Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing in-depth profiles of this year’s Top 10, and today we’re featuring the person who ranked sixth: Grays chief digital officer Natalie Ashes.

Resale has always been a part of Australia’s e-commerce industry, from the early days of eBay Australia in 1999, to Gumtree entering the scene in 2007. However, one business has been providing a selling platform for everyday Australians and commercial businesses for a full century: Grays. 

Chief digital officer Natalie Ashes’ role within the company has changed over the years. She joined the business in 2018 as its head of marketing and e-commerce before being promoted to her current role in 2021. Throughout that time, Ashes says she has been lucky to have had several mentors who have helped her get to where she is today.

“My current mentor is a senior executive who has run large corporate and product teams, [and] she is an excellent sounding board,” Ashes told Inside Retail. 

“She keeps me accountable to myself, makes me reach higher and helps me — a traditional agency and creative person — navigate the corporate landscape, something that has not come naturally to me.”

The act of mentoring within the e-commerce industry, and within Grays itself, is important to Ashes. Showing people the opportunities that are available to them doesn’t just help their own careers, it also benefits the business.

“It’s never been more important to demonstrate career development and progression to staff,” Ashes said. 

“This isn’t just a retention play: it truly benefits Grays to have staff who are improving in this tight labour market [and] we continue a strong program of informal and formal mentoring within the product and marketing teams.”

Grays wasn’t started with the intention of creating a more circular buying experience, but throughout its 100 years it has become the “epitome” of the second-hand economy according to Ashes.

“Almost every item sold on Grays is second hand, except for wine and a small amount of home items,” Ashes told Inside Retail. 

“We have about 15,000 items on the site at any given time, most of which turn over in a six-day auction. We sell over 50,000 cars a year — all second hand — as well as industrial equipment once jobs are finished or after insolvency of businesses.

“I’m hoping to shout this message a little louder this year, as people often overlook what a large part of our business model this is.”

With demand for second-hand goods growing across Australia and New Zealand, Grays is looking for ways to expand its market share, having navigated the waters of capital raising and mulling a public float in the past year: a process that Ashes was deeply involved in. 

“The demands of the capital raising process were additional to my day-to-day and executive demands, and had to be done without slippage,” Ashes said. 

“This meant many late nights. The capital raising process is intense and predictably unpredictable, with new questions and crazy time frames. I’ll be happy to never open PowerPoint again.”