Ryf Quail: There's some cool stuff going on that's happening in the region that you know that Australians can take a lot from. Like this guy can do A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H testing. He's got that much data, like, unbelievable. So he goes, oh, would you like Sam Kim to speak? And Sam Kim is the CEO of Lotte in Korea. And I go, oh yeah. He goes, I want. What's up with him? Let me ask him. I'll come back to you.
[Voiceover]: Welcome to ADD to cart, Australia's leading e commerce podcast that express delivers all you need to know in the fast moving world of online retail. Here's your host, Bushy. Welcome to ADD to cart, Australia's leading e commerce podcast where we bring you insights from the top e commerce operators, founders and experts. My name is Bushi joining you from the land of the terrible people here in Brisbane, Australia. Do you want to know how an Indonesian retailer grabs 15 cents of every dollar spent in the country? Or how India is delivering iPhones in just eight minutes? This episode is your passport to the future of retail. Today I am joined by Reef Quayle, Managing Director of Comexposium and the man behind NRF retail's big Show Asia Pacific, the region's largest RET event. Last year alone, 8,600 retail leaders from 52 countries flocked to Singapore for NRF APAC's debut, smashing expectations and proving just how hungry retailers are for fresh global insights. Reef has spent over a decade shaping industry leading events like iMedia. Many of you have probably been to this and he has a direct line into some of the most innovative retail leaders in the world including Kmart, Kohl's Fair Price and JD.com, the We Hear a few of those stories today. In this chat, Reef reveals why retailers here in Australia need to think beyond our shores and potentially to some of our neighbors. He talks about brands like Alpha Mart, Shopee and Mecca and what they're doing to dominate. He tells us about how the rise of quick commerce in India is rewriting the rules for retail logistics. Plus he brings us some pretty wild behind the scenes stories like how he found himself in a Beijing boardroom with the CEO of none other than JD.com plus this is what I'm hugely excited about. We have a first for ADD to cart. If you like what you hear today, and I'm sure you will, and you
Nathan Bush: want to see where the future of
[Voiceover]: retail is heading beyond our shores, we've got something exciting coming up. I am taking a small group of Aussie E comm leaders to NRF 2025 APAC in Singapore this year. It is the fastest growing retail event in the region and I want you to come with me, join me and about 10 other retailers to get the best keynotes, do a Singapore tech store tour and meet connections that you're going to have for life, all for less than the price of a standard ticket. More on that later. But if you are curious and you can't wait, the details are on add to cart.com or just drop me a note. Expressions of interest for the very first add to CART NRF 2025 APAC Tour Group. They're now open.
Nathan Bush: All right, let's get into it.
[Voiceover]: Thanks to our partners Shopify and Klaviyo. Here's our conversation with Reef Quayle, Managing director of COMEXposium APAC and NRF Retail's Big Show 2025 APAC. Reish, welcome to Add to Cart.
Ryf Quail: Thank you. Nathan, how are you? Pushy.
Nathan Bush: Good, good. Brilliant to have you here. We've been queuing up this episode for a long time and it's exciting to do it right now because the timing is very particular because obviously we've got NRF coming up, which we're going to dive into today. But for the very first time on Add to Cart, we are launching a tour group to take a group of retailers over to NRF 2025 APAC in Singapore, which is what you are running for the second year. And it's awesome to have this partnership with you. So I'm hugely pumped.
Ryf Quail: No worries. It's great. I mean, it's exciting and for us, it's awesome to have such passionate people around Australia really getting into this program. We had 500 Australians come last year and a lot than 500 Australians last year. And the energy towards us has been really cool. And I think for the first time ever, you know, we've had a regional show. The NRF brand is magnetic, but it's a regional show and Australians are recognizing that they need to look beyond their borders to learn new stuff and new things. And there's a lot of great things happening around the Apat region.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, absolutely. And I'm keen to understand from you because most people listening will know you from iMedia. If they didn't go to NRF it last year, what was the big momentum for you to kind of go, all right, cool, we've done iMedia and iMedia is still going strong, don't get me wrong. But your energy and your focus is now on NRF 2025 in APAC. What drew you to kind of take this on as the next challenge?
Ryf Quail: I think for me, I mean, it was six years with iMedia and then before that I launched. I'd owned the iMedias in New Zealand in partnership with dmg, then.com exposium so it's been a long run, you know, it's been almost. Probably been a decade. And I mean, for me, I'd been on that journey and had a great time and I'd worked as a practitioner, so working on retail was great within imedia. But then the partnership with the NRF came up and it came up before COVID actually. And obviously things put a. It was quiet for a while there because everyone was rappling their way around Covid. And then we went back over in 2022 and agreed what we would do.
