Prepare to unlock the secrets of thriving in the ever-evolving e-commerce landscape with Andrew Wells, marketing maestro at Retail Global, as he takes us behind the scenes of the bustling RetailFest event.
Feel the pulse of the industry as we explore the convergence of influential brands and top-notch speakers like Simon Beard and Kai Sakakibara, who are set to ignite the stage with their expertise.
This episode promises a wealth of insights, from the power of community in the digital marketplace to the journey from RetailFest attendee to Marketing Manager of one of the most anticipated e-commerce gatherings in Australia this year!
Get ready to navigate the Gold Coast's premier retail event through the eyes of someone who's seen it all.
Andrew sheds light on how to maximise every encounter, from tailor-made educational sessions to invaluable networking opportunities that could spell the next big leap for your business.
We talk agency partnerships, career opportunities for the up-and-coming, and the indelible impact of personal growth spurred by events like RetailFest. By the end of our chat, you'll be marking your calendar, eager to join the community-driven celebration of online growth and innovation at RetailFest, where the future of e-commerce is not just discussed—it's shaped.
Join 'A Remarkable Newsletter' for weekly high performance marketing and content actionable tips.
Prepare to unlock the secrets of thriving in the ever-evolving e-commerce landscape with Andrew Wells, marketing maestro at Retail Global, as he takes us behind the scenes of the bustling RetailFest event.
Feel the pulse of the industry as we explore the convergence of influential brands and top-notch speakers like Simon Beard and Kai Sakakibara, who are set to ignite the stage with their expertise.
This episode promises a wealth of insights, from the power of community in the digital marketplace to the journey from RetailFest attendee to Marketing Manager of one of the most anticipated e-commerce gatherings in Australia this year!
Get ready to navigate the Gold Coast's premier retail event through the eyes of someone who's seen it all.
Andrew sheds light on how to maximise every encounter, from tailor-made educational sessions to invaluable networking opportunities that could spell the next big leap for your business.
We talk agency partnerships, career opportunities for the up-and-coming, and the indelible impact of personal growth spurred by events like RetailFest. By the end of our chat, you'll be marking your calendar, eager to join the community-driven celebration of online growth and innovation at RetailFest, where the future of e-commerce is not just discussed—it's shaped.
Join 'A Remarkable Newsletter' for weekly high performance marketing and content actionable tips.
Welcome to the Ecommerce Australia Podcast. Welcome to Ecommerce Australia. I'm your host, ryan Martin, founder of Remarkable Digital. This podcast is aimed at those who have their own online business, e-commerce professionals looking to keep current on the trends, and for anyone interested in learning more about the world of Ecom. For those of you seeking direct assistance, remarkable Digital is just a call away. Our mission is to be remarkable, doing great things for great people and great businesses. I understand how much choice you have and how many podcasts are out there, so I'm truly grateful you've tuned in. Please let me know if you have any questions, comments or topics you'd like covered. Let's get started.
Ryan Martin:Welcome to another episode of Ecommerce Australia, really excited by our next guest and the event that's coming up, which is RetailFest, which we can go into in more detail. I'm speaking with Andrew Wells, who's the head of marketing for Retail Global. Andrew's got a background in e-commerce himself and in tech and IT before that. I'm really excited by the upcoming lineup at RetailFest. We've got the likes of Cotton On Rebel Sport R& Williams LSKD, princess Polly July A few of those we've been lucky enough to have on the podcast as well. So to tell us more about the event and why you must attend this one. We've got Andrew Wells, so, mate, welcome to the podcast.
Andrew Wells :Thanks for having me, I really appreciate it.
Ryan Martin:No problems, mate, we'll get into the event in a minute, but it'd be good to hear a little bit about yourself, mate, and your background, and then build that into how RetailFest started.
Andrew Wells :Absolutely. Personally, I come from an attack background. My goal was always converting the complex issues into something that everyone could understand. I think RetailFest as an event is quite similar. There's many events, as everyone knows, around the world that target retailers, target e-commerce and growth, but a lot of it needed to be more accessible. We were trying to find a way that we could give people something of value to themselves, but also a way to connect and grow together as we're all moving the same direction.
Ryan Martin:Yeah, beautiful, I'm looking forward to. This would be my first time attending RetailFest, so I'm looking forward to checking it out on the Gold Coast Before we get into it. Mate, how do you spend your weekends? How do you relax? What are you like away from the e-commerce and the retail side of things?
