In this episode of Add To Cart, we are joined by Harry Sanders from StudioHawk, an SEO agency he started when he was just 17 years of age. It is now the largest dedicated agency of its kind in Australia, employing more than 50 SEO specialists with over 300 clients including well loved eCommerce brands such as Officeworks, Flora & Fauna and Mecca. Harry grew StudioHawk into the multi award winning company it is today, despite going through a period of homelessness along the way. In this chat,...
May 08, 2022•52 min•Season 1Ep. 185
In this episode of Add To Cart, we are joined by the James Bond of marketing - Mark Baartse. You call him in when you’ve got a problem to solve and you need the best in the business. Mark is, in his own words, the outsourced Chief Marketing Officer. Before consulting, Mark led the growth for leading fashion brand Showpo and has worked with clients including Catch, Menulog and Officeworks. He has been awarded the Top 50 CMP, Top 50 people in eCommerce and is a regular contributor to publications ...
May 05, 2022•5 min•Season 1Ep. 184
In this episode of Add To Cart, we are joined by Mac Slodyczka, the founder of Joolca. Joolca is a completely portable hot water system that can easily be used camping - or off the grid, or while renovating - anywhere where you need the luxury of hot water! Developed by Mac and his team, Joolca is now sold and distributed in four countries - Australia, US, UK and Canada - and sold through retailers including Tentworld and Snowy’s. Mac talks us through how he developed the innovative Joolca solut...
May 01, 2022•41 min•Season 1Ep. 183
In this episode of Add To Cart, we checkout Nick Pearce, CEO and Co-founder of HoMie - a social enterprise that aims to break down the stigma associated with homelessness and those experiencing it rough on the streets. They do this through their ultra cool fashion label, HoMie, their up-cycled ReBorn range and their Pathway Alliance Program that helps disadvantaged youth kick start their retail career. Links from the episode: HoMie Urban Outfitters Smartless From The Streets To The Catwalk: The ...
Apr 28, 2022•6 min•Season 1Ep. 182
In this episode of Add To Cart, we are joined by James van Rooyen, Co-founder of Bikes Online - or Bicycles Online as they have been known in Australia. Starting out as bike tour operators, James and his business partner Jono, thought they might be able to get bikes cheaper if they ordered them direct from the supplier. One container load and an eBay store later, Bikes Online was born. Today, they sell bikes to both the Australian and US markets and have 100 staff spread across every continent. ...
Apr 24, 2022•36 min•Season 1Ep. 181
In this episode of Add To Cart, we checkout James Taylor, the Founder and CEO of Particular Audience - an Australian technology platform helping eCommerce retailers create a more intuitive and personalized shopping experience through merchandise, search and advertising. And this is all done dynamically and without using any personally identifiable information or third party cookies. James’ theory is that product data and intention is more important than customer groupings and it is a fascinating...
Apr 21, 2022•5 min•Season 1Ep. 180
In this episode of Add To Cart, we are joined by Katrina Van De Ven and Catherine Olivier who are just five weeks into the launch of Leukbook (that’s L-E-U-K book) a one stop plus size fashion shop. With 90 percent of size 14+ customers feeling under-served by existing shopping options, Katrina and Catherine knew they could make a serious difference in this space. They have ten brands currently on board and are set to double this number in the next few months. In the conversation, we discuss the...
Apr 17, 2022•40 min•Season 1Ep. 179
In this episode of Add To Cart, we checkout Brad Karney, Co-founder and CEO of Refundid. Brad describes himself as a retail enthusiast who combined this energy with his finance background to create a solution for a common pain point - refunds! Refundid provide instant refunds to customers on behalf of brands, when they want to make a return. Instead of customers having to wait until the item has made it’s often long journey back to the retailer, they get the cash in their pocket straight away. R...
Apr 14, 2022•9 min•Season 1Ep. 178
In this episode of Add To Cart, we are joined by Rob Ward, Co-founder and CEO of Quad Lock. Now, ten years old, Quad Lock is a case-mounting system for people with active lifestyles - whether this be driving, riding, cruising, running, golfing, cycling or even singing. Quad Lock has all your phone mounting needs covered. Quad Lock is now sold in over a hundred countries and has annual revenue exceeding $100m. Better still, it has entered the vernacular with many people no longer mounting their p...
Apr 10, 2022•51 min•Season 1Ep. 177
In this episode of Add To Cart, we checkout Rosa-Clare Willis and Andrew Ford, Co-founders of DIY pottery kits, Crock’d. They are on a mission to help friends and family have real connections through the power of creativity. Both from a start up and UX background, they only launched Crock’d two years ago and are now selling across Australia, Europe and the US. Even more impressive, what started as a physical set up with a warehouse is now a fully remote team scattered across the world. Links fro...
