Jason Konchemski: I was up there with the founder for 20 minutes of his 45 minute speech talking about Daniel Craig 007 and how he's going to purchase from our website. I think that's the biggest buzzkill for any brand. I think nothing will kill a brand quicker than that interaction. So what I'd realized 10 years ago, China was so far ahead of us they had skipped e commerce and they moved to mobile commerce so early on.
[Voiceover]: Welcome to ADD to cart, Australia's leading e commerce podcast that express delivers all you need in the fast moving world of online retail. Here's your host, Bushy. From flipping car parts on ebay to building a global e commerce machine, today's guest has mastered the art of scaling automation and turning marketplaces into a multi million dollar growth engine. Welcome to another episode of Add to Car. My name is Bushi. Joining you from the land of the terrible people here here in Brisbane, Australia today I am joined by Jason Konchemski, CEO of Speedmaster, a family run business turned global powerhouse. What started in a garage 45 years ago now ships millions of car parts to over 210 countries and it's all powered by cutting edge automation and marketplaces. Jason has been selling online since 1999 and he spent the last two decades perfecting E commerce logistics and scale. In this episode he reveals how Speedmaster processes orders with just 10 seconds of human handling. He tells us how Amazon and ebay fit into the modern marketplace strategy and why he's still betting on bricks and mortar even in an AI driven world. If you are scaling a product based business, navigating the chaos of global e commerce or are just a bit of a rev head, this chat is for you. A quick heads up. My free weekly e commerce newsletter drops every Tuesday. I break down one must know industry trend plus share five game changing e commerce stories all in a quick no fluff email. Sign up for free at add to cart.comau subscribe. All right, a huge thanks to our partners at Shopify and Klaviyo for supporting this episode and for supporting our podcast. Now let's hit the road. Get into my chat with Jason Konchemski from Speedmaster. Jason, welcome to ADD to cart. Great to have you here.
Jason Konchemski: Thanks for having me mate.
[Voiceover]: I remember I think it was my very first online retailer. It could have been, gosh, 12 years ago now. You were on stage speaking and I remember just being blown away by how passionate you were about e comm at that time and you were doing some pretty incredible things back then. Has that passion has it kept up.
Jason Konchemski: It has, it has. And it continues to amplify. You know, if you keep up with it, it continues to push you in new areas and fund new, exciting ventures. And it's been fun. I mean, I can't wait to share some of the cool stuff with. But yeah, it's fun. It's definitely still the same.
[Voiceover]: Awesome. I get that sense, like, I'm just looking at you going off. You've got some stories here we've got to get to.
Jason Konchemski: I do, I do.
[Voiceover]: So let's take us back to the start. For people who haven't heard the Speedmaster story, let's give them the 101. Obviously a family business, but you've taken it leaps and bounds from there. Where does your story start? With Speedmaster. And give us a bit of background.
Jason Konchemski: It's actually ironic, right? So it's a family business, been around for 45 years. My dad literally started in the garage, wanted to be the fastest guy around town, and basically was breaking all these engine parts and started making them better. Typical entrepreneur looking to solve a problem. One part turned into two, two parts turned into three, and here we are 45 years later and 25,000 car parts. So that's in a nutshell where I came into it was I've been selling online since 1999. I think you've even mentioned it since I was 15, 16.
[Voiceover]: Right.
Jason Konchemski: So I was selling online, and at the time, it was like 2003, and they opened up a store and I'm like, hey, you guys need to be careful. There's this thing called ebay and if you don't adhere to it, they'll kick you off. So anyway, two years later, I took over the online store and took over the business in Sydney and never looked back. It was just crazy. So it was literally started with them trying to be going, just trying to test this online thing, you know.
[Voiceover]: That's awesome. There's so many stories like that. The more we dig into it, there's so many children who have taken family businesses into the next generation. I understand that you kind of had a choice to make at that point because you're a pretty promising soccer player too. Like, how are you juggling all that?
Jason Konchemski: Yes, it was tough. So, I mean, yeah, I was a semi professional professional soccer player. Ironically, the writing was on the wall for me at that time. I was 26 and I had had five knee operations, three full ACL reconstructions. I had a professional contract with Sydney FC, you name it at the time. So it was tough. It was Very, very tough, bitter pill to swallow. But my surgeon at the time said, look, you've paid for my yacht with all these knee reconstructions. That's enough. You're gonna have to quit before you. You know, I can't do this anymore. You're gonna be in a wheelchair by the time you're 40. And I'm like, I'm okay with that. And he's like, no, I'm not. So I had to kind of learn to, I don't know, work. So I did. And it was kind of. It was a tough one. It was a tough one. You know, aspiring athlete, go and clean toilets. It was a tough one.
[Voiceover]: Well, there you go. From aspiring athlete to sitting in front of a computer all day. How lucky are you?
Jason Konchemski: Yeah, yeah, 100%. Can't complain.
[Voiceover]: Do you share your dad's passion for cars? Like, obviously you have a passion for business and a passion for E Commerce. Did you always have a passion for cars as well?
Jason Konchemski: It's probably. I love building things, so I have a passion for the way it works, the parts and all the rest. So I have a passion to drive them fast and blow them up like he did. Probably not. Yeah. It's a different feeling, for sure. But I love the mechanics behind them. I love. I think that's, you know, even with E. Commerce, plugging things together, making them work, making them better. So I definitely think that, you know, his passion was to go fast. I like making things better, for sure. So we share that passion. Definitely. Even in the Kachevsky household, we all share that passion of trying to make things better, you know, so I think that's where it comes from. But, yeah, I don't have an aspiration to go down and be the fastest guy around town. That for sure is not my. My natural being, you know?
[Voiceover]: Yeah. Okay.
Jason Konchemski: He's crazy.
[Voiceover]: Is he still driving? Yeah, and he's fast, so there's no competing. All right, so you've gone from 15,000 SKUs, as I understand read about, to now 100,000. Are you designing and manufacturing all those SKUs yourself, or are you also retailing other SKUs?
