🎅 A real tricky f*cker of a year

Last newsletter for the year. It seems fitting that we send 2024 out with record-breaking Black Friday sales and YoY growth, right? If this were a blockbuster, Steven Tyler would already be belting out the high notes.

It's a promising result in the face of - let's call it - a tricky fucker of a year in ecommerce. Don't blame me for the language, I think I heard Alan Kohler say it.

It wasn't bad. It wasn't good. It was a slog. It was like going twelve rounds with Mike... never mind.

But we are definitely seeing the upshots. Consumer confidence is rising. Inflation is going in the right direction. Ecommerce is becoming embedded into mainstream behaviours and expectations. Still, 2025 brings more question marks. The role of AI. US tariffs. Price squeezing - please don't call it "value". These will all be with us throughout 2025.

Uncertainty is certain again. And if this year has taught us anything, we can't sit around and wait. Especially for things that are out of control.

I remember being stuck this time last year. For better or worse, I embarked on 2024 as the year of "doing fun stuff". Saying yes to things I wouldn't normally be able to say yes to. It led to some pretty remarkable opportunities.

I teamed up with a dream crew of Add To Cart brands as partners. Filled in as a Head Of Marketing. Launched our CAMPUS Community. MC'ed events for conferences, events and local council. Judged industry awards. Coached ecommerce professionals. Podcasted weekly. Poured a lot more into this newsletter. Consulted on major omnichannel projects. I even taught ecommerce to primary school students. Yep, it was a mixed bag and I loved it. Old me would have been terrified.

Do I have my definitive career roadmap lined up now? Nup. But I know more about myself. What I like doing, what I don't like doing and where I want to put my energy: helping inspire, connect and upskill Australian ecommerce professionals. That for me is a win.

So as you reflect on the year that was and the plans for what will be, I encourage you to be kind to yourself. Know that we are living in an unpredictable environment right now. Know that LinkedIn highlights are just that - highlights. And that it's OK not to have a five year road map. Or, as Alan Kohler would say, "buckle up and try to enjoy the fucking ride".

Thank you for opening up your inboxes. Sending this newsletter is the highlight of my week - especially when I get replies from those of you who have picked up the smutty jokes. I hope you have a relaxing, beautiful, safe Christmas with your family and friends. This is what it is all about.

Until next year.

Cheers
Bushy

ECOMMERCE NEWS

📦 BFCM 2024: The Final Wrap Up
Everybody on? Good. Great! Grand! Here’s the final BFCM wrap-up. Shopify cha-chinged in $11.5 billion in revenue—up 24% from last year. There’s your benchmark, retailers. Australia came in as the third-highest spending country behind the US and UK. Aussie app builders, the global stage is your oyster. Shopify’s servers pushed 12TB of data per minute on Black Friday. Interestingly there were sixteen thousands stores who made their first sale on BFCM - you crazy bro.

Closer to home, Shippit reported a 15% volume increase for BFCM. Shoppers focused on quality over quantity: average basket value rose 6% to $131, while items per basket dipped 6% to three. Kids’ clothing, food & bev, and department stores were the biggest winners - or maybe just the biggest discounters? Intriguingly, there were two spikes in fulfillment requests—on November 12th and 16th—well before BF on the 29th. Rumour has it, an ecommerce community banded together for an early go-live. Did they move the date of Black Friday this year?

🎯 Pinterest Predicts 2024: Cakes, Pickles & Waders FTW
Unlike Spotify Wrapped, Pinterest Predicts keeps getting better every year. In fact, they claim that 80% of the trends they predict come true the following year. This year’s Pinterest Predicts comes with a beautiful micro-site. If next year is the year of Chaos Cakes, Pickle Fix and Fisherman Aesthetic, 2025 is going to be an absolute banger.

🤖 Alibaba’s AI: Helping Dropshippers Go Incognito
In a sign of the next wave of dropship marketplace attacks, Alibaba has made their Pic Copilot AI tool available for SME’s in the US. The tool has twelve photographic treatments that can replace product backgrounds, customise models in garments and automatically translate for different markets. Posing as a local business has never been easier.

🎁 Giftnote Makes Multi-Gifting Easy… For Next Year
As someone who just manually sent gifts to multiple recipients, this left me annoyed. Nick Kennedy announced that Giftnote now enables multiple gifts with personalised messages to multiple recipients in one transaction on Shopify. They have 20 retailers using it with one $15K transaction to 200 different recipients. Things that would have been good to know before corporate gift giving season you big teases.

🤰 Due Time: The Memo Founders Launch Next-Gen Mum Support Products
Some founders just. get. it. Off the back of The Memo, Kate Casey and Phoebe Simmonds have created Due - products designed to “support the next generation of mums”. I’m no pregnancy expert (surprise!) but I’ve never seen a product page with so much compassion, support and education as this one. Congrats to the team. What a brilliant evolution.

Want to chat about these stories or explore our Inspiration Library? Join Add To Cart CAMPUS, our free ecommerce learning community.

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Nathan Bush is an independent Australian ecommerce transformation consultant, with expertise in marketing, technology, and team leadership. If you're looking for fresh ideas, facing key decisions, or implementing significant investments, I'd love to work with you. Learn more and get in touch.