Teresa Sperti: And it is significant change that the government is embarking on and it is going to impact every organisation in Australia. New technology will often impact and influence a shift in the way that you work and so we need to invest time, effort and energy in process evolution. You want to pick the tech that's right for the business that solves the problem as opposed to pick the partner or which over time may not be the right partner for you for a number of reasons. Welcome to Add to Cart, Australia's leading e commerce podcast that express delivers all you need to know in the fast moving world of online retail. Here's your host, Bushy.
[Voiceover]: Welcome to another episode of Add to Cart. I'm Bushie and I'm joining you from the land of the terrible people, otherwise known as Brisbane, Australia on Add to Cart. We welcome everyone to share and listen to e commerce stories. The more diverse the better. I want to especially welcome the traditional owners and the original storytellers of the land that we are on, our indigenous and Torres Strait Islander listeners to join us in our e commerce conversations and our community. Have you ever really thought about how businesses come up with their business names? Inspiration can come from a range of places. Some brands use wordplay. Dulux is a combination of the words durable and luxury. It actually had nothing to do with a dog. Others align themselves with a hero. The brand Milo actually comes from the legendary ancient Greek athlete Milo of Croton, who was famous for his superhuman strength and smashing five unstirred teaspoons at once. And for some, it's just made up. The Rolex founders wanted a name that could be pronounced in all languages, especially rich ones. My guest today chose an animal for her company name one that's adaptable and tenacious. Like the business she wanted to grow. Teresa Spurti is the founder and director of advisory firm Arctic Fox. That's arctic with a K A R K T I C. They are specialists in digital e commerce and capability development. Teresa's background leading digital transformation at retailers like Kohl's and Officeworks led her to start the business that works with clients such as Bunnings, Bega and Carpet Court. With Teresa's background, there were so many topics that we could have dived into. But I thought given the time of year and some of the chats that I've had recently with retailers who are outgrowing their current tech limitations, this would be the perfect opportunity to talk about how to select and implement new technology, especially from someone who's done it on such a large scale. In this chat, Teresa shares her simple but effective framework for business casing. She tells us how to get the best out of your technology partners, the do's and don'ts. And she also talks through the government changes to the Privacy act and the impacts that will have on E commerce businesses. You really don't want to miss that. That was a surprise for me. Now if you want to take this further, Teresa is offering listeners a great deal on her digital marketing and data masterclass. Stay tuned for for these details after our chat. So let's get into it. Thanks to our partner Shopify. Plus here's our conversation with Teresa Sperty, Founder and Director at Arctic Fox. Teresa, welcome to ADD to cart.
Teresa Sperti: So pleased to be here Nathan.
Nathan Bush: So good to be here. Now we had a little pre conversation around what we might get into today and we're going to talk a lot about selecting and implementing technology because you have an amazing background and experience in that area. But first I want to give our listeners a little bit of a background into you and what you're doing. Tell us about your journey so far. Obviously working with some amazing retailers and how you got to be where you are today.
Teresa Sperti: So I spent 20 years of my career client side, not just in retail but in a number of different industries which gave me a great diversity of experience. But in 2012 I started working at Coles in the liquor division leading data, loyalty, e commerce and a raft of other things. So and when you look back kind of 10 years ago, a lot has changed since then in all of those spaces. And then I went on to work at officeworks for a number of years leading personalization, evolution of experience for consumers and digital transformation. And again a really amazing experience which has kind of led me to where I am now with Arctic Fox where we're an E commerce and digital advisory working with kind of mid scale to large scale organizations in all problems centering in and around digital and e commerce. And so we work with a number of retailers and CPG and FMCG brands helping them take advantage of the opportunities that exist in the space.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, great. Take us back to 2012 at Coles. What kind of problems were you solving then?
Teresa Sperti: Oh wow, that's a really good question. So when I was at Coles in 2012 and 2013 we were in the throes of launching new e commerce sites. So some of the brands at that point didn't have e commerce sites in place, particularly those brands like Liquorland that were more kind of the type of purchase that you make in and around your trip to the supermarket.
Nathan Bush: Yes, Convenience Kind of purchases.
Teresa Sperti: That's right. That's the word I'm looking for.
Nathan Bush: Glad I could help.
