Latest / The Retail Podcast / APAC Retail 2025: Mobile Wallet Boom, Same-Day Delivery Costs, Country Road Turnaround

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APAC Retail 2025: Mobile Wallet Boom, Same-Day Delivery Costs, Country Road Turnaround · The Retail Podcast

0:01
I was clap at the beginning of the episodes.
0:03
I noticed I'm always editing myself going hello, hello,
0:09
hello. Welcome back to five things
0:11
Friday AIPAC edition. Now I'm in a hotel room.
0:15
It's 5:00 AM in the morning in London and I'm privileged to be
0:19
joined by my fabulous Co host in Sydney, Australia.
0:23
Good morning. Oh sorry.
0:24
Good afternoon, Laura and Reef. Good afternoon.
0:28
Good morning, Alex. Good morning, good afternoon.
0:31
Hi copy is here. Listen, one thing I noticed from
0:35
last and I always take this for granted.
0:37
So the the fantastic YouTube numbers are in for June and we
0:41
were at 45,000 views across the retail podcast and five things
0:48
Friday for for June. So super, super happy really to
0:53
get that notification. It's I posted it on LinkedIn
0:55
because I was like, Lily, people are listening to it above my
0:59
mom. But one thing I noticed on all
1:05
the shows, I really take for granted that our little
1:07
community sort of always turns up and knows who we are.
1:11
So I know last week we just sort of dove into it.
1:15
And when it's a hey, I'm, you know, like I'm Alex, I help
1:19
businesses stay relevant and be thought leaders in retail.
1:23
That's how we commercialise the retail podcast.
1:26
That's what I do and that's what pays my my wage.
1:29
But I was wondering if you guys can just give a quick little one
1:32
line and then we'll jump into five things Friday.
1:34
What's top of mind for you? Is that OK?
1:37
Oh. I think so.
1:39
Laura. Laura, you can go first.
1:40
How about that? Yeah.
1:42
So IA consultant I've came from, I've came from tech, I've came
1:47
from retail and I have most recently just left an agency
1:52
working with a lot of brands and that kind of Shopify by commerce
1:55
ecosystem and now out in my own and I work directly with the
2:00
C-Suite and boards to help them do digital transformation
2:03
projects. So that's.
2:05
And you're world famous because I remember meeting people in
2:08
Singapore. They were like, oh, Laura.
2:10
Yeah, yeah, we work around. They were like some tech
2:12
startup. But anyway, world famous Laura.
2:15
Thank you. We're very, we're quite self
2:17
deprecating the Scots. But yeah, I I get around.
2:20
Take it, Laura. Take it.
2:21
Take it. Thank you Hi, I'm Reef and we
2:27
probably know me already, but that's OK I started my career as
2:31
a digital person so launched banking for Internet banking or
2:34
Internet banking for a bank be an agency been marketing
2:39
director and and sort of fell on my way into events and found it
2:44
was a lot more fun to work on the industry rather than in the
2:47
industry for for my personality type.
2:49
I love the people around it. So what's been great for me is
2:52
that I actually in my current role at running in a ref APEC is
2:57
that I have, I see everything, you know, So I'm seeing so much
3:01
stuff, which is just so rewarding.
3:04
And so I can stay close to how everything's progressing and,
3:07
and be an observer and sometimes be an advisor, but just be part
3:12
of be really at the front of what's happening in retail
3:15
around the region. Well.
3:17
It's a, it's a privilege to have both of you with me.
3:19
I think it's a it's a really, I think it's unique.
3:23
I've got to be honest, I listen to a lot of podcasts.
3:25
There's a there's a lot of there's a lot of stuff out
3:27
there. It's really.
3:28
But anyway, let's get straight into it.
3:30
Reef, since we're on you, why don't you give us your first one
3:32
and then we'll go to you. Laura Cool.
3:35
Yeah, OK, cool. So the for me, the first one
3:37
this week is, is going to centre around payments.
3:40
Payments for me as an Australian going up into Asia and spending
3:43
lots of time up there was a real revelation.
3:48
In Western countries, we're all so used to credit cards.
3:51
Well, it's just the core of how we pay.
3:54
And when you go up into Asia, you know, credit cards are
4:00
really dwarfed by other mechanisms.
4:02
Like, you know, Asia say it's about 15% credit card payments.
4:07
We're talking what we're seeing now in some markets,
4:10
particularly Indonesia and Malaysia.
4:13
But in that, in that, in that Asian region, 73% of e-commerce
4:18
payments are through mobile wallets, right?
4:23
That's staggering. The Malaysian government a
4:25
little while back, basically, he said, we want to make sure all
4:29
payments are digital. So therefore, we're going to
4:32
endorse 5 mobile wallets. And if you start using them, Joe
4:36
Punter, we'll put $20 US in it so you can actually use it.
