00:00.552 --> 00:09.063
[SPEAKER_00]: For me, as a founder to connect to the consumer and understand who is actually enjoying Joe Mo and who do we need to be targeting, that's very much part of our strategy today.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's important to have physical and digital touch points to make sure that you're actually growing the business it in every way you can.
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[SPEAKER_02]: It's the e-commerce master plan podcast.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Air to help you solve your marketing problems and grow your e-commerce business.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Cutting through the hinder to bring you inspiration and advice from the e-commerce sector and beyond here's your host, Chloe Thomas.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Hello and welcome.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's great to have you here.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for hitting play and choosing to listen to one of our inspiring guests.
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[SPEAKER_01]: In this episode, we're going into the world of subscription, haven't done that in a while, and in honor of
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[SPEAKER_01]: stop October or give up drinking October.
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[SPEAKER_01]: We are talking non-alcoholic as well.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Real fascinating, focused business owner coming up who's going to be sharing tips around subscription, tips around, pivoting your business as the market changes will also be talking about selling at real-world events and how to make the most of all of that and her top tips are pretty stocking as well.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So
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[SPEAKER_01]: And now to introduce our special guest.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Gemma Mills is the founder of Jomo Club, the UK's leading alcohol-free drink discovery club.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Founded in 2022, they've already sold over £1 million worth of product via their Shopify store.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Hello, Gemma.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Hello, thank you so much for having me.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Awesome to have you on the show.
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[SPEAKER_01]: How did you get into the world of e-commerce?
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[SPEAKER_01]: You know, was Jomo Club the first thing you did in 2022 or have you been here before?
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[SPEAKER_00]: not at all here before actually.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I came from a very different background.
01:54.677 --> 02:01.821
[SPEAKER_00]: I went straight from school into the maritime industry and that was actually a smooth, obviously.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So much knowledge about that from school not, but it was in print publishing so something very different and then after a year or so I went to my first London job which was physical events based business.
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[SPEAKER_00]: and that was in the Neutrosutical side, which is kind of supplements and the world of nutrition and then moved into pharmaceuticals.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I worked on sales and marketing, but other than that, absolutely not e-commerce.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So it was very, very new this, this world for me when I started Joe Myclab.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And what led you to start Joe Myclab?
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[SPEAKER_00]: It really was during the fun lockdown times.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I think a lot of us probably turned to anything we could to get us through that time.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And for me and my partner Richard, we definitely turned to gin and tonics for a little while.
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[SPEAKER_00]: it was a way to obviously as so many of us use our call to relax and try to find some kind of normality or ritual after meeting so long to London and then coming home in your evenings, obviously we were all working and living from the same space.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So found that gin and tonics really provided that break between the daytime and the nighttime.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So it was kind of finding that ritual and then as time went on and lockdowns never ended, it felt like we needed to find something a little bit healthier.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And that's when we discovered sort of the alcohol-free world, which then expanded in terms of writing, the business plan, working out how we could bring our cold free options to other people that were experiencing the same thing, and then that's kind of what led on to our launch and obviously it made sense to do that online.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And so a lot of people in that, on that similar journey would have invented their own non-alcoholic or crisis, just a normal store.
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[SPEAKER_01]: What was your decision to go subscription?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Were you subscription from day one or was that something that evolved in the business?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, so we were number one, so there was a few reasons behind that really.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So when we first launched, there really was just one alcohol-free spirit that was widely known, which was seedlip.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They were the ones who obviously started the category, most people knew about them.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The thing with seedlip, they have done such an amazing job in the category in terms of opening it up and really sort of launching and starting the category.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But the thing with seedlip is,
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[SPEAKER_00]: In the alcohol world, not everyone likes to keel her, not everyone likes rum, not everyone likes gin, so if someone tried to see lip and it wasn't to their tastes, they thought we don't like anything in alcohol free, which is obviously changed so much in the past four years, but we kind of set out to see other brands in the market, other artisan independent brands that just aren't discovered yet, and that's when we found there was actually a lot of artisan brands out there.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So when we started trying them ourselves, I really wanted to help people understand and discover you can actually enjoy your drinking cocktail at home ritual without the booze and it doesn't always have to be said lip if that isn't your preference.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I really was kind of passionate about building the ritual, building that cocktail experience in terms of
05:10.490 --> 05:11.852
[SPEAKER_00]: creating our ring drink.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We had so many amazing people that have experienced for years in that sector and they know exactly what they're doing.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Although when I started Joe Merkel, I had no idea what I was doing in terms of subscription and e-commerce.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I certainly think it was a whole kettle of fish with the
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[SPEAKER_00]: creating your own drink and bottling and recipes and everything that came with that.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So for me, it felt like, firstly, I was more passionate about the subscription side and working with other brands and it made a lot more sense, I think, along with that being a huge gap in the market.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and it manufacturing as a whole other game isn't it?