Teresa Sperti: Yeah, we were launching a number of e commerce sites back then. We were rebooting our loyalty proposition for vintage sellers at the time. And really, I mean my time at Coles was about driving education within the organization about the importance of digital and the role that it played to influence the path to purchase. Which is interesting when you look at where we are today because still today many retailers are still getting their heads around that kind of the role that digital plays to influence in store.
Nathan Bush: Yes, you must look back now and obviously Coles plus officeworks are leading the way. Often in you get these larger organizations that are laggards in e commerce and digital. But I don't think it's the case here in Australia in that some of the larger organizations like Coles and officeworks are actually paving the way in digital. You must be proud of where they are today.
Teresa Sperti: Oh, absolutely. And I think officeworks is a really interesting one. When I joined that organization back in 2014, I would say they were far more progressed than most organizations in the e commerce space and in their in terms of their mindset and thinking around the delivery of that omnichannel experience for customer. And so it's interesting to continue to see see their journey and watch their journey from afar. But I think as a result of their core customer base, in part being business with quite significant repurchase behavior, the role of e commerce was well understood pretty early on within that organization. And they've just gone from strength to strength in terms of their overall omnichannel experience and proposition since.
Nathan Bush: And I have to ask you, do you think that growth or that focus on e commerce at an earlier stage where was driven by customer demand or they saw the business opportunity?
Teresa Sperti: I think a bit of both. I think absolutely. You need to meet the customer where they are. And I think officeworks was really good at understanding where the customer was and what their needs were. But equally, I think we had a leadership group and team at that point that was very clear on the role that E commerce played within the broader organization. And it was a critical part of their strategy. And there was real alignment around the fact that E commerce influenced in store and in store actually influenced E commerce. So you know, I would say 10, 15 years ago we saw a number of retailers where online was almost competing with in store and vice versa.
Nathan Bush: I think that still happens today.
Teresa Sperti: Yeah, absolutely right. But maybe not as prevalent as it was. I would say 10, 12 years ago where E Commerce was new, and there was really big concern around. Does that just cannibalize what we are doing in store?
Nathan Bush: Yeah.
Teresa Sperti: And I think Covid's kind of changed and shift some. Some of that mentality. But the leadership group there very early on understood that. And therefore, the way that they set up the business to operate meant that in store wasn't completely competing with online and vice versa. And so that goes down to, you know, how you structure P and LS and all of those types of things to ensure that the network and E commerce are working together and not effectively competing with one another.
Nathan Bush: That's a big core limitation to get over pretty quickly. Right. If you. If it's not competition, but it's enhancing both channels, I can imagine that frees up the space to get so much more done quickly.
Teresa Sperti: Absolutely. I think it's what I often talk to brands about now and even back then is about, well, at the end of the day, we don't care where the customer shops so long as they're shopping with us. And so if we get it right, we're able to grow the pie for ourselves rather than we are internally competing with ourselves. And like you say, I think even in today's environment, there is still a little bit of a lack of understanding for some brands about what good looks like and the role and investment that E Commerce plays in growing the overall business's bottom line.
Nathan Bush: So change track a little bit. Arctic Fox. Why Arctic fox? Where's the name come from?
Teresa Sperti: Arctic Fox.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. Why the fox?
Teresa Sperti: Really good question. So it's the only name I came up with for the business, and when I started socializing it with people, they loved it. So if you look at the arctic fox and it's the background of that creature, it embodies change. And so the arctic fox changes its exterior depending on the season in order to camouflage itself, to protect itself within its environment. And so in the spring, it's kind of brown. Its coat goes brown. In the winter, its coat is white in order to camouflage against the snow and the ice. And it's also quite a tenacious little creature. And so arctic fox's origins is really built on helping brands embrace change and the changing market and continuous evolution. And I really felt that I wanted a brand that embodied those values. And I started researching, found the Arctic fox, and went, that sounds perfect. And then realized that the way that you spell arctic fox was already taken as a URL. So we had to slightly change how we spelled Arctic fox as a brand. So that is how we landed with Arctic fox. Fox.
Nathan Bush: So it's a R K T I C fox for anyone googling along as we're speaking.
Teresa Sperti: That's right. Perfect.