4:39
So a lot of the retailers had a strategy of just absorbing that
4:41
$20 as quickly as the government doled it out.
4:44
But the point is that it's changed behaviour.
4:47
The other thing that's really happening in the in the region
4:50
is, and every one of the Asian markets have QR code payments.
4:56
So you go in. So you you would have seen it in
4:58
WeChat and Alipay where you scan AQR code and it draws money out
5:02
of the account associated with that application.
5:05
But Singapore has its own application, you know, India has
5:10
UPI, Indonesia has its own network and QR system, which is
5:14
QQRIS. So there's so many of them in
5:17
the region. So QR code is payment has become
5:22
really, really prevalent. I mean, N Asia, particularly
5:24
with China with WeChat and Alipay, you know, it's just
5:27
call, you can't, you can't pay with a credit card in Beijing,
5:29
except at a Western hotel. Everything else you have to pay
5:33
via either WeChat or Alipay and you have to be loaded up before
5:36
you even get in in country. Then the last thing that's
5:39
really happening, it's really starting to explode in the
5:42
region is what we call A to a payment platform and A to a is
5:46
account to account. And looking at payments
5:52
referencing or just doing some research in the other day,
5:55
reckon real time payments by account to account networks, say
5:59
particularly India, China, Thailand and and wider Asia,
6:02
Southeast Asian region, we'll hit 563 billion by 2027.
6:08
So what does that mean? It means that we're actually not
6:11
seeing, we're seeing a situation where banks that people are
6:15
paying from bank to bank rather than through other
6:17
intermediaries. And what that means is, you
6:20
know, when you're doing those type of things where we're
6:24
seeing that that'll explode digital commerce.
6:26
But by by taking those, using those tools, you can, you can
6:32
overcome some of the basic issues around fraud and
6:35
cybersecurity because you're not, you're no longer paying
6:37
through intermediaries, You're actually, you're actually paying
6:40
for one to another. So there's, there's lots of big
6:42
pluses. And these are, these are things
6:44
that as Westerners we're not familiar with, but it's core
6:48
commonplace behaviour in those markets.
6:50
So it is. So, so just to quickly come in
6:54
on that, we in Europe, the form banks across Portugal, Spain and
6:59
Italy signed an agreement, it's called Bizu Biz, which basically
7:04
bought account to account payments to something like 300.
7:08
And no, no, no, no, no, something like 120 million
7:11
consumers can cross-border and obviously in country do account
7:17
to account payments. And what the fascinate I, I used
7:20
to always be like one of those people that looked down on
7:22
account to account payments because who would use that?
7:24
Why would you use that? And then all of a sudden in my
7:28
own daily life, I notice I'm paying for the piano teacher,
7:31
I'm paying for like different little things.
7:33
And then Iberia or the airline companies are now accepting
7:37
payments from account to account.
7:40
And I think it's such a sort of growth area.
7:43
So it I mean, it's something that is because it all needs
7:47
like sort of a Federated network for the banks to agree to, to do
7:51
this with each other. But I think for regions, I can
7:54
just see that expanding out from country to country and that's
7:58
quite interesting. And the reason this has come to
8:01
light for me, I mean, obviously I see it in all the retailers,
8:05
but one of the things that really sort of came home to me
8:08
was the fact that we'd be on site at our show and sell, tick
8:13
selling tickets on day one of the show.
8:16
And credit cards are not important.
8:20
You know, being able to pay account to account payments is
8:23
how people are paying their tickets on Friday.
8:25
Yeah, yeah, yeah. People don't have corporate
8:27
credit cards. It's not like living in the US,
8:30
right? So we have to have all these
8:32
other mechanisms to take payments to because people can
8:35
buy a ticket because they haven't got a credit card.
8:38
So, you know, that sort of things.
8:39
Really interesting. So, you know, and so you're
8:41
thinking as a retailer coming up into the region I thought I
8:44
talked about the other week with the the marketplaces, the
8:46
ability to present the payment option that the consumer wants
8:51
for the market they're in is something that the marketplaces
8:54
do very well as an example. Yeah.
8:58
It's it's also like, you know, even like, you know, is it it's
9:01
not so popular in Australia, but is it like Ven is it Venmo?
9:05
Is that what they call it? It's like there's a lot in
9:07
Africa. No, it's really popular for that
9:10
peer-to-peer payment. You're out for dinner, you use
9:12
Venmo. So it's China as well.
9:15
I think it is coming more like it's been driven by Asia, but it
9:19
is starting to penetrate other markets and it's more driven by
9:23
that peer-to-peer payment side and probably reef.
9:27
One of the things I remember and you know, I'm happy admit, admit
9:32
when I'm wrong, but I haven't been that wrong many times in
9:36
the e-commerce like landscape of I've been able to really get
9:39
good at predicting what tech will work.