Jason Konchemski: Yeah, so we design, test, and manufacture over 25,000 car parts. Like everything you see from radiator to rear end, we've designed, tested, and manufactured them, and we've got our hands on them. The other ones are auxiliary products. So, you know, potentially might be one product as a bill of material made up of 25, 30 items. 99% of what we do, we manufacture. There is items, you know, that like chrome, accessories, Whatnot, that auxiliary products that we don't manufacture. But it's a very small percentage and in the end you're just competing against other people who have the ability to buy them. So it's not really, it's pointless at that degree, you know.
[Voiceover]: And are you trying to service all car markets or is there a very specific niche that you're focusing on?
Jason Konchemski: Only V8s, only old muscle car V8s. So your old Fords, Chevys, Mopars, Pontiacs up until about the 2000s now ironically is kind of like the range right now. So from like 1940s to 2000.
[Voiceover]: Is that a good thing for you? Like does that make it hard when you're kind of got a little cutoff date there?
Jason Konchemski: Not really. Because technically like the technology between 22,000 to today, or not even 2,000, probably around the 2010 or 15 forward the last 10 years there's been a massive shift in technology. So what we used to be an 8,800 horsepower used to be a big deal. It used to be a race car. Now these factory cars have got a thousand horsepower. So there's that portion of it. So it doesn't, it just. We don't know where it's going because, you know, where does a street car finish? There's this period of such aggressive growth right now. So I'll give you prime example. For probably 30 years, cars would increase horsepower by 1 or 2 horsepower, 5 horsepower. Like it was this real small increments, right? And then he comes, and I blame Tesla. He comes Tesla, right? Yeah. And they come along and their car goes 9 seconds mile. And they're like, wow, this car is amazing. It's the first street car to break 10 seconds, ironically. It's not because Tesla was amazing. Well, they are, but it's not because they're amazing. It's because these other manufacturers were just lazy. So I'll give you a prime example. They then literally a month later, Dodge brings out a Dodge demon that goes 990 as well. Nine seconds quarter mile, and it's got 800 horsepower, literally, I don't know, six months later. But that 800 horsepower engine, we redesign 70 year old items that have 800 horsepower. So the technology is there. They just been lazy. And you know, it helps with warranty and everything else. So it's just been lazy. And then Tesla comes along and goes bang, nine seconds. And now all these cars now are doing eight seconds, nine seconds. So it's just. So what I'm getting at is the last 10 years and 15 years since Tesla's kind of broken their mold, we've got this aggressive. These aggressive power plants. So when he starts to plateau out and they start to realize where they want to stop again, then we'll come back in and go, okay, well, that's the new baseline. Let's make it better. But at this point, every year, things have been coming out so much better and better every year that there's no point for us to kind of enter that market yet. Does that make sense?
[Voiceover]: It does. Is for your customers, is it even about speed anymore, or is it about nostalgia and maintaining something precious and, like, preserving a bit of history?
Jason Konchemski: So both. So a lot of the guys restore their cars. So you might buy a 65 Mustang and restore it. And you wanted to have current technology. So, for example, simple things like an aluminum cylinder head, which is an aluminum version of a cast iron item, will give you. It just means you won't overheat. It feels like a normal car. So you want that, right? You want the current things, you want on your conditioning on. You want those current creature comforts. So we give you that. Then you've got the guys who want to be 800 horsepower, like, you know, like the current models, and they just want to be fast and whatever else. So then you've got best of both worlds. So you're right. But today, to your point, because these electric cars are so fast, they're going to give up. And that's where we're waiting for that moment where I think Lamborghini said it, don't judge a Lamborghini by how fast it goes in the straight line. It's designed to go around corners. So they're starting to stop that now because they know that they can't keep up. So to your point, there is a point in the. There's going to be a line in the sand where horsepower is no longer a thing, you know?
[Voiceover]: Yeah. Was there ever a moment in your business where you went, maybe we've got to make a decision to go into electric cars and accessories all the time
Jason Konchemski: Again, because it was so fast moving, we wanted to just see where the dust settles. So, you know, definitely wanted to be a part of that. In all fairness, I don't know if you can make an electric car any better, to be perfectly honest. Really, it's a really good car. There's not really much we could do to make it better. And now you're going from a, you know, like a mobile phone to a smartphone. You're going to a smart car. I mean, yeah, these are now technology companies, not automotive companies anymore. So there's that part of it for sure. And to be honest with you, which we'll probably touch on later, I'll tell you a whole story. But even through E commerce people, when E commerce came out it was like it started with Australia Post and Australia Post email was supposed to put the mail service out of business. So it almost put all the mail. And then the byproduct of email was E commerce. And then all of a sudden Australia Post was like the most valuable company because they could the ones who could deliver it. So what should have killed them made them stronger.
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Jason Konchemski: so the byproduct is always what I'm interested in. So to your point, I'm waiting for the byproduct of electric cars and I think there's this coexistence. So for example, I don't know if you remember when I started or 20 years ago, E Commerce was supposed to put us all out of business, all bricks and mortar. Supposed to be like the end of the world. And when I saw electric cars I kind of got the same feeling as E commerce and I had the same feeling then as I do now, which is I think they end up coexisting. I think the companies they coexist. So for example E Commerce was such on such a burn that every all bricks and mortar were more like scared. And then you'll find out the ones that did it best are the ones who are clicks and mortar, the bricks and mortar who have an E commerce. And then E commerce stopped becoming a competitive advantage and now E commerce is just part of your everyday business, right? So I think the two who can match them together. And so that's where I'm at with this business, where I'm like, let's just see where it goes, let's see where that goes. And then they're going to coexist and ironically, if you know, literally in the last three or four months it's all the dusty started to settle and they're starting to coexist. You know, everyone's pulling back from electric cars. I think Ford, gm, Porsche just pulled their electric cars as well. So they're all pulling back. Yeah, just all this is just recent. So they're all pulling back from electric cars saying they're getting crushed. But I think Tesla is going to continue to burn through and be an amazing option. So much so that it might be the only option, but so much so that they're going to coexist and they're going to be two awesome entities. If that's my personal opinion.
