Nathan Bush: E Suite's 10 Week E Commerce accelerator is now open for enrollment. Our very first accelerator earlier this year was a huge success with 54 graduates who are now putting their skills to use to further their E commerce careers. Over 10 weeks, I personally will take you through the fundamentals of E commerce from strategy to marketing, tech, finance, supply chain and more. We've made this course 100% remote and flexible to fit around your busy life with recorded live classes, an active community, over 20 cheat sheets and more than 600 pages of e commerce content. But the best part is you get to meet and connect with some of the best and brightest up and comers in E commerce in Australia. Enrollments are now open and class kicks off on Tuesday, August 23rd. So whether you want to enrol as an individual or sneaking in, persuade your boss to enrol the whole team. Head on over to esweettalent.com au accelerator to enrol online today. I hope to see you in there.
[Voiceover]: It was my brother who said why isn't here a means equivalent of flowers? That's the most critical data that I can use to keep growing my business. It's like a goldmine of information. The beer that I had to record is like in the fridge. You've got to stop drinking the product. 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. Every week Nathan Bush from E Suite and an e commerce industry expert will share the news, research and insights that you need to know to keep you at the top of your game and of course keep your customers Adding to Cart.
Nathan Bush: Hello and welcome to Add to Cart. My name is Nathan Bush, host of Add to Cart and director at E Commerce talent agency E Suite. I think we all had that moment over the last couple of years where you send or receive a gift just because and it was a great way to connect when we couldn't connect it in other ways. And no one understands this connection better than today's guest, Emma Mazur, founder of gift giving business Manflower Co. And After Hours. Emma started Manflowers Co back in 2017 when she saw a gap in the market for males in online gift giving. And it's fair. You know we're always forgotten about. Emma has grown this idea from a single page website with a single product to leading a category. With over 200 gift giving options available, it stands out in market. Even better, she's now opened her second brand After Hours for women who are looking for gifts that are a little different to the usual flowers. In this chat we discuss the secrets on how to create a standout gifting experience which should be relevant for all retailers. We also dive into how to box up products for the ultimate wow factor, how to encourage reviews with incentives, and how she uses out of the box functionality and apps to deliver what looks like a custom experience online. And with Father's Day just around the corner, make sure you stay until the end of the episode for a special discount that Emma has supplied just for Add to Cart listeners. All right, so thanks to our partners Shopify plus and Paclio. Here's our conversation with Emma Mazur, founder of Manflower Company. Emma, thanks for joining us on Add to Cart.
[Voiceover]: I'm really excited about our chat.
Nathan Bush: Same now your name of your business is Manflower and I think it's one of the best names out there. Catches attention straight away. Can you tell us what Manflower is?
[Voiceover]: Manflower Co is a niche gifting business with its core focus on simplifying gifting for men. So effectively we offer a carefully created range of gifts that he'll drink, use and love. And in doing so we make men's gifting less complicated, less time consuming and in my humble opinion, way more fun. So that's it.
Nathan Bush: Manflower Co. And men so complicated that we need a specialized gifting service?
[Voiceover]: No, I think men aren't complicated but I think we as and I say we as in me as a someone who gives to men regularly, we make it complicated and they don't need all of the fluff and fuss. And so I think and that's a lot about and we'll talk about that down the track where mansl quote is actually about serving them in a really effective way that isn't complicated but still things that they love.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, beautiful. So what kind of products have you got on there?
[Voiceover]: So look, we have four key ways that you can gift on our website. One which is create your own gift and you've got a selection of over 200 products to choose from and we offer a really streamlined process in which you so we encourage our customers to follow our four step process. We then have a beer male range which is a range of beer themed gifts. We then have cocktail, wine and whiskey themed gifts and then we've also created a range of gift sets that provide inspiration for men that potentially love the outdoors. So do inspiration around outdoor themed gifts, those that love swim shorts, socks, all of those. So there's a real range to cover any type of guy.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, I love the idea and I had Fun browsing the site. I think it's a fantastic idea. What was the motivation behind starting Mount Flower Cup?