9:41
But I remember at an I media event years and years ago and
9:45
they were talking about QR codes and I was like, this is absolute
9:51
not this is BS. Like it's not going to be a
9:54
thing. And QR codes are, you know,
9:57
really, really important. They're everywhere from I know
10:01
they're everywhere from payments to finding out more information
10:04
and the product and the IO everything.
10:06
So yeah, QR codes is an interesting 1.
10:09
So probably I. Think COVID helped with that.
10:13
Yeah, I think so too. It created a behaviour that
10:15
we've never seen before, you know?
10:17
Yeah, I mean just a blow my own try.
10:20
I for Tesco's, I built a store of the future in 2013 and that
10:25
was all about QR code checking, QR code checkout.
10:28
So you know, identify yourself. But anyway, enough about me,
10:31
Laura. Why don't we do one of yours?
10:35
Cool. So the one I want to talk about
10:37
is I was on a panel or a webinar 2 days ago with a company, a
10:42
tech company called Shipit. So I guess Alex, for you to, to
10:46
know what they do because they're very this they're
10:48
Australia, New Zealand. So they're a software platform.
10:51
They work with all the major carriers and they can integrate
10:54
with all the platforms. Yeah, and they offer different
10:58
delivery methods and really that kind of software that enables
11:01
the better logistics. And they've done a report and
11:06
actually this is the report you've got up here, which I
11:08
think is a super interesting report for probably a lot of
11:12
regions, not just this market. The one caveat is there is some
11:16
things in it that I think are specific to the geography of
11:21
Australia, but it's a really, it's really detailed.
11:24
They've when they've drawn on data from not just retailers but
11:28
carriers and shoppers. So they've really intertwined
11:31
and they know how interconnected the three of them are and
11:34
they've done, I would say this is a very good analysis with
11:38
deep data fields of it. So yeah, that is a couple of
11:42
things which I thought was maybe not necessarily super
11:46
interesting, but the demand for same same day delivery grows.
11:51
And I, I know if you're talking about that quick commerce, what
11:55
we've always found here is it's been more about like just that
11:58
transparency convenience. But what I think is happening
12:02
with it is it's about logistics people are it's supply and
12:06
demand. So we're we're at a point where
12:10
the logistics companies have really stepped their game up and
12:13
they can do it quite a cost effective.
12:15
It's actually not that much more to send same day as it is to do
12:19
express. So we're kind of we're kind of
12:22
finding that and and the truth is like for consumers, ultimate
12:25
speed is ultimate convenience. So that same day delivery is
12:29
going to pick up. The other thing that I really
12:31
like to hear about it was the investment going to ship from
12:35
store. So one, one thing that's
12:38
interesting is click and collect has went a wee bit in the
12:42
decline here and you go, well, why is that?
12:46
And I really believe it's because if you think about
12:48
America, and again, I'm being very, I'm generalising.
12:53
So sorry if anyone listens from America, but they've got big
12:55
cars, they've got big roads, they've got big stores so you
12:59
can go up, you can drive up, you can park your car and you can
13:02
and you can put things in your your boot.
13:04
We don't have that here. You know, we've got the
13:06
parking's terrible. We need to go to a Westfield.
13:09
So click and collect still there, still an option if you
13:12
can do it. But ship from store is coming up
13:15
strong. The reason why I guess this
13:18
report I think matters right now is because this area is one of
13:23
the best. The report can give you insights
13:26
on how to be more profitable and how to be more effective.
13:29
So one in five retailers are investing in ship from store
13:33
capabilities, which is cool, but to caveat that they're also not
13:37
using it for every store. So where we're at is retailers
13:41
have been a bit smarter, they've maybe tried different things and
13:43
they know that it's not a one-size-fits-all.
13:45
So they've been really selective about, you know, what stores
13:49
make sense and you know, and I do think this is the one of the
13:52
ways that they'll operationally be able to improve their margins
13:56
and their profit. So really, really cool report
14:00
here. That is interesting.
14:02
I guess it's I see a lot of these as universals, endless
14:06
aisle. That's another big one.
14:08
Endless aisle. What do we mean?
14:09
If you think about online, just that ability to open up more
14:13
range, you know, to improve the revenue.
14:16
But even in the store, right, like the point in sales are
14:19
becoming a lot smarter. So I want a dress in two
14:22
colours. You've got one colour in, in
14:24
stock, the other colour is somewhere else.
14:26
I want to do 1 transaction and you, you sort it out how it gets
14:29
to me. So yeah, lot lots of goodies in
14:32
there. It's good to see that these kind
14:35
of, this is kind of coming up the funnel.
14:38
One of the biggest priorities is around, you know, this kind of
14:42
supply chain piece. So that was super cool.