Nathan Bush: And this was in New York.
Ryf Quail: Yeah, New York, yeah. And we did a global feasibility study. Cause it was actually where we were going to run it around the world and to be Singapore, which is great for me because it's closer than going to Paris or closer than going to other parts of the world or Dubai. And so then from that point of view, we signed our heads agreement and we launched in January 2023 at the big show on main stage. And we launched last year. And it was really, really a surreal experience, to be honest with you. It was. I mean, I wanted to do the project. It was really my first trade show I'd ever run. But more importantly, I think what was really exciting about the whole thing was it was two things that came forward. One, two and a half thousand people go from APAC to New York every year to go to the big show in New York in January. But secondly, there was just this absolute eagerness for a regional show. And so what was really lovely about the journey and to be honest, I've been really fortunate. I'm quite grateful because whether I'll be in Japan or India or Indonesia or Singapore or Australia, everyone was really keen to be involved. And you're another great ambassador for the show this year. Bushy getting involved. But I think for us there was so many people who came towards us and my network was so warm that it was a really validating experience. Say, well, we're going to do this. And to be honest with you, we were spoken. We were shooting for 5,000 registrations. Last year we reached 8,600.
[Voiceover]: We.
Ryf Quail: We had 52 countries come.
Nathan Bush: Wow.
Ryf Quail: In the first year. So it was just mind blowing. And so it's sort of a bit of a pinch me moment. You know, everything went so well that it was just. And everyone was so warm and everyone on site was just so happy to be there. Yeah. So it was really neat and I
Nathan Bush: could imagine because you've been to enough conferences here in Australia and we have great conferences. Online retailer Retail Fest, imedia don't really collide at conferences. A little bit different. But when you talk about the vibe being great, how do you describe it as different to what people might be used to?
Ryf Quail: Well, I think there's a couple of layers. I think. First of all, Asia Pacific is the largest retail marketplace in the world. But it's not Europe. It's multiple languages, multiple cultures, multiple legislative jurisdictions. You really can't expand. So what we found was that people were really keen to meet other people from, from other markets because that's how business gets done. You can't expand through the region or learn from each other without finding like minds across the region. So what was really neat is that, you know, is that people were just keen to meet other retailers from other parts of the region and hear new stuff. Yeah. And that was the cool thing because, you know, we've seen a lot of it in Australia and we're so exposed when Australia is so far away from the rest of the world that we, we are very aware of what's happening here. We're not aware of what's happening, you know, with say Family Mart in Japan or Alpha Mart Indonesia or you know, Reliance in India or you know, Central Group in Thailand. There's some cool stuff going on.
[Voiceover]: Yeah.
Ryf Quail: That's happening in the region. You know that Australians can take a lot from.
Nathan Bush: That's what I'm excited about because I think obviously we know our Australian case studies pretty well. Yeah, I've got some great, great retailers here. But it does tend to become a bit of an echo chamber of the same stories over and over again.
Ryf Quail: And we meet, I meet speakers all the time. So I've met this guy, Ryan Alphons who is the CMO of Alpha Mart Indonesia and he is the CEO of their Global Insights program. So take a step back. This is a 25 year old business. It takes 15 cents in every retail dollar in Indonesia. So it's big.
Nathan Bush: Wow.
Ryf Quail: They have 22,000 stores across the Philippines or Indonesia and a little bit in the Philippines, they're sort of small format grocery, think IGA. Right. For in Australia they are opening 40 new stores a month. And so this is big. So 15 cents in every retail dollar. Indonesia is in this guy's speaking, right?
Nathan Bush: Yeah.
Ryf Quail: And then he runs their GLI program, which is their retail media, loyalty and insights program. So their loyalty program accounts for 60% of their total revenue. Like, this guy can do A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H testing. He's got that much data? Yeah, yeah. Like, unbelievable. He's a speaker and I have a call with him and I'm like, mind blown, like, epic.
Nathan Bush: How do you come across your speakers for the APAC region? Because obviously you need to go beyond your immediate network.
