Friday, November 24

🗣 Want to get in front of our audience? Start here…

🚨 In today’s newsletter 🚨

• Black Friday is here! Good luck 🤞🏼

• This year’s discounts are bigger than ever

• Moving from wholesale to DTC

Let’s get into it👇

#1 - 🤑 It’s Black Friday and the discounts are big

📰 TL;DR - This article from the Financial Times has a lot of the same stats we’ve been sharing this week, but I want to zoom in on the section about discount sizes, which we haven’t covered yet. It shows that discounts for Black Friday and surrounding days are expected to be deeper than in years past. Average peak discounts for online apparel example, are up from 19% to 25%. Markdowns on TVs are up from 10% to 24%. In fact, discounts are expected to be significantly higher compared to last year in every category these stats cover, with furniture and sporting goods seeing the most dramatic change.

💡 Insight - There are a couple of reasons for this. First, we all know that people are especially anxious about spending and inflation this year, so a good discount is going to be more compelling than ever. The other factor is that because everyone knows this, there’s now a competitive edge to have the best discounts. All that means that if you’re not offering a very compelling offer for BFCM, you may not see the sales you’re hoping for. Discounts are everything right now and you’ve got to play to win.

➡️ You can read the article here...

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#3 - 🤔 Going DTC isn’t so simple

📰 TL;DR - This episode of the Shopify Masters podcast talks to Perfectwhitetee, a brand that actually started as a whole and then added DTC as a channel. That came with its own challenges because it’s a whole different ballgame. The founders have some advice for brands that want to follow suit, including knowing when to outsource processes, embracing feedback (but tuning out the noise), and learning how to humanize your brand for DTC customers. Also very important is scaling your customer service to serve DTC customers.

💡 Insight - We’ve had so many links in this newsletter about adding wholesale to a DTC business, but rarely have we talked about moving in the other direction. Perhaps that’s the position you’re in! But even if you’re not, this is a good reminder about the fundamentals of running a DTC business. Of all these tips, I think humanizing your brand and having stand-out customer service are the most important. DTC customers are truly buying a brand not just a product and the experience from start to finish is everything.

➡️ You can read the article here...

#4 - 🛠️ Things worth checking out

🛍️ TEMU - Temu has expanded its European delivery network.

🤖 AI - This article looks at how AI is helping e-commerce brands craft compelling content.

🤷‍♂️ GPTs - Will custom GPTs boost e-commerce? Read here.

📆 CYBER MONDAY - Here’s an interesting history lesson on the origins of Cyber Monday.

🪩 DISCO - Men’s skincare brand Disco is filing for bankruptcy. 

#5 - 🧽 Scrub Daddy’s success story

📰 TL;DR - Finally, we have a little inspiration for you via Nik Sharma. He shared a great thread on X about the story of Scrub Daddy, the viral sponge with the memorable smile. The brand was featured on Shark Tank back in 2012 (where most of the sharks passed!) and now does $100M+ in annual sales and has almost 4 million TikTok followers. The very cool thing, that Nik points out, is that Scrub Daddy went viral twice. Yes, they had the initial boost from Shark Tank, but that was over a decade ago. Now, they go viral thanks to an amazing TikTok account.

💡 Insight - Ok, you might be thinking “okay sure, but they got to be on TV.” And yes, Shark Tank was definitely a huge boost but many of Scrub Daddy’s customers were just kids when that aired. I want you to pay more attention to Scrub Daddy’s current marketing strategy, especially TikTok. Their TikToks are actually pretty wild — hilarious, kooky, sometimes filthy. And although Scrub Daddy’s founder is sometimes in the TikToks, I can guarantee they hired some brilliant digital native Gen Z or millennial social media marketer to run it.

➡️ You can read the thread here...