[Voiceover]: We want people to come to us for education, for inspiration and for connection.
Phoebe Simmons: There's a lot of judgment in the baby and parenting space, like you have to use this product, otherwise you might not love your baby as much as the rest of us.
[Voiceover]: Maybe we won't sell some product or help our customers feel a certain way or feel connected or feel less alone. And that's a metric in itself.
Phoebe Simmons: First time parents are like, maybe you'll be fine. Like a lot of money. Do I really need to splash that on that bassinet? Yes you do. Is the hot tip.
[Voiceover]: Welcome to Add to Cart, Australia's leading e commerce podcast that express delivers all you need to know in the fast
Phoebe Simmons: moving world of online retail.
[Voiceover]: Every week Nathan Bush from E Suite and an e commerce industry expert will share the news, research and insights that you need to know to keep you
Phoebe Simmons: at the top of your game and
[Voiceover]: of course keep your customers adding to Cart.
Nathan Bush: Hello and welcome to Add to Cart. My name is Nathan Bush, host of add to cart and director E Commerce
Nathan Bush: talent agency E Suite.
Nathan Bush: Now if that sound is one that is all too familiar, this is the episode for you. Sure, babies are exciting and cute. They're also high maintenance, right? They need stuff. Or more accurately us parents need stuff just to look after them. But. But choosing exactly which stuff can be as challenging as trying to button up a onesie on a wriggling child at 2 in the morning. That's where today's guests come in. Kate Casey and Phoebe Simmons are co founders of the Memo, a one stop curated online shop for everything you need to care for your baby. Born out of frustration with the patronizing tone used to speak to new mothers, the Memo is a grown up answer to new parents customer confusion connecting them with the best and the brightest brands in the baby sphere. In this chat we discuss how the founders corporate backgrounds in beauty and luxury inform the way that they now run the Memo. We talk about the lengthy journey developing their new custom built gift registry and most importantly we get the lowdown on which product is going to help sleep deprived mum and dads and get more precious shut eye. Things I could have used a few years ago. Now before we get into it, don't forget to register to join us at the Add to Cart meetup. Our very first meetup. If you're going to Retail Global on the Gold coast in a few weeks, we would love to see you there. Thanks to our event partners impact.com ShipStation and ClearPay. Entry is free and the bar tab will be open. Register with the Link in the show notes or head on over to the retail global website to reserve your spot. All right, let's get into it. Thanks to our partners Shopify plus and Signet. Here's our conversation with Kate, Casey and Phoebe Simmons from the Memo. Kate and Phoebe, welcome to Add to cart.
[Voiceover]: Thanks so much for having us, Nathan.
Nathan Bush: Pleasure. Great to have you both here. All right, let's kick straight into it. For people who may not know the Memo or shopped with the Memo, can you explain what the Memo is?
Phoebe Simmons: The Memo is an e commerce website that is offering only the best and trusted products from across the globe that is going to make your journey through parenthood as easy as possible. We started this business two and a half years ago and it was based on a personal need. So I was pregnant with my first child. I was so excited I literally peed on that stick and I ran down to a big box retailer and I wanted to learn and jump straight into all the products. I was incredibly overwhelmed. I was underwhelmed as well with the lack of education, the lack of service, and overwhelmed by how many products that were available to me. I walked out of there feeling pretty disillusioned and I was a busy professional woman. So instead I refer to a friend of mine who had had a baby recently. She's also a lawyer, so very well researched. She had tried and trusted all the products. And so I asked Nicole, Nick, can you just give me a list of everything that I'm actually going to actually use in this parenthood journey? She provided me this list. It was an Excel spreadsheet. It had all the products that I was actually going to use. And she put it into like context into like different categories. Like this is the list that you're going to use for your feeding, this is what you're going to need for sleeping and put handy little tips and comments next to it to provide some background stories for me. I use this list as like my bible and it turns out most friends and group of women have a list like this. I didn't think anything of it. Fast forward a couple of years. I'd been working at Australia's most premium retailer, Mecca, and I really had seen how the curation and product assortment and education services can create an amazing retail environment. I either had the chance of going back into the big box retailers or spend a whole lot of time finding products online from different websites. But I was busy. I needed convenience and I just saw firsthand how there was such a gap in the market for a specialty retailer to do what Mecca did in terms of beauty, when you compare it to department stores, to create an environment that offered curation, offering a brand that actually resonated with people and experience. And so there was a blatant gap for us to create the memo and the memo is doing what Beauty Mecca did to department stores and we're doing that to traditional retailers in babies. So we have over 150 brands, two and a half thousand different products that we offer to to our customers. We only stock the best products that you're going to need, use and love. So we've tried and tested them and we needed to create a brand that really connected with people that provided inspiration and education along that journey. And so here we are two and a half years long, about to launch into physical retail and obviously expand our services and other elements of content hub as well on the website.