[Voiceover]: Yeah, that makes sense. This is a risky statement because you could just end the interview right now, but I bought a Tesla about five years ago and I honestly, apart from new set of tires and a new battery, I haven't spent a cent on it. Like compared to other cars it's just a different model altogether. So I think it makes a lot of sense around what you're saying, around your business model is like, let's not upturn this because it's a totally different game over here at the moment. Let's keep playing our game really well.
Jason Konchemski: And in all fairness, I don't even like that Tesla is. I know this is going completely away from the conversation, but I don't even like that people compare a Tesla to an electric car. Tesla's not an electric car. So electric cars are an electric version of a car and I hate those cars. Tesla is a completely different animal. It self drives. It is literally the smartest car I've ever driven and probably one of the best cars I've ever driven because it's actually a smart car. So you know, these other cars are literally, it's like a Porsche with electric motor as opposed to a petrol powered motor. So you get in, it still feels like it's just a one for one swap, you know what I mean? So one day Elon might sell all that technology to petrol powered cars and they self drive and then it's going to have if you're going to be just as good, you know what I mean? So they're two different arguments if you ask me personally.
[Voiceover]: But yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. All right, we should talk some E commerce. So my background is super cheap auto, so I spent six years there And I understand how complicated the auto industry can be, especially when you're in the part of the world because the catalogs are just crazy to keep up with and there's no central repository of anything and you're constantly playing with data to make sure that customers are getting what they need. I mentioned that we've got a hundred thousand SKUs there. You're selling to how many countries now?
Jason Konchemski: Almost all of them, I think last Black Friday. I can't believe it. But the places our stuff was shipped, I'm like, I didn't even know we're on the map. So I think there's like over 210 locations. If I show you the Google Analytics, you'll fall off your chair. You'll be like, why is someone in Zambia buying your car parts? I'm like, I don't know. There might be, I don't know. I don't know what they're building, but they're definitely running away from someone very
[Voiceover]: fast and they need speed. I do. The other complication that I saw for you is obviously marketplaces. You have a presence in marketplaces that we'll touch on later. Tell me, from someone who's been doing this for so long and seems to have mastered it, you've got a beautiful experience online.
Jason Konchemski: Thank you.
[Voiceover]: What are the challenges for you? What's the unique challenges in car parts that people in other verticals, whether that be fashion, whether that be grocery etc and selling online, may not realize that's unique to auto?
Jason Konchemski: Oh, I mean, you know, if you're a super cheap, you know, so ironically one part for example, like we have, we supply AutoZone. So for example, just on a measly three and a half thousand SKUs that we offer them, there is over 2 million data points of fitment. So that could fit 2 million different applications. So when you talk about complexity, you know, it's, it's insane. I don't think there's anything else on E Commerce that would have that much complexity. I'm pretty sure there isn't anything else. I don't think I can think of anything else that has that much complexity. So to kind of master that online, to be able to offer an item that fits all these different cars and different makes and models and to get all that right is impossible. But you know, I think to your point, how do we do it? And I'll keep saying the same thing, like a broken record, and it's your job to keep making me say something different. But there's standards and processes and we sit and Forget. So in the past, we would do it later, do it later, and then guess what? Later never comes. And so in this situation, moving forward, the reason why we scaled so aggressively in the last 10 years, globally, because we set. Or Eric, head of our it, he set a standard saying we're going to set and forget. And I don't care how long it takes, I'm not going to stop until it's done because I'm not going back. And at the time, what we realized as an internal saying, it's either hard at the start and easy at the end, or it's easy at the start and hard at the end. And I guess if you go into that, I think that's the thing, you know, if you go into this process with that ethos, I think, you know, it's definitely a positive because, I don't know, you want to fail fast, but at the end of the day, I think you'll continue to fail. It's really strange, you know, I believe in failing fast, but there is this portion that you will fail if you don't set and forget.
[Voiceover]: Can you give us an example of the last time you've had to make that decision around setting and forgetting? Because I love that you either fail at the start or at the end. There's a choice to be made. Do you remember any time that's come up recently that you're like, yeah, we had to make that call whether we actually just stop everything else and buckle down and just fix the problem right now so it doesn't bite us in the ass later.
Jason Konchemski: Top of my head, this fitment, right, Fitment. So that's a great one. So AutoZone turned around and said, okay, well, you know, they had the ability to go live with three and a half thousand items. And, you know, it was up to, I think we were up to like a 2020 model, right? And so it was another five years where some of this stuff still applies. Even though we mentioned we we top out universal stuff still applies to different items. So we're kind of like, oh no, let's just go send them up to 2020 or not 2019 or whatever the current data set is, and we'll get to it. And we turned around and said, no, no, no. So, you know, Eric and his team go in the bunker, spend two or three months, it's about five of them, go on crunchy starter, add all the data points, and next, you know, after three months we go live with current data as opposed to sending it up, you know, dragging it on for six months or 12 months, getting caught up in other projects, in other things that you know, putting out fires, which is the one of the most common things in any business. I don't care how good you are, you're always putting out fires and next, you know, you just don't get it done. So I think that's a prime example
[Voiceover]: and a lot of the time the team that on the project, whether that be developers or managers or whatever, actually don't see the fires that happen because they hit customer service or teams on the retail floor or whatever, that's where the fire is and it's just hitting a different team and they think it's done, it's fixed. So true.
Jason Konchemski: And then you run the risk of someone buying an item in that five year range, getting the wrong item and then you know like a negative spiral of, you know, activating probably six or seven departments of the business and we'll touch on our automation how easy it is for something to be sold. So then due to activate nine parts of the company for it to come back is just such a negative spiral. So definitely one example.
[Voiceover]: It's a great example from a data perspective. Are you absorbing a lot of data from other sources or are you proprietorily? I don't even know that's the word. But creating your own data because I know that's the thing in the auto part industry is you know, whoever controls and owns the data has a lot of leverage and can onsell that pretty well.
