 | Episode Cheat Sheet |
2 NOV 2026
55 MIN LISTEN
| Brought to you by |   |
| From Bushy |
I'll admit that I often struggled in a corporate role. I wasn't always great at being patient and taking people on the journey. So I have a lot of respect for people who can land innovative projects within a big enterprise. Today's guest is someone that I look up to and has done exactly that.
I met Mark Mansour when he was at PayPal but it's at Woolworths where he spent his time bringing to life market-leading offerings around retail media, marketplaces, and loyalty. It's an absolute honour to chat with him about his new job and where he sees the world of retail and ecommerce going. He's always a voice that I listen to.
CHEERS, BUSHY
| 01 Skip To The Good Bits |
Tap any time code anywhere in this cheat sheet and the episode opens on YouTube at that exact moment.
| Run a small store of your own to learn ecommerce | 8:44 |
| Treat loyalty as the flywheel behind your data | 19:08 |
| Split your range into utility buys and discovery buys | 22:14 |
| Write a different playbook for task shoppers and joy shoppers | 23:57 |
| Don't overthink it. Fish where your customers already shop | 29:01 |
| Meet QSIC, the AI audio platform for specific in-store ads | 31:13 |
| Give your team clarity of direction and freedom in execution | 41:12 |
| Listen to the dissenters before you build | 44:08 |
“You've got to be ambitious about the destination, but be pragmatic about the journey.”
MARK MANSOUR | QSIC
| 02 The Big Lesson |
HOW TO LAND CHANGE IN A BIG BUSINESS
Mark spent seven years inside Woolworths building retail media, loyalty and marketplace. Despite the big budgets and a huge amount of resources, landing new ideas in a big business is a skill. Mark and Bushy discussed three tips to land new ideas and they apply whether you are in a big or small business.
RULE 01
Learn it by doing, not by waiting
Mark set up a Magento store selling coffee subscriptions, plungers and aeropress while he managed PayPal clients like Kogan and Jetstar. His best month was about $3k in sales. It was a flop as a business and a win as an education. It taught him how hard it is to win and keep a customer. It also helped him understand his stakeholders more. He's doing the same with AI now by building his own tools. The best way to understand ecommerce is by doing it first.
"I learned how hard it is to attract customers, I learned how hard it is to retain them."
RULE 02
Listen to the dissenters first
This one is Bushy's lesson from his corporate days and Mark concurred with it. Run towards the dissenters and the confused. Don't dodge them and don't argue. Just listen. What sounds like pushback is usually a simpler problem sitting underneath. Fix that and you'll have people on the journey.
"Run towards the dissenters, the confused, the everyone who's making noise."
RULE 03
Set the direction and free the team
Mark's Woolworths mantra was "freedom within the framework". Be clear on the ambition and what success looks like and why it matters. Then give smart people ownership of the how. It's progress over perfection but never a lower ambition. If you're the one pushing for change, get crystal clear on where you're going and say it often.
"Clarity of direction, freedom in execution."
BUSHY'S TAKE
If you're trying to effect change in big business, it can't all be stakeholder meetings and PowerPoints. You actually need to get your hands dirty. You need to have uncomfortable conversations. You need to have high ambition. The ones who push for change don't just follow the corporate bouncing ball.
| 03 Test Yourself |
Mark says to fish where your customers already shop. See how big one of those ponds is.
Roughly what share of Australian online shoppers bought on Amazon in 2025?
Submit your answer and get the correct answer at the bottom of this email.
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| 04 Steal These Tactics |
1
Find the top question your community asked this month, then put it on your site or product roadmap this week. 12:00
2
Give repeat, low-price products the shortest path to checkout you can build such as Quick Checkout and subscriptions. 26:55
3
Pull last month's sales by channel and see how much is organic before you decide which marketplaces to skip. 29:27
4
Sort your top 20 products into utility and discovery, then give the cheap repeat buys one click and the considered buys reviews and inspiration. 22:14
5
Ask your last ten customers where else they shop, then test one new channel they name. Mark's test is Westfield or the high street. 29:57
FREE ATC WEBINAR | THU 12 NOV, 11:30AM AEDT
How Australians Will Shop This BFCM
Shopify's James Johnson and I are unpacking Shopify's 2026 Holiday Retail data for Australia. Then we turn it into the checks your team can run before Black Friday. You get a live look inside Shopify and live Q&A on your own store. Everyone who registers gets the replay and the Pre-BFCM Readiness Checklist.
| 05 The Stack |
In-store audio retail media with measurement, where AI builds human-sounding ads in seconds and tailors them by location, customer group or time of day.
One of the AI tools Mark combined to build his own chief of staff app without writing code.
OpenAI's AI coding agent. You tell it what you want in plain English and it writes and edits the software.
An AI software engineer from Cognition. You give it a task and it plans and builds it like a junior developer would.
The ecommerce platform Mark used as a learning test to run his coffee store where his best month hit about $3k.
| 06 If This One Landed |
EP598
You Can't Out-Amazon Amazon Anymore: Inside Pattern's 2026 Marketplace Report
Fishing where the fish are only works if you know which ponds your shoppers use. This one shows why brands can't beat Amazon on its own terms and what a brand's own site is still for.
EP582
The Loyalty Trap: James Hurman on What Really Drives Ecommerce Growth
Loyalty keeps customers, but is it what grows the business? James makes the case that growth also needs reach to people who aren't buying yet.
EP522
Is the App Dead? Why Retailers Are Going Wallet-First with Litecard
If loyalty is the flywheel, the wallet is how it spins without an app. Brian explains why wallet passes get far more use than brand apps, which often sit at 1 to 2 per cent.
| Pass It On |
Episode Cheat Sheets are built to be forwarded. If you know someone deciding what to hand over to AI agents, send them this one.
| Continue the Conversation |
Which of your products would you let an AI agent buy today, and which still need a human to choose them? And are you fishing in too many ponds or too few? Jump in and tell us, whether you're a regular in the community or brand new.
Free to join. 800+ Australian ecommerce operators talking shop every week.
| Quiz Answer |
60%. Around six in ten Australian online shoppers bought on Amazon in 2025 (Pattern's 2026 Marketplace Report, EP598). Choose channels by where your customers already are. 29:01
| 2027 Partnerships Are Open |
Want your brand in front of Australia's ecommerce operators next year? Our 2027 partnerships are open now. We have the last of our packages available. First in, best dressed.