05:48.059 --> 05:50.860
[SPEAKER_01]: It's some if you can avoid getting into it, I certainly would.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So tell us a bit about the business as it is right now.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Where in the world are you and where are you selling to?
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[SPEAKER_00]: So we are UK-only, I live in Hitchin' and Hartfordshire, but we ship and both our Joemo subscription boxes and our call free spirits across the whole of the country.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We have a pretty dominant in London.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We also have quite a big customer base in Scotland, but we're pretty spread out across the whole of the UK at the moment.
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[SPEAKER_01]: nice.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And you mentioned that I think that you've got both the subscription box and standalone products.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So how did that evolution come about?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so it's not Joe Moves products, but basically when we launch the subscription boxes, our core focus is discovery to help people even to this day to help people find what they couldn't find on supermarket shelves and couldn't easily find elsewhere.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That is a great problem that we solved, but also then people couldn't find them again when they like them.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It made sense for us to launch our Jomeo bottle store to mean that once people did find a favorite, they could then top up through us or just proceed buying that alcohol free spirit.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We've then expanded into alcohol free wines and cocktails and other things like that, but it kind of just made sense as we'd solved a problem and then created another one.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, when you put it that way, it's so obvious.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, oh, yeah, here's this beautiful thing that you fall in love with.
07:15.997 --> 07:17.359
[SPEAKER_01]: You're not allowed any more.
07:17.499 --> 07:18.380
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, exactly.
07:19.762 --> 07:20.963
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't make sense at all.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And what does the team look like now you're what four years in?
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[SPEAKER_00]: We are four years in and it has been a lot of learning curves.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Our business plan is kind of changing all the time where two years ago I was thinking we'll have a team of this person, this person, then market changes happen, happen, not just in our call foray, but in the crazy world that we're living it right now.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The past four years have been very turbulent and it's very hard to predict what's to come next.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So we have actually for now kind of gone down the freelancer route for the gaps that we have.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I think at this point we will soon get to the point where we will need a full time higher, but I'm maybe this is the control freaking me, I'm sure a lot of time.
08:08.482 --> 08:18.605
[SPEAKER_00]: is actually empathised, but I kind of wanted to learn every aspect of the business before then getting someone on board to be able to understand what they're doing, how I can support them.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Ultimately, we want someone to fill the gaps in knowledge.
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[SPEAKER_00]: There's someone out there that will do a much better job at certain things than I will, but I want it to have a kind of basic understanding.
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[SPEAKER_00]: For now, it is myself that runs the business day on the daily basis, and then my partner Richard, who still has a full-time job, but he runs all our paid socials and our CPC and all the kind of digital activation side, which is our kind of number one customer acquisition channel.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In terms of freelancers, we were packing for two years every box by hand in a family barn that we had, including my 85 at the time, your old grandma.
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[SPEAKER_00]: and pack for hours and every time I would say sit down, she would say, absolutely not, I'm fine.
09:04.382 --> 09:09.186
[SPEAKER_00]: So we did that really well, which was quite nice to connect you to your actual business.
09:09.206 --> 09:14.469
[SPEAKER_00]: When you're behind a screen a lot, it can be quite hard to actually see what people can experience.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So that was quite nice, but we did get to the point where we obviously had to outsource that.
