eCommerce Australia

Hosted by Ryan Martin

Business Management Entrepreneurship

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Episodes

140

Latest episode

Aug 2026

Language

EN-AU

About the show

Australian eCommerce Podcast - Interviewing Founders, eCommerce Specialists, Leading Australian Marketing Agencies and much more on the eCommerce Australia Podcast. Australian stories about Australian issues, Shopify experts, SEO experts, Founder Stories, eCommerce Managers. We bring the best talent to the microphone to share their experience, with the sole aim of improving your own eCommerce business. Host - Ryan Martin, Founder of Remarkable Digital, an eCommerce SEO and AIO agency. (https://www.remarkabledigital.com.au/)

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August 18, 2026Episode 14241 min

How a WhatsApp Group Became Australia's Biggest Retail Community | Dean Salakas & Jethro Marks

A text message at an airport turned into Australia's biggest retail and eCommerce community in about twelve months: 4,000 members, up to 90 chat groups, and meetups from Ballarat to Dubai. Dean Salakas (The Party People) and Jethro Marks ( The Nile ) join Ryan Martin ( Remarkable Digital ) to explain how Retail Community Group actually works, what it deliberately isn't, and how its members had workarounds in place days before Australia Post announced it was suspending shipping to the US. Dean built a two-person family business into Australia's largest party supplies retailer, offering click-and-collect in 1999 and becoming Google's first advertiser in Australia in 2003 at one cent a click, before exiting eighteen months ago. Jethro co-founded The Nile in 2003 and is now building the world's most trusted bookstore, with US and UK launches on the way. Neither of them set out to build a community. They started a WhatsApp group so they could find each other for a drink at Retail Fest, and it had fifty people in it before Dean's plane landed. Join the Whatsapp here In this episode they unpack the mechanics behind the growth: why the group split into interest-based channels for AI, cross-border trade, HR and open-to-work; how the "pitch slap" keeps unsolicited selling out; and why a moderated, free, no-pay-to-play space has become the place Australian retailers go first when something breaks. They also share what's coming next, including a public events directory, a vendor portal and peer advisory groups for retailers, plus their honest take on the hardest problem ahead: keeping the magic while scaling to a market Jethro estimates at 100,000 people. If you run an online store, work in retail tech, or you're new to eCommerce and feel like you're doing it alone, this one is a practical guide to plugging into the most collaborative industry in the country. Join The Retail Community Here Topics covered: retail community building, Australian eCommerce, cross-border trade and tariffs, Australia Post US shipping suspension, 3PL and fulfilment, retail conferences and events, AI tools for retail, B2B community moderation, thought leadership for service providers.

August 9, 2026Episode 14149 min

A Trillion Dollars in Transactions: What Criteo Sees That You Don't

Running an Australian eCommerce or Shopify store? Your customers have started shopping inside ChatGPT, and shoppers arriving from AI answer engines convert around 1.5x better than any other source. Melbourne eCommerce Aus Event - Tickets Here. Online shopping has become… boring? A recent Criteo study found 77% of Australians describe online shopping as unexciting, and that's just the starting point for one of our most forward-looking conversations yet. Ryan sits down with Matt Hurle from Criteo to unpack the findings of their latest report and what they mean for anyone running an eCommerce business in Australia. Matt brings 20 years in advertising, 15 in digital and 10 in martech, from cold-calling rural businesses out of the Yellow Pages to sitting at the front edge of AI-powered retail media. The big theme: the path to purchase is no longer linear. Consumers are bouncing between publishers, retailer sites, social platforms and AI answer engines like ChatGPT, and increasingly starting their entire shopping journey inside those answer engines, at the very first spark of an idea. Criteo was the first technology company integrated with OpenAI via API and has already run 2,000+ campaigns in that environment. Early signal? Shoppers arriving from ChatGPT convert about 1.5x more efficiently than any other source. We also get into the eternal marketer's tension Ryan sums up perfectly: "The thing I love about digital marketing is you can track every dollar. The thing I hate about digital marketing is you can track every dollar." Attribution, brand vs. performance, the resurgence of SEO (or GEO/AIO, whatever we're calling it this week), influencer strategy, and why customer support and honest reviews now beat polished influencer content for building real trust. Key Takeaways The funnel is dead — long live discovery. Consumers now begin shopping journeys inside AI answer engines, far earlier than the traditional mid-to-lower funnel signals marketers relied on. Brands need to show up higher up the discovery journey. Commerce data is the new gold standard. Moving away from demographics and guesswork toward real commerce signals — what people add to cart, actually buy, and browse before and after. Criteo observes 1T+ in annual eCommerce transactions across 730M+ daily active shoppers. Show up across surfaces, not just your own. Criteo's independence means it serves ads on whichever "surface" (open web, ChatGPT, Meta, TikTok, Pinterest, X) is most likely to convert — not a walled-garden's owned inventory. ChatGPT shoppers convert ~1.5x better. They've researched and validated inside the answer engine, so trust is high by the time they land. SEO/GEO/AIO matters more than ever. As search shifts from keywords to full-sentence, conversational queries, rich product data and verifiable messaging determine whether you appear in AI answers — or get left out of the consideration set entirely. Trust beats polish. Verified reviews and genuine customer support now outweigh paid influencer content. 200 five-star reviews can be less trusted than a 4.7 average. Reply to bad reviews honestly. (Ryan's Nero merino example and Matt's Artisan chopping-board recall story both make the point.) Match the influencer to the job to be done. Celebrities drive reach and exposure; micro-influencers drive engaged, community-level trust and conversion. Different jobs, different tiers. AI answer engines stay out of sensitive categories. OpenAI keeps advertising away from health-related matters, directing people back to their GPs.

