Nathan Bush: I've got a question for you and I want you to be honest with me. Does your business partnership program go beyond snacks for your postie and contra with your local pub? I hope so. Forrester found out that brands with mature partnership programs grow revenue twice as fast and see 28% of their revenue come from emerging partnerships. I'd love to see your local pub do that for you. To get a kickstart and partner with some of the world's most credible content creators, influencers, mobile apps and other brands on a performance basis, check out Impact, a technology company transforming the way we do partnerships at scale. Visit impact.comgrowth to learn more. Or jump back into episode 81 where we hear how Booktopia is driving growth through the power of partnerships.
[Voiceover]: Welcome to the Checkout. We catch up with previous add two 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 Catherine Dix, director of Waterdrop in Australia and also chief Operating Officer at e commerce agency Web Profits. Waterdrop is a brand that originally started in Europe that came via the US
Nathan Bush: To Aussie shores just last year.
Nathan Bush: They've created Microdrops to make drinking water more fun and enjoyable, with a big mission to make sure everyone is drinking more water. Kat, welcome to the Checkout.
Nathan Bush: Thank you for joining us here.
Nathan Bush: We've had such a great conversation in
Nathan Bush: our main chat around everything that you're doing with Waterdrop and Web Profits. We heard all about your partnership and investment with Novak Djokovic all the way through to your three pl experiences and much, much more. Fascinating stories so far and lots more to come. We're here to learn more about you, so I've got five quick questions.
Nathan Bush: Okay, number one, what's the weirdest thing
Nathan Bush: that you've ever bought online?
Catherine Dix: Being in marketing, I just absolutely get pulled in by so many random Instagram ads. I recently just bought those Chinese foot patches. Have you seen them? Yeah, they're really weird. They like you put this patch on your foot to go to sleep and it pulls out and like pulls out chemicals or something. Anyway, yeah, I mean, just now you'll see them somewhere. But I did those and I have no idea if I felt any better or if they did anything
Nathan Bush: like underneath
Nathan Bush: your foot or on top of your foot.
Catherine Dix: Yeah, and it's really gross. Like you pull them off in the morning and they're like fully brown. Like they've like pulled out toxins apparently from your feet. And it's like this old Chinese herbal thing.
Nathan Bush: All right. Okay.
Catherine Dix: I mean, why did I get that ad? Like, no idea. Look out for those ads. You shall see them.
Nathan Bush: I know they're coming now. My phone's in close proximity, so it thinks I'm probably in the market for them.
Nathan Bush: All right, number two, I think I know who you're not going to say,
Nathan Bush: but I'm not going to mention them again. Who is your favorite retailer?
Catherine Dix: My favorite retailer, I have a big. They are a client, a partner of web profits, but is a brand called Outland Denim. And I am huge, huge fan of them and what James Bartle has created. They do amazing fashion and denim, but it's all about helping get women out of modern slavery and the whole ethical supply chain. And. Yeah, I just think as an Australian brand, they're just incredible.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, I bought into the first round there as well.
Catherine Dix: Did you? Me too. Yeah. So they're just. They're fab and I mean, he's like Queenslander, you know, they're doing. They're the shakeup that the fashion industry needs. It's such a tough time when there's, like, just so much rubbish happening.
Nathan Bush: And they acquired nobody recently, didn't they?
Catherine Dix: Absolutely, yeah. Which is really, like, really smart move.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, really smart. Great. All right, number three, which e commerce practice do you wish was history?
Catherine Dix: I hate the upsell. Upsell. Upsell. When you're trying to check out and it just tells you that there's another deal and that there's another deal and that there's another deal. I can't stand it.
Nathan Bush: Because in that world, your product is
Nathan Bush: probably very ripe for that if you wanted to go down that path. Right.
Catherine Dix: Yeah. I find it really spammy. I can see sometimes how it works. But the supplement, like the US supplement, sites that do lots of it, where it just goes too far, I feel. And it's like giving you a timer and that, like, you accept this deal. And I just. I think that's just so intense. But no, it's like, so stressed. I'm just like, stop asking me.
Nathan Bush: All right, number four, can you recommend
Nathan Bush: a book or a podcast that our listeners should immediately get into?
Catherine Dix: Okay, so I don't want to be like a suck up bushy, but I did really enjoy the Sabri Style Subie podcast with you.
Nathan Bush: It was great. Thank you.
Catherine Dix: On Add to Cart, I listened to that, and that was. That was awesome. So if people haven't listened to that, that was a great one.
Nathan Bush: He is. It was all about storytelling and Boy, can he tell a story.
Catherine Dix: He's very nice and he just. There was some amazing nuggets. Just. There's some really, really good stuff in there. So. Yeah, I really enjoyed that.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, good one.
Nathan Bush: All right, last one.
Nathan Bush: I have for you, Kat, finish this sentence. The future of retail is really scary
Catherine Dix: with the rise of Timu and Shane Machine. Yeah.
Nathan Bush: Yeah.
Catherine Dix: I just think Timu is frightening.
Nathan Bush: It is. And some of the figures that we're seeing come out about them at the moment. I think I saw the other day. Combined, they'll do $2 billion in Australian online sales this year.
Catherine Dix: Yeah. So my. Like the fast fashion world, the fast commerce. I just. Yeah, I think it's really scary in terms of how we're operating as a world and just seeing all these brands that are doing good, but that's so tough and how can you take on these behemoths? So I think I'd like to. You know, there's lots of exciting things, but I do think that's pretty daunting in terms of just what they are doing.
Nathan Bush: The thing that scared me the most the other day was I saw the Roy Morgan research that said it's actually not your teens who are buying cheap stuff with their limited disposable income. It's actually your David Jones shoppers who can afford to buy it and for it to not work out for them. Because I can just throw it in the bin.
Catherine Dix: Yeah. I've. Honestly, if I hear anyone shopping on there, I'm calling them out and being like, no, do you not understand? It's terrible. So I'm a little bit preachy on it, but just kind of. It's hard, though, with cost of living and like the pressures and then, you know, why. Why would you not. But you have to kind of make an ethical. So I think that's. I think that's really tough for kind of where the world's heading with those kind of growth stories. It's crazy.
Nathan Bush: Beautiful. Well, on that cheerful note, we'll finish our checkout.
Catherine Dix: Sorry.
Nathan Bush: Thank you for joining us on the checkout.
Nathan Bush: I love the story of what you're doing with web profits and Waterdrop and how they're working together at the moment. I think it's a really interesting case study, especially for the marketers out there who have dreams of. Of, you know, going into the end to end e Commerce game. I think yours is a fabulous story for them to get across. So thank you for joining us.
Catherine Dix: Thank you for having me.
Nathan Bush: To hear more from Catherine, jump back into episode 402. Where Catherine shares how she went from running an agency to running Waterdrop Australia. She shares why being a dealer at the Australian Open was such a good idea and how Australia Day saved the company from a warehouse catastrophe. Thanks for listening. And until next time, keep adding to cartoon.