09:17.972 --> 09:21.714
[SPEAKER_00]: So we outsource all warehousing and shipping and fulfillment and things like that.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We're getting there, we're working out what a team would look like, and I think we've kind of crafted in the subscription world what that would look like for us in the future and where the gaps are that we kind of need to fill.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It makes so much sense in those first few years to be control-freaky over everything because it changes so much and it adapts so much.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And I guess in your space it must have adapted more than most because
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[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like the alcohol free industry, it's like completely different beast to what it was four years ago from the outside of perspective.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Is that how it's power has been for you?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Definitely, I think both looking at subscriptions and alcohol free, subscriptions absolutely boomed in lockdown.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So obviously everyone was at home and that's when craft junk club went crazy
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[SPEAKER_00]: change slightly where subscriptions are very much part of our lifestyle now, but that was just such a boom that I think all these big brands then had to sort of adjust to the new normal, even though that obviously really supported growth in the early stages.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And then, so subscriptions as a whole, but then obviously our co-free, so when just like I was mentioning a minute ago as to why we actually launched the brand, people knew of one our co-free spirit.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now you go to the supermarket, they're still limited and they're quite often the bigger brands, but we have a whole shelf dedicated to our cold free now, so you might get six, seven-hour cold free spirits.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You've got all the beers, the cocktails.
10:59.696 --> 11:03.376
[SPEAKER_00]: We very much had to focus on education in the early stages.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We were building up consumer trust.
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[SPEAKER_00]: People tried rubbish, our cold free drinks and thought, I'm not spending my money on that.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We used to get comments on our socials.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Why would I pay that when I can get it out the tap, meaning it all tastes of water?
11:15.740 --> 11:17.640
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, you'd get quite a lot of comments like that.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It was a lot of educational based marketing.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now, we don't really have to do as much education.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's just really helping people continue to discover those alcohol free drinks.
11:28.045 --> 11:34.748
[SPEAKER_00]: So, it puts us in quite an exciting position, really, where we can step back slightly from the education.
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[SPEAKER_00]: People get it.
11:35.588 --> 11:36.509
[SPEAKER_00]: They understand it.
11:36.869 --> 11:43.014
[SPEAKER_00]: is now just focusing on how to drive the business and the brand forward to make sure more people discover us.
11:43.034 --> 11:44.956
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's kind of a different challenge to what we have before.
11:45.796 --> 11:50.380
[SPEAKER_01]: It's interesting how it even if you think you're in a space that's not changing at all.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Those first few years of foot of twists and pivot and when you're in a space where the industry changes so much, you both got
11:58.567 --> 12:03.470
[SPEAKER_01]: the downside of well, everybody knows there's more than seed lip now because it's everywhere.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So that whole discovery uniqueness is lesson but that also frees you up in your marketing to stop purely being education, education, education, education, education.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So it's always, it's pros and cons, isn't it?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Definitely.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I think it opens a consumer market and, I guess, business opportunity for me and other our call free brands hugely, because I think it's over half now of UK consumers actively and openly during our call free drinks on a regular basis at home and out.
12:32.524 --> 12:37.005
[SPEAKER_00]: And the statistics and pubs and restaurants of people choosing our call free is huge.
12:37.025 --> 12:43.068
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, before people thought pubs and restaurants thought they were going to miss out and revenue by offering our call free drinks.
12:43.488 --> 12:51.474
[SPEAKER_00]: Now lots of pubs and restaurants charge very similar to alcohol as long as the alcohol free options are quality and people want to pay for them.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I think it opens a massive opportunity that more people than ever are drinking alcohol free options.
12:57.339 --> 13:00.021
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just exactly how do we tap into those?
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[SPEAKER_01]: And you mentioned whilst we were chatting before we hit record that you also do real world events to grow the business.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So you mentioned earlier that the digital activation, the digital ads is your number one client acquisition channel, but you're also doing multiple real world events a year.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I guess first of was that a no brainer for you because you have event
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[SPEAKER_00]: I suppose so, it was really funny when we launched, because before I started Joe May, I was physical events based in terms of my role, and then it was kind of a crossover into COVID where all physical events cancelled, and I moved over into the virtual event world.
13:47.724 --> 13:50.827
[SPEAKER_00]: So I kind of had knowledge of both, and
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[SPEAKER_00]: physical events obviously just went to a standstill where people weren't travelling or they're worried to be face-to-face.
13:57.353 --> 14:03.358
[SPEAKER_00]: It took a little while to have a bounce back so initially I was a bit hesitant of, do people still want to do face-to-face?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Is everything just online now?
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[SPEAKER_00]: We took a few risks, those bigger events always cost a lot of money, we took a few risks and they really paid off.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I guess it was a natural fit that I did come in with skepticism and obviously working for a big brand before.
14:18.547 --> 14:22.488
[SPEAKER_00]: It's then all my own money, which is scary.