August 1, 2026Episode 14051 min

From Bondi Markets to 13 Stores: Arms of Eve's eCommerce & Retail Growth Playbook

If you're building a Shopify store, a DTC label, or an omnichannel ecommerce brand in Australia, this episode is your blueprint. From selling jewellery at Bondi markets to 13 stores and a booming ecommerce business, Arms of Eve co-founders Kerryn and Aaron Langer show how an Australian DTC brand scales retail without losing its ecommerce edge. Kerryn and Aaron Langer turned a market stall and a pile of leftover merino wool offcuts into Arms of Eve, now a nine-store (soon to be 13) Australian jewellery and lifestyle brand that's scaled past $20 million in revenue on the back of a genuinely direct-to-consumer ecommerce model. In this episode of eCommerce Australia, Ryan Martin sits down with the husband-and-wife founders to unpack how they walked away from the traditional wholesale/indent model, why The Iconic marketplace became their unlikely proving ground, and how COVID-era demand for jewellery (turns out that's the only accessory that shows up on a Zoom call) turned a side category into 80% of the business. For Shopify merchants and ecommerce operators thinking about opening a physical store, this conversation is a masterclass in getting the sequencing right. Aaron was convinced retail was dead, until their "little experiment" Bondi Beach store proved the opposite, creating a measurable halo effect that lifts online sales in a 10km radius around every new location. They talk candidly about the tech stack behind a fast-scaling DTC ecommerce brand (Starshipit for fulfilment, Okendo for reviews, Profit Peak for profitability data, and an in-house team now "vibe coding" their own dashboards), how they balance agency support with in-house performance marketing, and why their content strategy has swung from polished campaign shoots to raw, iPhone-shot, Tolstoy-powered video that converts better than the highly produced stuff ever did. There's also a genuinely useful nugget for anyone running ecommerce SEO or content strategy: Kerryn and Aaron explain how customer questions from their retail staff (about materials, tarnish, sizing, warranty) are becoming the seed for on-site content designed to capture organic search traffic, a simple but underused move for any Shopify or ecommerce brand trying to turn support questions into search-optimised product and FAQ pages that rank. Add in an unfiltered take on celebrity gifting (Margot Robbie, Hailey Bieber and Dua Lipa have all been photographed in Arms of Eve pieces, without a single paid placement), a calculated US relaunch planned for June 2027, and hard-won lessons on hiring, culture and staying "even" as leaders, and this is one of the most tactical founder conversations on ecommerce, retail expansion and DTC brand-building we've featured on the show About Arms of Eve: Arms of Eve is an Australian jewellery, accessories and resortwear brand founded by Kerryn and Aaron Langer. Starting out selling at local markets, the brand has grown into a multi-channel ecommerce and retail business with nine stores nationwide (growing to 13 by the end of 2026), a wholesale presence in boutiques across Australia, and a fast-growing direct-to-consumer online store. Website: https://armsofeve.com/ Instagram: @armsofeve Resources & tools mentioned: Starshipit : ecommerce shipping and fulfilment platform Okendo: customer reviews platform Profit Peak : ecommerce profitability analytics Tolstoy: shoppable, native video for ecommerce sites The Iconic: Australian fashion marketplace Follow eCommerce Australia for more conversations with Australia's leading ecommerce and Shopify founders on growth, retail strategy, and building direct-to-consumer brands. Subscribe on Spotify and leave a review to help more ecommerce and Shopify store owners find the show.

