Thursday, October 12

#1 - 🏆 Prime Big Deal Days day 2 results are in

📰 TL;DR - With Prime Big Deal Days now over, we have more data about how it all went. And, by all accounts, it went pretty well. According to Numerator, some 44,000 orders had been placed by Wednesday afternoon and the average order value was $54.43. Same as the first day, the number is lower than the summer Prime Day sales, but up from last year’s Prime Early Access Sale, which took place in October. Some of the top-selling items include Premier Protein Shakes, Amazon-branded batteries, and Amazon FireTV Sticks. Another interesting stat is that 55% compared prices with other stores before making a purchase.

💡 Insight - What really stuck out to me is the numbers indicating that sale-hunters are consistent. 95% of those who shopped this sale knew about it ahead of time. One-third are already shopping pre-holiday sales from competitors like Target and Walmart. And 58% also plan to shop on Black Friday, and 57% said the same for Cyber Monday. This shouldn’t be too surprising considering how much we’ve heard about how budget-conscious shoppers are this year. It also makes sense given that people know this time of year brings discounts, and they’re happy to wait for them.

➡️ You can read the article here...

#2 - 🚀 How To Get Performance-Focused Ad Creatives?

📰 TL;DR - One of the biggest challenges for e-commerce brands is creating attention-grabbing, results-driven ad content. Finding the right mix of user-generated content, videos, animations, and static visuals is a daunting task.

If that sounds like a problem your brand faces too, you NEED to check Biddyco out!

💡 Insight - Biddyco handles everything needed to make compelling ads from concept generation, briefing, copywriting, creator recruiting, filming, editing etc.

They've worked with Magic Spoon, Momofuku, Fellow and many more.

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#3 - 🛒 Klarna launches AI shopping tools

📰 TL;DR - Not long ago, Klarna transformed its app into a stand-alone shopping marketplace, and now it’s beefing that up with some interesting tools. First, they’re introducing an in-app AI shopping lens that lets shoppers take a photo of an item and Klarna will analyze it and find the actual product for sale. They’ll also let shoppers filter results by sustainability markers, such as third-party certifications from PETA and GOTS. They’re also expanding shoppable videos to EU markets. Finally, a barcode scanner will let shoppers scan something in a store and then get to see the item for sale online, along with reviews, pricing, and variants. These and more in the link.

💡 Insight - If Klarna wants to be a major shopping destination, they’re making some smart moves. I just recently saw a survey about AI and e-commerce that showed one of the features shoppers want most is the AI shopping lens. The ability to scan a barcode in person is also brilliant — it’s an easy path to a price comparison and I can imagine people immediately making a purchase if they like what they see online better. I was initially skeptical of Klarna’s shopping app, but these features make it incredibly useful to shoppers.

➡️ You can read the article here...

#4 - 🛠️ Things worth checking out

🧶 ETSY - Etsy is rolling out a price optimization feature that allows you to see how your prices stack up against comparable products. No link for this — if you get to take part, you’ll get a message in your Etsy inbox.

♻️ AMAZON - Amazon is pushing a “buy again” button and encouraging more subscriptions. Read here.

💻 TECH - Here’s a checklist of everything you should be getting ready, tech-wise, ahead of the holiday season.

💃🏽 TIKTOK - Other countries in Asia are expected to be pressured to ban TikTok Shop. Read here.

🤖 WALMART - Walmart is testing out more AI and AR shopping tools. Read here.

#5 - 📧 Black Friday email campaign ideas

📰 TL;DR - You totally have your BFCM email campaigns all planned out, right? RIGHT? It’s okay, don't worry, if you need some inspiration this piece will help. It goes over eight types of emails you can use for BFCM, from a simple sale reminder, to using text only, to creating urgency, to dangling a VIP access tease. Each idea comes with visual examples, which I really appreciate.

💡 Insight - I think the most powerful but underutilized idea on the list is the text-only email. They need to be used sparingly, but they can have major impact. A text-only marketing email really sticks out in a sea of bright colors and splashy design, and it looks like it was personally written by a brand’s founder (in fact, it’s a good idea to write it that way!). My favorite example of this is when the toy brand Camp got caught up in the Silicon Valley Bank collapse and sent a text-only email to customers asking for help and offering a 40% discount. And it worked!

➡️ You can read the article here...