Well, hello, I'm Matt Edmundson and you are listening to the eCommerce Podcast.
Speaker:Uh, now I've been around eCommerce since 2002, which I appreciate
Speaker:is a very, very long time.
Speaker:And during that time, you know what the biggest challenge I faced, it wasn't
Speaker:finding products or building websites.
Speaker:It was finding.
Speaker:The right partners, the right people who could help me grow
Speaker:beyond my own limitation.
Speaker:And that's why these days I partner with eCommerce brands to
Speaker:help them grow, scale and exit.
Speaker:And if you'd like to know more about that and more about how that works,
Speaker:just head over to the website eCommerce Podcast dot net 'cause it's all there.
Speaker:Uh, come join it.
Speaker:Come say, how's it now?
Speaker:Today I'm joined by Matt Anderson from Dragonfly.
Speaker:AI and we're gonna be looking at this fascinating place where e-commerce,
Speaker:AI, and brand all collide together now.
Speaker:Ai.
Speaker:Think about it, right?
Speaker:You've used it, you've used chat.
Speaker:GPT, if you're like me, you're a big fan of Claude.
Speaker:How many of you have done that thing where you've just asked chat, GPT or
Speaker:Claude for a, for a piece of content, uh, and they give it to you and that's it.
Speaker:You just use that.
Speaker:There's no, there's no filter.
Speaker:There's no quality control.
Speaker:We all know that there should be one, right?
Speaker:We genuinely do.
Speaker:But we just don't do it mainly 'cause we're time conscious.
Speaker:Well, that's what we're gonna get into, uh, today, all this kind of stuff.
Speaker:Matt, I'm curious, when did you first sort of come across this as a
Speaker:big problem that people were having?
Speaker:Um, well thank you for, for having me on, first and foremost.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:I think well o over the last sort of year to 18 months, um, I mean,
Speaker:AI first and foremost rolled back.
Speaker:AI has been around for a while now.
Speaker:Um, you know, a,
Speaker:a good decade or so, anyone that's used I. To auto correct
Speaker:on, on their, on their phone or
Speaker:Grammarly and those kind of things.
Speaker:I mean, that's
Speaker:all type
Speaker:type of AI uh, you could say.
Speaker:So, but I mean, I think, I guess really very much in the last sort of.
Speaker:Six to 12 months, the world of sort of chat GPTs become on, on, on the,
Speaker:the mainstream conscious really.
Speaker:Um, and then all the other plethora of, of ai, has roll rolled on from that.
Speaker:I know, we are at the point that Pandora's box is open.
Speaker:Um, and perhaps I think people are starting to understand the power of ai.
Speaker:Um, and I think, but also, you know, there's, there's skepticism
Speaker:and, and also, um, some.
Speaker:Somewhat of a fear and trepidation.
Speaker:Anyone who's seen Trump's video recently about Garza know exactly
Speaker:what I'm talking about, you know?
Speaker:So there's that, issue there that not only, not only what, you know,
Speaker:the content that we're pushing out, but the content we're consuming.
Speaker:There's there's the lack of a filter really
Speaker:at the moment.
Speaker:I think, um, uh, governments and organizations are, are, are, you know,
Speaker:I think it's fair enough, uh, are are playing catch up there regarding that.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:What I would say is ai, um, and, and, and we're, and I'll talk about
Speaker:different types of ai, but AI at the moment, um, is very much dependent on
Speaker:how quality of the data that you're putting in and also the quality of
Speaker:the prompt engineering and this term
Speaker:about prompting.
Speaker:How
Speaker:good is the prompt that you're giving, giving the, the AI is very
Speaker:much dependent on the quality of content you get, you're getting out.
Speaker:Um, but also many organizations, um, and as they say, and the world of
Speaker:sellers and, and, and, and eCommerce sort of small one man bands and
Speaker:what have you or one woman bands
Speaker:are,
Speaker:uh, not putting the checks and balances in place about the contents coming out.
Speaker:Um, 'cause certain AI can hallucinate, as they say in the traders though,
Speaker:it'll come to a point where it can't really find the facts or, or understand
Speaker:the subject and it'll make a fact up,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:um, and a percentage up and what have you.
Speaker:And certain AI out there is better at qualifying it,
Speaker:like perplexity for example.
Speaker:It'll reference,
Speaker:you know, it'll give you a statin and give you a reference, but, you know,
Speaker:that is a limitation of, of, of chat, GPT and, and, and also clawed as well, so.
Speaker:We need to have those sort of checks and balances.
Speaker:And the way I always refer to it's like, if you're using ai, AI as a copilot, it
Speaker:is like a, um, for both fans by the way.
Speaker:But I would say like, this is like having a, a, master's graduate
Speaker:next year that's just entered your business, but they don't, they don't
Speaker:know all the facts about your product and what you do and what you sell.
Speaker:So you have to sort of have that feedback loop really with,
Speaker:with with the ai.
Speaker:Just to just double check really.
Speaker:Um, So having sys good, good systems and sos in place is, is one thing really.
Speaker:Um, um, I very much so to, to, to
Speaker:be aware of.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:isn't it, that we, um, because I was talking to someone earlier,
Speaker:we're doing a website review
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:looking at the website and I'm kinda like, I'm reading the content.
Speaker:I'm like, did AI write this?
Speaker:You and,
Speaker:and I feel like we've got to the phase where actually humans are now
Speaker:starting to quite quickly and easily recognize when AI creates content.
Speaker:Um, there, there's certain tells isn't there?
Speaker:Like if you ask it to write a headline, it will always write a statement with
Speaker:a colon followed by another statement and it it, it drives me absolutely nuts.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:And we can, and you can see it straight off the bat.
Speaker:And
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:this case of whenever it was 18 months ago in chat, GPT
Speaker:sort of exploded on the scene.
Speaker:You're like, flip at it, can write all this amazing content.
Speaker:And it did, but it's very AI content.
