Transcript
Despina Karatzias
Hello everyone Despina here from Navii Digital and I’m here for wonderful David Adamson from Talbot Old and Rare bookstores. Hello. Hello, thank you so much for joining this program. It’s a program that’s put on in, in partnership with the Central Goldfields Shire who have who, you know who have received some funding to help retailers kind of come on this e-commerce and digital journey.
David Adamson
What was it about the program that attracted you to join? Well, I’m in a situation where I’ve set up a business. But the bricks and mortar aspect is actually a bit uncertain in terms of ongoing tenancy and so forth. And all through said, since setting up the business a year ago, I’ve had the intention to be online. But I’ve found myself endlessly stumped by the complexities of how we integrate the different aspects. And I’ve always been pretty weary of Facebook and Instagram, and so forth to do with, how you set up accounts and what those accounts then do.
David Adamson
So, at the same time, I’ve wanted to get inventory online, because there’s no way in a small place, even though there are some days like my other days, which are good for people coming through most of the time very few people come through. So there’s always been this aspect that has needed me to get active, putting stuff online and creating a digital presence. Having said that, although I’ve tried to set up a framework for it, I found it very hard to get on with the work of actually doing that. And it’s partly because of a lot of aspects of listing inventory and setting up social media and so forth. There are so many different aspects of doing it to actually integrate it in a way, that means you’re not spending hours and hours on repetitious
David Adamson
attempts to make something effective or work, I’ve just been very wary about getting started on it.
David Adamson
These workshops have been really great for actually showing how a lot of these things can integrate. I know there are new, there are new software products and so forth coming online all the time. But there are still major trends at the moment, obviously to do with Facebook and Instagram and so forth. But make it clear that if it’s possible to integrate, and in some ways schedule or even automate aspects of a work process that might suit me better than my attempts so far, given that I’ve found it very hard to sustain. Actually getting stuff online. Yes. Look, and what’s been really interesting with you, David, is that it’s not this is something personal, you’re not in like it’s not how integrated in your life. Like with Facebook, in particular, it’s something that we’ve been able to distinguish that it doesn’t have to be like, we can come on here to do business. Yeah. So so the question of finding ways to integrate Facebook and Instagram, Instagram with the business suite, but also to consider my
David Adamson
book selling platform and how that might connect up with it, and how the POS system and the financial process of actual selling back can also integrate. I know all these things are possible. But it’s very, very hard to maintain an overall focus when I’m sort of starting from scratch. Yes, yes. And speaking of that, and that’s, you know, it’s been so wonderful to be
David Adamson/Despina Karatzias
to kind of our, our past to cross at the point of where you’re at. Because you’ve just started out, you’ve seen, you’ve seen the complexity. And you’ve also tried, you know, you’ve tried different things. And where we started with a Digital Engagement Health Check (TM). And we’re really starting with a white canvas. We had a great half-day workshop yesterday and sometimes one on one today. So how have you found where we started coming in? With this like this? There’s so much I don’t know where to start. How are you feeling after having the report and the session and working together today? I’m actually really grateful to central goldfields for setting up this process with Navii because it seems to me that it’s actually well well-resourced, and the actual fact that you’ve come to do face to face, face to face workshop, workshops and a bit of hands-on stuff plus the digital health check idea, it just gives a lot of points of entry for then getting on with
David Adamson
practical ways of solving things step by step.
David Adamson
It’s been the case for everyone around the country COVID has been a complete mess that floods immediately before COVID. They were bushfires and so forth. But the last year in particular, has been this sort of rather an odd thing where COVID is still going on and people are affected.
David Adamson
And then it was followed by a strangely
David Adamson
consistent immovable winter, coinciding with an election campaign where everyone was sort of going, Oh, my God, what’s happening in Australia. And so you’re getting a whole combination of things. And that had a real effect, even on the small amount of foot traffic for businesses, and it’s really hard to untangle what’s actually going on with that, and what the broader shifts are. And I think the only way of really getting some idea of it, is to actually engage with the online space to even if one doesn’t have that, as the major priority, I think I do have to have it as the major priority. And so this has been really useful. Then, the link with Nervion, through Central Goldfields was actually
David Adamson
set up by them setting up a council program to encourage people to follow a trail to call collectors and makers. And within that, there were people actually talking about what can we do with the digital process of this, which has become, which has come so much into focus because of COVID. And
David Adamson
it seems to me, they’ve made a really good choice in getting you to come in and doing it because as I said, it seems to be well-resourced. A lot of online-based stuff isn’t well-resourced. Yeah. And, so I’m really happy with it.
Despina Karatzias
Oh, look, I’m really happy to have met you and work together and at least set start to set the foundations and the next steps now, the next steps without saying, Okay, we’ve got to do like you said, you know, for a book online retailer, how many books did you say earlier? 3000. Oh, yeah.
David Adamson
You need to have about three to 5000 books. Yeah. And, um, to actually make a business work out of it? Because particularly bricks and mortar book shops, and secondhand, um, think they’re working on an incredibly slow turnover. It’s about six to 8% per annum. Yeah, most businesses can’t function on that sort of inventory turnover at all. Because there’s simply the warehousing issue.
Despina Karatzias
Yeah, yes. Yes,
David Adamson
So the way bookshop dealers have to do with it is follow up all sorts of different possibilities and go looking for books everywhere, and be very careful about what they stock and just have faith that over a longer period of time, it’ll work. But in today’s world, that’s not going to be effective enough without the digital. Yes, presence.
Despina Karatzias
Look, it’s like it’s been, it’s quite an honour to be here at this, at this point of time, where you’re making this transformation, you need to it’s not just a digital footprint, it’s really coming into this e-commerce space, to have this cross, you know, this cross reference of, you know, recalibrating the way that you do things and for the future, you know, in future, to not be to have choice and freedom around your business.
David Adamson
And your times, and I’ll decide to do those. Exactly, yes, that’s an appropriate way. Yes.
Despina Karatzias
What would you say there are other there are still places for this particular program? What would you say to other colleagues and friends within the retail community, you know, within this retail community about joining a program?
David Adamson
I would say, even if you think you have a handle on how to do the camera side of things, things, endlessly changing. And the most useful thing I found is, oh, there is actually a way of getting my Instagram and Facebook to focus on the business. So I don’t know how recent the Facebook business suite is stuff, but I mean, honestly, I do not trust Facebook. One. But it is interesting to see that in the interests of their profitability, things like Facebook, and square, and Google are all trying to move into a deeper engagement with the financial space in the business space, not just advertising. Yes. And as a result, some of the technology that’s coming out is actually really effective. Yes. And it’s free. Yeah, insofar as they’re offering so verses and it’s either at a cheaper rate than the traditional forms of banking. And so, yeah, so there’s a hell of a lot going on in that space. And I think even for businesses that feel pretty content with the model they have, there’s a lot to gain from whatever your starting point is, in having this close look at how all the different aspects of, of digital engagement can actually be going. So, so the digital health check actually has a lot of detailed subsections of Do you have this? And do you have get some do that have this and it touches on security and touches on a range of things that I think would benefit any business? Yes,
Despina Karatzias
yes. You definitely start with a plan, I guess, after having an overview of all of your digital assets that exist. Thank you. Thank you for this. I will vote to keep working with you. Because this is just the beginning. And I wish you all the best and until the next time we meet checking off the homework. Yep. Excellent. Thank you. Thanks.