Nathan Bush: Brilliant. And obviously Mecca is a benchmark in E commerce and retail in general. So it's not a bad starting point. What were you doing at Mecca?
Phoebe Simmons: I've always been in category management and buying so I was a category manager for fragrance, body and hair.
Nathan Bush: There Cool And Phoebe, how do you come into the picture then?
[Voiceover]: I knew Kate through beauty. I've worked in beauty my whole life. Most recently I was the marketing director for Benefit Cosmetics in Australia and I also have a natural business called the Blow which is a blow dry salon based in Melbourne in Little Collins Street. So I knew Kate from Around the Traps and she came to me with this idea and I didn't have children at the time and I just couldn't believe how baby was being retailed, marketed and experienced in Australia. And as Kate mentioned, there was a huge opportunity to support and to service women like us, parents like us who deserved better and expected the best. And so that's how we were able to create the memo.
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Nathan Bush: I think that's really interesting phrase, women like us. And Kate, you alluded to it as well in what you were talking about. Do you feel like mums have traditionally been marketed to or spoken to in a way that just doesn't represent who
Phoebe Simmons: the Modern mum is absolutely like, the language around branding is this very Mama Bubba. It's unsophisticated. It makes me feel like I'm a toddler, like, you know, a little girl that I've been spoken to. I'm still the same person that I was before I had child. Yes, I've gone through a journey and I've changed, but I shouldn't actually have to expect a different retail experience to what I was used to. So, you know, obviously used to shopping at department stores and Mecca, but instead I was actually being spoken to. Like, I had no idea. There was a lot of judgment in the baby and parenting space, like, you have to use this product, otherwise you might not love your baby as much as the rest of us. So it was really important, you know, Phoebe clearly identified that we could speak to the woman in the way that she wants to be spoken to and connected and receiving educational, inspirational content throughout that journey.
[Voiceover]: And I think that's one thing that you see done really well from some brands and done not so well from others. It's where we want to be spoken to on a real authentic, direct, honest level. Like, we're smart women. We don't want the messages kind of shoved down our throat. We don't want any assumed knowledge. We want to. To hear the hard, honest truth. And that's okay. It's okay for brands to be able to relate in that way rather than, I think, what some businesses in the industry do where it's very top down. It's like, what does the brand want to get across? It's not about that. It's what do our customers actually want to hear. And so by identifying that, we've been able to establish a very clear voice in the market that is clearly resonating.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, it's a really interesting one that you bring up because I don't have the stats with me, but it's percentage of household income that women traditionally become responsible for in making decisions in the household increases dramatically once they become a mum. But for some reason, the language changes to dumb it down. Just. It doesn't add up, does it?
[Voiceover]: No, not at all.
Nathan Bush: Have you got any examples of how you've kind of flipped the language and your tone of voice for the modern mum?
[Voiceover]: Yeah, I mean, it's a very clear one. So we've got a ban in the office on using words like Bubba and Bubba, words that I see as quite juvenile. And also, you know, to Kate's point, we're still the same women. We haven't changed. So, yes, we achieve a new title because our child is calling us that title. But we're still independent women with our own thoughts and our own identities. And so, yeah, there are words that I really don't like seeing because I think they're generic and I think it's lazy. And we want to always represent a premium positioning and sophisticated tone of language. We also have a rule around no assumed knowledge. So we would never expect a expecting parent who may be eight weeks pregnant and is thinking, oh my, coming to this category for the first time and has never heard of, of what a white noise sound machine is or what a muslin wrap is. Why would we assume that she knows how to use that product? Whereas when I first looked at the market, I didn't actually understand what the products were actually there for, at what stage in my parity journey I was supposed to buy them and what need they're actually servicing. So we really work on our language around, I guess, identifying problems and then helping our customers find the solutions for them.
Nathan Bush: And is that the overlap that you see with the beauty industry? It seems like the beauty industry is constantly introducing new products and new ways of using product and then you've got to take some of that into your world now.