14:46
You've got the report, Alex. I've got a question what what
14:49
what was the sentiment was the sentiment that people and I know
14:53
when I come on to my bet, I'll talk about the post purchase,
14:56
but was the sentiment in Australia that people want it,
14:59
they want more delivery options, they want it faster or they
15:04
what's the sentiment there? Well, you know what I feel, I
15:07
feel like the last two or three years we've been through a lot
15:09
of things, right? Everyone's tried to do free
15:11
shipping, then everyone's been doing click and collect and now
15:14
we're at a little bit more of a mature space where you have to
15:17
take, we've now got these platforms like ship it or like
15:21
your point of sale that can enable you to do it.
15:24
Now it's time for the retailers to go back and figure out what
15:27
strategy works best for them. So I would say it's all about
15:30
hybrid fulfilment models and figuring out what's right for
15:34
your business, if that's shipped from store or what you do from
15:37
the the DC endless aisle, you know, Are you ready for that?
15:41
What's the steps that have to operationalize your business
15:44
before you get there? So the sentiment I get is that
15:48
it's all there. It's it's getting cheaper at
15:51
even the cost. I think the interesting thing
15:53
was of everything we're seeing going up, the shipping cost
15:57
hasn't gone up that much. And actually in certain ways
16:01
like that same day it's coming down.
16:04
So just smarter business logic has to be applied.
16:08
So that's. The so Laura, does that mean
16:12
that retailers are looking at say with the with the cost of
16:16
shipping coming down, is the consumer prepared to pay for
16:18
same day delivery? Yes, I'm guessing are they, are
16:22
they, are they turning into a place where they can make margin
16:25
as well as selling the item? Listen, I think that's a bit
16:29
debate. It's a bit of a debate.
16:31
What the report did say that there was a reduction in people
16:34
offering free shipping, but then in the same, in the same and the
16:38
next like kind of study piece, it was like people are going to
16:41
be investing more in free shipping.
16:43
So what I took from that was people or businesses stopped
16:47
doing as much free shipping because they were losing a lot
16:50
of money and they didn't have it.
16:52
The logic and it's smart enough for their business.
16:56
I think that free shipping is a very important tool, but you
16:59
have to have the right mechanism.
17:01
Like what is the threshold that you apply?
17:04
Are you doing that for certain products or is it like the ones
17:07
that are everywhere that easy to get out?
17:09
So I think it's, it's and also like you said, it's about
17:14
transparency and convenience is probably #1 and it's options.
17:18
So it's, it's a range of everything.
17:21
It's like business smarts. Where do you make money?
17:24
Where do you not bet choice if they want it fast, if they want
17:27
it same day, can you charge that money?
17:30
Are you really making a premium on it?
17:32
I don't think so, right? I don't, I don't think we're
17:35
there yet. What you said last week about
17:37
quick commerce, I think that's a different beast.
17:39
But same day delivery is almost becoming the new express
17:43
delivery. Yeah.
17:46
And that that piece about, you know, we talked about you talked
17:48
about delivery inventory or I suppose distribution inventory.
17:53
I mean we saw it was really funny, you know, when I had all
17:57
those Marley Spoons and all those different types of meal
18:01
delivery systems that used to come in the evening and you'd
18:03
get one every day or a box, right.
18:05
That that interestingly enough created a whole bunch of
18:08
inventory for couriers that that retailers could do same day
18:11
delivery off the back of. So what was happening was
18:13
another industry created a demand that then other that
18:18
other people could draught off the back of.
18:19
So, you know, people were getting meals delivered every
18:22
night. That created a whole bunch of
18:24
Courier imagery there. And all of a sudden people were
18:26
doing same day delivery with fashion items, you know?
18:28
Well, you know, it's funny, in the report they talk about the
18:31
Amazon effect. I mean, we've been talking about
18:32
the Amazon effect for 10 years, right?
18:34
But really it's like what you've just said is a bit different,
18:37
but it's the Uber Eats effect like it really is.
18:43
And it's so interesting. It's actually that grocery and
18:46
the foods category that's driven a lot of the innovation.
18:50
So yeah, I think it's just the expectation.
18:52
I also think that people really like to use platforms.
18:55
It's almost like to your point of that wallet platforms offer,
19:00
I think customers are forgiven if they know that the carrier
19:03
has got you update them like sorry, we've got a delay because
19:06
it's you know it's Black Friday, we've got too many packages
19:09
coming out. So but what I don't think they
19:12
like is these blanket or you your parcel will be there in 2
19:15
days. They want real time data.
19:17
They if they can see exactly where it is even better.
19:20
So I would say it's the Uber Eats effect that we're in now
19:24
and it's all just a bit transparency option.
19:27
And then I think retailers, it's just smarter business practises
19:32
to make sure they're not losing money is is where we're at.
19:37
Yeah. I mean the point about grocery
19:39
too is really interesting because when grocery becomes
19:41
mainstream, a digital purchase, it seems that that Tide lists
19:45
all boats in a market. So when you look at a market
19:47
like, you know, Australia, when we turned over, turned to click
19:51
and collect and, and grocery became a core behaviour we did
19:55
on a regular, on a routine basis to buy groceries, we actually
19:59
saw all the other elements associated with grocery delivery
20:02
and purchase. So fashion retail grew, you
20:06
know, hardware retail grew because grocery became routine,
20:11
digital retail became and grocery became routine.
