49
channels. Everything like marketplaces,
29:51
social, you know, your website ads like anywhere.
29:55
So that means your products are that much more discoverable.
29:59
And implication is then you know, you're reaching more
30:03
people, you're making more sales.
30:04
So I think Omni channel connectivity is is another one
30:08
that's paramount. And yeah, Wilson to us for five.
30:12
I'll keep going. I mean, I do think that AI
30:16
powered functionality like there's there are so many use
30:20
cases that are so much broader than people even realise that
30:25
you just give brands the the competitive edge.
30:28
But, you know, I think there's tools like Cleveland Bloomreach
30:31
and search string that like analyse browser behaviour and
30:34
provide tailored product searches and personalised
30:38
merchandising and recommendations.
30:40
Like, you know, that's, that's different, that's a different
30:43
thing than using AI to create content or which, you know,
30:49
there's nothing wrong with that either.
30:50
It's for some people, for some people, it's not the businesses
30:53
that maybe aren't so keen on using AI to create content, for
30:58
example, it might behove them to look into using AI to make, you
31:04
know, to have AI generated product recommendations and
31:06
merchandising and all of that. So I do think that is that's
31:11
been another huge trend that's, that's really just, you know,
31:15
shifting the way we go about utilising our data.
31:18
OK. I I'm just curious in terms of
31:20
wrapping things up when you look to and and Dave, I do have one
31:24
question for you. Don't jump off and when you,
31:28
when you, when you look at sort of 24/20/24, 2020, 25 is big
31:34
commerce like you mentioned payments, are they are there any
31:37
other areas that you're focusing on in terms of providing that
31:42
seamless shopping experience across all channels?
31:45
What what are your, if you like big bets or innovations and
31:48
enhancements that that you're going to be focusing on as you
31:52
go forward? So where are we innovating?
31:54
Yeah. I think like what you're going
31:55
to focus on in 2025. OK, so there's so a lot of
31:59
exciting stuff happening. One of the biggest ones that
32:02
we're so excited about is called Catalyst, which is our new
32:05
headless storefront solution. Then basically it's like pre
32:09
optimised for performance for SEO and it's designed to
32:13
simplify headless builds so people can get to market faster.
32:17
And a lot of people, you know, we can get into headless, but
32:20
that's a whole subject of its own.
32:22
But the, the, the point is that this is something that creates a
32:29
stronger, more effective user experience that asks people to
32:33
go to market faster. And so that solution layered
32:37
with Makeswift, which is subsidiary and that's our,
32:41
that's our no code visual editor.
32:43
You have these two entities, they're Catalyst and Makeswift.
32:47
And it basically it's a game changer, like allowing brands
32:50
and retailers to quickly create these beautiful, engaging
32:54
experiences with like 0 coding knowledge.
32:57
So Burrow is a customer that I love.
33:00
That's a good example. Their furniture, their furniture
33:03
brand too, that's utilising that.
33:07
So there's that. And then I already talked about
33:09
Feedenomics. One of the things Feedenomics is
33:11
doing though, on top of just the the standard, you know, feed
33:15
management, Feedenomics is also has a new instant commerce
33:20
offering, which is basically partnering with like brands and
33:24
retailers and marketplaces to enable same day delivery.
33:27
It's essentially to keep up with the competition and the Amazon
33:31
effect as we say. So that's something that is
33:36
going to be really useful for brands year round, but also for
33:41
the holidays, like something like that can help capture a
33:43
last minute shoppers who maybe miss the standard shipping cut
33:46
off. Also with AI driven
33:50
personalization, a couple of things we're focusing on now,
33:53
you know, we're we're dipping our toes into the AI game and
33:57
getting there with tools like we have big AI, we call it big AI
34:01
product recommendations that you know, personalise that shopper
34:04
journey. And then also there is a big AI
34:08
copywriter tool that we have, which does streamline the
34:11
creation of SEO friendly product descriptions, which is really
34:14
useful to a lot of brands when it comes to writing descriptions
34:18
and then advanced checkout tools.
34:20
That's going to continue to be an area of innovation native one
34:24
page check out and I mentioned fast Lane, which is like the
34:27
latest in our payment innovation partnerships.
34:30
So yeah, so lots of exciting things happen.
34:33
It's. Just and then it's interesting
34:35
in terms of the focus areas that you've got in terms of as in
34:39
like check out payments are some of the the trends.
34:43
Dave, again, I always make this assumption.
34:45
Are you actually in physical stores anywhere?
34:48
It's like, you know, we talk about Omni channels and
34:50
channels. Or are you pureplay online only?
34:53
No, Just yeah. Is that called pureplay?
34:57
Oh as well, we come to that. Or yeah, So yeah, we're pure
35:01
players, OK. Plan I'm just curious as an
35:06
e-commerce leader, are you looking or an e-commerce
35:09
business? Are you looking is physical
35:11
because I'm just if you're going to go through the sort of
35:15
iterations that some other pureplay E com companies have
35:19
done. No, just in our own little
35:24
little shop here, yeah. Here in and where is that?
35:27
When you say here, where is that?
35:28
We're in Azle, TX. It's near Fort Worth, Dallas
35:31
Fort Worth. OK.
35:33
So in fact, one of our customers flew in from California.
35:35
A lot of people fly in the DFW for a conference.