[Voiceover]: The idea came about when I needed to find a gift for my husband's birthday. At the time I had a six month old and she was napping twice a day. And any other mum and dad would know. That means you only had a very small window of opportunity to get out of the house and run errands. Anyway, I was committed to getting my husband a great gift and I wish the result was as positive as my attitude. In the end, I only managed to get one of the things I was after before Sophia, my daughter, decided it was game over. So I got home with half of what I needed. No wrapping paper, no card. And I felt a little bit defeated. And in that moment I thought, why is it so hard to find gifts for men? Why is no one helping busy women and men for that matter, send great gifts to men? A search on the Internet yielded corporate style hampers which in the right scenario can be the perfect gift. But on this occasion, it didn't really suit my husband in his early 30s. And other online stores simply weren't set up for shopping for someone else. And later that year I was visiting my family back in New Zealand and it was my brother who said, why isn't there a men's equivalent in flowers, the online flower delivery service that we all know love and rely on? Easy, no, fast, yet impactful. So it was this conversation with my brother that was the final push to Launch Man Flower Co. And obviously that conversation provided inspiration for the name. So Man Flower Coke sort of came from. That conversation with my brother was like, you know, why isn't there a flower delivery service that delivers products more in line with what men would like to receive? And that doesn't. There's a lot of men in my life that would love to receive flowers. So I don't want to give the impression that, you know, flowers aren't for me because that's certainly not the case. But in a lot of occasions I think men enjoy receiving a few other things too.
Nathan Bush: And what was the reception like as soon as you launched it?
[Voiceover]: Those crazy people where I got back from New Zealand beginning of January and I looked at the gifting holiday calendar and I saw Valentine's day was on the 14th of Feb. I thought, why don't I get a minimum viable product up online before Valentine's Day? I'll launch a website and just quickly test the market, see if this has legs. So I put my project manager hat on And I quickly put together a time frame and I managed to launch a brand within three weeks. So I launched the website on the 1st of February 2017 with one product. It was basically a one page website. And at the time my neighbor worked in marketing and I went knocking on her door and I said, look, I've got this concept, I've got this idea, but I need other people to know about it. And she had a connection with someone at Urban List and so she gave me an intro. I then said to Urban List, I want to be on your Valentine's Day gift guide. How do I do it? They said, you need really good high res imagery so I'm going to work backwards. So I went to them and I was like, what do you need for me to get onto this good guy? Basically you need high res imagery. I then rang my friend who was a photographer. We shot some really great images in his kitchen. I sent them across to Urban List. They loved them, they used them as their headline shot of their gift guide. And we sold 100 boxes for Valentine's Day. So that was the beginning of Manflower Co. And I think the feedback we got from from that point on really showed that I wasn't the only one struggling to send gifts to a guy. And I wanted something that looked really sleek and that would be a bit of a showstopper when it arrived at the office.
Nathan Bush: Ever scrolled through an E Commerce packaging website for fun? Nah, me neither. Until today. Paclio is putting the joy into the packaging game. So let's play a game. I'll tell you the name of the Paclio product and you have to try and guess what kind of product they are. Fairy floss Compostable mailer. Queen Bee Honeycomb Padded mailer. Here we go. Gummy Shark Water activated tape. Now if my jaded self thinks that this packaging is fun, imagine what your customers will think. Paclio is also eco friendly, Australian owned and operated with same day dispatch and 14 day returns. Now that's pure joy for everyone. Check out the Paclio range of E Commerce packaging options@paclio.com that's Paclio P A C K L E O paclio.com. so that was your proof of concept. That was the moment that you knew you had the business?
[Voiceover]: Yeah, absolutely, I think. But also hearing the feedback from customers, I think too being really happy that they actually had an option of something to send to their boyfriend or their partner or their husband, you know, there was a genuine need for it.
Nathan Bush: And have you had feedback since then? So what year month Are we talking here, 2017?
