[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 Evan Montero, co founder and CEO of DIY Blinds, Australia's fastest growing window furnishing retailer. Taking curtains and blinds out of the showroom without compromising on the experience. Their unique business model has disrupted the space and are now operating at $46 million turnover every year. Valued at over $100 million and featured on Grand Designs, Australian House and Garden and the Block Shop as well as having hundreds of five star customer reviews.
Nathan Bush: Evan, welcome to the checkout. We've heard all about the exciting journey with DI Blinds and how totally disrupting and rethinking an industry that has been very much the same for a long time. So that was a really great insight there. But I'm here to learn a little bit more about you. I've got five quick questions. Number one, what is the weirdest thing that you have ever bought online?
Evan Montero: Weirdest thing I've bought online is probably education. I really valued in class, learning and you know, meaning the lecturers and whatnot, but education. So it's got, Galloway's got something interesting and I think that entire market is shifting to online and I know it's not your typical retail type answer, but education was weird for me and actually getting the value out of it. That's my answer for the weirdest thing I bought online and it's a significant purchase by the way, especially when you go to some of these online courses.
Nathan Bush: Did you complete the Galloway course?
Evan Montero: I did, I did. I'm delving into the Mark Ritson one as well and I think there's opportunities to learn from some amazing people out there.
Nathan Bush: We are very strong on E commerce learning and definitely an area we're focusing on as well. At E Suite number two, who is your favorite retailer?
Evan Montero: One that comes to mind is obviously Aesop with the recent announcement of their acquisition and the impressive quantum. And there's RM Williams as well because of being patriotic in the Australian brand. I love that. But my crush as a retailer, we have to step into a time machine here. It's probably Bunnings, but in the 2000s.
Nathan Bush: Ah, yep.
Evan Montero: So for me, when Bunnings was disrupting in the 2000s, your typical stores that were fragmented and whatnot, they created this experience where you come into a, it's not a showroom but you know, you walk into a Bunnings, you don't feel like it's a showroom at all. It's not polished floors, not amazing lighting. You actually felt like you were going to a warehouse and you knew you were going to get value because it didn't have all the gloss and whatnot. So that's what I think was, yeah, my favorite E commerce, because that's what I relate to us. What we're doing now is now we're challenging the Bunnings of the world and saying, well, we can go one step further and save people money by doing it online.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, brilliant. I love that. Not only a retailer, but a time and a place.
[Voiceover]: Number three, which E commerce practice do
Evan Montero: you wish was history? This one's contentious. I have a great relationship with my performance marketing manager or my marketing manager Matthew, but performance marketing money, I think it has a place and it performs something. But you know, and this is going to be contentious, I acknowledge this. But it's almost a false economy. Like if we were able like Google, which wants to find ways to answer people's questions, put the right products and services in front of people who are actually searching, but because they're monetizing it, I dislike it because it's not genuine and authentic and I think they need to be disrupted. I look at startups and webpe and venture capital goes into in a lot of the startups. I don't know what the number is, but my gut tells me about 30% of that funding doesn't go into the business and building a great business or a product or service offering. A lot of it just goes to performance marketing straight to the pockets of Google and Facebook and I take issue with that.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, they've built a beautiful ecosystem that is for many unescapable.
[Voiceover]: Number four, can you recommend a book
Nathan Bush: or a podcast that our listeners should immediately get into?
Evan Montero: A book that I'm just finished and really enjoying is Multipliers by Liz Wiseman. I think it's relevant for me in terms of trying to better manage leaders and attract top talent and figure out who is a good leader and who isn't.
[Voiceover]: Top tip from the book so far
Evan Montero: for me, it's getting out of their way. As a founder, I've been really hands on in the weeds, answering phone calls and doing the sales. I'll look the marketing strategy and deploy it and actually execute. But it's making sure that I'm hiring the best talent and then actually getting out of the way. And that's a personal challenge that I have because I love the work.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, no, it's a common problem but also opportunity for many founders that we come across. Number five, finish this sentence. The future of retail is the future
Evan Montero: of retail is exciting. I think it's currently turbulent. If you look at the valuations and how the markets have shifted, there was everyone said, oh, everyone's going online, buyer behavior has changed and now you see this swing back to retail traditional way where in store is currently I would say booming. Right. And no one would have predicted that during COVID Everyone during COVID was like no, online's the future. Retail in person is dead. July is a great example of that and I think that's true to a certain extent. But I think that there's an opportunity and a sweet spot that we found around that E services play where you can still be a pure play online, but as long as you don't box yourself in as to what E commerce is traditionally defined as. We offer installation, we offer the design consultation and we come out to people's homes. We just don't have that brick and mortar expense, you know, 30 to 40 showrooms in high traffic, high foot traffic areas. That to me is what exciting about the future. And I think that's the future of
Nathan Bush: retail and I love that that insight is that, you know, having an experience that is in person doesn't necessarily mean brick and mortar stores. It just means having real human touch points that customers, even if you're an online only business, can interact with you and see you as a real brand with real people.
Evan Montero: Exactly. I love that.
[Voiceover]: Evan, thank you so much for joining us on the checkout.
Evan Montero: It's a pleasure, it's been good to be here and thanks for your time, mate.
[Voiceover]: To hear more from Evan, jump back into episode 296 where Evan shares some great insights on his commitment to a Australian made. He also shares more about his background and his upbringing which has led him to the point of hiring with bias. And he also gives us insight on the one order, his highest order today which left him absolutely speechless. Thanks for listening. And until next time, keep adding to car.