Speaker:And actually now I think not only can computer spot AI content, but we
Speaker:where humans are very good at sort of subconsciously spotting AI content.
Speaker:that a bad thing?
Speaker:yes, but I think possibly no.
Speaker:But I think like the website I was referring to, uh, looking at this
Speaker:morning, it just felt all a bit dry, if I'm honest with you, Matt, and all a
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:and all a bit dull and I think I. This seems to be with
Speaker:the default kind of prompts.
Speaker:Like if you go to chat GP, T and C, give me some product copy for this widget.
Speaker:It's just gonna give you fairly average content because it's taken
Speaker:the sum of all the parts from the website to create that content.
Speaker:I would've thought.
Speaker:Yeah, I think it's, uh, it is referencing the, the content
Speaker:within the large language model.
Speaker:Essentially a lot of the, um.
Speaker:Generative ai, which is like, if you look at step by step, by
Speaker:step, it it's basically learning through, uh, machine learning.
Speaker:So it is going, oh, well you said this and you said that,
Speaker:so you most likely mean this.
Speaker:Uh, or it's going step by step by step.
Speaker:And that's hence why the prompts are so important because you can
Speaker:say, okay, I want you to act like a e-commerce copywriter, and I
Speaker:want write, I want you to write a copy for a female audience, not a
Speaker:male audience.
Speaker:And I want you to be, you know, and be very.
Speaker:Specific about the audience and, and, and that, you know, subconsciously a
Speaker:human copywriter that's been around the, around for a while will, will,
Speaker:you know, make those decisions again.
Speaker:Oh, right.
Speaker:I'm writing for a female audience and it's about baking and I'm gonna be writing
Speaker:about, and these kind of phrases are gonna resonate with my target audience.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Ai.
Speaker:Doesn't know that to start off with.
Speaker:So you have to sort of give it those prompts to sort of
Speaker:steer it down the right track.
Speaker:Um, and also you can refer a little tip for when using Claude, you can write a
Speaker:piece of copy yourself and go, Claude, when now you've looked at like the
Speaker:bare bones of this article, can you, this, this piece of text as as a tone
Speaker:of voice and, and write in my tone of voice and you'll get a better output.
Speaker:So giving, giving the.
Speaker:The AI those steers are very important because I think, you know, we perhaps
Speaker:most, most of it's coming into it, you think, oh, it's amazing.
Speaker:There's this black box.
Speaker:I can just ask you to do anything.
Speaker:And it's amazing.
Speaker:It'll just spit out, start spitting out content and doing work for me,
Speaker:and we get all giddy and, and start firing off all sorts of prompts.
Speaker:Um, but with, perhaps give it, give AI as it is at the moment, are too much, um.
Speaker:Too much kudos about the, how intelligent it is at, at, at the
Speaker:generative level.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:but there's the next wave of ai.
Speaker:Um, and, you know, um, I'd say like the better, the better ones out there.
Speaker:The claw, the deep seeks the, um, rock is pretty impressive as well.
Speaker:Um, are start starting to work towards a generative ai.
Speaker:So generative AI is basically starts to use initiative.
Speaker:so.
Speaker:can imagine like your, your grad analogy, what, when you've had a grad
Speaker:work for you for sort of 18 months, two years, they start to be able to
Speaker:Oh,
Speaker:right.
Speaker:Well, they know the ropes, they know what's good and what's bad, and
Speaker:they can make, they can use their own initiative.
Speaker:And I think that's what, that's the next sort of leap within, within
Speaker:a, um, AI that once that becomes main mainstream, it can get, it can
Speaker:be really, really super powerful.
Speaker:I
Speaker:think.
Speaker:Uh, um, and
Speaker:I think that's where, where we're sort of moving to.
Speaker:It's interesting, isn't it, because.
Speaker:Um, it's the logical place, I think for AI to move to now.
Speaker:Is, is that side of things.
Speaker:I mean, the latest release of Claude, I can't remember what Claude
Speaker:we're on sonnet something or other,
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:out a week or two ago.
Speaker:Uh, here it is, Claude 3.7 sonnet.
Speaker:I think it's,
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:it's just stepped up the game quite a bit, you know, I,
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:where it was even previously.
Speaker:So you can see that there are these rapid improvements.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:And I get what you're saying about the prompting and, and telling it to the
Speaker:sort of the style, the tone of voice and how important that is and getting that
Speaker:right and not assuming that it will know.
Speaker:I remember, uh, recently a friend of mine, he, he, he's released, he's
Speaker:launched, uh, or he's acquired actually a, um, an airsoft business, you know.
Speaker:Um, and I have a slight interest in Airsoft having two sons, uh,
Speaker:who like to shoot each other, you know, with various plastic balls.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:so he asked me what I thought about the site, and I thought, well, again,
Speaker:the product copies, you've just copied that from the manufacturer
Speaker:and put it on your website.
Speaker:And so within sort of a, I guess 10 minutes of playing around with some
Speaker:prompts on, chat GPT or Claude, I can't remember which one we used,
Speaker:'cause that was the one that he had.
Speaker:We found that actually if we put into chat, GPT, um, can you please rewrite this
Speaker:copy in the style of a James Bond novel?
Speaker:And actually.
Speaker:And, and by the way, you are aiming at people who've, who want
Speaker:to be James Bond in their sort of twenties and thirties, right?
Speaker:Who feel like they should belong to some secret service type affair.
Speaker:And actually, I. did a really good first job.
Speaker:So you, if you just take the copy and tell it to rewrite
Speaker:it, it's still gonna be boring.
Speaker:But given it this direction, given it that prompt, it was some of the best product
Speaker:copy I've read, I've read for a long time actually, uh, when we introduced this
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:James Bond and, and I think giving Claude and Chat GPT, that information just.
Speaker:Really is helpful.
Speaker:So I think what you said is super important.
Speaker:Get the prompts right, understand your tone of voice, and I think
Speaker:understand your tone of voice as it relates to your client.