14:22.908 --> 14:28.549
[SPEAKER_00]: And being in sales before and offering people the stands, it's a bit scary when you're on the other side and paying for the stands.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So, but yes, it's definitely a core part of our business.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I think especially in those early days of education, allowing people to try and taste and walk them through the experience
14:42.093 --> 14:48.639
[SPEAKER_00]: for me as a founder to connect to the consumer and understand who's actually enjoying Joe Moe and who do we need to be targeting.
14:49.059 --> 14:51.001
[SPEAKER_00]: But that's very much part of our strategy today.
14:51.021 --> 14:58.068
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's important to have physical and digital touch points to make sure that you're actually growing the business it in every way you can.
14:58.888 --> 15:03.633
[SPEAKER_01]: If you had to say five things were key to make you an event successful, what would they be?
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[SPEAKER_00]: I think having a great person on the stand.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So whether that's yourself or whether that's a really great team member, a lot of people hire sort of freelance people to come in, which can be great, because it means you can do more events, but just make sure that they're passionate about no one's going to be more passionate than your own brand.
15:23.081 --> 15:28.664
[SPEAKER_00]: But you know, you walk past people's stands and they're sat on their phone, or that's just a waste of money in my opinion.
15:28.704 --> 15:30.765
[SPEAKER_00]: I think trying speak to as many people as you can.
15:31.385 --> 15:32.586
[SPEAKER_00]: making your stand good.
15:32.666 --> 15:46.913
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't need to look expensive, but I think as long as we've tailored our stands so many times and if you understand things like where are people's eyes going to before, because we're subscription, we're showcasing other people's brands too.
15:47.214 --> 15:50.335
[SPEAKER_00]: So we don't want people to walk away and remember that brand necessarily.
15:50.415 --> 15:52.656
[SPEAKER_00]: We want it to be Joe McCud that they walk away with.
15:52.997 --> 15:54.998
[SPEAKER_00]: That was being a huge challenge to make sure that you
15:55.698 --> 16:00.382
[SPEAKER_00]: make your standard contractive, but also that people are going away with the right impression.
16:00.863 --> 16:03.405
[SPEAKER_00]: The third is make sure you're tracking things.
16:03.925 --> 16:15.336
[SPEAKER_00]: So again, before we kind of loosely guessed, we were like, yeah, it's going all we've taken this much money on the the machine or whatever, but I think making sure as much as possible, you can understand the ROI.
16:16.977 --> 16:28.123
[SPEAKER_00]: who is subscribing after the event, whether that's a discount code, how many people are scanning the QR code, just every touch point you can to understand the true success, not just from direct sales, but over time.
16:29.064 --> 16:36.308
[SPEAKER_00]: I think an event makes sure your position in the event is right, especially on these bigger events, a lot of people,
16:37.008 --> 16:42.652
[SPEAKER_00]: no hate to the big events, but I think often they're just sort of you're another brand in their big event.
16:42.692 --> 16:44.474
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think make sure your position right.
16:44.514 --> 16:54.701
[SPEAKER_00]: We've done events where have been huge, successful and then we've been putting dead zones other times and it's just not only is it a waste of money, it's a waste of your time, you stand there being frustrated.
16:54.841 --> 16:56.743
[SPEAKER_00]: So make sure the positions right.
16:57.303 --> 16:59.244
[SPEAKER_00]: And fifth one probably give a good
17:00.265 --> 17:03.168
[SPEAKER_00]: give a reason for people to come over to your stand.
17:03.348 --> 17:07.772
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you're there and the traffic's there, you really want to maximize that and drive people in.
17:07.812 --> 17:13.757
[SPEAKER_00]: So for us, it's sampling as an our coffee drinks brand, but you know, sampling is the best way everyone loves a sample.
17:13.838 --> 17:17.341
[SPEAKER_00]: But if there's whether there's a spinning wheel or a prize or
17:17.741 --> 17:22.623
[SPEAKER_00]: a free offer, make sure that you're bringing people into your stand and maximizing that traffic in your time.
17:23.583 --> 17:24.744
[SPEAKER_01]: Love those tips.
17:24.784 --> 17:25.424
[SPEAKER_01]: That's awesome.
17:25.464 --> 17:26.004
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
17:26.444 --> 17:34.587
[SPEAKER_01]: You mentioned about the right stand and the right position, how do you know in advance it's going to be the right stand and the right position?
17:34.727 --> 17:38.849
[SPEAKER_01]: What are the key things to look out for and avoid or go into?