20:13
And all the associated services and products around that also
20:17
grew because grocery created a massive.
20:20
Draught which everyone right off the back of.
20:23
Yeah, OK, Well, thank you. I think that sort sort of lends
20:28
itself to to to what I was doing.
20:30
So I I was moderating a panel at E Tail.
20:34
Let me share with you that There we go.
20:36
And So what was interesting about this was I was with,
20:41
there's only four, four turned up in the end, but they were
20:44
very different categories. So we had female hygiene, which
20:48
the founder there was talking about breaking down stigmas.
20:51
The focus of the talk was about post purchase.
20:54
What are retailers doing post purchase to build community, to
20:59
build engagement, to keep their brand going?
21:02
And so when you apply that, you know, post purchase lens on how
21:07
can you do all of these things after you've pressed buy,
21:12
obviously then it goes into delivery.
21:15
For example, they were saying about writing handwritten notes,
21:18
but if I just quickly finish on who else was on the panel on
21:22
stage with me? So we had thermal hygiene, we
21:24
had need it for tonight, who basically is a london-based
21:29
young company that's all about getting needed for tonight.
21:32
As it says you've seen something, you need it for
21:34
tonight, 90 minute delivery. But she was interestingly
21:38
talking enough, talking about how her customers have asked for
21:41
different options because it was sort of a maybe need it for the
21:44
day, maybe need it for tomorrow. And so therefore she, although
21:48
her business was all about democratising delivery, which is
21:52
I, I don't know if that's the same as what you were talking
21:54
about Laura, in terms of having these delivery options, her
21:58
community, her customers wanted those sorts of things.
22:02
And, and I did push like it is quick commerce a thing because
22:06
I, I interviewed the guy from Deliveroo and I asked him about
22:10
do we want to get to 15 minutes delivery here?
22:12
And the panel all said, well, it depends on what, right?
22:15
Maybe there is a thing that you need in 15 minutes like you're
22:19
building a house and you need a screw or something and you need
22:22
it within 15 minutes or under 30 minutes.
22:25
So that was needed for tonight. Then we had cutter and Squid,
22:27
which was, I mean, that community would, I didn't know
22:30
any of these brands, but huge, huge, huge community.
22:34
They they do baked goods and they're all upmarket.
22:37
You find them in Harrods and Selfridges.
22:39
And so it was this baked goods products.
22:43
But yeah, I love that she, she was really one of the ladies on
22:47
the panel that sort of knew her customer and was very like how
22:51
they're focused on she, she was saying about putting handwritten
22:55
notes into the delivery and doing, doing these little micro
23:00
things to build that relationship.
23:03
And the biggest point that she made was that everyone chases
23:07
the transaction. And it feels like a lot of these
23:10
post purchases, if there is no transaction, there is no
23:12
relationship. And so this was a whole thing
23:15
about how you, you, you sort of have other things to talk to
23:20
your customer about beyond what they're buying from you, which
23:25
we all know and I know Aretha, and if this was mentioned,
23:29
community based retail, people often confuse what that means,
23:34
right? And a community based retailer
23:37
is actually focused on outcomes that is beyond the transaction.
23:41
The transaction is just that, oh, you've bought something that
23:44
is in that community. And I think again, globally, I
23:49
see this as an area where retailers are really weak
23:52
because they don't know what that means.
23:54
Does that mean we're just doing silly TikTok things?
23:57
Again, another brand here in UK, Europe that's done really well
24:00
is Currys. Curry sells electronic items.
24:04
For years that category has been decimated by Amazon.
24:08
But all of a sudden Curry's came back with with phenomenal
24:13
employee LED content, which is now with from an industry
24:17
perspective doing well. And the final category was
24:20
beauty, recycled beauty, which again, I think that was a
24:24
younger company. So there wasn't as much insight,
24:27
but was. Recycled Beauty.
24:30
So using products that have like, it was all about
24:33
sustainability in the sort of circular economy.
24:36
So taking food products like ketchup at the end of its cycle
24:42
and bringing that back because there's elements in there that
24:45
can be used as makeup remover and other elements.
24:48
And it was super fascinating. But it was a young company.
24:52
I think it was like, you know, a couple of years, I don't know
24:54
how old it was, but it was, you know, female founder, but still
24:59
in that early startup upstage. So I was, it was interesting,
25:03
but the, there wasn't a depth of insight in that example there.
25:07
Whereas the, the baked goods, you know, they've got 300,000
25:12
followers in their, in their community and that's what
25:15
they're about. But I think I, I went into their
25:17
thinking, Oh my God, post purchase, of course, people have
25:20
got it all locked down. That's what they do.
