The 2025 tariffs are here and eCommerce brands feel the pain already. Import duties now range from 10% on almost everything to a jaw-dropping 145% on Chinese goods. Shortly this:

• 10% base tariffs on most imported goods

• 25% tariffs on products from Mexico and Canada unless USMCA-exempt

• Up to 145% tariffs on Chinese goods, particularly electronics, apparel, and low-value shipments

• De minimis loophole eliminated: Starting May 2, a $100 fee applies to all sub-$800 shipments; rising to $200 by June 1

Some tariffs were paused for 90 days (ending July 8) to allow for renegotiations, but China is excluded from the pause and remains under full tariffs.

So what to do with all that? And how will other brands survive?

✅ 1. Run a Full Landed Cost Audit

Know the real, all-in cost per SKU including:

• Base cost of goods

• Tariffs (based on updated HS codes)

• Shipping + new postal surcharges

Use these sources to fetch actual tariffs:
https://trumptradetracker.com/ - simple source of tariff news
https://dataweb.usitc.gov/ - tariff database
https://hts.usitc.gov/ - tariff schedule

✅ 2. Reassess Your Supplier Mix

Map your current suppliers by:

• Country of origin

• Tariff % applied

• USMCA/FTA eligibility

Then:

• Ask current suppliers about alternate origin options or service invoice restructuring

• Consider dual sourcing to stay flexible

• Consider shifting high-tariff SKUs to Mexico, India, or ASEAN if feasible. This Tariff simulator shows where likely the suplly chain will shift in different industries.

sorry, it was hard to skip that one 😁

✅ 3. Review HS Codes and Classifications

Your tariff rate depends on how your product is classified.
Reclassify products if possible (legally!) — e.g., “synthetic apparel” might carry higher duties than “cotton T-shirts.”

✅ 4. Negotiate supplier terms

• Split invoices legally into product + service fees to reduce taxable import value. E.g. $10 product + $30 Consulting/Design fees

✅ 5. Prepare for DDP and Customs Prepayment

Start shipping DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) to reduce cart abandonment.
Customers don’t want surprise fees — and neither do your CS teams.

✅ 6. Optimize for Duty Drawbacks and FTZs

If you re-export or destroy inventory, you might be eligible to get up to 99% of duties back.
If you're warehousing imports, consider using Foreign Trade Zones (FTZs) to delay paying duties until goods are sold.

It’s not over yet, there are plenty of scenarios:

🔁 Scenario 1: Partial Rollback (best-case)

• Trump strikes deals with some allies, reducing tariffs on strategic goods

• Tariffs on China drop to ~25-50% on some categories

• De minimis is returned

• Merchants get relief on high-volume SKUs and stabilize pricing

⚠️ Scenario 2: Negotiation Stalemate

• No deals are made by July 8

• Full tariffs return (10-25% globally, 145% on China)

• Recession risk increases due to price shocks and weakened demand

💥 Scenario 3: Escalation

• China retaliates with its own duties

• U.S. applies blanket tariffs (25-50%) on all imports

• Deep disruption across supply chains, margins collapse

🕊 Scenario 4: Superficial Deal

• Political optics lead to a "deal" with no real rollback

• Markets stabilize temporarily, but long-term costs remain high

How to Benefit from the Tariff Era

💸 Acquire distressed brands
Buy out struggling DTC brands that can't handle cost spikes. Restructure sourcing, relaunch with better ops.

🛠 Build nearshoring solutions
Create a plug-and-play agency or SaaS to help brands shift to Mexico/LatAm suppliers quickly.

🚛 Launch logistics tools
Make customs-friendly DDP, FTZ, or landed-cost calculators and offer them to brands as a service.

📈 Create a tariff-safe marketplace
Curate and promote products sourced from low-tariff regions. Offer guaranteed duty-included prices.

📦 Automate the boring but profitable
Tools for HS code auditing, duty refunds, and smart invoice splitting will save 5-15% on margins instantly.

📍 Winners in Local Markets

U.S.-based merchants selling U.S.-made products gain from increased certainty and stable domestic logistics. However, these same brands may struggle with competitiveness abroad due to retaliatory tariffs or higher international shipping costs.
Meanwhile, Canada-, UK-, and EU-based merchants are expected to benefit from increased domestic sales. Local consumers will lean toward regionally-made products to avoid tariff-related markups, making "Made Local" a strong value prop in 2025.
See the effect of deglobalization

Side‑note from DC: Trump just smacked the big red “pause” button— most of the new tariffs are on hold for 90 days, but China still eats a fat 125 %+ bill. Until they figure it out with Trump. We don’t know how it will end up, as they are still in the negotiating process. We are watching the craziest thriller for eCom merchants we could imagine in 2025… Let’s stay tuned

Hey 👋

Over the years, Amazon’s tried to become more appealing to merchants.

This year, they’ve actually made some controversial changes for consumers - Amazon doubled down on ads, with Prime Video becoming infested with them, and Prime’s “Try Before You Buy” was removed 😬 

While it looks like Amazon is constantly taking L’s, it’s still worth asking ourselves the question - is making the switch worth it now? 🤔 

This post will make that decision easy for you. We’ll cover how Amazon’s been treating ads, how they’re mostly a cash cow for Bezos, the “Try Before You Buy” removal, why most merchants are still addicted to the platform, a case study, and why you should or not switch to Amazon 😁 

Let’s get into it 🔥

1. Amazon Prime Video Ads 👀 

Prime Video is going all-in on ads this year — and what started before with just 2-3.5 minutes of ads per hour has now become an “adpocalypse” 😬 

While these new features look pretty questionable for consumers on paper, in practice they may not feel as “in your face” as they seem. For merchants, this means tons more competition, as every brand fights to pop up during someone’s all-night binge. 😬

I mean, you could probably imagine the faces of people when they see this message:

These are the features confirmed to be coming in 2025, promised to advertisers:

1️⃣ Shoppable Carousel Ads — anyone can scroll through products in the middle of watching their favourite show

2️⃣ Pause — ads that pop up when you hit pause

3️⃣ Brand Trivia — fun facts about brands during your binge

Prime Video’s CPMs will be in the low-to-mid $30 range, a price way lower than competitor streaming platforms (like Netflix and Disney+).

These new forms of ads on Prime Video will bring a lot of clutter — that means shorter attention spans and your ad budget might just get a lot pricier as bids inflate…

But if Amazon pulls this off without backlash, it’ll be a double-edged sword for us merchants. Yes, it’s another expensive ad platform to budget for — and it’s also a massive opportunity to hook potential lifelong customers 😄 

Stay tuned for more exciting updates from Ecommerce & Unicorns! Subscribe now:

2. Amazon Ads Are Bezos’ Cash Cow 🐄 

A 7-figure seller on Reddit wrote a pretty productive rant-analysis on why Amazon will have record cash flow & stock price, and he actually dropped a few truth-bombs.

The original poster spoke about how Amazon’s new FBA fees are like a robbery — they’re forcing merchants to use their “voluntary” logistics program, which costs 25-50 per box just to ship inventory to their warehouses.

And if you dare to keep low inventory, it’ll be $0.89/unit extra as a penalty fee for not keeping sufficient stock, especially for high-demand items 😬 

But merchants are literally hooked on Amazon, for this there are 2 main reasons:

1️⃣ Logistics Blackmail

“Buy with Prime” is too good to give up. Amazon’s shipping speeds and Prime trust just crush “DIY” fulfillment, and even with the fees, losing Prime badges means losing like 70% of sales.

2️⃣ Ads are Like Crack

The original poster mentions that Amazon’s ad system is rigged, with suggested bids being 2x higher than what actually works. He was burning $500/day on ads just to stay visible, but if he stopped — his listings would just vanish 😅 

The irony is that Amazon forces sellers into their logistics ecosystem, which cuts out UPS & FedEx, meaning they control every shipment. They then inflate ad bids, which turns merchants into cash cows, and that funds Prime Video’s NFL deals.

Finally, they penalize low inventory, which forces overstocking, and because they have a literal monopoly on merchants, Amazon can just increase storage fees — cause they know merchants won’t just give up and move away from Amazon so easily 😭

Let’s now move on to a very controversial move Amazon did last month.. 😬 

P.S. — Want to use Reddit to grow your brand? Check out our Merchant’s Guide to Reddit in case you missed it 👀

3. “Try Before You Buy” is Gone 💀 

As of 31st of January this year, Amazon axed Prime’s “Try Before You Buy” feature — which was something many brands leaned on for conversions.

Amazon’s spokesperson Maxine Tagay said that the company discontinued this service because it only worked for a “limited number of items”, and that customers have been using AI-powered features, like virtual try-ons and personalized size recommendations, to decide on what to buy.

CNBC also pointed out that the removal of “Try Before You Buy” also comes after years of cost-cutting at the company, and all of this honestly makes sense. However, this is a slight red flag, showing potential and existing sellers on Amazon that they are not afraid to remove services if they are not deemed to be profitable 😬 

On the flipside though, many customers on Reddit mentioned that TBYB was a great service for shoes, so good to the point that many were abusing it — hence the 30% return rate for “Try Before You Buy” products compared to the 15% on regular items.

We as merchants need to know that Amazon is a big corporation, and we have no control over what they decide to keep or axe, with TBYB being a Prime example (get it?) 😂 

Let’s cover a cool case study of a brand integrating with Amazon (and succeeding) 👀

P.S. — Check out our January eCom Recap in case you missed it, we covered everything from Trump’s Tariffs & Memecoin to Zuckerberg putting an end to fact-checking 👀

4. Amazon Case Study - Shokz 🎧️ 

Shokz, a premium headphone brand faced a pretty common problem in the DTC space — scale or control? They went deep into Amazon’s ecosystem, and there are a few lessons we can learn from their case 🤓 

In 2024, Shokz activated Buy With Prime on their US DTC site while keeping their store on Amazon up and running — basically a hybrid strategy. The main goals were to leverage Prime’s massive market for customer acquisition, delivery speeds and logistics, pretty much everything Prime was good for.

In result, Shokz got 60% faster delivery, 9.3% increase in new-to-brand customers (82% of Buy with Prime orders were from first-time site visitors), and a 51.7% surge in Buy with Prime orders during Prime Big Deal Days 😮 

Along with the above, they also used Amazon’s Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) to manage DTC and Amazon orders from one big pool, making logistics super simple, and they displayed their Amazon reviews on their main DTC site, which also boosted CR% massively.

As for the pitfalls — Prime members checkout through Amazon accounts, so Shokz lost customer data from all those sales, margins took a hit because of the Buy With Prime transaction fees (15-25%), they became dependent on events like Prime Big Deal Days & Prime Day for revenue spikes, and finally — some shoppers now preferred buying via Amazon, rather than through their main DTC site..

So, was that all worth it for Shokz? 🤔 

It absolutely was — their premium pricing (products start at $129) offset Amazon’s fees, Shokz used Amazon as a top-of-funnel tool, redirecting buyers to their D2C site post-purchase with discounts, and with that they avoided over-dependence on Amazon.

This hybrid strategy works for you if your brand is in a similar situation — if you have a margin buffer and plan to own customer relationships somewhere else.

Now, let’s lay it all out simply - should your brand switch to Amazon? 🔥

5. Should You Switch To Amazon? 🤔 

Amazon really isn’t a “yes” or “no” decision — it’s more like a “how much?”

Here are the questions you need to ask yourself from the perspective of your brand before you consider working with Amazon:

1️⃣ Can Your Margins Survive The Fees?

If your product sells for $50 for example, and Amazon takes a referral fee of 15% (pretty common for many categories), that’s $7.50. If you use FBA, additional fees might add $5-10, depending on size & weight.

Advertising could add another $5-10, and in total the fees could range from 25%-40% depending on all of those variables — this isn’t including new advertising channels on Amazon, like the upcoming Prime Video ads.

To net even 15-20% profit after all costs, you need to make sure your product pricing accounts for those fees.

2️⃣ Are You Ready To Lose (Some) Control Over Customer Relationships?

Amazon owns customer data, so building a direct relationship with your shoppers may be harder. Shokz worked around this by redirecting Amazon buyers to their D2C site, and you can do the same and even more — like using packaging inserts, QR codes, post-purchase emails, the list goes on & on.

3️⃣ Is Your Product Prime-Proof?

Prime shoppers want speed, convenience, and value — these are everyday essentials, impulse buys, and items where reviews matter a lot (like tech & makeup, for example). More expensive products may work worse in Amazon’s “buy now, think later” environment (but Shokz did it, so it isn’t impossible).

4️⃣ Do You Have An Exit Plan (or need one)?

Relying heavily on Amazon means you lose agency as a brand. If their policy changes, you’re pretty much screwed (this also applies to features like TBYB, which we covered earlier) — that’s why diversifying sales channels and using Amazon more for customer acquisition can mitigate this risk.

When it actually comes down to what you stand to gain, ask yourself these questions:

1️⃣ Want Access To A Huge Customer Base?

Offering your products up on Amazon can potentially invite hundreds of thousands of shoppers to your brand and it’s products — you’ll also “hijack” Amazon’s trust, making potential new customers already have a base level of reliability when purchasing your goods.

2️⃣ Do you Want Efficient & Fool-Proof Logistics?

Using FBA can make your logistics stress-free, with fast & reliable shipping coming by default — which is also crucial for overall customer satisfaction.

3️⃣ Want Better Sales Performance With No Effort?

Selling on Amazon gives you access you Prime members, which on average spend twice as much more than non-Prime shoppers. This increases CR% and sales volume by a lot, and also the convenience of being able to buy your products in just one click encourages impulse buying, too.

All in all, if your brand can maintain healthy margins, and you already have a good plan on managing customer relationships & a solid way to funnel Amazon shoppers to your DTC site — working with Amazon can be very worthwhile 😁 

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Need help with your ecommerce project? Wanna learn more about Shopify in our weekly blog? Just hanging around?

Thanks for reading and supporting E&U (Ecommerce & Unicorns)

Daniil from ECORN

Hey 👋

In today’s post, we’ll cover a very controversial product that was sold earlier last week on Shopify

And you’ve probably already got an idea what this is about — we’re talking about Kanye West’s "white t-shirt”, the advertising for which he bought out a Super Bowl ad.. 🤔 

We’ll also cover the history of Yeezy, Adidas, Ye’s $20 clothing line, and what we can learn from Kanye’s stunts, plus the diminishing returns of shock value in eCom.

Let’s get into it 🔥

1. Kanye VS Adidas 📉 

We need a bit of context before we get to the drama — here’s a quick recap of the history between rapper and eCom & retail giant. Yeezy was initially a collab between the two, where Adidas owned the rights to produce & distribute, and Ye had creative control while receiving royalties.

After Adidas cut ties with Kanye in 2022 over anti-Semitic remarks, Yeezy’s revenue dropped hard, as shown by the numbers:

As for 2024, the last Adidas Yeezy drop in March generated only about $160M because of the decision to sell all remaining stock at a lower price — and the official Adidas yearly revenue recap didn’t even mention Yeezy sales at all, they’ve excluded those numbers to only show the profits.

