With over a decade at the helm of some of Australia’s most influential ecommerce platforms, Grant Arnott is no stranger to shaking up the retail status quo. As Executive Director at Global Marketplace, Grant leads the charge across Click Frenzy, Power Retail, and GrabOne, building powerful marketing machines that drive real customer engagement and visibility. He’s helped retailers like Woolworths, Big W, and Adore Beauty turn peak retail moments into powerful digital wins, while pushing the industry to think beyond safe, same-old strategies.
Grant’s never shies away from calling out the industry’s blind spots. He’s spoken about the pressures of attribution, the power of high-intent events, and even the politics of online retail in interviews with Awin, ChannelX, and on podcasts like Online Retailer’s “Politics of Ecommerce”. In this episode of Add To Cart, Grant shares his unfiltered take on the state of ecom in Australia, why most retail websites are blending into the background to how we’ve lost the plot when it comes to innovation.
Top-of-Funnel Still Matters
In a world where algorithms and ad spend often rule the strategy, Grant makes a strong case for rediscovering the value of visibility, especially in the moments that shape brand preference. Click Frenzy has never tried to be a conversion machine. Instead, it’s built to spark intent, excitement and mass discovery. And that’s a deliberate choice.
“We let the horses out of the gate—that’s our job. After that, it’s over to the retailer to deliver the conversion…I think the fairest model is: we send the customer your way, and once they land on your site, it’s your job to sort out the experience.”
Rather than follow the marketplace model of controlling the full path to purchase, Click Frenzy stays focused on traffic and top-of-funnel momentum. But that means retailers need to know how to turn that momentum into action—and not just rely on platforms like Meta or Google to deliver sales.
Attribution is a mess. Everyone’s paying six different companies for the same sale—and no one’s solved it.
Grant’s comments echo what he’s shared in industry panels: unless you understand the role each channel plays in the purchase journey, you’re making marketing decisions in the dark.
Retail is Losing Its Spark
As part of the judging panel for the Power Retail All Star Bash, Grant reviewed over 100 ecommerce websites. And the verdict? Technically fine. Emotionally forgettable.
“Everything looked the same. It was just template after template—slick, sure, but soulless…Optimisation is great until it kills inspiration. Retail needs to stop playing it so safe.”
While many sites hit the marks for speed, structure, and best-practice UX, what was missing was brand voice, surprise, and storytelling—the elements that turn a shopper into a loyal customer. And as Grant hints in this recent Power Retail YouTube feature, the current landscape has become a sea of sameness—not because retailers don’t care, but because they’ve over-optimised to the point of erasing what makes them different.
Innovation Doesn’t Need a New Platform
When asked about innovation, Grant didn’t talk about AI, headless commerce, or shiny Martech stacks. He talked about a dress. Specifically, a dress from ModCloth, and the customer voting program that helped decide whether it even got made. Their “Be the Buyer” initiative empowered shoppers to vote on which styles should go into production—a simple but powerful idea that drove pre-launch demand and reduced manufacturing risk.
It’s genius. Ask your customers which product you should actually make—before you make it…It gave customers a voice, built hype, and reduced risk. That’s innovation without writing a single line of code.
For Grant, this is where the next wave of innovation lies. Not in building entirely new platforms, but in bringing customers into the process earlier and experimenting with how retail is delivered.
Time to Rethink What “Good” Looks Like
If your ecommerce strategy is starting to feel like rinse and repeat — hit publish, launch the sale, track the conversions — it might be time to rethink what success actually looks like. Optimisation has its place, but without personality, purpose, and a bit of guts, you’re just another tab in a crowded browser.
It’s not about reinventing the wheel, but asking better questions about what’s worth building, how you engage your audience, and where you truly stand out. Because if all your competitors look the same, that’s your biggest opportunity to break free.
Want to hear more from Grant, including how Click Frenzy crashed before it conquered, the truth about ecommerce attribution, and why Grant thinks your homepage might be part of the problem? Listen to the full episode here.
