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Most brands think they know who their best customers are. Then they put their online and in-store data together and get a surprise. Ryan Martin talks with Aaron Luxmoore, Head of Sales and Partnerships at Lexer, about how the platform has grown from a customer data platform (CDP) into an AI customer intelligence layer. Aaron explains why putting ChatGPT or Claude on top of fragmented data just gives you wrong answers faster, and why the same customer can show up as three different people. He also covers why you shouldn't send every customer the same Black Friday discount, the quickest way to turn one-time buyers into repeat customers, and why Lexer doesn't charge per seat. Plus, how a LinkedIn post turned into Friends in Tech, a networking event with an 850-person list. In this episode Friends in Tech: how one LinkedIn post became an 850-person event list across the east coast, with no sponsors, no pitches and no clients invitedLexer's evolution from CDP to an AI customer intelligence layerThe discover, decide, act, observe and learn loop, and why the platform is now used by CEOs, merchandisers and store teams, not just marketingBringing inventory, margins, store rosters and business context (like store closures) into the dataWhat usually brings a brand to Lexer: "we don't really know our customers", a loyalty program launch, or too many hours lost to spreadsheetsOmnichannel reality check: the customer who spent $2K online and $5K in store, and the "one-time buyers" who've actually bought again in storeAdding third-party data from Experian (likely income, home ownership, parent status)Wrong answers, fast: the problem with putting AI over fragmented data, and the risk of tying everything to one LLMHow one customer with multiple email addresses can look like three different customersBlack Friday: why full-price buyers shouldn't get the same discount as everyone elseLexi as "the brains behind Klaviyo": insight, then strategy, then the segment (around 75% of Lexer clients use Klaviyo)Common objections, and why all-in-one platforms tend to be "jack of all trades, master of none"Build vs buy: why building your own customer data layer usually takes two years and more people than expectedImplementation down from about six months to 6–12 weeksWhy Lexer doesn't charge per seat, and pricing based on the number of customer profilesROI examples: paying for a year's subscription just by turning one-time buyers into repeat buyers, and feeding top-5% audiences into MetaWho buys: head of digital, CMO and CRM manager, and the champions who bring Lexer with them when they change jobsMulti-brand groups: cross-selling across Cotton On, Cotton On Body and TypoWho it's for: medium to large omnichannel retailers, increasingly smaller and e-commerce-only brands, plus hospitality clientsHow to get a free demo using your own Shopify and email data

What happens when a dietitian and a lawyer start a swimwear brand? Ryan talks with Lyndi and Les Cohen, the husband-and-wife team behind Fearless Swimwear. Lyndi, known as The Nude Nutritionist, spent 15 years helping women with body image before deciding the swimsuit was a body image problem to solve. They built in public, let their audience pick the brand name, cuts and colours, and launched to a 15,000-strong waitlist. The pre-order sold out in 24 hours for $200K. They also share the $100K sizing mistake that followed, the "magic sizing" that came out of their waitlist data, why they're stepping away from deep Black Friday discounts, and what Lyndi calls the "embarrassment tax" of building on social. About The Host: Ryan Martin is Founder of Remarkable Digital, a specialist eCommerce SEO marketing agency working with Australian Brands. In this episode Packing orders at Thread Together, and a humbling start to the chatWhy a dietitian who specialised in body image decided to start a swimwear brandBuilding an audience by "listening to the data": body image content beat healthy breakfast contentCo-creation: letting the community choose the name, cuts, fabrics and colours, and why 100 poll votes is often enoughA 15,000-woman waitlist, a $200K pre-order that sold out in 24 hours, and going straight to a 3PLTrademarks: buying the "Fearless" name for $3K, and the risk of trademark squatting in ChinaSourcing in China: 36 hours at Intertextile Shanghai, and why you need a swimwear specialist, not a generalistThe $50K tech pack lesson, and hiring a head of product with nearly 30 years in swimwear (including the 2000 Olympics swimsuits)The $100K mistake: gifting all their stock to Thread Together when the sizing came up smallMagic sizing: 49% of their waitlist wore a different size top and bottom, so they built one-pieces with mixed sizingLong torso styles, and designing for a size 12 to 16 instead of scaling up from a size smallUsing Refundid checkout insurance to let customers try at homeCustom fabrics vs cash flow: simplifying to shorten lead times and the cash conversion cycleStock planning with no historical data, air freight, and a seven-month lead time on a sold-out styleBlack Friday: last year's tiered 10–60% discounts, and why this year they're focusing on newness and gift with purchase insteadSwimwear's short selling window (September to December), and why March makes more sense for a saleBeing "ridiculously honest" with customers about strategy changesThe embarrassment tax: why your fails outperform your highlight reel on socialShooting product on real customers with a $4,000 camera instead of professional modelsStaying close to customer feedback as the team growsMentors and inspiration: Shelley Sullivan (MCoBeauty) and Emma GredeLong-form content, brand voice, and being the "chief reminding officer"What's next: a ready-to-wear capsule, the US market, and becoming the most recommended swimsuit brand

