Thursday, July 27

#1 - 🤖 Shopify launches AI tools

📰 TL;DR - Wednesday was the summer edition of Shopify Editions, when the company announces new offerings. Among them is Shopify Sidekick, an AI chatbot that may become your new best friend. It’s a generative AI helper under Shopify’s AI banner of “Shopify Magic.” Sidekick can do things like set up discounts, modify your design, or segment customers. Other Shopify Magic tech can now even generate blog posts for holidays or campaigns. They also teased that it can create emails for customers. Click the link for all the deets.

💡 Insight - Shopify made it clear a year ago that it wanted to lean into AI in a big way, and now we’re seeing the results. A lot of you probably don’t need the help, but for new or less tech-savvy merchants, I can see Sidekick being very handy given how dense the Shopify backend can get. Using AI for blog posts is also a very smart use of generative AI although I do worry we’ll see a lot of similar posts, which Google isn’t going to like. So a reminder to you that anything AI does needs to be checked by a human.

➡️ You can read the article here...

#2 - 🚀 Claim your ERTC — here's how!

📰 TL;DR - The Employee Retention Credit (ERC) is a refundable tax credit available to enterprises who paid employees while shut down due to the COVID-19 epidemic or had severe losses in gross receipts between March 13, 2020 and December 31, 2021. Employers who are eligible can claim the ERC on their original or adjusted employment tax return for the period between those dates.

💡 Insight - Lendio is the leading provider in employee retention tax credit, helping business owners like you to claim what you deserve. Businesses that faced payroll losses in 2020 and 2021 can reclaim a portion of their credit for qualifying losses.

➡️ Claim up to $26,000 per employee. Visit here.

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

#3 - 💳 Shopify wants to give you credit

📰 TL;DR - The other big announcement from Shopify Editions is Shopify Credit. It’s another foray into fintech for Shopify and it aims to give SMBs access to credit that also draws a line between personal and business finances. It bases your eligibility for credit not on your personal credit score, but on the health of your business. If you’re thinking this sounds similar to Shopify Capital, they say it is in fact different. The article linked here includes an interview with Shopify’s Director of Product Management Vikram Anreddy.

💡 Insight - This could be a game-changer for many small business owners. It’s hard to power up your venture with a loan if your personal credit is lacking. To be rewarded for growing a successful business, and getting the tools to grow it further, sounds like a win for everyone. I wish I had the details on what interest rates look like here, though. This also comes with a rewards program to earn cash back.

➡️ You can read the article here...

#4 - 🛠️ Things worth checking out

🚨 DEAL ALERT - BREEZY SEO is offering free 7-day trials of their affordable & effective SEO service to help you get more high-intent Google traffic here.

🏷️ X - With everything going on at X (née Twitter) the site is offering 50% discount on ad packages. Read more here.

⚾️ FANATICS - Sports memorabilia seller Fanatics has launched a livestream shopping platform. Read here.

📝 BIZ PLAN - Here’s a guide to writing your own business plan.

👁️ TIKTOK - Beauty brand Benefit is testing out a TikTok Shop-exclusive sale. Read more here.

#5 - 👗 Shein wants Amazon sellers to join them

📰 TL;DR - Shein is trying to grow as a marketplace and it’s hoping to scoop up Amazon sellers in the process. The app is attempting to lure third-party sellers from Amazon to its own platform with incentives like three months without paying commission and no advertising charges. They want big boys though — Amazon sellers need $2 million plus in annual sales to qualify for the perks. They’re looking to recruit from 100,000 third-party sellers over the next few years. Shein is clearly trying to compete with Amazon, but that’s a lofty goal indeed.

💡 Insight - I guess the big question here is: would you sell on Shein? Although it’s become pretty synonymous with fast fashion, the Shein site and app also have other categories like home goods. I have a hard time seeing premium DTC brands wanting to sell on Shein, since it’s a cheap and cheerful kind of place, but it could certainly open you up to new customers. Would you make the jump?

➡️ You can read the article here...