Cross-Border Ecommerce Into Latin America: The Returns Advantage Nobody Priced

In 5, 4, 3— Welcome to the Struggle Bus yet again. I am your host Vinny O Brien, or as my friends love to call me, hey you in the bushes. Uh, my guest today is someone who spent most of her career on the wrong end of a billion-dollar TV. At Circuit City, she was the buyer running a billion in GMV and TVs alone. Back then, the screen you ordered was black-green and powered by AS400. Then she survived Sears in the Eddie Lampert era, a place so warm and nurturing they ran 24/7 call line drills to time how fast a phone call could cascade down the org chart at 2 in the morning. She came out the other side with a sense of humor intact, which is more than I can say for our mutual friend BMac, who I received here in Ireland as a broken man. Managing 26 people across 9 countries, 4 languages, taught designers in the Caribbean, Latin America, and India to actually talk to each other. And currently has 2 rescue dogs, 1 horse, a second horse inbound from Germany, and once had a horse so affectionate it would put her arms around you, hug you like a golden retriever. Longest intro ever. She is, in her own words, the buyer who you'd rather wet your beak with too, though, because if you win, she wins, and you bring the deal for us. Christie Roux, welcome to The Struggle Bus.

Thank you so much for the intro.

Yeah, it takes some time to try and put them together. I hope I have done you justice. We talked a little bit about the World Cup before we get in, and I was wondering, have you seen probably my favorite story of the World Cup? It's an atypical stereotype. The Scottish Nationals have drank all of the beer in Boston, and Sam Adams had to go and restock all of the bars around the city. I don't know if you've seen that.

I have not seen that, but that is amazing.

It's quite incredible. And I'm glad that outside the Irish someone kept it going. But in more important news, one of the things I wanted to open up with here was that I think earlier this week, Mexican shoppers were able to buy directly from Walmart.com, which kind of has this watershed moment when we think about cross-border trade and e-com, which you've been at the forefront of for such a long time. How important is this as a moment for e-com, or is it just kind of a small step forward?

I think it's a huge moment for e-commerce as the nation is kind of struggling in the US for 2 years in a row now. And it's the opportunity for the US economy to open their doors to, to the next stage, Latin America. And Mexico borders us, so it's such an easy market to think to get into. I really think a lot of people think it's scary. There's a lot of customs rules, there's a lot of regulations, but it's no different than selling into Europe, which a lot of sellers are doing, and they haven't hit Latin America yet. So it's definitely an opportunity to get in there. And Latin America sellers or buyers, customers, they want to buy from the US.

Yeah, it's something else I noticed during the World Cup as well. MercadoLibre are one of the lead sponsors, and In a conversation this morning, I was wondering when I was talking to a friend of mine, do you think this is more MercadoLibre advertising their service in the US, or is it more of a call to arms for brands who want to maybe list on their stores? You said there's very willing buyers over the border.

I think it's a call to the US, to their— our brands here in the US saying, hey, you know, our doors are open. You know, come take a look at us. Last year was the first year that MercadoLibre did a conference, seller conference, in the US, in Miami. So they're slowly starting to like really look at the US. Amazon's always had Brazil and Mexico open for a long time now, and then Walmart recently, for the last couple years, just— I think really just in the last year, they've really started to dig deep into it. And they said this year is really gonna— they're gonna put a lot more effort into it.

And what would you be saying to brands who are considering making that leap of faith?

Go for it, do it. Find the right logistics partner though. It's— that's gonna make your life a whole lot easier because things can get stuck in customs if things aren't done right. And if they're stuck in customs, you're not gonna get them back. It's done. Wash your hands of it, move on. Um, but it's, it's much different market than here in the States. In the States, Amazon has taught us to buy stuff, return stuff easily. We want stuff delivered in a day or two. It's much different down there. They're ordering from the US. They know it's not going to be delivered in a day or two. They're also paying duties, taxes, shipping. They don't return it. I've been doing Latin America for 5 years and the return rate's less than 2%.

Oh my God, I think people will bite your hand off for that. It's quite incredible. As you said, the kind of move cross-border is something that lots of people are considering. Europe has been that mainstay for quite some time. Over your transition going from buying side into the role of logistics leader, the role of logistics itself has changed dramatically. Can you give a sense of just how much that has shifted? Because to me, on the outside, it feels almost like you are a cross-border border consultant rather than a logistics partner?

