Syd Leigh

Wow, breaking news from the world of DTC / e-commerce. The FTC is implementing a new rule to ban fake reviews and deceptive testimonials in an effort to crack down on misleading advertising practices. They're going to hold companies accountable for fabricating or manipulating reviews to influence consumer behavior. It's called the "Final Rule" and it could lead to hefty fines for businesses that engage in such practices. This step is part of a broader initiative to ensure transparency and honesty in online reviews, which are increasingly influential in consumer decision-making. If the fact that consumers have become extremely well versed at sniffing out fake reviews wasn't motivation enough for brands to take product reviews seriously, this should be. Platforms like Moast will lead the charge at helping brands collect and display honest and authentic testimonials from real customers.

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Just jumped off the Shopify Q3 Earnings call. If you missed it, I'll summarize: Q3 was an incredible quarter for Shopify. Here are the highlights of Q3 2024 Shopify:  1️⃣​ Financially, it was a strong quarter. - GMV was up 24% Year over Year in Q3 - the 5th consecutive quarter where GMV growth was more than 20% - Revenue accelerated to 26% - the 6th consecutive quarter where Shopify delivered 25% or greater top-line growth, excluding logistics - Gross profit grew 24% Year over Year - Our Free Cash Flow Margin expanded to 19% which means we’re delivering profitability that allows us to both grow the business and invest in the future of commerce. 2️⃣​ We’ve built the most integrated platform on the planet where everything in your business works together really really well. Shopify POS is powering more and more large, complex, multi-location merchants like legendary Canadian women's fashion retailer, Laura, which migrated over 130 stores to Shopify’s POS in Q3. We are making every part of commerce work better. This quarter we helped merchants make in-person shopping truly delightful by expanding Tap to Pay in more countries. And, we’re making it easier for our merchants to sell in new countries with our Managed Markets product, which has helped some merchants see an average global sales increase of 40%. The power of our platform is unmatched. 3️⃣ Shopify is increasingly the go-to platform of choice not just for entrepreneurship, but for all of commerce. We are making massive strides across our long-term growth drivers like B2B, international, enterprise, and offline commerce. - We had our single largest B2B GMV month ever, with it growing over 145% Year over Year. This is a trend at this point, marking 5 consecutive quarters of triple digit B2B GMV growth - International GMV continues to outpace the growth of North America accelerating to more than 30% and our international merchants grew 36% Year over Year - In Q3 alone we had 16 enterprise launches on Shopify, including brands like Hanes and On Running. The best brands like Reebok, and Victoria’s Secret and high fashion brands like FashionPhile and Off-white are all coming to Shopify. Our mission has always been the same: make commerce better for everyone and, ultimately, create more entrepreneurs across the world and help them grow bigger and faster. We are doing exactly that. We are focused on helping merchants of all sizes thrive today and in the future. It’s why you see brands come to us and never leave. Thank you to everyone on the Shopify team, our partners, and our incredible community for an exceptional quarter.

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I don't have to tell you that slow sites impact your customers AND your business. Higher bounce rates, shorter sessions, and lower conversion rate, they all hurt the bottom line. Key stats (not mine, Google's): - Shopify stores are 1.8x faster than stores on other platforms - 93% of businesses on Shopify have a fast store, more than any other major commerce platform - Shopify server speed is up to 3.9x faster and on average 2.8x faster than major competitors Check out how well your site does here: https://lnkd.in/eTFFE9jX

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I've audited 100+ Shopify stores in the last few months. Through that process, I've learned a thing or two that will take a store from good ➝ great. So here are 4 strategies you can use to improve your store ASAP: 1. Add social proof: 53% of shoppers say that reviews are the most important thing they look for when making a purchase online -- but reviews are the minimum for social proof. Add UGC to your site as well, so potential customers can see your product in action. UGC shows the customer everything they need to know about your product and keeps them on the store so they don't have to go search TikTok or YouTube for reviews and content. 2. Use upsells in the cart and at checkout: Upsells are amazing, especially for increasing AOV. But setting it up in the cart drawer and checkout page properly will ensure that customers don't click out of the conversion funnel, cause if they do, they might not come back. Let them see other product recommendations and offers and watch as your AOV rises. 3. Sticky CTA's: Make sure your CTA is visible no matter where the user is in your store. When someone decides they want to purchase the product, they should quickly and easily be able to find the 'add to cart' or 'checkout' button -- rather than have to scroll all the way up or down to find it. 4. Fast site speed: The faster your site is, the more likely you are to convert visitors and reduce bounce rates. A great UX makes it easy for shoppers to navigate your store, find what they want, and checkout with no issues or delays. Slow load times might seem like something out of your control, but the fix is easier than you'd think (just send me a DM). By making sure your storefront is well-optimized and provides a great UX, you'll not only make your customers happier, but you'll increase revenue too. For more tips and tactics for increasing storefront conversion rates like these, drop me a follow.

