[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 Kate Casey and Phoebe Simmons, co founders of the Memo. The Memo is a one stop curated online shop for everything you need to take care of your baby. Born out of frustration with the patronizing tone given to new mums, the Memo is a grown up answer to new parents confusion connecting them with the best and the brightest brands in the baby sphere.
Nathan Bush: Kate and Phoebe, welcome to the Checkout. We've heard so much about the Memo story and what's to come. We're going to learn a little bit more about you guys. Five questions. Number one, what's the weirdest thing that you've ever bought online?
Kate Casey: When I prior to the Memo I would try and buy any sort of hack that would make my children sleep. I found this device over in America because I watched Shark Tank and it was this blackout tent that would go over the baby's bassinet and it worked.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, we had the blackout blinds. We literally had someone come in and fit them out again. Another great day when those get taken down.
Phoebe Simmonds: Kate swears by those.
Kate Casey: I swear by them. My 3 year old still has one even though it looks like I've got a crack den going out of my house. Fine. Because it gives me that extra half an hour in the morning when the sun rises.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, it's a quiet crack den at least. All right, number two, who are your favorite retailers?
Kate Casey: I mentioned a couple of them before. I particularly am loving the Sheet society. I think they've done an amazing job with their e commerce platform and particularly around their personalization with their bundle, their bed bundle builder and Frank Green who are really taking the sustainability completely head on and the way that you can customize your bespoke drink bottle.
Nathan Bush: We've actually just ordered a whole bunch of customized E Sweet Frank Green coffee cups as gifts. So they do it really well. Number three, which e commerce practice do you wish was history?
Kate Casey: This is a really easy one for me. The buy now pay later methods. Can they just go now? Because I mean some of you might follow Victoria Devine and she has a great position and opinion on buy now after pay and all those kind of methods. But essentially when you're talking about retailers and you're offering that percentage off and the terms that we have to go and then they ask you to participate in a discount after pay day sale but you have to fund the discounting, who's the benefit for and ultimately the position of the customer and how they're left and what potentially they're exposed to as well. But I look forward to that bad disappearing traditional credit cards coming back.
Nathan Bush: Do you think it will?
Kate Casey: I'm hoping it will.
Nathan Bush: We'll hope it away. Yep. All right, number four, can you recommend a book or a podcast that our listeners should immediately get into? Yeah.
Phoebe Simmonds: Sway by Kara Swisher, which comes out of the New York Times, is a phenomenal podcast. Cara, a total badass. And she actually said in an interview the other day that she's the best interviewer on the planet. And I love, first of all that she said that. And secondly, I couldn't agree with her more. It's really compelling stuff and she has some really interesting people on her podcast. But she's a tech reporter.
Nathan Bush: Okay, so is it all based around tech?
Phoebe Simmonds: It's not all based around tech, but yeah, she's the tech correspondent for the New York Times, so her insights are invaluable regardless of who she's talking to.
Nathan Bush: Perfect. Great recommendation. All right, last question I have for you. Finish this sentence. The future of retail is personalized in any particular way.
Phoebe Simmonds: Anything that is meeting the needs of the customer and being a lot more bespoke. So we're really identifying a lot more about who they are and targeting out the right information to the right people at the right time.
Nathan Bush: Lovely. Kate and Phoebe, thanks for joining us on the checkout.
Phoebe Simmonds: Thank you for having us.
[Voiceover]: To hear more from Kate and Phoebe, jump back into episode 175 where they share how their corporate background in beauty and luxury informed the way that they now run the memo. They also talk about the lengthy journey developing their new custom built gift registry. And most importantly, we get the lowdown on which product is going to help sleep deprived mum and dads get more precious shut eye information that could have been useful a few years ago. Thanks for listening. And until next time, keep adding to cartoon.
