Don't go hunting the junior ecommerce unicorns 🦄

"Can you look at this job description and tell me what you think?"

I wanted to send back a tattered and broken Temu-version of a Swiss army knife.

 This marketing specialist needed to own the marketing plan, run conversion optimisation, do the online merchandising, manage product details, analyse customer behaviour, operate the marketplace partners, forecast sales, do the copywriting, run market analysis, own a UX plan, own the onsite technology and optimise SEO - all with excellent communication skills and high attention to detail. Oh... and they should also have three years of experience, and a degree and be willing to do it all for $90K. 

 There's no way I'd apply for that job - let alone get it. Each of these requirements could be a career specialty on their own, mastered over many years.

 Sadly enough, this isn't an uncommon job description - especially in SME businesses when resources are stretched and targets are aggressive. There is no other industry that bastardises marketers as much as ecommerce.

 Right now, the most in-demand talent in Australian digital advertising and ad tech are people with 1-5 years’ experience. In fact, three quarters of open job ads are targeting this bracket right now. 

 So, surely it's time to align our expectations.

 If we want junior marketing talent, we need to focus on two to three core marketing skill sets, then hire on attitude and potential. Once you have invested in them, you can try to break them into brilliant technologists, data analysts, negotiators, product experts and operations experts. Just don't buy them broken. 

Cheers,
Bushy

P.S. If you want to dive into the "juniorisition" of the workforce, listen to this week's episode with Gai Le Roy, CEO of IAB Australia. 

P.P.S. I'm going to have a newsletter break for the next two weeks while the kids are on school holidays. If you get a newsletter from me in that time, you'll know things have gone south. 

ECOMMERCE NEWS

🕹️ Got checkout... will travel into virtual worlds.

This week Shopify became the first commerce integration into 80m daily Roblox users (yes, gaming is my thing at the moment). It enables brands to sell directly within the Roblox world. It is currently piloting and will be rolled out in early 2025. 

🎥 Get the TikTok Shop Playbook. Literally. 
Inspired by Simon Beard's TIkTok Shop early mover advice last week? TikTok has just released a brilliant 94-page playbook on how to get started and use TikTok Shop (PDF). The irony of a PDF for TikTok is not lost on me. But it gives play-by-play screenshots on how to  manage TikTok Shop - very valuable as we prepare for launch here. In saying that, this week TikTok confirmed that Shop won't be available in Australia in 2024. Plenty of time to read then.

🔄 Beware of the serial returners

Here's a customer segment you might want to watch - serial returners. ASOS in the UK is clamping down on their serial returners with a £3.95 charge if these customers don't keep at least £40 of their order. Returns for everyone else are free. It's hard not to take that personally.

🍫 I did a thing. And got chocolate. This is dangerous. 

Good news, you "are a thing". Mars is running a promotion on Amazon, allowing customers to nominate a thing they did today that deserves a free Mars bar. Apparently, "sending a rambling ecommerce newsletter to suffering subscribers" is a thing. Thank you for my Mars bar. On a serious note - this is an interesting competition metric where signed in customers don't need to enter any data to enter. I'm not sure how much data Mars receives though.

Homie + Country Road: Be still my beating heart

I admit it. I have a brand and man crush on the Homie team. Their reuse of iconic Country Road jumpers this week got all my fires burning - unique product, gorgeous content, sexy partnership, material reuse, limited release, empowering young people. Stop it. Just stop it. I have work to do. 

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THAT’S IT FOR THIS WEEK!

I'd love to hear from you. Feel free to reply to this email or contact me on LinkedIn. 

ABOUT NATHAN BUSH

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 partner with you.