But on the flipside, Kanye retained rights to the Yeezy brand. With his full ownership over it, he did something pretty genius — he continued to manufacture Yeezy clothing & footwear, but priced everything at just $20 for each and every item 👀

Stay tuned for more exciting updates from Ecommerce & Unicorns! Subscribe now:

2. Kanye’s $20 Collection 💰️ 

After the drop of his album Vultures in February 2024 — he got over 200K orders on merch (in collaboration with Gosha). They made $19.3M in just a single day, along with Ye’s album being #1 in 100 countries, here’s what some of the merch looked like:

Let’s talk a bit about Kanye’s last merch drop, (December ‘24), which featured even more items, all at the same $20 price tag:

Kanye’s affordable merch collection was loved by fans, and his reputation got better from going against the extremely high average retail pricing. Even if shipping increased total costs, his clothing line was much cheaper than most brands.

But he then decided to throw everything away in just one weekend — let’s talk about the the rampage he went on X, and the Super Bowl ad he did for a very controversial t-shirt.. 😬 

P.S. — Want to use Reddit to grow your brand? Check out our Merchant’s Guide to Reddit in case you missed it 👀

3. Ye’s Rampage On X/Twitter 🗣️ 

In spite of everything he built, last weekend Kanye wrote tens of tweets, spewing hatred and anti-semitic remarks.

He then logged out of X and “thanked” Elon for giving him a platform to vent on, and, reportedly, his sales and streams doubled after this — he even shared the numbers on some of his top-selling products since his crashout:

These honestly are very good numbers — but they came at the cost of losing thousands, if not tens of thousands of fans and making his PR even worse than it was already..

He recently came back to X and deleted all of his tweets he wrote during that rampage — but luckily there’s a whole archive if you’re curious on what he said 👀 

This was an effective marketing ploy, but we haven’t even got to the craziest part of this whole stunt yet — the Super Bowl ad..

4. Super Bowl Ad That Broke The Internet 🚫

Kanye West dropped millions on a Super Bowl ad for Yeezy, claiming he spent all his money on his new teeth, so he had to shoot it on an iPhone — no product details, just him at the dentists telling his audience to visit his site, Yeezy.com.

This led fans to his website, which had a single product product listed — a white T-shirt with a swastika, being sold for $20.

Well, Kanye broke the internet yet again. But this time he lost all of the goodwill he’s built in the past years through selling affordable clothing, and also didn’t make as much profit off his last drop as he could have because of his actions 😬 

Supposedly, lots of fans bought this T-shirt, but it’s still unclear whether orders were fulfilled, since his entire store was based on Shopify…

And we all know as merchants that this is clearly against TOS of Shopify — and the platform soon shut down his site altogether.

Selling a clothing item this vulgar has consequences beyond just his public image and short-term profits — he could be banned from selling merch on Shopify & other eCom platforms altogether.

But for us brand owners, there’s actually a pretty big lesson we could learn from Kanye’s crazy marketing strategy (if we can even call it that 😂)

P.S. — Check out our January eCom Recap in case you missed it, we covered everything from Trump’s Tariffs & Memecoin to Zuckerberg putting an end to fact-checking 👀

5. What Can We Learn From This? 🤔 

First off, Kanye’s strategy is as genius as it is extreme. He’s one of the only creators who can make a living off selling through DTC, completely bypassing any labels or distributors.

Thanks to this & his massive audience, he can literally make millions of dollars per merch drop, and this is all taking into account that each item is no more than $20. But obviously his stunts & marketing are on the absolute extreme side of using controversy to sell products.

Kanye selling that T-shirt showed that his DTC site is not a place to perform like he does on social media & in his other work. In the end his store was taken down and many orders were cancelled or refunded 😬 

And, while it’s obvious we need to stay within moral & ethical boundaries, that doesn’t mean we can’t make use of shock value as a brand to grab attention & stand out, just like Kanye, but to a much lesser extent.

Here are some things you should think about as a merchant:

1️⃣ Know Your Audience

Shock value works when it touches your target market — so push boundaries in ways that align with your brand’s identity, but don’t alienate your customers for short-term gains (like how Kanye did)

A good example of this is Diesel — they used provocative ads to challenge the norms of society, but stayed true to its edgy identity and didn’t push their fans away:

2️⃣ Create Controversy (Without Backlash)

Using bold visuals, unexpected and maybe even goofy collaborations can spark conversation and create long-lasting talking points with anyone who knows (or doesn’t even know) your products.

A great example of a brand that does this is Liquid Death — they have had very weird but fitting collaborations, and their products literally advertise “murdering your thirst”:

But as with anything to do with marketing, there are diminishing returns.

Creating ads with the shock value & controversy angles can be great if done well, but if repeated constantly, it alienates your mainstream consumers and hurts your brand long-term.

This is why it’s best to think about using shock-value in marketing when your brand’s sales decline, or it’s a dry time of the year for your brand overall— using controversy as a wildcard for when it’s only needed is something worth thinking about.

That’s that! We covered sales numbers, the insane marketing stunts of Kanye (which we cannot recommend replicating one for one), and what we can learn from this as merchants to grow our own brands🔥

Is Ecommerce & Unicorns helpful? Share it with friends and don’t forget to subscribe!

Need help with your ecommerce project? Wanna learn more about Shopify in our weekly blog? Just hanging around?

Thanks for reading and supporting E&U (Ecommerce & Unicorns)

Daniil from ECORN

Hey 👋

January’s been a wild ride for eCom — and we’re going to give you a recap of the biggest news, including:

Trump’s Tariffs on Canada, Mexico & China 📦️ 

TikTok’s Ban Situation Got Worse 🚫

Amazon’s New Ad Retail Service 🗣️ 

Meta’s Stop to Fact-Checking 🤓 

Trump’s Meme Coin Fail? 🟡

Walmart’s New Digital Avatars 🤵 

eCom Platforms Will Be Liable for Unsafe Goods ⚠️

EU’s New AI Act Can Ban “Risky” AI Systems 🤖 

Expected IPOs in 2025 🤔 

…plus some more hot news & a special deep dive on scaling brands from Nik Sharma 😁

Let’s get into it 🔥

1. Trump’s Tariffs Since Election 😢 

Since Trump’s re-election, he’s been on a roll with imposing tariffs or threatening to impose them. As of now, imported goods from Canada & Mexico have a 25% additional tariff, and goods from China are at a 10% tariff.

The worst part is, the De minimis loophole used by everyone (think big names like AliExpress, Temu, Shein) who imports goods from China, isn’t a thing anymore.

All goods from China now face the same duty fees, regardless of whether they are under $800 or not — and this hurts eCommerce really, really bad.

Here’s a visual showing the estimated impact of the China tariff alone:

If you want to learn more about Trump’s tariffs and how you can work with & around them, check out our post on Trump “Killing” eCommerce, we covered everything in detail.

Stay tuned for more exciting updates from Ecommerce & Unicorns! Subscribe now:

2. What’s Up With TikTok Now? 😬 

Keeping it short & sweet — TikTok’s been under fire for a while ever since Biden “forced” their parent company to sell their shares. Since then, many billionaires voiced their wishes to buy the app, but so far, nobody really came through with that.

Trump has recently placed a 75-day ban extension, and now the app’s been banned from the Google Play & App Stores, so nobody within the U.S can actually download and use it the legal way.

And while Trump did state he doesn’t mind Elon buying TikTok if he wanted to, Elon recently said he has no plans to do so, and doesn’t even know what he’d do if he had ownership of the app — that’s one billionaire down, how many will rethink their bids following this?

Of course, TikTok’s one of the best marketing channels there is right now, especially for eCom. Overall this isn’t good news, but we covered every way you can actually benefit from this ban in our recent post — the TikTok & Trump Situation.

3. Amazon’s New Ad Retail Service 📦️ 

Amazon just dropped a new program called Amazon Ad Retail Service that lets multi-brand retailers use its ad tech right on their own sites.

If that sounds a little confusing — it means you can manage and sell ads through Amazon’s platform, without ever leaving your own site.

Retailers can determine ad formats to fit the size of their own templates, show what ads are shown where and the frequency of them showing, as well as customize where the ads lead the shopper — not to mention ads can also show availability and price.

While this is a demo as of now (and you can request one here, or check out their resources), it’s confirmed that retailers pay fees based on usage levels, but they haven’t disclosed pricing just yet.

Isn’t it exciting to see Amazon making ads so much easier to manage for retail? 😁

P.S. — Want to use Reddit to grow your brand? Check out our Merchant’s Guide to Reddit in case you missed it 👀

4. Meta’s Put an End To Fact-Checking 🤓 

Instagram, Facebook and Threads are now no longer using 3rd-party fact-checkers, and instead opted in for a more “X” approach with user community notes.

Along with this, Zuckerberg has also weakened the content moderation on Meta platforms — many say this is a move to increase user engagement, since studies have shown that misinformation spreads up to 20x faster than factual content.

And that directly means 20 times more engagement, which also means, by proxy, twenty times the ad revenue — even if the content may be harmful thanks (or, rather, no thanks?) to this lax moderation.

Meta’s moving to a more profit-centered engagement model at the expense of truth? Wasn’t on my 2025 bingo card, that’s for sure.. 🤔 

5. Trump’s Meme Coin 🟡 

With Trump in office, he’s fully embraced crypto — even to the extent of launching his own Meme Coin $TRUMP. It was created on the 17th of January, and rose from $10 to a peak of $74.59, and as of 2/12/25, it’s hovering around $15.29.

Of course, a coin plummeting from $75 down to $16 or less doesn’t mean everyone profited — over $2 billion was wiped out across 813K crypto wallets. At least Trump’s affiliates made $100M in trading fees..

The launch of $TRUMP also led to the mass creation of copycat tokens, most of which in one way or another use names of Trump’s family with the goal of misleading investors. Even with this overall negative publicity around the coin, the Trump administration is going to continue promoting digital assets.

They’ve recently launched a “token reserve”, made to support mainstream crypto like BTC & ETH, with the goal of lowering volatility and making these tokens more appealing to invest in not just for the ultra-wealthy, but to Americans in general — an interesting move to make right after your own coin crashes, Donald 🤦‍♂️ 

Also, congrats to whoever shorted $TRUMP, you must be eating good 😂 

6. Walmart Now Has Digital Avatars 🙍 

Walmart expanded into the metaverse by partnering with Zepeto, a pretty popular with Gen-Z digital avatar platform.

This collab lets users purchase real-world clothing from Walmart’s “No Boundaries” line straight from the Zepeto app.

When shoppers buy these physical clothing items, they’ll also get a free virtual version for their avatars.

This is pretty similar to the Shopify X Roblox collab we saw last year — and I’m more than sure this won’t be the last one we see, since merging online and offline shopping with a good enough incentive definitely brings in more revenue.

It does seem a little silly though, doesn’t it? Maybe I’m too old to understand these Gen-Z shoppers 😂

P.S. — Do you know what the biggest eCom & DTC events in Q1 are? Check out our Q1 ‘25 eCom Calendar to see which are worth attending 🔥

7. Marketplaces Will Be Liable for Unsafe Goods ⚠️  

The EU is planning to make marketplaces like Temu, Shein and Amazon responsible for the safety and legality of the products they sell.

Right now, individual buyers are considered the importers of goods entering the EU, but under this change, these platforms will have to provide customs data before any goods actually enter the EU.

That means collecting duties, VAT, and check if they meet EU standards. This entire plan also includes creating a central EU Customs Authority to screen every shipment for risks before they enter the EU — this whole idea came from the big increase in imports from eCom companies, with 4.6 billion low-value goods arriving just last year (2x the amount from 2023).

91% of these goods are both from China, and not checked by customs authorities, so, overall, the aim of the EUCA is to make it easier to collaborate with eCom platforms and avoid bad product — seems like a win-win? 🤔 

8. EU’s Act To Ban “Risky” AI Systems 🤖 

As of Sunday, the EU can ban any AI system they feel can pose “unacceptable risk or harm”. Funny enough, this has nothing to do with DeepSeek or the “security threat” that it is in the West.

Instead, it’s a more general act to protect people from misinformation. As for the details, systems like AI email filters won’t face any regulatory oversight, whereas AI healthcare recommendations will be heavily monitored and regulated, and things like AI that build social scoring systems will be banned outright.

Any AI-related system that can manipulate someone’s decisions, exploit any vulnerability (think age, disability, status), profile people based on appearance, collect real-time biometric data in public places will be deemed as an “unacceptable risk” — you can have a look at the full list of prohibited AI here.

Also, companies found to be using any of the above AI systems in the EU will have to pay up a pretty fine of €35M, or 7% of their annual revenue — so it’s worth thinking twice before onboarding an AI system that does something shady 😅 

9. Expected IPOs This Year 💹 

Recently, TechCrunch wrote a list of tech-related IPOs that are in the works this year. The biggest ones they named are:

1️⃣ eToro — a well-known trading platform filed this January for a $5B valuation

2️⃣ Klarna — BNPL fintech we’ve all heard of, filed back in Nov 2024, planning to go public in the 1st half of this year at $14.6B

3️⃣ Shein — the Chinese eCom giant filed in the UK last year at $45B

4️⃣ Chime — a digital bank, filed just 2 months ago, valued at $25B (in 2021)

5️⃣ Karman Holdings — a space & defense startup, went public last month, seeking to raise up to $100M at an insane $3B valuation

All of these are pretty big companies that were private for so long — we’ll just have to wait and see if raising all this money will help them grow or not 🤔 

Bonus News & Special Video 🎁 

Here are some more news you might find interesting:

TikTok assured advertisers that no laws are being broken by running ads on the platform

Microsoft started firing low-performance workers without paying severance or health insurance

Amazon is creating Easy Ship, a solution in the Netherlands and Poland to help sell products faster and cheaper

US-based neobank Mercury is in talks to raise $250M after reaching $500M

Shopify announces their “buy local features” in their Shop app

..and here’s a value-packed deep-dive on how to scale a brand from Nik Sharma:

🎧 ECORN Radio This Week:

The Operators Podcast spoke about Markets, Conferences, Growth & Optimism — a must-watch if you’re trying to grow as an entrepreneur..

Click here to watch now 👀

Is Ecommerce & Unicorns helpful? Share it with friends and don’t forget to subscribe!

Need help with your ecommerce project? Wanna learn more about Shopify in our weekly blog? Just hanging around?

Thanks for reading and supporting E&U (Ecommerce & Unicorns)

Daniil from ECORN

Hey 👋

It’s been rough for eCom brands ever since Trump got re-elected..

Tariffs, the “de minimis” loophole now being closed, TikTok actually getting removed from the Google Play & App Store, and the platform’s ban being extended by 75 days? 💀 

In today’s post, we’ll cover the turbulence of Trump’s tariffs & regulations, how they impact e-commerce, what’s happened to TikTok, what we think will happen next, and what you can do about all of this 🤔

Let’s get into it 🔥

1. Tariffs & De Minimis 👋 

One of the first things Trump promised to do when he would be president again is bring back tariffs — and he sure is bringing them back. As of now, Trump is implementing a 25% additional tariff on imports from Canada & Mexico, and a steep 10% on imports from China.

