We had a first on Add To Cart this week. A guest managed to weave the term “goat f*cking” into the conversation. And to be fair, it was a refreshing challenge.

Industry legend, brains behind Power Retail and founder of Click Frenzy, Grant Arnott, laid down the gauntlet for the ecommerce industry. In his words? It's getting boring.

After judging the Power Retail All Star Bash awards, he put it like this… "Is optimisation and automation just goat fcking innovation?” Fair call.

We’re seeing high risk aversion. Templated Shopify designs. Obsession with incremental improvements. Budget constraints. Scroll through the most awarded ecommerce sites right now and you’ll see a world of sameness.

If you’re worried that your team’s defaulting to the app store instead of using their beautifully chaotic monkey brains, here are four ways to bring a bit of pizzazz back into your ecommerce experience…

⏲ 10 Ideas in 10 Minutes
A classic, but still gold. Set a specific challenge and ask your team to throw down as many ideas as they can in 10 minutes. Quantity over quality. No overthinking. No judgement. As Jesse Richardson put it, “that’s a way of getting your brain to shut up its critical voice, start the creative gears rolling and get into a flow state where the pen just starts to move.”

🚫 The No Bad Ideas Environment
Most adults are terrible creatives. We self-edit. We fear looking silly. So we say nothing. But what if we could create a space where ideas, even the silly ones, are celebrated? Try it. Applaud ideas, even if they flop. Build on half-baked suggestions. Find low-risk ways to test things. "No bad ideas" is more than a rule. It’s about creating cultural acceptance to think differently.

🥵 The Sweat The Assets Challenge
No new tech. No new budget. Just what you’ve already got. How would you solve the problem? Would you twist your tools in new ways? Discover hidden skills in your team? Tweak your messaging? When we strip away shiny distractions, we often find creativity and opportunity in the cracks.

🤪 The Dumbest Idea Competition
At your next strategy day, challenge the team to pitch the dumbest business pivot they can come up with. The only rule? You have to really sell it. George from Bluethumb shared this one: “we start from super dumb ideas and then actually some kernels of interesting stuff appear.” Stupid ideas are sometimes just genius ideas in disguise.

So next time you reach for an app to fix a problem, run another safe little test, or “take inspiration” from a competitor, try starting with a little creative chaos instead. The goats will thank you for it.

Cheers
Bushy

ECOMMERCE NEWS (from the past week)

🔎 RIP Keywords? Google Doubles Down on AI Targeting
The dismantling of traditional search continues at breakneck speed. So much so that Microsoft’s ANZ CTO declared this week, “search is dead.” Of course, she wasn’t talking about Bing… obviously… obviously, right?

There were two big developments from Google. First, conversational search results are now available to Google Labs users in the US. We’re not just talking AI summaries. We’re talking chat, response and refinement all within the search page.

Second, Google introduced AI Max for Search campaigns. In short, keywords are becoming irrelevant. Enabling this new ad type allows Google to dynamically target nuance, even rewriting your ad copy. Early reports show a 27% uplift over standard keyword targeting. It rolls out later this month.

🎨 No-Code, No Limits: The Race to Reinvent Web Design
I wrote about this yesterday, but I think Figma’s Sites is one of the most exciting announcements this year. The ability to turn design into a production site within a platform challenges everything we know about how we develop sites. They are not alone. Canva and Gamma are making strides in challenging website creation. Exciting times ahead.

👋 Research That Breaks the Retention Rulebook
Got FOMO from all the LinkedIn posts from K:SYD this week? Well, if there’s one thing I recommend, it’s checking out this research from James Hurman. In his words, “it breaks brains” by challenging what we know about retention.

His research found that retailers who increased the spend of their retained customers (even if they retained relatively few) grew over 3 times as much as those who maintained or decreased the spend of their retained customers (even if they retained many more). It flies in the face of the retain at all costs mentality. I recorded a podcast with James that will be available in two weeks - it’s good. I mean, he’s good.

🔒 Unlock to Watch: Instagram’s New Gated Content Play
It was teased last month, but now Instagram has unveiled Unlockable reels with The Weeknd. As it works currently, these reels need the user to enter a password to view the content. The opportunity could be to treasure hunt, DM target users or give special access to members for IG content. It’s a tad clumsy in execution, but I like that it plays into exclusivity for this audience.

💇‍♀️ Pantene’s Viral Playbook: Nostalgia, DIY and a Squeeze of Exclusivity
A case study that caught my eye this week was Pantene’s collaboration with influencer, Alix Earle. Yep, this old guy had no idea who she was either… and that’s not how you spell Alex. Anyway, it is a brilliant mash of trends: nostalgia, DIY, value shopping, exclusivity, and authenticity. Pantene’s quick response earned them 230m impressions and a new sold-out limited edition product.

Got opinions on the top news stories this week? Join Add To Cart CAMPUS, our free learning community for ecommerce professionals to discuss in our Inspiration Library.

JOIN US FOR TRIVIA AT RETAIL FEST!

We thought we’d mix it up this Retail Fest and have a trivia night - because who doesn’t love a bit of friendly competition and dressing up as a Gold Coast bogan? Tickets are $20, which includes entry, drinks and nibbles, with all money going to Thread Together. Thanks to Shippit, impact.com and Fractionus for being our partners for the night!

Retailer tickets are now available and will sell out! 🎉

(We’ve got one more table available for partners if you are keen to join. Call me.)

I'd love to hear from you! Got an opinion on today’s topics? Have a suggestion for future newsletters? I’d love to hear from you. Hit reply and I’ll get back to you.

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.