Jason Konchemski: Yeah. So again we adhere to our own standards but we still have to adhere to aces and pies. So yeah, we own our own data for sure but the way that data shared is there is a standard. So no one really will ever own that. I mean aces of pies do. So I think it's. I forget what the company's called but they, yeah, so we adhere to their standard. Yeah. So typically we own our own data but yeah, if that answers your question. So. But we don't rely on anyone else's data because it's technically we're a brand so we don't have to I guess if we're reselling other people's parts like you guys were, you know, you'd either receive that data or build that out from scratch. But as you can appreciate, both of them would be very difficult. So we don't have that problem. And that's why we're a good partner because we provide excellent data moving forward. So and that's that set and forget, you know what I mean? You add a new imagine Right. So we've done all this effort for Autozone, but tomorrow we had O'Reilly's or Napa or somebody else. And all of a sudden you're just now setting and forgetting and you're multiplying very quickly. And that three months has now exponentially grown across trillions or millions of consumers as opposed to stopping, starting and going back to scratch. So I think that's a prime example of setting and forgetting.
[Voiceover]: Ye definitely. I guess one of the biggest things that you can do, the biggest ways to succeed with that amount of data is almost that the customer doesn't realize that there's that much data behind the scenes. So when a customer gets online they're like, oh, this is really clean, this is really simple, this is really easy. And you guys do a really good job of that, especially on your products pages. Can you talk us through your Ecom Tech stack? Because I'm interested in that. And then some of the things you've learned over the years around how you show parts to customers online. Oh boy.
Jason Konchemski: Okay, so I know some guardrails which are great. So Tech stack, we are netsuite through and through. We love Oracle netsuite. Yeah. So we will use anything Oracle has to offer or NetSuite has to offer. We will use it to its full potential until it breaks and cannot service us anymore. And that's yet to happen. The Suite Commerce is an amazing solution. Like everything, it requires a little bit of work for sure to make it sexy, but so does everything else. You know, the difference is that I think the catch here is it has the ability to get you where you need to be with a little bit of work as the Shopify like we spoke earlier, but unlike Magento, sometimes no matter how much you apply to it, it just won't get you there. And I can give you some prime examples of that later on. So talk about the Tech stack. Yeah, it is all NetSuite through and through from ERP, CRM, HR Fulfillment, WMS, E Commerce, or you know, their Suite Commerce, even the manufacturing side of it. Hence why with the global case study, I mean, you know, I was up there with the founder for 20 minutes of his 45 minute speech talking about Daniel Craig 007 and how he's going to purchase from our website. Like, I mean it's just an amazing solution. I think you asked me what I've.
[Voiceover]: Has he really purchased there.
Jason Konchemski: Is it like. I wish, but his account set up if he wants to, that's for sure.
[Voiceover]: Before we get into that though, I'm really interested in that netsuite journey because obviously you've been in E commerce for two decades more now, right? So it's like you've seen some shit. You've seen platforms evolve, go out of business, you've seen Shopify come through, same Magento go down. You've probably had a custom website at the start. I'm imagining how have you landed where we're at right now with one suite across everything. Tell us about how you manage that versus how you're managing in the past in terms of operationally. What difference has that made?
Jason Konchemski: Yeah, so it was tough. So back in the day we were very, very lucky. Not very lucky. We were tech savvy back then too. So even back in the day we were dealing with Channel Advisor, who's also almost like a 20 year old business at that time. As we started to scale quickly, we realized we needed Channel Advisor. Channel was great because it was a PIM at the time, so that owned the data. It was connected to us to a ERP system, very simple, like an MYOB system. So that was very easy at the start, getting on marketplaces. It wasn't cheap, but it was definitely an amazing solution at the time. Where it got tricky was when we moved to SAP and then we had to basically build our own website and SAP and at the time, Magento was the one that people chose and that was tough. Magento was really bad. SAP was really bad. We had to build a purposeful connector. It was a local server, so there was no way to actually natively connect it to. We had to build a connector from scratch that didn't exist. Then you find out that Magento wants to be a center of truth. SAP has to be a center of truth. So now you're fighting for images. Magento wants to be center of truth for parts. And it was just a nightmare. So getting a center of truth was very, very difficult on that front, getting
[Voiceover]: to that position, because I could imagine some of the conversations at that point where you're like, this is just doing my head in. Like it would get pretty heated, I imagine. Was it a case of the software not doing what you were sold, or is it a case of you guys not doing your due diligence or architecture? How would you get to that point?
Jason Konchemski: Definitely both. One thing you'll find, and I don't think anyone's perfect to this is not every salesman knows what they're selling. You know, I don't think they all know. Maybe I won't speak for netsuite, but I definitely know that all the SAP people, they're all gold partners and they're all partners but no one's, you know, actually. So some of them don't always know what they're selling and they're very, very helping on selling you something. We had that problem just recently with Salesforce. You know, we went with Salesforce and we're using some of their solutions and unfortunately some of the things that they mentioned that would, that it would do didn't happen. Literally that just doesn't happen like that. You know, there's no connector where they tell you there's a connector. There's no flow of different data. It doesn't happen. So tech definitely a two sided street. We probably should have better understood Magento better that it wants to be the center of truth and vice versa. But to be honest with you, at the time it was probably the best solution. There was really no other solution. I think the only other solution at the time was Demandware and That was an ERP website which took like 5% of your revenue, maybe more and ended
[Voiceover]: up becoming Salesforce anyway.
Jason Konchemski: Became Salesforce anyway. Yeah, exactly. And so there was all these disjoint. It wasn't even that. It was, I think, you know, I have no problem with revenue share. I don't know, Shopify is. But the difference with Shopify is revenue share is fine because they literally enable you to go from zero to sell in a heartbeat.
[Voiceover]: Right.
Jason Konchemski: So I have no problem with that. They're saying we built something amazing. We're going to go from zero to hero. And we've done all that for you. I have a problem with revenue sharing when you're going from pay me 300 grand. And again, I know we're going off topic, but it's still part of this e commerce journey. Pay me $300,000. We have to connect all these dots. It'll take 18 months and then after that, once we finally waste all your money and your time, we're still charge you 5% of your revenue. So there's that part of it. So I'm not anti revenue sharing. I'm just anti, you know, revenue sharing when it comes at your cost. Where Shopify. I'll go on their website and they'll charge me ABC and I'll be live in 15 minutes. I mean that is an amazing solution, you know.