July 18, 2026Episode 13946 min

How a $15M Mistake Became a Promotion: CRO, Attribution & What's Actually Working in 2026

Will North has led marketing and commercial functions at brands including Meshki, PE Nation, AJE and Superdry UK. For the last two and a half years he's been at Kulani Kinis , the Australian swimwear brand doing 75-80% of its revenue in the US. He joined Ryan Martin from Remarkable Digital to talk conversion rate optimisation, attribution, TikTok Shop and the marketing shifts defining 2026. The Kulani Kinis story. Founded 11.5 years ago by Sydney couple Danny and Alex as a side hustle, the brand found its footing in the US when Alex transferred to EY in LA. Today the US makes up 75-80% of revenue; Australia is just 7%. CRO is a business metric, not a digital one. Will's Retail Fest keynote ("I Lost the Company $15 Million and Got a Promotion") explored why every untested change to your site is a potential loss. His starting point: survey customers who've purchased and subscribers who haven't, distil 3-4 themes, then run ideas through an effort-versus-upside matrix before testing. Context kills best practice. Adding "some items in your cart may sell out" drove nearly $2M in annualised revenue at a streetwear brand. The same test lost revenue at a women's fashion brand, because scarcity signalling made shoppers worry about wearing the same thing as everyone else. Customer psychology differs by brand. The thank you page question nobody asks. Immediately post-purchase, ask: "Was there anything that almost stopped you from buying?" Customers who've just converted will tell you exactly what's broken. Attribution in 2026. No one does it perfectly. Will's approach is to define the role of each channel across the seasonal cycle and measure a marketing efficiency ratio (spend divided by sales) as a flow, not a fixed weekly target. TikTok Shop. 72% of fashion revenue on the platform flows through affiliate and creator. The new customer rate is 95%. Will visited the US team last month and TikTok Shop is a major focus for Kulani Kinis in FY27. What you say now matters as much as how you look. LLMs are changing discovery. If a brand has no content narrative, it won't show up when someone asks an AI for a recommendation. Will's take: GEO, AIO and SEO are all just SEO. Not all impressions are equal. Kulani Kinis ran direct mail via Post Pilot at a $600 CPM and it outperformed. A postcard on a fridge is a very different impression to a feed scroll-past. In-person events. A $40,000 Maldives brand trip generated the equivalent of $140,000 in media value from creator and customer content. Collaborations. A LinkedIn conversation between brand experience leads led to a Lounge Underwear collab that spiked Kulani Kinis' German sales in July 2024. Go in with clear objectives or don't bother. "Conversion is a business metric. It's not an e-com metric." "There is no such thing as best practice with CRO. Every brand's customer psychology is different." "You've got to sell it twice: on site and when they get it, otherwise it's coming back." Kulani Kinis: kulanikinis.com Post Pilot: postpilot.com Lounge Underwear: loungeunderwear.com Pura Vida Bracelets: puravidabracelets.com Retail Fest About Will North: Head of Commercial & Performance at Kulani Kinis. Previously held senior roles at Meshki, PE Nation, AJE and Superdry UK. Retail Fest speaker and Oria Award nominee (International Conqueror).