Speaker:I would've thought, you know, who, who your customers are
Speaker:and what makes sense for them.
Speaker:and I think that is, gonna have a big impact just on the copy on your website.
Speaker:So now we're moving into generative ai.
Speaker:And by the way, just to say ladies and gentlemen, uh, if you are
Speaker:enjoying conversations like this.
Speaker:Uh, then why not come and join our monthly Cohort calls?
Speaker:We've got one in Australia, we've got one in the uk.
Speaker:We're just about to start one in the us They're basically
Speaker:free set, uh, free calls.
Speaker:Basically we, we, jump on, uh, on Zoom, uh, as founders, uh,
Speaker:e-commerce founders, we share ideas, share thoughts, um, and just.
Speaker:Figure out how we can do eCommerce better.
Speaker:So if you are in the eCommerce space, uh, and would like to join our Cohort, why
Speaker:not come network, come meet with people.
Speaker:Uh, more information at eCommerce Podcast dot net at breakover.
Speaker:Uh, Matt, so
Speaker:let's talk about generative ai.
Speaker:This is, like you say this, I, I like again, your, your graduate.
Speaker:This is where they've learned a little bit and now they're starting to be a lot
Speaker:more creative and a lot more playful.
Speaker:This is where I. People start to get a little bit more scared though, because if
Speaker:I think of Cyberdyne systems, you know, from Terminator, it started to learn,
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:and then Sarah Connor and, and all that sort of stuff had to happen.
Speaker:so how have you, have you put all of this together?
Speaker:Are you excited by it?
Speaker:Do you think we're all going to, you know, get taken over by robots?
Speaker:Um, well, I think that taking a step back and that obviously disclaimer, I'm, I'm
Speaker:working in ai so obviously clearly I'm gonna be pro it, but I mean, I think, um.
Speaker:Listen, you know, when, back in the day when the Ford Motorcar was being rolled
Speaker:out and everyone was riding around, riding around in horse and cart, they
Speaker:said everyone's gonna lose their jobs and it was gonna be bad for, for business.
Speaker:You know, the, the motorcar was,
Speaker:uh, people were quite skeptical of
Speaker:it when it first came out.
Speaker:And I think, you know, AI is, is another layer of technology, Um, will it
Speaker:ever be to the level of like the Terminator?
Speaker:No, uh, it won't, it won't do, um.
Speaker:but Uh, on the, on the flip side, I think it could actually have a lot
Speaker:of, uh, good, uh, power and powerful use within the world of research is
Speaker:one, one area.
Speaker:For example, um, you know, I've got AstraZeneca down the road
Speaker:and, you know, the use of ai when
Speaker:Reviewing clinical tests, huge, massive data models, which would take, you know,
Speaker:hundreds of grads years to, to decipher.
Speaker:You know, AI could actually do a, a,
Speaker:ton of heavy lifting there.
Speaker:Um, if you think of bringing, bring it into the world of e-commerce, things
Speaker:like keyword research and understanding buying intent and how and why people
Speaker:are searching for a products online.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:now that's
Speaker:a certain passion of mine.
Speaker:Uh, Coming from my sort of performance marketing background as
Speaker:well, but having an AI that can actually, um, do an awful lot of that heavy lifting
Speaker:and give really in really good insights into demographics, uh, um, uh, where
Speaker:people searching from worldwide, you know, really deep diving into that information
Speaker:and giving you really clear actionable insights at a rapid pace.
Speaker:I mean, that's, that's.
Speaker:Fantastic.
Speaker:You know, so just think the amount, amount of years I've spent probably
Speaker:sat staring at Excel spreadsheets, and you're probably the same.
Speaker:It's, um, you know, it's probably, probably a good thing.
Speaker:Uh, but, um, so I think that that's it, you know, it has actually got
Speaker:a lot, a lot of good that you can actually bring to the world and
Speaker:actually reduce a lot of mundane work.
Speaker:Um, um, and there'd be
Speaker:new, new kinds of jobs and new kinds of kinds of work.
Speaker:That's opened up because of it basically.
Speaker:Um, So, you know, I think there in, in the world of, in the world
Speaker:of research, advanced engineering medicine, uh, you know, all those
Speaker:sort of areas that, um, The, the, they'll actually open up the jobs or
Speaker:make things more accessible basically.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:and
Speaker:those kind of
Speaker:companies like, you know, the world Yeah.
Speaker:And and eCommerce as well.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, so you think that, you know, there's the, there's a
Speaker:whole sort of eCommerce brand.
Speaker:uh, A sort of ecosystem, which was sort of exploded on the back of the
Speaker:Amazon aggregators a few years back.
Speaker:Uh, God rest their souls at
Speaker:uh, made a lot of very wealthy people.
Speaker:But essentially, rather than having a, having to be a massively
Speaker:well-funded aggregator like
Speaker:Thia was, uh, you know, having individuals or small groups of people
Speaker:launching, uh, brands and being able to.
Speaker:sell a lot of product very quickly and, you know, get to market faster than
Speaker:the Proctor and Gambles of this world.
Speaker:Um, you know, there's, there's, there's a real opportunity for, for, for people
Speaker:to, to, to, to, you know, make, make money on the back of, um, AI rather than just
Speaker:thinking around, I'm gonna lose my jobs.
Speaker:You know, it's, it
Speaker:is, an opportunity for, for people that are.
Speaker:Willing to learn and willing to upskill and, um, you know, use the latest
Speaker:tools versus some of the, you know, the bigger organizations in, in, in
Speaker:AI are adverse to using it because they're worried about, you know, data security
Speaker:and, and ethics and those types of things.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:Well, I, I like what you said there
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:um, in that, um, like with everything, you know, we've got the, at the moment I've
Speaker:been writing on LinkedIn about tariffs.
Speaker:There's a lot of.
