Wednesday, November 1

🚨 In today’s newsletter 🚨

• A TikTok test that’s bound to ruffle some feathers

• Use the dupe trend to your advantage

• How Gen Z feels about AI

Let’s get into it👇

#1 - 🤖 TikTok using AI to push products

📰 TL;DR - According to this report from Business Insider, TikTok is testing an AI tool that can identify products seen in videos in order to recommend similar ones to viewers. It would be like if a video happens to have a blender in it, TikTok could recommend some blenders available in TikTok Shop. The difference between this and the affiliate program is the creator who made the content doesn’t know this is happening and isn’t getting any kickbacks. It’s currently being tested with a limited audience in the US and UK and may never become an official feature.

💡 Insight - At first blush, this seems like a useful way to get more eyeballs on products, but I can also see it being a problem. First, creators aren’t going to like their content being used this way. And for brands, it’s more problematic. How would you feel if your organic post suddenly had a link to a competitor’s products? Logic says business accounts will be excluded from this, but not every business actually uses a business account if they want to keep access to popular music. We’ll have to wait and see if this becomes an official feature.

➡️ You can read the article here...

#2 - 🥸 The rise of dupe shoppers

📰 TL;DR - If you’re not already up on the lingo, “dupe” is short for duplication, and generally refers to products that are a good replacement for another, but at a lower price. Think of a drug store lipstick brand being a dupe for a shade from Chanel. Dupe shopping has become increasingly popular for Gen Z and millennial shoppers and TikTok videos with the #dupe hashtag have some 6 billion views. An analyst here says it flips the script and adds a sense of pride to buying a lower-cost item.

💡 Insight - Given the state of the economy and what we know about current spending habits, it totally makes sense that people are chasing after dupes. You can definitely use this to your advantage! If you sell something that could be considered a dupe, it would make an excellent marketing idea, especially for TikTok. You could even plan some UGC-like videos showing someone showing off their dupe purchase from you and comparing it to a higher-priced item.

➡️ You can read the article here...

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#3 - 📚 Gen Z is all about AI for shopping

📰 TL;DR - Gen Z is absolutely all in when it comes to improving online shopping with AI. According to this survey, 88% of them say AI can improve e-commerce and 55% are interested in AI assistants that help with product discovery and anticipate their needs and desires. They’re also pretty hyped about AR and VR. This shouldn’t be a surprise since younger generations are typically on the cutting edge of technology and are less hesitant about it.

💡 Insight - Two takeaways here. First, if your target audience is Gen Z, you should absolutely be investing in AI and AR tools — it’s a no-brainer. Second, I’ve also seen surveys showing older generations like what AI can do, but don’t like hearing that it’s AI. So, if your audience is younger, and you have AI tools, shout it from the rooftops! An email send announcing a new AI assistant could be a win. However, if your audience skews older, maybe leave the term “AI” out.

➡️ You can read the article here...

#4 - 🛠️ Things worth checking out

🎊 WOO - WooCommerce has rebranded and will now simply be Woo.

🍃 AMAZON - Read more details about the new features coming out for Amazon advertisers.

💃🏽 TIKTOK - And TikTok now has an AI-powered Creative Assistant.

⚡️ YOU DID IT! - Google and Meta are getting a major boost to their ad platforms thanks largely to e-commerce.

💸 BNPL - Walmart is now offering a buy-now-pay-later feature to Canadian shoppers.

#5 - 💄 Sephora botches big sale

📰 TL;DR - Here’s a cautionary tale for you. Twice a year, Sephora hosts a huge sale that offers the steepest discounts and earliest access to members based on their loyalty status. For a site that doesn’t often have big sales, it’s a hotly-anticipated event and makeup lovers will literally plan their shopping around it. However, last week, millions of shoppers were greeted by an error message when they tried to check out. This apparently went on for many hours and affected the top tier members. That led to a lot of angry comments on social media. The likely reason is the website was overwhelmed by traffic.

💡 Insight - This is a major muck up by Sephora and one they should have seen coming. They have millions of loyalty members and should have been able to anticipate the traffic they’d receive and prepare for it. The lesson here for you is that you need to make sure your website can handle a sudden surge in traffic. If you suddenly went viral on TikTok, could you handle the extra traffic?

➡️ You can read the article here...