Nathan Bush: I had a similar story when I started 12 high, which was my first consultancy. I said to my wife, I was like, gotta get this consultancy started, I better think of a name. And you'd think the marketing guy would normally take his time. And I was like, we're going to dinner, we're going to have a few margaritas and we're going to come up with a name in one dinner. And that's where I came up with 12 high because it was about the Wright brothers. And it took them 12 seconds to get the first plane off the ground that they could actually call flight. And I was like, you know, story around, let's.
Teresa Sperti: Sometimes the first idea is the best idea.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. Maybe margaritas are the answer to branding. Maybe that is not marketing advice at all. All right, let's get into selecting and implementing technology in E commerce businesses because I know that there's going to be a lot of listeners, especially early in the year where we are thinking about what their tech stack is going to be in 2024 and maybe putting some plans in place that they can present for budgets coming up to financial year and a lot of changes happening in the world of technology at the moment. Can you share if you were focusing on any area at the moment, especially around E commerce from a tech stack perspective?
Teresa Sperti: Yeah.
Nathan Bush: Where are you spending most of your time at the moment?
Teresa Sperti: I think it depends on the type of organization you are. So if I think about E commerce, am I a retailer, am I a CPG brand? Do I have few SKUs? Do I have many SKUs? Right. Because I think that definitely impacts the type of technology that you're going to be procuring. So if I'm working for an FMCG or a CPG brand and I have a number of SKUs, product information management technology is critical, as is kind of DAM technology. Right. Particularly if you're diversifying across different channels.
Nathan Bush: And for those who don't know DAM
Teresa Sperti: technology, Digital asset management. Yeah, yeah.
Nathan Bush: Okay. So that's your photos, your videos, everything that goes along that enhances.
Teresa Sperti: It's the content that typically doesn't necessarily sit at a SKU level. So it might be more lifestyle type imagery, it might be more of that kind of top of funnel brand based content that you're generating. Yeah. So those types of platforms become really critical to be able to manage through channels and ensure consistency in the way that you deliver product information to third party platforms. Whereas you know, if I'm in in a retailer, I'm probably thinking a lot about first party data collection and I'm probably thinking about some of the changes that are coming on the privacy front. And what does that mean in terms of how I manage data within our organization to ensure that I deliver privacy protected experiences and we are compliant but are still able to deliver the types of experiences that we want to and need to from an E commerce point of view.
[Voiceover]: Sorry, I'm interrupting this conversation because I have a message for any sales folk listening who are in e commerce services or tech. What if I told you that you could meet Australian e commerce decision makers in their car, follow them to the gym, even join some of them in the bathroom? Well, if you sponsor ADD to Cart, you might be able to do that legally. We have sponsorship ships available for 2024 right now. Come join our industry leading partners such as shopify, impact.com convert digital and farsight in helping to bring amazing conversations, events and more to our E commerce community in 2024. Email me directly at nathanadddeca.com for the full 2024 prospectus. And in the meantime don't get any ideas about bathrooms.
Nathan Bush: So lots of changes in that area over the last couple of years, right?
Teresa Sperti: Lots of changes. I think, you know, if you look back, what I think everyone needs to understand, particularly for those who aren't kind of really close to what is happening, is that the Government has been spending years on undertaking a series of reviews and has released a series of discussion papers over time around changes within the privacy space and specifically changes to the Australian Privacy Act. So this isn't new, this has been on the horizon for a long time and I think over the previous three years, increasingly over that time we've been able to gain far more clarity over where the Government is potentially going with these changes and it is materially significant change that, that the Government is embarking on and it is going to impact every organisation in Australia, particularly if they remove the current $3 million and above clause, which means that any organisation under $3 million today doesn't have to comply with the Privacy Act. But that is, I didn't realise that. Yeah, that is the case today, but as part of the recommendations. So for those listening in that don't understand this space, there was in this year 116 recommendations made to make changes to the Privacy Act. So 116 recommended changes. The government has already accepted 38 of those and there's a further 68 of those that they have said that they have agreed to in principle, which means that change will happen on all of those fronts. It's just what that change looks like still needs further consultation. So when we think about that kind of today, that the Privacy act applies to organisations operating where they generate $3 million and above that is one of the 116 recommendations that have been put forward, is to remove that threshold and basically make all organisations accountable within Australia for privacy compliance. Whether you turn over $100,000 right through to billions of dollars.