Speaker:I dunno when this episode's coming out, but as at the time of recording,
Speaker:there's a lot of press about the tariffs, the, you know, the Trump tariffs and
Speaker:how they're sort of shaking things up.
Speaker:And what, what happens is when things like this happen is people panic and they
Speaker:make decisions, reactionary decisions rather than strategic decisions.
Speaker:And I think when there are leaps, like in ai.
Speaker:Actually sitting back and making a strategic decision is really important
Speaker:and un so understanding the tools, understanding what it can do for you.
Speaker:And I love this idea that you, you know, you said you can now using these
Speaker:tools in effect, you've got a research scientist working for you full time.
Speaker:Uh, they don't complain.
Speaker:They just, they go away.
Speaker:They, it's, it's, it's a brilliant thing.
Speaker:And so taking that data, if you know how to use the tools.
Speaker:Because you are not Proctor and Gamble, because you are not the Titanic.
Speaker:You're a speedboat.
Speaker:You can turn, you can be super nimble and bring something to
Speaker:market way quicker than they can.
Speaker:I. take advantage of the opportunities that the bigger companies can no longer
Speaker:do because they're, they're, well, they've always had this issue, haven't they?
Speaker:They've always been constrained by their size and their
Speaker:processes and how they do things.
Speaker:and I think in some respects what you're talking about then is generative AI
Speaker:becomes a great leveler, doesn't it?
Speaker:For,
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:entrepreneurs.
Speaker:a absolutely a hundred, A hundred percent.
Speaker:And I think if you, you layer on that concept with, um, AI
Speaker:agents that, uh, are working
Speaker:within the consumer journey already.
Speaker:Ru Rufuss being one of them with
Speaker:within, um, Amazon World, uh, you know, um, you know, I, I. Hey, I, I'm, I'm,
Speaker:I'm a guy and I'm, I need a razor, but I'm, I'm looking for a waterproof
Speaker:razor that's, you know, I can use, uh, on, on the go when I'm, I'm traveling
Speaker:and, and,
Speaker:and, I can ask the AI that and go, go off and find me.
Speaker:Here's my budget.
Speaker:Go off and find
Speaker:the, the best ones in the market.
Speaker:Um, and, and I want it to be sustainable and I'm not gonna buy, you know, from
Speaker:the US 'cause the tariffs, are gonna buy Germany or whatever it may be.
Speaker:You know, the consumer has lots of fickle, um, ways means to buy a product and.
Speaker:You can, get, you can ask an AI agent like rufuss,
Speaker:those questions that'll go off and turn the product.
Speaker:So it's a great level where it's um, you know, the proctors and gambles and
Speaker:the Unilevers and the, and the rackets of this world are, are there dominating
Speaker:the physical shelf in the store?
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:they're, they're, they're, they're using their, their sourcing and.
Speaker:Heft in, in a marketing sense to, to, to be there and keep
Speaker:the little guys and girls out.
Speaker:Um, and it's the same in the world of eCommerce, isn't it?
Speaker:You know, they're out spending people on Google.
Speaker:They, they, they're, they're spending a ton on organic SEOs.
Speaker:they're outranking you.
Speaker:And sometimes as a, you know, the one man band, you, you, you're
Speaker:thinking, well, how, you know, how how am I gonna compete in this niche?
Speaker:Whereas the AI will be a great lever of that.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And actually, well, no, I'm gonna go off.
Speaker:I'm gonna, I'm gonna be agnostic to, to brand.
Speaker:I'm not gonna follow the big logos or anything like that, but
Speaker:I'm gonna go off and find the best product for you consumer.
Speaker:So the consumers have got the research agents as well.
Speaker:So
Speaker:I think you've got like the entrepreneurs and the consumers are, well, hopefully,
Speaker:you know, and we all spoken about to our friends the, you know, the latest product
Speaker:that you've just found in God, you know, only if I'd found this thing earlier,
Speaker:guys, but it's, it's absolutely brilliant.
Speaker:You know, I've just
Speaker:found Whatever it may be.
Speaker:Um, you know, the Dysons of this world before, before, uh, uh, you know,
Speaker:vacuum, vacuum cleaner bags were a good thing that, you know, di Dyson was,
Speaker:was nowhere to be seen because the, the big boys in in that market were,
Speaker:were
Speaker:pushed pushed them out.
Speaker:So, but now AI would be a great leveler with, with entrepreneurs like Dyson
Speaker:because they would've been able to get
Speaker:way To market way faster through
Speaker:prototype
Speaker:testing and also be found by the consumer
Speaker:faster as well.
Speaker:Yeah, it's fascinating, isn't it?
Speaker:I, I like this idea.
Speaker:I am intrigued actually how AI is now starting to impact
Speaker:how we search for products.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:to be if you wanted something from any website, Amazon, or
Speaker:whatever it was, you kind of had to know what it was you wanted.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Um, and if you didn't know what you wanted, like when we had the beauty
Speaker:site, we had blog posts after blog posts, after blog posts to try and
Speaker:help you understand if you have this skin condition, you might wanna try
Speaker:these products to bring that education.
Speaker:And we did it through blogs, did it through YouTube videos
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:all that sort of stuff to help consumers figure it out.
Speaker:Now, um.
Speaker:I go to perplexity and I say to perplexity, um, I was after some, uh,
Speaker:what product was I after the other day?
Speaker:Um, that I bought, uh, the electrolyte drinks, right?
Speaker:So
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:the gym, I wanted an electrolyte.
Speaker:I. Supplement that I could take.
Speaker:What's the best per supplement that I should take for electrolytes?
Speaker:This is my exercise.
Speaker:This is what I do.
Speaker:Go away, find out, come back to me and tell me.
Speaker:And it, and it goes away.
Speaker:And it comes back.
Speaker:Now, whether it's the right one for me is another story entirely.
Speaker:But the fact is that we are now outsourcing and with Amazon, you know,
Speaker:with, with Rufuss, like say a friend of mine, he developed Ross Heatherington,
Speaker:um, who owns Shopify Marketing.
