Tuesday, July 11

#1 - 👎🏼 Temu sellers are copying Amazon listings

📰 TL;DR - Some Amazon sellers say their listings are being totally ripped off and put on Temu — with lower prices. This Wired article talks to Amazon sellers in China whose listings, down to the description, images, and browse trees. It’s incredibly frustrating for sellers who have put the time and money into building their presence on Amazon, just to have it ripped off and undercut on Temu. And the worst part is, there seems to be little one can do to fix the problem.

💡 Insight - What’s really frustrating is that an Amazon seller in this article has reached out to Temu multiple times but the false listing is still up. Some larger Amazon sellers have filed lawsuits against Temu and/or Temu sellers, but there hasn’t been much success there either, as of yet. An Amazon spokesperson in this article encouraged people to contact the Counterfeit Crimes Unit, but again, who knows if that will lead to a win. Wish I had a solution but until Amazon itself acts it’s difficult to see any change here — so beware.

➡️ You can read the article here...

#2 - 🗑️ Shoppers are deleting your emails

📰 TL;DR - A new survey finds that shoppers are pretty okay with giving you their email address, but they’re also pretty happy to delete what you send them. According to this, 79% of customers ignore or delete marketing emails, even from brands they already love. However this survey also asked about personalization, and 41% find it useful when emails have recommendations or offers based on past shopping behavior. As well, 40% find it useful if the emails take into account interests or preferences they’ve told the brand about.

💡 Insight - 79% is a lot, but let’s be honest here, how many marketing emails in your own inbox are you actually reading? Gmail’s ability to move all of them to a secondary inbox makes them especially easy to ignore. But the insight about personalization is important. You can’t treat all your customers the same when it comes to email marketing. You need tools that make it easy to segment them and incorporate significant personalization, beyond just their name.

➡️ You can read the article here...

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#3 - 👀 TikTok vs. Reels vs. YouTube Shorts

📰 TL;DR - If you’re not including short-form video in your social media marketing strategy, are you even a DTC brand? But as more platforms add short video, the question becomes which should have your attention. Digiday talked to some youths at VidCon about which platform they prefer, and the answer is very clear: TikTok. Both Reels and Shorts are seen as copycats but it’s not like they’re not looking at those too. In short, your best bet is TikTok, but if you can do all three that’s better.

💡 Insight - If Shorts and Reels are copycats, I say lean into it. Making distinct videos for each platform is a big ask and I honestly don’t know if it’s worth the effort. Rather, I think a good strategy is to create your short videos in a video editor as much as possible, adding music and any last-minute effects in TikTok’s native editor (although do it all in TikTok if you’re doing a TikTok-specific filter trend). Then, upload to each platform. That way you don’t get the TikTok watermark, which is frankly kind of cringe to see pop up on Reels or Shorts.

➡️ You can watch the video here...

#4 - 🛠️ Things worth checking out

🥤 OLIPOP - Good-for-you soda brand Olipop is among AdAge’s hottest brands for 2023. Read about it here.

🔥 TRENDS - Also from AdAge, their regular roundup of DTC movers and shakers for the week. Read it here.

👽 REDDIT - Reddit has released some tips and guidelines for advertisers for the holiday season. Check it out here.

💸 BNPL - Shopify has announced its own installment payment program expansion. Read more here.

✨ REFRESH - A bunch of brands have given themselves a makeover this year. Read more here.

#5 - 🛌 What went wrong at Lunya

📰 TL;DR - In case you missed it, sleepwear DTC brand Lunya filed for bankruptcy last month. But what went wrong? As this article points out, part of it was getting too aggressive with its retail strategy. The brand opened physical locations that were too large and too expensive to keep them afloat. Also, the brand bet that its aggressive growth during the pandemic would continue. Spoiler: it didn’t.

💡 Insight - There are two lessons here. One is a lesson you may have learned yourself the hard way: pandemic trends were not destined to continue. Betting that something like loungewear would continue to rise as people returned to the real world was foolish. Second is that retail needs to be entered very carefully. It’s incorrect to think that retail is the natural next step for DTC brands that’ve managed to grow. It’s a huge and costly undertaking, and it’s not for everyone.

➡️ You can read the article here...