17:39.483 --> 17:44.465
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so it can be kind of difficult if you've never done the event before, obviously that can be difficult.
17:44.485 --> 17:55.249
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you can visit the event before you commit to it, I would recommend that because you can then actually walk as a visitor yourself and understand where you're gravitating towards and put yourself in the shoes of them.
17:55.850 --> 18:04.653
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're part of any communities or network, I'm part of by-women built community, you can all the network is so amazing at sharing their advice.
18:04.673 --> 18:08.115
[SPEAKER_00]: So if people have done the event before, just ask people, that's a great way of doing it.
18:09.015 --> 18:10.996
[SPEAKER_00]: Ask the person that's selling you the stand.
18:11.176 --> 18:13.776
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, they're going to probably want to put you in the most convenient spot.
18:13.796 --> 18:18.457
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you know what you're asking for, so a walkway in an aisle, that's really what you want.
18:18.837 --> 18:23.438
[SPEAKER_00]: A corner, which means you're obviously getting both walkways leading up to your stand.
18:23.919 --> 18:25.879
[SPEAKER_00]: They're probably the two main things.
18:25.919 --> 18:28.920
[SPEAKER_00]: As long as you're on a walkway, you're likely to get good traffic.
18:29.480 --> 18:33.861
[SPEAKER_00]: And the final thing I would say is make sure you ask for a floor plan to look who's around you.
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[SPEAKER_00]: not because we're an alcohol free brand necessarily in terms of messaging, but people will go and try a gin.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely burn their taste buds off by drinking neat gin and then come to an alcohol free stand.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And that's not super helpful.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Or the same with chili sources and things like that.
18:55.506 --> 18:59.167
[SPEAKER_00]: Like it's just not very good on the palate to then come to us to try something.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So check who your competitors are and who are around you and make sure that it makes sense for you.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I love that advice about going to the stand the year before if you can.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I went partly because a lot of them get booked out 12 months in advance anyway, so this isn't something you can really do on a whim or do you have like a stand ready to go if you get last minute good space somewhere.
19:22.483 --> 19:23.904
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, we do.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now that we know sort of what we're doing, we created a bar out of a pallet basically and that just makes a really easy bar for us for sampling.
19:34.493 --> 19:36.755
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we have our panels already sorted.
19:36.875 --> 19:39.817
[SPEAKER_00]: If it's a smaller event, we just have one of those really simple pop-up
19:40.658 --> 19:45.059
[SPEAKER_00]: So we can be quite agile in terms of taking last-minute space if we need to, and if we can.
19:45.559 --> 19:52.741
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's probably another thing to note, like, just make sure that your event space that you create works for every event.
19:52.781 --> 19:54.781
[SPEAKER_00]: You can add touches if it's a Christmas event.
19:54.801 --> 20:02.203
[SPEAKER_00]: You can add some presents at the front or something Christmasy, but just make sure that it fits everything because it will save you a lot of money in the long run.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, we could be pretty agile in terms of just using the stand that we have in the space that we have and bring it with us.
20:09.266 --> 20:16.009
[SPEAKER_01]: And then another thing in the world of events given this episode's going out in October, also known as stoptober.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It would be mad not to assume, obviously we've recorded this before, but assuming October, you are busy, busy, busy.
20:24.305 --> 20:25.185
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we are.
20:25.205 --> 20:30.408
[SPEAKER_00]: I think from October all the way through to February really because we've got dry January as well.
20:30.508 --> 20:32.289
[SPEAKER_00]: So all the way through to then.
20:33.069 --> 20:36.471
[SPEAKER_00]: So Brocktober was a huge part.
20:36.491 --> 20:45.535
[SPEAKER_00]: I think in changing consumer behaviours and the way that we all drink nowadays, both sober October and dry January and then there was also a sober spring.
20:45.555 --> 20:47.336
[SPEAKER_00]: So they were all sort of popping up everywhere.
20:47.757 --> 20:48.117
[SPEAKER_00]: I think
20:48.817 --> 20:55.683
[SPEAKER_00]: The problem with dry January is it became a challenge where you really try to not drink for the month.
20:55.923 --> 20:59.306
[SPEAKER_00]: Then you would complete it and I'm talking from experience there.
20:59.626 --> 21:03.249
[SPEAKER_00]: You would complete it and then you would go to the pub and go absolutely mental.