Nathan Bush: And Is that generating $3 million in revenue or income? Yeah.
Teresa Sperti: Okay, $3 million in revenue, yeah.
Nathan Bush: It doesn't take much for E commerce businesses to get to that level, right?
Teresa Sperti: No, it does not, no.
Nathan Bush: Do you feel the recommendations of what you've seen so far, is it taking Australia towards the GDPR kind of level of privacy?
Teresa Sperti: Absolutely so. And in some cases it's probably more stringent than gdpr and then in other cases it's less stringent than gdpr. And it is a little bit hard to tell because, you know, there is still those 68 recommendations that have been agreed to in principle, but what they look like in terms of what will be legislated, there's still kind of significant grey in all of that. But you know, if we look at, if we look at where GDPR is at and you know, the rights of the consumer, I think Australia is moving forward in leaps and bounds in terms of providing the rights to consumers that consumers in the EU have. And I'm talking about things like the right to be able to ask for their data to be erased, their personal data, but also anonymized data. You know, those types of changes will see us come more into line with the EU and gdpr. Australia is also enacting the ability for a consumer to be able to directly sue a brand for loss or serious injury as a result of a privacy breach. And so you look at that and you see how far Australia is going to move in terms of giving consumers rights and control. And that's going to be a significant shift for organisations of all sizes in this, this country.
Nathan Bush: And I can't imagine there's any retailers listening to this going, yes, I'm really excited for these changes.
Teresa Sperti: I don't think there's many brands that are sitting there going outside of retail and inside I'm super excited about privacy. Unless you hold a privacy role within organizations and you've been trying to shift the agenda, maybe those individuals are quite happy to hear that some of these changes are coming in order to get executives more focused on the issue.
Nathan Bush: Got a job for life. Well done.
Teresa Sperti: You definitely have a job for a while, that is for sure. Yeah.
Nathan Bush: So from a technology point of view, if we have retailers going, oh, this sounds like a lot to manage and a lot to be responsible for. From a tech perspective, where are you seeing the biggest changes being made in tech stacks to prepare to have this information available and transparent?
Teresa Sperti: It's an interesting one. I would say that, yes, there are brands that are starting to evolve and consider what they need to do on the tech front, but probably many brands are not where they need to be. I think this is where we're seeing a lot of demand and interest in platforms like CDPs. And I think it's really important to be clear that CDPs may not be the silver bullet around privacy management, but that ability to aggregate data, unify data around a single identifier is going to be really important if the government enables consumers to have the right to a raise. Because the ability to do that in an environment where your data is sitting in disparate places is going to be really challenging. And actually, there was a report that came out, I think it was from Salesforce, I think it was 12 or so months ago that suggested that today cost organizations about to $2,500 to delete one or erase one record of a consumer because of data sitting in so many disparate places. So brands are really thinking about how do we unify data in order to help manage privacy compliance considerations to how do we provide more control and transparency around what is collected and how it is leveraged is an important consideration. And as the major platforms continue to provide consumers with the ability to decide how and when their data is used, that expectation is going to flow through to brands. And so again, that is then going to be in part reliant on technology. Right. How do we give consumers that flexibility to choose how and when their data is used? And then what does that mean in terms of how data in the back end is organized and managed to fulfill those commitments that you make to consumers?
Nathan Bush: Okay, so if we take a bit of a zoom out now, that was a really fascinating dive into privacy, which I didn't think we would get into, but some great stats in there and, you know, alarm bells going off in the back of my head for a few things there, which is always great when you're just coming back from holiday.
Teresa Sperti: Yeah.
Nathan Bush: I want to talk about, obviously you've had such great experience with digital transformation in large organizations, and I'd Love to dig into that a little bit if we can. Can you talk me through what your best technology transformation experience has been so far?