July 15, 2026Episode 13850 min

Founder Series: MAKU The Label - Kyall & Maku Fenaroli

Building an Art-Led eCommerce Fashion Brand: Kyall & Maku Fenaroli on Maku The Label In this episode, Ryan sits down with Kyall and Maku Fenaroli, the husband-and-wife team behind Maku The Label , an art-centric fashion brand that's gone from Maku painting designs on blank t-shirts to landing David Jones as a stockist, all in under 18 months. Maku spent over a decade in finance before turning her lifelong passion for art into a business. Kyall left a career as a plumber and general manager in construction to run the operations side full-time. Together they've built a brand defined by original artwork, rapid organic growth, and a willingness to make big, fast calls, including ripping up their entire fulfilment model mid-flight. This one's a masterclass in scrappy growth, knowing when to change your model, and what it actually takes to go from side hustle to major retail partner. From side hustle to Style Runner in four months Maku started printing her art on blank tees with zero branding, just a decision to stop buying t-shirts she didn't love. Four months later they landed Style Runner, their first major stockist, before either of them had heard of an SSCC barcode. Why they walked away from print-on-demand Print-on-demand gave Maku total creative flexibility (paint today, sell tomorrow), but it was killing customer experience with two-week delivery windows and mispicked orders. After a rough Black Friday period exposed the gap, they moved to a 3PL and in-stock model in a matter of months. The real cost of switching to held stock Kyall breaks down what changes when you go from print-on-demand to holding inventory: deposits on stock six months out, a five-to-nine month cash conversion cycle, and having to plan collections over a year in advance. Maku is already painting for August 2027. Contribution margin over vanity revenue Kyall's biggest lesson from the last 18 months: understanding gross margin, delivered margin, and contribution profit, not just top-line revenue. He talks candidly about how much of the "guru" advice in eCommerce ignores what it actually costs to get a sale to break-even. Wholesale lessons from Style Runner and David Jones Maku credits Style Runner for patiently teaching them the basics of wholesale (barcodes, dispatch windows, systems) before they stepped up to David Jones, where the same requirements come with far less flexibility. Personalised influencer gifting that actually gets shared Maku's approach to influencer seeding isn't a mail-merge, it's DM'ing people directly, matching values and aesthetic, and adding a genuinely personal touch (a hand-painted portrait for Alana Hadid, a custom tee tied to Celeste Barber's own brand). The result: organic shares from influencers with audiences in the hundreds of thousands to over a million. Pulling back from paid ads toward organic and IRL After ramping up Meta and Google ads over the past year, the pair are consciously shifting back toward the organic-first strategy that built the brand, including real-world events they say outperform equivalent ad spend. New York Fashion Week, twice Maku The Label is heading back to New York in September for NYFW, running a gifting suite with PR agency Kate & Co. and exploring a possible pop-up retail space alongside other Australian brands. What's next: the Australian designer category Maku's goal is to move the brand firmly into ready-to-wear and the Australian designer space, with the US identified as the next major growth market for both DTC and wholesale. Links & Mentions Maku The Label Style Runner David Jones Kate & Co. PR New York Fashion Week (September) Yotpo: Amazing Women in eCommerce retreat Humble Brag's retreat

June 27, 2026Episode 13741 min

2am Maternity Leave Idea to 400K Customers: How Lou Rice Built Strapsicle into a Global eCommerce Brand

What does it actually take to launch a product-based eCommerce business from scratch, scale it to over 400,000 customers, land in 170 Officeworks stores, crack Amazon US, and run a live Kickstarter campaign, all while raising a family from the other side of the world? In this episode of eCommerce Australia, Ryan Martin from Remarkable Digital, sits down with Lou Rice, Co-Founder of Strapsicle, the silicone Kindle and e-reader strap brand that went from a 2am maternity leave idea to a globally recognised eCommerce brand in under four years. Lou gets refreshingly honest about the messy middle of building a product business: the overstock nightmares, the borrowed money, the Amazon learning curve, and why she thinks most Australian eCommerce founders move too slowly on international expansion. If you sell physical products online, whether on Shopify, Amazon, or both, this episode is packed with hard-won tactical and strategic insights. The Strapsicle origin story : how a dropped Kindle at 2am became a 400,000-customer brand Launching a Kickstarter campaign : why Lou chose crowdfunding and what it takes to run one successfully Amazon US in 4 months : Lou's approach to international expansion that most Aussie founders avoid Scaling into Officeworks : from 13 stores to 170, and what actually drove sell-through TikTok Shop lives vs. Instagram Live : which channel is converting and how Lou runs flash sales in real time Building a brand community : how a Facebook group with engaged customers becomes a product feedback engine Overcoming eCommerce growing pains : overstock, cash flow, production costs, and how to navigate them Financial clarity for product founders : why knowing your numbers (especially unit economics on a low-AOV product) matters more than you think Accessibility as a product category : how Strapsicle is opening up reading for people with physical limitations The one thing most eCommerce founders don't do early enough : Lou Rice is the Co-Founder of Strapsicle, a silicone strap accessory for Kindles and e-readers that makes hands-free reading possible. What started as a 2am maternity leave invention is now a global eCommerce brand with over 400,000 customers, stocked in 170 Officeworks stores across Australia, and sold across the US, UK, and beyond via Shopify and Amazon. Lou is known in the Australian eCommerce community for her direct approach, her willingness to talk about the hard parts of building a product business, and her speed-first philosophy on international expansion. Strapsicle website : strapsicle.com Strapsicle Kickstarter campaign : Search "Strapsicle" on Kickstarter Officeworks : officeworks.com.au Amazon US : amazon.com : search "Strapsicle" eCommerce Australia Podcast : Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube Shopify eCommerce Australia, product-based business, eCommerce growth strategy, Amazon FBA Australia, Officeworks retail distribution, TikTok Shop Australia, live shopping eCommerce, Kickstarter product launch, Kindle accessories, scaling a physical product business, eCommerce founder story, international expansion strategy, eCommerce community building, Shopify store growth, low AOV product strategy, Australian eCommerce podcast