25:22
They've been selling and it's just such a chaos out there and
25:26
so disjointed in the types of different experiences.
25:29
Do you know, Alex, out of that report, it said that 64% of the
25:33
Australian consumers will not shop from a brand again when
25:36
they've had a bad delivery experience.
25:38
So it's like the new loyalty as as as the purchase, you know,
25:45
and, and I think that's where we focus so much on getting them to
25:49
the to the check out. And really that's that's where
25:53
it starts. So I bet yeah, that start like,
25:55
you know, 64% that's where customers are at now.
25:58
They really expect like this expected delivery just to be
26:03
like, you know, what you say is what you do.
26:06
And so that's part of the post purchase and it's a big part.
26:09
One of the founders said exactly that.
26:11
Over communicate. Don't be shy in communicating.
26:14
We talked about e-mail a bit about how that's done.
26:17
And again, you're talking about WhatsApp and about how WhatsApp
26:20
as a medium for communication is so important.
26:24
Yeah, absolutely. It's this Omni channel, that
26:27
Channel of mobile communication, how you, how you build.
26:32
And I think again, it's about measured, getting it right.
26:34
I think some people get it right or wrong.
26:36
Laura, why don't you do your your next one?
26:39
OK, I'll, I'll try and make this succinct so that I want to talk
26:43
a wee bit about the Country Rd group.
26:45
So Alex, if you don't know, the Country Rd group is, I mean, I
26:49
want to say a heritage suite of brands, but maybe legacy is the
26:54
right word. You know, they're
26:55
interchangeable and maybe one second or another, but they've
26:59
got the Country Rd group have witchery, trainery, Memco
27:03
politics and country roads. That's the 555 brands.
27:08
There are over a billion dollars revenue business, really, really
27:12
big one and they have just appointed a new CEO.
27:17
So this CEO we love to poach someone from the UK over here.
27:21
He was one of the one of the bosses of Debenhams and he's I
27:27
think he's literally just started this week.
27:29
So now I guess why, why do I want to bring that up when I
27:34
think about the country Rd group.
27:37
Well, well, let's even talk stats, right?
27:39
The latest trades report this the store sales were down by
27:43
14%. The business is down.
27:47
That's that's pretty massive. If you think about 14% on a
27:50
billion dollar business, it's it's, you're just across the
27:53
group. But but even more scary, it's
27:57
the profit. The profit was down in the last
27:59
year or roughly the last year. I'm, I'm not 100% on the dates,
28:04
but by 93%. So the, the executive team have
28:09
kind of pointed a little bit. It's been heavily discounting,
28:12
lots of discounting going on across the group and the high
28:16
costs. But really I think there's a lot
28:19
more to it. I feel like the brands have
28:21
completely lost their way. If you look at if you look at
28:24
which the country roads and Trinity, they're kind of lost in
28:30
the sea of sameness. And yeah, the new CEO like
28:35
pulling it out of the the this kind of issue with the profit.
28:38
But I really think that these these brands have a massive
28:41
opportunity where they can reinvent themselves.
28:44
But it's so I'm I'm kind of putting them on the watch list.
28:47
Like that to me is going to be very sad for they're owned by
28:50
the parent company. Is, is it Woolworths Holding
28:53
from South Africa so that they're owned by parent company?
28:59
I got to say as well that they actually had really bad press
29:02
last year. Lots of a toxic workplace, lots
29:06
of the CEO who was there, who's resigned was investigated.
29:10
I think they had to do one of the kind of, you know, get
29:12
someone to come in and look at it.
29:14
Lots of reports about harassment of different natures from men
29:17
and women. So I think, you know, the one
29:22
thing I see with these businesses, and again, this is a
29:25
bit of observation, like, you know, when they've got CEO,
29:30
obviously there's lots of toxic, there's issues within the
29:33
leadership and within the culture of the business.
29:36
He's now gone, he resigned and they've got someone new in.
29:40
But I think it's like ultimately who's the customer, right?
29:45
Like your employees are #1 customer and you know, I, I, I
29:49
think that's customers are customers, but then customers
29:52
are your team. So there's been quite a lot of
29:54
issues in that business and it, it must have had an impact on
29:58
what we're seeing with the brands and where they're at.
30:00
So on a positive, let's try and be positive.
30:03
There's new blood coming in. His name's Stephen Cook from
30:06
Debenhams. I'd love to see a woman at one
30:09
of these bloody businesses at some point.
30:11
But anyway, another man from the UK comes over.
30:14
I'm really sorry. I'm sorry.
30:17
We'll get there when I'm dead. Yeah.
30:20
That's my my one. Perfect.
30:21
Thank you. Reef all right, to finish off.
30:24
I'm going to bring something back closer to home.
30:27
We came out of COVID. I work in a bench as you realise
30:30
that it's been a big part of my life for a long time.