I am. I feel like I teach people more than educate them, more than I am really selling logistics. For me, it's— there are various ways that the US can approach getting into Latin America, um, and for me it's about making sure that they find the right fit for them, whether they continue down the path with me and SkyPostal or they, you know, continue down another path that's better for them. It's really just educating and getting them to the right light. And, you know, then we become, you know, I build my relationships that way. Trust, gaining trust and getting somebody to do what they need to do rather than what is better for me.

And that's kind of a key aspect of cross-border trade. It's personal relationships. It's something again, I've noticed that when we come to trying to negotiate a contract, it's really hard to embed that component in. It's like years and years of building up trust. An area that was really interesting to me during our conversations was your ability to get through cultural norms or differences, and it's something to do with your background. I mentioned in the outset that you are a fan of horse riding. Can you talk to me about that kind of natural empathy that you have and how it's benefited you in bringing really difficult services and bringing teams from different jurisdictions and time zones together to, to provide a service that people can trust.

Yeah, for me, you know, I guess with the horses, it's— you have to adapt to each horse. Each horse is different. They each have a different personality, just like each dog is different. And when you're riding them, each day is different. You could ask them to do something the same way on day today, and tomorrow you could ask them the same way tomorrow, and they may not do it. They may not react the same. So you have to figure out and adapt to what they want and what's going to work for them. You can't just force them into something. It's a, it's a building a relationship and a bond with an animal that's 1,200 pounds that you're asking to do something for you. And the fact that they do, and I jump them, and they are willing to jump these big jumps for me and go fast is amazing. Um, so I kind of take that into my team building and building relationships, and it started back at Circuit City. For me, it wasn't— when I was a buyer, it wasn't about me getting the lowest price every day and beating the vendor up over pricing and terms and rebates and all of that. It was about making sure that we both won so I would get the next deal before anybody else and they would come to me consistently. And through that, I was able to build lifelong relationships with CEOs and C-suite leaders at Samsung, LG, Sony, Panasonic. And from there I've taken it to team building. So at Aeropost, like you said, I had 26 people in 9 different countries, 4 dialects, you know, different languages. So trying to get them to understand each other and bond as a team was challenging, but you know, I made it happen. I, you know, worked to see, you know, point out the wins, to let each other know how they could each other could help each other and what they should go to each other for and not just rely on me all the time. I didn't need 26 people pinging me every day for things. I had my own job that I needed to get done. So really teaching them how to rely on each other and go to each other for help. Um, and that's what I enjoy doing and enjoy, you know, building relationships with those I'm, I'm working with. And that's how I think, you know, I enjoy teaching people about Latin America. And here are the different ways that you can approach getting into Latin America. Whether you work with me or not.

One of the things that struck me as we've talked is your sense of culture is, is very innate to you. It's something that comes really naturally. So when you are looking at the culture of somewhere that you work, do you set the culture or do you try and find the right fit before you get in the door? So you've been with Sky Post, what you said, 5 years now?

2 years at Sky Post.

2 years at Scott Postal, sorry. So is it the case that you set that tone or are you able to understand that that exists before you get there?

I think at Circuit City, we set that tone as a team and that's what I learned and I loved. It was just natural to all of us there. When I went to Sears, it definitely was the opposite of that tone, as I can say, can attest to. But I think it evolved over time and it got to a better tone towards the end when I left. And then from there, Aeropost, I was able to set the tone because I was building the team out and working with the team leaders. There was just a few of us C-suite. And then from here, you know, at SkyPostal, I think they have, they have the tone. And for me going forward, like, like I would look for the tone if I could adapt it some, but I'd want some of it to already exist because it's hard. It's hard to build it out like it's here. Especially because it was such a big company too.

And do you think over the last 10 or 15 years we've lost some of those, those cultural norms that you would find, and, and are they coming back? I, for me personally, I kind of feel like we lost our way for quite some time and we lost the power of relationship and we lost the value on it, but it feels like it's something that everyone is craving now. And there's a generation coming behind us that maybe has never really seen that in action where you enjoy going to the workplace or you look forward to turning up to see your colleagues.

