Monday, November 20

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

🚨 In today’s newsletter 🚨

• It’s BFCM week — strap in for shoppers!

• A very viral Stanley moment you need to study

• A new way to win chargebacks

Let’s get into it👇

#1 - 🥤 Stanley offers woman new car after viral TikTok

📰 TL;DR - Last week a TikTok went viral from a woman whose car had caught on fire. Despite the damage, the Stanley tumbler in her cup holder not only survived relatively unscathed but still had ice in it. Commenters called it the best ad for Stanley ever (that wasn’t really an ad). Shortly after, Stanley’s CEO replied on TikTok and offered to buy her a brand new car. The exchange has also gone viral and generated a ton of press coverage.

💡 Insight - This is the type of organic, viral moment that you can’t predict. But let’s talk about what Stanley did right. First, clearly their social team actually spends time on TikTok because they quickly responded to that initial TikTok offering a new tumbler. Then, they saw the tons of comments suggesting they get her a new car. And they did it! They took the chance to hop on the moment and it paid off. I also like that they got their CEO on camera to really make the moment special. They responded to a massively viral moment with an equally large gift. You can’t bank on these moments happening, but when they do you have to move fast. The payoff could be huge.

➡️ You can read the article here...

#2 - 🏆 BFCM may set a new record

📰 TL;DR - The National Retail Federation has put out their predictions for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and they’re forecasting that 182 million will be shopping — 16 million more than last year. In total, 74% of those surveyed plan to shop which is actually up 69% from pre-pandemic 2019. Unsurprisingly, the biggest motivator is finding deals, followed by the tradition of the whole thing. More stats in the link.

💡 Insight - These numbers look at shopping overall, but other figures I’ve seen show that 59% of shoppers will go online for the BFCM extravaganza. So all that means more people shopping online for BFCM than ever. And that’s great news for you! Be prepared for higher volume than last year and hope all your hard prep works pay off.

➡️ You can read the article here...

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

#3 - 🎄 Holiday shipping deadlines you need to know

📰 TL;DR - Shopify put out a super handy list of holiday shipping deadlines for 2023. It covers the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Spain. Within that, it covers the top shipping partners and their deadlines for December 23 delivery for various shipping types. Note there are some quirks, like Alaska and Hawaii needing more time, or the dates for international shipping.

💡 Insight - Bookmark this immediately! But also, don’t keep this information to yourself. It’s important that customers know when the cutoff is, too. You can do this with a banner or pop-up on your site, even better if you set different ones for different countries. You can also use this to create a sense of urgency in email send. A subject line like, “Only 10 days left to order for Christmas” is both informative and gets items into carts.

➡️ You can read the article here...

#4 - 🛠️ Things worth checking out

💃🏽 TIKTOK - TikTok has launched a tool to let anyone make AR experiences.

🚫 X - Advertisers are fleeing X after an antisemitic endorsement post from Elon Musk.

🚗 AMAZON - Consumers will soon be able buy actual cars on Amazon.

🇨🇳 CHINA - This deep dive looks at how Chinese brands took over e-commerce.

🪛 TOOLS - Here’s a handy list of 21 new Shopify tools.

#5 - 💳 How to win chargebacks

📰 TL;DR - Practical Ecommerce has a podcast episode with Mark Magner, the founder of Disputifier. The startup is a chargeback recovery system that uses automation and data. First thing to know is that he’s seeing over 60% of chargebacks are actually fraud. But he also says they’re not impossible to win. The easiest type of chargeback to win are duplicates. His company submits evidence to the card issuer to clear it up. He also says it’s different from Shopify’s system because they treat it almost like a written lawsuit. In fact, he says Shopify’s system is too basic and “not always helpful.” A fascinating episode!

💡 Insight - Chargebacks are one of the worst things you can deal with, worse than returns. Especially if you’re dealing with fraud. It’s great to see someone providing a solution. Whether it’s worth getting a third-party tool like this involved really depends on how often you deal with chargebacks and how large your order sizes are. I haven’t used Disputifier myself so I can’t speak to it, but they do offer a free trial.

➡️ You can read the article here...