[Voiceover]: Absolutely. We don't look at the baby industry as where we get our inspiration from. It's for us, it's all about looking around this for best practice globally, which we see most clearly in the beauty, lifestyle and fashion space.
Nathan Bush: Cool. And in the beauty and fashion space, apart from Mecca, who are you drawing on for inspiration at the moment?
[Voiceover]: Well, we love Violet Gray, don't we? They do a beautiful job. There's lovely brands in Australia like Vedroy who do a really great curated space. T4 Pilates is a lovely lifestyle brand that's very holistic and there's a lot of depth to their storytelling.
Phoebe Simmons: Personalization. We love brands that are focusing on that like Sheet Society with their bundle bed builder is amazing. And like even like Frank Green who are focusing on sustainability and how you can customize your own drink bottle. All of that we find incredibly fascinating. And that's where the future is, is in personalization and sustainability, which is kind of all also lends into. One of the reasons why we created this brand is buy once, buy well and it will last you from your first to your second and maybe even third babies. Or it can be done the cycle of giving around to your friends as a hand me down. So Beepi's about to give birth and she's going to be using my pram Absolutely.
Nathan Bush: It was a proud moment. I was so happy. The moment I could give our pram away to someone else, I was like, yes, we're at a pram stage. But someone else couldn't have it because it was good.
[Voiceover]: Yeah, absolutely. We don't want people, we don't want to contribute to landfill. We don't want to create all of this unnecessary waste in the market. We're all about serving up what we believe is, you know, will make things easier for parents and for Betty as it was easier for you to be able to pass it on and, you know, solve that problem. So it's important to us.
Nathan Bush: Have you thought about or have you got plans for any sort of resale market to connect your customers with products that have been used before?
[Voiceover]: Yes, yeah, it's on the list
Phoebe Simmons: for it. Yeah. The customers are always asking. So that's part of the exciting thing is the evolution of where this brand can grow to. There really is no limits. We have a few other low hanging fruits that we're going to tick off the next 12, 18 months, but never say never and we'll see where that gets to.
[Voiceover]: And in the meantime, we do partner with Secured Abs, which is a really great charity that has partners in other states as well. But it's all about encouraging parents to pass on their used products to parents who might need it.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. Now obviously we talked about products developing in this space and that there's always new solutions coming out with. You know, obviously people like Milk Drop having great solutions and you know, we've seen this evolution. Are there any particular products that you've come across and you've started ranging that have surprised you in the way that they've changed how, you know, convenience or usefulness or whatever it is absolutely like
Phoebe Simmons: for a category that has been traditionally very old school and lacking of innovation, I think the last few years in particular, products like Alex had made for Milk Drop are really thinking about the parents and the mother in particular, about how they can help them through that journey. And that's what we pride ourselves on. And finding the best and trusted people, products that are going to make your life easier and helpful products like Silverette, these amazing little cups that help your breasts and nipples heal from damage of breastfeeding is something that did not exist when I had my son three years ago. Haka, which is a New Zealand brand that have amazing milk collection products that are made from silicone. So also sustainably friendly. They again did not exist. So we love finding these products particularly in that mother space because you don't really going to walk into these big box retailers or chemist warehouse. Like what we've said before, you're still the same person. But isn't it nice to be able to find products that are really there to support and heal you? Because we are not a baby retailer, we're a parenting retailer. And that is another key differentiator for us in how we position our brand. Because we're actually here for the parents and the parents to equip them to be the best parents that they can be for their baby. And so that's why the educational component is so important to us as well. So we select the products on our site for being the best in their space. We also look at different options from price and different options for style to cater for the wide variety of parents that can be represented out there. But it's really pleasing to see that these products do exist. Like the Snoop bassinet. Who would have thought that you could create a bassinet that's responsive to your baby who's crying and can help settle you? And I would have paid so much money if I could have made my children sleep at night. Both my children don't like sleeping and they still don't like sleeping. And that product is exclusive to us in Australia and is a cult item. And any new parents out there, particularly second time parents, know the importance of the value of sleep. First time parents, like, maybe you'll be fine, like a lot of money. Do I really need to splash that on that bassinet? Yes, you do. Use the hot tip.
Nathan Bush: So how does that bassinet work? I'm curious now because I'm like, I could have used this.
