[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 Melissa Drennan, CEO of Green Friday, a business born from a desire to disrupt retail consumerism on behalf of the planet. Starting in 2021 with an inaugural event which ran at the same time as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it featured 23 partners today. They've grown to now host 260 brands, including retailers such as Michael Hill, Salvo Stores and Frank Green.
Nathan Bush: Melissa, thank you for joining us on the checkout. You've shared so much around what's happening for Green Friday this year in 2023, but also your plans for how Green Friday will just become part of our lives beyond just that sale period. Moving forward, we're here to learn a little bit more about you. So I've got five quick questions.
Melissa Drennan: Okay.
Nathan Bush: Number one, what's the weirdest thing that you've ever bought online?
Melissa Drennan: I am so I found online this Riedel wine decanter and I was like, wow, that's amazing. You know, Ridel, lovely brand for wine glasses and so on. And I was like, so incredibly good value. I told my husband I bought it, the box arrived home and it was about this. And I didn't realize that I'd actually accidentally bought a single glass wine decanter. So that's probably the weirdest thing that's in my cupboard that I've never really found a use for. That was probably one of those ecom purchases that. Yeah, that didn't read the sizing just
Nathan Bush: means that you've got to have the bottle to yourself.
Melissa Drennan: I know, exactly. That's my glass. Now I have the bottle. The decanter is my glass.
Nathan Bush: That's great. Go over to the neighborhood parties with just a single dickens.
Melissa Drennan: I love it.
Nathan Bush: All right, number two, who is your favorite retailer?
Melissa Drennan: Well, I think after 10 years working for the company, I'm going to be a bit biased. Right. I think the Iconic is still probably one of my favorites in Australia. But actually I have started buying a lot more from Oryton Oryton over the last year. I couple of years, actually. The styling, the prints, I think they're just doing some amazing things. And obviously I love the fact that they're moving into some more sustainable aspects to their business and launching, you know, circular rental models and and so forth. But actually, if I look at the product specifically, I'M really liking some of their designs. So, yeah, I'd say origin probably because
Nathan Bush: they've had a bit of a rebirth, haven't they?
Melissa Drennan: Massive rebirth. I think it was Sophie. I think they onboarded a new creative director designer who introduced clothing, so fashion and that's really relaunched the business beyond it's just traditional leather goods type side of the business. But yeah, lovely, lovely clothes, good quality, great tip.
Nathan Bush: All right, number three, what's an e commerce practice that you wish was history?
Melissa Drennan: Oh, bugs me every single time you order something online and it gets delivered in a box about 10 times the size of the product that's in it. And then they have to fill it with crazy amount of stuff just so it doesn't kind of bounce around and break within it. So my goodness, the minute we can create something that works so much better in creating less waste around that I think the genius.
Nathan Bush: Exactly. And we're lucky enough this isn't just a plug. Well, it is a plug, but it's not just a plug. Is that we've got packaging sponsors, signet on board and they've got a whole range of solutions for this. And the more I dive into it and I've gone out and visited them and looked at all their case studies and it actually doesn't need to cost more. You've just got to put some focus and attention on it to get your processes right and you can solve the problem pretty easily. It's one of those areas in retail where you can make a big impact in sustainability without huge overheads.
Melissa Drennan: Absolutely agree. Yeah. And it's a shame not more are doing it. So do it.
Nathan Bush: All right, number four, can you recommend a book or a podcast that our listeners should get into?
Melissa Drennan: Oh my. Go to. I would say I have to go to Authors a startup world. Nothing beats an oldie called Eric Rise, the Lean Startup. Like that. I literally live and breathe that as a bible. Almost awesome. And then beyond that, I would say again another one that I recommend to everyone and we lived and breathed by at the Iconic, for example, is Jim Collins Good to Great, Firewheel Great by choice. The principles and concepts within that can really help guide a business if it's trying to work itself out. You know what to focus on, how to take the next step. So those two, I think are gold.
Nathan Bush: Is there a lesson that you keep coming back to either in the Lean Startup or Good to Great or all the other books that continues to stick out for you and is always like the voice in the back of your head that you go, yes, I'M going to stick to that.
Melissa Drennan: Yeah. Actually probably within Jim Collins, I would say the hedgehog concept is one that's really, really resonates. It really focuses you in on what can you truly be the best at. And, you know, don't get distracted. Don't go too broad. Just nail one thing. Make sure you get that thing working perfectly. Get your customer like bought into that thing before you start to complicate your business adding multiple other factors to it. So really, really work out what your hedgehog is and nail it.
Nathan Bush: And I've read that book, but it was been years ago. Now. Is it the hedgehog concept because of the spikes to keep other competitors away? Almost like the moat.
Melissa Drennan: Oh, my God. I hadn't ever thought of why it was called that. But yeah, you're probably right. Maybe it is that, is that you're so spiky that no one else can touch you because you've got it nail so well. Maybe it's that. I'll have to Google it.
Nathan Bush: It's on the bookshelf behind me. It should be because. But yeah, great book. Well done. All right, last question I have for you. The future of retail is ever evolving.
Melissa Drennan: Probably would be the way I say, like, and it's probably not that new and traditional. It just doesn't seem to stop ever. And great that it doesn't, but I think we're going to see technological advancements that will blow our mind, I would say, over the next sort of five to 10 years, even with AI and the little kind of snippets that we're doing in that space at the moment. Gosh, some people out there are just so incredibly smart with what they're developing. And then I think, you know, changes in consumer behavior. So sustainability 100%. We know when you look at it demographically that There are higher SKUs for sustainability in the younger generations. So it will just continuously become more and more and more required, expected, and part of the norm. So, yeah, so I think it's going to continue evolving over time. And I think the most critical thing for any business to do is just don't get left behind. You just have to keep iterating, adapting, changing and following and hopefully leading some
Nathan Bush: of it and obviously being sustainable.
Melissa Drennan: I think that's kind of good.
Nathan Bush: Melissa, thank you so much for joining us on the checkout.
Melissa Drennan: Amazing. Thank you so much for having us, Nathan.
[Voiceover]: To hear more from Melissa, jump back into episode 349, where Melissa shares how the Green Friday platform works and how brands can be involved wherever they are. On their sustainability journey. She gives her take on how retail can cater to the growing ecosystem conscious consumer and provides a valuable lesson in sustainability maths. Thanks for listening and until next time,
Nathan Bush: keep adding to cartoon.