[Voiceover]: So that was literally the first month we launched. And from there I bootstrapped the business, took on the feedback and just started building the brand layer by layer. So at the time I was on maternity leave, so I was putting all the revenue back into the business. It was clear that people didn't want to just send a beer. That was probably one of the first pieces of feedback. So Father's Day then happened in 2017, and we introduced a limited edition range of gift packs where we introduced our gifting formula, which we still have now and we still follow, where we pair beer with a product and create sort of a unique gifting experience. We're selling swim shorts and a full pack of beer, but really what we're delivering to the customer or the recipient is a holiday in a box. That feeling of, I can put swim shorts on, I can have a beer, I can take a break and I can feel like I'm having a holiday. So that was really when we started evolving the brand and showing how we are really solving that complex situation of means gifting.
Nathan Bush: Fantastic. And do you think your background, because you're not new to retail, you've had great experience in big businesses like afterpay, netsuite, Cisco. Do you think that helped establish Manflower
[Voiceover]: Company really quickly, having worked at those big global organizations? And at the time, Afterpay probably wasn't global when I was working there, but obviously it is now. You see that even those really big organizations are doing things and they're not exactly knowing how they're doing them. Right. And they are just coming up with a process and going ahead with it and then refining it as they get feedback. And so I really felt comfortable executing on something that I'd never done before, because I knew that the sooner I executed on it, the sooner I would get feedback and the sooner I can improve. So I think that's a message to anyone who wants to launch a business and is hesitating that the sooner you do, the closer you are to achieving your outcome. Because the sooner you get feedback from paying customers is the moment that you are going to stand up against your competition because you're going to grow your product for your customers.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. And in terms of feedback, you mentioned that not all men want beer. Has there been any other feedback along the way that you've had a real light bulb moment about that has really changed your business?
[Voiceover]: I think it's understanding the psychology around gifting. Right. And the fact that we're an online gifting business and in what scenarios do people revert to online gifting and what types of gifts are they going to want to send? So I think some of the biggest light bulb moments for me over time is that understanding that whilst a gift I would comfortably gift to my brother or my husband isn't something that potentially is going to be a volume seller because it's quite personal. So I think bearing that in mind, but having an element of risk still to really stand out against the competition. Right. Because if we followed that formula of just doing the wine and the nibbles and the we would just be lucky the other half of company. And we noticed not to say that we, that they aren't doing good things, they 100% are, but that service is there and that's not who we are.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, absolutely. And so if we've got retailers listening to this and they, they run a really great retail business but they're like, oh, we just haven't nailed that gifting side of our business yet. What would be your secret to giving a great gifting experience online?
[Voiceover]: Understanding you are delivering two things. A service, so you're delivering the gift on behalf of someone else and then secondly, you're delivering a product which is the gift itself. So and with that in mind, you've got two customers, you've got the person who's sending the gift and then you've got the person receiving the gift. And understanding how you're going to service both of them is really critical to this whole equation. So I think when you understand the psychology behind it and that you've got two different people in play and that the person you're actually sending the gift, they need convenience, they need a smooth service really. You know, they literally can put in the gift message and not have to think twice and just trust that you're going to get it. So it's, it's online Customer Experience 101. Right. You know, just making sure that you are delivering on what you say you're going to do.
Nathan Bush: Is it hard balancing that from a gift giver perspective? Because we all, when we're giving gifts, we want to be perceived as. This has been really thoughtful and I found something really unique. But really our motivations are let's make this quick, let's make this easy, let's make this flawless. Like they kind of what we want people to see versus what we want to do is totally different. Is that difficult to get around and
[Voiceover]: I think we can only do so much and then it's really in the hands of our customer. Right. And I think that is where what we're trying to do at the moment too, just as a also to compete more effectively is an education piece. So on our socials we've been doing a lot of talking around our gifting formula, why it works and you know, we've got three sort of steps that we like to follow and it's you know, including a main gift that is practical and useful and then complimentary items to that and then potentially something that they want to eat and drink, like consume. And so we take time to educate that a lot. We've got blogs on our website to really help customers declutter and not go for volume in terms of I want 10 things and go for quality. But again like I said earlier, we can only do so much and ultimately it's the customer taking the time to you know, okay, who am I gifting and what would they appreciate and take a lead on that rather than their own ego which is obviously going to be really hard. I mean it's really hard for all of us because it's going against our, our human sort of nature.
