Thursday, August 24

#1 - 😞 It’s hard out here for an indie brand

📰 TL;DR - This has been a tough year for independent DTC brands, and it only seems to be getting tougher. First, we had Amazon slap a 2% fee on third-party sellers who opt out of their fulfillment. Next, Shopify plans to cut access to success managers for thousands of Plus merchants. This year, everyone has zeroed in on profitability, and that includes big players like Shopify and Amazon. That means putting the squeeze on their own customers if they’re not bringing in the money these platforms want to see.

💡 Insight - What concerns me most is that these changes affect the little guys the most — brands that aren’t mega profitable yet, or are trying to manage their own processes. That also means that it’s going to be harder than ever to get a new DTC business off the ground. What irks me most is that Shopify, for example, positions itself as a champion of the little guys — lifting up entrepreneurs through the promises of e-commerce. This suggests they’re staking their future on their biggest customers. I hope that’s not true and that we don’t continue to see more policy changes that hurt the everyday business owner.

➡️ You can read the article here...

#2 - 🙌🏽 E-comm 3.0 is hyper-personalization

📰 TL;DR - Look, I’ve seen several takes on what “e-commerce 3.0” entails but I really like this one. This piece outlines the progression like this: 1.0 was people searching for goods, and 2.0 was goods searching for people. E-comm 3.0, this says, will be connecting the right goods with the right people. It predicts that creators will take the lead in e-commerce marketing and discovering products will be all about the creators who promote them. Transactions will be very much about people, not just product. It’s also about using the power of AI to personalize product recommendations, rather than targeting the masses.

💡 Insight - If you agree with this, then 3.0 is already here, although it’s still ramping up. Creators and influencers have become a key part of e-commerce and I think if TikTok Shop takes off the way TikTok wants it to, we’ll see the next phrase of that come to fruition. With TikTok Shop, creators are going to be crucial players as e-commerce marketers, driving direct sales and working even more closely with brands as salespeople, not just one-off ambassadors. We’ve also seen a bunch of new startups aimed at hyper-personalized shopping experiences. Welcome to the future!

➡️ You can read the article here...

📣 If you want to reach our audience of 10,000+ DTC store owners, tap here 

#3 - 🚫 TikTok is killing third-party shopping links

📰 TL;DR - According to this report, TikTok is about to get very aggressive about e-commerce. The report says that TikTok is planning to ban any links to outside e-commerce links, such as Amazon. The idea is, you guessed it, to force brands to use TikTok Shop. This comes as TikTok is reportedly set to lose a whopping $500 million due to all of its e-commerce ambitions. This is an issue for brands, but also for creators who use affiliate links from Amazon, for example. It’s unclear when this ban will go into effect, and it’s also unclear whether it will impact links to independent sellers.

💡 Insight - Like I said in our first item today, it’s tough out there! The biggest players in e-commerce want every piece of the pie, and TikTok wants to put themselves in their ranks. I can see this going one of two ways. Either people will get in line and sign up for TikTok Shop, or they’ll abandon it altogether as an e-commerce platform and instead use it purely for marketing and brand discovery. Either way, I can expect TikTok is going to get pushback on this and they’re taking quite the gamble. They’ve put a lot of eggs in the Shop basket and it’s not clear if it’ll pay off.

➡️ You can read the article here...

#4 - 🛠️ Things worth checking out

🚀 INFLUENCERS - Discover super fans and boost your reach with minisocial! Connect with top micro-influencers, harness UGC magic, and enjoy 15% off your 1st campaign here.

💸 CRYPTO - Shopify now has a Solana Pay integration for receiving crypto payments. Read here.

📈 UP AND UP (THEN DOWN) - Worldwide, e-commerce sales are expected to rise before tapering off. See the stats here.

🥊 COMPETITION - Here are some tools you can use to monitor your competition’s ads.

💃🏽 TIKTOK - TikTok will now be showing ads in search results. Read here.

#5 - ✈️ 5 strategies for pre-launch

📰 TL;DR - The latest episode of the Shopify Masters podcast talks to the founders of Health Display, a digital whiteboard for families. One of their early blocks was getting investors on board, so they developed a pre-launch strategy that this episode gets into. Some of their tips include getting to know customers one-on-one — learning their pain points and needs. They also built trust for the product through online communities, specifically two private Facebook groups where they gained insights and teased the product. That all helped propel a successful crowdfunding effort on Indiegogo.

💡 Insight - This isn’t the first I’ve heard of a DTC brand making major headway with Facebook groups. It’s also especially smart for this brand’s demographic in particular — Facebook is rife with parenting and family discussion groups, so they really understood where to find their audience. For you, that could be Facebook, or it could be something like Discord. Follow your demographic! They were also smart to build that community before launching crowdfunding. Putting a campaign into the ether without initial momentum is a recipe for disaster. All in all, this is some solid advice for what to do before you start selling anything.

➡️ You can read the article here...