Teresa Sperti: Sure. Okay. Well, there's a few, so. And that's probably a good thing, right? You know, often you hear about technology transformations or digital transformations that go bad. I've actually been very fortunate to have a couple of good ones through my career, but it's fair to say I've been doing it for a while, so there's some bad ones in there as well. I would probably say my best technology transformation experience experience was at officeworks. So at the time we were driving transformation in a way, in the way that we engaged the customer along the life cycle. So it's really strong focus on personalization and driving relevancy, better leveraging the data that we have at our disposal. We had vast data assets that weren't being effectively utilized. So it was a really exciting time, really exciting role. But again, you're breaking a lot of new ground within the organization. And so that transformation for us involved implementation of multiple platforms, data platforms, marketing automation platforms. And so I think the reason why I say it's probably one of my best experiences of transformation is for a few reasons. The first is that there was really strong alignment between marketing and it. We were partnering with, I would say progressive IT team that were hungry to drive evolution in our go to market approach. And there was a lot of respect on both sides in that relationship and the value we were all bringing to the table. And so that's when it works well, when there's that alignment there and mutual respect and belief about where you're going.
Nathan Bush: Did one team own the project?
Teresa Sperti: So we led it. We led. And pretty early on when I joined officeworks, I inherited a decision around, we've made a decision on a new marketing automation platform. Can you just finalize the contract? And I was like, oh, that's interesting. All right. So then I started asking some questions around how we came to that decision. And I found very quickly it wasn't really based on anything. There was no clear business led strategy around the platform we'd chosen and the why and what it is we were trying to achieve. We, we'd made a technology decision because we already had similar platforms in the stack. And so pretty quickly I made a decision that we were gonna step back and we were gonna start by defining what is it that we were trying to solve as an organization and therefore determine what platform was right for us from a features functionality point of view. And so that put the brakes on for A couple of months. But it allowed us to accelerate over time because we had chosen the right platform. So we learned it from a business point of view. But pretty early on, once we started to cast the vision, invested a lot of time a understanding what were the business needs that I could anchor any business case to and who could potentially champion the project from the business side alongside of me. And not necessarily was that with my own direct line manager.
Nathan Bush: Yeah.
Teresa Sperti: But also I spent a lot of time with it, yeah, pretty early on understanding their processes, what it would take to kind of get a project like this off the ground, what was the appetite, what were some of the challenges. And so I think from day one, because they were engaged from day one, I think we were able to drive this really strong alignment as opposed to marketing's off making some decisions and then they engage it at a later date once they want to start implementing the platform. And so I think that created a really good foundation for the project and the group of individuals working on it, which enabled us to garner the buy in, garner the investment and accelerate implementation. You know, our vendors were so surprised at how quickly we were able to go from procurement to implementation and it was because of some of the groundwork that we laid from starting.
Nathan Bush: What was the reaction when you said we need to put a brakes on this process and reevaluate?
Teresa Sperti: Well, you know, it was. Vendor wasn't happy, that was for sure. I think, you know, whether it was from a. Particularly from a team point of view, there probably wasn't complete satisfaction about the decision I had made. But equally there was strong understanding of, you know, we sat down and talked about it with the team. There was strong understanding around the rationale as to why I'd done it and that we can't just select platforms on the basis of other platforms we already have in the stack from that vendor. That doesn't make it the right solution for us and nor did it necessarily integrate well. So I think whilst the team was a little bit disappointed, there was an understanding and pretty quickly we pivoted to running a kind of rfp, starting to look at best of breed platforms. And I think the team was then genuinely excited around the vision and where we were planning to go and the platforms we were procuring and the investment that we'd secured. So I don't think it was a completely bad experience because of what came next.
Nathan Bush: Just a bit of a journey to take people on.
Teresa Sperti: That's right. Kind of one step back to be able to move forward in the right
[Voiceover]: way when you're trying to put together
Nathan Bush: the case for benefits on such a large project that impacts so much of the business and goes across a number of systems. I can imagine that there are some really functional benefits, new features, new capabilities that you'll be able to cost and project outcomes on, but there will also be some intangible things such as roadmaps that you'll be buying into or team efficiencies. And how do you balance the two when making a case for such a large sum of money?