Phoebe Simmons: So it is responsive to your baby's crying. So if your baby's fussing and just a little bit fussing, the bassinet will rock. And if it's increasing in the cry, the bassinet will rock even more. So you think about when you're holding a baby and you're, shh, shh, shh, baby, trying to settle it and you're moving and rocking, it's actually just doing that for you. So if you have another child or you just want that little bit of sleep, it just helps them to try and link that sleep cycle.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, beautiful. Makes a lot of sense. And one thing that triggered with me is in your differentiation to the big box retailers was when you were talking about where a retailer for parents, not for the child. And I could imagine that some of the moments where parents and mums in particular are going, I need help Whether it be in breastfeeding or pain or whatever it is going on, sleep deprivation. They can get straight onto Google and they can search straight away whereas they don't have to wait for 9am in the big box retailers to go, oh, I hope they've got something for me. I can imagine you see some pretty all over the shop browsing and browsing patterns.
[Voiceover]: Yeah, we were talking about that today. We are not like other industries where there might be a drop off after midnight, let's put it that way. We have a lot of, we think a lot of parrots shopping with us when they're breastfeeding at 2am and it's
Phoebe Simmons: funny how many purchases will get made of the snu overnight of that. You know what, I will go there and I will spend that money because I can't handle another night like this.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, brilliant.
Nathan Bush: And do you have to change your
Nathan Bush: customer service approach for that or is it a simulation? You have is same as normal.
Phoebe Simmons: We have a huge focus on our customer service because everything we do at the memo is about customers. So our customer service team are highly knowledgeable and trained across all the products in our site so that we can focus on the solution based assistance that we can provide them. So we're not about just recommending one product because there isn't that one blanket kind of fits all approach. Whilst we don't have 24 hour chat on site, we have the chat that runs like during the day and we have our phone lines and our emails. It's something that we do look forward to expanding as our team expands. So watch this space for chats in the evening, maybe not at 2am I
Nathan Bush: bet you get some pretty amazing feedback from mums that you've helped.
Phoebe Simmons: That is being one of the most rewarding things for Phoebe and I to actually read these beautiful emails that come through or when our customers come to the door for our click and collect service that we have generally made their lives improved. And so Phoebe and I have always been retailers and marketers and we love retail. But to see that our team and I were all building something that is actually changing the journey of parenthood for the better is really exciting and something we're very proud of.
Nathan Bush: Great. One of the things that I loved about your website is your gift registry. Now I understand you've built this from the ground on up. Tell us about the gift registry and how it works.
Phoebe Simmons: We love gift registry. It's been a labor of love. Our backgrounds have not been in E commerce and so when we knew very early on that we wanted to have a custom bespoke experience for gift Registry. We were using a Shopify app as a plugin and it had its flaws, but we knew that we wanted to be the number one destination in Australia and the customer experience wasn't amazing. So there was some improvements to be made. Oh, yeah, that will take a couple of months and maybe five, maybe $10,000. No custom.
Nathan Bush: And those amounts don't go together really, do they?
Phoebe Simmons: So Fast forward maybe 12, 13 months. With an amazing development team, we have about a month ago launched our bespoke Gift Registry experience, which is really about making your selections of products easy as possible. It's not only just for yourself, but to share that with your family and friends. Because when you're buying for a friend, particularly if you haven't had a child yourself, what do you pick? What do you buy for them? Because if you go to a baby shower.
[Voiceover]: Yeah, Jelly cat or a muslin wrap, that's all you know.
Nathan Bush: And it's probably re gifted from the ones that you got from your baby shower. They just keep getting passed along.
Phoebe Simmons: So you're actually doing yourself a favor because you're going to receive the things you're going to need, use and love, and your friends are going to actually buy you something you're going to obviously want and it's very simple and easy for them to do so. So our bespoke experience have a number of different benefits, but particularly fractional or contributional gifting is a big one. So friends, you know, your group of girlfriends might want to go in and buy you that beautiful cot or that pram and they can do that. In our service, we consolidate all the gifts and send them collectively to you on your day for your event, if you're having a baby shower. But people do use this gift registry service outside from just having baby showers. And then to encourage you to tick off your list after you've had your event, we offer a post purchase discount. We give our customers free thank you cards and they get a summary of who gifted them what, so that it's really easy for them to kind of send those thank you cards in the mail and have a wonderful experience. And 5% of our proceeds and gift registry are donated back to St Kilda mums as well.