Speaker:He developed a search engine where you would put in your problem and
Speaker:using AI it would find products that would solve your problem.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:he, I've seen the prototype and he is like, there's no
Speaker:point in taking it any further.
Speaker:'cause Amazon seemed to have now resolved this problem with Rufuss and
Speaker:it, it seems to be that that is a really interesting avenue now to go down and to
Speaker:understand as e-commerce entrepreneurs that actually the way we're gonna
Speaker:search, I think is probably different.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:absolutely a hundred percent.
Speaker:It, it's going, I mean, um, uh, before I used to work at an agency
Speaker:before and, and opt optimize on an, a Marketplace in, in Amazon world, and
Speaker:we, I always used to describe it to the, the teams there, as you know, to.
Speaker:To understand how we should be optimizing a product, we need to
Speaker:think about the buying missions.
Speaker:So what, are the different ways that you're gonna buy a snack bar
Speaker:and like eat Naturals, a brand that we were looking at at the time
Speaker:and you think, well, let's see.
Speaker:Well, it could be a snack bar and I'm just hungry and you know, kid, I've
Speaker:got teenagers in the house and they
Speaker:just need snack bars to fill 'em up One, one by mission.
Speaker:Another one is, I'm a gym monkey and I'm I, and I want protein
Speaker:bars and I want something with protein so I can, I can stack up on
Speaker:protein after I've been in the gym.
Speaker:Another way is actually, it's also a vegan bar, I'm a vegan
Speaker:and I don't want anything.
Speaker:So there's,
Speaker:you know, consumers
Speaker:come at a product in different
Speaker:angles to like their, their needs and wants is really important.
Speaker:And I think that, um, you know, if you can, if you as an entrepreneur
Speaker:and as an e-commerce entrepreneur, this is where I was talking about
Speaker:like brand and e-commerce and AI really meet in a perfect match.
Speaker:It's like I I, and I'm launching my own brand later this year, by the way.
Speaker:Uh, so what's.
Speaker:So, um, but you know, I'm, I'm, I'll take you through the thought process.
Speaker:I'm, I'm, I'm looking at, okay, well, I've spotted a niche that I think I can
Speaker:get in in, it's not too much of a large niche, but, you know, I think I can, um,
Speaker:uh, if I, if I, if I hits it right, I could, you know, generate enough income
Speaker:to make, to get me to the next level and then expand that, which is great.
Speaker:That's a good tick, right?
Speaker:Let's, then, Then I can deploy my a AI agents and go, okay,
Speaker:well let's look at this niche.
Speaker:What, what do people like about products?
Speaker:What don't they like about products?
Speaker:What, what pain points have they got?
Speaker:What Issues?
Speaker:Have they got, you know, um, and then figure out why, why people would
Speaker:want a product or need a product.
Speaker:And it's that need, need point It's really like, what, what, what's it?
Speaker:Is this not being scratched by the competition or the big boys?
Speaker:And I think it's really, that's at a point where, you know, as an
Speaker:entrepreneur you can go, okay, well
Speaker:If
Speaker:that product doesn't exist.
Speaker:Well, let's go off and create that product, and then we know
Speaker:how to market it in that niche
Speaker:uh, and then go after it from that point of view.
Speaker:Um, or I can create a different category altogether because there's
Speaker:needs and wants from a consumers here that are not being met by them.
Speaker:So I think that's really super interesting that you can
Speaker:actually develop stroke source
Speaker:products Based on, on the needs of what's in a category that perhaps are even,
Speaker:even being fulfilled by the competitors.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:and, and that, and then, and then adapt your, your marketing
Speaker:to really target them as well.
Speaker:Um, I think that's about, it's a really interesting space, um, particularly
Speaker:if you can get AI has to go off it.
Speaker:Haven't quite nailed it quite yet, but I, I spotted an ai, um, the Wonder
Speaker:Family, I dunno if you've seen that.
Speaker:It's called Steve.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:And, um, there, there's, they've just literally just launched it.
Speaker:So there's an AI that you can, you can give it a niche that you want
Speaker:to target, and then you can sort of decide on a product and it'll go off
Speaker:and then, uh, source that product and send out the emails to suppliers and
Speaker:set up a competitive contender and then get it, get it all for you as well.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:in theory, I haven't, you know, that's something that's being
Speaker:launched at the moment, but in theory, you know, you could actually.
Speaker:Get a very slick system in place, basically.
Speaker:So I think that's sort of, um, uh, and so there's some really,
Speaker:really cool tools out there.
Speaker:It's really interesting, isn't it?
Speaker:How people are using AI now to help them.
Speaker:It's like, what's the most boring part of your job?
Speaker:Finding the products, getting the tenders and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker:So it's just here, just go do that.
Speaker:I, I, I want to come back to
Speaker:your
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:if that's okay, but I, I guess this is a good point to ask.
Speaker:What tools then are you using to launch your brand, and what tools
Speaker:should e-commerce entrepreneurs be?
Speaker:I mean, we've touched on GPT as an obvious one.
Speaker:Claude I think is much better for content than GPT, but that's
Speaker:just, you know, my, my personal
Speaker:Agreed.
Speaker:um.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Well, we agree this, this is a beautiful thing.
Speaker:So what else should we be thinking about?
Speaker:What else should, what tools have you found that you think,
Speaker:actually, this is a really clever thing that they're doing right
Speaker:Well, you, me, you, you mentioned one, um,
Speaker:or, or carry, carry
Speaker:on the, the, the agreement is there's perplexities, it's a great
Speaker:tool for product research and,
Speaker:and, um, you know, if you wanted to dig into.
Speaker:the Demographics and, uh, just provide a quick overview of a,
Speaker:of a category, so that's great.
Speaker:Um, um, and, um, also, um, shameless plug of Dragonfly, which
Speaker:where I'm working at the moment.