This means prices will rise on practically everything — cars, gas, food, steel, fuel, since Canada, Mexico & China supply these essential resources to the US. PIIE just yesterday published a chart, showing that tariffs would cost a household $1,200 a year in tax increase.

Taylor Holiday had a great take on tariffs & what comes next:

For us merchants especially though, that tariff on China is really rough. And there’s another thing Trump wants to do, and it’s a lot worse than just a 10% tariff.

You probably didn’t even need to guess it. De minimis — the loophole used by every merchant and reseller who deals with goods from China, especially giants like Temu, Shein, AliExpress and the sorts.

This was a rule that allowed small packages under $800 to be exempt from tariffs. Just for reference — In the first 9 months of 2024 alone, $48 billion worth of goods entered the U.S. under this exemption.

It seems Trump found it unfair that Chinese manufacturers were raking in this much compared to the American folk, he wants to “level the playing field”, and so he is eliminating this exemption.

For merchants, this means if you previously worked with China to avoid customs fees, you have to look for alternative suppliers — which is easier said than done, because nobody beats China in terms of low production costs. Also, prices for smaller packages will on average be higher for customers than before

Props to Trump for trying to make things fair, but this just hurts merchants and customers more than does us good, don’t you think? 😢 

But tariffs aren’t the only thing Trump’s targeting China with.. let’s move on to the TikTok drama.

P.S. — Want to use Reddit to grow your brand? Check out our Merchant’s Guide to Reddit in case you missed it 👀

2. The Current TikTok Drama 🙃 

Let’s go over the history of TikTok’s ban to understand this mess a bit better:

In April 2024, Biden signed a bill forcing ByteDance, to sell their stakes — and if they don’t, it’ll be banned in the US. Then, TikTok said they’re not selling, with a deadline for the ban being January 19th.

And just after that, the billionaires began to speak. Frank McCourt was one of the first looking to outright buy TikTok for $20 billion USD. Since that statement, Trump has been officially re-elected — and with that, he gave TikTok’s ban a 75-day extension.

As of now, neither the Google Play Store, nor the App Store have TikTok available for download because of U.S legal regulations, but those who still have it can still use it.

Well, this 75-day period put everyone on edge. Brand owners, merchants, billionaires, people who make their livelihoods thanks to the app, and the people that just use it everyday.

Luckily, we live in a time where there are people fighting with eachother to buy TikTok right now. This includes Elon Musk, MrBeast, Larry Ellison (CEO of Oracle), Frank McCourt, Perplexity AI, Steven Mnuchin and more.

Trump stated he’s open to Musk buying TikTok if he wants to do so, giving a green flag probably not just to him, but also to anyone with the power to buy it outright.

But, as it stands right now, we can’t do much else other than sit and wait for someone wealthy enough to purchase TikTok entirely, or for the platform to get banned or restricted in one way, or another.

Let’s now cover the most probable things that can happen to TikTok — not all of them are bad, in fact! 😁 

Stay tuned for more exciting updates from Ecommerce & Unicorns! Subscribe now:

3. The Future of TikTok 📦️ 

So what’s in it for TikTok? Seeing the image below when you try to see your TikTok Shop revenue in March isn’t the only outcome, luckily..

There are four things that can happen to it:

1️⃣ Potential Buyout — with the tens of billionaires grouping together and even fighting each other for a chance to buy TikTok, we could expect one of them to own it eventually.

If a buyout happens, however, it could stabilize the platform, or introduce new challenges for us, merchants, and everyone else, who knows what these billionaires have in mind..

2️⃣ Regulatory Changes — if TikTok does survive, it’ll face some regulations. Stricter age regulation to use the app, being forced to store data locally in the U.S, maybe they’ll even have to share how their “addictive” algorithm works?

We can’t rule out GDPR or new U.S laws limiting TikTok’s ability to monetize user data for targeted ads, either. Of course, we won’t know how TikTok will change until it does.

3️⃣ Alternatives? — with all of these events, many TikTok alternatives are releasing, and existing options are stepping up their game.

Bluesky being one of the bigger ones, Elon’s X creating a video feed to outright replace TikTok in the event of a ban, YouTube Shorts already being widely successful might see more traction and budget from brands, same goes for Reels.

4️⃣ TikTok Gets Banned — if the platform does get a nation-wide ban, traffic and eyes will move to another, or multiple different, mediums. Be it any of the alternatives we went over, people won’t just flat out stop consuming content.

Even though the future’s uncertain, we should be happy we can diversify as brands, to never really be at a huge loss.

Okay, let’s finally cover what we can do as merchants about these completely out of our control events.. 🙏 

P.S. — Check out our Chargebacks Guide if you want to learn how to win chargeback cases and prevent them altogether. We all hate chargebacks, don’t we? 😭

4. So What Can We Do About Tariffs? 🤔 

Unfortunately, they’re here to stay for at least 4 years, throughout all of Trump’s presidency & there certainly will be more that impact us as merchants directly or indirectly.

Here’s what we can do about the tariffs imposed on us right now:

🔷 Diversify Your Supply Chain

We can’t rely on China alone anymore. Explore alternative manufacturing hubs like Vietnam, Taiwan, and India. Of course, these regions can’t compete with China’s low costs, but they can help avoid steep tariffs and reduce dependency on one source or manufacturer (but only for now they are an option — we’ll touch on that matter at the end of this post).

It can also help to find a domestic supplier, even though it may be more expensive, you’ll avoid the tariffs altogether. “Made in USA” can also be a great USP to the right customers.

How cool would it be if we saw this “Made in USA” logo on products other than jeans? 😂

🔷 Free Trade Agreements

Look into the FTAs the US has with other countries — sourcing from countries with favourable trade agreements (like those in the USMCA) can help reduce tariffs and may be a good middle ground between finding a domestic supplier or switching to a different manufacturing hub.

🔷 Competitive Pricing

With tariffs increasing the prices, you may need to absorb some of the costs to stay competitive. It’d help if you’d be transparent with your customers, making it clear that it isn’t by your brands will that the prices are rising.

One way to workaround the tariffs increasing cost of goods is just giving more value for that price, like a bonus freebie.

We also recommend you closely monitor the current and constantly changing tariffs imposed by Trump on sites like ArentFox & TrumpTradeTracker, as we’ve found these two are updated constantly.

That’s about all we can do for tariffs, but what about TikTok? How can we make our brands not rely on the platform and still thrive, regardless of whether it’ll stay or go?

Let’s cover that in more detail 🔥 

5. What If TikTok Gets Banned? 🚫 

The thing is, TikTok is currently one of the best marketing channels eCom & DTC has seen since paid ads, but with how things stand, we have to focus on TikTok-proofing our brands, so that they are safe no matter what happens to the platform.

Here are the optimal ways to do so:

🔻 Expand Your Ad Channels

Experiment with spreading marketing budget evenly across channels like X, YouTube Shorts & Shop, Instagram Reels, and of course, TikTok and TikTok Shop haven’t gone anywhere yet, so keep the bulk of your ads on it while it lasts.

🔻 Invest In Owned Channels

Think about options like starting a branded mobile app. This route can give a good boost to retention and sales, with big examples being Sephora & Macy’s.

Another huge channel lots of eCom brands are sleeping on as of late is email — a well-written campaign can make your brand lots of money, and it’s something you can fully control.

🔻 New Revenue Streams

One of these new revenue streams can be offline engagement — if you have solid presence within your market, hundreds of people can come to a pop-up event.

Even simply giving a small discount to anyone who comes to a physical store of yours can greatly increase both goodwill, and more people will recommend your brand through word of mouth.

Another big one to mention is affiliate marketing — partnering with influencers and affiliates can help you reach new audiences without relying on paid ads on platforms like TikTok & Meta.

🔻 A Pivot To Long-Term Investment

Focus on building long-term relationships with everyone you interact with — that means constantly launching campaigns with influencers and affiliates, giving back to your customers so that your brand stays at the top of their mind, and increasing your presence across as many channels as you can, for a very long time.

For a lot of us breaking even as brand owners this can be tough, but diversifying is as expensive as it is worthwhile, and now we have to focus on it more than ever.

But while we can diversify all we want in both marketing & logistics, we are dealing with a new president now..

We should also put some effort into thinking about what’s most likely to happen, and we’ve done some of that for you 🔥 

6. What To Expect From Trump 👱

TikTok & tariffs aren’t the end, there’ll be more strict regulations and changes to come for sure.

Here’s what’s likely coming next for eCom & DTC, and what you can start doing right now to mitigate any future losses your brand may suffer:

1️⃣ “Phase 2” Tariffs on Smaller Markets

China may be the big target right now, but Trump has already hinted at cracking down on “transshipment” hubs like Vietnam, India and Thailand.

This is mainly because factories in these countries more often than not use Chinese materials to dodge tariffs — you should expect surprise audits, stricter rules and new tariffs on these regions by late 2025.

As for what you can do right now:

🟢 Audit Your Suppliers — ask for full material breakdowns (not just “made in Vietnam”, for example)

🟢 Pre-negotiate tariff clauses in contracts — shift the cost burdens to suppliers if new tariffs hit

🟢 Stockpile inventory — just in case, and only if you rely on Southeast Asia

Because, at the end of the day, in Trump’s very own “wise” words:

2️⃣ Crackdowns on “Foreign Spies”

The TikTok ban may as well be just the start — we can safely assume that Trump is going for any app, platform, and even supplier that counts as a “foreign adversary”, the most logical things we can do are to:

🟢 Ditch Foreign-linked Suppliers — those who have ties to Temu, Shein, AliExpress and platforms of that nature

🟢 Ask Your Suppliers for Claims — specifically claims of “no ties to China”, if they can provide

🟢 Use Allied Tech — that means EU & US-made technology when it comes to payment processing and anything else to do with your brand

And that’s that. We covered the current state of tariffs, the drama surrounding the TikTok ban, the platform’s future, actionable advice on what we can do about tariffs and TikTok, and, finally, what we think Trump might do next.

This’ll be quite the year for eCom & DTC, merchants. Stay strong 🤝

Is Ecommerce & Unicorns helpful? Share it with friends and don’t forget to subscribe!

Need help with your ecommerce project? Wanna learn more about Shopify in our weekly blog? Just hanging around?

Thanks for reading and supporting E&U (Ecommerce & Unicorns)

Daniil from ECORN

Hey there 👋

Aside from everything controversial, like TikTok staying & Trump, we merchants have a lot to look forward to this quarter.

There are still about a dozen eCom events in just 3 months, where you can pick the brains of other successful merchants and share your own knowledge.

And there are also just as many holidays to prep your store & marketing for, and we’ll share tips for those too.

In today’s post, we’ll cover all of Q1 2025 so you won’t miss a date 👀

Let’s get into it 🔥

Psst… You ever just find a Shopify store and it just looks so good you want to copy it, but you can’t find the theme? We’ve got you covered with our Shopify Theme Detector, completely free to use.

1. Retail Events & Another New Years? 🎇 

If you’ve been able to go to NRF 2025: Retail’s Big Show in NY last week, I’m very jealous of you. But, lucky for us, there is a similar event popping up in just 3 days..

1️⃣ The Retail Summit, located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

This time around, many more known faces will be speaking — including Dan Finley (CEO of boohoo), Daniel Grieder (Hugo Boss founder).

If you’re in the UAE or planning to go within the next 3 days, definitely come by to learn from people with decades of experience.

While the hype & festive spirit around New Years has died down by now, there is another one.

2️⃣ Chinese New Year, starting Jan 29th

A 15-day long holiday celebrated by China, Taiwan, Singapore and other countries. This is our first holiday to come, and you best prepare your store for it like this:

🔴 Talk to Your Suppliers — if you do work with Chinese manufacturers, ask them about closure dates, lead times, and how available they’ll be in the holiday period.

🔴 Stock Up in Advance — the Lunar New Year is literally identical to how much of a rush New Years was, so treat it the same and have a lot of stock on hand.

🔴 Plan Your Marketing Now — if you haven’t done so already. Chinese New Year is completely themed, meaning you can create bundles, gifts, offers and discounts for customers without having to come up with anything too strictly original.

The Chinese New Years starts in January and ends with the Lantern Festival on Feb 12 — that’s a VERY long holiday, and you’d be making a mistake if you aren’t prepping your store.

Also, while it’s still January, CPMs are still low because the big brands blew their budget on New Years 😂 

Check out our post on How To Leverage Jan’s Low CPMs for cheaper ads 👀

2. Love is in The Air 💌 

We’ve come to February, and while there are only 3 upcoming events — they are all very important. Let’s start off with the biggest:

1️⃣ Valentine’s Day — the most romantic day of the year. Every eCom brand I see runs a campaign for couples, here’s a great example from Oura:

To make the most out of Valentine’s Day for your brand, you should:

🔴 Cater To Couples — this is the one day it’s ok to bundle things in couples, have couple-only items and gifts for the other half. Give discounts to everyone though!

🔴 Pink & Red Everywhere — be sure to set the mood by changing your website to have a lot more pink & red, as well as in your social media posts, and emails. Having a few hearts here and there also gets the job done!

🔴 Wrap Your Gifts — if your supply chain allows for it, make it so that if a customer buys something for over, let’s say, $100, their gift comes wrapped. This is a small, but very cool thing to do for a brand.

2️⃣ Ecommerce Berlin Expo, 19-20th Feb

This is Germany’s biggest eCom event (over 11K attendees confirmed) and has an extensive conference program with over 70 industry experts hosting masterclasses and sharing their knowledge.

It’s the whole expo shebang — very worth attending out if you’re in Berlin around this time!

3️⃣ eTail Australia, 25-26th Feb

Attendees can learn from & network with founders, CEOs, CMOs, as well as some leading economists of Australia, that’s about it. Unless you’re already making plans to visit Australia next month, I wouldn’t go out of my way to visit this expo.

Stay tuned for more exciting updates from Ecommerce & Unicorns! Subscribe now:

3. March is Too Much 🤯 

March has always been packed with events, and this year is no different. This’ll be a long list. Remember, you don’t need to attend any of these — only if you’re in the area and it’s convenient!

1️⃣ London eCommerce Summit, 3-4th March

A boutique-style event that will last two days, featuring the topics of strategy, marketing, customer experience and others.

2️⃣ DELIVER Asia, 5-6th Mach

Over 300 attendees, 200+ retail giants, 25+ supply chain partners, 35 speakers and 1000 1-to-1 meetings, this event stands out among the rest.

DELIVER even has a cool matchmaking system, what they call their 1-2-1, which will help you connect with supply chain leaders. Definitely try attend if you can!

3️⃣ St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th

Green and gold everywhere, pots of gold and rainbows! For us merchants it means we have more optimizing to do. Here’s what you can do for St. Patrick’s Day to increase CR%.