Nathan Bush: That's very cool. How did you pull all those ideas together? Was it just based on feedback that you got along the journey or did you have to go out to market?
Phoebe Simmons: No, we didn't go out to market. I mean, Phoebe and I, we understand the customer really well. We understand what we wanted to create as a brand. Of course there are some really registry services, particularly in the wedding space. I had a girlfriend that was getting who lived in America and she had a registry with an American website and that was very great. It was like really seamless for her to set up for us to shop from. So we looked at that for some inspiration. But it all came pretty naturally about what we wanted to achieve. And then we've got some plans of how we can continue improving that down the track. But of course we wanted to launch finally, which we did. And yeah, couldn't be happier with the result and the customers compared to what we were, how many registries were being created with the old app compared to now, it's a really pleasing result and
[Voiceover]: it's really key to our DNA. I think the whole point of a gift registry is to minimise ways to maximize ease and that's what the memo is all about. So anything that makes things easier for parents, expecting parents and their friends is all the convincing we need to be able to go out and create something for them. So it was quite an effortless, I guess, proposition. It was just the tech that. And we're very, as Kate mentioned, the customer experience. The customer is everything to us. So at every step of the way it's just thinking about how she would interact, how we could make it easier for her and we really think that we've achieved achieve that.
Nathan Bush: D2C Covid iOS 14 Hyper Segmentation Diversification Customization 3rd Party Cookies Community NFTs Social Selling no, it's not the follow up to we didn't start the fire. These are just some of the trends from Shopify's Future of Commerce report in 2022. Better still, they don't just tell you the trends, they give you the ideas on how to implement them. And it's free. To get the lowdown on what's coming up in E commerce, retail and shipping. Head on over to shopify.com auresearch futureofcommerce to download it today. We'll also put the link in our show notes for easy access.
Nathan Bush: Speaking about the tech, you're on Shopify plus and there's a. In some circles there's a misconception that you can't custom develop on Shopify. What was your experience in terms of putting custom code onto the Shopify platform?
Phoebe Simmons: When you have the right developers behind you, Nathan, everything's possible. No, Shopify plus has been fantastic because we've done. It's allowed us to do a number of customizations. So we have a theme that we base it on. It's not. We haven't got our own bespoke site, but from that theme, we're able to do a number of different personalizations and customizations. So the other one that we have that's completely bespoke to us is our blog called the Notepad, which we're very proud of. We're now, you know, a content platform that's producing incredible works, which is not only are we the destination for the best products, we're the destination for the most accurate and inspirational content there. So that is completely bespoke experience. And as is our loyalty program, which is done through Shopify Flow, which is unique to us. We used to use another app, but we found that by actually doing it with our development partners, it's a better experience for us internally and for the customer.
Nathan Bush: Brilliant. So the key is having a good relationship with your development partners.
Phoebe Simmons: Relationships are everything.
Nathan Bush: Love it. And the other thing that I wanted to touch on with your website is the blog, which you mentioned there. It looks like you put a lot of time and effort into it. Do you have a process around how much, when, what type of blog content you release?
[Voiceover]: Yeah, absolutely, there is a process. So we have an editorial director called Alexandra Whiting, who started as a beauty journalist and has come to us to have this up. Basically, since day one, we had always identified how important it was to be able to attract our audience through storytelling rather than just product suggestions. And as our resources have grown, we've been able to obviously create more and more. The Notepad as it currently exists, is written form, so it's articles, it's interviews with real parents, it's accurate and helpful information about products. There's a whole breadth of storytelling around the parenting experience that we share and that is obviously then populated and integrated across socials, across emails, where storytelling gets brought to the front. But for us, the content that we create, the calendar, might be geared firstly around the campaigns that we're talking to at the time. So, for example, this week we're talking about sleep and there's daylight saving. So we'd speak to a sleep expert on best tips for managing this transition. But then at the same time, we also have other stories to tell. So we might be sharing someone's experience with becoming or choosing a surrogate, or we might be road testing the latest, innovative random baby products that have just hit the market. So, yeah, we always try and hit certain key messaging pillars and then integrate it across all of our other spaces and other kind of Platforms and social channels as well. But essentially, we want people to come to us for education, for inspiration and for connection. And, yes, we could do that slightly through product, but more and more it's through storytelling. So that's where our heart and soul really lies.