Apr 07, 2022•10 min•Season 1Ep. 176
In this episode of Add To Cart, we are joined by Kate Casey and Phoebe Simmonds, Co-founders of The Memo, a one stop curated online shop for everything you need to care for your baby. Born out of frustration with the patronising tone used to speak to new mothers, The Memo is a grown up answer to new parents’ consumer confusion, connecting them with the best and brightest brands in the baby-sphere. In this chat, we discuss how the founders’ corporate backgrounds in beauty and luxury inform the wa...
Apr 03, 2022•41 min•Season 1Ep. 175
In this episode of Add To Cart, we checkout Ben Sandhu from Ida Sports, a company who have created the first football boot specifically designed for women’s feet. Only a couple of years old, they have grown from an idea on the back of a napkin and an early prototype they called the ‘frankenshoe’, to selling out of their first range, getting stocked in Dicks Sporting Goods and having Isabel Dawes kick a goal in the AFLW grand final wearing their shoe. Links from the episode: Patagonia HoMie Coles...
Mar 31, 2022•7 min•Season 1Ep. 174
In this episode of Add To Cart, we are joined by Becca Stern, the Co-founder of Mustard Made, the place to go for stylish, functional lockers. Yes, you heard me right, lockers…the essential high school backdrop in American coming of age movies. Becca’s lockers have evolved into a range of shapes, sizes and colours…mustard being one of them of course. Back in the day, Becca had a habit of rescuing vintage lockers she spotted on the side of the road. This locker passion grew and grew and when Becc...
Mar 27, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 173
In this episode of Add To Cart, we checkout Erin Holt, Gumtree’s Head of Partnerships. Gumtree now goes beyond household items and includes cars, jobs, real estate and services. There are now over 7.8m Australians using Gumtree - or gummies, as they affectionately known and Add to Cart wanted to get an update on Gumtree, understand more about Gummies and explore how eCommerce brands might be able to access this huge audience. Links from the episode: Kmart Bunnings Dare to Lead by Brene Brown The...
Mar 24, 2022•5 min•Season 1Ep. 172
In this episode of Add To Cart, we are joined by Josh Howard, Founder of Single Use Ain’t Sexy, yes that’s the brand name, Single Use Ain’t Sexy. He has come up with a unique product which is a massive hack to save time, save money and hopefully save the planet! He calls it the Berocca for hand soap - and it’s got nothing to do with consuming it when you’re hungover, I’ll leave him to explain. In this chat we cover so much ground. From how Single Use Ain’t Sexy’s impact is made not only by reduc...
Mar 20, 2022•49 min•Season 1Ep. 171
In this episode of Add To Cart, we checkout Edwina Cameron, Co-founder of I Heart Wall Art. Having got tired of keeping up with the Joneses in the suburbs, Edwina and her family upped sticks and moved to the rainforest, built a shed in the garden and set up an online wall art business...as you do. With a particular focus on Australian nature, I Heart Wall Art offers a range of digital prints, canvases and framed artworks, some of which Edwina creates herself. They now employ two staff and are ju...
Mar 17, 2022•6 min•Season 1Ep. 170
In this episode of Add To Cart, we are joined by Heather McIlvaine, Features and Premium Editor at Inside Retail . If you haven’t heard of Inside Retail, get your butt over insideretail.com and sign up to their daily email. And if you’re already a lover of what they do, become a professional subscriber. I reached out to Heather because she is behind the Top 50 People in eCommerce which you may be seeing all over your Linkedin newsfeed right now. Now in its 7th year, Heather and I discuss the pro...
Mar 13, 2022•51 min•Season 1Ep. 169
In this episode of Add To Cart, we checkout Sam Penny from Artisan’s Bend, a curated marketplace for artisan producers. He is also behind the great online cheese shop, Cheese Therapy. According to Sam, they are now the largest cheese retailer behind Woolies and Coles. This is Sam’s latest venture and just one of the many strings to his bow - he’s a former soldier, engineer, extreme swimmer and cheesemonger...oh and he used to own hair salons. Slowing down is now at the heart of Sam’s business an...
Mar 10, 2022•9 min•Season 1Ep. 168
In this week’s special, mid-week episode of Add To Cart, we share a sneak peak of some of the content from eSuite’s eCommerce Accelerator student programme, which commenced on the 21st March 2022. This bonus ep includes the answers to a question Nathan posed to ten leaders in eCommerce, ranging from leaders to retailers to agency folk to consultants to journalists. Some of them have even been on Add To Cart before. We wanted them to answer one simple question for our Accelerator students - “what...
Mar 08, 2022•14 min•Season 1Ep. 167
In this episode of Add To Cart, we are joined by Pamela Yip from Bubble Tea Club. When Covid hit, within a week of losing most of her marketing clients, Pamela Yip had conceived and launched a new business with her friend Jenny Le. Their idea - DIY bubble tea - was timely and a huge success - if the people can’t go and get bubble tea, then bubble tea must come to the people! Bubble Tea Club has now had over 40,000 customers or ‘bubblers’ as they are known and the company is generating over $2m i...