🔴 Offer “Lucky” Discounts — either through a pop-up or spinwheel like this:

🔴 Spice Your Site Up — of course, add gold and green everywhere, a few lucky clovers here and there and maybe a leprechaun in a thank-you post-purchase email. All of those things will go a long way!

🔴 Run a Social Media Contest — whoever dresses up as a leprechaun/pot of gold best gets a month supply of your products, or gets a repost. Anything to promote UGC!

4️⃣ eTail Berlin, 18-19th March

This one’s exciting, because speakers from big brands like HP, Guess, Leder & Schuh, POC Sports will talk about social commerce, AI, eCom, and omnichannel retail. Don’t be worried that it’s in Germany, there’ll be English speakers, as well!

5️⃣ Adobe Summit Las Vegas, 17-20th March

Another huge expo, with online and in-person options of attending, with speakers from multi-national brands like Nike & Walmart will discuss the latest trends and solutions.

6️⃣ Eid al-Fitr, 30th March

Our final event of Q1 2025 is Eid al-Fitr, the end of the fasting period of Ramadan. Muslim families usually exchange gifts and spend more during this time, and demand for gifts specifically will be higher during this time.

And that’s that for every event/holiday during Q1! Hope you enjoyed the read 🤗 

P.S. — Want to use Reddit to grow your brand? Check out our post Merchant’s Guide to Reddit in case you missed it 👀

Is Ecommerce & Unicorns helpful? Share it with friends and don’t forget to subscribe!

Need help with your ecommerce project? Wanna learn more about Shopify in our weekly blog? Just hanging around?

Thanks for reading and supporting E&U (Ecommerce & Unicorns)

Daniil from ECORN

Hey 👋

We all make mistakes and fall short 😥 

Especially in eCom, where there are way too many things that can go wrong 😬 

That’s why it’s best we learn from other’s mistakes & success.

And there’s no place better to learn than the frontpage of the internet, Reddit.

In today’s post, we’ll share a plant-based success story, an “ask me anything” from 7-figure store owner, and a "roast me” — Shopify edition 💀

Plus, we’ll teach you how to find only the most valuable info that can save you hundreds of hours with a few cool tools to instantly find what you need.

Let’s get into it 🔥

1. Why Reddit is a Goldmine for eCom 🤖 

Reddit can be extremely valuable to your store if you use it right. The best part is — it’s full of very diverse UGC. Merchants with all sorts of problems share their stories and seek out help.

It’s likely that most of the problems you’ve faced (and are currently dealing with), have already been extensively talked about and solved.

The trick is knowing which subreddits to look through, and the main 5 that are super valuable for eCom are:

1️⃣ r/Shopify — the official Shopify subreddit with 279k merchants

2️⃣ r/ecommerce — by far the biggest, with 507K eCom brand owners (not just Shopify-exclusive, but also with the likes of Amazon FBA & other DTC models)

3️⃣ r/ReviewMyShopify — 33K merchants, sharing their Shopify sites and flows looking for honest feedback

4️⃣ r/ShopifyEcommerce — with 27K brand owners, another alternative to r/Shopify

5️⃣ r/ShopifyGeeks — last, but not least, a more “hack-oriented” subreddit with tips and tricks most store owners don’t know about

While browsing them traditionally can still be useful, there’s a much better way to get the most out of Reddit to grow your brand..

Before we get to that, let’s look at a success story and a few very valuable posts we’ve found on the platform so you can get a rough idea of what to expect 😄 

Stay tuned for more exciting updates from Ecommerce & Unicorns! Subscribe now:

2. Million Dollar Plant Store ☘️   

The Sill a plant store that raised over $7.5M, and the owner shared exactly what they did in a post on r/Shopify.

In that post, he shared the four main points of The Sill’s success:

1️⃣ Ranked 1st On Google — The Sill’s site at the time ranked #1 for “plants”, and they did this with great PR, organic traffic, and quality backlinks. As the original poster said, “The Sill is a journalist’s dream”.

The whole idea of tying business & lifestyle into a single story during the age of IG & eco-friendliness helped the press & people write about it massively.

2️⃣ Low Competition — the original poster outlined that they were in the perfect spot, between your home depot and local garden centre. Neither of those could rank highly with the keywords “plants” and “plant delivery”, this was their unfair advantage.

3️⃣ The SEO Kicks In — once they had strong enough backlinks, they looked for topics that were less written about, such as “the best plants for shade”.

Can you believe that term gets 3k searches a month? They understood content like this needs to be written about informatively to get more eyes on their brand.

The poster suggests using Google Ads Search to find competitive keywords that can bring in money, for them it was terms like “plant delivery nyc”. The Sill would create separate pages for their brick-and-mortar stores with SEO focused on those keywords depending on city in the keyword.

This post closes off with the idea that retargeting ads can convert customers at a low rate, and all of the Shopify apps “The Sill” used at the end — a super clean, well-structured and value-packed post 🔥

P.S. — Want to learn more about chargebacks and how to win & prevent them? Check out our eCom Chargebacks Guide 👀

3. AMA’s & Honest Feedback 🧠 

While success stories like The Sill’s can be rare to find, you can find crazy value in just looking through r/ReviewMyShopify and searching for AMAs (ask me anything posts).

Here’s an awesome AMA where hundreds of merchants got to pick the brain of someone who turned their dropshipping store into a 7-figure brand:

This is literal gold — the poster answered hard questions like scaling winning ads without killing CR%, his product selection process, MOQs and more.

He even talked on touchy subjects most won’t talk about, like how much start-up money he had (which was around $1.8K, by the way), and admitting whether it was mostly luck or knowledge that played the big role in his store’s success.

Best part is, he’s still active to this day, and you can probably drop a comment and pick his brain a bit yourself. Posts like these are pretty plentiful, and even if you work in a certain niche, we’ll soon teach you how to find these goldmines 😉 

The next post is someone seeking honest feedback on their jewellery store, DEF:

The author wrote a very extensive post on their store, admitting that email automation isn’t yet set up, talking about what they’ve done, like visit their very own manufacturers in China.

But of course, they wanted honest feedback, and they got it. This is similar to a “roast me”, but for something you might love more than yourself — your Shopify store 😭

Lots of people highlighted that the site copy was great and had personality, while others point out the site itself is bland. Someone even pointed out that OP said they have manufacturers in China, but the site says the jewellery is hand-made in Brooklyn.

And there were a few more valuable replies like spec sizing needs more info, and measurements for whatever reason aren’t there — all in all the store owner got the honest feedback they looked for.

You probably see the potential and the value in Reddit for eCom, so let’s finally cut to the chase and show you how to research properly 🔥

P.S. — Check out our 2024 Ecommerce Recap in case you missed it, we covered every hot topic of last year, including the TikTok Ban (or bid), the de minimis loophole crackdown and 2024’s eCom holiday statistics 👀

4. eCom-Focused Searching on Reddit 🔎 

We personally use 2 tools to find valuable info on Reddit, but you can pick and choose however you need, we’ll start off with by far the best tool — GummySearch.

Here’s a neat visual showing how to use it, and a step-by-step guide:

1️⃣ Create an Audience — after signing up, create your first audience with a few subreddits you think may be helpful. Anything Shopify-related works (apart from Apps & Dev, unless you are a developer yourself).

2️⃣ Keyword Search — this is the fun part. Search for anything, like AMA, MOQs, any problems you’re having with your eCom brand.

3️⃣ Sort by Anything — you can sort by upvotes, comments, and upvotes. Can be handy if you’re looking for the best posts first, or if you want more opinions.

Yup, it’s really that easy. The free version of GummySearch is more than enough, but if you want analytics, trends, and AI reports, you could opt in for the paid version (at $59/mo 😬)

The next tool we use is Anvaka, a less popular but still very efficient site that lets you search multiple subreddits very fast.

Here’s a visual showing you how to use it:

1️⃣ Query — search for a subreddit name, you can start with Shopify like we did.

2️⃣ Connections — you’ll instantly see a web of connections, every subreddit tied to the main query you made. The ones highlighted in pink are most similar.

3️⃣ Browsing — this is pretty much a very simplified version of Reddit, letting you sort posts by hot, new, controversial (with time margins), and the top posts.

This tool, in contrast to the first one, is just a way to browse without all the clutter. We all hate getting distracted and wish to learn more, and I couldn’t find a better solution for that than Anvaka, with Gummysearch being the better of the two for finding the exact content you need!

And that’s that — we covered why Reddit’s a goldmine for eCom value, a few awesome posts highlighting success and giving tangible feedback, and the tools you need to find exactly what you want 🔥

Is Ecommerce & Unicorns helpful? Share it with friends and don’t forget to subscribe!

Need help with your ecommerce project? Wanna learn more about Shopify in our weekly blog? Just hanging around?

Thanks for reading and supporting E&U (Ecommerce & Unicorns)

Daniil from ECORN

Hey 👋

Chargebacks. We all hate them 😤 

You acquire that customer, he buys a product, you get that sweet Shopify new order notification.. and on the next day — a chargeback.

The product’s gone, the sale is gone, and now you have to win a dispute. But with the right know-how, you can reduce the amount of chargebacks you get and protect your profits.

In this post we’ll cover A-Z everything you need to know about chargebacks — why they happen, how to handle them, and most importantly, how to stop them before they start.

Let’s get into it 🔥

1. What Are Chargebacks? 💬 

Chargebacks are a customers way to reverse a transaction — just a refund request, but instead of reaching out to you directly, the customer just asks the bank for a refund instead.

Here’s how they happen:

1️⃣ Transaction & Chargeback — a customer purchases a product from your Shopify store, and once that transaction appears on their card statement and notice something off (they don’t recognize the purchase, never received the order etc).

The customer then initiates a chargeback with their bank — and card issuers are legally required to offer this option to customers within 60 days of the transaction’s billing date.

2️⃣ Chargeback Request To Merchant — after it’s received, the customers bank reaches out to the merchant’s payment processor.

This is where the disputed amount is debited from the merchant’s account, along with the processing fee, which can range anywhere from $20-$100.

3️⃣ Merchant Provides Evidence — if the merchant wants to fight the chargeback, they can submit supporting evidence. This can be proof of delivery, order confirmations, customer communication logs.

4️⃣ Card Issuer Review — the customer’s bank can take up to 75 days to review the merchant’s response and make a final decision, whether the merchant’s evidence was strong enough to overturn the chargeback.

5️⃣ The End? — the case ends with either the merchant accepting the chargeback and eating the loss; customer cancels their chargeback after resolving things with the merchant; or the bank sides with one party, closing the case.

6️⃣ If A Party Disagrees — if the merchant or customer disagrees with the bank’s decision, things move to arbitration. This is the actual last step of the chargeback process.

The card network (Visa, Mastercard, etc) steps in to settle the dispute. If the merchant wins, they get the disputed amount returned to their account. If the chargeback is upheld, merchants have to pay additional fees.

As you can see, the process is an absolute nightmare for anyone trying to run a successful Shopify store, not just stress-wise but the fact that this can drag on for months 😬 

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2. Why Chargebacks Happen 🤔 

So we know how chargebacks go down, but why would a customer even start one?

There are generally 4 reasons, and each of them uses a special code that the card company uses to indicate the reason for the reversal.

1️⃣ Fraud — these types of chargebacks are most common, and most annoying to deal with. They occur when a transaction is flagged as suspicious (mostly because the cardholder didn’t approve the purchase).

Here’s a breakdown along with the codes:

P.S — Make sure your POS systems support secure payment methods like EMV chip cards and 2FA to reduce fraud chargebacks ❗️ 

2️⃣ Quality Issues — if the product didn’t meet the customer’s expectations, arrived damaged, didn’t arrive at all, or there was a problem with a subscription, quality is case. Here’s another chart:

3️⃣ Technical & Clerical Errors — sometimes, chargebacks can happen from honest mistakes. The customer hit the wrong button or bought a product twice, for example. Technical errors are declined transactions, website errors, or missing payment information.

The top chart is for technical, lower is for clerical:

4️⃣ Friendly Fraud — one of the worst reasons why chargebacks happen. When a customer is unfaithful to your brand, they might file a chargeback even though they received the product as described, with no issues from your end at all.

Friendly fraud can happen for one of these reasons:

⚫️ The customer forgot about their purchase

⚫️ They don’t recognize the merchant on their statement

⚫️ They’re unhappy (or happy) with the product and want to keep it for free

It’s estimated that 61% of chargebacks result from friendly fraud 🤨 

Nicholas Tranchant, founder of Vivalatina, says that the biggest reason for their chargebacks has been the client’s dishonesty.

This makes sense, but there’s no way to increase the goodwill of your shoppers, this is just something that will happen no matter what.

And here’s a little nightmare story from Reddit on the matter:

This deceitful customer firstly refunded the purchased goods (multiple times, by the way), then proceeded to file a chargeback through their bank.

There’s a way to avoid this exact issue: you can capture payments manually after fulfilling an item, but, luckily, situations like these are few and far in between.

And of course there are many more chargeback horror stories, like this one where a merchant lost $15,000 (at that point its a crime, not just “friendly” fraud), but in rare cases like these it’s best you go the legal route & hire a lawyer.

Even though chargebacks of various sizes might happen every so often, there’s ways to fight any of them and win the disputes (and stop most of them from happening altogether) — let’s get into that 😄 

Check out our eCom Subscriptions Guide to learn Nik Sharma’s secrets on running successful sub models (he worked with Feastables, Cadence & Jolie 👀)

3. How To Dispute Chargebacks 💸 

There are three steps to disputing a chargeback:

1️⃣ Gather Info — identify the customer and the transaction that was charged back. Source as much info on the transaction as you can, including warehouse data, delivery status, any confirmations from your end.

It’s also worth noting that you can contact the customer directly to see if you can resolve their issue that way, though they might not always be open to communication.

2️⃣ Submit Your Response — submit your evidence in a dispute response. This document is returned to the bank/card issuer that sent you the chargeback letter (in some cases, you might need to initiate your own chargeback dispute).

Make sure you respond directly to the chargebacks reason code (we mentioned them all in the last section above).

Yup, it feels a lot like this when you’re fighting a chargeback 😂

For disputed fraud or “no authorization” chargebacks, you should provide evidence that the cardholder was indeed aware of and authorized the transaction — this means AVS matches, CVV confirmations, signed receipts, and contracts can be a massive help.

3️⃣ The Waiting Game — after you submit a rebuttal, you have to wait till the bank reviews the information. The cardholder’s bank makes the final decision, and they’ll inform both you and the customer of the decision.

P.S — If you run your business on Shopify, you get Automatic Dispute Resolution (which almost doubles your win rate from unnecessary chargebacks).

There’s also a few apps on the Shopify store that can nearly automate the process for you, the best we’ve found is Chargeflow.