What if your customers were your cheapest media channel? Ryan Martin talks with Mike Haywood, Co-founder of BrandPay, about "customer media". BrandPay rewards everyday customers, not influencers, with store credit when they post about brands they already love. Mike explains how a $1-per-like experiment at his AirBnB retreat grew into a world-first build with Meta. He also covers why AI search runs almost entirely on third-party content, and how brands like LSKD now get a new piece of customer content every 33 minutes. On average, the cost per click comes in at about half that of paid media. Mike explains how the idea started. During COVID he ran a hinterland retreat and paid guests $1 per like in wine-cellar credit for posting content. Six months later it was named best holiday home in Australia and featured in Vogue. He also talks about building a world-first integration with Meta, and the psychology that makes customers post (time and effort, not likes). He shares hard numbers on cost per click, spend-back rates and category performance. Why BrandPay separates customer media from UGC and creator contentHow a $1-per-like guest experiment led to a Vogue feature and a new startupBuilding with Meta: a world-first API use case and the challenge of fraud preventionWhy fixed rewards beat per-like rewards: everyday users think in time and effort, not engagementHow the BrandPay wallet works: store credit in Apple Wallet, worth half its value at other brands, with the other half returned to the rewarding brand#ad disclosure, and why customer content doesn't feel like sellingAI search and third-party content: Google lowered its follower threshold for showing third-party content in search from 300k to 35k to 10kThe review flow: 48-hour auto-approval for reels (24 hours for stories), and 98% approval ratesPricing: a 25% fee on top of rewards, with no SaaS or setup feesAttribution: first-degree clicks at about 50% of paid media cost per click, plus the "BrandPay halo effect" measured via Triple WhaleWhy brands with real community (Facebook groups, Klaviyo lists) win first85% of rewards are spent back with the brand, on average within about 5 daysWhich categories perform best: fashion, beauty, skincare, nutrition, pet food, sunnies and furnitureFirst-mover advantage and the "infinite half-life" of third-party contentProduct launches: building customer media groups by postcodeBeyond e-commerce: distributor brands, service businesses, and TikTok coming soon

Cam McNeill spent ten years at Dollar Shave Club — from managing a member services team in Sydney to running the entire business outside the US. He bought the brand's first Facebook ads in Australia at a $14 CPA, launched Ruggable into the Australian market, and is now Head of Growth at Beforeyouspeak Coffee, taking a nine-year-old Aussie DTC brand into the States. He was living in a van touring America in 2012 when Dollar Shave Club's $3,500 launch video went viral. He rang a mate and said: I wonder how long it'll take to get to Australia. In this episode Cam joins Ryan Martin for a genuinely practical conversation about cross-border ecommerce — how you know you're ready for a new market, what the first six months should actually look like, and why Beforeyouspeak chose the US largely because of one channel that isn't live here yet. WHAT WE COVER • The signals that tell you a market is ready for you — hiding in your DMs, your customer service inbox and your creator requests (and why it's a two-way street: ask them back) • Why market expansion deserves the same rigour as a product launch, and how to build a forecast you feel 80/20 about • The lowest-cost MVP: finding a beachhead, building a waitlist, and contacting the people who already contacted you • Why Beforeyouspeak shipped from Australia at painful margins — and got to conviction fast because those US subscribers are still with them years later • Setting a six-month horizon with real exit criteria, without making it binary • Whether you have to "conquer" Australia first (and Cam's response to that framing) • New Zealand as the soft-launch market most Aussie brands overlook • Why the US comes down to TikTok Shop — and the real difference between an influencer and a creator who only gets paid on GMV delivered • Subscription in 2026: the Amazon Prime promise, subscription fatigue, and why your owned experience has to be equal to or better • Rising Meta costs, AI-driven attribution, and building creative diversity across well-defined personas • Using AI to shorten the distance to a decision, not to generate more noise • Tech stack: Shopify for multi-market, Recharge, Klaviyo, and the new players innovating inside the inbox • Ryan on Microsoft Clarity and internal site search — the highest-intent, least-watched data on your site • How much AI traffic actually matters yet, zero-click search, and why commercial keywords are still safe • Why AI slop might make great designers more valuable, not less