Nathan Bush: And then on a gift receivers perspective, what are the most important parts to get right?
[Voiceover]: There's something really special about receiving something as a surprise, right? So that end mile, that last mile of delivery where they don't have to worry about going to the post office and picking it up or it's not challenging for them to actually get it into their hands. So getting into their hands is obviously really critical and making sure that that's as stress free as possible as possible. And then I think from then on it's about having packaging that creates curiosity so that the minute that they see it they are immediately sort of consumed in the story and just want to open it up and find out what it is and then opening that up and then having the layers to sort of open they've got the card. But then there's also a balance of not having too much packaging. We're off the attitude that we actually believe that as an E commerce brand it's our responsibility to ensure we're not including too much packaging and filler and that's what our customer appreciates too. So we don't want them to be put off by that. And then just seeing how it's all laid out and how everything is speaking to them I think. And you know what, it doesn't take much. I think, you know, some of our most reviewed Items of our 12 can be mail and that comes in a box where the 12 cans are all sort of flat and they open up the box and they've just got all this beer staring right at them. I mean, how. It's just, you know, they don't, they see it instantly. So I think just playing into the senses of, of the people, that's what it's about. It's just playing into the senses.
Nathan Bush: Do you get much social sharing off the back of that experience?
[Voiceover]: Us men are our recipients and men don't do a lot of social sharing and I would, if anyone is my customer who is listening, you know, social share away because that means a lot to us. We do get at Father's Day, that's probably a great time for us because mums do like to share and mums are great for that. But no, I have to say that social sharing is a challenge for us.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. On the other side you've got an incredible amount of reviews and some really, really positive reviews there. How do you generate those?
[Voiceover]: We are lucky to have customers to take the time to leave reviews and that's something that I think we've worked really hard on to have that rapport. And I think that starts with having a really good end to end customer experience. It's not just about having the automation or tools in place to request those reviews. I think in my opinion, customers are guaranteed to leave reviews in two scenarios. When they're really unhappy and when they're really happy. And obviously we want the really happy ones. So we've really focused on an end to end experience that looks after and takes care of our customer. So if you're a first time customer, you'll receive an email from us the next day saying thank you so much for your first purchase and it's from me and I'm saying, you know, we start from humble beginnings and I really want to hear your feedback. If you've got anything you want to share, I'm all ears. And we get lots of feedback through that initial touch point, which is brilliant but that I think that immediately sort of begins a relationship with the customer. And then we have obviously got the out of the box communications that we use through Shopify in terms of, you know, your order has been received, your order's been processed. We've then got Starship it integrated for our fulfillment and we have configured more up to date live emails and text messages. So you'll get a email when your gift is on board for delivery and then when it's delivered and then we. So that's all the post purchase sort of caretaking and then it's not until 10 days after the gift has been sent that we send an email to our customer requesting for a review. And I think we've been lucky to get and we incentivize with a 15% discount and we've been lucky to get a really, really high success rate. And I think that's not just because we've got the email set up. It's because we've got the end to end experience. The person who received the gift loved it and they got really good kudos for that. And I think that is reflection of the reviews. Yeah, I still every day I'm so taken back by how many reviews we have and what people say. And it's so reassuring for me as a business owner who's I guess learning myself along the way. But that's the most critical data that I can use to keep growing my business. Yeah, it's just like a goldmine of information.
Nathan Bush: Absolutely. And on the review incentive of 15% for the gift receivers, do you see a lot of your receivers then turn into gift givers?
[Voiceover]: And that's something we're going to encourage more because we with after hours which is I think we'll touch on later on which is my new gifting brand. We actually have an insert in the gift box where we say I bet you've got great taste too. Here's a discount code to send a gift. And we don't actually do that with Math Flower Co. But when I send that email I was referring to earlier the next day for first time purchases. A lot of the time the response I get from that email is thanks so much Emma. I found out Math Alicia through someone else sending me a gift. So. And that's actually when we. So what is a growing part like a growing customer base for us is men. Obviously women are our main customer base but through the pandemic we saw a shift where you know, even guys really wanted to be able to say to their mates, you know, I'm really sorry you missed out on your birthday or I'm really sorry you have the incorrect time. And so we are seeing more and more men send gifts to their mates which you know and that is stemmed from them receiving a gift too.