Speaker:Um, uh, and that'll allow, uh, the user to scan any content, physical or online,
Speaker:uh, to 89% accuracy of the human eye.
Speaker:Um, and decide about which, which, which product or which image.
Speaker:Will, uh, gain more attention and you're more likely
Speaker:to click on it before you launch it, basically.
Speaker:Um, and that works on the physical shelf as well, because obviously, you know,
Speaker:picking off the product off the shelf, uh, that, that standout on shelf is
Speaker:really important as well for packaging.
Speaker:Um, so that's, that's a really good tool.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:there's, um, tools like Pfu, uh, out there, which has been a while around
Speaker:for a while, but they've got some good, interesting AI capabilities in that.
Speaker:So you can, when launching your product, you
Speaker:can have different logo types or different.
Speaker:Concepts and then launch 'em out to small groups of people, get some feedback.
Speaker:But the AI will summarize their overall feedback as well.
Speaker:Um, so that's, that's really, really cool.
Speaker:I, there's, there's some, some good, good starting points
Speaker:there really, uh, to look at.
Speaker:Um, and there's some good tools like make.com, which help.
Speaker:It's a bit like,
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:connecting
Speaker:various things.
Speaker:isn't it really?
Speaker:Yeah, basically.
Speaker:I think that's, that's a good.
Speaker:A good tool really.
Speaker:But I would, I would say, is, um, you know, we're going back to sort of
Speaker:opening up Pandora's box and people being absolutely swamped with lots of different,
Speaker:um, products out there that you can use.
Speaker:And I haven't even touched upon visual and, and video ai, which is, some of
Speaker:it is just absolutely mind blowing.
Speaker:I dunno if you've seen any of it, like cling and, and, and render and the like.
Speaker:Um, it's really just.
Speaker:Start with start small,
Speaker:start what they say, what is that really boring?
Speaker:Because if, if you're not passionate about doing something, you're never
Speaker:gonna, A, be really good at it, or b, make a lot of money at it, in my
Speaker:view.
Speaker:So, so let's find that really boring thing that's taking up a lot of time in
Speaker:your business and just focus on that one thing with, and just get a system that's
Speaker:nicely polished and, and you, you've got a, you know, human being checking
Speaker:it before it goes out sort of thing.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:You know, and, and, and then, and then move on from there would
Speaker:be my advice because it, it, it
Speaker:can be overwhelming just for the amount of time it takes from
Speaker:learning these new tools, obviously.
Speaker:But also, uh, you know, the costs start ramping up as well.
Speaker:Um, you know,
Speaker:before, you know, you're spending like sort of five or six grand a month on
Speaker:It's easy, isn't it?
Speaker:It's easy to do.
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:And I think there's an opportunity cost isn't there?
Speaker:Because for me, I've, I've spent a lot of time understanding at the start,
Speaker:I spent a lot of time understanding GPT and Claude when they, you
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:out understanding how AI works.
Speaker:And I think I can use those, those both relatively quite well to get out
Speaker:of it what I want to get out of it.
Speaker:Um, but I'm also aware that how I use Claude now is very different to how I use
Speaker:c. Used it a year ago, you know, there's this sort of perpetual learning isn't
Speaker:there and, and staying on top of things.
Speaker:'cause it's not like, it's not like stationary, it's not like Microsoft Word,
Speaker:where once you've figured it out, you're fine for the next 20 years, you know,
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:uh, it's, you may be fine for the next 20 minutes.
Speaker:So there's this perpetual learning.
Speaker:So there's the actual cost of the software, but there's also the opportunity
Speaker:cost of having to stay on top of it.
Speaker:So I, I do like what you said.
Speaker:You know, you've gotta pick your tools wisely, haven't you?
Speaker:Otherwise you're just gonna get swamped and overwhelmed with the whole thing.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:what's having the biggest impact on your business?
Speaker:I think,
Speaker:that.
Speaker:That makes a lot of sense.
Speaker:You know, pick sort of two or three and then just get really
Speaker:good at them and then add, it's a bit like social media, isn't it?
Speaker:I suppose you can, you could be on every social media platform, but
Speaker:it's probably not good for you.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:do one or two really Well,
Speaker:Yeah, and I think there's, um, there's about, so.
Speaker:18 months ago, I think, you know, I, I, I've sort of hit a moment where
Speaker:I, I was back in the day, sort of 2007 on Twitter and, and, and I was,
Speaker:uh, doing digital marketing on Facebook at sort of 20 10, 20 12 and,
Speaker:and, and, and, just, you get absolutely, um, new, it's a new
Speaker:shiny thing, but you having to absolutely immerse yourself in it.
Speaker:And I was just, um, I I, I got a bit burnt out with social media to be
Speaker:honest, because it was just, it was just,
Speaker:you know.
Speaker:Too, too immersed in, in all the different platforms too,
Speaker:too overwhelmed with it all.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:and I think that's just the pace of technology now is, this, this so, so far.
Speaker:So I think you are right.
Speaker:It's just sort of taking a step back, Focus, focus on where you can add the
Speaker:best value and, and, and where's the best opportunity cost in your business.
Speaker:And, and, um, and, and, and master that you know, you, you can't
Speaker:be good at every martial art.
Speaker:Just pick one.
Speaker:Be a black belt, and it basically has been my advice.
Speaker:Yeah, very true.
Speaker:Very true.
Speaker:Although I st and I'm the wrong person to say that 'cause I still
Speaker:did quite a few different ones.
Speaker:Um, but.
Speaker:I, I
Speaker:do get the point.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And it's usually me to be fair, mate.
Speaker:It's usually me.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:love that.
Speaker:before we get into your, I want to talk to you about your, your brand, if I may.
Speaker:But, um, before we do that, let me do this thing while I remember where I ask
Speaker:my guest, which is you, Mr. Anderson,
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:uh, for a question.
Speaker:This is where I take the question.
