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 features Tracey Bailey, founder, founder and CEO of Biome, driven to launch Australia's first online eco store way back in 2003. After looking into the eyes of an orangutan in the Indonesian jungle, Tracy's pioneering
Nathan Bush: business now has around 6,000 online SKUs and stores in Brisbane, Gold coast and Melbourne.
Nathan Bush: With her committed team and a devoted following, Tracy manages e commerce success by maintaining her ethical commitment. A difficult path, but one well worth the struggle.
Nathan Bush: Tracey, thank you so much for joining us on the checkout. I really enjoyed our conversation around all things sustainability and what you've built over 20 years and led the charge for around sustainable retail in Australia, especially your orangutan story. I hadn't heard that before, but we're here to learn a little bit more about you. I've got five quick questions. Number one, what's the weirdest thing that you've ever bought online?
Tracey Bailey: Well, it's not particularly weird, but let's say it's unusual. I bought 32 meter by 1 meter wicking garden beds to build my veggie patch.
Nathan Bush: Nice.
Tracey Bailey: They're made in Toowoomba, which was great. And yeah, I bought those online and had them shipped to my home in Brisbane.
Nathan Bush: Great. What are you growing?
Tracey Bailey: Oh, a lot of chili. A lot of chilies. They seem to be the perennial that keeps going, which is good. But yes, I try and grow herbs and mostly greens for my salads and so on.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, I tried kale and the possums got that. But they don't go near the chilies. Funnily enough, that's true. All right, number two, who is your favorite retailer?
Tracey Bailey: For me, it's Patagonia and They have been leaders in the sustainability space for. For so long and have been so successful at it, you know, to the point where, as you probably know, they've now donated the whole of Patagonia basically to a trust, the profits of which are fully spent on helping climate change.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. And if there was anyone that knew a sustainable business inside and out, it would be you. No signs of greenwashing at all in Patagonia. Like, I love the brand, I love everything they stand for. I always worry about the level down, whether there is a bit of greenwashing in there, anything that you've come across.
Tracey Bailey: I think they're pretty transparent. Again, not everybody's perfect. It is a journey. And from what I have seen, they are transparent about their issues and what they're trying to do. And one of their latest programs is their repair centers, where if you've got a Patagonia product, you can bring it back in to be repaired. You know, that's fantastic.
Nathan Bush: I've got a few Patagonia shirts and stuff. People always say, oh, you must love the, you know, the outdoors and guinea balance. I'm like, no, no, no. I'm like the most suburban dad, but I'm a lazy shopper because I know that if I buy a Patagonia shirt, it is going to last me years and I won't have to go shopping.
Tracey Bailey: Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Really important quality that lasts instead of, you know, cheap purchases that tear, really, after a few uses. Speaking from the mother of teenagers who shop online at some of the places that are at the other end of the spectrum to buy in.
Nathan Bush: Yes. All right, Which E commerce practice do you wish was history?
Tracey Bailey: Well, SEO is the area that I am responsible for at Biome, and I have spent a lot of my life on SEO, and so I wish that filling the Internet with articles that are just guff written for the search robots was history.
Nathan Bush: Do you think with the emergence of that little thing called ChatGPT, we might get more guff in the world?
Tracey Bailey: I suspect so, because it's going to make it much easier, or is already making it much easier to put that out. So we really have to spend time on making that content, you know, genuinely educational and something that assists the reader. So, you know, the issue is people like us who are trying to put that genuine content out there and get it to rank, you can't, because all the ones above you, you know, are just full of the robot total.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. But obviously opportunity there. If you do less from an SEO perspective, but more from an engagement perspective, to make your content stand out if there is actual heart and soul in it.
Tracey Bailey: Yes. And to your advantage is if you can reduce the bounce rate. Right. So that the reader does pretty quickly pick up that the content is rubbish or just robotic. I guess so, yes. You need to have something on there to really engage with them straight away.
Nathan Bush: But I'm going to call you out here, Tracy, because I just read our show notes on our run sheet and I've asked you to write a short bio and you've actually cheated yourself and you asked Bing Chat to write your bio and it's pumped out three to four sentences on your behalf.
Tracey Bailey: Yes. It did a good job, don't you think?
Nathan Bush: It was pretty good. It was good guff, yeah.
Tracey Bailey: And that's the beauty of Bing Chat, right? Because it searches the Internet as well. So you can see it. Even found some facts about my childhood in Central Queensland.
Nathan Bush: Fantastic. So you, are you using it at all in terms of creating content and then putting your spin over the top of it?
Tracey Bailey: Yes.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, a lot. You'd be crazy if you're not right.
Tracey Bailey: Yeah, it's so exciting because it's that classic thing, you know, that saying, are you paying smart people to do dumb things and you want your time spent on the strategic aspects, not the minutiae of the written word right at the end.
Nathan Bush: That makes total sense. Total sense. All right, number four, can you recommend a book or a podcast that our listeners should immediately get into?
Tracey Bailey: Not quite a book or a podcast. I'm going to say YouTube videos.
Nathan Bush: I can tell where you've been spending your time recently.
Tracey Bailey: Yes, but really educational purposes. There's a lot of great content, particularly about Shopify. You know, how to make the most of Shopify and you just need to find a really good content creator and they're giving away great advice for free to get you to watch their YouTube channel. I definitely recommend that seek out YouTube videos on the topics that you're trying to learn about.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, absolutely. I've gotten to the habit now of using YouTube at lunch. Like when I go to eat my lunch, I'm like, just watch like a 20 minute video upskill in something that you might not have learned about. And it's amazing what you can learn in, you know, 20 minutes or at least ignite your interest around areas that you might not have discovered before.
Tracey Bailey: Yeah, great idea.
Nathan Bush: Last one I have for you. Finish this sentence.
Tracey Bailey: The future of retail is it's AI powered as we. We've touched on and, and particularly what is happening with Bing Chat or. And I believe that, you know, Google's bringing out their own version soon called Bard, I think.
Nathan Bush: Yep.
Tracey Bailey: Just that integration of the chat GPT engine and then the ability to search the Internet and it's all about the quality of the prompt. You know, the what you put in it improves the value of what you get back out of it.
Nathan Bush: Oh, I love it. And I think you're spot on. It's a key component of what's coming in retail. And you know, even the fact that we weren't even Talking about this 12 months ago, we were talking about AI in very general terms, but not to the level of use cases that we are today. So. Tracy, thank you so much for joining us on the checkout.
Tracey Bailey: Thank you, Nathan.
Nathan Bush: To hear more from Tracey, jump back into episode 307 where Tracey delves deep into palm oil problems. She reveals her her passion for Last for Life products, tells us about her Shopify replatforming, and shares the uneasy but necessary relationship she shares with her nemesis, Google. Thanks for listening. And until next time, keep adding to cartoon.
