[Voiceover]: Welcome to the checkout. We catch up with previous add to cart guests and ask them five quick questions to get to know them better and leave you with a little extra inspiration to get you through your Friday.
Nathan Bush: Today's checkout features Tom Ferrier, founder of Greener, a service and an app to help retailers and consumers measure and reduce their environmental impact and power the green economy. Tom and the Greener team already have brands on board including Koala, T2, Microsoft BrewDog, multibody Baird and lots more. They've raised over $4 million from investors such as NAB and recently partnered with the Australian Retailers Association. Tom, welcome to the checkout. Thank you so much for joining us. We've heard all about what you're building for Greener for retail businesses and consumers who want to track their environmental impact. But we're going to learn a little bit more about you. I've got five quick questions. Number one, what's the weirdest thing that you've ever bought online?
Tom Ferrier: Bought for me or someone else?
Nathan Bush: No. Anything.
Tom Ferrier: Anything you can take this way you want. So look, the one that I'll share, it was a reindeer decoration for the Christmas tree. Now it doesn't sound that weird, right? But when it got delivered, it was obvious that I'd had way too many wines that night because this thing was a life size reindeer. I thought it was going to fit on the tree and I live in a small apartment in Sydney, so that just wasn't cool. And I had to carry this thing home from the city on the bus. So yes, that was a bit of a strange one.
Nathan Bush: That is a strange. What about the one you won't share? What was that?
Tom Ferrier: You love to press, don't you? My little nephew's got a new pool and they wanted a pool toy and the inflatable pool toys had sold out, so I had to improvise.
Nathan Bush: Let's leave it there. Number two, who is your favorite retailer?
Tom Ferrier: Look, it's not one that would have come to mind until just this week. I'm really lucky. My fiance, My fiance and I are having a baby soon and we've been really struggling to find sustainable options for the baby in the nursery. And what? I love this retailer, but this is why we then ended up going there. Pottery Barn. Not only do they have fantastic stuff, but they're working to be carbon neutral by 2025. A lot of organic materials, a lot of great timbers and sustainable timbers. Cool stuff. Going green doesn't need to be a compromise. I'm in the mood for some Pottery Barn.
Nathan Bush: Good recommendation. And Then once baby arrives, just make sure you've got plenty of red wine. Still, number three, which E commerce practice do you wish was history?
Tom Ferrier: I just wish checkout and payment was history. It is so painful. Don't get me wrong, it's simple, but it's still so painful. Look, make it like Uber. Make it invisible. Do that and I would be so happy.
Nathan Bush: Great for conversion rates. Really bad for late night wallets. Indeed. Number four, can you recommend a book or a podcast that our listeners should immediately get into?
Tom Ferrier: So it's not a podcast per se, but I just can't get enough of this thing. It's on Spotify, I think it's actually called the White Noise podcast. There's no speaking. It's just eight hour episodes of rain, storms and thunder. And when you're in a startup and everything's coming at you all the time, I, I don't want to listen to someone else. I just want to get a chance to stop. And this thing's just bliss. So I'm loving it. But I will say Spotify unwrapped this year for me is going to be pretty dull.
Nathan Bush: You know, they should make, they should make one of those. For founders, that's just the noise of like money rustling in the wind. So that's always in your background.
Tom Ferrier: Oh God, I've got the noise of. The founders typically hear money just falling out the bottom of the bucket. We're used to that noise, but not the money coming flying at you.
Nathan Bush: All right, Tom, last question I have for you. Finish this sentence. The future of retail is sustainability.
Tom Ferrier: It's also the future of loyalty.
Nathan Bush: Tom, thank you so much for joining
Tom Ferrier: us on the checkout.
Nathan Bush: To hear more from Tom, jump back into episode 278 where. Where Tom shares the green emission and exactly how it works for both retailers and consumers. He shares the steps that retailers can do to have the biggest impact on reducing their environmental footprint and tells us the story of how it took one random person to interrupt him over a glass of red wine to totally change the course of his life. Thanks for listening and until next time, keep adding to cart.
