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[Voiceover]: Welcome to the checkout. We catch up with previous add to cut 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.
Nathan Bush: Today's checkout features Bianca Romano Smith, e Commerce and Digital Manager at vergegirl. Starting life as a retail store in the Brisbane Arcade almost 17 years ago, Vergegirl has grown alongside its sibling founders and is now expanding all over the world. After moving online, Verge Girl has more recently shifted from a multi brand online retail model to to a dedicated in house label. Bianca joined the Verge Girl team earlier this year and comes from a digital marketing and fashion background with previous roles at Universal Store and Black Milk.
Nathan Bush: Bianca, thank you so much for joining
Nathan Bush: us on the checkout. We had a great conversation.
Nathan Bush: Our main episode around all things digital and e commerce, your time at Verge Girl and all the amazing brands you've been at before that. We're here to learn a little bit more about you. So I've got five quick questions. Number one, what's the weirdest thing that you've ever bought online?
Bianca Romano Smith: This is a really really tricky one I think I have to say I've recently dabbled in a little TEEMU and that was an interesting experience. So I just wanted to see what the hype was about, see what the quality was like. Hoping I hated it. I was actually quite impressed. That led me down a rabbit hole of existential crisis. What's going to happen to the industry? What's going to happen to retail? But yeah, I think that was probably my weirdest thing is try I'm not going to say what I got but some and teemu orders.
Nathan Bush: But good on you because that is
Nathan Bush: my pet peeve at the moment is people who rag on in the industry who rag on Timo, she and even Amazon to a certain extent. And then when you say, have you had the experience yet? They go, no, no, I would never shop that online. Well, you kind of got to know what it is and what you're up against.
Bianca Romano Smith: And look, I. I was very pleasantly surprised, almost too pleasantly surprised, because that did concern me. But I also think there's a time and a place and the world just innovates, so we have to kind of just get on board with it. Right.
Nathan Bush: What was the most surprising thing about it that you weren't expecting the quality.
Bianca Romano Smith: The quality of the product. The product, yeah. And the speed of the shipping. I thought It'd be like 16 weeks coming on a shift, but it got to me really quickly. Yeah. And the quality, I really thought it was going to be, you know, knockoff doesn't look anything like the images, but everything was really impressive. So it is scary. But I think it's just one of those things that. Which is why brand is so important.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, she's got a level up.
Bianca Romano Smith: Yep.
Nathan Bush: Number two, which retailer has most inspired you recently?
Bianca Romano Smith: This would have to be MCO Beauty. So this is a, like a drugstore beauty brand for anyone that doesn't know they're in Woolworths and I'm just so impressed that they've been able to dominate in a supermarket way. No, there has been no innovator in this space since I've been alive. I feel they're also just killing it. They've just gone to the us Their influencer strategy is incredible and I'm just loving watching what they're doing.
Nathan Bush: That's cool. Secret between you and I and our
Nathan Bush: listeners is that they.
Nathan Bush: I've been getting so many press releases from them about all.
Bianca Romano Smith: They're going hard.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, they're going real hard. But it's awesome to hear from people like yourself that you. You actually rate them.
Bianca Romano Smith: Yeah, absolutely.
Nathan Bush: Great.
Nathan Bush: All right, number three, name a piece
Nathan Bush: of tech that you or your E commerce business couldn't live without.
Bianca Romano Smith: I hate to say this one, but I have to tell the truth. It's going to be meta because without that, I don't think any econ business would probably be where they are today.
Nathan Bush: Damn.
Bianca Romano Smith: Meta.
Nathan Bush: I still have to give you money. Have there been any surprising ones recently
Nathan Bush: that you've like, oh, that's cool.
Nathan Bush: That's like.
Nathan Bush: I wasn't expecting that.
Bianca Romano Smith: In terms of tech, I think would probably be. This is a cliche answer, but definitely like ChatGPT and AI and how quickly it does learn and how much it can drive efficiencies within a business that's just going to keep growing. So I think everyone should be jumping on it. I was probably a little late to it, moving roles. I think I had to come in and then be like, all right, here's how we can use AI. But, yeah, if you're not leveraging it, you're probably just wasting a bit of time.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And sometimes it's like catching yourself mid task and go, why am I doing this?
Bianca Romano Smith: Could ChatGPT do this for me?
Nathan Bush: Yes.
Bianca Romano Smith: Yeah.
Nathan Bush: And I will say that if you are listening to this and are intrigued by your answer around meta. In our main conversation, we have a big chat around meta and what you've been finding and how you've been using it, but also your experience with TikTok. So I know you're very much on TikTok route, and it's been been great to hear the different experiences between the two. Number four, can you recommend a book or a podcast that our listeners should immediately get into?
Bianca Romano Smith: Look, it's not necessarily e commerce, but I would say Dare to Lead by Brene Brown. It's one that I read way before I was a leader as a young marketer, and I think it was valuable then and it's valuable now. It's one that I continue to reread. Brene Brown's awesome. So definitely jump on that one.
Nathan Bush: Brilliant tip. She's amazing. All right, and number five, what is your biggest challenge today?
Bianca Romano Smith: Honestly, this is a hard one. There's so many challenges, but I think it's probably keeping up with the pace of change in our industry is very challenging. AI TikTok search, TikTok shop. There's just always something new, and I think it's challenging, but we just need to try, not get overwhelmed by it and make sure you don't have to do everything at once. So as much as I said jump on AI, if you don't have the capacity, maybe don't just you feel pressure
Nathan Bush: of that as a leader because you're across both digital and E commerce, or
Nathan Bush: do you have an expectation on your
Nathan Bush: team that they're also learning and bringing those learnings across the team?
Bianca Romano Smith: Yeah, I think, like I said in the chat, that willingness to learn is paramount. So that should be that you are learning about. If you're passionate about what you do, you should be reading, listening, understanding what's happening in the industry. So I. I do try and get my team to bring that to the team as well. But there's definitely pressure as a leader to try and stay on top of everything, but I have to lead by example as well. So if I'm not continually learning and growing, then I can't expect my team to. Yeah, but it can get overwhelming. I think we just gotta keep doing what we're doing, Keep pushing through.
Nathan Bush: No, absolutely. We had a great at the Sydney add to cart social, it was on AI and Andrew from Croc gave great piece of advice. He was like, find the people who are really passionate about a certain thing. Thing. Right. So if you've got someone who out of work is a video creator, if you've got someone who you know is diving deep in their AI rabbit hole, give them your credit card and go, go find the improvements that we can make across the business using AI Because I know you're already passionate about it.
Bianca Romano Smith: That's cool. Yeah. I really like that tip.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. So it's not all on you as a leader. It's like, how do you harness that curiosity and learning across the business?
Bianca Romano Smith: Absolutely. Yeah.
Nathan Bush: Love it.
Nathan Bush: Bianca, thank you for joining us on the checkout.
Bianca Romano Smith: Thank you so much, Nathan. My pleasure.
Nathan Bush: To hear more from Bianca, jump back into episode 417 where Bianca shares her practical TikTok tips how her team are using meta with a particular focus on Advantage plus and gives her take on abandoned carts and how to deal with them. Thanks for listening. And until next time, keep adding to cartoon.