Nathan Bush: That's awesome. And do you attempt to measure the storytelling to conversion?
[Voiceover]: Yeah, definitely. Everything that we do comes back to metrics. There's no point just putting a story out there if it's not going to resonate. And obviously we'd love to be able to sell product off the back of it, but some of our stories, maybe we won't sell some product, but we'll make or help our customers feel a certain way or feel connected or feel less alone. And that's a metric in itself. That's our brand integrity and our brand positioning. So we lean into that where we can.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, great. I want to go back to your previous career. So having both been from retail and brand side, you launched two and a half years ago. I'm assuming this is just before everything went a bit crazy. Was there a moment where you went, let's go back to the safety of jobs?
Phoebe Simmons: No, I don't think ever. Like, we looked at each other and when the world was ending, initially it was like, what's going to happen? But we very quickly realized this is an amazing opportunity for our business because shopping behaviors have changed over the last couple of years.
[Voiceover]: So it was an opportunity for us with COVID because obviously so many people were shopping online and it was a time where we, I guess, had more time to invest our energies into this growing business. So it's actually been good timing for us in that way.
Nathan Bush: And what do you think that you took from your previous retail careers in the established brands and established businesses that have really helped in apply what you've done today in the memo.
[Voiceover]: For me, it's brand discipline. So I come from lvmh, which is Louis Vuitton Boy Hennessey, so biggest luxury conglomerate in the world. And I spent a lot of time in London and Paris and Singapore and San Francisco working with what I would say some of the most unique and clearly defined brands on the planet. So the discipline that was drummed into me as an exec there has helped me find our brand's voice and articulate it and help execute the vision of it very clearly.
Nathan Bush: And when you talk discipline, how tangibly does that come across for brand?
[Voiceover]: You tell me. You can see it on site.
Phoebe Simmons: Right.
[Voiceover]: So, you know, and I spoke earlier about the words that we would use or the words that we wouldn't use. So we have what's called the pillars of our DNA, which are kind of six focuses or things that make us clearly unique in the market. That's an internal document and essentially it's the blood that runs through the veins of the company is our yardstick to help us make any decision. So should we work with this influencer? Let's look at the DNA. Are there on brand for us? Should we do this offer for our customers? Let's go back to the DNA. Should we hire this person? Let's go back to the DNA. Should we tell this story on notepad? Should we take this product on board? Let's go back to the DNA. So we do operate at a brand level from a very disciplined point of view and that informs kind of all functions of the business.
Phoebe Simmons: And for me it would be around relationships and communications. So being a category major, you're in the position that you're not only working with the brands, but you're working cross functionally with everyone within the business. And having the right communication and alignment is key for that. I've been astounded by working with the brands in the baby industry and about how unsophisticated some of these relationships are done with other retailers. Whereas compared to beauty, whereas there's a huge alignment, there's a huge strategy and people are working together to achieve the outcome. Whereas here they were very surprised by the way that the memo does business by building that relationship, by working together, by building their brand and actually representing their brand in a way that they're really proud of. And that in turn ultimately puts us in that position of potentially getting first access launches or exclusive products. Or perhaps they know that we're just really nice people to work with and so they're going to ship their stock to us first because we're just nice people. It's funny, that in itself is such a simple theory, but it's so unfamiliar with the industry that we've worked in. And so that's been the, the resounding feedback that we often receive with our 180 different brands. We love working with you guys because not only do you get it, but you're actually working with us together as a team. So that's been the biggest learning for me.
Nathan Bush: So less focus when we're talking about those buying relationships, less focus on the terms and all that sort of stuff. More focus on the relationships and building an aligned vision together.
Phoebe Simmons: Don't get me wrong, the terms are really important, but the terms come out from the way that we going to represent their brand and how they're going to be happy with that. So by navigating what potentially could be a pressure for them, why I couldn't get a certain margin. Well, how do we work around that? What can we do to push past that? Perhaps we can look at in a slightly different arrangement if it might be free product or GDPs. There's always a way. If you've got the same objective and you're transparent with each other and the relationship and the benefits there, you can tend to, you'll make it work.
Nathan Bush: It's great advice, Great advice. Kate and Phoebe, what is next for yourselves and the memo? We've talked about a couple of things there but I feel there's a lot more on the back burner there that is coming out soon.