21:03.469 --> 21:05.891
[SPEAKER_00]: That kind of is defeating the object slightly.
21:06.251 --> 21:09.254
[SPEAKER_00]: You have achieved it but I think a lot of people are now
21:09.834 --> 21:12.116
[SPEAKER_00]: moderating their drinking the whole year round.
21:12.156 --> 21:21.785
[SPEAKER_00]: We've seen a lot less sobriety in abstinence and more, just moderation and they call it zebra striping, maybe drinking an alcoholic drink, then a non-alcoholic drink.
21:22.245 --> 21:27.490
[SPEAKER_00]: But that being said, people still do like sober October as kind of a reset.
21:27.870 --> 21:33.312
[SPEAKER_00]: So if the summer socializing, the sun comes out, everyone goes straight to the park and pubs and drinks beers.
21:33.393 --> 21:40.316
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's a great reset, especially as you transition from summer into that autumn wintery cozy season.
21:40.936 --> 21:44.337
[SPEAKER_00]: People do like to have that as, okay, let's have a month.
21:44.417 --> 21:45.658
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's reset my body.
21:45.958 --> 21:47.399
[SPEAKER_00]: What do we want from drinking?
21:47.479 --> 21:49.840
[SPEAKER_00]: Do we drink on the sad, happy, celebrating?
21:49.920 --> 21:51.461
[SPEAKER_00]: When do we want to enjoy that drink?
21:51.501 --> 21:54.262
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think it's a great reset, months of sobriety.
21:57.053 --> 22:01.854
[SPEAKER_02]: E-commerce master plan is supporting by some of the greatest companies in the E-commerce sector.
22:01.974 --> 22:10.095
[SPEAKER_02]: Here's a reminder of who they are.
22:10.275 --> 22:12.136
[SPEAKER_02]: It's time for the top six round.
22:14.756 --> 22:15.816
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I love this section.
22:15.836 --> 22:20.177
[SPEAKER_01]: Excuse me, and our listeners some really quick ideas for taking all businesses to the next level.
22:20.217 --> 22:21.818
[SPEAKER_01]: Gemma, are you ready for the top tips?
22:22.178 --> 22:22.578
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm ready.
22:22.658 --> 22:23.398
[SPEAKER_00]: Is it fire round?
22:23.438 --> 22:24.158
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel pressure.
22:25.345 --> 22:26.567
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't worry, we won't be too hard.
22:26.767 --> 22:29.870
[SPEAKER_01]: We're not going to drive you to drink, let's put it that way.
22:29.990 --> 22:38.119
[SPEAKER_01]: The book top tip, if everyone is listening to this podcast, agreed to take Friday off and read a book to make their business better, which book would you recommend?
22:39.040 --> 22:46.628
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if anyone said this before, maybe I'm not being very original, but I would actually say if someone a founder is taking a Friday off,
22:47.308 --> 23:01.429
[SPEAKER_00]: I think you should actually pick a book that you really want to read and that would make you really happy and I think that's important because you're so involved in building, growing, everything to do with your business all the time that sometimes it takes.
23:02.210 --> 23:08.133
[SPEAKER_00]: a lot to step back, look at what you want to achieve, look at what you are achieving and what needs to be done.
23:08.513 --> 23:11.934
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that reset moment as a founder is really, really important.
23:12.034 --> 23:13.615
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm quite a creative person.
23:13.935 --> 23:22.338
[SPEAKER_00]: So if I can take time away from my screen and something like getting lost in a book, then I can come back to the business and actually come with a lot of ideas.
23:22.358 --> 23:25.500
[SPEAKER_00]: So I would actually just say doing reading something that you enjoy.
23:26.332 --> 23:28.753
[SPEAKER_01]: You're not the first, but it is very good advice.
23:29.994 --> 23:38.079
[SPEAKER_01]: And there is something about a physical paperback novel of some description, which is really hard to get distracted from.
23:38.299 --> 23:42.742
[SPEAKER_01]: When it's good, you know, literally both your hands are involved and your eyes are involved and there's no screen.
23:43.282 --> 23:51.767
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a tonic for the soul, the traffic top tip, which marketing method do you either prize above all others or think doesn't get the press it deserves.
23:52.465 --> 23:58.169
[SPEAKER_00]: So for me, I am all about kind of always on circular marketing funnel.
23:58.489 --> 24:02.071
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think it's really crucial for everything to be working together.