[Voiceover]: Yeah. And I love that and I think it's really healthy for us. You know, we're obviously brought to you by Shopify and a lot of our listeners will be very, very familiar with Shopify. Probably not so familiar with NetSuite because it does necessarily have specific use cases. Tell us more around netsuite from an E commerce perspective, especially how you've used it. What is it about netsuite that can really get the Speedmaster story and conversion across the line for you?
Jason Konchemski: Yeah, so again, I don't want to compare it to other solutions, but I will. There is this part that affects. So I guess at a certain point when you go from being just an E commerce store and you want a genuine ERP connected to it, right? So you've got an ERP and you've got an E commerce because at some point you have to split the two potentially. So the best thing about the NetSuite solution is it's living, breathing system. So if I've got an item and there's five items in stock, that item, at that point the item is live across every channel. It's live on my website, it's live on AutoZone, Amazon, you name it, it's live because it's actually living and breathing. So the biggest thing you don't want as a brand, and this is the thing that scared me, we had this lag and delay in connectivity between the rp, like it might be SAP and Magento, whatever it may be, these lag. Imagine the. I'm a brand, right? Say, for example, I'm Speedmaster, but what happens if I'm Apple or someone, right? And so you are now, Nathan, you've made a decision. You've earned $500. You've made a decision to spend that $500. You've made all your. You've gone through this massive emotional journey and you've chosen Speedmaster. So you go to Speedmaster's website, you pull out your $500, you're like, I want to buy that item. It's the last one. You hit buy now and you get a phone call 24 hours later saying, hey, it's not in stock. I'm so sorry, but that item was live at eBay and AutoZone and all these other places at the same time as someone else bought it. That emotional purchase that you have made that decision, that emotional decision, like it felt good at the time. You was cracking a beer. It's like, I love this. I can't wait for it to arrive. You're super excited because that's the dopamine hit you get when you purchase something after an emotional journey, only for me to come crashing down and say, hey mate, thank you so much, but can't give it to you. You're like, you know what? I think that's the biggest buzz kill for any brand. I think nothing will kill a brand quicker than that interaction. And that is the one that I want to avoid. And so to your point, at some point, you need to be real time. You need to be able to say that whatever is available is available. So you're making an emotional purchase. You might move to a different color, you might move to a different thing, you might make a phone call, but we want to avoid that. So I think at some point, companies move, have to get big enough to be able to not do that. And so to your point, netsuite allows us to have real time stock levels across all those different channels. Omnichannel Solutions. And I think that is the biggest winner for us.
[Voiceover]: Yeah, that makes sense. That's your business model, right?
Jason Konchemski: Sure is.
[Voiceover]: So tell me about marketplaces, because you mentioned earlier in our conversation, had to get onto ebay, otherwise they'll eat your lunch. There was some research that came out recently around Amazon Australia and how it's just on a tear. I think it was something like 25% of online purchases in Australia will be on Amazon by 2030. What's the role of marketplaces for you alongside your retailers as well as alongside your direct experience?
Jason Konchemski: Sure. So my personal take on that is an interesting one and I'd love to kind of trademark this, but there's. There's a thing. Again, every answer will come with a story. Nathan, I'm sorry, I love it, but I think my answer to you is another example of myself. I treat this business like I'd like to be treated. So I fly Qantas and Qantas only. Right. Qantas is not the cheapest airline, but they go everywhere. They do everything. And so, for example, for an economy flight with. Because I'm platinum, whatever it is, with it, I can pay for an economy flight, use points and get a business seat. So it's a $1500 expense. I'm getting a $15,000 seat or a $10,000 seat for 1500 bucks. So I am now loyal to purchasing and using Qantas because of that ability. So if you don't know that and you're virgin, you'll be like, hey, Jase, you're paying $1,500 for a flight to LA. I can do it for a thousand bucks. It's like, I don't want it, because you'll never know why I'm making that purchase. So for me, being available on all these channels, we don't know why people are buying on Amazon, is it because of the perks? Is it because of the delivery? Is it because they take card that no one takes and you can get all these amazing amounts of extra points that Amazon's eating up and not charging me for. So I don't know what the customer journey is for their purchase. So for us, being available on every channel just ensures that, you know, we are there for that reason, you know what I mean? For that specific purpose. Like I know people buy Qantas wine because they get wine and it gives them points and those points go to a business class light. So you, you know what I mean? Like there is just, we don't know what the purchase, why they're making purchases.
[Voiceover]: Don't try and drag them off somewhere where it's really natural for them to be.
Jason Konchemski: And they may not come, they may go to the offering on Amazon, say I need to buy it from here or I need to buy a flight from Qantas, no matter what it is because I'm going to get this free upgrade. So they're not looking at a 1500 OR seat, they're looking at a 1500 $2000 seat that's going to give them a free upgrade and that you can't if they don't get and you'll never
[Voiceover]: know they're part of the. I like that example because there is this Qantas ecosystem that they've developed and now Amazon have developed their own ecosystem because you're a prime member, because you get the TV shows and you get the free delivery and everything like that. Bloody hard to get people out of an ecosystem once they're in correct.
Jason Konchemski: And I think the best example of that before Amazon was Apple. People will be like why are you on Apple? It's why. Because I know it sounds pathetic now but ironically Samsung still don't do it because my music opened up my laptop, my notes sync, my email sync my music syncs. I'm literally everywhere at any time and it's all synced and that's the ecosystem they create. And I actually spoke about this on stage 10 years ago about that ecosystem they created. And to your point, now that's what Amazon's created and that's why it works. And so I love that
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Jason Konchemski: I'm not anti any of that because we don't know why the customer's making that purchase from that location. So, yeah, again, plenty of stories, man.
[Voiceover]: And is ebay still significant for you?
Jason Konchemski: Yeah. So great question. EBay. I think parts and accessories is the number one driver for success on ebay. Ironically, Amazon is like everything else is really well filtered and really well organized, are actually really well organized. And ebay is quite not. But there is something about parts and accessories on, on ebay that is kind of. It's a driving growth factor. So I don't know if it's just the demographic of old men or car buffs that they want to buy off ebay. They want to just type it in a search. It may be because it's unstructured. There might be items there that they like fenders and whatnot that they're looking for alongside the new parts. So definitely ebay is still a big player for us in parts and accessories. Probably not. I can't speak on other categories for sure.