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I’ve run multiple 9-figure #DTC turnarounds. My 6 biggest struggles as a new DTC PE-backed CEO were: 1. Cutting costs aggressively (>50%) within the first week after an acquisition 2. Having no domain expertise in whatever the company was selling. Streetwear? I wore khakis. Automotive? I Ubered everywhere. 3. Wrestling with a costly legacy tech stack and developing the confidence to bet the business on a migration. 4. Board management, especially educating financially-focused PE partners on how DTC works. 5. Balancing the board’s desire for cash flow with my heart’s desire for growth. 6. Figuring out how to grow a mature, 100M-revenue business when all channels are tapped. 🤔 Anyone reading this who has the same struggles, here's my advice: 1. Bite the bullet. You’ll never be perfect, but cash flow is oxygen: you need to cut. Go once and go deeper than you think you need to . . . if you gradually do this over time it destroys culture. Start with a blank sheet of paper and sketch out your ideal sized lean org, then go figure out who you need on the bus. 2. Admit this to the team day 1, never fake it. “Listen, I as you can tell, I don’t know streetwear—but I do know ecommerce. Educate me on what we sell.” It will build trust and get the team involved in the rebuild. 3. Probably the hardest because if you ask anyone in the org, it’s suicide to migrate to anything. You’ll need to skunkworks this outside the company. Allocate some budget to get a migration agency in there to prototype an off-the-shelf stack rapidly. Shopify unless you have a damn good reason not to be there. Goal should be 80% of the functionality and edge cases of the legacy stack . . . it’s the last 20% that always kick your ass. 4. Learn to love board meetings. Spend a couple slides each quarter on education: “this is what email marketing is” or “here’s how Meta ads work.” My boards loved this and eventually they got the nuances of why we can’t just do things like pay Meta into eternity and maintain the same ROAS. 5. Tough one, but cash flow is oxygen. Start by overhauling retention via lifecycle marketing (email marketing + direct mail). You’ll boost profitability immediately, bank some cash, and build trust with the board. Then, once you are rolling in it, you can jam the board to let you spend on growth experiments. 6. Welcome to the club, right? Optimization only goes so far. To grow a mature business—to take 100M to 200M in a short period of time—I learned to love growth through acquisitions. Identify competitors you could run with your existing team and stack. Network to their boards and pitch them on the increased profitability that would come from a combination. At AutoAnything, we acquired Morris4x4, LeonardAccessories, and Wheelwell all with little to no cash up front. CEOs: What else do you struggle with? I will advise as best I can from my experience. https://lnkd.in/erjwCtv6 #CEO #CMO

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Shopify apps can be a good place to start. If your website is built on Shopify and you need a widget to make te website better, check out the app store and see what you can find, you might be surprised. In my conversation wit Aaron Zagha, CMO of Newton Baby, Inc. on The MarTech Matrix Podcast, we discussed how they use the app store and some of the gems they have discovered. Listen in to hear about their experience and find more clips and the full eisorde in the comments section. #eCommerce #ShopifyApps #MarketingTech #MarTechMatrix #Upselling #CMO #NewtonBaby #CustomerExperience Tom Barbaro Cogent Collective

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Super interesting thread with lots of insightful responses! Thanks Timothy! Here’s my 2 cents. Theme store themes are packaged and distributed for a merchant audience, not agency/developer audience. It’s compiled code. We don’t develop our themes that way, why should you? I build themes with well scoped theme components, Figma files, docs, CI, and workflows. All of these help us ship faster and at a higher quality. Why should you need to do these things yourself when they’ve already been solved or can be iterated from something that already exists? Themes are GIANT projects. Building a world class buying experience that checks all the boxes of quality and functionality from scratch just doesn’t make sense. If there was a design and development environment that gave you everything you needed, without limiting the final product you’re trying to deliver, why would you chose to not use it? If any of this resonates with you, you’re going to want to follow what we’re doing at Archetype Themes 👇 https://lnkd.in/ekQesRAD

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I got asked on the Ecom North finance panel yesterday: "What advice would you have for someone starting a DTC business today?" 2 major things: 1. Margins - I would not launch a DTC business today unless I had at least 70% margins Acquisition costs are way too high these days to make DTC work if you were starting from scratch. Lower margins will lead to longer payback periods and stretching payback periods from day 1 is not a good sign for longevity. 2. Cash Conversion Cycle - How quickly can you turn your cash out into cash in the bank? If you're paying for inventory before your items ship or even worse months before, you are running into a cash flow straining situation. The longer your cash is tied up the less you can invest it in other parts of your business. Obviously, there's a lot more to this, but cash flow management is a major consideration when starting out.

