How a WhatsApp Group Became Australia's Biggest Retail Community | Dean Salakas & Jethro Marks

<p><strong>A text message at an airport turned into Australia&#39;s biggest retail and eCommerce community in about twelve months: </strong></p><p><strong>4,000 members, up to 90 chat groups, and meetups from Ballarat to Dubai.</strong> </p><p>Dean Salakas (The Party People) and Jethro Marks (<a href="https://www.thenile.com.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">The Nile</a>) join Ryan Martin (<a href="https://www.remarkabledigital.com.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">Remarkable Digital</a>) to explain how Retail Community Group actually works, what it deliberately isn&#39;t, and how its members had workarounds in place days before Australia Post announced it was suspending shipping to the US.</p><p>Dean built a two-person family business into Australia&#39;s largest party supplies retailer, offering click-and-collect in 1999 and becoming Google&#39;s first advertiser in Australia in 2003 at one cent a click, before exiting eighteen months ago. </p><p>Jethro co-founded The Nile in 2003 and is now building the world&#39;s most trusted bookstore, with US and UK launches on the way. Neither of them set out to build a community. </p><p>They started a WhatsApp group so they could find each other for a drink at Retail Fest, and it had fifty people in it before Dean&#39;s plane landed.</p><p><a href="https://retailcommunity.com.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">Join the Whatsapp here</a></p><p>In this episode they unpack the mechanics behind the growth: why the group split into interest-based channels for AI, cross-border trade, HR and open-to-work; how the &quot;pitch slap&quot; keeps unsolicited selling out; and why a moderated, free, no-pay-to-play space has become the place Australian retailers go first when something breaks. </p><p>They also share what&#39;s coming next, including a public events directory, a vendor portal and peer advisory groups for retailers, plus their honest take on the hardest problem ahead: keeping the magic while scaling to a market Jethro estimates at 100,000 people.</p><p>If you run an online store, work in retail tech, or you&#39;re new to eCommerce and feel like you&#39;re doing it alone, this one is a practical guide to plugging into the most collaborative industry in the country.</p><p><a href="https://retailcommunity.com.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">Join The Retail Community Here</a></p><p><strong>Topics covered:</strong> retail community building, Australian eCommerce, cross-border trade and tariffs, Australia Post US shipping suspension, 3PL and fulfilment, retail conferences and events, AI tools for retail, B2B community moderation, thought leadership for service providers.</p>