[Voiceover]: Still got that trading post feel, doesn't it?
Jason Konchemski: It sure does, yeah. They never went past that, did they?
[Voiceover]: I'd love to get your thoughts around the role of automation and AI. You mentioned automation earlier and I can see how important it is for your business when you're dealing with so many SKUs. 5 million. Is it 5 million orders every year? 5 million products every year shipped? Yeah.
Jason Konchemski: At least. Yeah.
[Voiceover]: Crazy numbers to over 200 countries. How do you see AI impacting what you're doing at Speedmaster?
Jason Konchemski: So first of all was automation and the AI. So definitely on the automation front. I'll give you a prime example of how NetSuite's enabled us. Nathan. You can go to AutoZone right now in America, place an order, and that order will go through our entire system. And the only human interaction for that order is 10 seconds of handling and four clicks of a button. So it's item location, item conveyor. It's done. 10 seconds of handling goes in the conveyor system that goes around the facility, gets a barcode and goes in the truck. It's done, it's finished. 10 seconds handling. Now you might argue, well, Amazon's already got it worked out. Blah, blah, blah. Your humans are still walking in your facility. The difference between us walking and Amazon's humans not walking is Kiva comes to the human. It's one human scans the item, puts it on the tote, because I've been to the one in Seattle, and it goes all the way around the facility. A second human grabs it, checks it, gives it to a third human, and that third human packs it and sends it. So it's still touched and handled by three humans, even though the humans aren't moving for us. The humans are moving, but to a package. But then from then on out, it's never handled. We don't even have keyboards in our facility. There is no keyboards or anything in our facility. Yeah, so your order will only be like, no one sees anything. It's four clicks of a button and it's out the door. No human interactivity. So.
[Voiceover]: And have you guys created that automation from scratch to suit the purpose of your business, or have you kind of taken on what's already out there?
Jason Konchemski: Nope. Completely built from scratch. Completely built from scratch. Again, any other solution still needs two or three points of interactivity and then so much so that I didn't add to this in the end. But not. It checks the weights and dimensions for any inconsistencies, just in case someone put a wrong item on the belt. And then, last but not least, it also rate shops within nanoseconds up to 60 different carriers to get the best carrier price. So at that rate, we can ship out like 1800 items an hour on that machine. And it's still rate shopping for the best shopping rates.
[Voiceover]: Yeah, which is pretty incredible because you'd have a good mix of dangerous goods, bulky goods, all sorts of different stuff coming through those. 1800, right?
Jason Konchemski: Correct, correct. So it's really good. It's beautiful, actually. As for AI, we're applying it all the time again, early adopters. The good thing about NetSuite is it actually has native AI inside. The way it's crunching data and numbers, ironically, it may help us make decisions faster, but the way that it already works, it's a living, breathing system. So it's already like the dashboard's already set up to basically give you that data. So in some sense, AI is already a kind of a factor in NetSuite. But I know when they're talking about, hey, AI is going to be added to NetSuite, you know, and they're talking about how it's working, it's already kind of working that fashion because it's punching the data. So, yeah, on that front, on automation, that's definitely. I know you mentioned analytics chatbots. So we've applied AI in our call center. So basically it's pretty sick, actually. It's really crazy. You're going to laugh. So basically what the AI does is listens to a phone call. And Eric just rolled this out probably six months ago. It's pretty epic. So it listens to the phone call. Could be 20 minutes. It'll AI will give you a summary, it'll listen to the tone of the conversation, and if it thinks that it's not happy with the way that the conversation went, it'll automatically flag on the manager's dashboard for it to be listened to and maybe speak to the rep that, you know, kind of didn't give the right customer service.
[Voiceover]: That's awesome.
Jason Konchemski: So now instead of listening to random conversations or waiting for a survey from someone to say, hey, I wasn't happy, or written email, automatically we're getting this feedback. And now, ironically, you know, the customer service training has had to increase because it's like, hey, you know, be mindful. This wasn't this or this wasn't that. So AI's handling it in that fashion. So it's pretty epic, man.
[Voiceover]: That's cool. Set up an alert for when a James Bond calls through. When that comes, get onto it, get onto it.
Jason Konchemski: Get onto doesn't say, can you imagine? It'll be like, yeah, alarm bells, you know, through the whole facility.
[Voiceover]: Jason, really keen to get your perspective because I know that you spe of time between the US and Australia now. What are you noticing in the US especially in E commerce, that we're not doing in Australia?
Jason Konchemski: I think Americans take things seriously. I don't want to throw anyone under the bus, but I know maybe I will.
[Voiceover]: Please do.
Jason Konchemski: Okay, maybe I will. And it's not intentional. I'm just an example. Nordstrom hired Bob schwartz to design nordstrom.com. they're like, Bob, make it happen. And he did and he delivered an amazing solution. I think Meyer and other people are looking for already, like a solution like Marketplace, which is an amazing solution. And they're killing it, crushing it, but they're kind of looking for a third party solution to solve it. It's like, I don't know, I just wish that some of these bigger companies would take it upon themselves, like Kogan and maybe, I don't know who else is, oh, what's that other one? Temple website, for example. They took it upon themselves to go, no, we're going to work this out, we're going to work out E Commerce. We're going to take it on. Whoever's important at the, you know, whoever's getting paid a lot of money because a lot of these people get. I want them to work it out. I don't want them to go out and pay someone else to work it out. And then it's just, you know what I mean? So I think Americans, the difference between Americans is and Australia is they're not looking for a silver bullet. They're saying that, you know, we just need to solve this problem and at whatever it costs. I look at Walmart, you know, Walmart went out and created their own marketplace. Now whether it's successful or not, I'm not sure. But what I can tell you is they decided we're going to go and build out a Walmart marketplace to compete with Amazon, ebay and whoever else, good luck with that. But at least they attempted it directly head to head. So maybe that's one thing that goes unnoticed.