We can all tell chargebacks are super unpleasant to deal with, and can hurt both your business and your relationships with shoppers, so let’s see how we can prevent them altogether 🔥

While we’re still in January — you should check out our guide on Leveraging Low CPMs while the big brands are still broke (they wont be for long 😢)

4. How To Prevent Chargebacks ✋ 

There are a few steps you can take to reduce the chance of chargebacks happening (plus a feature from Shopify themselves to prevent fraudulent chargebacks):

1️⃣ Avoid Manual Processing — human error is impossible to control, so avoiding typing in information manually can help.

Automated records of customers’ card transaction dates, amounts, authorized information, and from your end proof of shipments and deliveries should all be kept.

2️⃣ Fraud Protection Software — investing in such software will help avoid fraudulent transactions. The top picks we’ve found are NoFraud and Seon, both available on Shopify Apps (look through both carefully to find the best fit for your business).

3️⃣ Easily Recognizable — making yourself easy to recognize and reach can help a ton, especially if customers don’t recognize your business name or forget they’ve bought from you.

Be sure the name on card transactions matches your brand name, and adding a phone number to your card transactions can also help (something like “Your Brand 111-111-1111” makes it easy for customers to remember you & call you if any problems appear).

4️⃣ Store Policies — clearly describing your products & service policies is a must, this way your customers are more likely to assume liability for their own purchases.

If your return policy is well-written, you can avoid a chargeback by processing it as a return instead. Another thing you can take action on is encouraging customers to call you with questions before filing chargebacks.

You can also prevent fraudulent chargebacks with Shopify Payments, here’s how:

1️⃣ Open your Shopify Dashboard

2️⃣ Click on “Settings”, then “Payments”, into “Manage” for Shopify Payments

3️⃣ Scroll down till you see “Customer Billing Statement”

4️⃣ Add your “Company Name” + “Number Code” in the Customer Statement Descriptor. For example, “SP * Ecom Zone 8426”

Be sure to update this code occasionally, every month or so.

Once you have this set up, for any medium-high risk orders, email the customer and ask them to verify the number code on their bank statement. Like above, they’d have to provide you the code “8426”. Then place this order on hold until they actually send you that number.

Most fraudulent shoppers would only have the card details, and not full access to the cardholders’ bank account to verify this code — if they cannot provide this code to you, simply cancel the order.

Plus, if the customer provides this 4-digit code and still opens a chargeback after the order, it’ll be very likely you win your chargeback as long as you provide the bank all of the evidence, including this cool little unique code 😄 

5. How Shopify Fraud Protection Works 🔐 

Along with everything you now know on chargebacks and how to protect your store, Shopify has an in-built fraud “detector” that can identify ill will before it damages your brand.

If your store is running on Shopify, you’ll get the following Fraud Analysis features:

1️⃣ Indicators (Basic & Plus)

2️⃣ Support for 3rd party fraud apps (Basic & Plus)

3️⃣ Fraud Recommendations (Shopify Plus only)

You can access Fraud Analysis by scrolling down in your Orders page, following the visual below:

You can see the risk of fraud at the very top, along with the indicators below showing you in colours how risky certain aspects of the order are (green being good and warmer colours showing risk).

The more risky factors, the higher likelihood of the order being fraudulent. The best practices for when dealing with a high risk order are:

1️⃣ Verify The IP Address — check whether the location of the IP address is in the general area of where the shopper claims to be, as well as whether the IP address is from a proxy service (bad) or for a web hosting company (good)

2️⃣ Contact Information — in the order, you’ll see a number and an email address (if given by the customer). It’s best to call them up or email them, asking questions regarding the address, phone number, and email named on the order.

If they can’t answer correctly or struggle, it’s likely someone with ill will trying to get the best of you & your brand 😢 

You can also check whether the phone number on the order is from the same location of the IP & billing address using sites like 411.com.

Once you’ve investigated an order using Fraud Analysis, you get to choose whether you fulfil or cancel the order — but keep in mind, Shopify does not return money lost due to fraudulent charges.

And that’s that! We covered everything you need to know about chargebacks as a merchant 🔥

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Need help with your ecommerce project? Wanna learn more about Shopify in our weekly blog? Just hanging around?

Thanks for reading and supporting E&U (Ecommerce & Unicorns)

Daniil from ECORN

Hey 👋

Happy New Years To All Merchants! 🥳

We hope your holiday season went well, but now it’s January..

And every big brand burnt through their ad budget on BFCM & Christmas — that means CPM is at an all-time low 👀

That means you get to experiment with different marketing channels, as well as cost-efficient ways to get eyes on your brand — and that’s exactly what this week’s post is all about 🔥

Let’s not waste any time and get right into it!

1. Why Is January The Best Time To Test? 🤔 

Before we get to the experiments — let’s get one thing straight:

Q4 is the both the most expensive but most profitable time to run ads, but you can only spend so much before you have to tone it down.

Here’s a cool visual from Confect, showing the dips in CPM:

The cool thing is, even though customers shop a lot during the holiday season, performance in January doesn’t drop — mostly because of leftover stock.

During January, there’s less competition, ads are much cheaper to run, and shoppers have the same desire to buy from you, while they still have that “Christmas Spirit”!

But past 3rd of January, normal ads start to take over in performance compared to holiday-themed ads, as you can see from the dip in the 2nd half of the visual.

And while CPMs are low, it’s the best time ever to experiment with your approach — let’s finally dive into a few ways you can run ads efficiently this month 😄 

Stay tuned for more exciting updates from Ecommerce & Unicorns! Subscribe now:

2. New Tactics Going Into 2025 🌟 

These strategies are very worth playing around with (especially since big brands will use them soon enough):

1️⃣ Giveaways — a great way to generate organic impressions for your brand, look at Ridge, for example. Last year they gave away 2 trucks, and one winner chose $100K over the truck. Sweepstakes, even if done yearly, can attract lots of people to your brand

2️⃣ Video DPAs — dynamic product ads display products to users based on their abandoned cart, browsing history and previous interactions. One service that does this well is Marpipe, and, the cool thing is, the better you are at designing them or using video, the more rewarded you are with the performance

3️⃣ Incrementality Testing — measure advertising impact across channels (like Meta, Google, TV, podcasts), and sales platforms (DTC Sites, Walmart, Amazon, Target).

Define your top KPIs to test, and then a control group (the segment of your audience that isn’t exposed to the marketing campaign), and the test group (which is exposed).

Then you can measure the lift and see whether that campaign was a success or not, an example visual from Matomo:

Other than these, there are still more high-engagement strategies & even more channels through which you can market your brand 👀 

P.S. — In case you missed it, we posted a 2024 eCom Wrap-Up, covering all the biggest events that happened last year 🔥

3. High-Engagement Content Strategies 💬 

These in particular can be goldmines for your brand (if you aren’t already doing them):

1️⃣ Live Shopping (on TikTok) — Canvas Beauty Brand made $2M in sales during a single live event on Black Friday, and Nicki Minaj’s live shopping event got over 172M views and 115M likes. Live shopping is something you may regret not jumping in on sooner

2️⃣ Collaborations & Drops — just partnering with a brand that has similar values & products with yours can merge audiences & adds a huge layer of trust to both sides. If you know such a brand (even if they are smaller!), don’t be afraid to reach out.

A cool (but very silly 😂) example of a collab is Liquid Death x e.l.f. Cosmetics — their partnership completely blew up back in March:

3️⃣ High-Volume Social Content — again, TikTok is a goldmine for brands that post hundreds of creator videos a day. It’s the only platform that has it’s own Shop, a Live Shopping feature, and an algorithm thanks to which you can blow up off 1 great video

If you want to learn how to collaborate with creators & make sales from TikTok, check out our full eCom TikTok Shop Guide 🔥

4. View-Through Channels Are Worth It? 👀 

Aside from the hype around TikTok & social media marketing, there are still tried-and-true marketing channels that are worth playing around with, especially now in January:

1️⃣ TV — you can use existing assets to create an awesome TV commercial, and the cool part is, if you find a winning creative, you can run it for weeks or even months.

A great example is Jack Black’s Amazon TV ad that ran during Thursday Night Football:

2️⃣ Advertorials — another great way to drive awareness to your brand. Running them with publishers can be overpriced, so looking into agencies like Character & Silver can be worthwhile. On Meta, sponsored editorial content is accounting for 22% of ad spend now

3️⃣ Mobile Ad Networks — a ton of brands are using AppLovin, and if you’re a brand with a decent scale on Meta, it actually is worth testing. This just means your brand & products may appear as in-app ads, which you’ve seen on random mobile games and apps (AppLovin owns 350+ apps that you can advertise through)

5. Now’s Time To Take AI Seriously 🤖 

It’s worth looking into where you can leverage AI more, especially now that you have a month or so to test without breaking the bank.

Here’s what you should look to test AI with:

1️⃣ Pop-Ups — tools like Black Crow and Alia work well together, cause Black Crow uses AI to understand when it’s the best time to show the user a pop-up on your site, and Alia creates highly converting pop-ups that don’t scare the visitor away.

2️⃣ AI in Email & SMS — services like Warmer can write personalized emails in seconds based on customer data, and Exposebox does the same but with SMS, too. It’s worth doing your own research to find tools that actually match your needs 1:1, however.

3️⃣ Within Site Optimization — look for tools that can be trained on your site, and tell you exactly what to update to increase CR% based on conversion data and traffic, we’ve found Alli and Pathmonk, they may be worth checking out.

Also, Perplexity AI recently broke into the eCom bubble with a shopping tool, check out our post on The AI Search Era & how to prep your brand for it 😉 

That’s that! With January being the most efficient month to test new marketing strategies, we’ve listed as many as we could 🔥

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Need help with your ecommerce project? Wanna learn more about Shopify in our weekly blog? Just hanging around?

Thanks for reading and supporting E&U (Ecommerce & Unicorns)

Daniil from ECORN

Hey there 👋

Hope you’ve had a wonderful Christmas & your holiday cheer is still going strong! ❄️

With the new year coming up, it’s time for us to look back on 2024 — it’s was awesome for DTC & eCom, and we’re here to give you only the most important news..  

The biggest trends, shifts in consumer behaviour, and all the stats that skyrocketed!

We wish you a Happy New Year, and without further ado, let’s get into our yearly wrap-up 🔥

1. The TikTok Ban (or bid?) 🚫

In April, Biden signed a bill forcing TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell their stakes — and if they don’t, it’ll be banned nation-wide in the US..

And then TikTok made it clear that they’re not selling, even though the app may be banned as soon as January 19th, in less than a month.

Next, the Canadian government decided to ban TikTok locally because of security concerns — which was mostly a joke since only the offices were shut down, while the app was still completely operational in Canada.

In a desperate attempt to save the platform — former owner of the LA Dodgers, billionaire Frank McCourt is looking to outright buy TikTok for $20 billion USD. He’s already spoken with over 60 elected officials, and even Donald Trump’s transition team to make his case for this deal.

At least there’s a mogul trying to save the app, and let’s be honest here — if TikTok goes down even just in the US, the global impact will be severe for thousands of eCom businesses and not only 😬 

Following Donald Trump’s presidency and Frank’s bid, we’ll just have to wait and see whether TikTok survives or falls..

2. Amazon’s Budget Marketplace — Haul 📦️ 

Amazon’s competing with Temu, Shein, and AliExpress with it’s new DTC marketplace, dubbed "Haul”

Haul features ultra-low prices, with items like sneakers for $9.98 and phone cases for $2.99. Orders over $25 get free shipping, and the larger your cart, the bigger your discount. This marketplace operates separately from Amazon itself, with it’s own standalone mobile-only section to avoid losing profit from their main app.

Also, just like Temu, Haul uses the de minimis provision, exempting items <$800 from duties, allowing cost savings, but with slower delivery (we’ll touch on de minimis a tad later in this post).

On paper, Haul looks like a great answer to Temu & Shein, but shoppers actually dislike it for the cheap, low-quality items that take 2 weeks to deliver.

We’ll need more raw data to really judge the performance of the marketplace, but as of now, it’s lackluster 🤷‍♂️ 

Stay tuned for more exciting updates from Ecommerce & Unicorns! Subscribe now:

3. Temu Opens To US & EU Sellers 💵 

Yup, this is the reason why Amazon’s Haul became a thing — Temu allowed all US & EU sellers to join its marketplace, without any invite codes required.

Sellers can ship from US & EU warehouses for fast delivery (as quick as one business day), and these are pretty cool conditions, enough to attract Amazon merchants to mix their presence up a bit.

The process for signing up takes only 10 minutes, with Temu taking about 1 business day to either approve or reject your account.

Aside from all the Temu memes, it’s presence is huge, with over 167 million monthly visits and an estimated annual revenue of $54 billion in 2024 😮 

P.S — We covered the top updates from Shopify Editions Winter ‘25, so that you can crush this holiday season & go strong into 2025 🔥 

4. De Minimis Loophole Crackdown 😅 

Things are getting trickier for Haul, Temu, Shein and other marketplaces “abusing” the whole de minimis trade loophole, allowing packages under $800 to enter the US tariff-free.

The Biden administration is proposing a new rule that would prevent products subject to US-China tariffs from benefiting from the de minimis exemption, which would seriously reduce the number of low-value shipments entering the United States.

The White House is also seeking to require more detailed data on de minimis shipments, like tariff classification numbers and the identity of the person claiming the exemption.

Looks like the goal is to reduce the risk of illegal, unsafe, and unfairly traded products entering the US, specifically from Chinese retailers, but ultimately this’ll increase costs for eCom brands and consumers, and may even lead companies to shift away from manufacturing in China 🤔 

5. TikTok, Pinterest & Amazon Working Together? 🤝 

Amazon partnered with TikTok & Pinterest to make it super convenient to shop directly from social media apps without leaving the platforms in hopes to boost revenue.

A cool partnership, but users will have to link their TikTok or Pinterest accounts to their Amazon account, and only then will they be able to buy items directly from Amazon while still in either app.

Here's an example when everything is synced up right:

The linked accounts will allow US users to see real-time pricing, Prime eligibility, delivery estimates and product details.

A pretty bold move from Amazon, but unless they make this whole account-linking thing a seamless experience, 2-click buying won’t be profitable 😅 

6. AI Actually Impacting eCom 🤖 

Just when we all thought we were safe from the bots — Perplexity, an AI company backed by Jeff Bezos & Tobi Lutke, launched an e-commerce shopping tool called “Shop Like A Pro”.

Available in the US only, this AI pulls prices and specs and compares them, lets you search visually through a carousel, analyses real pros and cons from reviews, and you can even checkout within the app.

Perplexity also has a merchant program, so you can share the specs of your products and increase the likelihood of your brand being “recommended”.

It’s pretty wild that the fate of our products will be decided by AI, but having another marketing channel to compete in is pretty neat — we wrote an entire post on “Shop Like A Pro” in case you want to learn more about it 😉

But Perplexity isn’t the only competitor in AI eCom search, Google Shopping got an AI makeover, powered by their Gemini model.

It’s pretty much the same Google Shopping we all know, but with more accurate descriptions, a “For You”-esque shopping feed, and tools for finding the best deals — not bad, Google 👀

7. FTC Adopts “Click to Cancel” Rule ❌ 

The FTC adopted a “click to cancel” rule, which requires businesses to make it as easy as possible to cancel a subscription.

