Pablo Kraus from ecostore | Checkout

Pablo Kraus: 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 through your Friday. Here's your host, Bushy.

[Voiceover]: Today's checkout features Pablo Kraus, CEO of Eco Store, the New Zealand born brand that has taken sustainable products global. Pablo gives us a peek into his creative side and shares some unexpected online purchases and gives us a surprising retail experience that left a big impression on him. Let's get into it.

Nathan Bush: Pablo, thank you so much for joining us on the checkout. We had a great conversation there around Ecostore and all the amazing things that you're doing in terms of leading sustainability and have been doing for 30 years. Everything from being B Corp through to your considerations around sustainable packaging through, through to how transparent you are in reporting your goals and you're meeting those goals. So I think there's so much there for anyone who's looking to legitimately set up sustainability credentials. But we're here 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?

Pablo Kraus: Really struggle with these questions, but I actually thought just now I came across, you know, it was AI, this big boom in AI. It was a lie detector online. I'm not using it right now, but you can actually pop up on your screen, reads the face of the other person and tells you on a percentage of how much they think you think they're actually lying.

Nathan Bush: Oh, that's cool. And have you used it?

Pablo Kraus: I tried to use it initially and then it wasn't quite working. They've since updated the software so I need to redownload it again and give it another go. But I thought that was kind of weird, but it was kind of weird and wacky and I said I'll give it a go. That's fantastic.

Nathan Bush: That'd be great in like super supplier negotiations. Yeah, exactly.

Pablo Kraus: I almost thought like surely now we just, it's not a bad thing to have the meetings online anymore because you, you can try to, you can see where they're at. That's fantastic. I love it.

Nathan Bush: All right, number two, which retailer has most inspired you recently?

Pablo Kraus: I was in Singapore when we're on trip through and going into that Apple Store is just. Apple undoubtedly do such an amazing retail experience whether it's online or offline. And it's just I tried out those new VR goggles and they were like, they're pretty cool. I couldn't work out, like why they would be amazing, but once you get on, you're like, wow, not amazing enough

Nathan Bush: for you to drop five grand on them straight away.

Pablo Kraus: No, exactly. I had my kids with me and they were really keen to give it a go. They're 9 and 11 and the lady was like, oh, sorry, you know, you have to be at least 16 or something to try. And then I was in the middle of the experience. My kids said to me afterwards that she said, do you think your dad's going to buy it? That's fantastic.

Nathan Bush: I love it. All right, number three, can you name a piece of tech that you or your e commerce business couldn't live without?

Pablo Kraus: It might sound cliche, but it's probably the rise in ChatGPT and LLMs. You know, it's amazing how much you can rely or do things. You know, I still dabble in making websites, but and making web apps and it's just amazing how quickly I can fire something up or, you know, I remember the nights me working coding away and how frustrated I was. I just didn't have somebody to ask right there and now having someone to ask and go, hey, I've got this bit here, just can't quite work it out or. And you know, it comes back and explains to you why it's wrong where your bug is. And it's just like I couldn't imagine, you know, I'm not a developer like personally anymore, but I still use tablet. So having that bit of tech is just, I guess expansion made the job easier, I imagine.

Nathan Bush: That's awesome. What's been your latest little idea for dabbling? I'm sure you must have heaps that you go, oh, this would be a great little app or little.

Pablo Kraus: I mean, I just made a stupid little game because I wanted to just to mess around. It was like how quickly you can click around or something on your screen. Wasn't that exciting, but it was just kind of fun to get my creative juices going and make a game or something out of nothing and realize how easy and simple it was. Actually, that's what I did. Maybe last year I made a Twitter bot that was actually making it. So make coming up with its own tweets and tweeting them based on a Persona that I had made, but then also replying to people in a certain time. And it got. I mean it worked. It actually worked for a while and gained a whole number of followers, but then it got shut down and it was just amazing how I never having coded Python was able to fire up an app like that which was able to run all the time.

Nathan Bush: Yeah, I bet that must be therapeutic too when you CEO of Eco Store. But you do have that creative side and that hands on side there. Whereas at ecostore I could imagine that you get a lot in team and product and negotiation and all that world of business to have that outlet to still be able to create and produce totally.

Pablo Kraus: And that's what I, you know, I always make an effort to try and keep my creative side going. You know, it's almost like exercise. You kind of have to keep using it, otherwise you forget about it. And you know, there's a saying about all these great people that have invented these great things, have always had this creative side. You wouldn't be able to do that the other side or, you know, some inventions wouldn't be around because Mozart didn't do his art, Thornton didn't do his art and his music, you know, because

Nathan Bush: Mozart wasn't dicking around. Number four, can you recommend a book or a podcast that our listeners should immediately get into?

Pablo Kraus: I know the one that I've always, when I was at film school, the one that stood out and helped me a lot was don't make me Think. And I think you've probably heard of it before, but it's all about user experience. And I think that's one of the things that I took from film school and foundation design, doing making experiences and you being able to use that experience to think how do people think about my products? And putting yourself in their shoes and making it as easy as possible for them to want your products. So that's really important, I guess in our business and E commerce goes across anybody.

Nathan Bush: Amazing. And that's such an old book now, isn't it? Steve Krug, I think wrote it, but it's probably 15 years old now. Maybe. But just as a philosophy, Don't Make Me think is such a good one, is a good core concept to pull back to anytime you're making decisions. Is this making people think because we're such a fraction in people's days as products or retailers. Don't overcomplicate it.

Pablo Kraus: And you know, even more so now than it was 15 years ago. Right. You know, people won't stay on a video on TikTok for half a second anymore. So if they come to your website and they've got too many things to think about. All right, close that next one.

Nathan Bush: I'm out of here. All right, last question for you, Pablo. What is your biggest challenge today?

Pablo Kraus: I think the biggest challenge is still supply chain and making our products as easy accessible as possible. I still find it ridiculous that my wife can order something from an online retailer which is based in the UK or Asia and get that tomorrow, whereas I can order something from a local retailer here and it still takes five days to get it. Like, don't understand. Yeah, don't understand.

Nathan Bush: And then also, you know, it's a scalability thing, but also a sustainability problem too, isn't it? That if we're, we're making things that accessible, is that always a good thing?

Pablo Kraus: Yeah. True.

Nathan Bush: Pablo, thank you so much for joining us on the checkout.

Pablo Kraus: Thank you very much.

[Voiceover]: To hear more from Pablo, jump back into the main episode where Pablo shares Eco Stores journey from a local mail order brand into a global leader in sustainable products. He also shares how they're tailoring their approach in ecosystem. Each market from Australia to New Zealand to China, including a fun partnership with Sesame street characters that's winning over families in Japan. Thanks for listening.

Nathan Bush: And until next time, keep adding to cartoon.