Nineteen months ago Steph Moore was a nurse with no fashion background, no ecommerce experience and a copy of Adobe Illustrator she'd taught herself after night shifts. Today Hey Sister Scrub Club sells out drops, has a 6,000-strong email list and was runner-up for Rookie of the Year at the SHE-com awards. In this episode Steph walks Ryan through the whole build: cold-contacting manufacturers until one agreed to work from her own prints and measurements, the sample sets that came back with head holes too small to get into, and the decision to order 360 units across six prints on nothing more than gut feel and a few colleagues' opinions. She's unusually open about the parts most founders leave out. August was her biggest month ever. July was her worst — not because demand dropped, but because she sold out of core sizes and had no stock to sell. Her tech stack is Shopify and almost nothing else: no automated flows, no abandoned cart emails, every one of those 6,000 emails written and sent by hand. She bought Klaviyo ages ago and still hasn't set it up. There's also the shipment that arrived soaking wet after a flooded hangar, the drop where half the orders went out with one print on the front and a different one on the back, and the Pink October collection covered in boobs — designed specifically so a patient would ask "have you checked yours?" Plus: why she won't use a 3PL, what she wants her future warehouse to feel like, and the line that explains why the copycats flooding the fun scrubs market don't worry her much. CHAPTERS (00:40) Meet Steph Moore, founder of Hey Sister Scrub Club (01:00) From nursing shifts to Adobe Illustrator all-nighters (02:16) Cold-contacting manufacturers until one said yes (03:00) Sample problems, and the set that finally worked (04:32) The first drop: 360 units and six prints on gut feel (05:14) Where the name "Hey Sister" came from (07:05) Building an Instagram community before there was stock (08:00) Why she chose a pre-order: cash flow and capacity control (11:07) Growth that's been almost entirely organic (13:01) Global expansion and the US tariff roadblock (14:11) Biggest month ever, right after the worst month ever (15:50) Retail Fest, SHE-com, and learning what CAC and ROAS mean (17:45) An honest look at a very lean tech stack (21:04) The next 12 months: going casual with nursing (24:08) The hardest moments, including a shipment that arrived soaked (28:03) The mixed-print mistake and the "keep it, pay it forward" policy (30:17) "You can replicate the product, but you can't replicate the brand" (31:49) The Pink October drop that got people talking (34:10) Becoming "the Peter Alexander of the scrub world" (36:41) What's next for Hey Sister Scrub Club HEY SISTER SCRUB CLUB REMARKABLE DIGITAL

Shawn Singh was managing 40–50 people at a fintech by day and building a copper drinkware brand between 5pm and 7pm every night. Then Valentine's Day 2025 hit, 250 orders landed over a single weekend, and he and his wife packed every one of them on the living room floor, with 10 pallets of stock stacked in the garage behind them. In this episode, Shawn joins Ryan Martin (Host and Founder of Remarkable Digital) to unpack how Copper Culture went from an off-the-shelf Shopify theme to a multi-market brand selling into Australia, the US and 17 duty-free markets, and why he'd rather be the best copper drinkware brand outside India than the biggest. It's an honest one: the money lost learning Meta, the 51% jump in the copper price over 12 months, and a live teardown of a supplier sample that scored "7.5 out of 10" and still got rejected. WHAT WE COVER • Why a lunch-and-learn from the Arms of Eve founders was the final push to quit the day job • Building to a few million in lifetime sales on a default Shopify theme • Google first, Meta second: why it took 18–24 months to tame the beast, and what it cost along the way • The Valentine's gift set that changed everything, no discount, just better packaging and a message flip from "you need a copper bottle" to "give your loved ones a copper bottle" • The UGC engine: triggering review requests 48 hours after delivery (not 14 or 21 days) and offering a coupon to upgrade a text review to video • The real science of copper: antimicrobial to 99%+ within three hours, plus the copper toxicity warning Shawn puts on every box • Copper up 51% in 12 months, 300g in a bottle and up to a kilo in a dispenser, how Copper Culture protected margin without passing on the full increase • Manufacturing in India's copper cottage industry: why a supplier that tripled output still can't keep up with a business that grew 6x • Testing new markets and SKUs: 200-300 unit runs, six-week sell-through rules, and why Moscow mule mugs fly in Australia but not the US • Why a real-time profit dashboard is the first thing Shawn checks every morning (and the mate who did $25k in revenue for $800 profit) CHAPTERS 00:00 – Cold open 01:27 – Welcome: Shawn Singh, Copper Culture 01:57 – Rebuilding the site with Clever Conversions 02:11 – The first website his wife designed, and the millions it carried 04:42 – Fintech by day, ecommerce by night 05:36 – The Arms of Eve lunch-and-learn that changed everything 06:00 – Google traction first, then 18–24 months learning Meta 07:20 – Valentine's Day 2025: 250 orders packed in the living room 10:22 – The copper pitch — and the toxicity warning 11:47 – How to actually use a copper bottle day to day 12:50 – Hammered vs polished, and why hammering matters 13:37 – Indian grandparents, an Ayurvedic practitioner, and terrible Amazon bottles 15:32 – The Valentine's gift set and the AOV unlock 16:49 – Demand capture on Google vs demand generation on Meta 18:01 – In-house, offshore, then Swann Studio 19:46 – The UGC machine: the 48-hour post-delivery review trigger 23:19 – Copper up 51%: margins, pricing and a lower CAC 26:11 – Live sample teardown: what a 7.5/10 looks like 30:28 – How a copper jug is actually made, from Chilean copper up 31:46 – Supplier at 3x, business at 6x: pre-orders and air freight 33:46 – Australia, the US, and 17 duty-free markets (Dubai and Saudi next) 34:56 – Expanding the range: 200–300 unit tests and fast-moving SKUs 36:13 – Real-time profit, channel decisions and a creative backlog LINKS Copper Culture: https://copperculture.com.au Clever Conversions (Ilan Hurwitz): [https://cleverconversions.com.au/] Swann Studio: https://swan.studio/ BeProfit: https://beprofit.co Enjoyed this one? Follow the eCommerce Aus Podcast and leave a review it helps more Aussie founders find the show.

