[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.
Nathan Bush: Today's checkout features James Van Rooyen, co founder of bikesonline, or Bicycles Online as they've been known in Australia. Starting out as bike tour operators, James and his business partner Jono thought they might be able to get bikes cheaper if they order direct from the supplier. One container load of bikes and an eBay store later, bikesonline was born. Today they sell bikes to both the Australian and US markets and have 100 staff spread across every continent. James, welcome to the checkout. We've heard a lot about bikes online and what you're building there and the expansion plans. We're here to learn a little bit more about you. Five quick questions.
James van Rooyen: Great. Let's get into it.
Nathan Bush: Number one, what's the weirdest thing that you've ever bought online?
James van Rooyen: Look, recently it's a little bit weird. It was a spare bolt for some roof racks for putting a bike up there and it fell down the drain. And this is where the magic of e commerce came through. I could choose this one specific bolt that's diameter and thread and pitch and all that sort of thing. You just wouldn't have been able to get that in the past. And yeah, made my life a lot easier.
Nathan Bush: I love it. I love little things like that, especially if it saves you a trip to Bunnings or other hardware stores on the weekend. That's it.
James van Rooyen: Yeah.
Nathan Bush: Beautiful. All right, number two, who is your favorite retailer?
James van Rooyen: Well, I did the Tesla test drive the other day and you know, that was just incredible. I had a motor racing background previously and this thing was just incredible. If you haven't taken a Tesla for a test drive, I'd really recommend it. And I just see that that's a real game changer. I actually think, you know, perhaps it's not so much about customer experience for Tesla, it's really about the product at the moment. But it's real game, game changing stuff and it was, it was great to be able to experience that.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, it is. It's a bit of a wanker story here, but I went in for a test drive similar, similar to you and this is two years ago and loved it so much that I like, do you want to put a deposit down? I'm like, how, like, what do I do? And they're like, literally come over to this computer, I'll log in, you give me a Credit card, and then you've bought a Tesla. And I'm like, okay, so this is how we buy cars now.
James van Rooyen: It's incredible, right? Did you do it?
Nathan Bush: Yeah, I did.
James van Rooyen: There you go. Yeah, it's pretty convincing.
Nathan Bush: It's pretty good. And as I'm not a car guy at all, I could not care less about cars. But I love technology and what's coming. So for me, that was really exciting.
James van Rooyen: Yeah, exactly. It's great to be part of that future.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. All right, number three, which E commerce
James van Rooyen: practice do you wish was history? We have to ban the pop up. It kills me. It kills me. And if you got pop ups on mobile, you know, it's such a bad experience, you know, so I'm hoping the designers out there and the UX guys out there are going to get rid of them completely.
Nathan Bush: Are we talking all pop ups, promotional pop ups, sign up to our email, pop ups, everything?
James van Rooyen: Yeah, look, you know, probably just the cookies is the one that we can't get away from at the moment. And I know that we have some on our site, so. But I just, I hope the industry gets away from it because they're just too frustrating.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. All right, number four, can you recommend a book or a podcast that our listeners should immediately get into?
James van Rooyen: So I'm a big audiobook guy. I just finished Elon Musk's book.
Nathan Bush: Oh, nice. Keep the theme.
James van Rooyen: Yeah, that's what motivated me to go and do the test drive. Look, definitely read that. If you're interested in someone who's really in that pursuit of perfection and just a brilliant guy. Incredible. So that was fascinating. Another one. Split the difference. If you're after something that's a little bit more interesting. This is a guy who was the chief hostage negotiator for the FBI. I mean, just under huge pressure, stressful situations, and he gives you tips on how to negotiate everything from buying a car to dealing with kids.
Nathan Bush: I was about to say, probably helped me in my home life more than anything.
James van Rooyen: That's it. It's well worth a listen or a read.
Nathan Bush: Great stuff. All right, last question I have for you, James, finish this sentence. The future of retail is it's not here yet.
James van Rooyen: I see that we are just at the genesis of the way that people will start to experience retail. And I think we're just at the beginning.
Nathan Bush: That's very exciting. I love it. James, thank you so much for joining us on the checkout.
James van Rooyen: Nathan, wonderful to be here.
Nathan Bush: To hear more from James, jump back into episode 181, where James shares how bikesonline have been able to create a direct to consumer advantage and maintain it with strong supplier relationships even as complex competition has increased. We also discuss James's tips for expanding into the US how to snap up bargain domain names at bargain prices, and why one of his proudest moments as a founder was when one of his team members bought their house. Thanks for listening and until next time, keep adding to cartoon.