June 13, 2026Episode 13454 min

EP134 — How to Unfuck Your Business | Paul Waddy | eCommerce Australia

'What "fucked" actually means in ecommerce and the two ways brands get there: over-buying stock and operating at a loss' Ryan sits down with Paul Waddy, author of Shopify for Dummies, former Head of Operations at Showpo, former CEO of The Horse, and founder of Learn eCommerce, fresh off one of the standout keynotes at Retail Fest: "How to Unfuck Your Business in Three Steps." Paul shares his journey from suitcases of shoe samples in Guangzhou to coaching hundreds of ecommerce brands including Naked Sundays, Budgy Smuggler, Maison de Sabré and LSKD, and breaks down exactly why so many ecommerce businesses are losing money without realising it, and the formulas to fix it. Packed with hard numbers: target margins, ad spend benchmarks, inventory formulas and the metrics every founder should be tracking daily. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN • What "fucked" actually means in ecommerce and the two ways brands get there: over-buying stock and operating at a loss • Why high revenue can hide a failing business, and why some founders are "the lowest paid workers in Australia" • The three foundations of a healthy ecommerce business: sales, gross profit, and OPEX + inventory • The break-even formula: OPEX ÷ gross profit • Why you need a ~70% product margin in today's market • The inventory formula: forward cover = lead time + 30 days safety stock • Why ad spend should stay under 20% of net revenue (MER) with a 20% net profit target • The #1 trait of successful founders: humility • Why ecommerce businesses are valued on EBITDA multiples (2–4x), not revenue • Underrated organic channels: SEO, newsletters, and why nobody in ecommerce is using Reddit (yet) TIMESTAMPS (00:00) Welcome Paul Waddy — "the godfather of Australian ecommerce" (01:11) From McDonald's and Bonds Couriers to trade union official (03:18) Flying to Guangzhou and starting a men's shoe brand (05:18) Hard lessons in wholesale margins and cash flow (06:08) Five retail stores, no profit — and the move to ecommerce in 2007 (07:38) Joining Showpo: $100M with no external funding (08:50) CEO at The Horse and the start of advisory (Muscle Republic, Babyboo, and more) (09:52) Building Learn eCommerce: coaching hundreds of brand owners (12:11) What does a "fucked" business look like? The two killers: stock and operating losses (14:14) "You're the lowest paid worker in Australia" — why revenue hides the truth (17:56) "Time till I'm fucked" — the metric every founder should know (19:17) The three steps: sales, gross profit, OPEX & inventory (22:00) Margin targets, logistics under 10%, merchant fees under 3.5% (24:29) A warning about the "scale bros" and taking on debt to grow (25:22) Inventory formulas: forward cover and monthly stock budgets (28:14) The #1 trait of successful founders: humility (30:36) How often should you check your numbers? (Daily.) Forecasting within 2% (32:45) How to beat competitors with bigger ad budgets: differentiation (36:47) EBITDA multiples and why profit — not revenue — determines what your business is worth (39:48) Should you build to exit from day one? (41:30) Ad spend benchmarks: why MER should stay under 20% (44:24) Hot take: the channels everyone is sleeping on — SEO, newsletters and Reddit (48:50) How brands can actually use Reddit (without getting downvoted) (52:31) How to work with Paul KEY FORMULAS Break-even: OPEX ÷ gross profit (if monthly OPEX exceeds gross profit, you're losing money) Forward cover: lead time + 30 days safety stock (e.g. 60-day lead time = hold 90 days of stock) Monthly stock budget: planned sales × COGS % (e.g. $100K sales at 30% COGS = $30K stock buy) Benchmarks: ~70% margin | logistics <10% of revenue | merchant fees <3.5% | MER <20% | net profit target 20% CONNECT WITH PAUL WADDY Instagram: @paulwaddyecommerce Free SEO/GEO/AIO Audit - Click Here⁠ ⁠Scale Check from Learn eCommerce Pricing Calculator DM Paul for a free scale check Website: learnecommerce.com.au Book: Shopify for Dummies---

