Australia’s largest e-commerce conference and expo, Online Retailer, was held at the International Convention Centre (ICC) in Sydney last week with Australia Post as the premier industry partner.
Across two days, the event brought together over 140 solution providers on the expo floor and more than 150 industry experts for keynote speaker sessions, workshops, panels and fireside chats.
Retailbiz attended Online Retailer and received positive feedback from key exhibitors about their experience on the show floor.
For this year’s event, Airwallex drew parallels between the Olympian superstars in Paris and the tenacity of local retailers gearing up for peak sales season.
“This inspired our ‘Champions Lounge’ booth and ‘Partner Relay’, which saw attendees complete sports games to go in the running for $10,000 worth of prizes. The response was amazing and we saw some serious skills on show – our Australian retailers are fighting fit,” marketing manager for ANZ, Claire Jewell commented.
Aramex described its Online Retailer experience as “productive, enjoyable, and successful” exhibiting on the show floor.
“Our commercial team said it was the best year yet and their favourite e-commerce expo of the year. The event was professionally organised, well attended and had a great line up of engaging speakers. We will be back in 2025,” chief marketing officer for Oceania, Cherie Kellahan commented.
Attentive sees Online Retailer as the flagship event of its annual planning due to its pure scale and attendance from retailers of every size.
“We’ve historically capitalised well on our presence. This year for example, we had over 40 brands sign up on the spot for a 30-day free trial so we’re able to bring the solution to life for them almost right away, and demonstrate the undeniable performance of SMS as a channel,” enterprise account executive, Matt Meffan commented.
Choco Up used last year’s Online Retailer event to officially launch in Australia and was excited to return in 2024.
“We had an incredible experience at Online Retailer this year. It’s always fun to be on the ground, meeting founders, business owners, and potential ecosystem partners. Online Retailer has always been a fantastic platform for us to connect and explore how we can help each other grow. It was great to return to this event, especially after achieving significant milestones such as disbursing close to AU$17 million to Australian businesses,” co-founder and CEO, Percy Hung commented.
“Building on last year’s success, our participation this year shows Choco Up’s growing presence and commitment to the Australian market. I had the pleasure of sharing with an audience how working capital can drive e-commerce expansion and unlock growth for businesses. We’re thrilled to see the enthusiasm and innovation within the industry, and we look forward to helping more e-commerce brands grow.”
Chronos Agency was a sponsor of this year’s Online Retailer event to coincide with the opening of its first Australian office.
“The support we have received from customers, agency partners, and tech partners has been second to none. The team has successfully been managing our Australian portfolio from our headquarters and offshore, but we believe having a physical presence in the market will further strengthen support for Australian clients, partnerships and brand awareness,” chief revenue officer, Nina Jung commented.
“Being part of Online Retailer and speaking to e-commerce brands and partners proved that Australian businesses are looking for sustainable growth in this uncertain economic climate but still lean largely towards paid media for driving revenue growth. It was great to be able to introduce the new narrative regarding email and SMS marketing, emphasising that it is not spam but a core part of an integrated marketing strategy. When well-planned and executed, we see it can achieve ROIs as high as 40 times.”
Convert Digital has been part of Online Retailer for almost 10 years, but still finds the event invaluable.
“The opportunity to showcase your brand, network with retail leaders and discover the latest technology is unparalleled in Australia. For Convert, we used the opportunity to launch our new brand and demonstrate our capability for commerce that stacks up,” founder and managing director, Andrew Waite commented.
Dotdigital was a sponsor of Online Retailer and sees the event as a great opportunity to meet industry peers and see what’s happening in the retail and e-commerce space.
“We always look forward to being a part of the show and this year was no different,” head of marketing APAC, Jannat Dawra commented.
Dropshipzone plans around the Online Retailer event in Sydney and 2024 was another successful year for the company.
“We were able to launch our new AirOxy technology that provides the cutting-edge invaluable insights and data that e-commerce retailers and suppliers need to thrive in a more competitive industry. Our team were able to talk all things dropshipping with our current retailers and suppliers and prospective e-commerce businesses looking to get in on the action. Looking forward to returning in 2025 bigger and bolder,” general manager, John Barkle commented.
Farsiight was a first-time exhibitor at Online Retailer and the response from attendees exceeded expectations.
“Our Tech Talk on ‘How to Nail and Scale Your Performance Ad Creative Strategy in 2024’ was met with enthusiasm, particularly from those involved in creative briefing within their organisations. The audience appreciated the tools we presented for ad creative inspiration and our systematic approach to scaling creative output,” co-founder and director, Josh Somerville commented.