Phoebe Simmons: Plenty is coming up. Where do we start? But I think the biggest one to note is brand awareness is key for us. We have an amazing relationship with our existing customers and our customer returning rate is incredibly high, which gives us huge confidence that as we expand and you know, Australia continues to understand who we are and interact with us, they're going to stay with us, with us on that journey. One way that we can potentially increase that brand awareness and establish that customer relationship even further is through expanding into a physical retail environment. So you'll see the memo launch their first store later this year in Armidale and High street and subsequent store rollouts after that. This is a way.
Nathan Bush: Why Armidale? Can I ask?
Phoebe Simmons: High Street? Armidale is I think the best retail strip in Melbourne. And also we have the benefit of Google Analytics to see where our customers are and but brand positioning, it felt right to go there. You know, when you think about that retail environment, you know, buying for a baby is quite traditional. You're buying into categories and objects that you've never heard of before. And so often for like me when I said I ran straight into store and I wanted to see and touch the product, I wanted to see that cot. How's that going to look in my house? But it's a way that we can further even engage and showcase our brand and the way that we interact and connect with the customer in a physical form. So of course we do that through everything we do from the user experience on our site, the copy that we have in our emails, the copy we have on the product pages, the way that we communicate on social media. But to do that in the physical form I think will be showing what a disruptive retailer we are. And further differentiate us compared to the traditional retailers that are there.
Nathan Bush: Very exciting.
Phoebe Simmons: And additionally to that you will see we've talked about content and branding and services and education so we are still primarily an E commerce website. We are here for all Australians and so to make sure we are reaching Stephan to Walmart, we are going to make sure that those experiences and services and a content Hub is available 247 on our website.
Nathan Bush: Just a little bit going on.
Phoebe Simmons: We've got the right team. We're excited.
Nathan Bush: So good. Now if people have heard this and they want to get in touch, what's the best way for them to learn more about the memo or get in touch with you guys?
Phoebe Simmons: You can follow us on Instagram from the memo or welcome to shoot us an email@hello thememo.com au you can find Phoebe and I on LinkedIn but yeah, they're the main points.
Nathan Bush: Great.
Nathan Bush: Phoebe, Kate, thank you so much for joining us on Add to cart. We've learned a lot and loving the
Nathan Bush: journey so far and can't wait to see what's to come.
[Voiceover]: Thanks for your support Nathan. It's great speaking with you.
Phoebe Simmons: Thank you.
Nathan Bush: That really took me back. It's some of the real confusion and stress that you can have when you have a newborn. I'm not sure if I should thank Kate and Phoebe for that, but it is proof that they understand their market so well. Here are the top three takeaways that I took from our chat. Number one Customization for Key Moments My initial reaction when I heard that Kate and Phoebe had created a custom gift registry was that it seemed odd when there was were so many off the shelf options available. However, it is a key experience point in new parents journeys and they've brought their own features with it such as the shared giving, the baby shower, daily delivery post purchase discounts, and a summary of who purchased what for whom. It's a great way not just to serve the customer current parent, but exposing it to a tight group of friends who may enjoy the experience so much that they'll remember it when they become future parents. Almost like the gift registry pyramid scheme. Very smart. Number two Mums are not just mums. I love when Phoebe said that we assume a new title because our child is calling us that title, I. E. Mama. But we're still independent women with our own thoughts and our own identities. She really hit the nail on the head there. It's so easy to typecast new moms into one role and mindset when in fact it's an addition to all the other attributes and interests who have made them that person that they are today. Please don't simplify communication down to a simple mama Number three Outside Category Inspiration Phoebe and Kate could have easily looked at the baby industry and used that as their benchmark. But they didn't want to just improve the experience, they wanted to reinvent it. That's why they looked to the beauty industry. When you're looking at your competitors, are you looking just at your direct competitors who can give you an incremental improvement? Or are you challenging yourself to reinvent the entire offering? Sometimes you need to look outside the category for that. To get the highlights of today's episode, head on over to add to cart.com and sign up for our free newsletter each Tuesday. We will send Monday's episode summary links and discount codes for you to go next level on. And if you're looking to explore your next eco ecommerce opportunity, come and Visit us at eSweet. We're a dedicated e commerce talent agency connecting the best e commerce talent with the fastest growing brands in Australia. Head on over to esweettalent.com where you can download the free e Commerce Salary Guide and sign up to our weekly e Commerce job emails. Thanks for listening and until next time, keep those customers adding to Cart.
