I changed energy retailers this week. It had been on my to-do list for months, and I was bracing myself for a digital root canal - dodgy websites, complicated pricing, bad jazz hold music, and the slow decay of my will to live.

Instead, it was done in ten minutes.

It was so easy, it actually depressed me.

The whole experience was a pure numbers game. I jumped onto a government comparison site, plugged in my details, and the decision was 95% done. Rates, discounts, sign-up bonuses, and Qantas points if I wanted to get tricky. All in a comparison table. A simple form did the rest, and just like that, the provider I’d been with for ten years was out of my life. No tantrums. No tears. Just lots of gas. Sorry, couldn’t help myself.

It made me unexpectedly grateful to be in the eCommerce game. Because while energy is a textbook commodity product - same stuff, same wires, same pipes - our world is the exact opposite. We sell similar things in a hundred different ways, and it’s fascinating.

This week’s Shippit State of Shipping report is a perfect example of just how much fun we get to have with the offer:

• Same-day delivery costs are dropping, now just a few bucks more than Express.

• Free shipping is becoming increasingly rare, with only two-thirds of retailers now offering it, and spend thresholds are rising.

• Standard delivery speeds are improving, averaging 2.75 days.

• Free returns have taken a nosedive. Only 14% of retailers still offer them, down from nearly half last year.

• 82% of retailers have international shipping on their radars

• Sustainability? Still a long way to go, with just 12% prioritising it.

Look at all those levers. Price, speed, perks, thresholds, policies, new markets. None of it is fixed. It’s a playground of moving pieces we get to tinker with to win market share. And that’s before we even touch product range, CX, branding, loyalty, or launching virtual goods in the Metaverse.

It’s easy to get stuck in the grind - the promo cycles, seasonal drops, the never-ending backlog of UX tweaks. But shopping for electricity reminded me… we’re in the fun part of retail.

And we get to change the game every single week.

Cheers
Bushy

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ECOMMERCE NEWS (from the past week)

🪙 Shopify + Coinbase = Crypto Checkout (But Make It Stable)
Coinbase just dropped a new stablecoin payments integration for commerce platforms, including a native one with Shopify. It's all powered by Base (on Ethereum), and while I can’t say I totally understand the backend tomfoolery, this feels like the first serious attempt to make crypto payments actually work for everyday ecommerce. It’s built to make it easy (and cheaper) for merchants to accept stablecoins like USDC, as well as equally intuitive for customers to pay with them. I haven’t found any Aussie merchants using it yet, so if you’ve spotted it in the wild down under, let me know.

🎤 Your Founder Isn’t the Star. Your Product Is.
If you’re a founder feeling pressured to be dancing on Reels or spilling your skincare secrets on TikTok, this one’s for you. A new Business of Fashion report reveals that only 13% of consumers say a founder influences their purchase decisions. Performance and price were way more important. The report looked at hundreds of successful beauty brands and found that longevity stemmed from the product, not personality. So, unless you're launching a cult... maybe spend less time lip-syncing and more time with the product team. Cults can also be a lucrative business if done correctly, though.

⚖️ ACCC Cracks Down on Dodgy Digital Practices
It’s only taken eight years and 400 pages, but the ACCC has finally released its final Digital Platform Services Inquiry report (full PDF for the sickos). And while I didn’t read every page (thanks AI), there’s some eye-twitching prods in there for retailers. They’ve called out what they label “unfair practices” including abandoned cart emails, forced email signups, hidden checkout fees, and repeated upsells. Basically, everything we’ve ever been told increases conversion. There are no concrete rules yet, but if you’re using any of these tactics, consider this your warning shot.

🧠 Daydream: The AI Stylist for Actually Cool People
Fashion tech darling Daydream has officially launched after a $50M seed round, led by Julie Bornstein (ex-The Yes) and backed by Karlie Kloss. The AI lets users build dream wardrobes for specific occasions, like “dinner with the in-laws” or “tech panel, but make it fashion.” It partners with heavy-hitters like Nike, Net-a-Porter, and Levi’s. It’s super slick, super curated... and yet, my problem isn’t AI choosing the clothes, it’s me looking that cool in real life. Go solve that.

🧴 Bouf Launches With Chaos & $500K in Sales
It’s one of the best brand launches I’ve seen in a long time. Bouf, a new hair loss label has pulled in over $500K in its first week, selling 19,000 units. Frank Body co-founder Bree Johnson, shares how her agency helped launch it with chaos-driven storytelling - bold visuals, a deeply relatable founder story, and a bang on product-market fit. Case study here. If my next podcast video looks a little more luscious, you’ll know there’s substance behind the style. (HT Suzie - thank you!)

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Nathan Bush works with retail and eCommerce businesses as a board advisor, strategic consultant and one-on-one coach.

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