Teresa Sperti: So when I think about business casing, I like to think about it in three buckets from what is the benefits realization? And I think this is a useful framework for people to think about it. So one, does it drive revenue and profit? That's one bucket. Second bucket is, does it drive cost efficiency? It's going to potentially reduce cost for the business. And then the third is, does it deliver experience gains that the organization is looking to drive? And what equally I think about is if you look at the business strategy for an organization, how can I anchor my buckets around where the organization is trying to go in order to have that link in alignment? Typically, from a technology point of view, I would usually be looking to drive some sort of case around revenue as opposed to cost saving. Because let's be serious. As much as we talk about automation and the ability to potentially reduce headcount, you're more likely to be reducing future headcount than current headcount that exists within your department, if that makes sense.
Nathan Bush: Yeah.
Teresa Sperti: If we didn't have this technology, we would probably need more people over time to personalize experience, et cetera, et cetera. But it's hard to bank future savings on headcount because you're not currently paying that from a business point of view.
Nathan Bush: Yeah.
Teresa Sperti: So that's predominantly how I think about it in terms of buckets.
Nathan Bush: I love those buckets. You're like Scott Pape of E Commerce Technology selection.
Teresa Sperti: Oh, thanks.
Nathan Bush: You're like, I don't even get the reference. His whole thing is like financial buckets for personal savings.
Teresa Sperti: Actually, I've listened to Scott Pape. Yes, of course, yes. Now you connected the dots. Yes, yes, yes. Sorry. I'm like, I'll just take that and we'll just move on and pretend like I didn't.
Nathan Bush: No, just go, nathan, that was a shit joke.
Teresa Sperti: No, no, no, no. I like it. So I think the reality is, in this environment, whether you're a marketer or a digital person, whether you're in a scaling business or a large organization, you have to Be commercial.
Nathan Bush: Yeah.
Teresa Sperti: And the reality is you're asking for investment that could be spent elsewhere. And so you have to build a really strong case of why would we put it here versus over there? And when you start thinking about the fact that I'm competing for other funds as opposed to this is my project and I just need the funding, you start to realize that I need to bring my best game here. And it's not just about the vision, but it's about how can I convince the organization not put money over there and to give it to me to do what I need to do. And that means that if you've got a finance person in your organization, you need to get pretty cozy with them and you need to understand how the organization makes those financial investment decisions. Right. Some organizations will look at the net present value of that investment, others will look at internal rate of return and a host of other metrics. Right. And each organisation will be different in terms of what it looks at and the benchmarks it looks at. But if you from the get go, understand what are those benchmarks and what is it going to be assessed on the basis of, and you do that through engagement with finance, you'll have a much easier path to get it through the organisation. A much easier path.
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Nathan Bush: in the episode show notes from the device you are on. Land ahoy. So in that process of working with finance, I'm sure you always uncover new costs when implementing new technology that you may not think of straight away because it does impact a larger part of the organization rather than the ones and zeros of implementing the tech. What do you think are the most common overlooked costs of technology implementation that many businesses miss?
Teresa Sperti: So I think that one is pretty easy. It's people related costs, hands down. Businesses and brands think that the tech will solve their problems, when in fact the degree to which the technology is adopted will be dependent on the people and the ability for those people to be able to leverage the technology effectively. You know, it's not uncommon to see organizations buying a tech platform and oh, we'll buy some training and it's one session and it's an extra fifteen hundred dollars or whatever. The reality is, particularly if you have to shift capability of a number of people, that is a journey. It's not something that's going to be learned through one training. And so I think organizations really need to think about the people related costs and the cost to evolve process. So that's resource focus, energy, et cetera. Because the reality is that new technology will often impact and influence a shift in the way that you work. And so we need to invest time, effort and energy in process evolution. And then the third cost, I think that's always overlooked is the ongoing operational cost of managing the platform, whether that be investment in enhancements and taking your MVP to something that moves you towards your future vision. There's cost involved in that and that goes well beyond your initial implementation cost and your ongoing subscription costs. And I think the difficulty is in some organizations the CAPEX discussion is different to the OPEX discussion they had separately. And so this is where organizations can often get caught out because yeah, I've got that capex through, but I didn't get the OPEX approved or I didn't think about the opex. And therefore once the project's finished, I have two choices. I either have to go and get another tranche of investment signed off from a CAPEX point of view, or have to try and carve budget away from something else that I'm doing and beg, borrow and steal to get the money to do what I need to do. And neither is ideal. Right. Because you want this to be a kind of BAU core way of working and to do that you need that consistent investment. You don't want this start, stop, start, stop approach to investment.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. And for those who capex, OPEX might be new to capex is capital investment usually put aside throughout the organization has all sorts of tax implications. OPEX is the operational budget which you use on an annual throughout the year. Can you tell us also while we're on that. And some of our partners might actually hate this question. Yeah, sorry.