Nathan Bush: Did you find there was a big uplift during COVID of those? Just because gifts is like I'm missing birthdays to your example or hey, just haven't seen you in a while thinking of you and moving now to more. I dread to say it but more. More normal times. Is it hard then to forecast based on the changing customer behavior the challenge
[Voiceover]: that we're trying to address at the minute, the last couple of years, we saw the pandemic create gifting occasions that weren't sort of happening prior to the pandemic, right? So we had corporate customers wanting to send care packages to their staff. We had brothers wanting to send birthday gifts to their brothers because they weren't able to have their 30th birthday. And we actually saw. It was really heartfelt. We saw so many people just sending adjust because this is a really shitty time and we hope this gives you like five minutes reprieve. And I remember my dad, FaceTime with my dad, because actually our business grew 300%. It was insane. And I actually had my second baby. He was six weeks old. And it was such a unusual time of my business growing and that being something that I had lived and breathed for, yet everything around me was falling apart. It was such a conflict of emotions. And then seeing all these messages come through from people who were just so worried about their friends, it was actually really emotional. And I remember to speak to my dad and I cried. I was like, there are so many people feeling it and I feel so lucky that I offer a service where I can help them in a small way. So stay connected. So we saw a massive uptake. And whilst that, you know, has meant great things for our business, we understand a lot more how people use our website, what products they want to send. When you've got that volume of people again, it creates data, right? But now we're in a position where, okay, we've come off two years, which were still unprecedented and not normal. And so now the challenge is, how do we plan for next year? Two years, what is it going to look like from a planning capacity perspective? I can't really take the last two years and think that that's going to apply moving forward. So I was speaking to our virtual CFO and we sort of came up with a formula that we're just going to apply based on a bit of an average, apply some growth, all of that. But we're in a really tricky situation where we're coming up to Father's Day. Last year, we sent over 3,000 gifts Australia wide. And my entrepreneur hat is saying to me, emma, plan for 3,000 gifts. You know, let's do it. But then the conservative in me is saying, yeah, but 80% of your competition is back open. Bunnings is open. You know, all of the REIT bricks and mortar are open. How can you possibly do that? So it's a real balance between trying to be a risk taker, but also be realistic and you know, because I don't want to be stuck with all that stock.
Nathan Bush: Anyone who has a pet will attest to this. They do not wait patiently. Pet Culture was the new kid on the pet scene. The dogs were feverishly barking and the cats planning their owner's demise if they did not get live quickly. Luckily, Shopify plus AKA Eventura came to the rescue. Pet Culture were able to do a soft launch within four months and go live to the public within six, including CRM subscriptions, personalization and memberships. No puppy steps here. We're straight into big dog territory. To read more of Pet Culture's story and see other case studies, visit the customer section on shopify.com au+stop looking at me weird cat. And what side do you naturally fall onto? Like where does your head naturally go? Risk taker or entrepreneur?
[Voiceover]: Like conservative Risk taker for sure. Yeah. Because I just think that and my. What's at risk? Okay, I'm going to have leftover product. I could rig up my supplier and say, look, I didn't sell it. Do you want to take it back? And I've got some really great relationships with some of my suppliers where I know that that's the conversation I can have. So I look at the risk and then, and then it's cash flow. Right. It's like, well that's, it's like do you want your cash tied up and on product on the shelves or do you want to be able to put that more into like a really fun marketing strategy or something? So it's, it's always a juggle. And this isn't, you know, anyone who is listening will understand that it's, we're always trying to decide what piece of the pie goes where.
Nathan Bush: Absolutely. So I just want to touch on Manflower before we move on. We've got a lot to cover actually. But you talked about your tech stack there. I thought that was really interesting. One of the things that I noticed about your website is that there's a high level of personalization, including being able to create your own box, obviously sending to a third party. It's not your normal checkout that you can get off the shelf, but you still built with Shopify. How have you gone about doing that level of customization?