24:02.251 --> 24:20.783
[SPEAKER_00]: So from all your digital touch points from your organic and paid socials, to your email, we use Clavio, but whatever your email plugin is, to physical events, to virtual events, to partnerships, I think everything works well in Unison for us on number one traffic driver is organic.
24:21.223 --> 24:28.429
[SPEAKER_00]: but that's definitely not just our SEO and people searching for us, that is to do with all those other channels and activations that we have going on.
24:28.870 --> 24:35.055
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think working everything in Newton has a core part to play in building driving traffic overall.
24:35.836 --> 24:39.779
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the best answer, but the worst answer, because it's like, do everything brilliantly people?
24:40.219 --> 24:42.922
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but I have everyone become an expert in everything.
24:44.237 --> 24:45.218
[SPEAKER_01]: you're completely right.
24:45.918 --> 24:56.505
[SPEAKER_01]: The tall top tip, maybe a collaboration tool, a social media plug-in, a phone app or just a way of working, is there a cool little tool you use makes you and your team more efficient from day to day.
24:57.319 --> 25:15.774
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah so we haven't mentioned it yet and I don't want to make everything all about it because it's a bit of an overwhelmingly scary fast-moving situation but obviously I have to reference AI for me I am still working out the best way to use AI and how to implement it into our business.
25:16.274 --> 25:23.039
[SPEAKER_00]: The past three months it has been pretty invaluable to what we have coming up and I would say
25:24.000 --> 25:38.198
[SPEAKER_00]: I have now got to grips with how to work it to make sure that I am bringing personality and character and a human element to our business, which is so important I think for something like ours, but also to be able to use it to become more efficient.
25:38.999 --> 25:49.008
[SPEAKER_00]: For example, Shopify have Shopify's AI assistant that is so helpful for me to pull statistics just within a second that would take me forever to pull.
25:49.068 --> 25:54.172
[SPEAKER_00]: So what is our number one driving traffic source or where are we getting ourselves from?
25:54.672 --> 25:55.914
[SPEAKER_00]: What's our target audience?
25:55.994 --> 26:05.642
[SPEAKER_00]: Shopify assistant AI platform is amazing using those statistics to then put into Claude really then helps me to be able to understand and analyze the business and to a real
26:07.203 --> 26:14.565
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, Camver, which I'm sure a lot of people use already, they have a Camver AI, which actually designs documents.
26:14.625 --> 26:22.908
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, once I have all that data, I can create pretty social media campaigns, I can not create a pretty document, save my life and it just hurts my head.
26:22.988 --> 26:26.669
[SPEAKER_00]: So they can put it into readable, readable document.
26:27.069 --> 26:31.450
[SPEAKER_00]: For example, if you're looking for investment, just sharing that one page or with them is really, really helpful.
26:31.530 --> 26:32.951
[SPEAKER_00]: So I vowed to not
26:33.771 --> 26:45.119
[SPEAKER_00]: AI, any of our content, or any of our magazine, or any of our hand-curated boxes, but I do use AI for the statistic and understanding our customer and helping us grow.
26:45.700 --> 26:50.123
[SPEAKER_01]: I like that clear line of where you are and where you aren't using it, so great answer.
26:50.703 --> 26:55.387
[SPEAKER_01]: Carbon Top Tip, what's your favourite way to reduce the carbon footprint of an e-commerce store?
26:56.227 --> 27:02.691
[SPEAKER_00]: So for us, we looked at this from the very beginning before we launched and make sure this was quite integral to what we do.
27:02.791 --> 27:09.675
[SPEAKER_00]: So from our, we have no plastic in our boxes, which is kind of difficult actually for a glass-based product.
27:09.735 --> 27:13.457
[SPEAKER_00]: We definitely struggled with that in the early stages and we had a lot of damages.
27:13.717 --> 27:16.519
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, you realise cardboard isn't that protective.
27:16.579 --> 27:18.620
[SPEAKER_00]: So we've managed to overcome that hurdle now, but
27:19.100 --> 27:21.781
[SPEAKER_00]: No plastic, so cardboard only.
27:22.061 --> 27:30.864
[SPEAKER_00]: We also work with a printing brand that plants a certain number of trees, a person, a number of boxes to try and offset some of our carbon footprint.
27:31.284 --> 27:40.568
[SPEAKER_00]: We also work with sustainable brands, so a lot of our customers in the our cold free world are very conscious of what they're consuming both in terms of ingredients and brands and products.
