Inside Beyond Black Friday: Airwallex’s Celebration of eCommerce

It’s that time of year again! Peak sales season is just around the corner, and the eCommmerce industry is limbering up for what might just be their biggest sales period yet. 

Of course, success in eCommerce is a marathon, not just the sprint of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. We want to support every player in the industry to achieve sustained success, all-year-round. 

What better reason is there to bring professionals from across the eCommerce community together to share ideas, learnings and achievements. Beyond Black Friday, presented in partnership with NORA (the National Online Retailers Association), is our annual party that celebrates all things innovation in eCommerce. 

Come with us as we recap this year’s event. And a disclaimer, if you couldn’t make it, the following wrap-up may cause serious FOMO! 

Uncovering tech-driven profit hacks

So much goes into peak sales season prep. There’s the inventory management, the marketing, the caffeine-fuelled strategy sessions. But all of these efforts need a solid foundation of financial literacy and smart tech. 

That’s why this year, our superstar eCommerce panel was tasked with discussing ‘Financial Literacy for Year-Round Growth’. 

Chaired by eCommerce expert and leader Anaita Sakar (Hero Packacking and Sell Anything Online) and featuring Adam Bouris (Who is Elijah), Zoe Wilson (Vush) and Robin Losson (Bond-eye Australia), we delved into the latest market insights and strategies that are changing the landscape of Australian eCommerce in 2024. 

Our top-level takeaways? Fail to prepare for peak season and prepare to fail, a next-generation tech stack is your most valuable resource, and a growth mindset is an essential characteristic for eCommerce leadership. Collect learnings, challenges and feedback to innovate year-on-year. 

Thinking about how you can optimise your tech stack for greatness this Black Friday and beyond? Champion your checkout with Airwallex’s game-changing Payments features.

Celebrating the movers-and-shakers of eComm

This year we launched our inaugural eCommerce Champion Awards, a first-of-its-kind awards programme recognising the industry legends and rising stars of the Australian eCommerce industry. 

We challenged the community to tell us how they (or a peer) show leadership in one of four categories; Emerging Star, Tech Innovator, Community Hero or overall eCommerce Champion. 

The results were truly moving. We had entries and nominations flying in from all corners of the country and industry. Having received a whopping 400 entries, the judging panel had the impossible task of choosing just 16 finalists and four winners. 

Congratulations to our winners and runners-up. 

🏆 eCommerce Champion

Winner: Mal Chia of Ecom Nation (award accepted by Paul Waddy)

Runners Up: Hitesh Mehta of Baby Bunting, Jemma Fox of Lucent Globem, Jess Ruhfus of No.2 Co & Leah Tu’inukuafe of Motto Fashions

💡 Tech Innovator

Winner: Olly Hoffman of Fingertip.com

Runners Up: Charlie Johnstone of SuperOrder, Jeffrey Atizado of SMB Consultants & Nate Spiteri of Shopfront

💪 Community Hero

Winner: Rad Mitic of Yotpo (award accepted by Kara Sahota)

Runners-Up: Anna Baker of SleepBaker, Karyn Parkinson of Unstoppable eCommerce & Rosie Dumbrell of Everform Therapywear

🌟 Emerging Star

Winner: Ashlee McGonigal of Sandy Rose Designs

Runners-Up: Alexander Heath of Auctanem, Sasha Murrie of journeyflow & Teya Barnett of Me Mama I

A huge thank you to our incredible judging panel! Anaita Sakar of Hero Packaging and Sell Anything Online, Mark Mansour of Woolworths Group, Kate Massey of Searchspring, Shannon Ingrey of BigCommerce and Huw Griffiths of Airwallex.

Partnering with the best in the biz

Mastering the fast-paced world of eCommerce is much easier with a little help from our friends! 

We’re lucky to be connected with eCommerce power players including — Cin7, BigCommerce, Locad, Searchspring, ShipStation and Yotpo. These partners serve a universe of eCommerce needs, from inventory management to order fulfilment, marketing, and so much more. 

Forget your usual partner meet-and-greet! We wanted our guests to be able to have an immersive experience. Enter the partner marketplace.

Attendees could visit each partner and learn more about them, before “shopping” for products from our partners customers through a bespoke checkout experience. Of course, Aussie brands were front and centre, and bags were soon filled up with beautiful gifts from Aje Atheletica, Scent Australia, Comfy Koalas and much more. Talk about a goodie bag!

Amazing prezzies aside, optimising your tech stack with powerful platforms that champion each aspect of eCommerce is the key to success. By streamlining each aspect of your operations and customer journey, you create an unstoppable experience that will stay in the mind of your customers – long beyond peak sales season. 

Here’s to an epic peak sales season!

From everyone here at team Airwallex, we’re cheering for you to have your best peak sales season yet! As the eCommerce industry continues to evolve rapidly, know that we’re by your side to help with transformative tech, valuable insights, and opportunities to celebrate. Until next year!

Check out more snaps from the night!

All photography by Daniel Kukec Photography.