[Voiceover]: 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 leave you with a little extra inspiration to get through your Friday. Today's checkout features Ed Ross from Trademark. Along with turning the world of workwear on its head with their colorful prints, Ed and his business partner Dan are championing mental health through their foundation tx. This is a conversation starter. Ed, we have five quick checkout questions for you to get to know a little bit more about you. I'm a bit scared of actually what we might find out, but that's all right. Yeah. All right. Number one, what is the weirdest thing you've ever bought online?
Ed Ross: Geez, mate, I get in trouble here all the time because I don't. I barely buy anything online. I'm such a tight ass. The weirdest thing. I don't know, probably just, probably just some flowers for the Mrs. At the office to try and get a week going again. But something to get. Yeah, something to spark. Spark it all up.
[Voiceover]: You're a good man. Number two, who is your favorite retailer?
Ed Ross: My favorite retailer. Geez. My Koala. I mean I'm so impressed with Koala. They're just their website, everything about them just. Yeah, it really gets me going. It's just like amazing.
[Voiceover]: Do you speak to the guys? Do you know the guys?
Ed Ross: No, I, no, I haven't been intro to the Koala guys but I'm just, yeah, in awe of what they've created. It's just absolutely amazing. It's so easy, so seamless. It's easy to understand and I mean, yeah, to go on there and just buy everything you need for a queen size bed to move into a house in one click is just like no brainer.
[Voiceover]: They do an awesome job. And you guys, I think there's so many similarities between the two of you. So I'm amazed that you've never kind of, kind of got together. Number three, which retail fad do you wish was history?
Ed Ross: Discounting. I'm so sick of discounting people. My, my sister's just launched a new, a new business called Never Seam. It's, yeah, seamless underwear, cotton underwear for, for women. And yeah, she launched with a, with a discount code. I was like, I told you to read this book. Ready, fire, aim.
[Voiceover]: I don't know.
Ed Ross: Have you read it by Michael Masterson? Yeah. And I'll read this book before you start this business and you'll be sweet. I was like, if I read this book first up, I'd be LAUGHING Anyway, yeah, first rule she broke and. But anyway, it's, yeah, discounting. I just can't stand discounting. Like free. Free is what you want to do. Like Bogo and free stuff, but not, not discounting.
[Voiceover]: Yeah. Do you guys ever discount?
Ed Ross: No, we don't discount. Only on big bulk orders, obviously, but nothing. If you ever go onto a website, you'll never see a shirt discounted or a product discount. It'll just be a Bogo offer or a loss leader type thing.
[Voiceover]: Sign of a healthy business.
Ed Ross: Well, yeah, it's just not massacring what you've got, you know what I mean?
[Voiceover]: Yeah, yep, absolutely. And funny thing is, I think this episode is going to go live in the middle of Black Friday Cyber Monday. So there could be a few people listening to this feeling the hurt of discounting as we speak.
Ed Ross: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's horrible.
[Voiceover]: All right, and number four, you may have answered this just then. Can you recommend a book or a podcast that our listeners should immediately get into?
Ed Ross: Yeah, well, Ready, Fire, Aim was absolutely amazing for me. Yeah, I've. I recommend that to absolutely anyone wanting to start a business or that does have a business. It's just got so much in there, I mean, out of it. I wrote like a, yeah, like a 20 page scale up strategy for this business of ours and I mean, yeah, it's just incredible. I just can't get enough of that book. It's unreal.
[Voiceover]: That's brilliant. Did you keep your 20, 20 page scale up strategy somewhere in the archive so that you can publish it?
Ed Ross: Mate, it's here. Yeah, yeah, it's all here. So I, I go back to it every now and then too to see sort of where we're tracking and yeah, the, yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's all, it's all doing what, what we were hoping to do. So, yeah, it's great. And then the other thing too obviously, like from a personal financing, like Barefoot Investor, obviously can't recommend that high enough for anyone out there, especially business owners that are, you know, that you need to be paying yourself a wage and making sure that you're looking after your personal finances just as much as your business finances. So. Yeah, more than more. Recommend that highly.
[Voiceover]: Yeah, great. Both books, both books are great practical tips. Right. They're stuff that you can take action from straight away.
Ed Ross: Yeah, I'm not a, I'm not a smart bloke but I can read and understand those books. So I'm sure that anyone out there listening could as well.
[Voiceover]: I Think you're plenty smart as. As the success has shown you. Play it down. All right, finish this sentence. The future of retail is.
Ed Ross: Future of retail is online with faster delivery. I mean, I suppose it's just sort of the faster you can get a good from your cart you've processed and someone's got a notification email to say they've purchased something, the quicker that they can get that product to their door. It's just that euphoric feeling, that value for money. And I also think far more subscription as well. I think there's going to be a lot. The subscription economy is where everything's heading. I mean, you know, stuff that you're using on a regular basis, you want it to keep arriving. You know, a good mate of mine, Michael Truzer, was at the Salesforce meeting in the city a few months ago and the, you know, the guy from Salesforce was sort of saying if you said you were going down to Blockbuster to pick up a DVD tonight, everyone laugh at you and say you've got rocks in your head. But he's like, I can guarantee in five to 10 years no one will be going to a grocery store. He's like, what's the point? You're pretty much doing the same thing every week. That's just gonna set and forget. Keep getting it delivered. If you wanna iterate something, you can. But I mean, why do we still need to get up hungover on a Sunday afternoon, make our way down to Woolies or Coles and fill our basket with the same stuff we're getting every week? That's where we're heading, I think, everything to your door. And I mean, if you can make something easier, make it easier because that's what people want.
[Voiceover]: And I can imagine you've got plenty of customers who don't necessarily enjoy shopping and would love the idea of something automatically rocking up at their doorstep every year or every six months and not having to think about it.
Ed Ross: Absolutely, absolutely. And if they just wanted to change the size or something, if they want every collection that comes to rock up at their door, then, yeah, make it happen. So it is something we're definitely looking at in the future for trademark for sure.
[Voiceover]: Beautiful, Ed. Thank you very much for answering our checkout questions. If you are keen to hear more of Ed and the Trademark journey, head back to our episode with Ed and hear a lot more about everything Trademark, tx, send sendable whole lot. We covered a whole lot. So thanks, Ed.
Ed Ross: Thanks, Nathan, really appreciate it.
[Voiceover]: Add to card is hosted and distributed through acast, the home of Podcasting it wasn't until I started this podcast that I realized how powerful podcasts are in creating real connections with listeners. I love when listeners contact me and speak to me like we're lifelong friends, and I know this carries over to our advertising partners. My relationship becomes their relationship, and because I value my listeners above all, I only partner with brands I'd recommend as a friend. It's kind of like influencer marketing, but without having to see me in a swimsuit. So if you're looking to explore the power of podcast advertising for your brand, you should check out Acast. Acast hosts over 20,000 podcasts, a mix of of amazing local and international content, and can deliver credible mentions to an engaged listener in an uncluttered environment. Check out Acast Advertising on Google Today. To hear more from Ed, jump back into episode 35, where we speak with Ed about how they set up trademark from the start to incorporate social impact, how they got burnt by marketing agencies in the early days, and why he's now modeling speedos. Thanks for listening, and until next time, keep adding to cartoon.