Mar 06, 2022•45 min•Season 1Ep. 166
In this episode of Add To Cart, we checkout Jen Donovan and Sarah Britz from Spend With Us. Jenn and Sarah are Co-founders of the online shopping marketplace and directory for rural and regional small businesses of Australia who have taken a hit from bushfires, drought, and coronavirus. Sarah, a web designer, had built a website to help bush businesses as they struggled with adversity. Meanwhile Jenn, with her marketing background,, was growing a community with her facebook group ‘Buy From a Bus...
Mar 03, 2022•8 min•Season 1Ep. 165
n this episode of Add To Cart, we are joined by the guy who used to play in Wayne Carey’s number 18 jersey at the North Melbourne Kangaroos. Nowadays, he is better known for having recently sold his retail media business, CitrusAd, to Publicis for $200m. Brad Moran is the CEO and Founder of CitrusAd - they monetize the digital shelf of eCommerce retailing sites. Or to put it simply, they take the old school grocery shelf buying and make it accessible for online retailers so they can generate add...
Feb 27, 2022•59 min•Season 1Ep. 164
In this episode of Add To Cart, we checkout Adam Lindsay from Koh. Confused by dozens of chemical cleaners, not to mention all the hardware that goes with them, Adam was determined to simplify domestic cleaning and create a simple, safe and effective alternative. Almost five years later, Koh is used in ten percent of Aussie households and the company is on track to hit $50 million in revenue this financial year. Links from the episode: Apple The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday But Does It Ac...
Feb 24, 2022•10 min•Season 1Ep. 163
In this episode of Add To Cart, we are joined by Tom Hollings from Different Drop. Tom is a self-confessed wine flirt whose passion turned into an eCommerce business. With a focus on wines crafted by real people with a sense of adventure and authenticity, Different Drop unearths the best and most exciting drops from producers all over Australia and with some great tech know-how, makes them accessible to all. In today’s chat we cover a heap of ground from how he and his Co-founder Brett, started ...
Feb 20, 2022•46 min•Season 1Ep. 162
In this episode of Add To Cart, we checkout Brenden Hartmann, General Manager at Budgy Smuggler swimwear. Who needs a great swathe of material billowing around your legs when a carefully positioned, streamlining triangle of lycra will do?! The brand started out as a bit of a laugh in an Aussie backyard when some mates decided to write ‘Budgy Smuggler’ on the back of some speedo-style swimmers. Growing from selling 1,000 pairs of smugglers a year to over 100,000 pairs internationally, Budgy Smugg...
Feb 17, 2022•14 min•Season 1Ep. 161
In this episode of Add To Cart, we are joined by Bill and Ed Ovenden, brothers who have established the bedroom brand, The Lad Collective. Founded in 2020, Ed and Bill have developed bed sheets that even bloody useless Australian males can use. Corner tags, magnetic clips, zip in pillow slips - it’s totally idiot proof. But jokes aside, there is a serious side - they’ve developed a version of the product which is registered with the NDIS - National Disability insurance scheme which even includes...
Feb 13, 2022•51 min•Season 1Ep. 160
In this episode of Add To Cart, we checkout Susan Martin from Smart In Planning. Have you ever wondered what the hell Merchandise Planners do? They are like the air filters of the retail world - everyone knows they are important but most don’t know what they actually do. Susan Martin is not just a Merchandise Planner, but one of the best in the country with her experience at Cotton On, Best & Less and The Warehouse Group. Today, Susan is the CEO of Smart In Planning who consults leading reta...
Feb 10, 2022•9 min•Season 1Ep. 159
In this episode of Add To Cart, we are joined by the James Bond of marketing - Mark Baartse. You call him in when you’ve got a problem to solve and you need the best in the business. Mark is, in his own words, the outsourced Chief Marketing Officer. Before consulting, Mark led the growth for leading fashion brand Showpo and has worked with clients including Catch, Menulog and Officeworks. He has been awarded the Top 50 CMP, Top 50 people in eCommerce and is a regular contributor to publications ...
Feb 06, 2022•52 min•Season 1Ep. 158
In this episode of Add To Cart, we checkout Leigh Williams, Founder and Managing Director of eStore Logistics - a third party logistics fulfilment and warehousing solution for small, medium and large retailers. In Leigh’s own words, they are aiming to democratise access to enterprise-level logistics for all retailers. eStore Logistics runs fulfilment and warehousing for some of Australia’s biggest eCommerce brands including Kogan, Temple & Webster and MyDeal. They are fulfilling 20 million o...
Feb 03, 2022•10 min•Season 1Ep. 157
In this episode of Add To Cart, we are joined by Nick Pearce, the CEO and Co-Founder of HoMie - a social enterprise that aims to break down the stigma associated with homelessness and those experiencing it rough on the streets. They do this through their ultra cool fashion label, HoMie, their upcycled ReBorn range and their Pathway Alliance Program that helps disadvantaged youth kick start their retail career. In this episode we go on a journey with Nick on how he went from studying Journalism a...
Jan 30, 2022•52 min•Season 1Ep. 156
