by Ecom Nation
🎙️ This Week in Ecommerce is your weekly download on the headlines shaping Australian retail. Hosted by industry legend Mal Chia and rising star Alex Ross, each episode dives into the biggest stories—from billion-dollar deals to platform updates, policy shifts, and consumer trends. Sharp insights, no fluff, and plenty of honest takes. New episodes every Wednesday. Powered by Ecom Nation.
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Publishing Since
8/16/2023
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June 23, 2026
<p>Alex is back from the dead, Mal's discovered the Riverside sound-effects board, and the World Cup has well and truly taken over the Cheer household — but underneath the banter this is a big one. It's the episode where AI stopped nibbling at the edges of ecommerce and started eating the actual buying journey: discovery, the checkout, and the ad auction, all at once.</p><p>The headline: Google has switched on agentic commerce in Australia — we're the first market in the region — letting shoppers buy straight out of Search, AI Mode and Gemini, with Kogan, Bunnings, Adore Beauty, Petbarn and The Iconic first in the door. The cart is moving into the model, and if your product feed isn't clean you simply won't exist. From there it's ChatGPT ads, the death of growth-at-all-costs DTC, and why the smartest money this year is getting off Meta and Google.</p><ul><li>Google agentic commerce lands in Australia — the checkout moves into Search, AI Mode and Gemini, and clean structured product data becomes the price of entry.</li><li>New York's world-first "synthetic performer" law forces AI-actor disclosure on any ad reaching the state — and the ACCC's $138k HiSmile fine proves the same honesty crackdown is already here at home.</li><li>A pack of TikTok-native activewear challengers is out-creating the incumbents on speed — a lesson for Australia's crowded field of Stax, P.E Nation, Muscle Nation and Nimble.</li><li>Ads have arrived in ChatGPT off the back of OpenAI's eye-watering $39bn loss — and the early-adopter window looks a lot like the early days of Meta.</li><li>Pure-play DTC's growth-at-all-costs model is dead: Dôen, La Ligne and Cinq à Sept grew to nine figures and stayed profitable by being deliberate, while Everlane, Glossier and Allbirds sold for scraps.</li><li>Paramount's US-only CTV deck is really a case for diversification — get off the small screen, use the surfaces nobody's touching, and remember the 95:5 rule: you're ignoring 95% of your market chasing ROAS.</li></ul>
June 19, 2026
<p>Solo show from a gate at Sydney Airport — Alex is out sick, and the week didn't slow down to match. Regulation, reputation and the biggest float in history, all at once.</p><p>🎟️ Online Retailer 2026 — 50 listener passes, plus free expo passes. First in, first served. Use code <strong>TWIEPodcast</strong> (link below).</p><p>This week:</p><ul><li><strong>The EU "withdrawal button" (live 19 June)</strong> — if a customer can buy in one click, they now have to cancel in one click. Applies to any Aussie brand selling into the EU; penalties up to 4% of regional sales. Check Shopify's comms now.</li><li><strong>Grill'd in the Federal Court</strong> — the ACCC alleges only ~4% of 5M "Tree Day Tuesday" burgers actually triggered the promised tree-planting donation. Cause marketing you can't back up is now a legal risk, not just a trust one.</li><li><strong>Lincraft closes all ~60 stores</strong>, going online-only — but craft is a touch-and-feel category, so this reads more like a managed exit than a pivot.</li><li><strong>Drop Shop reinvents the bottle shop</strong> — Dan Sims' konbini-style store sorts wine by occasion and budget, not grape. Clever, but a feature not a moat. If it works, Dan Murphy's copies it.</li><li><strong>Nike's first global gym deal (The Yard)</strong> — two months after shutting its own gyms, Nike rents presence in 100+ rooms full of its exact customer. Build vs partner, done right.</li><li><strong>SpaceX floats at ~$1.8T</strong> — the biggest IPO ever, and because your super tracks the indices, you probably just helped make Elon a trillionaire.</li></ul><p><br></p>
June 12, 2026
<p>EOFY is in full swing, Mal's recording from yet another airport — Perth this time, en route to a Singapore keynote — and the retail news is ramping as fast as the sales calendar. This week is a tale of two retails: brands hitting the wall, and brands quietly cleaning up by doing the exact opposite.</p><p>The headline act is a streetwear bloodbath. Trapstar and Geedup — two scarcity-drop darlings on opposite sides of the world — both tipped into administration in the same week, and the post-mortem lands on one culprit: the drop model is a working-capital trap, and the moment your gear is on every kid on the block, you stop being special. Around it: a collapse, a comeback, a viral data scandal, and a value-brand land grab.</p><ul><li><strong>Barbeques Galore</strong> — creditors knock back the rescue deal, 59 company-owned stores wind up by month's end, and the gift-card "two-for-one" sting tells you everything about the exit.</li><li><strong>Okanui</strong> — the hibiscus-print boardies are booming, proof that Aussie 70s/80s retro heritage is a moat Temu can't knock off (and yes, Oscar Piastri's Lego figure picked floral boardies and thongs).</li><li><strong>Click Frenzy</strong> — returns 18 June under the Leibovich brothers, with Australia Post footing the bill for the first 500 retailers, and Mal's "go short, go hard" advice for the EOFY scrum.</li><li><strong>Coles × Palantir</strong> — the two-year-old deal goes viral on TikTok again, and we're not buying the "nothing to see here" on what a CIA-and-ICE contractor does with your flybuys data.</li><li><strong>Trapstar + Geedup</strong> — the deep dive: scarcity, over-saturation, directors drawing down the working capital, and the difference between a 100-year business and a get-in-get-out play.</li><li><strong>Kmart's Anko</strong> — squares up to IKEA with its first standalone K Home store as the squeezed middle keeps losing ground to both ends.</li></ul><p>🎟️ Online Retailer is coming up — we've got 50 all-access passes for verified retailers (plus free expo passes). First in, first served — details in the links.</p><p><br></p><p>https://www.onlineretailer.com/en-gb/register.html?cat=Retailer&ct=U2FsdGVkX18zizAT%2FPRxllJH9%2FV5p++H4EYAQXzu+ZFrIUBftFov4nFdHg365ESU&utm_source=MalChia&utm_medium=Partner&utm_campaign=MarComms</p><p><br></p><p>Use code: TWIEPodcast</p>
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🎙️ This Week in Ecommerce is your weekly download on the headlines shaping Australian retail. Hosted by industry legend Mal Chia and rising star Alex Ross, each episode dives into the biggest stories—from billion-dollar deals to platform updates, policy shifts, and consumer trends. Sharp insights, no fluff, and plenty of honest takes. New episodes every Wednesday.
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