Andrew Wells :Significantly more relaxed, as always. I love a bit of poker myself. I try and run on the beach as much as I can, but other than that, just trying to take in new restaurants and enjoy Melbourne.
Ryan Martin:Nice. Are you from Melbourne? Did you grow up in Melbourne?
Andrew Wells :I am yeah almost.
Ryan Martin:What do you classify as a beach here in Melbourne?
Andrew Wells :I'm being generous to call it a beach, It'd be Bayside. So Brighton, Hampton, Sandering and I've gone away.
Ryan Martin:Yeah, beautiful Favorite cafe around that area.
Andrew Wells :There's one called Maryman and Hampton that does a fantastic coffee.
Ryan Martin:Nice mate. I was there this morning so Well. I'll keep an eye out for you next time, but get out and travel the team. It's a good cafe and you can always rely on good coffee there.
Andrew Wells :Absolutely.
Ryan Martin:Let's not exclude our national audience and let's talk a little bit about RetailFest, mate, we mentioned off the top. You've got some really big brands arriving, as well as a lot of Challenger brands that are coming through and really starting to make a name for themselves. Is there a theme for the year? What's the vibe so far building up to what are we five, six weeks out from the event?
Andrew Wells :Yeah, just over a month, which is getting ever closer, but the event is looking massive. This year, our event, retailfest, is on the Gold Coast. It's April 16 to 18, and it's just unbelievable for everyone in RetailAcommerce. The goal for us is something we've been striving for is to be the number one community-driven event for online growth. That's our target, that's our goal and that's what we put all of our time and energy. We've built this show and this event around the concept of the best education you can get to help you scale your business with actionable insights. We've really secured some massive namespeakers and I'm happy to go through all that. We've got Simon Beard, founder of Culture Kings.
Ryan Martin:Julie Mathers. He's killing it on social at the moment, isn't he? He's all over it.
Andrew Wells :Unreal right. He was an absolute must-have for us for the show. Julie Mathers, founder of Flora Fauna as well as CEO of SnuggleHoney, who are doing some incredible work in the baby space. I don't think I've met a single young parent that hasn't invested heavily in putting SnuggleHoney products on their kids. We've got Rob Godwin from the NRA on board.
Andrew Wells :Interesting the National Retail Association. That is sorry, let me be real clear. And then we've gone down the other path of making sure, on top of all the education, we've created some inspiration and things to really drive and show the success that people want from retail and retail fest. And last year we were lucky enough to have Julie Bishop, the former Foreign Minister of Australia, and she was phenomenal. And this year we've got Kai Sakakabura, who was an up and coming BMX prodigy who unfortunately suffered a pretty bad accident and from that he's taken so many life lessons that he's putting in about overcoming adversity and really playing into your strength.
Ryan Martin:Yeah, interesting. So when does he talk in the? Is that a keynote thing, that sort of later on in the day, or what's the sort of the calendar look like?
Andrew Wells :Absolutely. We've just put our agenda live with more detail and a lot more effort, and our COO, luke Rowell, doesn't like being called out, which is why I try and do it as much as possible, but he's put together a phenomenal agenda. Kai will likely be later on the first day of the event. I believe he's really going to go through everything that he's overcome. I'm trying not to give it away because the story is unbelievable, but it's one to see.
Ryan Martin:Yeah, perfect, and probably answers my next question. But what are you personally? I mean, how many retail fest have you been to?
Andrew Wells :Funny story with me. I actually, when I was in the retail Ecom space, attended retail fest in 2022 as my first retail fest and absolutely fell in love. I got to participate in a few breakout sessions, which I love because you can find people similar place on their journey to you not just people that are already at the top as well as getting inspired by others. But I got to go there, fell in love with the whole journey and within 12 months, I was the head of marketing at retail global trying to organize retail fest. So it shows how much it meant to me and I feel everyone has that same level of connection that they go once and then want to be there forever yeah, fantastic.
Ryan Martin:That's not a good sign of what a good event is, then. I'm not sure what is, but what are you most looking forward to made, apart from Kai and that incredible story, which I actually know a little bit about because I've sort of been following his journey? But what are you most looking forward?
Andrew Wells :to other than that. So the highlight for me of retail fest is always the community and the people. It's not just the event during the day. We've got a whole lot of side events that are all included in what you do with retail fest. We have a lovely big connecting party that we all do as well. We have our vendor awards on the Monday, celebrating those who are leading the way and innovating in the solution provider space. And then we've gone away from our previous model of having a gala dinner to close out on the Thursday night and we've now launched a concert. It's a charity concert with all the money going towards Thread Together, who do some phenomenal work, and we've actually secured Sneaky Sound System Yo Mafia and our mate Shubox Moses, who are going to put on an unbelievable concert.
