Nathan Bush: Before we get into today's chat, I want to share a little resource that we've just released. As you might know, in our checkout episodes, I ask our e commerce guests, do you have a book or a podcast that you recommend our listeners get into? Well, I've taken all of those book recommendations and there's over a hundred of them, plus the stories that go behind them and put them into their own book called the Book Recommendations of E Commerce Experts. Yeah, I know, it's totally original. You will never, ever run out of reading ideas again. You can download that one now for free over on addtocart.com
[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 through your Friday. Here's your host, Bushy.
Nathan Bush: Today's checkout feature features Kelly Slessor, digital coach from the E commerce tribe and founder of personalized shopping app ShopU. Kelly has helped hundreds of companies, including Westfield, Woolworths and Big W, to develop and grow their digital channels and was chair of this year's Online retailer Conference and Expo.
Nathan Bush: Kelly, welcome to the checkout. We've had a brilliant main chat where we covered everything from AI to diversity and inclusion. We're here to learn a little bit more about you. So I've got five quick questions for you. Number one, what's the weirdest thing that you've ever bought online?
Kelly Slessor: A piano. Oh, there's a little random story behind that. I'd have way too much wine. I was scrolling Instagram and one of my friends was talking about how your brain can change by music. Like it can be literally changed by music. And I woke up the next morning and I had a piano receipt in my inbox.
Nathan Bush: You've got space for a piano like this? Is it actually worked out okay?
Kelly Slessor: Well, it's kind of sat in the garage and has been for a number of years now. But anyway, that was the weirdest thing that I've ever bought.
Nathan Bush: That is fantastic.
Kelly Slessor: Don't drink wine and order pianos. That is the moral to that story.
Nathan Bush: No.
Kelly Slessor: Okay.
Nathan Bush: I thought you were going to go down the Billy Joel route or something. You're drinking, drinking wine, listen to Billy Joel, and then all of a sudden this turns out no. Okay. All right, piano number two. Who is your favorite retailer?
Kelly Slessor: Oh, I've got so many. I'm loving. From a fashion point of view, I'm loving Adolfo Dominguez. At the moment, one of Australia's best kept Secrets.
Nathan Bush: I haven't had a lot to do with them or heard about them.
Kelly Slessor: Beautiful brand. Absolutely beautiful brand. Sustainable products. It's one I'm working with at the moment and I, when I discovered them, it's one of those brands you go, I want to work with you because you are just stunning. A beautiful brand. Yeah. So they use sustainable products, recycled products. It's high end fashion. Just a really, a really amazing brand. But I think I would say I love Converse and I actually really love their experience. So I'm a big Converse fan. I live in Converse, literally when I'm not in heels. I love their experience. I love, you know, their checkout, I love their post purchase experience. So I think they're doing a great job. Anaconda. Doing a great job. From a loyalty perspective. Yeah, they're some of my kind of I suppose favorites because I think of it from an E commerce perspective all the time.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, I love it. Great examples. All right, number three, which E commerce practice do you wish was history?
Kelly Slessor: I'm going to offend, but this is meta ads and Google Ads. I'm just, yeah, that was, that was controversial. So I, I think my challenge with them is, is they are so complex for retailers and retailers spend so much money and so much time on them without knowing what they're doing. I think it's more about making it more user friendly than it is about getting rid of them. I don't, I don't think we should get rid of them. They're, they're very valuable to the ecosystem but I think they have to be made more user friendly and retailers have to be able to see quite easily whether they're making money off them or not. And I think they at the moment both of them enable dodgy ad agencies to rip off retailers such. There you go.
Nathan Bush: I love it. I love it. And I think you so true. Especially if you're a retail brand starting up. If you're not from retail before Instagram and Facebook were a great way to get started. Now it would be totally overwhelming. Right. Even start with number four. Can you recommend a book or a podcast that our listeners should immediately get into?
Kelly Slessor: I love Diary of the CEO. That's kind of broadens my mindset. So one of my favorites. I mean this podcast obviously immediately get into not I'm not talking me but you in general. I love listening to anything Mary Porters because she brings the physical retail and, and it reminds me constantly about how important experience is in what we're doing. But I would say right now if there's number one that I would be listening to. It's a guy called, I think it's Matt Wolf and he does AI News, he does weekly AI News Roundup and it's just, it's mind blowing the stuff he talks about. But he talks about all of the developments in the industry. New platforms coming out, new technology, new learning models and I think it just keeps you up to date with how fast it's moving, how good.
Nathan Bush: And in our main chat you talked about all the groups that you've infiltrated to get your knowledge so you can stay ahead of the game to teach people. So based on that, I'd be getting into that podcast on your recommendation. Last question I've got for you Kelly, is the future of retail is the
Kelly Slessor: future of retail is about. I feel like I'm going to sound like a bit of a record broken record here. It's about experience. Especially in E commerce. We've got to bring experience to our e commerce stores. I think we lack it. We miss it. We're still on print catalogs online and I think I can see some brands moving towards it. One of my favorites is a brand called Tacobo. They bring experience into their website, but I think we really need to the future of retail is experience because when AI does everything else, customers are going to buy our experience.
Nathan Bush: So well put. Kelly, thank you for joining us on the checkout.
Kelly Slessor: I have really enjoyed thank you for having me.
Nathan Bush: To hear more from Kelly, jump back into episode 326 where Kelly shares her thoughts on diversity and inclusivity through the lens of technology. Why she's all about natural language when it comes to shopping. And we get nerdy on AI where Kelly tells us how to give ChatGPT a personality and get it working harder for you. Thanks for listening and until next time, keep adding to cartoon.