The new rules for sellers are as follows:

1️⃣ Avoid misrepresenting important details when marketing products or services with a negative option feature

2️⃣ Clearly disclose key terms before collecting a consumer’s payment information

3️⃣ Obtain the consumer’s clear consent before charging for a negative option feature

4️⃣ Provide an easy way for consumers to cancel and stop charges immediately

A great and much needed change, unsubscribing shouldn’t take 15 clicks and confirmations 🔥

8. Amazon’s Workforce Going Down 👷 

As of December 19th, around 10,000 Amazon workers went on strike, forming lines in cities like NY, Atlanta, San Francisco and Southern California — dubbed “Teamsters”.

The workers were advocating for better wages, improved benefits, and enhanced workplace safety during the critical holiday shopping season. Amazon quickly claimed the workers were “misleading the public”.

The strike itself lasted up until Christmas Eve, and affected around 200 Amazon facilities across the US (but of course Amazon claimed their operations were unaffected).

Whether it was the right thing for Teamsters to do or not, the impact of the strike was pretty huge — about 48% of Amazon’s corporate workforce are applying for new jobs, with 68% saying they are “somewhat likely” or “very likely” to leave Amazon within the next year.

Maybe Amazon can learn a lesson or two from this? 😬 

9. 2024’s Holiday Statistics 💹 

Almost each metric is up from last year, let’s look at them one by one:

BFCM Stats (from Shopify):

1️⃣ $11.5 billion in global sales from merchants, a 24% increase in sales from 2023

2️⃣ Average cart price was $108.56 ($109.70 on a constant currency basis)

3️⃣ 58% YoY increase in sales made via Shop Pay

Holiday Season (as per Queue-it):

1️⃣ 64% of Cyber Five Traffic came from mobile

2️⃣ Holiday Season traffic increased 12% YoY

3️⃣ Traffic on Small Business Saturday & Cyber Sunday grew 20% YoY

The Bank of America recently held a survey that showed 75% of consumers say they’d prefer to get a gift card this year, up 13% from 2023.

Finally, as per Statista, TikTok Shop saw a 226% YoY growth this holiday season 🤯 

And that’s a wrap on 2024! 🥳 🎉 

Thank you for letting us be a part of your eCom journey this year! We hope 2024 was fruitful for your brand, and I can’t wait to see what 2025 brings! 🎄 🤶 

We wish you a joyful New Years — here’s to 2025! 🥂

Is Ecommerce & Unicorns helpful? Share it with friends and don’t forget to subscribe!

Need help with your ecommerce project? Wanna learn more about Shopify in our weekly blog? Just hanging around?

Thanks for reading and supporting E&U (Ecommerce & Unicorns)

Daniil from ECORN

Hey 👋

Shopify’s Winter ‘25 just released — and it’s loaded with updates to help you with your business as always.

But their edition is “Boring” as they officially named it, and also pretty hard to read 😬 

We’ve made it easy to consume, so you can start using these new features faster & crush it this holiday 💪

Let’s get into it 🔥

1. Top Updates 💫 

In case you just want to see the hottest additions, here they are:

1️⃣ Draft Orders — they now work with functions, bundles, and checkout extensions

2️⃣ Shopify POS — now works with bundles, retail customer segments, and customer metafields

3️⃣ Shopify Search & Discovery — with combined listings and category metafields

4️⃣ Loading Speeds — improved across the board up to 59% faster on checkouts and a noticeable speed boost to the admin

5️⃣ New Features — Sidekick AI, markets, new analytics & customer account extensions are being rolled out

Now, let’s see what these updates actually mean for your business 💹 

While they call this edition “Boring”, it’s a actually comparable to their last Summer ‘24 Editions, which we also covered in-depth 👀 

2. A VIP Treatment for B2B 📞 

If you sell wholesale, you’ll be pretty happy with these quality of life changes:

1️⃣ Password-Free & Branded Logins — offer B2B customers an easy login with branded sign-in pages

2️⃣ Price Locking & Bundles — have better control over draft orders & lock prices till the order is complete

3️⃣ Self-Serve Return API — build return apps & flows for customers

4️⃣ B2B-Only Reports — exclude DTC & focus only on wholesale customers

Shopify made it way easier to run a B2B business for both us the merchants & our customers 😁 

Stay tuned for more exciting updates from Ecommerce & Unicorns! Subscribe now:

3. POS Upgrades & Order Management 📦️ 

Running a brick-and-mortar? You’ll be happy with these improvements:

1️⃣ Product Bundles — sell bundles directly in-store with Shopify POS

2️⃣ Offline Payments — process card payments even if WiFi sucks

3️⃣ Metafield In-Store — capture more customer data during IRL transactions

4️⃣ Split-Screen Search — check search results and the cart side by side, looks pretty neat:

As for order management, you don’t have to do as much manual work anymore & it’s easier to manage behind-the-scenes:

1️⃣ Fulfillment Logic — order routing and fulfillment settings prevent overselling across subscriptions, draft invoices, and imported orders

2️⃣ Draft Orders — custom pricing and extensions supported

3️⃣ Centralized Finances — manage taxes, expenses and bills in Managed Markets

So many much needed features, and a few we didn’t even know we needed so bad 😭

4. Faster Checkouts + Search & Discovery ⚡️ 

Shopify optimized their entire checkout process & made it easier to retain customers during it. The checkout now:

1️⃣ Loads 59% faster for buttons like Shop Pay & Paypal, with Carts loading 50% faster as well

2️⃣ Integrates AI Chat Apps to upsell, provide support & convert customers right at checkout (Plus only for now)

3️⃣ Checkout Blocks on more pages, letting you say your thanks or show order status (no Plus required), here’s what that looks like:

Shopify’s Search game also got an upgrade:

1️⃣ Parent/Child Listings being unified for easier navigation

2️⃣ Metafield Categories making it easy to show only the relevant filters on your storefront

3️⃣ Natural Language Search lets shoppers from around the globe search in their preferred tongue

P.S. — Check out our November eCom Recap in case you missed it, we covered everything from Trudeau “banning” TikTok to Amazon killing Walmart & Target 👀

5. Shopify Email & PPC Glow-Up ✨ 

Marketing just got a whole lot smarter — Shopify rolled out updates to make email campaigns easier to set up & analyze.

For email, here’s what’s new:

1️⃣ Custom UTM — track campaigns with clean URLS

2️⃣ ROI Metrics — spend & returns now show up in the marketing dashboard

3️⃣ Product-Based Campaigns — send email campaigns right from your product details pages (no extra clicks)

4️⃣ Winback Campaigns — target & convert lapsed customers with Shop Campaigns (Canada & US only as of now)

5️⃣ Marketing Automation w/ Segments — trigger automations when customers join or leave a segment with Shopify Flow

Also, just look at the official Shopify Editions ‘25 “time machine” page:

They took us back to the 90’s and made everything hard to read for no reason 😂

As for PPC, things also got a lot easier:

1️⃣ Shop Campaigns Available to all Shopify Plans in US & Canada

2️⃣ Google Shopping Ads now expands in 1 click from Ads in Shop Channel

3️⃣ Segments in Google Ads lets you run campaigns on Google Ads using your existing Shopify segments

6. Even More Marketing Updates 🔥 

Aside from the email & ads side, Shopify also added plenty of QOL features, like:

1️⃣ Higher Converting Sign-in with Shop boosting it by 16%

2️⃣ Exclude More Customers from Ads using Shopify Audiences with the new Existing Customers Plus audience (Plus-only)

3️⃣ Branded Login Pages for all customers, including typography, signature, colors, even at checkout

4️⃣ Customer Accounts Menu Links lets you customize the accounts header menu by adding or removing pages

5️⃣ Metafield Controls for Forms allows you to select which fields in Shopify Forms map to customer metafields, and it looks like this:

Customization’s never going to be a problem now 😉 

7. Collections, Bundles & Sidekick AI 🛍️ 

AOV has never been this easy to boost:

1️⃣ Smarter Bundles App — with better layouts & performance data

2️⃣ Smart Collections — auto-group products by color & material

3️⃣ Reporting for Bundles — get insights on just how well your bundles perform

And now for the spooky part, Sidekick AI is finally here in English to merchants around the world:

Sidekick is pretty much a very powerful commerce assistant that’ll make it easier to start, run and grow your business (powered by Shopify Magic).

It’s trained on your product & brand data to generate valuable and relevant support for a range of tasks, like filling in fields or forms in any page of the admin, segment customers, create or edit products — the whole package.

To start using it, you must meet these requirements:

1️⃣ Access Shopify Admin on a desktop PC

2️⃣ Your account must be set to English

3️⃣ Your store must have access to the new Shopify Analytics, but you aren't required to have opted-in.

Then, log in to your Shopify Admin and click on the Sidekick icon to start chatting!

And that’s that! We covered the main bits of Shopify Editions ‘25 — honestly, it wasn’t as “boring” as they officially claimed it to be, don’t you think? 🤔

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Daniil from ECORN

Hey there 👋

November was a crazy month for eCom — and we’re here to give you a recap of the biggest news, including:

2024 BFCM Stats 💹 

Perplexity’s AI Shopping Tool 🤖 

TikTok Gets Banned in Canda (Sort of) ❌ 

Amazon’s Temu Clone 🤔 

Shopify’s New Finance Platform 💲 

Amazon Beats Walmart & Target 🎯 

Youtube Adds Gifting Feature 🎁 

OpenAI Releasing “Operator” 💻️ 

Let’s get into it 🔥

1. 2024 BFCM Stats 📈 

It’s been over a week since BFCM ended, and I don’t think there’s a single stat that hasn’t improved substantially compared to 2023 🤯 

Here are the top metrics:

1️⃣ Record Online Spending — consumers in the U.S. made online purchases totalling between $10.7 billion and $11 billion on Black Friday 2024, marking a 10.2% increase from last year's $9.8 billion

2️⃣ Global Spending Surge — according to Salesforce, global online spending reached $74.4 billion within a single day, showing a 5% rise compared to 2023

3️⃣ Thanksgiving Spending — shoppers spent $6.1 billion, up 9% from last year

4️⃣ Mobile Shopping — over 57.6% of all online sales were done via mobile devices, up from 55.5% in 2023

5️⃣ Toy Sales — huge discounts on toys, averaging over 27% off, led to a 178% increase in toy sales on Black Friday compared to average sales figures from October

Anyone remember how crazy Black Friday used to be back in the 2010’s? These stats feel like that, but just digital 😂

Stay tuned for more exciting updates from Ecommerce & Unicorns! Subscribe now:

2. Perplexity’s AI Shopping Tool 🤖

Yup, the all-AI company Perplexity (backed by Jeff Bezos, Tobi Lutke, by the way), launched “Shop Like a Pro” — an AI shopping assistant, only available to Pro subscribers.

Here’s a little of what that looks like:

It can suggest things based on what you searched for, with visuals, comparisons, reviews. It’s even got a carousel mode, and that’s cool and all — but how would you get your brand’s products to appear first?

If you want to learn more about “Shop Like a Pro” and how to get into it’s special Perplexity Merchant Program (which is free btw), check out our post on the eCom AI Search Era 🔥

3. Did Trudeau Really Ban TikTok? 🤳 

The Canadian government ordered TikTok to shut down it’s operations in the country, due to, the classic “national security concerns”.

But.. it didn’t really “shut down”. All Canadians can still use the app, just the offices are banned from operating locally within Canada — which is hilarious 😂

This “local ban” made hundreds of Canadians lose their jobs at TikTok’s offices, and with this being extremely unfair, TikTok actually decided to file a legal challenge of the fed’s shutdown order, claiming it was unreasonable and driven by improper purposes.

Well, this isn’t the first time we hear about a TikTok ban — but why ban people from their jobs instead of banning the app..? 😬

4. Amazon Launches “Haul” 📦️ 

Don’t be surprised if it’s your first time hearing about “Haul” — it’s Amazon’s version of Temu 🤔

It’s a low-cost marketplace that ships items directly from China, trying to compete and outperform Temu, Shein and other marketplaces the U.S. consumers have been loving these past few years (primarily for the cheap prices).

Haul features items with a max price of $20, and shipping times of up to two weeks — a complete 180 from Amazon’s usual next-day delivery and wild pricing, but I can see the appeal.

We got ANOTHER Temu clone, but this time — it’s American 😂

5. Shopify Finance 💲 

Shopify’s been “unifying” a lot recently, and they’ve finally combined all of their financial solutions into one big home called “Shopify Finance”.

You can find it in your admin panel, and here’s what it looks like:

Merchants now have access to these tools all in one place:

1️⃣ Shopify Balance — a free business account that allows merchants to receive funds from orders on the next business day (comes with a 3.39% APY balance)

2️⃣ Shopify Credit — a pay-in-full visa business card that gives 3% cashback on eligible marketing, wholesale & fulfilment purchases (you can also get up to 10 months to pay over time from a percentage of daily sales)

3️⃣ Shopify Capital — a financing program to borrow working capital of up to $2M, with no credit checks or impact on credit score (with repayments auto-deducted as a % of daily sales).

4️⃣ Shopify Tax — automates tax calculations, collections and reporting, while enabling you to automatically set aside sales tax into your Balance account

5️⃣ Shopify Bill Pay — a tool that lets you schedule, pay, and manage business bills directly from the admin panel by credit, debit, bank transfer, or Shopify Balance (now you can make batch & recurring payments and combine payments, too)

6. Amazon Beats Walmart & Target 🎯 

For the 8th year in a row, Amazon has the lowest prices across 15 categories against 22 US retailers.

The study by Profitero reveals Amazon had an average price advantage of 14% over them, and Walmart is still the runner up to Amazon, with only a 5% price difference on the exact same items.

Here are some more interesting stats from the same study:

1️⃣ Target’s prices are only 13% higher than Amazon’s, compared to 16% from last year

2️⃣ Best Buy is now in 2nd place for video games, overall 9% higher in prices compared to Amazon

3️⃣ Target & Walmart actually tied in the toys category, both having a 2% price difference from Amazon

Try as they may, most retailers can’t beat Amazon on deals, but that might chance soon 🤔 

7. YouTube’s New TikTok-like Gifts 🎁 

YouTube’s implementing a gifting feature for it’s livestreams that lets users buy digital “Jewels” for streamers to show their love.

The gifts, much like TikTok & Instagram emotes, will show up on the stream, and make the whole experience more “fun & interactive”, according to Google.

This gifting feature will be rolled out in the next few weeks for US content creators that are eligible (we don’t know what the requirements are for eligibility yet, though).

But to help launch Jewels, YouTube is offering a 50% bonus to creators on gift earnings, capping out at $1K/mo.