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Here's how Intuit Mailchimp grew from a few thousand $$'s into a $12 Billion business. 💸 __ Founded in 2001, Ben Chestnut and his co-founders never thought that Mailchimp would become a multi-billion-dollar business. Ben and Dan created Mailchimp as a side project to help their web design clients communicate better with their audiences which eventually became the world's leading email marketing tool for small businesses. Here is how they did it and what you can learn 👇 1️⃣ Obsess over evolving customer needs: Mailchimp started as a simple email marketing tool but quickly expanded by focusing more on customers' evolving needs and offering the customizations they needed. One fundamental change was adding landing pages, which let users create standalone web pages to enhance their marketing campaigns. This is just one of the many examples of how Mailchimp evolved its features to stand out as an email marketing platform and an all-in-one marketing platform. 2️⃣ Master a Niche Before Expanding: Initialy, Mailchimp focused only on mastering email marketing for small businesses, achieving a strong product foundation before diversifying into automation and CRM. This helped them secure a 66% market share in their niche. For new businesses, perfecting one key area is essential. Once you're strong in that niche, you can add related services that your customers need. We applied the same strategy at Granimals. We went hyper-niche by providing digital rehab services to football players. Once we gained traction in that segment, we expanded to other sports/activities and, eventually, other types of injuries. 3️⃣ Build Your Brand with the Customer in Mind:   From the start, Mailchimp designed its brand to be quirky and approachable, which appealed to small business owners. Their logo, featuring a friendly cartoon mascot named Freddie, combined with bright colors and unique fonts, created a memorable and inviting image. Their casual, humorous tone in emails, ads, and the "Did You Mean" campaign made the brand feel relatable and friendly. This helped Mailchimp build a brand that was easy to support, use, remember, and share. 4️⃣ Don't Shy Away from Going Freemium: In 2009, Mailchimp made a big move by launching a free version of its email marketing tool. This strategy helped Mailchimp's user base grow from 85,000 to 450,000 within a year, with profits increasing by 650%. Offering a free option can attract more people to try your product or service, including those who might not have considered it otherwise. ​​ Mailchimp's rise from a side project to a leading global email marketing tool, achieved through bootstrapping, shows how focusing on customer needs, mastering a niche, and offering a freemium option can drive impressive growth. – Did you like this post or learn something new? 🔄 Consider resharing with your audience 🔔 Follow me for more on business and personal growth. P.C - Sprout 24 #mailchimp #bootstrapping

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Shopify isn't going all in with marketing the SHOP app, instead, they're going slow and figuring out the product-market fit. They don’t need to rush because they have millions of merchants directly connected to the SHOP app through Shopify integration. It would take years for anyone else to build something similar. I think this is going to be massive in a few years. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. . . . . . #Ecommerce #Shopify #SHOPApp #D2C #DigitalMarketing #StartupFounders #ShopifyMerchants #RetailInnovation #DirectToConsumer #IndianStartups #OnlineRetail

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In 2024, customization and user experience are key to standing out in the crowded e-commerce market. If you’re looking to boost your Shopify store’s design and functionality, the PageFly app is worth considering. Here’s why it’s being hailed as a revolutionary tool for Shopify users. What is PageFly? PageFly is a drag-and-drop page builder app that allows Shopify store owners to create high-converting landing pages, product pages, and more—all without needing to write a single line of code. It offers extensive customization options to create a unique shopping experience that aligns with your brand. Key Features of PageFly: 🔑 Drag-and-Drop Builder: Easily design pages with a simple drag-and-drop interface that requires no coding skills. 🔑 Responsive Design: Optimize your store for all devices with mobile-friendly elements and responsive templates. 🔑 Advanced Integrations: Seamlessly integrate with popular Shopify apps like Klaviyo, Judge.me, and Loox to enhance functionality. 🔑Conversion-Driven Elements: Utilize features like countdown timers, testimonial sections, and product badges to boost conversions. Why PageFly? 1. Ease of Use: With a user-friendly interface, anyone can build a professional-looking page in minutes. 2. Flexible Customization: Tailor your pages to suit your unique brand identity and improve user experience. 3. SEO-Friendly: Built-in SEO optimization tools help improve your store’s visibility on search engines. 4. Exceptional Customer Support: PageFly offers 24/7 support to assist you at any stage of your page-building journey. Is PageFly Right for Your Store? If you’re looking to enhance your Shopify store's design capabilities, improve conversion rates, and provide a seamless customer experience, PageFly is a tool worth exploring in 2024. With its robust features and flexibility, it’s quickly becoming a favorite among Shopify store owners. Have you used PageFly? Share your experience in the comments below or reach out if you have any questions!