“Our unique approach to conference merchandise was also a hit – our custom hoodies, designed in collaboration with the former Culture Kings creative director – almost sold out on the first day and were completely snapped up by the conference’s end. It was exciting to engage with a diverse range of brands, who were genuinely pumped about our designs and innovative methods. Based on the positive interactions and feedback, we’re confident that the ROI of this conference will be substantial, and we look forward to returning next year.”
Loop Returns was also a first-time exhibitor on the show floor.
“Online Retailer is the place to be for connecting with Australian brands. This year was Loop’s first appearance in an exhibition hall in Australia and we will absolutely be back. Online Retailer attendees are eager to connect and learn, making it the perfect event to network and be seen,” field marketing manager, Whitney Weber commented.
ShipBob enjoyed hearing from retailers on strategies to continue to innovate and scale across multiple geographies while driving efficiencies to maintain lean operations and unified systems, according to general manager for Australia, Guillaume ‘G’ Deront.
The event provided a fantastic platform for Shippit to connect with local retail leaders and showcase how the company is transforming the delivery experience.
“We were thrilled to participate in Online Retailer. As we continue to put consumers at the heart of our solutions, it’s clear that the demand for fast, flexible, and reliable delivery is more crucial than ever,” head of marketing, Shauna Butcher commented.
“The positive feedback we received on the show floor underscores our commitment to helping retailers exceed customer expectations and drive growth. We’re excited to leverage these insights and innovations to support the e-commerce community in navigating the ever-evolving market landscape.”
For ShipStation, Online Retailer was its most successful event since before the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We saw a high level of engagement from attendees, with strong participation in all speaking events. The organisers effectively integrated all stages into one room, which streamlined the experience,” head of marketing, Sonia Heinrich commented.
Sidekicker sees Online Retailer as extremely valuable as it provides insight into how the industry is innovating, what new solutions are available and how clients such as Australia Post view the future of this space.
“It allowed us to connect with potential clients to show them the benefits of using our online marketplace to fulfil resourcing requirements across their business. We’re already starting to see some of these conversations turn into partnerships,” account director, Tom O’Brien commented.
StudioHawk enjoyed connecting with Australia’s digital community at Online Retailer.
“Our goal is to educate the market on world-class SEO with a huge appetite for knowledge about how this strategy can elevate a brand’s online presence through PR link building, in-depth content production and a great user experience. We’re already looking forward to returning next year,” founder, Harry Sanders commented.
“It was lovely connecting with everyone in the e-commerce community. The world is going through a lot of change right now; however, the e-commerce community is alive and well. It’s cool to see Australian brands crushing it, on both a local and global level,” StudioHawk head of strategic growth, Joshua Poole added.
Twilio’s conversations with retailers at Online Retailer demonstrated that it is no longer practical to solely depend on third-party cookies.
“The shift in the data landscape remains in full force, even with recent news that Google will no longer phase out third-party cookies. Regulations like Australia’s Privacy Act Review is holding organisations more accountable than ever when it comes to consumer data collection and use,” vice president of marketing, Nicholas Kontopoulos commented.
“To enable deeper understanding of customers, retailers need to move beyond personalisation to more individualised customer engagement. The ability of retail brands to individualise experiences significantly depends on how much a brand knows about a particular customer. Insights customers voluntarily share through retail interactions, direct feedback channels and surveys — or zero-party and first-party data — can provide a boost in this aspect.”
VirtualStaff365 exhibited at Online Retailer for the third consecutive year, with the team coming together from around the country.
“At VirtualStaff365, we specialise in finding fantastic offshore talent to help ecommerce businesses scale, grow and thrive. We love what we do and seeing it all put together with our happy clients and colleagues at Online Retailer is one of the highlights of our year,” CEO, Neville Samuels commented.
Worldfirst views Online Retailer as an opportunity to connect with existing retail clients and partners from across Australia.
“We also made many meaningful connections with brands looking to reduce their supply chain costs and improve profit margins when selling cross-border,” country manager, Jim Vrondas commented.
For Zonos, Online Retailer proved to be the highlight of the year in Australia so far.
“We are thrilled to have participated. We connected with so many potential clients and partners, and it was great to catch up with a lot of our current clients in person. We’re excited about the future and can’t wait to keep building on the connections we made,” APAC account executive, Mariana Scavone commented.