A text message at an airport turned into Australia's biggest retail and eCommerce community in about twelve months: 4,000 members, up to 90 chat groups, and meetups from Ballarat to Dubai. Dean Salakas (The Party People) and Jethro Marks (The Nile) join Ryan Martin (Remarkable Digital) to explain how Retail Community Group actually works, what it deliberately isn't, and how its members had workarounds in place days before Australia Post announced it was suspending shipping to the US. Dean built a two-person family business into Australia's largest party supplies retailer, offering click-and-collect in 1999 and becoming Google's first advertiser in Australia in 2003 at one cent a click, before exiting eighteen months ago. Jethro co-founded The Nile in 2003 and is now building the world's most trusted bookstore, with US and UK launches on the way. Neither of them set out to build a community. They started a WhatsApp group so they could find each other for a drink at Retail Fest, and it had fifty people in it before Dean's plane landed. Join the Whatsapp here In this episode they unpack the mechanics behind the growth: why the group split into interest-based channels for AI, cross-border trade, HR and open-to-work; how the "pitch slap" keeps unsolicited selling out; and why a moderated, free, no-pay-to-play space has become the place Australian retailers go first when something breaks. They also share what's coming next, including a public events directory, a vendor portal and peer advisory groups for retailers, plus their honest take on the hardest problem ahead: keeping the magic while scaling to a market Jethro estimates at 100,000 people. If you run an online store, work in retail tech, or you're new to eCommerce and feel like you're doing it alone, this one is a practical guide to plugging into the most collaborative industry in the country. Join The Retail Community Here Topics covered: retail community building, Australian eCommerce, cross-border trade and tariffs, Australia Post US shipping suspension, 3PL and fulfilment, retail conferences and events, AI tools for retail, B2B community moderation, thought leadership for service providers.

Running an Australian eCommerce or Shopify store? Your customers have started shopping inside ChatGPT, and shoppers arriving from AI answer engines convert around 1.5x better than any other source. Melbourne eCommerce Aus Event - Tickets Here. Online shopping has become… boring? A recent Criteo study found 77% of Australians describe online shopping as unexciting, and that's just the starting point for one of our most forward-looking conversations yet. Ryan sits down with Matt Hurle from Criteo to unpack the findings of their latest report and what they mean for anyone running an eCommerce business in Australia. Matt brings 20 years in advertising, 15 in digital and 10 in martech, from cold-calling rural businesses out of the Yellow Pages to sitting at the front edge of AI-powered retail media. The big theme: the path to purchase is no longer linear. Consumers are bouncing between publishers, retailer sites, social platforms and AI answer engines like ChatGPT, and increasingly starting their entire shopping journey inside those answer engines, at the very first spark of an idea. Criteo was the first technology company integrated with OpenAI via API and has already run 2,000+ campaigns in that environment. Early signal? Shoppers arriving from ChatGPT convert about 1.5x more efficiently than any other source. We also get into the eternal marketer's tension Ryan sums up perfectly: "The thing I love about digital marketing is you can track every dollar. The thing I hate about digital marketing is you can track every dollar." Attribution, brand vs. performance, the resurgence of SEO (or GEO/AIO, whatever we're calling it this week), influencer strategy, and why customer support and honest reviews now beat polished influencer content for building real trust. Key Takeaways The funnel is dead — long live discovery. Consumers now begin shopping journeys inside AI answer engines, far earlier than the traditional mid-to-lower funnel signals marketers relied on. Brands need to show up higher up the discovery journey.Commerce data is the new gold standard. Moving away from demographics and guesswork toward real commerce signals — what people add to cart, actually buy, and browse before and after. Criteo observes 1T+ in annual eCommerce transactions across 730M+ daily active shoppers.Show up across surfaces, not just your own. Criteo's independence means it serves ads on whichever "surface" (open web, ChatGPT, Meta, TikTok, Pinterest, X) is most likely to convert — not a walled-garden's owned inventory.ChatGPT shoppers convert ~1.5x better. They've researched and validated inside the answer engine, so trust is high by the time they land.SEO/GEO/AIO matters more than ever. As search shifts from keywords to full-sentence, conversational queries, rich product data and verifiable messaging determine whether you appear in AI answers — or get left out of the consideration set entirely.Trust beats polish. Verified reviews and genuine customer support now outweigh paid influencer content. 200 five-star reviews can be less trusted than a 4.7 average. Reply to bad reviews honestly. (Ryan's Nero merino example and Matt's Artisan chopping-board recall story both make the point.)Match the influencer to the job to be done. Celebrities drive reach and exposure; micro-influencers drive engaged, community-level trust and conversion. Different jobs, different tiers.AI answer engines stay out of sensitive categories. OpenAI keeps advertising away from health-related matters, directing people back to their GPs.