[Voiceover]: I'm really lucky that they've got a huge Shopify app network where anything that any functionality that doesn't live within Shopify natively you typically can find an app for. And whilst sometimes that means your flow isn't as Seamless adjustments that you have to take time to understand how Shopify works and then work my process around that a little bit so that I can get the best of both worlds. Right? Because an out of the box website is really cost effective and you can still deliver a great solution for your customers with some of those apps. So we've got our create your own gift, which is an app from Shopify Store. Then we use an app that allows us to click gift messages. You can also configure delivery dates. We don't have that switched on at the minute, but there's a whole raft of things that you can do with more or less a click of a button. So. But the biggest challenge for us is that and for anyone who's wanting to do gifting is that you do have to work it in a way that works with Shopify rather than a way that works for you. Otherwise it becomes very expensive from a sort of a, you know, website development perspective. Although in saying that Shopify, you can't even as we know that checkout flow, you can't actually alter unless you're on Shopify plus. So you've just got to make it work.
Nathan Bush: So rather than lay out the ideal scenario and go after it no matter what, look at what's available to you and kind of get 80% there with what's available off the shelf.
[Voiceover]: What can I do out of the box? What apps are going to fill the gaps and then how can I implement the apps to make that process as streamlined as possible? Because there are some flexibility with the apps. For example, if you want to connect a gift message, do you put it on the cart page or do you put on the product page? So it's understanding where you think the customer is most likely going to see it and where it intuitively makes sense. So there is a bit of flexibility there. But definitely working with out of the box is how we've done it.
Nathan Bush: And you mentioned personalization there. I could imagine that it's not as straightforward as it sounds because you've got gift givers and gift receivers and you would have very different data and experiences for both. How do you separate the two?
[Voiceover]: And again, we don't do that in a overly complex manner. So for Shopify at the front end, we've done simple things like alter the language at checkout. So as you know, you can go into Shopify and what on a lot of Shopify e commerce websites, you know, it'll say, okay, into your shipping address we write recipients delivery address. So we've changed in the language to make it more in line with the gifting experience. And then secondly, there is a few default settings that you can deselect. So for example, in Shopify you can by default make the delivery address, the billing address. So we've made sure that that's not selected so that we try and encourage the customer to fill in the billing address. So that way we have their details 100% of the time we always get the email right. So we're always growing our email database, which is brilliant, but it just means on some occasions when we're sending them emails, we're sending them referring to them as the person that sent me gift to, which is not ideal. And that is something that we will only be able to address with a fully customized checkout flow, which isn't completely off the cards, but not in the immediate future.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, you've got a few things going on by the sounds of it. You mentioned After Hours, your new brand. Can you tell us about that?
[Voiceover]: After Hours is first we were getting approached a lot from our customers saying, do you have a female version of Manflava Co in terms of the concept of the three things, you know, a gift, something to drink and then, you know, something to consume, to chocolate or treats. And so we were getting it from that angle. But more importantly, from a strategy perspective, I really want to grow our corporate gifting capability and to be able to make that process very streamlined. For anyone who's organizing corporate gifts, they want to go to one person and they want to organize however many gifts for their entire company, male, female, or what have you. So. So it was coming from that angle. It was very much, how can I service corporate beta without diluting what Manfawako is? And I think one of our biggest weaknesses is one of our biggest strengths. You know, the fact that we are niche does create some challenges, but a secret sauce. So I didn't want to. And the reason we can have such great marketing messages is because we're solving one problem. We're not trying to be everything to everyone. And I didn't want to delete that message. So After Hours has been created to fill that gap that we have as a company perspective. So now from a corporating, from a corporate gifting, we can say, look, we've got two specialist gifting solutions and you know, we can do full suite. So that's sort of where it was driven from. So, yeah, I'm really happy with how that's. How that's come about.
Nathan Bush: Brilliant. Well, and it's a beautiful site. It looks amazing. It looks like a really great luxury brand.