27:41.188 --> 27:48.731
[SPEAKER_00]: So a lot of the alcohol free brands in the market are also sustainable in terms of their practices and a lot of them are b-corp certified.
27:48.791 --> 27:55.914
[SPEAKER_00]: So actually the brands we work with are quite important for us as an e-commerce brand to make sure we're putting out what we're talking about.
27:56.894 --> 27:58.155
[SPEAKER_01]: Loftar, okay, Gemma.
27:58.175 --> 28:04.317
[SPEAKER_01]: Before we say goodbye, could you please at the list of snow where they can find you in your business on the web and social media?
28:04.891 --> 28:10.038
[SPEAKER_00]: Definitely so you can find us online at jomoclub.co.uk.
28:10.398 --> 28:19.270
[SPEAKER_00]: You can follow us on socials at jomoclub official and we also have a very special discount which I don't know if you want me to say or if you don't.
28:19.290 --> 28:21.553
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh no, please, please reveal reveal.
28:21.873 --> 28:27.578
[SPEAKER_00]: So, for any of our subscriptions, we have our coffee cocktail wine already to drink subscriptions.
28:27.958 --> 28:41.649
[SPEAKER_00]: You'll get 25% off your first month and you'll also get a free cocktail shaker to get you started as well just by using the code master plan and it's fully flexible, cancel any time and hope you all enjoy it.
28:42.430 --> 28:43.411
[SPEAKER_01]: There you go everybody.
28:43.911 --> 28:53.919
[SPEAKER_01]: Use the code masterplan at jomocclub.co.uk to get your 25% off and your first month and a cocktail shaker as well.
28:54.720 --> 28:56.862
[SPEAKER_01]: Gemma, thank you so much for all of the listeners.
28:57.022 --> 29:00.244
[SPEAKER_01]: They will really appreciate it and thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
29:00.264 --> 29:02.286
[SPEAKER_01]: It's been a real pleasure chatting with you.
29:02.326 --> 29:03.247
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for having me.
29:09.060 --> 29:12.141
[SPEAKER_01]: fascinating to hear how Gem has gone about building her business.
29:12.181 --> 29:20.503
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the clarity she's gone about, what they do, why they do, and why they do all the things they do is something I think we're probably all striving for.
29:21.003 --> 29:35.146
[SPEAKER_01]: Love to break down on the AI front, and those five things to get right, if you're going to be doing the big gift fairs, the big events, really, really clever, and things which you might not have thought through, but which you really do need to think through if you're going to make a success of those.
29:35.886 --> 29:42.631
[SPEAKER_01]: Get your hands on the notes from this episode, including those top tips and links to what we've mentioned by heading over to ecommercemasterplanned.com.
29:43.091 --> 29:48.755
[SPEAKER_01]: You can also use a direct episode short links that's ECMP.info for such the number of the episode.
29:49.115 --> 29:52.217
[SPEAKER_01]: Just put that in the URL bar to go straight to the right page of the website.
29:52.578 --> 30:00.123
[SPEAKER_01]: When you get to the site, why not add yourself to our email list as well so you don't miss out on any of the stuff we share to help you improve your business.
30:00.603 --> 30:09.370
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you liked this episode, then make sure you check out Episode 401, which is another subscription Drinks brand, Big Island Coffee Roaster.
30:10.091 --> 30:13.333
[SPEAKER_01]: And I get to chat with a brilliant Christina Smith all about that one.
30:13.694 --> 30:19.879
[SPEAKER_01]: And you can find all our subscription episodes at ECMP.info for such subscription.
30:20.379 --> 30:24.723
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for tuning into this and every episode that you do of the Ecommerce Master Plan podcast.
30:25.083 --> 30:35.632
[SPEAKER_01]: We bring you a new interview every week because we want to inspire and help you to succeed and thrive with your businesses, including encouraging both businesses and consumers to make more sustainable buying decisions.
30:36.133 --> 30:40.837
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you know someone this show can help, please tell them to listen to the Ecommerce Master Plan podcast.
30:41.197 --> 30:43.699
[SPEAKER_01]: Hope you have a great week and do not forget to keep
30:47.653 --> 30:50.957
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for listening to the e-commerce Master Plan podcast.
30:51.417 --> 30:56.303
[SPEAKER_02]: Find out more at e-commercemasterplanned.com slash podcast.