With much of the world still in partial lockdown, E-Commerce is here to stay. So where does that leave bricks-and-mortar retail?

Not necessarily in the dust, according to Reuben Mallalieu, Head of Ecom World 2021 and our guest on Ticker Green. 

Reuben Mallalieu runs the biggest e-commerce conference in the world, Ecom World 2021. A digital event, run over two days in late June with over 15,000 attendees. The event garners speakers from big tech, e-commerce and media such as Gary Vaynerchuk and other high profile names from Facebook, Snapchat, Spotify and Shopify. It also provides a platform for lesser-known brands making a splash. 

In a post-pandemic world, it would be easy to think traditional retail will be dead. Not according to Mallalieu, who believes that a bricks-and-mortar flagship store will still be an aspirational destination for digitally native brands. In Mallalieu’s view, consumers will always want to understand the look and feel of a product in-store. However it’s not a luxury all brands can afford. 

That’s where e-commerce comes in. Once upon a time, a business would open its shop doors and wait to receive its first customer. Now, it launches a website. Platforms like Shopify have enabled an explosion of direct-to-consumer e-commerce brands to launch. “It’s easier than ever to build and scale a business just with the tools we have available in the world of e-commerce”, Mallalieu says.  

Mallalieu gave us more than just predictions about the future of retail. He let us in on what he believes is the secret sauce to successfully running an e-commerce business in 2021:

“You need to have three key areas in place to be able to build and scale a business to over $1 million.”

1. Product & Operations – Good margins, a quality product and operations to scale.
2. Brand – The coolest brand possible with amazing product shots and a great online storefront.
3. Growth – A robust growth marketing plan based on paid ads or other organic strategies to reach your audience.

So what does this mean for direct-to-consumer brands with a sustainability focus? Well it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that Mallalieu is optimistic.“I am a massive fanboy of Allbirds…they are now a billion-dollar shoe brand focused on sustainability,” Mallalieu says.

For newer sustainability players like my business Single Use Ain’t Sexy, Ecom World 2021 is a place for us to share ideas and talk shop! Our first-to-market dissolvable hand soap tablets & reusable glass bottles have already sold out twice & attracted thousands of eco-friendly customers.

If you’re keen to stay ahead of the curve, drop into some of the online events at Ecom World 2021 on 28 and 29 June 2021.