[Voiceover]: What are your tips on getting the
Nathan Bush: best deals out of technology partners, both from a technology and maybe an implementation perspective?
Teresa Sperti: Okay, so great question on tips because I think for those who are newer to technology, they can sometimes fall into making quick decisions. So the first, I would say, is never fall for the kind of catch cry of sign up by this date and you get this discount for this product. Because most tech vendors will do that. If you sign up by the end of the month, I can give you this price, but after that time, I can't give you that price. At the end of the day, you've got to run your race. You've got to make the decision about the platform that is right for your organization. And that means you need to invest the time in due diligence. So I would say, you know, that deal is always still on the table. Some may argue that's not the case, but I've always seen that you can still get a great deal after that time frame. So work on your timeframes, don't work on theirs. Don't let the vendor know that you have it in the bag. Keep them guessing. You know, once the vendor knows that they have it in the bag, they're less likely potentially to negotiate. I think the third one that may come as a surprise to you, Nathan, may not. And I talk a lot about this in market because I feel like it's a bit of an unspoken practice that the industry isn't talking about. Enough is ask not only your vendor, if you have an implementation provider, ask what the kickback is that the implementation provider is getting from you investing in that technology. Because what we are seeing in market is that there are a lot of deals in place, direct or indirect deals, where implementation partners benefit. If you choose a platform which means that they may push you down a path that may not be right for your business, but it's right for their business. And so what do I mean by direct and indirect? An indirect deal would be that the implementation partner gets money from the vendor to invest in training and those types of things. So they're credits, but you know, they're pooled credits. So you don't, as an individual brand, know that that agency is still benefiting from something.
Nathan Bush: Yep.
Teresa Sperti: And then direct is, of course, direct kickback, X percent of the subscription over time or a one off payment. So I think that does two things. One is potentially gives you a sense of whether or not there's an inflated cost somewhere because somebody's got to pay an implementation partner for you taking on the product. But it also helps you to have clarity over what's in it for everyone else. And as I said, I don't think it's something that's talked enough about in the industry. But it's something that we really pride ourselves on as a provider because when we come in and help brands make decisions around Martech, we do so without, we don't get kickbacks from anyone and we intentionally design the organization around that.
Nathan Bush: It's a really good tip. Really good tip. In an ideal world, when you are choosing Martech, do you have a preference for choosing technology first, choosing partner first, choosing both at the same time?
Teresa Sperti: Yeah, I personally believe you need to pick the tech first. So yes, if you need a partner to help you absolutely find someone. But try and find somebody that's agnostic that's not going to push you down a certain path from a technology point of view because you know, for some people processes to choose technology and identifying requirements and all that kind of stuff doesn't come naturally. The reason I say pick the tech first is that usually even if implementation partners say they're agnostic, there are 11,000 martech platforms in the Martech ecosystem. There is no way that providers can be truly agnostic. They will have core experience across a series of platforms. So I think it's always best to work out which platform do you want to be on and then determine the partner because over time you might shift away from that partner anyway. You might in house your capability, you know what I mean? And so you want to pick the tech that's right for the business that solves the problem as opposed to pick the partner which over time may not be the right partner for you for a number of reasons.
Nathan Bush: Teresa, so much that you've talked about today, we could have kept going, could have picked apart a lot of those points but, but things that stood out for me, things like alignment between marketing, tech, finance to make sure successful projects, making sure you know what's in it for everyone along the way and making sure we account for the people involvement and the people cost and investment throughout all of this. Can I ask you to sum up if we've got retailers listening to this who have some big projects on the table for 2024 and they know they're going to be spending a lot of time and effort implementing, what would you say are the non negotiables when you are implementing a successful project?