Ryf Quail: Yeah. And that's. I started back with the warmth towards us. I think one of the things that's been quite cool has been the fact that we've been able to build advisory board, a bit like iMedia, actually, with leaders from, say, Mumbai to Tokyo down to Auckland, and they all contribute in an advisory board process, but they. Then they also. They rattle the cage in their network as well, you know. And so speakers come toward us. Like, we've got a Vipal Charla and Vipul is the CEO of Fair Price in Singapore. Right. That's like Woolworths in Australia. Right. And he's so passionate about this show. So he goes, oh, would you like Sam Kim to speak? And Sam Kim is the CEO of Lotte in Korea. And I go, oh, yeah. He goes, oh, what's up with him? Let me ask him. I'll come back to you. So it's unbelievable. And then you have these calls with these people and they tell the stories of the things they're doing, and it's just like, I am literally, I'm so grateful because we just see so many cool things going on any one time. It's just I'm like, I get to see everything. And like, now I used to sort of look at myself as being fortunate in Australia because, you know, we would see great stories all the time, but now I'm seeing stories and others. And so we've got Ian, CEO of Kmart, or MD of Kmart, now chair of Anko Speaking. And the Anko brand is now being expanded. So they've opened in the Philippines and opened. So this is cool, right? So this is Australian retailers expanding through the region. And that means that they can't just turn up and open a door. They have to partner and they have to find, like minds. And they're doing it. This is Australian businesses doing it, you know, so that's really neat. It's just neat stuff happening all over the place. And so I said, I find myself pretty grateful to be sort of in this position to sort of chat to people. Yeah. And understand what's going on. So it's always the way, but you sort of go, and our agenda's almost done now, but. So it's looking pretty good. I'll tell you one other story too, and it should make you laugh. One of my advisory board members is the president of WUMA in China. So another convenience store. Store. And she said, you need to speak to my friend if you're going to Beijing. And I went, yeah, I'm going to Beijing. I said, her name's Sandy. I went, okay, now who's Sandy? I say, well, she's the CEO of JD.com JingDao right as you do. And I go, okay, I'd love to see it. So I introduced. I get introduced. Sandy responds straight away. She goes, oh, no, no, come to our offices. So I go to their offices. Their offices, their campuses is as big as Google's. I'm in the top floor of the number one building in Beijing with the CEO of JD.com, go, this is unbelievable. This is incredible. So these are the sort of things I'm getting involved in and they're engaged and they're listing and they're being part of it. So I'm just having this awesome time. That's amazing.
Nathan Bush: What have you learned around doing business just generally in the APAC region?
Ryf Quail: I think for me, as an Australian, one of the things that we need to think recognise, and this is an important message for retailers, too. Australia's brand as a country is one of high trust and high integrity. And so that is a halo over a brand coming up. Australian retailer, brand coming up. So brands and products out of Australia are looked on very favorably. Southeast Asia is quite an easy area to do business in. People are warm and friendly and India is a whole different bag. So just get yourself ready for that. And then if you go to North Asia, there's protocols. So Korea, Japan, China operate completely differently to Southeast Asia in terms of the way they engage in business. So I think for me it's just learning the differences and nuances in terms of culture. Southeast Asia, from Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, those markets are quite easy to do business in. And the people are very friendly and pretty warm towards Australians too. So if you're an Australian retailer, people are keen to meet Australian retailers. And I think many Australian retailers look to North America and look to Europe as opportunity. But I can tell you there's a warm group of partners just sitting up there waiting to talk to you. It's pretty cool.
Nathan Bush: I think it's really cool. And as I've been talking to people around nrf, APAC is people are saying, well, we actually are expanded to the UK or the us we're not expanding further into APAC at the moment and where we have conversations. I'm like, yeah, but that's fine because some of the themes and the innovation that's coming out of this region can influence your overall strategy. You said there that you are close to finalizing the agenda. What are some of the key themes that you see will be talked about this year?
Ryf Quail: One of the things we do when we do a show like this is we actually do that, go through an advisable process and we conduct about, you know, about about 35 interviews with leaders around the region. And the distillation of those conversations is a whole bunch of topics which are common to all that's driving retail in the region. And so maybe what I might do is quickly just whip through some of those because these are the sort of things that are tying the region together and within no particular order. So for example, the first one is really about looking at the next generation of shoppers. Gen Zs, Gen Zs if you will. And these people will be the dominant shopper in the next five years. The biggest demographic, shopping. But little is understood about them. They love physical retail, they love all the digital whistles and bells, but they're not finding them, accessing them, activating, turning them on is not well understood. There's a massive link, is a great equalization going across Asia Pacific in terms of, you know, talent management and there's a real connection between happy employees and happy customers. So managing talent and wellbeing and how that reflects that into your customer experience. We're seeing a huge growth of wealth in Asia Pacific. So in 2020-2033.49 billion people will join the middle class in the region. It's crazy. So that means changing consumer taste in fresh food, in fast food, in diversity and what that means for supply chains in the region. The other thing that's really cool, you know, we all think about Westfield in Sydney at Bondi Junction. But I tell you what, malls in Asia are next level. They are the destination for entertainment. The formats are different, eating, family. The whole experience about destination retail is huge. So there's a whole area on that. Obviously sustainability and circular economy is quite interesting. The standards are pretty global and pretty consistent all around the world. But the way they manifest in a market and or in a different business. Good example. We've got a session on sustainability with dfi, which is one of the big grocery groups up in Asia, and Coles speaking together. And if you look at say, supply chains for rice in Asia, rice and sourcing rice is very much linked to deforestation. Whereas in Australia we have a pretty set closed supply chain for rice. So you can see the same sort of things manifesting completely differently because of the market or the company and the way they operate.
