Interest Rates Drop, Legacy Brands Crumble & Google AI Crashes the Ecommerce Party

Mal’s back from Singapore and just in time to break down one of the juiciest weeks in retail. With the RBA announcing a second interest rate cut for 2025, you might be tempted to pop some bubbly—but hold the cork. This episode explores what the rate drop really means for consumers, ecommerce brands, and the struggling fashion sector. Mal also unpacks the collapse of cult favourites like SurfStitch and Collette by Collette Heyman, and why private equity is moving from mid-market fashion to high-margin, high-fandom concepts like Lego stores.And in a final twist, Google just might be coming for Shopify’s lunch—with AI-powered virtual try-ons and agentic checkouts, the search giant is testing a seamless end-to-end shopping experience that could shake up D2C.Key highlights:What the RBA’s rate cut actually means for ecommerce (spoiler: don’t bank on a boom)Why fashion brands are folding—and what Lego can teach us about retail resilienceMal’s no-BS guide to end-of-financial-year sales (RIP sitewide discounts)Google’s AI shopping assistant and the threat to merchant-owned ecommerceThe big question: is the link between consumer confidence and interest rates broken?