Speaker:At some point in the future, I'll answer this question on social media.
Speaker:So, Matt, what's your question for me?
Speaker:Um, request for you.
Speaker:Um, I think in the, in, in, in, in the world of web and, and.
Speaker:you know, What, what does, what does a AI mean for sort of the world of web design?
Speaker:Um, uh, really I think it's, um, it's one area that I, I've been looking
Speaker:at, um, Shopify for example, is, um, as a, as a tool that I'm, I'm
Speaker:developing and I know I had a good rudimentary understanding of it.
Speaker:A lot of my deep expertise within
Speaker:is
Speaker:within Amazon, and I think.
Speaker:where, where do you think that the world of AI is gonna
Speaker:take the world of web design?
Speaker:Because I think, um.
Speaker:I think there's a, a really, there's a really good opportunity there.
Speaker:There's already tools out there for designing websites,
Speaker:using ai.
Speaker:but you know, going back to your web copy and your, you know, and you have
Speaker:AI images, there's always got that dystopian feel about them, haven't they?
Speaker:They're always
Speaker:like, they've got this slightly creepy feel as
Speaker:these people.
Speaker:ones are ai.
Speaker:So, you But where, but you know where, where, where, because you've got SEO
Speaker:O key Web research, um, copywriting,
Speaker:coding could all be done by ai, ai Eventually I saw a podcast, I think
Speaker:it was the Diary and the CEO and I can't remember the guy's name on it.
Speaker:He was talking about agen I be able to launch a website, uh, and go,
Speaker:actually, what if you're launching this website in a beauty brand
Speaker:within
Speaker:this market?
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:but have you thought about launching it in Hindu?
Speaker:And would you like me to translate it into that language as well,
Speaker:you know, and, uh, you know,
Speaker:will, will it go in that area or would it, is it just, just too,
Speaker:quick, too complex really?
Speaker:So yeah.
Speaker:What's it mean for the world of ai, I think is, um, definitely something that,
Speaker:um, I'm trying to get my head around and I'm not really, it, it's, yeah,
Speaker:like I say, the Pandora's box is open
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:in theory.
Speaker:A lot of these things could be or should be very or very soon.
Speaker:possible.
Speaker:but where?
Speaker:Where's it going?
Speaker:Really?
Speaker:Very good question.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:have a little ponder about that, if you wanna know how
Speaker:I'm gonna answer that question.
Speaker:Can follow me on LinkedIn, Matt Edmundson?
Speaker:Just find me there and I
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:answering that question.
Speaker:Uh, Matt, listen, tell me, uh, obviously if you are launching a brand, there's a
Speaker:limit to what you do want to say, but um.
Speaker:What are you launching?
Speaker:Uh, as much as you can say, uh, towards the end of the year.
Speaker:So
Speaker:I'm watching, um, a brand in the pet space.
Speaker:Um, I've been work, working.
Speaker:in the world of sort of digital, I worked with a number of pet brands previously,
Speaker:um, like within Mars, Mars Pet Care, Spillers and Trill and you Move and, and
Speaker:JSON
Speaker:and Paige and brands like that.
Speaker:So I've, I've, I am passionate about the pet industry.
Speaker:It's, it's growing significantly.
Speaker:Um, and, um, Um, I'm very interested in, um, in, in health around, uh,
Speaker:animals like, within Cat and Dog.
Speaker:Um, and around anxiety and the like, and how, how, what, what fascinates me is how
Speaker:humans have, um, adopted their own habits.
Speaker:Whether it be like turmeric for, you know, for, for, for recovery, for example.
Speaker:And then actually taking that theory and going actually, well
Speaker:my dog could use some term Rick.
Speaker:'cause it's
Speaker:getting old.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:the, so it's this whole sort of pattern of.
Speaker:uh, human trends into, into the world of, uh, in pet.
Speaker:So that's what I'm interested in really.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:and
Speaker:it's, it's a, and um, just a whole sort of, um, health, health
Speaker:and health and beauty area.
Speaker:But pet pet is, is fun.
Speaker:Pets.
Speaker:Pet's a
Speaker:fun cat.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:it, fascinates me.
Speaker:We have this brand,
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, the Vegetology brand.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:if you can, uh, there you go.
Speaker:It's on the screen now.
Speaker:Vegetology make, um, supplements, right?
Speaker:I'm a, I, I am the MD I suppose, of this company and I, I get the,
Speaker:the beautiful, chore of making sure that the sales are growing.
Speaker:Et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker:One of the things that fascinates me about this brand, right?
Speaker:So the Omega-3, it is a vegan brand.
Speaker:In other words, every product is vegan certified.
Speaker:A lot of, um, vegetarians, uh, it's also vegetarian certified, but our
Speaker:market is obviously any, anybody, because anybody can take them.
Speaker:Even if, if, if you eat meat, you can still eat.
Speaker:Uh, take these supplements, right?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:One of the things that's fascinated me, about this is obviously you're
Speaker:drawing distinctions, um, between, with vegan brands, you are very
Speaker:concerned about the animal kingdom.
Speaker:Uh, in terms of how these products were made, what we've noticed is is, and
Speaker:what I could never have predicted, uh, with, with all the best hindsight in the
Speaker:world, is for example, we have, there are veterinarians in the UK who will order.
Speaker:Omega-3 as a liquid format to give to dogs.
Speaker:Um, and so they, you know, I'm not, I, I'm not saying one way
Speaker:or the other, you can do this.
Speaker:I'm just saying this is what somebody does.
Speaker:Um, and they're starting to give animals human supplements.
Speaker:Um, and so I said to uh, um.
Speaker:Uh, the, the ch the, the guy that sort of, Chris, he's the founder of Vegetology.
Speaker:There's a brain the size of a planet, real science guy, right?
Speaker:And, um, I'm like, well, why don't we do pet supplements?
Speaker:I mean, it seems to be like a bit of a no brainer that people want them.