Nathan Bush: Yeah.
Ryf Quail: So there's really different things there, cross borders and cultures. And we're seeing things like, you know, marketplaces like Shopee having a big role because all of a sudden, in a domestic sense, marketplaces are quite challenging and are quite attention for retailers. Whereas you look at someone like Shopee who's operating across the region. If you're in Malaysia and you're buying from a retailer in Vietnam, you may not buy from their site, but you'll buy their product through Shopee in your currency, in your language, with the Shopee guarantee that it will arrive. So this crossing borders and cultures is quite challenging. And we're seeing, to be honest with you, the Japanese have done a very, very good job of actually expanding throughout region.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, okay. I'm interested in that marketplace one because obviously from an Australian perspective, the Temu, the Sheens are looked at as competitors coming into the market. Is it a bit different when you're looking at, through an APAC lens of marketplaces?
Ryf Quail: Not at all. And one of the big topics is actually the Chinese retail wave. But I was in Beijing recently and I think it's actually consistent. Traditional retailers, both in China, and when I say traditional retailers, it could be department stores, grocery, whatever, are all having the same problems with the e commerce titans coming out of China. Because there's two things. One, they're bloody good at E commerce. Right to their distribution is mind blowing. Their ability to get product to consumers is beyond anything we could possibly imagine. In fact, one of the big areas is a delivery revolution. And we're thinking for Chinese retailers, it's easier for them to get product from say Shanghai to Manila. Right. Than it is to get it from Manila to Mindanao in domestically in the Philippines. So there's real tension. So the Chinese retailers are also facing the same challenges that we as Australians or other Southeast Asian retailers or Asia Pacific retailers are facing with those marketplaces coming in. And you've got to remember too that in that mix, as well as the ByteDance guys and TikTok, you know, Tokopedia, which is the ebay of Indonesia, is now 75% owned by ByteDance.
Nathan Bush: Wow.
Ryf Quail: So they're coming in and buying stuff as well.
Nathan Bush: Yeah.
[Voiceover]: And I know you talked about the
Nathan Bush: opportunity for Australian retailers to understand the opportunities in the APAC market. Are you also finding that there's a lot of retailers in the APAC region looking to create a footprint here in Australia?
Ryf Quail: Absolutely. And there already is, you know, there already is amazing stuff happening in this market that we're sort of not cognizant of. I mean, probably Sydney Airport's biggest tenant is a little known company called Valiram who is basically providing turnkey retail solutions for most of the European beauty brands or luxury brands. So when you see a luxury brand that appears in say in the international terminal, it's in the airport. It's not run by the brand, it's run by a third party. Mostly companies like Valley Ram out of Malaysia, Lux Asia out of Singapore who are licensing the product and providing a turnkey retail solution for that brand. So those things already happening here and then there's lots of, you know, fast retailing in Uniqlo. Muji. You're seeing Muji in Australia now. You're seeing all these brands coming here. There's lots of them. You know, Lotte Judy Free, that's Korean, you know, they're already here. Yeah, they're in spades. So we think that they're part of the Australian landscape. These are Asia Pacific brands and Asian brands that are already be here and for some cases have been here for a very long time. 711 is literally just been bought back by the Japanese head office. When 711 in Japan is powerhouse.
Nathan Bush: If they create the Japanese version of 7/11 here, I'm going to be so happy.
Ryf Quail: Well, that's the thing is that Japanese have just. So the 711 expansion strategy is very much hand over to a local partner, allow them to execute, which they did and then buy it back, which they've just done. Gotcha. So 711 in Australia is no longer owned by locals, it's owned by the Japanese head office.
Nathan Bush: Okay.
Ryf Quail: So they've gone full circle. So remember when Seven Eleven opened in the 90s in Australia, we've come 30 years later and that's how Japanese roll. You know, they're long term dudes. Yeah, yeah. It's a long term play, you know, and they've done it and they've repeated that success in many markets with 711 all through the region.
Nathan Bush: You know what's getting me excited just talking this way is obviously when we talk about E commerce here, most of the conversation talks about DTC, maybe omnichannel, maybe B2B. But that's probably the limitation in terms of the business models.
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Nathan Bush: What you're talking there is going way beyond that in kind of thinking about all the different types of business models that are available now, but also coming down the line from the APAC region.
