Inside Retail’s Top 50 People in E-Commerce, presented by Australia Post, is an annual ranking of the most impressive and inspiring leaders in Australia’s online retail industry. Over the coming weeks, we will be profiling this year’s Top 10. Here, we speak with #4, Princess Polly’s global performance director Kim Zorn, about the challenge of staying relevant in the fashion industry for more than a decade, her proudest accomplishment in the last year and what it will take to gr
grow online in 2025.
Inside Retail: Over the past eight years at Princess Polly, you’ve built the brand’s performance department from the ground up, and gone from a team of one (yourself) to 19 across Australia and the US. What have been your biggest lessons along the way?
Kim Zorn: In terms of team building, I could talk so much about my journey of building a team, mistakes I have made and learned from and milestones we celebrated. I think building a team and putting the right structure in place is the most critical part of setting a business up for success and scaling. Someone once told me that a diverse team with individual strengths will get the answer in the room and inclusiveness will get the answer on the table. And I live by that. I am incredibly lucky to have built an amazing team with extremely talented people – all with their individual strengths and knowledge. In terms of performance marketing, a diversified channel mix and testing and trialling of new channels early will set you up for success in the long run.
IR: The e-commerce landscape has changed dramatically in the last decade. What does a successful performance marketing strategy look like today?
KZ: I personally am a big believer in two things: a diversified channel mix and a test-and-trial mentality.
When I joined the team, we were investing in four major channels. It worked well for us but it also made things difficult if a channel has performance challenges. We now have over 25 active channels. Performance marketing moves so quickly, so this allows us to be agile and move with whatever platforms’ ups and downs get thrown at us.
For test-and-trial, you need to invest in and test new platforms early. We tested platforms that didn’t work for us and also trialled channels that are now key revenue drivers. The earlier you figure out channels, the more competitive advantages you will have.
IR: You’ve been described as the most knowledgeable person in Australia about TikTok Shop. While TikTok Shop is currently available only in the US, UK and Southeast Asia, what advice would you give to Australian retailers to make the most of the social commerce platform when it eventually launches in Australia?
KZ: That is actually so nice to hear. Social commerce will change the way businesses operate. We launched on TikTok Shop in the US over 10 months ago and it took off way quicker than we anticipated. Some key recommendations are:
Launch with all of your products. Best-selling TikTok Shop products are not necessarily your top business products. Through various tools, new products can be picked up so fast and gain traction extremely quickly.
Be open to tapping into new audiences and ready to do it. We worked with amazing new creators through the open collaboration tool, discovered new audiences and produced a huge amount of collabs in a short period of time with minimal lift. We are lucky to have an incredible in-house PR team but this will be great for brands that don’t have a huge PR team.
But the number one tip for Australian retailers is: run with it! It won’t be perfect from the start, you won’t have it all figured out but it will 100 per cent be worth it.
IR: What are your top business priorities in the year ahead?
KZ: New customer acquisition, global expansion, app growth and social commerce.
IR: What was the single most impactful initiative you undertook in the last 12 months, and why?
KZ: It has to be launching on TikTok Shop. It brought in a huge amount of new customers and turned out to be a new, incredible revenue stream for us.
IR: You’ve spoken about the importance of being a transparent leader. How do you practise this on a day-to-day basis? Can you give any specific examples?
KZ: I think true leadership is built on trust, and trust is born from transparency. I’m always open to feedback – both giving and receiving it. My team knows that we celebrate our wins and learn from our mistakes. Transparency in leadership is the key that unlocks collaboration, trust and progress. As an initiative, I implemented shadow days within my department. This means the people in my team can request to shadow each other to gain a unique insight into each other’s work life and channels, to promote cross-department learning. As part of this, I also opened up my calendar to be shadowed for a day in my work life. This way, my team can see what I am working on and what my day looks like and can ask questions about anything.
IR: Where do you see yourself in five years?
KZ: Five years from now, I will probably still be trying to find the perfect attribution model while also still figuring out what’s for dinner every night.
Further reading: Princess Polly to open Soho store next year