30:32
It's hard to hard to let go. But the thing that happened
30:35
after COVID, everyone was so keen to get back together.
30:40
That wasn't really about going to a show to buy stuff.
30:43
It was just about the going back show to be back with your peers.
30:46
And while that's really, really important, I think as we start
30:49
to emerge from that darkness and we really we've got over the
30:53
novelty of face to in real, in real person events.
30:56
Again, I think retailers really need to think about the way they
30:59
approach events from a professional point of view.
31:03
And what I mean by that is they need to come with some intent.
31:07
I think they need a framework by which they come to an event, you
31:12
know, to the way they to the way they enter the enter the fray,
31:15
so to speak. What are the problems they're
31:17
trying to solve today, tomorrow, next year?
31:19
What are the horizons? What are the mechanisms they
31:22
have in place when they make a new discovery that solves
31:26
problems in their business that they haven't thought of?
31:28
So it's because one of the things that's really clear is it
31:34
events do speed up the timeline with with potential partners.
31:37
You know, you think about how long it takes you to meet 10
31:40
different vendors in your day job and then you go off to an
31:44
event and go, oh, shit, I met 10 people in in, in an afternoon,
31:49
right? So there's that part of it.
31:51
And then I mean, and, and I think the ones that are the
31:56
retailers that are doing it well and the benchmarks are really
31:58
coming with intent, like and sending people in Tiger teams.
32:01
We had one, but Laura already mentioned our media today, but
32:05
we, we had one large retail group in Australia who would say
32:11
to us, we are starting a tender, the tender process at your
32:16
event. This is the problem we're trying
32:19
to solve. You have two of the vendors in
32:22
the space. There are 6.
32:24
We need 3 to start a tender process.
32:26
Ring the others up and tell them to buy a ticket, right?
32:29
So they turn up right one because guess what they get,
32:34
they say and they would, they'd say to us, we not only can see
32:37
the solutions and have conversations around the
32:39
solutions and, and address our problem directly with them.
32:42
We actually get to meet the individuals wrapped around the
32:45
product. And we get to over the course of
32:48
the two or three days, you get to build a personal relationship
32:50
with them or not depending if we feel we can work with them or
32:54
not. So it's incredibly valuable.
32:57
So for me, one of the things I'd say to retailers now is that if
33:04
you're coming to an event, yes, you're going to be sold to.
33:08
That's OK because that's what their job is to do.
33:10
That's what they paid their money to be there in terms of
33:13
exhibitors and sponsors. But do come with intent, do come
33:16
with a plan and do come with some outcomes in mind that you
33:20
want to achieve. Because I think for me, you'll,
33:24
you will, you will drive the event in a certain way for
33:28
yourself, for the organiser, and you'll get better outcomes for
33:32
your business. So I think you know, and that
33:35
that that's true to any form. So you know, then you can make,
33:38
you're actually coming and you can make demands on the event as
33:42
a retailer because you can say, well, I need this, this and
33:44
this, this event provided me this and this event didn't
33:47
provide me this, but you've actually come in with an
33:49
objective lens. So that's A and.
33:52
That. And that.
33:54
I mean, I've been I've been agency in techs, I've been a a
33:57
buyer of space at many of Reefs conferences.
34:01
I think we have a bit of a tendency this side of the world.
34:04
We maybe sales isn't as it's softer, but then it's still
34:09
sales and then we've got the retailers who really don't they
34:12
know. So I really just want to move
34:15
back to like bring in the sales people who are just going to be
34:18
in your face set sell and then the retailer can just say go
34:23
away. Not yet.
34:25
I think what we've moved into this kind of messy soft middle
34:29
and it the the the nature of the people in this part of the world
34:33
are a little bit less direct like the than the Americans,
34:36
right. So it it does feel that we need
34:39
to kind of step that game up and just talk a bit more.
34:42
Let's sell. This is a conference.
34:43
This is why come we intend say no, say yes, have the meeting.
34:48
And I I feel you there. I think, I think everyone who's
34:53
yeah, I think hopefully with the next conference coming up next
34:56
month, we'll see a wee bit more to that.
34:58
But let's let's. Yeah.
35:01
But I think without, I mean your your conference online retailer,
35:04
I think Laura, I think going to that, you know, it's the biggest
35:08
e-commerce event in Australia from a trade show point of view.
35:12
And, and really there's, there's a lot of sponsors who put a lot
35:14
of money in and they're putting on, they're putting their best
35:17
foot forward. So if you're a retailer going to
35:20
that show, you've got to take advantage of that moment in
35:22
time. If you don't, you're mad, you're
35:24
crazy. So, yeah, so it's not one of my
35:27
shows, but it's, it's a good show and people, retailers are
35:30
turning up. If you're going to spend the
35:31
money and spend the time, use the time well, use it well
35:35
because these people are putting their best foot forward.