Ryf Quail: Yeah. I think probably the most exciting thing is what's happening with India. And I'm not sure if you've heard of quick commerce.
Nathan Bush: I've heard of it. I don't understand it.
Ryf Quail: Okay, so when the new iPhone launched and you lived in Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, one of the other big cities, from ordering on an E commerce site to arriving on your desk in your office was eight minutes in India. Yep. So the whole piece around infrastructure and last mile delivery had just gone completely bonkers. So we've got a whole session on this with Bain and big basket out of India.
Nathan Bush: Yeah.
Ryf Quail: And so now it started with iPhones, now it's everything. So for example, I had lunch with the CEO of the Retail association of India and his wife who were out over here, out for the cricket over summer. And they were telling me how it was their niece's birthday that day. For lunch, they got up in the morning. Their niece was a massive fan of costume jewelry. So she jumped online, she ordered the costume jewelry, it arrived within half an hour at their house. They got dressed and they went to lunch. So they bought the birthday present that morning online. You know, things, but things like white and brown goods, fridges and couches and what have sofas, what have you. They're talking about from a fridge. You can get online finance approval in 30 minutes and have the fridge in the hole in the space in your kitchen in 90 minutes.
[Voiceover]: Yeah.
Ryf Quail: If you live urban. So that's pretty big deal. And when you hear the session about Big basket. And they're talking about the models, they'll talk about how much more money their business is worth now in the markets which are quick commerce enabled. It's transformed their business.
Nathan Bush: Amazing. What's interesting for me hearing that story is that you mentioned Australian retailers that were there at the show last year and that will be there again this year. Your Kmart, your Coles of the world. Do you foresee then that this is going to set standards that they're going to bring back to Australia? You know, once you've been exposed to those eight minute deliveries and you go, oh, okay, this is possible now that's going to quickly become the standard here, right?
Ryf Quail: Oh, I think there's a variety of factors which says yes and no.
Nathan Bush: I'm going to be the delivery expert now.
Ryf Quail: Yeah, I think there's still a lot of labor in India which is pretty cheap. And there's scale in India which allows when you have DC on every shop corner. So that helps. You know, Mumbai, Chennai, Delay are big towns. They're not little towns by any stretch of the imagination.
Nathan Bush: That's what's me. I'm like just imagining getting through those streets in eight minutes alone, let alone.
Ryf Quail: Yeah, just wild. So I think that the opportunity is to really see what other people are doing. I think Australians, we are a mature, sophisticated market, but we don't have scale. You know, Malaysia's, you know, 40, 35, 40 million people. Indonesia is fourth most populous country in the world and pretty friendly, right?
Nathan Bush: Yeah.
Ryf Quail: Manila is 15 million people just in Manila. Right. But there's no credit cards. So you operate on a whole cash and delivery basis with E commerce completely different tasks. What can we learn from that? Yeah, what are those things we can take away from that?
Nathan Bush: And I think the timing is really nice. I've said this to a few people and I think I put in my newsletter the other day was that we've kind of come out of this survival mode as retailers. I feel 20, 25 is the. Okay, eyes up what's possible now. Like we're not going to explode out of the gate straight away, but it's kind of eyes up what's possible instead of getting through the last few years of survival mode. So I think the timing is perfect.
Ryf Quail: Yeah, I agree. And I'd echo that because I think that before COVID everyone was up and about. Then we had Covid and then people couldn't travel for a variety of reasons, either because of travel restrictions or the COVID had impact on their business or we came to a bit of A tough economic period. So people are sort of had other focuses to sort of solve and that drove their decision making in terms of what they participated in, what tech and what consultants they bought onto their business, et cetera, et cetera. I think we've seen a little bit of a, for Australians, we've seen a little bit of a bump forward over Christmas and we've definitely seen a shifting of sales towards those sales periods in November. But I think for me there is positivity and I can talk to Imedia as well. You know, the energy coming towards those shows are much more because as you say, retailers are recognizing that they're coming out of the cloudy period. Their eyes are up and they're looking for something to go forward now. And that's what makes this industry pretty cool.
Nathan Bush: Because that's a fun bit, isn't it?
Ryf Quail: As soon as there's an opportunity to lift your head, yeah, retailers do it and do it pretty quickly and really start to find those ways to move their businesses forward.
Nathan Bush: And in terms of lifting your head, obviously you would be exposed to some of the coolest tech and innovation that's coming out of apac. Anything that's caught your eye that you're like, got to see this in the show.