35:38
Yeah. And they drive all the way over
35:40
to come to the mothership to. The and how, how, how long of a
35:44
drive is that? Because I'm just planning my
35:45
next trip. It's about 45 minutes from the
35:49
airport, OK, And we're building our headquarters about 5 minutes
35:53
from here. We're going after the coolest
35:54
headquarters in the whole world. That's our goal, not the big.
35:59
Curious why? Have you got plans of what's
36:03
going to make that cool? Tunnels and swinging bridges
36:07
between the buildings and and secret rooms and we're going to
36:11
have a lot of fire and one of the buildings we're making with
36:14
solid leather leather bricks, bricks of of like straw bales
36:18
and hay bales or baling are leather scraps so the whole
36:22
building will be solid leather so yeah, stuff like that but no
36:25
the. When's that?
36:26
When's that opening? So OK.
36:28
We're hoping to have that open May 1st.
36:31
But in 25? In 20.
36:33
Yes, yes. And we have a little, you know,
36:35
you got to fix it up a little bit, but for the zip lines and
36:38
stuff. But we're, yeah, that's the,
36:40
that's the goal. But you know, just there.
36:42
And So what we do is we're strictly online.
36:45
But what I've seen is people going away from getting into
36:49
other people's stores, wholesaling B to B Yeah.
36:51
What I've seen is they pull out of that and I've seen them
36:55
opening their own stores cuz in high traffic areas, if you're
37:00
Lucchesi or some really recognised boot brand or
37:03
something, you go to a store that sells those.
37:06
But if no one knows about you, they're not going to go to a
37:08
strip mall or somewhere that doesn't have you want them to
37:11
discover you for smaller brands. So we're going to be opening,
37:14
we're hoping to open some stores in high traffic areas close by.
37:18
But the mothership will be here at the here at the headquarters.
37:22
Fantastic. So so watch this space.
37:25
Watch this space. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
37:27
No, But the as soon as we start saying it costs us $100 to make
37:31
it and then so we wholesale it for 200 to a, to a big box store
37:38
and then they sell it for 400. We just like, we, we, we, we
37:42
don't like that. We like the flexibility of if it
37:45
costs 100, we could sell it for 2:50.
37:47
Yeah, I got it. As you said, it has an impact on
37:49
your pricing strategy, so. Yeah, there was, you know, you
37:52
have nice stuff. But I mean, I, I like Aston
37:54
Martins, the Rolls Royces, but at the same time, you know,
37:58
they're not affordable. I wouldn't be married if I
38:02
bought 1. Of course, my, my marriage would
38:06
struggle a lot if I, if I bought 1 and so, but I wouldn't
38:11
struggle as much as someone bought a, you know, a 5A5
38:16
hundred $700.00 briefcase. If it were at $1000 or 1200, you
38:21
start getting out of the realm of like, maybe one day, yeah.
38:26
I got you perfect. So Melissa same question to you
38:29
before we wrap things up. So you mentioned as we were
38:31
talking about communication being key, I was wondering can
38:35
you obviously it is key and and all the different forms of
38:38
communication that exists out there, you know, whether it's
38:42
WhatsApp, whether it's messaging I miss, can you, can you just
38:45
expand on that whole thing for us a bit?
38:47
Yeah, I think what sometimes get gets lost in the fray of the
38:51
holidays is how crucial communication is to the customer
38:57
experience. You know, I mean, as a seller,
39:00
as a retailer, as a brand, one of your objectives, you're
39:03
trying to build trust and confidence to make sure those
39:07
shoppers feel confident enough to make the purchase right.
39:11
So that it's so crucial to be able to communicate proactively
39:17
with your customers. And what we find, what the data
39:21
shows is that if you are, if you're telling your customers
39:25
upfront, hey, maybe this product isn't going to arrive overnight,
39:29
but it's going to be here, then you know, here's here are the
39:33
updates with your order. Here is the cut off date for you
39:37
know, to get your product by the holidays.
39:40
Here is when this particularly great holiday offer ends.
39:45
People, shoppers are so much more likely to embrace that than
39:49
if you don't provide them with the chin upfront.
39:53
So I, I can't, you know, overstate that enough.
39:57
I think that just making sure that you're communicating
40:01
clearly with your shoppers like Dave talked about being liked.
40:05
And, you know, saying if people like you, they will buy from
40:08
you. And that's a huge piece of that
40:11
is if you're transparent and communicate with your shoppers.
40:14
So definitely take that to heart for the holidays, I think.
40:18
Yeah, I, I, I agree. I mean, we're not going to talk
40:21
about it, but for me, retail is a conversation and it's one that
40:24
you want to be involved in and you want people to sort of slip
40:27
into that. Like we all love those beautiful
40:29
conversations and I, I can so see why communication is so
40:32
important because you need that ongoing communication.
40:36
Dave, Melissa, thank you so much for carving out some time in
40:39
your days to have this conversation.
40:42
For me, it's been super enlightening and I look forward
40:45
to seeing you both in person. Maybe Melissa at NRF, but Dave,
40:48
hopefully in Dallas sometime I'll be there.
40:50
So let's just watch this space. Yeah, thank.
40:54
Thank you for having us. I really appreciate you
40:56
including us in what you're doing.
40:58
It was. Fantastic.
41:00
Thank you.