Yeah, I think, I think, you know, back in the day we enjoyed going to the workplace. I mean, you know, birthdays, people would trash each other's cubes and, you know, do stuff that was fun, right? And then, you know, when COVID hit and we all went remote, it kind of all just— every— I feel like everybody just kind of separated. And it got quiet and you were on calls when you needed to, but it was hard to bond. And you know, those, those that are younger coming up though, they're used to this whole remote, like, or online thing because they do it 24/7. They talk with their friends online 24/7. They meet people playing games or, you know, socially, social media 24/7. So I feel like they're used to creating those relationships virtually. Um, and I feel like, uh, us in the older crowd, we've had to learn that. Um, but I do think it is coming back?

I kind of hope so. I think that generation, and I mean, it sounds really pointed to be pointing at just one generation, but I think COVID was a big land for people and it's something that will probably never happen in our lifetime again. I saw someone posting yesterday that WFH now means work effing harder, which is kind of how it feels right now. In a world where AI is so prevalent, how important do you feel that human connection is becoming for us? And where are the benefits to us when we think about growth strategies for brands? Because I haven't heard people talk about growth strategy in quite some time, and I feel like cross-border is one of those areas that is— not that it's ripe for the picking and it's not easy, but there's growth to be had in cross-border strategy.

No, absolutely. So I mean, I really feel like it, it needs to happen. It needs to— the relationship building needs to get come back full circle. I mean, that's how everything was done in the past. And yes, AI is here, but AI is here to take the grunt work away, in my opinion. Um, you still have to review it because it's not perfect. I mean, you— it spits stuff out and, you know, you have to do a sanity check on, on what it spits out because it doesn't always, you know, spit out exactly what you're looking for. Uh, you may have to, you know, go through several tries or several different AI tools to, to get what you want. Um, but I do think it does— it has made work faster and easier. It's probably combined some jobs where, you know, it used to be, you know, e-commerce, but now it's e-commerce and marketing because of AI made things so much easier. Um, in that aspect, but You know, as far as like growth, when you're looking at growth, like there's the paid aspect of it, the marketing aspect of it, but there's also the relationship of you want to get into MercadoLibre or you want to expand into a market, Europe or Latin America or somewhere you don't know about. You want to talk to somebody to understand what it does, how it's like, what are the nuances, what, what makes it easy, what's going to sell, what's not going to sell. You know, where should I, where should I go, how should I do it? Um, and that's something that, you know, I don't know that AI is always going to spit out the right thing for you. Like, I think having a conversation with somebody that you know and trust that's going to lead you in the right direction is the way to go. Um, and it's the same with like buying. If you're looking to buy products, like, it's, you know, or sell services, it's building that relationship. Sales is never going to go away. It's never going to be AI. You're always going to have to, you know, talk to somebody. People are— people always want— if they're going to spend money, they want to talk to a person. They don't want to just go through an AI sheet.

The, the role of buyer in both Circuit City and Sears feels like it was one of the best educators you could have in commerce in general. How, how did that set you up to, to be a leader at this stage of your career? Like, what were those, or those things that you learned that you still apply today, way back in Circuit City days, apart from your human skills?

I really think at Circuit City, you know, because I was responsible for so much revenue, I really got my hands into everything. Like, I— while I had a team, I had analytics, an analytics person on my own, I had my own inventory people, I still had my own spreadsheets— spreadsheets back then— but I still had my own forecasting spreadsheets because I wanted to put my own numbers in it. And we had a system that did it on its own, and I had my, you know, analytics team that, that ran numbers for me and did everything. But for me, I was like, okay, I was the one responsible for the buy. If something came up and I wanted to buy it and I didn't have funds, I needed to figure out how I was going to turn inventory faster or justify needing extra funds to buy more inventory, and what the inventory for the rest of the stuff and how fast it was going to go. And if it was a special buy, how fast that buy was going to turn and how many more people we were going to bring in the doors or online, you know, and what the overall basket was going to look like. So it really made you think, you know, And like I said, I got my hands into everything. I didn't rely on other people to do it. And I think that's what has built my career up and pushed me into Sears and then pushed me into Aeropost where I did build the marketplace from scratch to 10 countries. And I had to put hands in everything there, things that I wasn't even comfortable doing because I never ran like IT before. And okay, well, you're doing sprints now. You have your own IT people. That's yours. You have two websites to kick off, so you figure it out.