If you're building a Shopify store, a DTC label, or an omnichannel ecommerce brand in Australia, this episode is your blueprint. From selling jewellery at Bondi markets to 13 stores and a booming ecommerce business, Arms of Eve co-founders Kerryn and Aaron Langer show how an Australian DTC brand scales retail without losing its ecommerce edge. Kerryn and Aaron Langer turned a market stall and a pile of leftover merino wool offcuts into Arms of Eve, now a nine-store (soon to be 13) Australian jewellery and lifestyle brand that's scaled past $20 million in revenue on the back of a genuinely direct-to-consumer ecommerce model. In this episode of eCommerce Australia, Ryan Martin sits down with the husband-and-wife founders to unpack how they walked away from the traditional wholesale/indent model, why The Iconic marketplace became their unlikely proving ground, and how COVID-era demand for jewellery (turns out that's the only accessory that shows up on a Zoom call) turned a side category into 80% of the business. For Shopify merchants and ecommerce operators thinking about opening a physical store, this conversation is a masterclass in getting the sequencing right. Aaron was convinced retail was dead, until their "little experiment" Bondi Beach store proved the opposite, creating a measurable halo effect that lifts online sales in a 10km radius around every new location. They talk candidly about the tech stack behind a fast-scaling DTC ecommerce brand (Starshipit for fulfilment, Okendo for reviews, Profit Peak for profitability data, and an in-house team now "vibe coding" their own dashboards), how they balance agency support with in-house performance marketing, and why their content strategy has swung from polished campaign shoots to raw, iPhone-shot, Tolstoy-powered video that converts better than the highly produced stuff ever did. There's also a genuinely useful nugget for anyone running ecommerce SEO or content strategy: Kerryn and Aaron explain how customer questions from their retail staff (about materials, tarnish, sizing, warranty) are becoming the seed for on-site content designed to capture organic search traffic, a simple but underused move for any Shopify or ecommerce brand trying to turn support questions into search-optimised product and FAQ pages that rank. Add in an unfiltered take on celebrity gifting (Margot Robbie, Hailey Bieber and Dua Lipa have all been photographed in Arms of Eve pieces, without a single paid placement), a calculated US relaunch planned for June 2027, and hard-won lessons on hiring, culture and staying "even" as leaders, and this is one of the most tactical founder conversations on ecommerce, retail expansion and DTC brand-building we've featured on the show About Arms of Eve:Arms of Eve is an Australian jewellery, accessories and resortwear brand founded by Kerryn and Aaron Langer. Starting out selling at local markets, the brand has grown into a multi-channel ecommerce and retail business with nine stores nationwide (growing to 13 by the end of 2026), a wholesale presence in boutiques across Australia, and a fast-growing direct-to-consumer online store. Website: https://armsofeve.com/Instagram: @armsofeveResources & tools mentioned: Starshipit: ecommerce shipping and fulfilment platformOkendo: customer reviews platformProfit Peak: ecommerce profitability analyticsTolstoy: shoppable, native video for ecommerce sitesThe Iconic: Australian fashion marketplace Follow eCommerce Australia for more conversations with Australia's leading ecommerce and Shopify founders on growth, retail strategy, and building direct-to-consumer brands. Subscribe on Spotify and leave a review to help more ecommerce and Shopify store owners find the show.

Will North has led marketing and commercial functions at brands including Meshki, PE Nation, AJE and Superdry UK. For the last two and a half years he's been at Kulani Kinis, the Australian swimwear brand doing 75-80% of its revenue in the US. He joined Ryan Martin from Remarkable Digital to talk conversion rate optimisation, attribution, TikTok Shop and the marketing shifts defining 2026. The Kulani Kinis story. Founded 11.5 years ago by Sydney couple Danny and Alex as a side hustle, the brand found its footing in the US when Alex transferred to EY in LA. Today the US makes up 75-80% of revenue; Australia is just 7%. CRO is a business metric, not a digital one. Will's Retail Fest keynote ("I Lost the Company $15 Million and Got a Promotion") explored why every untested change to your site is a potential loss. His starting point: survey customers who've purchased and subscribers who haven't, distil 3-4 themes, then run ideas through an effort-versus-upside matrix before testing. Context kills best practice. Adding "some items in your cart may sell out" drove nearly $2M in annualised revenue at a streetwear brand. The same test lost revenue at a women's fashion brand, because scarcity signalling made shoppers worry about wearing the same thing as everyone else. Customer psychology differs by brand. The thank you page question nobody asks. Immediately post-purchase, ask: "Was there anything that almost stopped you from buying?" Customers who've just converted will tell you exactly what's broken. Attribution in 2026. No one does it perfectly. Will's approach is to define the role of each channel across the seasonal cycle and measure a marketing efficiency ratio (spend divided by sales) as a flow, not a fixed weekly target. TikTok Shop. 72% of fashion revenue on the platform flows through affiliate and creator. The new customer rate is 95%. Will visited the US team last month and TikTok Shop is a major focus for Kulani Kinis in FY27. What you say now matters as much as how you look. LLMs are changing discovery. If a brand has no content narrative, it won't show up when someone asks an AI for a recommendation. Will's take: GEO, AIO and SEO are all just SEO. Not all impressions are equal. Kulani Kinis ran direct mail via Post Pilot at a $600 CPM and it outperformed. A postcard on a fridge is a very different impression to a feed scroll-past. In-person events. A $40,000 Maldives brand trip generated the equivalent of $140,000 in media value from creator and customer content. Collaborations. A LinkedIn conversation between brand experience leads led to a Lounge Underwear collab that spiked Kulani Kinis' German sales in July 2024. Go in with clear objectives or don't bother. "Conversion is a business metric. It's not an e-com metric." "There is no such thing as best practice with CRO. Every brand's customer psychology is different." "You've got to sell it twice: on site and when they get it, otherwise it's coming back." Kulani Kinis: kulanikinis.comPost Pilot: postpilot.comLounge Underwear: loungeunderwear.comPura Vida Bracelets: puravidabracelets.comRetail Fest About Will North: Head of Commercial & Performance at Kulani Kinis. Previously held senior roles at Meshki, PE Nation, AJE and Superdry UK. Retail Fest speaker and Oria Award nominee (International Conqueror).