June 10, 2026Episode 13347 min

From $5 Tablecloth to Two Stores: Amanda Phoenix on Building Peak Moto | eCommerce Australia

FREE: Find out why you're brand isn't ranking in AI with a Remarkable Digital Free AIO Audit Here The best eCommerce Australia founder stories start with a problem nobody else has solved. Amanda Phoenix moved from Vancouver to Melbourne with $3,000 to her name, had a motorcycle accident, and sewed her first product from a $5 polka-dot tablecloth she bought at Spotlight. Today she runs Peak Moto - Australia's leading women's motorcycle gear retailer with stores in Melbourne and Brisbane and a fast-growing eCommerce store. In this episode of the Ecommerce Australia Podcast, Ryan Martin sits down with Amanda to trace the full founder journey: From living on a chicken farm in regional Victoria on a working holiday visa, to a presale campaign that flooded her Gmail with 200 orders in a single evening, to rage-quitting a marketing agency job and opening a 29-square-metre hole-in-the-wall with no running water and a four-hour daily limit imposed by the absence of a toilet. Amanda shares hard-won lessons on eCommerce SEO, finding the right marketing agency, why she walked away from wholesale (B2B) to go all-in on direct-to-consumer, how she negotiated her first commercial lease to exit penalty-free, and why community, not advertising, has been the biggest driver of growth for Peak Moto. If you're an Australian eCommerce founder, a product-based business owner, or thinking about opening a bricks-and-mortar store alongside your online store, this episode is essential listening. What You'll Learn • How Amanda bootstrapped Flying Solo Gear Company from zero - no money, no network,no plan • Why a presale strategy turned a hobby into a real eCommerce business overnight • The exact lease negotiation that let her exit her first store with 30 days notice and no penalty • Why she dropped B2B wholesale and went D2C — and what it meant for margins • How to build a community that sells for you without paid advertising • What to look for (and watch out for) when hiring an eCommerce marketing agency in Australia • Bricks-and-mortar lessons: why smaller is smarter when opening your first retail location Episode Timestamps 00:00 Welcome — the full circle moment 02:00 Amanda's background: strength coach, national team, total burnout 04:30 Why Australia? Selling everything for $15K CAD and booking a one-way ticket 06:00 Chicken farm in regional Victoria — the working holiday visa reality 08:30 Moving to Melbourne: nearly run over by a tram on Day 1 10:00 The motorcycle accident that created Flying Solo 11:30 The $5 Spotlight tablecloth, a borrowed sewing machine, and the first bum bag 13:30 The Yarra Valley petrol station moment — what are you wearing? 15:00 Kill Switch Pack: carbon fibre, Kevlar, and the world's toughest bum bag 17:30 Flying Solo born in one day at the cafe downstairs 20:00 The presale that changed everything: 200 backpack orders in one evening 22:00 Word of mouth, Mailchimp, and growing without paid ads 24:00 Rage quit → first retail space → 29sqm with no toilet 27:30 Importing MotoGirl, Revit saying yes when everyone else said no 29:00 Why Flying Solo became Peak Moto 31:30 Founder advice: smaller MOQs, ditch B2B, test before you scale 36:00 How Peak Moto built a community that drives word-of-mouth sales 40:00 Bricks and mortar lessons: leases, location, lifestyle 44:00 How to find a good marketing agency — and the red flags to watch for Links & Mentions Guests → PeakMoto — Women's Motorcycle Gear (Melbourne & Brisbane) → Flying Solo Gear Company → Amanda Phoenix on Instagram Mentioned in this episode Revit Motorcycle Gear — peakmoto.com.au/brands/revitMotoGirl — UK women's motorcycle gear brand Pulp Digital — Meta ads agency (shoutout: Bella)

