ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Episode 157 is Tuesday 13 October, and Alex has to remind Mal to say the date, after listeners asked for it. Inside Retail's Top 50 People in E-Commerce nominations close the day this goes out, so get yours in. And a shout-out to Andrew Pearce and Hello Sarnie, the Adelaide sandwich shop Mal put on Uber Eats back in 2016, which has just opened its first store outside South Australia, in North Sydney.
The big one this week is Kmart and Big W pulling their $89 smart glasses after the privacy regulator opened an investigation. Mal and Alex talk about why shoppers are pushing back on tech: UK venues are banning Meta glasses, people are asking what their Ring doorbells record, and record and DVD sales are coming back. And half of shoppers say they think less of a brand that uses AI-made ads.
- The surcharge ban is two weeks old, "service fees" are showing up at the counter, and the ACCC says a card surcharge under a different name is still illegal.
- Uniqlo's Southeast Asia, India and Australia business grew 30.7% to A$7.3B, and it barely ever discounts.
- ASOS was breached through its Snowflake data platform and its shares fell 10%, while 52% of Australian small businesses say they don't think they're a target.
- Prime Big Deal Days pushed US online spend to $9.86B in two days, and Lowe's will start Black Friday on 29 October.
- Kmart and Big W pull their smart glasses as the OAIC investigates, even as Meta's glasses sales have tripled to more than 7 million pairs.
- Bond-Eye has launched swimwear made from 45% Australian merino with no nylon or polyester, and Australia hasn't required fibre-content labels since 2019.
- Stax's liquidators put the shortfall at about $23M, against the $10M reported, with $1.4M of customer pre-orders booked as revenue.