Teresa Sperti: Non negotiables, wow. So I would say that I think having a level of project governance is important. I know, boring, boring. But you know, particularly if you're investing at a large scale and I'm not talking just enterprises investing at a large scale, a scale up might be investing at a large scale based on the size of their business. Right. If you're investing at a large scale for your size of organization, you need to get that project right, you need to get that implementation right. And I think project, whether you put a project governance committee in place or whatever other checks and balances you put in place to manage governance, I think that's really important to increase your chances of success. Because we know so many technology transformations fail and technology implementations fail. So I believe that that's absolutely key. I think you have to have a cross functional team that all understand and buy into the vision and direction. It's not about marketing or digital understanding the direction or E commerce and just kind of providing direction to other people. You want everyone in that project team, from developers through to marketing, even if it has a significant implication on areas like customer service, whatever, you want them to understand the why and the direction. Because when they understand the why and the direction, they're far more likely to add value to the process than just do what is being asked of them to do.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, great.
Teresa Sperti: Everyone needs to understand the why.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, brilliant. Because even if they're not directly involved, they will be impacted at some point.
Teresa Sperti: Right. There's nothing worse than somebody saying we have to do this because X, Y and Z said we have to do it. That helps no one.
Nathan Bush: Exactly.
[Voiceover]: Amazing tips.
Nathan Bush: Thank you. Theresa, what's next for yourself and team at Arctic Fox? Big projects, big plans for 2024.
Teresa Sperti: We've got a few things cooking on the learning and development front. As an organization, we obviously provide consulting and advisory support for brands, but we're big believers of building capability in this market as the market changes. So we do a lot in the kind of learning and development front as well. And so there's a few things coming in that space that I can't share yet. But I would encourage anyone from the E commerce community and retail community to sign up to our monthly updates on our website to keep abreast of what some of those offerings are. Yeah.
Nathan Bush: Arctic Fox A R K T I c f o x.com au no a
Teresa Sperti: r k t I c f o
Nathan Bush: x.IO IO look at you. You're out there leading the way.
[Voiceover]: Teresa, thank you so much for joining
Nathan Bush: us on Add to cart. That was a brilliant overview of, of selecting and implementing technologies, but also where we got to at the start around data privacy. So it's going to be fascinating year to see where all that lands by the end of the year.
Teresa Sperti: Fantastic. Great.
Nathan Bush: Thanks Teresa.
Teresa Sperti: Thank you for having me on the show.
[Voiceover]: Now I hope that conversation around the changes to the Privacy act didn't freak you out too much? Obviously not because you're still here, but it is definitely something to have high on your radar. If you want to dive into that deeper with Teresa and the team she has offered Add to cart listeners $100 off the digital Marketing and Data masterclass that Arctic Fox offers. You can book that over at ArcticFox IO forward slash digital Marketing Masterclass and use the code Add to cart or one word add to cart to get $100 off. We'll have a link in the show notes as well. Well, all right. There were so many lessons from that conversation. Here are the three that resonated for me. Don't be afraid to put the brakes on if something's not right. It's worth re evaluating even if it means a short term delay. I've had to do this a few times. It's never comfortable, but it's always worth it. Often times in projects we don't want to stop because it will impact a timeline that we'll then have to explain. We'll lose momentum, confidence will drop, funding will get pulled, the project will get cancelled. Disaster. But as you heard from Teresa, sometimes to get the best outcomes, you might need to stop and redirect focus. It's not always an easy or popular decision, but don't ignore it as an option. Number two, get cozy with your finance team. You just got a little bit creeped out there, didn't you? But seriously, when selecting tech, bring them in early and often. Ask them to help you create the business case, not just approve it. Most of your battles and benefits will be won with your finance team as part of the team. And number three, Teresa's framework for business casing. Number one, does it drive revenue and profit? Number two, does it drive cost efficiency? Number three, does it deliver experience gains that the organization is looking to drive Drive? These are three very important questions. If you can't answer at least one convincingly, you don't have a business case. Thanks for joining us today on Add to Cart to listen to all our
Nathan Bush: e commerce conversations now in the hundreds.
[Voiceover]: You can head on over to add to cart.com there.
Nathan Bush: You can also join up to our
[Voiceover]: 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 sense a difference. Thanks again for listening. And until next time, keep those customers adding to cartoon.