They really are just adopting & adapting features from any platform possible.. and while no one asked for gifts on YouTube of all things, this could improve the bottom line for content creators, and, on the eCom side, UGC 👀

Speaking of UGC, if you want to learn how to let your customers do the marketing for you, check out our UGC Guide for Merchants 🔥 

8. OpenAI Releasing “Operator” 🤖 

You thought we had enough AI with Perplexity’s new little gadget? Well, OpenAI is almost ready to launch an AI agent called Operator.

This little bot will take actions on your behalf, like writing code, making online purchases for you, or even booking reservations. Operator & other AI agents could come as soon as next January, and this is sorta huge for eCom.

Will we begin optimizing product listings for these agents, instead of people? How do we rank higher in the eyes of these agents? 😅 

Bonus News & Gift 🎁 

Here are some more news you might find interesting:

TikTok made a guide to help marketers capitalize on the Q5 opportunities

Amazon got approval to use new drones for Prime Air

OpenAI bought out Chat.com, which now redirects to ChatGPT

GrubHub under legal fire for funnelling consumer data to TikTok

And here’s a little thank-you for reading to the end, an all-encompassing guide to retaining your BFCM shoppers by PeelInsights:

🎧 ECORN Radio This Week:

The DTC Podcast shares their BFCM insights, along with news on Amazon’s Ad Strategies undergoing massive changes..

Click here to listen now 👀

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Need help with your ecommerce project? Wanna learn more about Shopify in our weekly blog? Just hanging around?

Thanks for reading and supporting E&U (Ecommerce & Unicorns)

Daniil from ECORN

Hey 👋

Well, that was the craziest BFCM we’ve seen in recent years..

Over $11.5B in global sales from merchants (+24% from 2023), more than 67K merchants had their record sales day, and the AOV was $109.7 🤯 

And whether your profits were big or small, you gained customers — in today’s post, we’ll show you how to turn them into repeat buyers & loyal to your brand 😁

Let’s get into it 🔥

1. Give Your Thanks 🤗 

Sending thank-you emails does wonders for building trust — especially if it’s after an event, like BFCM, or post-purchase. Here’s how to send them out strategically:

1️⃣ From The Brand — as soon as you can, send an email to your customers from your brand’s POV (the thank you must give a “feeling” that’s unique to your brand only)

2️⃣ From The Founder — a few days or a week after the first thank-you, send another one, but this time from the founder. It has to feel human, and the reader needs to know it came from a real person (be sure to add all quirks and gimmicks a founder has!)

3️⃣ Late Check-in — about 2 weeks after the founder email, send another one, checking in and thanking them again. This email could also double as an opportunity to share tips on how to use the product purchased.

Here’s an awesome example of a post-BFCM appreciation email from Abercrombie & Fitch:

Who doesn’t love being appreciated? Thank-you emails can literally make someone’s day, especially thank-you’s from founders themselves😄 

Stay tuned for more exciting updates from Ecommerce & Unicorns! Subscribe now:

2. Content is Still King 🤳 

Especially after BFCM, you have to spend the next few weeks or months warming up your new customers with content (specifically, value-adding content).

This can be done through emails, blogposts, social media, ads, and UGC. Focusing on your new customers, in the content you are creating, you should:

1️⃣ Share Care Tips & Tutorials

Showing your newest shoppers the must-know tips and in general how to get the most out of your product is crucial (like how to keep your new cosy cashmere sweater warm & fluffy). Bonus points if it’s UGC!

P.S — Getting an email with UGC showing how to use the product you bought makes you feel like you’re part of a community (and made the right choice)! Check out our UGC Guide for Merchants if you want to convey the same feeling to your customers 🔥

2️⃣ The Big “Why”

Each brand has a big “why”, that usually leads to a noble cause one way or another — your content should show that why off as much as possible.

Warby Parker does this well with their “Buy a Pair, Give a Pair” program, donating glasses to those who need them across the globe (their big “why” is to sell great eye-wear at a much smaller price, while helping those in need)

3️⃣ Show Different Lifestyle Fits

Your product should fit seamlessly into anyone’s daily life & routine — think of Stanley and how both hikers, gym-goers and TikTok dancers can all use the same tumbler, how could your brand’s products fit into anyone’s lifestyle?

That’s a hilariously large Stanley cup… think he hit his PR with all that hydration? 😂

Note — if your brand sells something that people constantly run out of (pet food, supplies, etc), it’s helpful to create content that reminds shoppers that they’re running out and can reorder!

3. Reviews Are Everything 🗣️ 

After your customer has had enough time to enjoy your product, ask for a review — but timing here is key. Here’s what actually matters when it comes to reviews:

1️⃣ Ask 30 Days Post-delivery — this is the ideal timing to ask for a review, ideally a photo or video review, since it can double as UGC for your website.

2️⃣ For The “Bad Reviews” — no product is perfect, you’ll get bad reviews from the occasional bad QC, misuse, or literally for any other reason.

When you get a bad review, it’s important to give a real, empathetic reply, giving tips on how to use your product better, or addressing and clearing up the customer’s issue. They need to feel heard and understood!

3️⃣ Incentivize UGC — when you send out an email asking for a review, let your shoppers know they can be reposted or featured on your brand’s official page if their review shows something unique, like quirky use cases, before-after transformations and et cetera.

Blendjet does this very well, embedding UGC into their reviews on their site:

4. Strategic Cross-Selling and Smart Reminders ⏰ 

Up-selling can seem aggressive, so cross-selling is the second best option.

1️⃣ Cross-selling — if you sell skincare & a shopper bought a facial cleanser, suggest a moisturizer to complete the routine. Glossier does this nicely, but some may be put off with the huge “Add to Bag” button:

2️⃣ Replenishment Reminders — for consumable products, send a friendly nudge to reorder 1-2 months post-purchase via SMS or email (can be automated)

3️⃣ Early Access Deals — specifically if a shopper bought during BFCM, make them feel special by giving exclusive access to upcoming sales or launches.

P.S — It’s better to give a big discount to a churning customer, especially if they haven’t come back after 45+ days than to lose them entirely!

5. Loyalty Programs & Gifts 🎁 

Your shoppers need a reason to stay, and transparent perks (with a few unexpected gifts) are a great way to do so:

1️⃣ Reward Points — for each purchase made, your customers get points they can cash in for a discount on future purchases. Make sure the system is crystal clear & easy to understand, Samsung Rewards is a good example (you can see how the points work on their page):

2️⃣ Digital Gifts — something like a curated Spotify playlist, recipe guide, eBook on how to use your product, any of these can go a long way in making your customers feel appreciated

3️⃣ App Partnerships — check what apps have the same mission as your products. Say you make weighted blankets, partnering up with a sleep app (so that your shoppers get a discount to their subscription, or vice versa) would be great, since both products complement each other. 

P.S. — Don’t forget about the Christmas Holiday season! BFCM was just the start, check out our post on Last-Minute Tips for Q4 eCom to prepare in advance! 😄 

That’s it! We covered the main ways you can nurture your new relationships post-BFCM 🔥

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Need help with your ecommerce project? Wanna learn more about Shopify in our weekly blog? Just hanging around?

Thanks for reading and supporting E&U (Ecommerce & Unicorns)

Daniil from ECORN

Hey 👋 

TikTok, Google, and Microsoft have been shipping AI features non-stop, but they’re all just tech giants with a bit of AI..

Now, an AI-first company is stepping into the eCom scene with a shopping tool 🤖 

In this post, we’ll talk about Perplexity, it’s new “Shop Like A Pro” feature — and how it’ll impact both your customers & your brand.

Let’s get into it 🔥

1. What Even Is Perplexity? 🤔 

While the company & it’s main product have been popping in the AI scene, we can’t blame any eCom folk that haven’t heard of it.

Here’s the gist — Perplexity is an AI search engine, with enhanced search based on specific sites & platforms (like searching for ideas on Reddit only, for example).

Here’s a visual of a normal query:

They’ve got a Pro subscription available at $20/mo, which lets you upload files, get more in-depth research, generate images, the whole shebang.

But recently, they’ve added “Shop Like A Pro”, which kind of forced them into the big eCom space..

Stay tuned for more exciting updates from Ecommerce & Unicorns! Subscribe now:

2. Shop Like A Pro — eCom Search 🔎 

This feature promises speed & accuracy, with specific user queries in mind. You can search for anything, like “Find the best hiking shoes for a long uphill hike” or “Which eco-friendly shampoo is the best for thinning hair”.

Here’s a preview of how it looks:

It looks a lot better than searching for products with ChatGPT (which requires much more prompting), doesn’t differ too much from Google’s recently revamped AI Shopping, but this is where it actually gets interesting in terms of features.

Perplexity’s shopping tool has:

1️⃣ Real-Time Comparisons — pulls prices, specs and reviews into one place

2️⃣ Visual Search — shows images of each product, giving an experience like a curated online store

3️⃣ Sentiment Analysis — summarizes real pros and cons from customer reviews, not being biased (or as biased from what we’ve seen) and giving honest insights

4️⃣ Very Specific Search — give it super specific searches, like “Eco-friendly sunscreen with SPF 50 or higher with the best moisturizing properties”, and it’ll actually deliver results

5️⃣ Checkout In Search — yup, this tool also lets you instantly checkout, just by entering shipping & payment details.

The tool is available only to Pro subscribers in the United States at the moment, and we don’t have an ETA for a global release. Regardless, if you sell within the U.S, this is pretty marginal.

Shop Like A Pro also has a special program called “Perplexity Merchant Program” that can help you share the specs of your products, so that they can appear more frequently in the searches — the program itself is free, and you can add your own payment integrations so that shoppers can buy in one click.

Let’s talk about how this tool appearing can actually be big for eCom (we’ll also note how it impacts your brand and customers in particular) 🛍️ 

P.S. — Perplexity is backed by Jeff Bezos, CEO of Shopify Tobi Lütke, and many other investors 😮 

3. What Does This Mean for eCom? 🛒 

AI won’t ever stop — and while this tool is a currently paid, in the coming months many companies will try replicate Shop Like A Pro, and offer freemium versions of AI product searching, even bigger companies can start integrating it at a deeper level, just like Perplexity.

And that here’s what that means:

1️⃣ Fewer Impulse Buys — with smarter, comparison-heavy tools people will be less likely to buy the first option they see, and rather compare products for the right fit

2️⃣ Shift To Value-Driven Purchases — AI highlights value through price, quality, and customer sentiment, so brands that focus on gimmicks and products that lack in specs could suffer

3️⃣ Small Fish — smaller brands are more likely to stand out if they have the right sentiment, price and features on their products

AI will act like a middleman between you and your shoppers, so what can you do to work with it, rather than fight it?

P.S — One new marketing channel won’t change the go-to practices in eCom. UGC & Ads matter just as much, and if you haven’t already, check out our full UGC Guide for Merchants.

4. What This Means for Your Brand 👀 

Let’s say your products are a part of a big carousel in some AI search tool, with the pros and cons clearly available, just like this:

In this kind of marketing channel, things work a tad differently. You’ll have to:

1️⃣ Stand Out In Listings — your product & brand’s USP will matter more than ever, and each product listing with it’s SEO should be updated and improved upon

2️⃣ Value > Price — if you’re not offering cheap options, show off perks like free shipping and extended returns,

3️⃣ Visuals Matter — and they matter more than ever now. Make sure your product’s images are high quality and are eye-candy for the shoppers

4️⃣ Honesty & Transparency — AI comparisons are honest (for now), so if your brand isn’t delivering on promises or has weak reviews, it’ll show. Focus on building trust by improving quality, meeting expectations and being honest

That’s it! We covered Perplexity’s new AI shopping tool, how it impacts eCom, and, finally, how it impacts your bottom line 🔥

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Need help with your ecommerce project? Wanna learn more about Shopify in our weekly blog? Just hanging around?

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Daniil from ECORN

Hey there 👋 

The BFCM chaos is here, and with it, the busiest days of eCom are right around the corner..

..and it doesn’t matter if you have everything planned out for the holidays & BFCM — we got you covered with last-minute tips you can implement today!

Let’s get into it 🔥

1. BFCM Marketing Calendar 📆 

Before we get to the tips, we need to know what dates to optimize for — here’s how you should send campaigns out:

1️⃣ Thanksgiving 11/28

Send a Thanksgiving campaign to your 30-day engaged, 60-day engaged, and VIP lists. Then, send your VIP list an early access to the BFCM deals through SMS.

2️⃣ On Black Friday 11/29

Morning — send Black Friday email to your full list, excluding recent purchasers. Launch a VIP-only Black Friday SMS campaign.

Afternoon — send a reminder email to your 90-day engaged list (exclude recent purchasers) and a Black Friday SMS to your full list.

3️⃣ Cyber Monday 12/2

Morning — send a Cyber Monday email to your full list and an SMS campaign to VIPs.

Afternoon — send a follow-up email to your 90-day engaged list (again, excluding recent purchasers) and a Cyber Monday SMS to your full list.

4️⃣ Cyber Weekend Last Chance 12/4

Email the 30-day engaged segment and send an SMS to a resend segment (those that opened/clicked email but haven’t purchased), so that everyone gets another chance to shop.

Now that we know the big dates coming soon, let’s talk about what you can do right now to profit as much as possible 👇️ 

2. Mandatory Site & Campaign Prep 🖋️ 

Here’s how to lay a solid foundation for the upcoming busy days, even if the clock’s ticking:

1️⃣ Turn Off Smart Sending — for any critical campaigns that need to be sent to everyone

2️⃣ Send SMS to Your 30-day Segment — a pre-BFCM SMS campaign can build up the hype & keep your warmest leads ready to convert

3️⃣ Cross-site Banners — add banners to inform visitors of shipping deadlines & free shipping thresholds

And by site-wide banners, we mean something like this (from Grace & Lace):

A simple banner that shows how close they are to getting that sweet free shipping, without covering the entire screen — why doesn’t every brand do this? 🤔 

Stay tuned for more exciting updates from Ecommerce & Unicorns! Subscribe now:

3. Countdowns & Engagement 🕜️ 

Now we continue the campaign prep with these strategies:

1️⃣ Send Countdown Emails — to build up anticipation, this time targeting your 60-day engaged segments and VIP lists (with very clear CTA’s)

2️⃣ Set Up Promos — like new visitor welcomes to keep them engaged for longer, abandoned cart pop-ups, and offers that show up when someone’s leaving your store

Including a BNPL option (or a decent discount) in your abandoned cart offer can really win back some hesitant buyers, here’s an example:

Adding a countdown timer can seriously increase CR% (just don’t add one everywhere 😅)

P.S. — Check out our more in-depth BFCM Checklist for email marketing, upselling & UGC strategies 👀

4. Sign-Ups & Removing Friction 👀 

What we did with countdown emails & overlays was great, and we can do more to move the needle forward:

1️⃣ SMS Onboarding — use high traffic days to grow your SMS list with special offers, like a 10% off or even free shipping

This also works as a new visitor offer — a shopper signing up to your list for a discount, for example

2️⃣ Special Perks — give your VIP segment early access to BFCM deals (you could even create timed bundles, as they are more likely to buy)

3️⃣ Gift Guides — create collections like “Top Picks for Her” to help shoppers that are overwhelmed by the amount of choices

While not a guide specifically, Sephora bunched up their products, making it super easy to shop:

5. Festive Spirit & Gifts 🎁 

While BFCM is the real thing we’re all prepping for, every holiday matters for your brand. Here’s how you can bring the festive spirit to your shoppers, fast:

1️⃣ Holiday-Themed Overlays — a simple wheel or “Unlock Your Holiday Deal” helps people get in the mood & feel better shopping

2️⃣ Seasonal SEO — update product descriptions & collection pages with holiday-themed keywords like “Thanksgiving Gifts You Cannot Miss” or “Cyber Monday Must-Haves”

3️⃣ Site-wide Theming — even just changing the color palette of your site, peeping at the bottom can go a long way in creating festive excitement

Speaking of a wheel, here’s a great example of one that’s actually pleasing to see:

That’s it! Couple this last-minute prep with our BFCM Checklist, and you’re good to go, even if you’re short on time. We wish you a fruitful eCom BFCM & holiday season 😄 

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Need help with your ecommerce project? Wanna learn more about Shopify in our weekly blog? Just hanging around?