[Voiceover]: That was so funny. With Nanflower Co. I did things layer by layer. Right. I got the logo, I spent $600 on a logo and did everything very much, you know, on a tight, tight budget. And then after hours is applying everything I've learned from growing Manflower code, but doing it in that sort of initial setup stage rather than over time. And it felt good to be able to come out the gates with something really beautiful. That's great.
Nathan Bush: And from your experience as an entrepreneur, as a founder, what's it like having two brands to manage now instead of just the one? To kind of laser in on a
[Voiceover]: lot more than I anticipated. A lot of people saying to me, gosh, you're crazy. And I thought, not really. I'm just launching a new front end. I'm still using the same warehouse, I've got the same stuff. But no, there's a lot. But I think that also comes back to, you know, understanding why I wanted to have my own business. And a big part of that is having control. Right. Like having control over creative freedom, having control over how I solve customers problems, but also having control over how much time I spend in work and being able to be flexible with my kids. And so I think as an entrepreneur, when you're really fast paced, you have to remind yourself and, well, you're setting expectations here how fast you want to grow this business and you've got control over that. So it's reminding yourself that you do have that control and that you can take it back if you need to. So that's. You know, I have some weeks where I'm incredibly productive and I'm on fire and I'm loving it. And then there's other weeks where I'm just not keeping on top of things and I just accept it for what it is. That's just. That's just the nature of the beast.
Nathan Bush: It's natural.
[Voiceover]: Right?
Nathan Bush: Right.
[Voiceover]: Yeah. Waste time trying to solve the fact that I'm really busy. Because that's just what happens when you run a couple of businesses. Yeah.
Nathan Bush: And I think you've done a great job in making it personal. Like people ordering from Manflower after hours, they can see who's behind it. They get a feel for who you are and that you actually love gifting and the gifting experience as both grow. How do you manage that as Emma, the founder, being out front of these brands? Verse, actually, I can't take every bit of feedback. I can't be the face of the brand.
[Voiceover]: Two Other mums that work for me and they are very much the same type of personality. And we're all, we know the value of an hour. We love that whole process of wrapping the gifts. And so I think it just comes down to making sure you've got the right creative partners. So we use obviously a lot of agencies and things that you're just working with the people that have the same morals and values as you. And that's always going to come through in your brand. Obviously, as things continue to scale, that's going to be harder and harder to control because the further and further you get away from the coal face. Right. But I don't think I will ever not be presenting or being close to my customers. I think that some of the biggest, most successful entrepreneurs are the ones that have remained in touch with their customers. So I just think that that's something that I love doing. It's why I wanted an online e commerce business. It's because I do love the retail customer service element and I'll always be able to have my finger in it if I want to.
Nathan Bush: That's great. All right, so what is next? I know we talked about having a lot on what's on your priority list for Manflowers Co. And after hours with
[Voiceover]: Manflower Co, we go through a brand refresh. As mentioned earlier on, I launched Manflower Co within three weeks. I was really inexperienced in terms of marketing, branding, all of that. And so the new branding is like the convergence of, like me maturing as a business owner, Manflower Co. Maturing as a brand, and then preparing for the future. So that whole new brand is going to be slowly sort of rolled out second half of this year. Then after hours, we just about to execute on our corporate gifting strategy. So that's more B2B, so you probably won't see it so much in the front end. So we're sort of doing sales navigator on LinkedIn and a whole bunch of other things, really trying to get into speaking with office managers, EAs, PAs, the people that organize those things. And then Father's Day is huge. So after hours we'll just sort of go into pilot mode and Manflower Co gets all the attention. So that's our biggest time of the year. It's huge for us and it's our most favorite time of year and we're looking forward to coming out with some great gift ideas, but also just taking time to celebrate fatherhood. It's changed so much over the years and I think, you know, dads are doing some really Great things. So, you know, dad, jokes aside, I genuinely do like taking the time to. My husband supports me in my business and he takes care of kids just as much as I do. And I think it's a time to recognise that there has been a number of changes too.