Ryan Martin:Nice, that sounds good. Everyone's gonna love a bit of sneaky sound system Absolutely.
Andrew Wells :We're all tragic that love it and Can't wait.
Ryan Martin:Mate, it sounds awesome If I'm a startup or a smaller brand and I've not been before. I'm busy right. I've got a million things to do running my own e-commerce business. You know why? Should I tell what? Am I gonna get out of it? Absolutely so.
Andrew Wells :I've always personally believed that you find the best growth and mentors when you look at someone who's two to three years ahead on your journey Not too far, not too close and then keep reiterating and that's really what's in the community at retail sales, you can go to panels and see people have taken that next step and learn from them. It's about making sure you understand you're not in this on your own, which every entrepreneur and startup feels like they are. Yeah, finding those who are going through the same, growing together. This is an amazing industry in Australia where everyone wants to help each other, and Events like this are the place where you can actually find the people and do that with.
Ryan Martin:How do we find those people like you mentioned? Like obviously you know you could dance next to them, a sneaky sound system, but is there a connection piece? Is there Opportunities to sort of see different vendors? Like there's an expo and stuff, I think is it. Yeah, what is that sort of how do you get to ask those people questions and to get in touch and ask questions? Do you love to? You love to know about their brand and their growth?
Andrew Wells :Absolutely and day at retail fest looks like seeing some keynotes Walking around the expo where you've got all the different sponsors, exhibitors and vendors who were there with all the tech and tools you need to scale your business. You may want to talk to the, the econ platforms and work out where your host you want may want to talk to some agencies. You may want to work out how to scale your email, your SMS or whatever it is. You can do all that at retail fest. We've secured the some of the best of them around so you can actually go and just walk up and talk to whoever you need. We find a lot of our speakers and participants are all really really friendly as well, so you can literally walk up to them and have a chat. But if you wanted to go further, we've also launched a community platform that you get 12 months of free access if you attend retail fest, where you can actually reach out to them directly. You can DM them on the platform and they genuinely will help you along the way.
Ryan Martin:Yeah, brilliant shows what like a that. The platform is almost like a bit of a, like a marketplace for people that are retail fest so you can kind of catch up with them on a regular basis. Do they have special offers for retail fest attendees, or what does that kind of look like?
Andrew Wells :Absolutely so it's called the retail global community. Yeah, you get access to the recordings of all of our sessions from retail fest globally. You get exclusive deals. You've got a whole lot in the way of Different brands. You can then approach different vendors that can help you and help solution. It really gives you the retail fest experience extended over a 12 month period so you don't have to stop post event and wait till next year. You can keep growing and iterating and be further ahead for when you do attend next time.
Ryan Martin:Yeah, brilliant, that sounds like a really nice value. Ad mate, you probably answered my next question there, because I noticed there's a few breakout rooms and stuff like that and there's probably a few people that I'd like to listen to or like to watch. You were all on at the same time, which is unfortunate, but I guess it's that's one to the the caliber of quality that you guys have in terms of speakers. How do I catch up on them? Is it? Can I get access to all of their talks after the event finishes?
Andrew Wells :Absolutely so. Those speakers themselves will be in the community so you you can message them, approach them, talk to them.
Andrew Wells :But we will also post all of the all of the sessions into the community itself and you can watch back at your own pace as many as you like. It was one of the biggest qualms I had was going in seeing a session I was really, really excited for, but working out the opportunity cost is I miss one that I also want to see, yeah, so we brought this in as a way to help with that. Make sure everyone has to like this.
Ryan Martin:Okay, brilliant, and you touched on what a day in the life looks like. So what does a typical day Night look like? Do you start with a hangover, or is it a bit more? Is that just waited till the last night? And then, yeah, what's a typical day.
Andrew Wells :You know, a small e-commerce business can expect absolutely very much optional the hangover, but the networking is something that mandatory for all small businesses, right. So I get in early, I jump on some sessions. I know there is, on one of the days, a hangover curing drink to help out, but it's really just about trying to talk to as many people as possible. Yeah, jump in the keynotes, jump in the expo hall. Everyone's really welcoming and friendly. When I first attended, I mapped out the journey of which session I wanted to do it each time.