Ryf Quail: For me, there's probably the one thing I won't talk specifically about. I mean there's AI is everywhere and it's. There's no real killer app for AI because. And no one. I don't think retailers are still struggling to go beyond Point Solutions, if you will. It's the front end marketing or it's copy or it's large language models. But then you can see really cool applications in supply chain, in inventory management, et cetera, to add back a house as well. But I think what's really cool from our point of view as part of nrf, we have a global program called the Innovators Showcase. And so what happens there is VCs from around the world pitch the latest bleeding edge retail tech that they've funded to us and those people can come and exhibit. So we'll have about 30 of those in the show and those are very much, they're global. So you'll see a lot of Israeli tech. Last year we had pretty much from all over. So in New York it happened. So this year, obviously Mr. Musk's Starlink was there, but there was also some really cool stuff. There was even Australian tech up in New York this year. It's the largest gathering of bleeding edge retail tech in one place. So it's a nice place to be. And I thought if you talk to someone like Ben Thompson from Endeavour, Drinks from edg, he's the king of seeking out the new stuff to solve problems. He engages with this problem pretty heavily. He's probably one of the luckiest dudes in retail in Australia, giving the gutter pretty much everything. But he's the king of finding technology and he's really engaged programs like this because he can see, you know, that this technology is not always available at every show you go to.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, exactly. I'm really excited because part of the package that we've put together for our Add to Cart tour is the retail store tour, which is focused on AI innovation. I just can't wait to hit the streets and see some of those stores. I know we're talking physical stores, but some of the technology that's available through some of those malls that you're talking about.
Ryf Quail: Yeah, and that's something that's quite cool and unique to Singapore too. I mean, you've got the overlay of being the sort of centerpiece of Southeast Asia. But I think what we're seeing now, and a good example is we're working with Fair Price at the moment. Fair Price is, as said before, they've been working on this store of the future and really looking at lean formats, unmanned formats, you know, and their ability to engage a customer, have a Teflon transaction, if you will, and have a rewarding experience in a lean format. It's pretty wild. So we're working with them to actually hopefully knock on wood, that they'll have actually an installation at the show in the conference area on the store of the future. The other thing we've got going, and speaking of that is, as you know, Mecca are launching their beauty extravaganza in Melbourne on a session. We've got Fair Price talking about their story of the future and Ian Berle, chief Retail officer of Mecca, on the same stage talking about the latest innovations in formats and comparing and contrasting. So what's an Asian format? What's the killer app and what. This is the largest booty insulation in the world in Australia. What's driving that format and how's that shaped? And we can. Those two can compare and contrast, which is going to be pretty cool.
Nathan Bush: That's very cool. Very cool. So this is the part where I want to help people make a decision because we've currently got expressions of interest open for those who might want to come along on the Add to Cart tour. So, Reef, from your perspective, who are the types of retailers, what kind of mindset are they in that will get the most benefit from attending NRF APAC this year?
Ryf Quail: I think there's a couple of layers. There's one strand which is looking to go beyond Australia's borders. I think there's very much that case. And for those retailers who are looking to go beyond Australian borders, then you're going to have a situation where you're going to find a lot of partners because that's what everyone's there for. The second thing too, I think, as I sort of mentioned before with Alpha Martin, you're going to see some retail operations at scale that's not in Australia. So you're going to see things that at full noise may not be possible to run in Australia because we don't have the people. But you take something from it you can take back to your business. And then it's the compare and contrast. You know, for me it's those things that we haven't seen in Australia that's being done in Asia because the context is different and you know, quick commerce in India, the way that data and E commerce is being done by the Chinese, like boom. Like that, they're bloody good at it. Right. They do it really well. Yeah. So there's going to be nuggets all the way through everything. And what we've tried to do in our sessions is really in our breakout is put mature markets with sort of less mature markets. So for example, talk about expanding cross border and what that looks like for say a Japanese business versus a Malaysian business and how they play differently. And so the classic example, we've got sort of the future with Singapore and Australia side by side and you can, they can talk about their journey to compare and contrast and see where what's relevant for them and what's different because that's what we need to define. And then in the Expo, I think this is a place to come to shop. We're going to have 300 exhibitors, right. There's going to be something for everyone on that floor, plus the innovative showcase, plus some content where we've got 36 sessions with vendors talking about solutions, with customers. So there's going to be a lot of stuff that people can see to cherry pick, you know, content and solutions to solve the problems in their business.
Nathan Bush: That was going to be my question. From what you saw last year, how much of it is sitting in sessions? Obviously some of those speakers that you talked about, I'm like, oh, like I'm not going to miss them. But what does the in between look like? I mean we're all used to expos and all that sort of stuff. How does it work?
