[Voiceover]: Welcome to the checkout. We catch up with previous add to cart guests and ask them five quick questions to get to know them better and leave you with a little extra inspiration to get you through your Friday.
[Voiceover]: Today's checkout features Edwina Cameron, founder of Iheart Wall Art. They're an online business offering a range of digital prints, canvases and framed artwork, some of which Edwina creates herself.
Nathan Bush: From.
[Voiceover]: Starting out in Edwina's backyard on the Sunshine coast, they are now shipping artworks Australia wide, employ two staff and are just about to open a showroom in the town of Mulaney.
Nathan Bush: Edwina, welcome to the checkout.
[Voiceover]: We've heard a lot about I heart
Nathan Bush: wall Art and we're going to find out a little bit more about yourself. I've got five quick questions for you.
Edwina Cameron: Let's do it.
Nathan Bush: Number one, what is the weirdest thing that you've ever bought online?
Edwina Cameron: Well, look, I used to really get into ebay back in the days before, you know, when, like, you just bought things at auction and it was like really this big novelty. And I bought this horrific green lamp, which was right on the other side of Brisbane, and then had to drive about an hour and a half in traffic to get it, got it home, took one look at it and dropped it off to the nearest op shop the next day. It was a real case of just kind of seeing something, wanting it and really not thinking it through at all.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, we've just interviewed the guys from Gumtree and it brought back a lot of memories like that, of those kinds of purchases.
Edwina Cameron: Yeah, yeah. Regretful purchases. Yeah.
Nathan Bush: Number two, who is your personal favorite retailer?
Edwina Cameron: Look, I like to shop on Etsy, to be honest, wherever I can. Or smaller kind of independent marketplaces. I think as a smaller, you know, retailer myself, I really know how much it kind of does just make someone's day when they get those sales. And I do find that you get really nice kind of quality and good customer service if you're looking at reviews and kind of going with the. And, you know, a lot of those marketplaces are pretty onto that anyway. But, yeah, whenever I can, I try to support sort of smaller retailers.
Nathan Bush: And are you finding Etsy? Because it's grown a lot, Right. Is it still got the same community handcrafted vibe?
Edwina Cameron: No, look, it doesn't, it doesn't. And there's a lot of stuff on there now that certainly does not fit that kind of handmade, handcrafted vibe. But it's a question of just kind of hunting through, I think, and finding what you're looking for because that community still exists there and yeah, where possible, it's really nice to support them.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, I agree. All right, number three, which e commerce practice do you wish was history pop
Edwina Cameron: ups and like little bells and whistles and things on site? I just have a really short attention span and also kind of a short fuse when I like, I just don't want. Because I've come to your site, I just want to go and have a look around. I don't want to like join the newsletter or this or that. And I know that, like, because, you know, I know that a lot of people come to our site looking for those because then you get your Coupon code for 10% off. For me, I just find them really distracting. Like a nice, clearly laid out site where the information is presented in a logical way and there's no kind of distractions.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. And I can imagine that the environment that you're trying to create with iHeart wall art is kind of a place where you're walking into a gallery and you're feeling relaxed and it should be enjoyable rather than like, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing.
Edwina Cameron: Yeah, exactly, exactly. Like people are sitting there after dinner, maybe they've got a glass of wine, they're like, right, what are we going to find to put up on that wall there? The last thing I want to be doing is kind of flashy little pop ups and things kind of at them because I find them annoying and I can only imagine other people do as well.
Nathan Bush: Makes sense. All right, number four, can you recommend a book or a podcast that our listeners should immediately get into?
Edwina Cameron: No. Look, I thought about this and I wanted to have something really intelligent sounding and kind of inspirational. But if I'm being totally honest, the last thing I do feel like doing after a kind of big day of work is, you know, reading and listening to more sort of E commerce or retail or business stuff. So I'm a massive true crime podcast girl, I have to admit, but I'm going to do a plug for my favorite author. Not that he needs it, Trent Dalton, who wrote the amazing book, which has completely now gone from my memory.
Nathan Bush: So I just read Shimmering Skies, all
Edwina Cameron: our Shimmering Skies, but the one before that, the, you know, the.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, yeah. Boy Swallows Universe.
Edwina Cameron: Boy swallows universe. Thank you. My gosh. Anyway, they're amazing books. He's an amazing author and it's pure escapism, you know, it's like, really takes you to another place and I love that. Boy Swallows Universe set in Brisbane. Yeah. So there you go. Shout out for him.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. They're going to go down as classics, aren't they?
Edwina Cameron: Oh, absolutely. Yep.
Nathan Bush: All right, last one I've got for you. Finish this sentence. The future of retail is a smoother
Edwina Cameron: and more personalized and online. Online. I think the future of big retail, of most retail, is online. But I think we're all going to get a lot better at providing really smooth customer experiences as we iron out the bumps. And I think that that's going to become more and more what people expect to, you know, see really, really clearly what they're buying, to know exactly what it's going to look like, what it's going to feel like before they get it. So I think that that's where it's going to go and I look forward to it.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, it's a great point. And I think when you talk about smoothing over the bumps, it's everywhere. Like, we've got to look at the fulfillment network at Christmas. They're working out the bumps. We talked about WordPress versus Shopify before. Every iteration is smoothing out bumps everywhere.
Edwina Cameron: So there's many bumps. And I think in Australia, we have an extra lot of bumps because we have a really, really big country with a relatively small population. And, you know, shipping is a challenge, you know, and just kind of smoothing that out. But I think it's improving all the time, just in the time that I've been in the industry, so it should only continue.
[Voiceover]: Edwina, that was great.
Nathan Bush: Thank you for joining us on the checkout.
Edwina Cameron: You're very welcome. Thanks for having me.
[Voiceover]: To hear more from Edwina, jump back into episode one 144, where Edwina shares the unique challenges of running a business from home, the best ways to nail SEO for an up and coming brand, and why a pelican's beak should always, always be yellow. Trust me, it makes sense when you listen. Thanks for listening. And until next time, keep adding to cart.
