[Ad]: 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. Welcome to the Checkout. We catch up with previous guests of Add to Cart, where we ask them five quick questions to understand more about them and and leave you with a little extra inspiration to get through your Friday. Today's checkout features Dean Taylor, who's the CEO and the founder of WineDepot. WineDepot is a warehousing and fulfillment service which allows wine merchants the ability to sell wine direct to customers without having to worry about the intricacies of the last mile. Before Wine Depot, Dean was on the forefront of online wine retailing with his startups, which included Cracker Wines, My Wine Guy, and the Wine Collective.
Nathan Bush: Dean Taylor, welcome to the Checkout. Five quick questions to learn a little bit more about you. All right, number one, what is the weirdest thing you've ever bought online?
Dean Taylor: Look, I bought a device recently that's meant to help me with my snoring and it clips onto your nostrils and it's meant to regulate the air that comes through and it's just an absolute crock. I need about 30 bucks for a bit of plastic that would have cost someone like 3 or 4 cents to make and but yeah, anyway, so that was something. I've shut up my nose. That's the weirdest thing I've bought.
Nathan Bush: Was it one of those things that took a lot of research and a lot of fake reviews were read in the process?
Dean Taylor: Yep, it's one of those. I bought it through Facebook. Of course. You know, that's the home of those sorts of those things that you never need and never work and are heavily marketed.
Nathan Bush: Downside of working in the alcohol industry. Hey, lots of Facebook and Instagram purchases that you don't really need.
Dean Taylor: That's right.
Nathan Bush: All right, number two, who is your favorite retailer?
Dean Taylor: I was thinking about this before, but I Think it's got to be Honey Bedet. They, they do such a good job of combining, you know, sort of lingerie and sex toys and make it all presentable, you know, presentable enough to, to appear in a Westfield shop incident.
[Ad]: Right.
Dean Taylor: And that's right. And you know, like, if you're looking for a gift, that special girl, then it's an absolute go to place. You can't go wrong. And yeah, I just think the way that they build that brand is fantastic and curate the range and their products are fantastic too.
Nathan Bush: It's a great example because it shows how any product can be brought into the mainstream. Like, there's no need for the old school sex shops that, you know, they actually look really seedy now when you put it next to a brand like Honeybadette.
Dean Taylor: Correct.
[Ad]: Yeah.
Dean Taylor: So I think they've done a fantastic job.
Nathan Bush: That's awesome. Number three, which retail fad do you wish was history?
Dean Taylor: Look, it's, it, it's, it's, it's not quite retail. I guess it's been used to retail and promote, but it's TikTok drives me nuts. I, I can't stand it and every now and then I've been, I've got three girls and they try to convince me to do a TikTok, you know, and yeah, now there's just nothing about that platform I like. I can't wait. I was hoping that you. The government brought in the rules around it. It was going to kill it off, but now it's still going strong.
Nathan Bush: Dads are great content on TikTok. They're everywhere. Number four, can you recommend a book or a podcast that our listeners should immediately get into?
Dean Taylor: Yeah, look, I think in terms of a book, one that springs to mind is Seth Godden's. This is marketing. I just think it's absolute gold for anyone in business and don't even really have to be in business. There's just lots of learnings. But certainly for anyone who's, who's driving an online business. I know it's not a podcast, but I've recently joined Clubhouse and been dropping in some really interesting conversations there. I think that's the future of podcasts in that app. So I don't know if you've had a chance to look at it yet, but if not, let me know and I'll send you the invite. But it's fantastic.
Nathan Bush: Brilliant. So anti TikTok Pro Clubhouse. I've signed up and I've been in there, listen to a couple of things, but my attention span just isn't there for what's kind of been one of the most interesting conversations you've been involved in there?
Dean Taylor: Oh, look, to be honest, it's actually not so much the conversation, it's just a particular one. It's just the whole medium. I can see so much potential for it. And, you know, I just think that as it diversifies, you know, and build off in streams, I think, you know, and you find your community, I think you'll be able to tap into some amazing, you know, sort of topics and discussion for them. So.
Nathan Bush: Absolutely. Number five, finish this sentence. The future of retail is mobile.
Dean Taylor: And yeah, look, I just think, you know, we all live on our phones, right? And, you know, it's. I think, you know, I've spent a bit of time in China in the last couple of years and just the way that they've embraced mobile up there is phenomenal. I mean, we've, we've had almost a bit of a step change with what's happened with COVID and QR codes in this country. But. And you know, the way that venues embrace them now to display menus and make, you know, ordering and payments easier. You know, we have not quite where they are with WeChat and the ability to, I mean, geez, you know, you drive into a car park in, in China and it'll recognize your face from your WeChat account and it'll just build parking straight to your WeChat account as well. But I think definitely mobile, I think for digital marketing in particular, I think we haven't really embraced it the way it has in other countries as a retail store. And I think we're going to see a lot more of that over the coming year or two.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, it's a great point reimagining how we use mobile, not just taking old experiences and trying to jam them into the mobile.
Dean Taylor: True. Very, very true. Yeah.
Nathan Bush: Dean, thank you very much for sharing.
Dean Taylor: My pleasure. Thanks again.
[Ad]: To hear more from Dean, jump back into episode 68 where Dean shares his tips on how to get the most out of technology, including AI and headless commerce models. Dean also shares a brilliant story around a thug and a broken bottle of wine from the 1800s. Also, for those who do enjoy a drop, he shares his favorite wines that he's discovered and is currently enjoying. Cheers to that. Thanks for listening and until next time, keep adding to.