Ryf Quail: So a little rundown of the show. So if you come in, come in on the Monday or either Sunday night or Monday morning, you can go down to the Marina Bay sand which is an amazing venue. If you've seen the Marina Bay Sands, incredible. Get your badge. That night we have an opening party. So there'll be 500,000 people there. Of course, all walks of Asia Pacific, it's pretty wild. Next day we kick off 9 till 11 and 3 to 5 is conference time. 11 till 3 is expo. So Expo runs all the way through but the focus time for Expo is 11 to 3. So it's pretty busy down on the floor about that point. At that time there's also all those exhibitor big idea stages running during the Expo time.
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Ryf Quail: And then on the night, every night at the end of the day, there's happy hour drinks on the Expo floor. If you're coming as a retailer, there is so much stuff. There's so much stuff like I think there were boats and cocktail parts. It just went on forever. So it's unbelievable. There's also the night of night too. There's the Retail in Asia awards who are our partner. So they'll also. So a lot of Australians come up for that event alone to participate in the Retail and Ranger Awards. So those people all automatically get access to the Expo as well. Yeah, so there's those type of things. And then the other cool thing that we're doing, which is probably important to realize is we want to run the largest gathering of retail CEOs in the region. So we launched this year the NRF APAC CEO Club. So they'll meet on the Monday, on the Tuesday night 9:01 they'll have a cocktail party. They'll be able to connect with each other in the app and meet with each Other because we know that the CEOs all come NRF's about a leadership meeting, it's about bringing CEOs. So you know, all of our 11 keynotes on stage are CEOs. And so it's about having them meet with each other because they'll cherry pick the content and. But it's what for those guys is what happens on the sidelines, their ability to sit down. You know, an Australian and a Malaysian or Malaysian and Chinese are Indonesian and an Indian because that's why partnerships are done. So that's a really cool thing that we're doing this year as well. So there's so much stuff going on. You're like, if you come up as a retailer, you'll find your way into a whole bunch of different stuff. One other thing we've got going on too is that on every day there are closed door lunches, VIP lunches which are being run from everyone from MasterCard to Google and everywhere in between. And so these sessions are, you know, they're bringing out top speakers from all around the globe that there's 50 person intimate lunges that you can RSVP and get involved in so you won't go hungry either, which is good.
Nathan Bush: That's awesome. And I'm really excited about our tour as well because there's already so much going on. But I think we're going to bring a really tight group over that will get to know each other. Obviously all Australian retailers, we'll get to know each other, we'll go out for a nice dinner as well. But the part that the idea that you gave me, which I love because I'm a sponge and I'm going to just sit there and absorb and go visit everyone at the Expo and see all the talks and then pull it together in a pack that everyone who comes with us can take back to the teams and go, hey, look at all the cool stuff that's happening.
Ryf Quail: Yeah, and that's the thing too. A lot of the, like we've got a session with Rockd actually rocked in Australian company but they're running a Japanese session and close to lunch. And what they invariably do every year to that point is they run a wrap of the show in Japanese language. So the Japanese retailers of which last year there were about 800 take back to the boss. You know, this is what I took from this show. You know, this is what I learned. These are the things that are applicable in my business and here are potential some of my action steps that lead to how is this going to Turn the dial for me in my business.
Nathan Bush: Love it. Well, reef, 3rd to 5th June.
[Voiceover]: Don't have long now.
Nathan Bush: What's the next few months look like for you?
Ryf Quail: It's execution. Today we are looking at floor plans. I'm sure that my comms team sitting on the side might beside me are laughing because we've just done a lot of implementation this morning. Everything from the way the conference looks to the way the expo exhibitor manual rolls out to like it's really about execution now. So the content's pretty much done barring a couple of bits and pieces. The tickets are in full noise so it's rolling along nicely and that's ticking along as it should. But it's really about implementation. So you know, we've got to build 15,000 square meters of exhibition. You know, we've got a conference, we'll seat 3,000 plus people. There's lounges, there's functions, there's all sorts of stuff. Yeah. So if you're trying to take it all in one day, your mind explodes. I've got a lot of, yeah, a lot of people working on it. So every time I look around there's something else happening which is good. So I try not to worry too much but sometimes you can't help yourself. It's a big deal mate.
Nathan Bush: Well, thank you so much. I can't wait to see you over there at Singapore.
[Voiceover]: We'll catch up there, we'll have all
Nathan Bush: the details on our website on how people can join our tour group but then also find out more information on everything that's going on, including the agenda. Reef, thank you so much for joining us on add to card.
Ryf Quail: Thanks Bushy. Thanks for the opportunity Mayor and I'm enjoying the partnership already so have a great one.
Nathan Bush: Cheers mate.