Speaker:And he said to me, Matt, the legislation for human supplements
Speaker:is about an inch thick.
Speaker:Yes,
Speaker:for patch supplements is about 10 inches thick.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:It's a really, it's a really interesting phenomenon that we're in.
Speaker:So you are getting into that space.
Speaker:Good on you, man.
Speaker:That, that sounds like it could be, could be quite good fun.
Speaker:Yeah, it is good.
Speaker:It is good,
Speaker:good fun.
Speaker:But it it, it is interesting about this sort of human.
Speaker:pet sort of crossover.
Speaker:I was talking to a a, a vinegar brand, Apple side, a vinegar brand.
Speaker:And, uh, they were noticing that we were going with some
Speaker:large bulk colds from customers.
Speaker:And basically it was, it was, a horse owners buying it
Speaker:and putting it in the feed, uh, to help with gut health, but they were just like
Speaker:taking the human products and bang it
Speaker:in the hu in the horse speed.
Speaker:So I think, yeah, it's definitely, there's a, the crossover each way.
Speaker:And you do get, like, in the world of, I, I sat in a. In a, in a in a client
Speaker:meeting in the world of dog and they just released this new, new chew Supplement.
Speaker:And, uh, of course
Speaker:they,
Speaker:they, they, all hand a pack around and go, just kind, let's
Speaker:try one sort of thing so that
Speaker:they all, they all eat, all eat the dog food and, and, uh, and so yeah, it's
Speaker:uh, it's a, bit, yeah, it gets, can get a little bit strange at times, I
Speaker:guess when you're sort of sitting there eating doggy snacks, but you know, I,
Speaker:it's
Speaker:not
Speaker:I don't mind.
Speaker:I, I, genuinely don't mind.
Speaker:legislation you mentioned, it's probably actually, uh
Speaker:uh.
Speaker:is.
Speaker:It reminds me of the film, uh, you know, lethal Weapon with
Speaker:Mel Gibson and his eating dog snacks to curb his smoking habit.
Speaker:Yes,
Speaker:yeah, going back a long time now, ladies,
Speaker:yes, yes.
Speaker:Lethal Weapon movies.
Speaker:Now, before we wrap up, uh, lemme just say if you have found this whole
Speaker:conversation about ai interesting, I would love to invite you to
Speaker:join us in our weekly newsletter.
Speaker:Uh, in the newsletter we go through all the stuff that Matt talks about.
Speaker:We're go and find some extra research, some extra stuff, gonna be expanding on
Speaker:this whole topic around AI and eCommerce.
Speaker:Um, because you know what?
Speaker:It's brilliant.
Speaker:I found that the podcast format is brilliant for these big ideas.
Speaker:Love these conversations.
Speaker:And the newsletter is where we get to break them down a little bit.
Speaker:So, uh, do come sign up for that.
Speaker:The link for that is in the show notes.
Speaker:But Matt, listen, I've really enjoyed the conversation, man.
Speaker:It's always good to think about ai.
Speaker:I'm especially enjoying the skateboard on the wall behind you.
Speaker:Uh,
Speaker:the bright yellow skateboard.
Speaker:That's, uh, that's, that's, that's quite, you've got some
Speaker:interesting art on your walls.
Speaker:It's very, very,
Speaker:quite eclectic.
Speaker:Yeah, it's eclectic mix in here.
Speaker:Some, um, it's my, my, my, um, office and um, I always joke, it's sort
Speaker:of like the stuff my wife doesn't want on the walls in the house.
Speaker:This
Speaker:is
Speaker:I get, I get
Speaker:what I want.
Speaker:That's so true for every man cave, right?
Speaker:Everything in this, everything in this office.
Speaker:I'm in my man cave at the house at the moment, so it's in effect,
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:you know, it's my, my home office, but in, in here is all the
Speaker:stuff my wife doesn't want out.
Speaker:So, uh, like my little Lego, Indiana Jones figures, you know,
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah, I'm glad.
Speaker:I'm glad I'm not alone.
Speaker:I've, I've got lots of things, you know, all, all your little
Speaker:mantros you put on your desk and
Speaker:things,
Speaker:Yeah, man.
Speaker:Trophies.
Speaker:I love that phrase.
Speaker:That's what it is.
Speaker:I've got these man trophies.
Speaker:um.
Speaker:So, yes, I've got a, this, little chrome grenade anyway, but, um,
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:Fun, fun, fun, fun.
Speaker:Uh, listen, Matt, uh, tell us how people can reach you.
Speaker:Tell us how people can connect with you if they wanna do that.
Speaker:What's the best way?
Speaker:Uh, yeah.
Speaker:So, um, I'm on LinkedIn, so Matt, Matt Anderson.
Speaker:Um, and, uh, if you'd like to check out more about Dragonfly dragonflyai.co is
Speaker:the website and so do, do check us out and, um, yeah, do feel free to, um.
Speaker:Drop me a line on LinkedIn and a dm. Um, if you find anything that's
Speaker:interesting we've been talking about, then do, um, and I'll be, um, you
Speaker:know, keeping an eye out for the posts about, um, AI and website design.
Speaker:'cause I think that's, that's something that, you know, I
Speaker:haven't, I, I'm not the expert.
Speaker:I haven't cracked it yet.
Speaker:but I'd say Pandora's Box.
Speaker:is open, so, uh, I'll be there, be there commenting as
Speaker:well.
Speaker:boxes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:open.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Fantastic.
Speaker:Well, listen, Matt, I've thoroughly enjoyed the conversation.
Speaker:Thank you so much for joining me.
Speaker:Uh, let me do the usual.
Speaker:Yes, there we go.
Speaker:that's been awesome.
Speaker:Well, that's it from, yeah.
Speaker:Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.
Speaker:So that's it from me.
Speaker:That's it from Matt.
Speaker:Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker:Have a fantastic week wherever you are in the world.
Speaker:I will see you next time.
Speaker:Bye for now.