Wednesday, July 19

#1 - 🌎 E-comm is increasingly cross-border

📰 TL;DR - It’s gotten easier than ever to shop cross-border, and we’re seeing that in this data. According to this report, 33% of e-commerce will be cross-border by 2028. That’s a value growth of $1.6 trillion this year to $3.3 trillion by 2028. You can click through to find the full report, but this summary has some good insights. For example, successful cross-border brands like Temu have had localized launches that include localized social media.

💡 Insight - Speaking as a Canadian who buys from a lot of US brands, cross-border e-commerce has improved by leaps and bounds in the last five years or so. Platforms like Shopify have made it easier, for one, such as letting you easily display localized currency. I think the other big blocker though is shipping costs. We know that shoppers are highly likely to abandon a cart when there are surprisingly high shipping fees, and that seems especially likely to happen if you’re shopping cross-border. If you want to engage in other markets, I really recommend figuring out how to keep international shipping cost-effective and quick, as well as include duties and other fees in the final total.

➡️ You can read the article here...

#2 - 📉 BNPL downloads are down

📰 TL;DR - According to this report, downloads of buy-now-pay-later apps are declining in the US. This is the second quarter that downloads have fallen. To be clear, there are still millions of new downloads, but the trajectory is down. That’s a big change from the pandemic when interest in BNPL was huge. We’ve also seen financial troubles at BNPL brands.

💡 Insight - Between inflation, student loans coming back, and tightened consumer spending, I can only assume this all ties into that. People are simply buying less. However, I see no reason to assume that BNPL still isn’t baseline popular and a conversion booster when used in your own store. Case in point, downloads are down but monthly active users are still up. Financially uncertain times make BNPL attractive in other ways, and we also see an increase in its use for Prime Day recently. So no reason to abandon it now.

➡️ You can read the article here...

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

#3 - 💋 The Barbie bump

📰 TL;DR - Unless you’ve been living under a pink rock, you know very well that Babie is everywhere right now. The movie’s marketers and Mattel went on a spree and a ton of brands managed to get licensing agreements. Retailers are in fact betting on a big bump from tie-ins. Frankly, we haven’t seen this kind of hype around a movie in such a long time, you can’t blame everyone for wanting a piece.

💡 Insight - If you didn’t get a licensing deal, you can still get a piece of the Barbie action. I’ve seen, for example, beauty brands creating Barbie-inspired content on social, or other brands trying out Barbie-inspired filters on TikTok. Give it a go for yourself. It’s also not a bad idea to put anything product you have that’s pink and cheerful to the forefront. Don’t be silly and use Barbie branding though — you just know there’s a team of lawyers out there itching to send a cease and desist.

➡️ You can read the article here...

#4 - 🛠️ Things worth checking out

💵 PAYROLL - Do you have payroll losses from 2020 or 2021? Lendio helps in reclaiming up to $26,000/employee in payroll losses. Find out what you qualify for here.

👀 MARKETING - Looking for top 1% marketing talent? I trust MarketerHire for all my freelance & marketing assistant needs! Learn more here.

🎓 BACK TO SCHOOL - Amazon’s message for back to school is all about saving money, and you should probably consider doing the same. Read here.

🤖 AI - Product photography can be hard, especially getting a nice background. This goes over how to use AI generators to get that job done.

📦 RETURNS - Returns app Loop now has a nice addition for handling products with warranties. Read here.

#5 - 💿 This tech wants all your data in one place

📰 TL;DR - Polar Analytics has just raised a sweet $9 million for its tech that helps out Shopify merchants. What it does is scoop up all your various data from your Shopify apps and deposit them into one place. They have 2,000 clients on their roster. They also note that the average Shopify merchant uses 15 apps. That’s a lot! The service isn’t cheap though, starting at around $400 per month.

💡 Insight - I can’t speak to how good Polar Analytics is specifically, but I can absolutely see the demand for an app like this. You know very well that as you start adding apps, your Shopify presence quickly turns into a sprawling mess. It’s a ton to keep up with, and Shopify itself hasn’t done much to make it easier. Data is golden in e-commerce, and being able to access all of it in one place is surely useful. At $400 per month, this is definitely more catered to established brands whose data is getting unwieldy. I also wouldn’t be surprised if this is the kind of app Shopify itself one day scoops up.

➡️ You can read the article here...