35:38
They're giving you everything they've got.
35:40
They're giving you all the IP that they can give you.
35:43
You can make some pretty deep decisions pretty quickly because
35:45
it's all on show. Yeah, I mean, so this isn't a
35:50
shameless plug, but one of my largest customers, they probably
35:55
will stand one or two in size at Euro shop next year, which only
35:59
happens every three years. It's Europe's obviously a part.
36:04
Well, anyway, factually it's Europe's largest show.
36:06
It's massive. And the reason it's massive it's
36:09
because it's everything from fridges to lighting to fixtures
36:12
to fittings. The technology, it's like you go
36:15
there and fit out your whole retail operations and hence it
36:18
only happens every three years. It's in Germany.
36:21
But a lot of the work that I'm doing in terms of creating, you
36:25
know, in retail, we're so used to talking about the path to
36:27
purchase. But as I say, what's your path
36:29
to conference? What's your, you know, as
36:32
someone who's expoing, how are you building content to the
36:36
event through the event and then post the event?
36:40
And so not only do retailers not think of it in that, I mean, one
36:44
of the beautiful things about NRFUS, which of, you know, 13
36:48
years as someone on the stand as a visitor and now as a
36:53
commentator. I used to work with, you know,
36:55
the innovation team of Target, where they would come, the
36:58
scouts would come to the, the Microsoft booth, we would talk
37:02
about what innovations that we have.
37:04
Then the second day, the, the Target, you know, leadership
37:08
will turn up and then you go through them and talk about
37:11
that. And I think, you know, people
37:13
miss you, Laura, going back to your point about selling, but
37:16
for me it's about inspiring. And you know, a lot of people
37:21
turn up to sell, absolutely. But how are you going to inspire
37:25
apart from the gimmick, right? So yeah, we all love and shop
37:29
talk. We were all at Shop Talk Spring,
37:31
you know, we saw the the lines of people around booths that
37:36
were giving away Stanley Cups or Ugg boots or you know, so yes,
37:41
that is important from brand recognition.
37:43
But what what's the point of having brand recognition if you
37:47
haven't, if you're not giving any flavour of what you do, you
37:50
know? And so I find, I find there are
37:53
so many missed opportunities from retail side and from from
37:57
Expo side. And obviously if you want to fix
37:59
any of that, feel free to reach it now.
38:01
I'm joking. So anyway, yeah.
38:05
Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's got it's, it's at the end of the
38:10
day, someone is paying and someone has got a, you know,
38:14
it's, it's not always, it's not always a free lunch.
38:16
But the point is too that no. But the frustrating.
38:18
But but yeah, but but the key thing is really is that, you
38:22
know, if, if you're not turning up just to to to, you know,
38:27
really dig under the skin of a problem you might have or solve
38:29
a problem or look at or discover new things that can make a big
38:33
step change in your business. Why are you there?
38:37
Well, look, retail tech show in London, right, has gone again
38:40
from from strength to strength. This year they were at the
38:43
Excel, which was, I don't know, 5.
38:45
They've gone from basically 3000 to 5000.
38:48
The numbers keep growing. It's a free show.
38:50
I think it's probably the UK's largest retail show.
38:53
And I was talking to one of the exhibitors and, you know, they
38:56
were complaining, oh, this is so expensive.
38:59
We're not getting a return on our investment.
39:01
And I said, well, what, what, what's the path to conference
39:05
and what's the path through conference?
39:07
Yeah, but we're here. And it was a really big stand.
39:10
And I was like, well, just being here is not enough.
39:13
What you know, how how are you looking at it from the
39:16
retailer's perspective? Those poor guys have got 100
39:19
other you's here. What is that experience that
39:23
you're going to give them apart from having this beautiful
39:25
stand? And they were like, OK, all
39:27
right. And because I think a lot of
39:29
people just sort of turn up and expect it to, you know, the
39:32
sales to follow. But anyway, any closing vote,
39:36
any course, closing comments, Sorry, this is episode 101.
39:44
So happy birthday or whatever they do.
39:46
It's not episode 101 of Five Things Friday, it's episode 7,
39:51
but. Happy birthday, Alex.
39:53
Yeah. It's anyway episode 101, so
39:57
really happy with that. Congratulations.
40:01
Thank you. Any closing thoughts before we
40:03
close? Not for me.
40:06
I'm looking forward to next week.
40:07
I've already know what I'm going to talk about, so that's going.
40:11
To be, I think we just need to get better at not talking so
40:14
much. We've.
40:18
Set A We've set a record for time today.
40:20
It's been good. I just find it's long, but we're
40:24
getting better. We're getting into our if we
40:26
were critique. I felt this was probably one of
40:28
our best shows yet. And on that bombshell, thank you
40:34
so much for listening. Thank you.
40:37
Thank you, Alex. Thank you, Laura.
40:39
OK, bye.