[Voiceover]: It also says something about risk appetites, doesn't it? Because if you look at some of the examples, the Myers of the world probably haven't taken enough risk in the last five years, especially since COVID where we all got shook. You can see the ones who have actually taken that one. Oh yeah, we do need to play catchable, we need to move fast. And those who haven't taken the opportunity.
Jason Konchemski: Great point, great point. So I think that might be the only difference is think about it. I mean some of those guys, you know, like you said, some of the automotive companies have taken it in house and done well. They're the ones, some of the ones who continue to grow. Right. So yeah, I think that's the only thing I'd kind of maybe in the top of my head, love it.
[Voiceover]: Jason, don't be sorry. They're great examples. Next 12 months, what's the priority for you and the Speedmaster team?
Jason Konchemski: Next 12 months is sales and marketing. So we're going to continue to grow the brand. You know, have got this E Commerce worked out, we've got the automation worked out. We spent 10 years ironing the bugs out into it. To your point, like to a point just recently. There's only 10 seconds of handling time. So we got all that right now it's traditional methods. We're going back to the bricks and mortar, going back to basics. Boots on the ground. We've got a 53 foot. Now we've got a 56 foot truck and trailer that will go out There on the road with a big sign, a big banner, cruising around America. And it'll be out there. Yeah, it's epic. It'll be out there. Parts will be on display and really going back and looking at feeling and touching and so, man, I've got this cool story, but I probably run out of time, but so they're going to look and feel and touch it. And then while they're there, we'll add a little layer of technology. You know, there's a QR code, scan it. Oh, cool. There's a video. Let's watch it. So then they can actually have the interactivity on the item. So now you're kind of bringing a little bit of legacy where they look and feel and then maybe. So you're, you know, you're an old guy, you're 60, you're kind of almost pretty tech savvy. Got a phone, you can now look and feel and touch it. And then you, if you happen to have the appetite to go one step further, maybe one of our reps come across and says, hey, while you're here, let me scan this QR code. And then it brings up a beautiful video of someone, you know, using it. So I think blending that technology again, like we said earlier, clicks and water in a traditional method is where we're going next for the next 12 to 24, maybe 36 months or moving forward. But that's our focus right now, is to kind of get really down and dirty and really get these people to touch it and feel it. I've got a cool story about Shanghai markets, which I'll probably, if we have time, I'll share with you later.
[Voiceover]: But no, no, let's do it. Let's do it.
Jason Konchemski: Sure. Okay.
[Voiceover]: If you've got time, I've got time.
Jason Konchemski: No, I've got time. I've got time. This is one of my favorite stories, man, 10 to 15 years ago. Let's rewind. We're in this zone where Western countries have got E commerce worked out like we're the E commerce kings. And I don't know if you remember, and I hope you do, but. But Chinese websites looked like what Amazon first started out like. It was really. They were really crappy and shitty and they had all these little icons. It was really rubbish. E commerce.
[Voiceover]: I don't remember. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was all over the shop. Well, it felt like it was all over the shop to us, but yeah, through a Western lens, right.
Jason Konchemski: And at that time we had Flash and we had all these beautiful websites and we're going like they were literally like we were watching like, how can
[Voiceover]: I explain it to you?
Jason Konchemski: I think it's exactly like a market. Our websites were like e commerce, like TV beautiful TVs like, you know, flash. And this was like a Chinese supermarket with millions of little things on the shelf, right? So I'm in Shanghai and I'm there and it was like 10 years ago and it was a big eye opener for me. So what I noticed then was Chinese hadn't worked out E commerce, but what they had worked out was mobile commerce. And I'll explain to you why I'm there. And there's an like I'm down at these Chinese markets, you know, don't tell anyone, but I got a suit and everything done for like $200. It was amazing. Custom made suit, epic. Oh my God.
[Voiceover]: You're always looking sharp. Don't worry about that.
Jason Konchemski: This is why. So I'm there and the guy is like, yep, I'll have this done for you tomorrow. Custom made, 200, whatever it is. I'm like, beautiful. So I'm going around because we have factories there. We're paired with the government. So one of the guys that I work with, I'm like, can you pay for that? And he's like, yeah. I'm like, you know, here's my money. He's like, no, no, no, we don't pay with money. I'm like, what do you mean this is 10 years ago? He's like, no, no, we use WeChat. Pay WePay. I'm like, what? What are you talking about? So every person, 80 year old man, 80 year old lady. All these people look like they just came from a village. Didn't look like they had any idea what technology was. If you said website, they'd be like, what's a website? They had completely missed E commerce. But what they didn't miss and what they were ahead of us was mobile commerce. So he's like, scan it. So anyway, he scan it and he'd be like $200 weepay hit the enter button and then ding on this guy's phone. He'd be like 200 bucks. Happy days. So what I'd realized 10 years ago, China was so far ahead of us, they had skipped E commerce and they moved to mobile commerce so early on. And I guess what I was getting at with that was, you know, like just when you say we are so entrenched in that traditional commerce that these guys had moved far ahead. So I guess it was just a really key moment for Me saying business is different, it can be handled differently. And now if you notice, Elon Musk is bringing all that back to X. He's bringing all that stuff. And ironically, he's literally, you know, 15 years later, 20 years later, he's building X of the X that I used in China 20 years ago. So it's really crazy how that mobile commerce is pretty strong. So yeah, next 12 months, outside of that, it might be something there.
[Voiceover]: I love it. And it also, there's a lesson in there as well because obviously we've seen the Temu's and the Sheens come into E commerce. Yes. And that experience is not like a marketplace experience that we would expect, but how quick we are to adapt to it. You know what I mean?
Jason Konchemski: Yeah. Yes.
[Voiceover]: So anything can change at any moment. That's what I love about your strategy, is you like, we know that we sell amazing car parts. We've got a really committed and enthusiastic audience because we know our audience. We're not straying away from that. And we just need to make these available to whoever, wherever they are, however they want to shop.
Jason Konchemski: Yes, sir, exactly that. Whether it be TikTok, whatever the hell it may be, you know, that new method of showing things for six seconds, you know what I mean? If that's what it is, we'll do it. It's crazy. Crazy. I think that lady's like a trillionaire or something from all the stuff she sells. It's insane. So to your point, that was.