That's incredible. That's incredible. There's something like— there's loads of aspects I want to try and get into, a couple of areas there, because I feel like when you're making those buys back in Circuit City, there's elements of those that were gut feel. And we've talked about the removal of gut feel and being fully data-driven, but you needed to have that. If you got that wrong, that was your head on the block. And then the second part of that which I love the scrappiness that you talk about there. Like, how do you turn inventory into cash really, really quickly? You know, there's 3 levers that you can pull and you're like, okay, I'm going to do these 3 things and I know I can turn $50K. But that sense of accountability and, you know, making a gut decision, that must have been pretty exciting as well when you were making those decisions because you knew then the responsibility was back on you. I'm sure it was a great buzz.

It was fun. I, I love doing it, um, you know, and I was like, I said, I was in front of all the C-suite leaders at the big company, so which set me up to be comfortable talking in big groups, um, like I've done, you know, some guest speaker things at Prosper and White Label. And so, you know, having the opportunity at a young age to be in front of, you know, VPs and CEOs of such large companies, it just made me completely comfortable to talk to anybody about anything. And if I don't know something, I'm the first to say I don't know, but I'll find that out for you.

Can you remember what the best deal you did was, or the one you were like, oh, I'm gonna ring my mom or dad, or gonna ring a friend and tell them about this one?

Um, I do. I remember one deal, um, and everybody thought I was crazy. It was smaller LCDs, and it was with Sharp. And because Sharp was— when, you know, LCD TVs came out, Sharp was number one brand at the time. It was my, uh, My sales rep was Lee, uh, Lee Bellucci, and he was great. I loved it. And he— Lee comes to me and he's like, oh my God, he's like, we have so many of these TVs. And panel prices were starting to drop, and like the next iteration of panels was coming up. He goes, I don't know, okay, we have like 50,000 of these things. He goes, I need somewhere to go with them. And I was like, well, I could take them. I'm like, we can do— we can do some spot runs on them, you know, get them in the you know, at that point, you know, we had paper, you know, so print advertising, get them in some print advertising and drive some real traffic to the stores. I'm in. And, you know, $50,000, it wasn't a lot for us, but it was, it was a lot.

I mean, it was a big number.

Yeah, it was a big buy. And he was like, yeah, he was like, I don't know. He's like, he was like not sure about it. And I was like, no, no. I was like, let's see. I was like, so we sat down together And we came up with a retail number that we thought we needed to be at, like that I needed to get to move them within like 4 to 6 weeks. Because I knew, I knew my inventory— I didn't have the dollars to buy it. And I knew my inventory team was going to push back. And we came to an agreement. I got the price negotiated and then I had to go sell it to inventory and I sold it to inventory and we did. It took off. We had no issues doing it. It was fun. Um, and we sold through quickly.

But do you think you could— but do you think it could be a buyer today? Like, do you think it's, it's tougher or easier to be a buyer today?

I think it's easier with AI. You've got, you know, you can plug things into AI tools and, and have it run forecasting for you, you know. Like, for me, it was a gut. I mean, I looked at run rates and stuff like that, and then I was like, oh, if we like you know, that buy was a gut, like, you know, I was— we were like, I'm like, okay, I think if we hit that price, I do think we can move these quick. And, you know, him and I were like, yeah, we think so. And, uh, and he knew he was going to be on the line to give me some markdown funds if it didn't work.

I have visions of Trading Places on— in my head. It's like, what are the prices of pork belly is going to be, or orange juice, looking for the future prices coming in. Um, Over the time you've been in commerce, a lot of things have changed, but a lot of things have stayed the same. And I'd like you to fast forward and look. It's too hard to look 10 years out, I guess, in our world right now, just given where AI is bringing us. But fundamentally, the thing we do, moving inventory, you know, supply chain, feels like it could be the place that people can really win in the next few years. What's your view of, you know, maybe one or two things that are going to change or things that are going to stay the same over the next 5 years?