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DTC brands: want to absolutely crush Black Friday & Cyber Monday sales this year?  2024 is all about PRICE.  Nothing has yo-yoed more this year than consumer spending.  Inflated prices on necessities like groceries and housing have plummeted discretionary shopping. We’re likely to see spending go back up during the holiday season. But consumers may spend less overall.  They may also hesitate to buy from brands they don’t already know.  To win their dollars, you need to make your products accessible.  Here’s where the pricing opportunity exists.  Traditionally, offers like “Buy X get Y% off” are strong plays.  Product bundling also works well in categories where bundling makes sense.  But do you have products you want to move fast?  Discount those items more steeply.  Or, go one step further.  If you’re selling 4oz of a best-selling product, try selling a 3oz version.  In short: supplement tried-and-true tactics with lower-priced entry products.  The goal, now more than ever, is to lower the bar to entry while delivering as much value as possible.  Manage to do that and you're going to win sales during the holidays and beyond. Not every first-time buyer comes back for a repeat purchase.  But if you capture price-conscious consumers with affordability, you will get returning customers.  And the discretionary dollars they do spend will have a better chance of being spent with you.  P.S. Price is just one part of success this holiday shopping season. Want to increase your sales even more?  DM me for more BFCM advice!  #ecommerce #dtc

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❌ SHOPIFY IS NOT ENTERPRISE ENOUGH ❌ Sometimes, I speak to customers telling me that Shopify is not Enterprise enough. It's perceived as not enterprise enough because of the branding confusion. There is a significant difference between Shopify and Shopify Plus. 10 Famous brands that are Enterprise enough and run on Shopify Plus : 1) SKIMS 2) Rare Beauty 3) Feastables 4) Alo Yoga 5) Vuori 6) New Era Cap 7) Spanx 8) Gymshark 9) Thrive Causemetics Inc. 10) Fashion Nova All of these brands are enterprise enough to use Plus. Looking for a Shopify Plus partner to build or re-platform your business? You know what to do (Better call Paul Okhrem) 😀. #shopify #shopifyplus #enterprise #ecommerce

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Too many DTC brands are zombies, dead companies walking, but not because "eComm is harder now" or "CPMs have increased so Meta doesn't work anymore"... It's because the underlying business economics weren't intentionally engineered in a way that allows for both hyper growth AND healthy profitability. As my DTC-focused finance and accounting firm Free to Grow CFO works with more and more DTC brands, it becomes increasingly clear that the ones who crush profitability and growth have several things in common. Here are a few: 1. They've built, and never stop building, a brand that creates true raving fans (even better - a cult following!) 2. They've engineered an AOV and/or repeat purchase frequency high enough to profitably sustain a new customer MER that is surprisingly low (like <2.0). 3. They have gross margins high enough (like 70-80%+) and fixed overhead costs low enough (like <10% of revenue) to turn a significant profit at a blended MER of +/-2.0. The intentionality behind building an incredible P&L is what Taylor Holiday was getting at when he interviewed our clients Doug Schneider and Dean Brennan from Heart & Soil alongside their Fractional CFO, my business partner, Jeff Lowenstein on the CTC Bridges Webinar last month. The point of the webinar, titled "The Beautiful P&L," is this: A beautiful P&L doesn't happen by accident. It comes from intentionally engineering your product development, marketing, staffing, operations, and finance strategies to CREATE a beautiful P&L, not hope one results as you scale ad spend. So can you still create a fast growing, highly profitable eComm business in 2024 and beyond? Absolutely! But in order to do so, you should consider my 3 points above. Of course there's a lot more to the story, but starting there will help more than you think. -- Hi, I'm Jon Blair founder of the DTC Finance and Accounting firm Free to Grow CFO. Want more tips on growing a profit-focused DTC brand? Give me a follow. Want to learn more about how Free to Grow's Accountants and CFO's can help you increase profit and cash flow as you scale? Shoot me a DM. Until next time, scale on!