[Voiceover]: There you go. Inspired by a 60 minute conversation. Imagine what you'll get out of three days in Singapore. Like I mentioned at the start start of our conversation this year we are taking our very first add to Cart Tour Group and we are heading to Singapore for NRF 2025 APAC in Singapore this June and I want to invite you to join us if you are a head of E Commerce, a Marketing or a tech leader or an E Commerce manager. This is your chance to take yourself out of the comfort of Australia and immerse yourself in the future future of retail. We are taking you with full VIP access to NRF APAC with exclusive behind the scenes retail tech tours, a networking dinner with top Aussie ECOM leaders and a take home insights pack. So you can take home your game changing ideas back to your team and prove to your boss that you learn a lot while you're over there. Plus, we're going to throw in a few surprises along the way so spots are limited. So now is the time to register your interest at Add to cart.com au There is a form there, go fill it out. If you're interested in joining us, fill it out and I will get back to you with more details. All right, here are three things that I took away from today's episode with Reef. Number one, Thinking global doesn't mean the US or the UK Always now on Add to Cart, we hear a lot, a lot about expansion into the US and the UK and surprisingly we don't hear a lot about expansion into Southeast Asia. And yes, obviously it's a harder market with language barriers and the way that E commerce is done, as we heard today, is very different. But it is a market with three and a half billion people in it. So if you are considering global expansion, obviously you are going to consider the US or the uk but but maybe there's an opportunity, especially if you're a brand in beauty, health or premium grocery to consider expansion into Southeast Asia. Now it doesn't necessarily mean an all in approach. You might take up some of those models that Reef talked about in that episode where you might find local partners, where you might license, franchise or partner with established regional players rather than going all in yourself. Or you might use marketplaces like Shopee or Lazada to help you tap into the APAC demand without the upfront cost of a physical presence. There are so many ways to approach it, but if you are considering global expansion, I think it could be a huge mistake to leave Southeast Asia out entirely. Number two, Quick commerce is changing retail fast. Now we've talked a lot about same day and next day delivery on Add to Cart, but as we heard today, India is blowing that out of the water. 8 minute delivery in major Indian cities. That is just insane. But that is the future of retail speed. It obviously won't be for every delivery, but as we talk about fulfillment options, the fulfillment options will get faster and faster and it is reshaping customer expectations everywhere. So this is the time to think about if you really had to push your fulfillment faster, could you? Because it's not just that customers will be expecting it because your competitors are doing it. It's what they will get used to in the market. And we know we have some international leaders like Amazon who are quickly changing those expectations. So have a think about local fulfillment hubs. If the answer is that you can't do it yourself yourself, how do you have partnerships with hyper local warehouses or maybe micro fulfillment hubs in key cities to speed up that last mile delivery? There is a huge opportunity to turn logistics into a competitive advantage if you get ahead of the game and that you can do it profitably before it just becomes a customer expectation number three. Marketplaces aren't just a threat, they're a growth opportunity. There was a part of that conversation conversation where I felt a little sigh of relief when Reeve said, actually Southeast Asian retailers are feeling the same pressure from those marketplaces like Temu and Shein, but they are also a pathway to expansion. Reef highlighted Shopee's model where shoppers in Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam can buy international products in their own currency, in their own language with built in trust signals. So I think there's a huge opportunity here to start playing around with those different marketplaces and not only just to test customer demand, but to understand what works for your business. Because marketplaces aren't going away and we've seen how important they are to that Southeast Asian model. So optimizing for cross border sales, keeping in mind that not all payment options are equal for different countries in those markets is really, really important and you need to ensure that you don't just jump in and treat all marketplaces as the same. Pick one or two out experiment. Understand what works in those marketplaces and if it could be a right fit for your business. All right, if you got something out of this episode that helped you in your career or with your business, I would love if you share this episode with a friend or a colleague or drop us a quick review on Spotify or Apple podcasts us. Don't forget to share the love with our sponsors Shopify and Klaviyo who help us keep these conversations going. And if you want to take it to the next level, you can keep learning with us at our Add to Cart community where we have webinars, tips, lunch and learns and other e commerce experts ready to share. If you're an E commerce professional in Australia, you can join for free at campus.add to cart.comau or just follow the links for from add to cart.com. Thanks for joining us today on Add to Cart to listen to all our e commerce conversations now in the hundreds. You can head over to addtocart.com there.
Nathan Bush: You can also join up to our
[Voiceover]: free private Slack community to share e commerce ideas, tips and questions with other listeners. You can also subscribe to the Add to Cart weekly newsletter and browse some of the video highlights from our chats. There is a lot there that's add to cart.com and if I can ask you one thing before you go. If you enjoyed today's episode, make sure you share it with a friend or a colleague who could benefit or leave us a review. It really makes a difference. Thanks again for listening. And until next time, keep those customers Adding to Cart.