I definitely think people are going to start buying more on AI. Um, you're, you're hearing about it, seeing it. I haven't, honestly, I haven't purchased anything off of AI. Like, I haven't found an ad and hit a link and gone and bought something, but, uh, I know it's happening. I know people are finding me and my services off of AI, so I know it's like the next, um which is crazy, but I guess it's no different than people buying stuff off of Facebook, right? Like, nobody would have thought people would have bought stuff off of Facebook, and it has evolved. And I bought stuff off of Facebook, so I think, you know, it's just gonna evolve, continuing to evolve like that, where you're gonna buy product from. I do think the websites still are gonna be needed, like, to be kept clean and content and stuff, especially within, like, fashion, like to, you know, make sure like sizes and fashion and trends and what's going on. So it, for me, I wonder if it's gonna like, the product categories are different, gonna differentiate on what is bought on AI versus what is bought through like traditional e-commerce. Like I kind of wonder how that trend is gonna happen and where that's gonna go. I do feel like, like apparel, shoes, people are gonna wanna scroll through. Look to see what's out there versus if you need it, like, and I— you want to buy an iPhone, like, what's the cheapest to buy an iPhone or an iPhone case, or where do I get, you know, a 55-inch TV from, you know.

I had to do— I had to do that iPhone thing this week actually, and it was so useful. I— even the idea of speaking to the phone and letting it do the work for you then, I thought was really helpful. I feel like we're at the precipice of our first agentic Christmas, which There's its own risks, I think, in terms of the magic and so on. I try to keep this podcast about 25 minutes, we're hitting 23 now, which is not to say I want to rush you off the phone. We could talk for a long time, as we've both known. But we had a mutual friend, and the power of human relationships is how you and I got speaking, a guy called Bimac, who was— I think his dad's from Belfast. He did his master's over here in Ireland. We worked together in an automotive startup. We had great fun. But I remember, One of the first times he came into our office, and maybe you can come up with a B-Max story as well, just so we can embarrass him and call him out. But he was trying to pretend he was, I think, a little bit posher than he was, but he loved cheese puffs, as you probably know. And instead of bringing in the bag into the office, he put them on a plate and thought it would be more endearing or more polite to come in and eat cheese puffs off a plate in the office. We'd never even seen cheese puffs, but I'm really grateful to him for introducing us. Do you have any other crazy BMAC stories?

Gosh, I don't know. I mean, no, he was pretty on par with the rest of us. I think we all just were crazy together running around, you know, at Sears trying to keep up and then make light of everything that was happening with us.

He is certainly really good at that, but he talked fondly about those days together and He's doing really well, so hopefully you get to connect with him again soon, have a beer. And hopefully you and I'll get to have a beer in the not too distant future. When is your new horse arriving?

Um, she is in North Carolina right now, should head down on Monday the 29th to Florida, and so I should get to meet her on the 30th.

That is amazing. And my overriding kind of thoughts when I'm Thinking about how you are as a leader is like you're like a horse whisperer for all these different people. And that sounds so twee and so on, but I think it's a really beautiful skill. And some of the best leaders that I've got to speak to right now are people who have two ears and one mouth for a reason. I heard that expression before and I think it's really good. And I get the impression you're probably someone that listens more than you speak, or is that in equal measure? How would you describe your leadership style for those aspiring to be in the hot seat?

I think I've learned to listen more as, as I've gotten older and, and been around longer. Listening is, is key, I think. And I, I wish somebody would have said that to me when I was younger, um, but it's definitely the best thing to listen and watch, to watch people's interactions, watch people's— even if you're on virtually, you know, turn the cameras on and see people's expression when you're talking to them. Especially, you know, in group settings where people might not be comfortable, so you can understand what's going on.

Very sage advice. Chrissy, I'm going to let you get your day going. Thank you so much for taking so many chances to speak with me over the last couple of weeks and for speaking to me this morning as well. I sincerely appreciate it. So where can people find you if they want to find out any more about cross-border trade or Skypostal?

Uh, you can email me at crew@skypostal.com or christy.ru@gmail.com.

Amazing, thank you so much. Uh, Christy, thanks for joining us on the Struggle Bus, and I look forward to seeing you in person before very long.