Nathan Bush: And does your husband get a gift on Father's Day from Manflower Co or do you still have to shop elsewhere?
[Voiceover]: Take content home. So product home to do content all the time. And I'll leave, leave it in the corner of the house and then I go to open the fridge and the beer that I had to record is, like, in the fridge. You've got to stop drinking the product. But, yeah, no, he. He does definitely have a number of our products and loves a visit to the warehouse. He thinks it's his own private, you know, seller. So. Yeah, but it's good to have. He's my. He is my target recipient. You know, he's your average Aussie bloke. He wears a suit but would do anything to wear freaking his Dandels all day. Loves going out for a nice dinner, but equally would love a barbecue in the backyard, you know, So I actually get a lot of inspiration from watching him doing his favorite things. That's where a lot of my gift ideas come from, is watching him and what he uses. And then I'm like, I can turn that into a gift.
Nathan Bush: He's like, I'm just trying to chill out. I'm just, like, eating and drinking in front of the table. Tv. Stop studying me.
[Voiceover]: I know. Well, it's so funny because one of our gifts is a classic trio. It's a bag of chips, nuts and some beer, right? And one day I literally saw him watching tv, watching the footy. He's got his bag of chips, he's got a couple of beers and he's having some treats. And I'm like, this is a perfect gift. And so then the classic trio was born.
Nathan Bush: So that's great. All right, so if we've got listeners listening to this and they either want to organize, look at new corporate gifting solutions, or, like you said, Father's Day coming up, what's the best way to
[Voiceover]: get in touch www.manfelico.co. i was about to say.com because I'm from New Zealand, no.com people, but obviously LinkedIn. I'm on LinkedIn, so you can send me a DM on LinkedIn. I'd love to hear from anyone and I would really love to help anyone with their gifting. So get in touch via the website or send me an email.
Nathan Bush: Beautiful Emma, thank you so much for sharing the story so far of Manflower company After Hours and just sharing your experience on gifting in general. I think a lot of retailers listening to this will it'll spark a lot of thoughts around how they can lift that gifting experience. So thank you very much. So if that conversation has prompted you or reminded you of Father's Day coming up Sunday 4th September, a very important date if you need anything. Emma and the the Manflower team have given Add to Cart listeners a special discount. To get your gifting on, Simply go to manflowerco.com and use the code Happy Hour 10 or one word Happy Hour 10 to access your discount. Go on. Make his day. Here are the top three lessons I took away from our conversation with Emma. Number one the gifting Formula. Now, even though Manflower co has over 200 products and let's be honest, limitless opportunities to keep expanding, Emma has a really simple formula for knowing what a good present looks like in her own words, a main gift that is practical and useful and then a complimentary item to that and then potentially something they want to eat or drink or might consume. This formula has helped her make her ranging decisions much simpler. If you can find a similar formula, you'll be in a really great spot when you look to expand your range. Number two two Gifting is Delivering twice Sounds hard, right? But Emma's main message to retailers looking to improve their gifting experience was to think of it as delivering twice, once as a gift or a product to the recipient and once as a service to the gift giver. Both experiences need to be met perfectly for it to work. It's not just adding a lovely little gift message on at the end of checkout, you've got to really think of it as two separate offerings and number three Multi brands for focused messages. Rather than add on additional product to Manflower Co to cater for a broader audience that Emma was attracting, Emma opened up a second brand after hours. That means that both brands can now have really distinct personalities and be really clear on who they are talking to, which makes it so much easier for marketing. Multi brand expression expansion can allow that kind of growth without watering down the message. Another consideration if you are looking for growth to get the highlights of today's episode, head on over to add to cart.com and sign up for our free newsletter each Tuesday. We will send Monday's episode summary links and discount codes for you to go next level on. And if you're looking looking to explore your next e commerce opportunity, Come and Visit us at eSweet. We're a dedicated e commerce talent agency connecting the best e commerce talent with the fastest growing brands in Australia. Head on over to esweettalent.com where you can download the free e Commerce Salary Guide and sign up to our weekly e Commerce job emails. Thanks for listening and until next time, keep those customers adding to cart.
