[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.
[Voiceover]: Today's checkout features Matthew Pezzimenti, founder and director of conversion kings. Since 2014, they've been working on conversion rate optimization processes for leading Australian and international retail brands like Koala style trade and Woolworths.
Nathan Bush: Matt, thank you so much for joining us on the checkout. We had a great chat in our main episode on everything conversion rate optimization. We really got into the depths of it. Well, probably didn't even get into the depths. Probably scratched over the surface for you. But for me, it was a really great insight into conversion rate optimization. Everything from the process to the tools to how to get started. But we're here to learn a little bit more about you. So I've got five quick questions.
Matthew Pezzimenti: Sure. Shoot.
Nathan Bush: Number one, what's the weirdest thing that you've ever bought online?
Matthew Pezzimenti: All right. Well, part of our process at CK is we like to do what's called an empathy review, where we love to purchase a product of one of our clients to understand it. There's a new one that came across our floor, which was about medical marijuana. And I was like, oh, that's an interesting one. And using a bit of a Simpsons reference, as we did before. I remember Homer Simpson, he had a little job and he ended up having to use the same product that wrote warning, things may appear to be more edible than they really are. And I guess I can testify that as a result of trialing that product. But yeah, it was crazy difference of what's happened in the world, right? Just a few clicks and then bang, it gets delivered to your door, which is just incredible.
Nathan Bush: There you go. Friday afternoon staff party.
Matthew Pezzimenti: Well, not just yet, but yeah, that was a good way to learn about their process, that's for sure.
Nathan Bush: Number two, who is your favorite retailer?
Matthew Pezzimenti: You know, I've been doing retail for over 20 years. And the thing for me, when it comes down to retail or retail, which ones we love, it really just comes down to the ones that are progressive and trying to do something that's that little bit better. How can we become that little bit better than we were last time? And they're the retailers that really engage me to go. Yeah, they're trying to deliver an amazing experience to their customers. And you can just feel that on the website. You can feel it when you go into the retail store and they're the types of brands that, yeah, I love to hang out with because they're just always on the cutting edge and how can we be better than we were yesterday?
Nathan Bush: Anyone stand out to you?
Matthew Pezzimenti: Oh, look, there's a lot in the market at the moment. I'm going to defer that question, Nathan. I'm going to be diplomatic and step away from that one, if that's okay.
Nathan Bush: It was funny before when you said CK and I was like, oh, culture kings. Oh, no. Conversion kinks.
Matthew Pezzimenti: Do you ever get mixed up that in Calvin Klein? But I tell you what, what an honor to be said. Oh, are you culture kings? No, no, no, no. We're conversion kings. But it's good to stand on the shoulder of the giants. Oh, good.
Nathan Bush: All right, number three, which e commerce practice do you wish was history?
Matthew Pezzimenti: It definitely has to be poorly timed pop ups that break my flow. So I'm going through it could be anything. It could be I've landed on a blog page and I want to learn information because I want to get that information going bang. I get a irrelevant content to subscribe to something. I'm like, I'm not even in the buy flow. But now you're trying to get me to go over there or if I've got into the checkout and then there's obviously a few different pop ups and things just stopping me from what I'm actually trying to do. So I just wish there was. Websites would obviously look at alternative ways to get that communication across. It'd be awesome.
Nathan Bush: And I can imagine you come up against or for consideration pop ups in a lot of your conversion journeys. Are pop ups ever a good idea?
Matthew Pezzimenti: Yeah, totally. They've got to be used in the right application. Again, coming down to like, why are we doing what we're doing? Like, where's the problem? And it's not about just, oh, that that brain is doing it. So we should do it as well. It needs to be a little bit more considered to get the result. Like, we can all have the same ingredients for the cake, but if we put the cake together in a completely different way, we're all going to get a different outcome. So it's just important to understand when to use them.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, great. Bit of a baking theme coming through this chat.
Matthew Pezzimenti: More ways than one. There you go. Exactly.
Nathan Bush: All right, number four, can you recommend a book or a podcast that our listeners should immediately get into?
Matthew Pezzimenti: This is a good question. Just makes me realize I don't read as much as most people. Maybe on this here as well. But you know What? The thing I take a lot of inspiration from is actually the Joe Rogan podcast because he asks good questions and he listens and then he comes back with more insightful questions. And us as conversion experts, we need to be the best at asking the good questions because the better questions that we ask, the more insight that we get out of it, the better we can help the customers. So, yeah, I take a lot of learning from how he constructs these questions and how he can double down on them. So I'm sure most of us probably jump onto that podcast. But yes, definitely a helpful one to pull some inspo from.
Nathan Bush: He keeps asking to come on to add to Cart and I was like, joe, you're not ready yet.
Matthew Pezzimenti: Oh, good call, mate, good call. Make sure he pays your fee.
Nathan Bush: All right, last one I have for you, Matt, finish this sentence. The future of retail is it's up to us.
Matthew Pezzimenti: Like we're all in this industry, we've all got such an ability to really deliver great value to the consumers in a real helpful way. And sometimes we forget just the impact that we can have to individuals lives by what we deliver. As an experience on the web and everyone today in retail, you're actually at the driving seat to see exactly how we can better this industry and better what we do. So I really feel like we've got such an opportunity and also a bit of a responsibility to make sure we deliver a great experience to everyone.
Nathan Bush: Beautifully put, Matt. Thank you so much for joining us on the checkout.
Matthew Pezzimenti: Very welcome, Nathan. Again, thank you for having me.
[Voiceover]: To hear more from Matt, jump back into episode 358 where Matt runs us through some of the most common conversion issues and how to fix them. He also gives us tips on ironing out your GA4 implementation. I mean, who doesn't need that? And he names the top tools that you can use to help build an army of converting customers. Thanks for listening. And until next time, keep adding to cart.