June 3, 2026Episode 13236 min

AI-Powered eCommerce: Abandoned Carts, Chatbots & Customer Trust | Damien Brennan & Petros Romas | Sinch

🎯 FREE AIO AUDIT Want to know how your eCommerce brand shows up in AI search tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini? Get your free AIO (AI Optimisation) audit from the team at Remarkable Digital.👉 Claim Your Free AIO Audit: https://remarkabledigital.com.au/contact-us/ Get in touch with Petros Ramos Get in touch with Damien Brennan Episode Overview: AI is reshaping how eCommerce brands in Australia communicate with customers, and most brands haven't scratched the surface of what's possible. In this episode of eCommerce Australia, host Ryan Martin sits down with Damien Brennan and Petros Romas from Sinch to unpack how AI-powered messaging, chatbots, and customer communication tools are transforming eCommerce operations. From abandoned cart messaging to building genuine trust in AI agents, this conversation is a practical guide for eCommerce brands ready to use AI the right way. What You'll Learn: Abandoned cart messaging, the AI no-brainer: Rather than a single follow-up email, AI enables brands to turn this into a genuine multi-message conversation across the customer's preferred channel, and the conversion data backs it up. Meet customers where they are: WhatsApp, SMS, email, chatbot customers have preferred channels, and AI makes it possible to serve all of them at scale. Why trust is the first hurdle in AI adoption: Start customers on a channel they already trust, and let the AI prove itself from there. KYC 'Know Your Customer': The brands that get the most out of AI tools are the ones that have invested in understanding their customer's buying habits, common questions, and communication preferences. What brands get wrong when implementing AI: Implementing without a clear use case, and underestimating the importance of the data that feeds the AI. The rise of AI agents in eCommerce customer service: Beyond chatbots, AI agents are now capable of handling complex customer service scenarios end-to-end. Key Takeaways- - Start with abandoned cart AI messaging, it's one of the highest-converting use cases available right now - Give customers channel choice: WhatsApp, SMS, email, chatbot, meet them where they are- Don't hide the AI, build trust by starting on familiar channels and proving value incrementally - KYC is everything: the more you know about your customers, the better your AI performs - AI agents are moving beyond FAQs into full customer service resolution, this is the next wave - Good AI starts with good data, invest in your customer knowledge base before scaling AI About the Guests Damien Brennan and Petros Romas are from Sinch, a global leader in cloud communications powering customer engagement for some of the world's leading brands. About the Host Ryan Martin is the founder of Remarkable Digital (https://remarkabledigital.com.au), an eCommerce SEO and digital marketing agency based in Australia.eCommerce Australia is your go-to podcast for eCommerce growth strategy, eCommerce SEO, and building a business that scales. New episodes drop regularly, follow on Spotify to stay up to date.

May 22, 2026Episode 13134 min

Exit Ready from Day One: Scaling eCommerce in Australia with Lyn Nguyen | Auvie Consultants

🎯 FREE AIO AUDIT Want to know how your eCommerce brand shows up in AI search tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini? Get your free AIO audit from Remarkable Digital: remarkabledigital.com.au/contact-us What does it mean to build an eCommerce business that's ready to sell — from day one? In this episode of eCommerce Australia, host Ryan Martin sits down with Lyn Nguyen from Auvie Consultants to unpack the operational systems, hiring strategies, and mindset shifts that turn a founder-dependent business into a scalable, sellable asset. What you'll learn: The concept of being exit ready from day one Why operations is your biggest competitive edge in 2026 The escalation matrix — removing yourself from day-to-day decisions Common mistakes eCommerce founders make when scaling How AI has become essential (not optional) for eCommerce in Australia What buyers actually look for when acquiring an eCommerce business Case study: Respire — zero to seven figures/month in under 2 years, launched into Woolworths About Lyn — Auvie Consultants Lyn is the founder of Auvie Consultants, an operations and growth consultancy for eCommerce brands, agencies, and family businesses across Australia and beyond. About the Host Ryan Martin is the founder of Remarkable Digital, an eCommerce SEO and digital marketing agency based in Australia. remarkabledigital.com.au eCommerce Australia is your go-to podcast for eCommerce growth strategy, eCommerce SEO, and building a scalable business in Australia.