Building an Art-Led eCommerce Fashion Brand: Kyall & Maku Fenaroli on Maku The Label In this episode, Ryan sits down with Kyall and Maku Fenaroli, the husband-and-wife team behind Maku The Label, an art-centric fashion brand that's gone from Maku painting designs on blank t-shirts to landing David Jones as a stockist, all in under 18 months. Maku spent over a decade in finance before turning her lifelong passion for art into a business. Kyall left a career as a plumber and general manager in construction to run the operations side full-time. Together they've built a brand defined by original artwork, rapid organic growth, and a willingness to make big, fast calls, including ripping up their entire fulfilment model mid-flight. This one's a masterclass in scrappy growth, knowing when to change your model, and what it actually takes to go from side hustle to major retail partner. From side hustle to Style Runner in four monthsMaku started printing her art on blank tees with zero branding, just a decision to stop buying t-shirts she didn't love. Four months later they landed Style Runner, their first major stockist, before either of them had heard of an SSCC barcode. Why they walked away from print-on-demandPrint-on-demand gave Maku total creative flexibility (paint today, sell tomorrow), but it was killing customer experience with two-week delivery windows and mispicked orders. After a rough Black Friday period exposed the gap, they moved to a 3PL and in-stock model in a matter of months. The real cost of switching to held stockKyall breaks down what changes when you go from print-on-demand to holding inventory: deposits on stock six months out, a five-to-nine month cash conversion cycle, and having to plan collections over a year in advance. Maku is already painting for August 2027. Contribution margin over vanity revenueKyall's biggest lesson from the last 18 months: understanding gross margin, delivered margin, and contribution profit, not just top-line revenue. He talks candidly about how much of the "guru" advice in eCommerce ignores what it actually costs to get a sale to break-even. Wholesale lessons from Style Runner and David JonesMaku credits Style Runner for patiently teaching them the basics of wholesale (barcodes, dispatch windows, systems) before they stepped up to David Jones, where the same requirements come with far less flexibility. Personalised influencer gifting that actually gets sharedMaku's approach to influencer seeding isn't a mail-merge, it's DM'ing people directly, matching values and aesthetic, and adding a genuinely personal touch (a hand-painted portrait for Alana Hadid, a custom tee tied to Celeste Barber's own brand). The result: organic shares from influencers with audiences in the hundreds of thousands to over a million. Pulling back from paid ads toward organic and IRLAfter ramping up Meta and Google ads over the past year, the pair are consciously shifting back toward the organic-first strategy that built the brand, including real-world events they say outperform equivalent ad spend. New York Fashion Week, twiceMaku The Label is heading back to New York in September for NYFW, running a gifting suite with PR agency Kate & Co. and exploring a possible pop-up retail space alongside other Australian brands. What's next: the Australian designer categoryMaku's goal is to move the brand firmly into ready-to-wear and the Australian designer space, with the US identified as the next major growth market for both DTC and wholesale. Links & Mentions Maku The LabelStyle RunnerDavid JonesKate & Co. PRNew York Fashion Week (September)Yotpo: Amazing Women in eCommerce retreatHumble Brag's retreat

What does it actually take to launch a product-based eCommerce business from scratch, scale it to over 400,000 customers, land in 170 Officeworks stores, crack Amazon US, and run a live Kickstarter campaign, all while raising a family from the other side of the world? In this episode of eCommerce Australia, Ryan Martin from Remarkable Digital, sits down with Lou Rice, Co-Founder of Strapsicle, the silicone Kindle and e-reader strap brand that went from a 2am maternity leave idea to a globally recognised eCommerce brand in under four years. Lou gets refreshingly honest about the messy middle of building a product business: the overstock nightmares, the borrowed money, the Amazon learning curve, and why she thinks most Australian eCommerce founders move too slowly on international expansion. If you sell physical products online, whether on Shopify, Amazon, or both, this episode is packed with hard-won tactical and strategic insights. The Strapsicle origin story: how a dropped Kindle at 2am became a 400,000-customer brandLaunching a Kickstarter campaign: why Lou chose crowdfunding and what it takes to run one successfullyAmazon US in 4 months: Lou's approach to international expansion that most Aussie founders avoidScaling into Officeworks: from 13 stores to 170, and what actually drove sell-throughTikTok Shop lives vs. Instagram Live: which channel is converting and how Lou runs flash sales in real timeBuilding a brand community: how a Facebook group with engaged customers becomes a product feedback engineOvercoming eCommerce growing pains: overstock, cash flow, production costs, and how to navigate themFinancial clarity for product founders: why knowing your numbers (especially unit economics on a low-AOV product) matters more than you thinkAccessibility as a product category: how Strapsicle is opening up reading for people with physical limitationsThe one thing most eCommerce founders don't do early enough: Lou Rice is the Co-Founder of Strapsicle, a silicone strap accessory for Kindles and e-readers that makes hands-free reading possible. What started as a 2am maternity leave invention is now a global eCommerce brand with over 400,000 customers, stocked in 170 