[Voiceover]: I look forward to your videos.
Jason Konchemski: Yeah, yeah. I don't think I can move that fast. My hands will look like they're painted on. I don't know anyway, but it's just crazy. It's crazy. So all I'm saying is don't be narrow minded, be open minded because you just don't know, man. You don't know.
[Voiceover]: So, yeah, great advice.
Jason Konchemski: Interesting. It was a big one for me.
[Voiceover]: I love it. Thank you so much.
Jason Konchemski: Oh, yeah, yeah, no, no, no problem.
[Voiceover]: If people want to know more about Speedmaster and keep up with what you're doing, what's the best way for them to go about that?
Jason Konchemski: Yeah, sure. I don't know the typical methods, you know, follow us on LinkedIn. Again, they are segregated messages. So LinkedIn is more of a business message. Instagram and Facebook is more of a lifestyle message. So depending on the messaging you want, you know, I think Instagram's always the best one because it kind of touches on the products, products, our people and our approach, all three pillars. There's always something Fun happening, the lifestyle. Like, you know, we took over Vegas with 10 of our fiats and our Ferrari. So we had like 10 fiat cruising around Vegas which was epic, you know, so just we're doing cool things all the time. And again, don't get me wrong, we're not the first or the last. I mean, you know, Red Bul took over places with their Red Bull cars as well. And you know, but it's just similar, similar ethos. But Red Bull doesn't make car parts, we do. So we have the Red Bull little cars, we have the energy drinks, we have cool clothing, we have. It's just a fun time, a fun lifestyle time. You know what I mean? And it's all powered thanks to quality E commerce and setting and forgetting things. It's just keep stacking. I don't know. It's fun. It's really good. It's really fun.
[Voiceover]: You're killing me. I spent six years running spare parts out in the back of Brisbane in a shed. Wasn't doing any fun stuff that you're doing. So well done to you.
Jason Konchemski: Well, it's true. And you know what's funny? You're dead started and this was a family business. It was one to one interactivity. It was someone walks in, you sell them apart and they walk out. That was what we did. And I'm like can we do something a little bit different? And that's exactly to your point. That's exactly what it was when I started. For five years it was someone's walking in, selling the part, move them on. And bit by bit we realized selling one to one was tough. One to many was amazing. And that's what e commerce enables. You do one listing, sell to many people as opposed to selling things over the counter one to one. I have to sell the same thing to, you know, I have to tell the same story about why it works once every sale as opposed to selling it once and selling for many people. So that's also another one of our strategies. Is just trying to be one to many all the time. So. Yeah, I hear you man. I've been there, I've done it. Tore my hair out, you know. It's tough.
[Voiceover]: Mate, I love your work. Thank you so much for sharing all your stories and all your strategies here on Add to Cart. I can't wait to keep watching your world domination and those crazy trucks that are driving across the U.S. thank you again Jase. Really appreciate you taking the time.
Jason Konchemski: Yes sir.
[Voiceover]: Thanks for having me.
Jason Konchemski: And again, shout out to the amazing team for making it happen. And allowing me to be the face of all the things that they do. And next time you're in la, we'd love to host you here, so it'd be amazing.
[Voiceover]: Mate, that's in my diary. Don't worry about that.
Jason Konchemski: Thank you. Thanks Nate.
[Voiceover]: Such an epic story. Jason's journey proves that success isn't just about selling more, it's about smarter systems, automation and meeting customers where they already are. Also, historically about Tesla and the decisions they made around electric cars also shows that scaling isn't about saying yes to everything, it's about knowing when to say no. All right, there is so much out of that chat. Here are my top three takeaways. Number one Fix your product data before you go to scale Speedmaster didn't just upload SKUs and hope for the best. They spent months cleaning and structuring product fitment data and it had a huge, huge payoff. They now have seamless marketplace integrations into global marketplaces such as autozone. They have fewer customer service headaches from incorrect orders and they've got scalability without constant firefighting. That all came down to having the right product data in place. If you are selling on marketplaces such as Amazon, ebay, even the iconic Audit your product data before you launch. Make sure product description, specs and images are correct before scaling future you will. Thank you. Number two Be everywhere your customers already shop. Speedmaster has a beautiful website, but it doesn't just rely on the website, they're on Amazon, eBay, Autozone and more. Why? Because their customers will shop wherever is easiest for them. And that could be whether it's due to loyalty programs, faster shipping and returns, buy now, pay later options, or even just habits what platform they're used to going onto to search for their car parts. So instead of fighting customer habits, audit your sales channels. Could marketplaces, comparison shopping engines, maybe even a wholesale play complement your DTC efforts? Test new channels without cannibalizing your core business by being where your customers already shop. Number three Physical presence still has a place if done right. Even with an ultra successful and a super honed e commerce operation, Speedmaster invests in physical experiences from car meetups and pop ups to a 56 foot branded truck touring Australia. They're not just selling parts, they're building a brand community. So if you're purely online, ask yourself how customers are experiencing you in the real world. Could pop ups, retail partnerships or showrooms help customers experience your product? Could in person events boost loyalty and word of mouth? Could a click and collect option even if it's not your own stores drive more sales. Lots to think about there in that episode. Jason is a force to be reckoned with and I love what he's doing with Speedmaster. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend or a colleague who would benefit, especially ones that are moving into marketplaces. And if you are feeling generous, leave us a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. As always, a huge thanks to our sponsors Shopify and Klaviyo for helping e commerce brands scale smarter and to help us keep learning every day. See you next time. Thanks for joining us today on Add to Cart to listen to all our e commerce conversations now in the hundreds. You can head over to addtocart.com there. There you can also join up to our free private Slack community to share e commerce ideas, tips and questions with other listeners. You can also subscribe to the Add to Cart weekly newsletter and browse some of the video highlights from our chats. There is a lot there that's add to cart.com and if I can ask you one thing before you go. If you enjoyed today's episode, make sure you share it with a friend or a colleague who could benefit or leave us a review. It really makes a difference. Thanks again for listening and until next time, keep those customers adding to cartoon.