Andrew Wells :We've got an event app when you can do that. You can just start off and favorite the sessions you want to see in. You know, choose your own adventure, but you can really build out everything you want to do building some time for yourself to walk around the expo. But then every night of resurfess there are different events on. There's our vendors dinner on the Monday. On the Tuesday we have a whole lot of partner events as well Wednesday over at the star up the top, and then Thursday the concert at the exhibition center as well. So every night is immersive and it feels like a full takeover. You can walk anywhere around broad beach near the exhibition center each night and you run into people from the event during the day, and that's part of the reason everything's done on the Gold Coast. We want to get everyone away together, getting completely immersed in the experience and really taking everything retail first has to offer.
Ryan Martin:Yeah, it might sounds good. I'm salt. How do we secure tickets?
Andrew Wells :Absolutely Jumping to retail global comm. That are you. We've got all our tickets online. At the moment. We have different opportunities for startups as Well as you know people that may be between jobs looking for work. You've got your exhibitors, your sponsors. We have different options. That literally everybody. Yeah, perfect.
Ryan Martin:Do people come internationally or is it mainly an Australian-based audience?
Andrew Wells :Definitely so. Majority of people like to be Australian-based and bringing in that level of Aussie flair, but you do definitely get a bunch that come from all over the world. You know we get a lot of the Asian market coming in as well, which is great. We've had a few from the US that got involved with RetailFest in San Diego and they're making the track out as well, and some from all different kinds of places. So you know I'm excited to survey everyone and figure out where everyone's from. But the first away surely deserves an award.
Ryan Martin:Yeah, exactly, and that customer data is so important as well. Mate, you mentioned that you started. Have you been at 12 months or a bit over 12 months?
Andrew Wells :Yeah, just like coming up on ATTENDS now. Yeah.
Ryan Martin:What's been the biggest surprise? Being ATTENDE at the event and now working at there, has there been anything that's really surprised you, around the community and about the event itself? Absolutely.
Andrew Wells :So, attending as a retailer, my focus was all on what I needed to get out and what I could do for myself in that short time and then coming over to work at Retail Global, it's been about empowering those people to do exactly that. So the focus has gone from what I can take in to how I can help people get more out of RetailFest, and that's what our whole team is primarily focused on the whole way through the event.
Ryan Martin:Yeah, yeah, fantastic yeah. If you could just take one thing from an event like that that makes a massive difference to your business, that makes your scale from 20,000 to 50,000 a month, then it's worth it. You know, absolutely.
Andrew Wells :Like in our New Zealand event that we ran last year. It was incredible, but I remember going into one session that was around GA4 and the Google ad tracking thing. So not a pretty session but a really solid piece of work. But there was one little quick tip of one tick box you could flick one little switch in the back of Google Analytics that enabled you to get, instead of seven days worth of data, 60. Yeah, any business that literally made this one change was able to personalize their ads incredibly, so much better. There's little takeaways like that in so many of our sessions. I believe if you could go to any one session, if you don't have one key moment and one key takeaway in each session, then I'm absolutely shocked.
Ryan Martin:Yeah, I think that's right. You go there with an open mind, you get there and you're building your business, you're building your networks, you're building your contacts. Even from an agency point of view, like the biggest barrier to entry when using an agency is trust. So you get to not just deal with a salesperson who's on the phone, or you have a meeting. You can actually spend a couple of days with them, you might see them out at an event and you get to know them a little bit more and you build those relationships. All of a sudden, your agency relationship starts off on the right foot and you know who you're working with, and that can only help like relationships. Even though it's an online platform and where e-commerce, it's still a relationship game, isn't it?
Andrew Wells :Yeah, it's to know who you can call when you're thinking I need a new agency or you're thinking I need someone to help me do copywriting or someone to do some ads, whatever it may be. It's knowing you have that network of trusted individuals in the community that you can then call up and ask that question. Yeah, you don't just want to guess and hope. You want to use the trust so you build that network to do so. I mean to give you a scope. I actually sat on some live site reviews, which is something we do at our show as well. People can walk up, give their website and our team, run by one of our partners, will go through and have a look at all the things you can literally do to improve immediately.
Andrew Wells :Yeah, I was fortunate enough to sit on one of them and help people out in 2022. And I got to meet in person a partner that I've only ever spoken to a couple of times on a few bigger sessions by the end of it. I needed to make sure that he was running our SEO and ads agency from that point forward. So one of the first things I did upon coming in to retail global was make sure that that partner then looked after our ads. So it is completely the people you meet, the relationships you build and the ability to have someone with some skin in the game that you can trust and they can trust you for a partnership. That means you get the success you're looking for.