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I sat down with Cherene Aubert and asked her to share her complete playbook for offer testing in DTC brands. Here are 5 game-changing tactics most DTC brands completely miss: 1. You think your marketing is driving demand In reality, your offer could be the biggest driver. At Bobbie (infant formula brand), Cherene discovered: ↳ Turning off ads didn't slow demand ↳ Removing the welcome offer cut demand by more than half "The advertising wasn't driving the demand... It was the offer." 2. You force subscriptions on new customers Instead, focus on low-barrier introductory offers. Bobbie's approach: ↳ Offered a small "starter bundle" for first-time customers ↳ Didn't force subscriptions despite being subscription-focused "Every business has a different offer or introductory offer that is unique to them." 3. You prioritize business goals over customer needs Align your offers with how customers actually make purchases. Cherene's advice: ↳ Conduct customer research (surveys, focus groups) ↳ Think about your own buying behavior "You have to think about what the customer ACTUALLY wants." 4. You rely solely on discounts Consider alternative offers that don't cut into margins. Examples: ↳ Free merchandise ↳ Product samples ↳ Slow-moving inventory "Having a big discount can cut into your margins a lot more than having, say, a piece of merch." 5. You expect instant results Offer testing is a long-term strategy that requires commitment. At Bobbie: ↳ Spent 6 months on offer testing ↳ Had weekly cross-functional team meetings ↳ Tested new offers every 2-4 weeks "We made it a priority. We said we're going to make testing a priority for the business." - - - TL;DR 1. Effective offer testing can dramatically improve customer acquisition and reduce CAC. 2. Focus on customer-centric, low-barrier introductory offers. 3. Prioritize testing, involve cross-functional teams, and be patient. 4. Finding the right offer takes time. 5. Start by creating a prioritized list of offer ideas and systematically test them using the ICE framework (Impact, Confidence, Ease). Watch the full episode here:  https://lnkd.in/eXjpsYfX

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Insights from Shopify Plus Stores’ Tech Stacks. Ever wondered about the tech behind top-performing Plus stores? Here’s a breakdown of what’s driving their success (thanks Jeremy Horowitz' for this): - Cloudflare is the unsung hero, powering the backbone of many stores. 🤫 - Facebook Pixel boasts more adoption than Google Analytics (GA) or Google Tag Manager (GTM). 📊 - Apple Pay is making waves with higher adoption rates than GA. 🍎 - Klaviyo leads the pack with more installs than Shop Pay, PayPal, & Google Ads. 📈 - Pinterest Pixel outperforms TikTok in installations. 📌 - Bing Ads Pixel surpasses every Top 100 Plus app except Klaviyo. 🔥Who’s ready to create the next major Shopify app? #EmerceConsulting #Ecommerce #TechTrends #Shopify #DigitalMarketing

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The tragic misunderstanding of Unified Commerce… Shopify has been pushing their unified commerce strategy for multiple good reasons. From my perspective, this strategy makes a lot of sense as they are: 1. Ensuring their products integrate seamlessly. This means that Shopify Markets, Shopify B2B, and retail communicate effortlessly together. This has been a massive process and won’t end anytime soon. 2. Recognizing that Shopify hasn’t been just an ecommerce platform for SMBs for years. These days, some of our customers start by using Shopify's B2B product or even just their Retail with Shopify POS. The world has changed dramatically. So, what’s the issue then? Let me explain. A delicate group of old-school retail gurus are somehow offended by the term "unified commerce." They claim to have been doing unified commerce long before Shopify started to talk about the topic. Fair point, but they miss the essence of Shopify's unified commerce offering. It’s akin to reading the headline without understanding the full story. Another group comprises competing platforms that claim to have been unified commerce solutions since 2015 or earlier. However, in my humble opinion, they are simply afraid of Shopify’s product roadmap. After being in the digital commerce business for over 15 years, I can say that very few have successfully integrated online and offline retail. Not to mention B2B added on top of all of this. Commerce is hard, but Shopify is going for it big time. #shopify #unifiedcommerce #commerce #ecommerce #woolman #enterprise

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💡 Friday Feature Spotlight 💡 Have you ever found the perfect item secondhand but it's in the wrong size or color? Or maybe you didn't find anything you like at all... it happens all the time. Treet's ISO (In Search Of) feature allows you to 'request' a specific item down to the SKU level (size/color/style) and be notified when it is listed. We go a step further and actually reach out to customers who have the item and let them know that they have a potential buyer. Brands are analyzing these requests to understand which items are most sought after, helping inform future product lines and smarter inventory purchases. This is one of the many reasons brands and their customers love branded resale on Treet.

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