Officeworks stores across Australia, and sold across the US, UK, and beyond via Shopify and Amazon. Lou is known in the Australian eCommerce community for her direct approach, her willingness to talk about the hard parts of building a product business, and her speed-first philosophy on international expansion. Strapsicle website: strapsicle.comStrapsicle Kickstarter campaign: Search "Strapsicle" on KickstarterOfficeworks: officeworks.com.auAmazon US: amazon.com: search "Strapsicle"eCommerce Australia Podcast: Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTubeShopify eCommerce Australia, product-based business, eCommerce growth strategy, Amazon FBA Australia, Officeworks retail distribution, TikTok Shop Australia, live shopping eCommerce, Kickstarter product launch, Kindle accessories, scaling a physical product business, eCommerce founder story, international expansion strategy, eCommerce community building, Shopify store growth, low AOV product strategy, Australian eCommerce podcast

'What "f****d" actually means in ecommerce and the two ways brands get there: over-buying stock and operating at a loss' Ryan sits down with Paul Waddy, author of Shopify for Dummies, former Head of Operations at Showpo, former CEO of The Horse, and founder of Learn eCommerce, fresh off one of the standout keynotes at Retail Fest: "How to U****k Your Business in Three Steps." Paul shares his journey from suitcases of shoe samples in Guangzhou to coaching hundreds of ecommerce brands including Naked Sundays, Budgy Smuggler, Maison de Sabré and LSKD, and breaks down exactly why so many ecommerce businesses are losing money without realising it, and the formulas to fix it. Packed with hard numbers: target margins, ad spend benchmarks, inventory formulas and the metrics every founder should be tracking daily. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN • What "f****d" actually means in ecommerce and the two ways brands get there: over-buying stock and operating at a loss • Why high revenue can hide a failing business, and why some founders are "the lowest paid workers in Australia" • The three foundations of a healthy ecommerce business: sales, gross profit, and OPEX + inventory • The break-even formula: OPEX ÷ gross profit • Why you need a ~70% product margin in today's market • The inventory formula: forward cover = lead time + 30 days safety stock • Why ad spend should stay under 20% of net revenue (MER) with a 20% net profit target • The #1 trait of successful founders: humility • Why ecommerce businesses are valued on EBITDA multiples (2–4x), not revenue • Underrated organic channels: SEO, newsletters, and why nobody in ecommerce is using Reddit (yet) TIMESTAMPS (00:00) Welcome Paul Waddy — "the godfather of Australian ecommerce" (01:11) From McDonald's and Bonds Couriers to trade union official (03:18) Flying to Guangzhou and starting a men's shoe brand (05:18) Hard lessons in wholesale margins and cash flow (06:08) Five retail stores, no profit — and the move to ecommerce in 2007 (07:38) Joining Showpo: $100M with no external funding (08:50) CEO at The Horse and the start of advisory (Muscle Republic, Babyboo, and more) (09:52) Building Learn eCommerce: coaching hundreds of brand owners (12:11) What does a "f****d" business look like? The two killers: stock and operating losses (14:14) "You're the lowest paid worker in Australia" — why revenue hides the truth (17:56) "Time till I'm f****d" — the metric every founder should know (19:17) The three steps: sales, gross profit, OPEX & inventory (22:00) Margin targets, logistics under 10%, merchant fees under 3.5% (24:29) A warning about the "scale bros" and taking on debt to grow (25:22) Inventory formulas: forward cover and monthly stock budgets (28:14) The #1 trait of successful founders: humility (30:36) How often should you check your numbers? (Daily.) Forecasting within 2% (32:45) How to beat competitors with bigger ad budgets: differentiation (36:47) EBITDA multiples and why profit — not revenue — determines what your business is worth (39:48) Should you build to exit from day one? (41:30) Ad spend benchmarks: why MER should stay under 20% (44:24) Hot take: the channels everyone is sleeping on — SEO, newsletters and Reddit (48:50) How brands can actually use Reddit (without getting downvoted) (52:31) How to work with Paul KEY FORMULAS Break-even: OPEX ÷ gross profit (if monthly OPEX exceeds gross profit, you're losing money) Forward cover: lead time + 30 days safety stock (e.g. 60-day lead time = hold 90 days of stock) Monthly stock budget: planned sales × COGS % (e.g. $100K sales at 30% COGS = $30K stock buy) Benchmarks: ~70% margin | logistics 10% of revenue | merchant fees 3.5% | MER 20% | net profit target 20% CONNECT WITH PAUL WADDY Instagram: @paulwaddyecommerce Free SEO/GEO/AIO Audit - Click Here⁠ ⁠Scale Check from Learn eCommerce Pricing Calculator DM Paul for a free scale check Website: learnecommerce.com.au Book: Shopify for Dummies---

FREE: Find out why you're brand isn't ranking in AI with a Remarkable Digital Free AIO Audit Here The best eCommerce Australia founder stories start with a problem nobody else has solved. Amanda Phoenix moved from Vancouver to Melbourne with $3,000 to her name, had a motorcycle accident, and sewed her first product from a $5 polka-dot tablecloth she bought at Spotlight. Today she runs Peak Moto - Australia's leading women's motorcycle gear retailer with stores in Melbourne and Brisbane and a fast-growing eCommerce store. In this episode of the Ecommerce Australia Podcast, Ryan Martin sits down with Amanda to trace the full founder journey: From living on a chicken farm in regional Victoria on a working holiday visa, to a presale campaign that flooded her Gmail with 200 orders in a single evening, to rage-quitting a marketing agency job and opening a 29-square-metre hole-in-the-wall