Ryan Martin:Yeah, exactly, and when you think of that, over a long period of time to a lot of your sponsors and a lot of your network. They've partnered with you for a long period of time, so there's that trust that they're coming back every year. So everyone's coming back every year. So you can only work with good people. Otherwise that that trust gets burned and and it's not pleasant. So I think that even just being part of that community ensures that you get the best kind of, you get looked after, essentially because you're you're part of that network as well. So it's exciting.
Andrew Wells :Yeah, we launched a hosted program, which means we've got hundreds of Australia's biggest retail brands that we covered their ticket. So they got a complimentary ticket. They got travel reimbursement to help cover off this day at our part of the hotel, the Dorset, and get their flights up so that they could come up and be part of the show. This was very similar to what a few of the big US shows run, okay, and it was their opportunity to come in and then have some targeted hosted meetings with some agencies and vendors that we have to really lock in beforehand. The areas of the business they want to grow. Yeah, really cool, but unfortunately the applications end in eight days. So, knowing with timings, that wasn't the core message I was going to push it.
Ryan Martin:Yeah, no worries. So probably, I reckon, by the time we get this published there'll be a couple of days left. So, yeah, what's that called to action? Is that for service providers to book in? And so what is that hosted program? Can you just let me know what that is?
Andrew Wells :It's a hosted retailer program, so we enable retail brands in the mid enterprise space initially to apply to receive a complimentary ticket as well as $800 in travel reimbursement which covers off part of their stay at the Dorset Hotel or flights or however they'd like to use it to come in. They will then do eight 15 minute double opt in meetings with some vendors. So the retailer wants to meet the vendor and the vendor wants to meet the retailer, or it doesn't happen. But it's the best way a retailer can go in knowing the problems for their business they want to solve, picking the service providers and vendors they'd like to talk to and getting that collaboration so they can book in a meeting, have it set, get that done and that actually enabled them to get the reimbursement and the complimentary ticket.
Ryan Martin:Fantastic, that's awesome. So if you're a retailer, you haven't got a ticket yet. Jump in, have a look at the different options and if there's one that suits you, get there, because you get value out of it.
Andrew Wells :Yeah, so the staff we covered in the first bit is more in line with that. I just feel the message isn't clear enough at this point with the time frame we've got.
Ryan Martin:Yeah, Okay, like, obviously there's a few of these events, right, there's quite a few in that retailer e-commerce space that pop up throughout the year. If I'm being a devil's advocate, I guess I could call it. Why should we attend yours as opposed to others? What sort of stands you out? What do you feel like is your? You know, if people have to attend one event this year, why would it be?
Andrew Wells :retail fest. So not just the reason that I chose to come work here rather than any of the other events, but it is the community that I know I keep popping on, but it is so important, the event is so immersive. You're not just in there during the day, dropping in for short periods of time All day in the convention center, incredible speakers. So the education is at a level where you're not getting the same speakers everyone else has, but you've got the people that are really getting involved, going and hanging out. You may sit in a session and you're an amazing keynote and then sit next to that person for a drink in the evening and then you can really catch up and get to know each other.
Andrew Wells :It's where you can really make friends and colleagues out of acquaintances you met at an event and that just didn't feel like it happened as much anywhere else. The real community element and helping drive everyone that attends to get their own growth, online and offline, is the real difference of retail fest.
Ryan Martin:Yeah, brilliant, and you know I mentioned to you off the top that I can really feel that sense of community, even just with the way you're speaking. You know we've known each other for half an hour but throughout that time, you know, before we press record, one of the things that I really found was that that center community means a lot to yourself and the wider retail global business and the retail fest event. So I'm excited. I'm looking forward to catching up. There's some of those brands that we've had on the podcast. We had Zoe Lowe from July and we've had Ben Anderson from Rebel Sports. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to catching up with some of those names and meeting some new people within the community as well. I'm really excited. Can't wait to get there. The Gold Coast is a great destination, so thanks for letting us know a little bit more about it. Anything you wanted to close off with, mate?
Andrew Wells :Not at all. I think we've covered it the number one community driven event for online growth. I don't think I need to say much more.
Ryan Martin:Brilliant mate. Well, look, yeah, it's been great to catch up, great to meet you, and look forward to seeing you there on April 16th.
Andrew Wells :Perfect. Thank you so much, man, I appreciate it.
Ryan Martin:Thanks, Andy, Cheers mate.