with no running water and a four-hour daily limit imposed by the absence of a toilet. Amanda shares hard-won lessons on eCommerce SEO, finding the right marketing agency, why she walked away from wholesale (B2B) to go all-in on direct-to-consumer, how she negotiated her first commercial lease to exit penalty-free, and why community, not advertising, has been the biggest driver of growth for Peak Moto. If you're an Australian eCommerce founder, a product-based business owner, or thinking about opening a bricks-and-mortar store alongside your online store, this episode is essential listening. What You'll Learn • How Amanda bootstrapped Flying Solo Gear Company from zero - no money, no network,no plan • Why a presale strategy turned a hobby into a real eCommerce business overnight • The exact lease negotiation that let her exit her first store with 30 days notice and no penalty • Why she dropped B2B wholesale and went D2C — and what it meant for margins • How to build a community that sells for you without paid advertising • What to look for (and watch out for) when hiring an eCommerce marketing agency in Australia • Bricks-and-mortar lessons: why smaller is smarter when opening your first retail location Episode Timestamps 00:00 Welcome — the full circle moment 02:00 Amanda's background: strength coach, national team, total burnout 04:30 Why Australia? Selling everything for $15K CAD and booking a one-way ticket 06:00 Chicken farm in regional Victoria — the working holiday visa reality 08:30 Moving to Melbourne: nearly run over by a tram on Day 1 10:00 The motorcycle accident that created Flying Solo 11:30 The $5 Spotlight tablecloth, a borrowed sewing machine, and the first bum bag 13:30 The Yarra Valley petrol station moment — what are you wearing? 15:00 Kill Switch Pack: carbon fibre, Kevlar, and the world's toughest bum bag 17:30 Flying Solo born in one day at the cafe downstairs 20:00 The presale that changed everything: 200 backpack orders in one evening 22:00 Word of mouth, Mailchimp, and growing without paid ads 24:00 Rage quit → first retail space → 29sqm with no toilet 27:30 Importing MotoGirl, Revit saying yes when everyone else said no 29:00 Why Flying Solo became Peak Moto 31:30 Founder advice: smaller MOQs, ditch B2B, test before you scale 36:00 How Peak Moto built a community that drives word-of-mouth sales 40:00 Bricks and mortar lessons: leases, location, lifestyle 44:00 How to find a good marketing agency — and the red flags to watch for Links & Mentions Guests → PeakMoto — Women's Motorcycle Gear (Melbourne & Brisbane) → Flying Solo Gear Company → Amanda Phoenix on Instagram Mentioned in this episode Revit Motorcycle Gear — peakmoto.com.au/brands/revitMotoGirl — UK women's motorcycle gear brand Pulp Digital — Meta ads agency (shoutout: Bella)

🎯 FREE AIO AUDIT Want to know how your eCommerce brand shows up in AI search tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini? Get your free AIO (AI Optimisation) audit from the team at Remarkable Digital.👉 Claim Your Free AIO Audit: https://remarkabledigital.com.au/contact-us/ Get in touch with Petros Ramos Get in touch with Damien Brennan Episode Overview: AI is reshaping how eCommerce brands in Australia communicate with customers, and most brands haven't scratched the surface of what's possible. In this episode of eCommerce Australia, host Ryan Martin sits down with Damien Brennan and Petros Romas from Sinch to unpack how AI-powered messaging, chatbots, and customer communication tools are transforming eCommerce operations. From abandoned cart messaging to building genuine trust in AI agents, this conversation is a practical guide for eCommerce brands ready to use AI the right way. What You'll Learn: Abandoned cart messaging, the AI no-brainer: Rather than a single follow-up email, AI enables brands to turn this into a genuine multi-message conversation across the customer's preferred channel, and the conversion data backs it up. Meet customers where they are: WhatsApp, SMS, email, chatbot customers have preferred channels, and AI makes it possible to serve all of them at scale. Why trust is the first hurdle in AI adoption: Start customers on a channel they already trust, and let the AI prove itself from there. KYC 'Know Your Customer': The brands that get the most out of AI tools are the ones that have invested in understanding their customer's buying habits, common questions, and communication preferences. What brands get wrong when implementing AI: Implementing without a clear use case, and underestimating the importance of the data that feeds the AI. The rise of AI agents in eCommerce customer service: Beyond chatbots, AI agents are now capable of handling complex customer service scenarios end-to-end. Key Takeaways- - Start with abandoned cart AI messaging, it's one of the highest-converting use cases available right now - Give customers channel choice: WhatsApp, SMS, email, chatbot, meet them where they are- Don't hide the AI, build trust by starting on familiar channels and proving value incrementally - KYC is everything: the more you know about your customers, the better your AI performs - AI agents are moving beyond FAQs into full customer service resolution, this is the next wave - Good AI starts with good data, invest in your customer knowledge base before scaling AI About the Guests Damien Brennan and Petros Romas are from Sinch, a global leader in cloud communications powering customer engagement for some of the world's leading brands. About the Host Ryan Martin is the founder of Remarkable Digital (https://remarkabledigital.com.au), an eCommerce SEO and digital marketing agency based in Australia.eCommerce Australia is your go-to podcast for eCommerce growth strategy, eCommerce SEO, and building a business that scales. New episodes drop regularly, follow on Spotify to stay up to date.