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Daniil from ECORN

Hey there 👋 

Subscriptions are awesome — predictable revenue, high customer LTV and retention, but.. that’s only on paper.

In practice, most brands don’t know how to properly integrate a subscription model into their eCom business 😯

Luckily, someone who’s made brands like Jolie, Feastables & Cadence over $100M shared his secrets for free.

Let’s get into Nik Sharma’s best practices on subscription models 🔥

1. Why The Subscription Model Works 📈 

Every brand should consider a subscription program, here’s why:

1️⃣ Reliable & Recurring Revenue — subscriptions are predictable in terms of numbers, and can act as a safety net for your brand.

2️⃣ Customers Love It — being able to subscribe to a program & have monthly packages of coffee or dog food delivered right to their door is just too convenient.

3️⃣ LTV & Capital Increase — Subscribers are your most valuable segment. They’re consistent buyers and more likely to purchase additional products. Plus, recurring revenue (e.g., $100K/month compared to $100K in total sales) makes your business more appealing to investors.

Now that you’ve got an idea of the subscription model & why it works, let’s begin with identifying a problem.

2. What Problem is Being Solved? 🤔 

Sounds like a no-brainer, but a working subscription starts by identifying a real & recurring problem for your customers. Think about:

1️⃣ Replenishment Needs — products like coffee, supplements, or pet food pretty much naturally lend themselves to subscriptions, nobody wants to run out of them and they always need them

2️⃣ Evolving Experiences — if your brand has a lifestyle angle, like beauty, fitness, or food, create subscriptions boxes that change monthly or seasonally

3️⃣ VIP Access — for brands with high-loyalty customers, the sub model can be a way to offer members-only drops & limited edition items

Based on what kind of problem you’re solving, decide on a cadence — how often will you bill your customers & deliver?

Weekly, bi-weekly or monthly could work if you sell supplements, snacks, skincare etc, and high-ticket items are better sent out quarterly.

Birchbox did something very unique — they saw a gap in the market & started offering customers a specific selection of beauty product samples monthly.

This addressed the problem of people wanting to try a new product WITHOUT paying full price, and they’ve built a loyal subscriber base like this 🔥

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3. The Backend & Landing Page 📃 

Now that you’ve got a problem you want to solve on a frequent basis, it’s time to do some back and frontend work.

Platforms like Recharge, Seal Subscriptions, and Skio are most commonly used, and will integrate well with your brand.

As for the landing page, be on point with these things:

1️⃣ Highlight Subscription Benefits — clearly present the perks, like exclusive discounts, early access to products, partner brand deals, or VIP events (up the perceived value)

2️⃣ Build Trust w/ Social Proof — a mix of reviews, testimonials, UGC, and comparison charts show why you are trustworthy

3️⃣ Convenience & Clarity — easy-to-understand content blocks showing what the subscription offers & how it works are a must

And above everything else, the visuals have to be pleasing. HelloFresh does everything above on a stellar level, as you can see above!

P.S. — UGC is awesome for building social proof, who wouldn’t want to see someone smiling enjoying your product?

Check out our eCom UGC Guide for a full crash course on how to start using it 🔥 

4. Marketing The Subscription Program 💰️ 

Once your landing page & backend are ready, it’s time to market. The key is that your subscription is here to stay, for a long time. Here’s how to market it right:

1️⃣ Email & SMS Flows — Create email & SMS flows that only show up for non-subscribers. These nudge potential subscribers into your program by highlighting benefits or showing UGC-based reviews

2️⃣ Organic Social & Ads — in the ads, talk about the convenience of on-time shipping or share unboxing content from happy customers

3️⃣ Launch It Like A Product — if your subscription program is brand-new, treat it like a product launch. This means weeks (or months) of constant promotion — build hype through campaigns, teasers, and subscriber-only sneak peeks

A note on organic & social ads — we covered TikTok Search Ads just two weeks ago, this feature can get the right eyes on your ads, converting people right at the peak of their need & curiosity 🤯 

5. A PSA on Friction.. 😬 

Getting someone to buy your product is hard enough, and a subscription that can cost $50+/mo is even tougher — that’s why subscribing has to be frictionless & transparent.

And that doesn’t only apply to subscribing, but staying subscribed, too. Here’s what you should keep in mind:

1️⃣ Full Control — your subscribers should feel in control. Make pausing, skipping a month, or cancelling easy, without 5 different “Are You Sure?” pop-ups

2️⃣ Transparent Terms — no hidden fees, no surprise charges. Being honest with your customers creates trust and lowers churn (which is the scariest part of the sub model)

3️⃣ Automated Reminders — let your consumers know ahead of charges or shipments to give them a chance to adjust however they need

Managing subscriptions shouldn’t be harder than buying a product normally.

Dollar Shave Club is a perfect example of a transparent subscription model — in the above visual they literally tell shoppers that they’re free to edit, snooze or cancel their subscription at any time, and even change the delivery & billing frequency 🧐 

6. Why Should Subscribers Stay? 😰 

Getting a subscriber is just the start, it’s about retaining them for as long as possible. Ideally, your customers should feel that they have to stay (within reason):

1️⃣ Subscriber Perks — discounts, loyalty rewards, early shopping windows. This ties into our earlier point on VIP access, make subscribers feel really special with any incentive that makes sense

2️⃣ Surprise & Delight — celebrate subscription anniversaries with small but pleasant discounts, occasionally add in freebies to the next subscription, or even include handwritten notes to make your customers feel special

3️⃣ Content Still Works — and is the best. Send weekly exclusive guides (ideally UGC), product tips, or brand updates to keep them invested emotionally

BarkBox does everything right — each monthly box offers new dog toys & treats, with free gifts include and even special notes to make subscribers (and their pets) feel appreciated 🐶 

And, while not a subscription box service, Amazon Prime is still a subscription model, and they retain customers like no joke. Prime offers free shipping, streaming services, exclusive deals like Prime Day — there’s just too much value to unsub 💯

7. Metrics & Optimizations 🤓 

You can’t escape it. If you ignore the stats, sales will go down, so here are the key metrics you have to track to keep a healthy subscription model:

1️⃣ Churn Rate — the % of customers canceling their subscriptions during a specific time period, with high churn usually showing problems with customer satisfaction or perceived value

2️⃣ Customer Lifetime Value — the total revenue a customer is expected to generate while subscribed. Separate the CLTV of your shoppers from your subscribers, as they are not the same

3️⃣ Customer Retention Rate — the percentage of customers who stay subscribed over a set period, this especially shows the stickiness of your offerinп

And as for optimizations, its important to A/B test things like pricing tiers, welcome offers, cancellation flows (offering alternatives like pausing instead of unsubscribing, for example), and subscription length offers — each sub model in each niche works differently.

In short, integrating a subscription program is worth it for your brand, if:

☑ Your products solve a recurring need & have a convenience factor

☑ Your product line can evolve over time

☑ You’re focused on long-term growth & building a high-loyalty consumer base

That’s that! We covered the best practices for subscription models, inspired by Nik Sharma 🔥

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Need help with your ecommerce project? Wanna learn more about Shopify in our weekly blog? Just hanging around?

Thanks for reading and supporting E&U (Ecommerce & Unicorns)

Daniil from ECORN

Hey 👋

Hope you had a happy Halloween! 🎃 October’s over, and here’s the gist of all things eCom, including:

FTC’s “Click To Cancel” Rule ❌ 

Tiktok’s Smart+ Campaign for Automated Advertising 💰️ 

Consumer Product Content Benchmark Report 📉

New & Improved AI Google Shopping 🤖

Squarespace Going Private (again, officially) 😂 

…and some more hot topics (including Trump’s election), plus a freebie waiting for you at the end 👱‍♂️

Let’s get right into it 🔥

1. FTC’s “Click To Cancel” Rule ❌

No more endless subscriptions — the FTC just introduced the “Click to Cancel” rule, making it super easy for a consumer to cancel a subscription.

This also makes it very hard for the companies that trap those same people in an endless cycle of “where did my money go again?”.

Sellers need to follow this exact legal framework:

1️⃣ Avoid misrepresenting important details when marketing products or services with a negative option feature

2️⃣ Clearly disclose key terms before collecting a consumer’s payment information

3️⃣ Obtain the consumer’s clear consent before charging for a negative option feature

4️⃣ Provide an easy way for consumers to cancel and stop charges immediately

Honestly, certain subscriptions have been impossible to cancel — and now companies are forced to be transparent, and I’m all for it 🔥

Stay tuned for more exciting updates from Ecommerce & Unicorns! Subscribe now:

2. TikTok’s Smart+ Campaigns 🤖 

TikTok just added a new advertising option that’ll help advertisers automate campaign creation — Smart+ 🤔 

Advertisers input their assets, budget and targeting goals, then Smart+ auto-creates and selects the best creative assets using TikTok Symphony (Tiktok’s very own AI content creator). Finally, Smart+ chooses the right audience and time to show the ad.

This looks like near-complete automation of the advertising process, and it’s available in these formats:

TikTok said that advertisers using it’s Smart+ campaigns see an improvement of +52% in ROAS by lowering CPA, and even Ray-Ban’s performance marketing manager claimed -50% in CPA, a 47% increase in conversion rates, and a 42% improvement in ROAS.

TikTok doing my ads for me was NOT on my bingo card this year 😂

P.S — This goes hard with the newly released TikTok Search Ads 🔥

3. Consumer Product Content Benchmark Report 📟️ 

1WorldSync shared their 4th annual report with insights gathered from 1.75k shoppers from the U.S. & Canada, here are the stats that matter most:

1️⃣ eCom Growth — 41% of shoppers increased their use of online sites and marketplaces, with only 9% reducing online shopping

2️⃣ Shift Away from DTC — 21% are using D2C sites less, likely moving to more established marketplaces

3️⃣ Reviews & Mobile Research — 11% of shoppers use mobile devices to research products before they purchase (in-store, by the way), and 65% of shoppers read ratings & reviews often or always, with 49% leaving pages with too few reviews

4️⃣ Holiday Shopping — 42% plan to do more holiday shopping online, with 10% intending to shop online-only

5️⃣ Influencers Have A Big Say — 49% made a purchase from an influencer recommendation, and 26% shopped on TikTok Shop (mostly due to influencer suggestions and/or discounts)

DTC traffic dipping by 21% just means Amazon’s winning, again... 😬

4. New & Improved Google AI Shopping 🛍️ 

Not many use Google Shopping at all, so Google’s stepping up their game by adding.. even more AI to it?

As per Google, they’ve paired 45 billion product listings in the shopping graph with their Gemini AI model, here’s what that actually means (most of these points can be seen in the visual above):

1️⃣ AI Shopping Assistance — searches will provide an AI brief showing the most important things to know before buying, say, a jacket for Seattle’s winter, with recommendations showing you why some fit your needs

2️⃣ Shopping Feeds For You — just like TikTok’s “For You” page, Google’s copycat will help you discover new products based on your interests & search history

3️⃣ Tools for Deals — it’s easier to find absolute steals with price comparisons, insights & even price tracking, they’ve even gone as far as making a personalized deals page

We’ll just have to wait and see how ad-infested this whole thing will be 😂

5. Squarespace Acquired & More News 

Finally, Permira completed it’s $7.2B acquisition of Squarespace, bringing the company back to private ownership and removing it from the NYSE.

As a part of this transition, CEO & Founder of Squarespace, Anthony Casalena, kept a big portion of his stake in the company, making him one of the largest shareholders — he’ll also continue in his roles as CEO & Chairman of the Board.

Here are some more hot topics that came about last month:

1️⃣ Shopify’s New Customer Account Page is now branded

2️⃣ Temu has been selling products in Vietnam without a license since early October

3️⃣ Elon’s X is charging companies with API access

4️⃣ How Trump’s election can impact eCom

5️⃣ Walmart and Amazon announced their upcoming Black Friday deals

…and speaking of BFCM, check out our BFCM Checklist to see if you’re ready for it 🔥

Your Freebie 💝 

Check out the latest Operator’s Newsletter post, with Ridge CEO roasting the operations of almost every DTC brand & other partners (warning — he’s unhinged 😂)

🎧 ECORN Radio This Week:

Ridge CEO, Sean Frank, talking to the Candy King on the challenges of DTC vs Retail & more!

Click here to watch now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMRYxDWqhh8

Is Ecommerce & Unicorns helpful? Share it with friends and don’t forget to subscribe!

Need help with your ecommerce project? Wanna learn more about Shopify in our weekly blog? Just hanging around?

Thanks for reading and supporting E&U (Ecommerce & Unicorns)

Daniil from ECORN

Hey 👋

TikTok’s been on a roll lately with new features every month — but this addition actually changes everything for DTC brands 👀

Instead of popping up on someone’s feed and hoping they care about your product, you can now reach users based on their searches 😮 

That’s Search Ads, and in this post, we’ll show you exactly how to use them 🔥 

1. Just What are “Search Ads”? 🎯 

It’s a feature that lets you show ads to users who are searching for specific terms only.

This let’s you do a few things:

1️⃣ Convert At The Peak of Curiosity — you get the right eyes on your ads at the right time.

2️⃣ Capture User Intent Across Keywords — meaning you can capture demand across a huge variety of interests with keyword targeting.

3️⃣ +20% In Conversions —  based on TikTok’s testing, advertisers who run Search Ads with In-Feed ads see an increase in conversion rates of 20%.

Also based on their testing, 18% of users who saw an in-feed ad but didn’t convert, actually converted when they saw a search ad for the same product.

For the consumer, your ads shows during search like this:

Now, we’ll show you how to set them up & two very telling case studies 🔥

Stay tuned for more exciting updates from Ecommerce & Unicorns! Subscribe now:

2. Search Ad Campaign Setup & Case Studies 🔩 

Search Ads are now available right in your TikTok Ads Manager — when choosing either web conversion or traffic campaign as your objective, you can select “Search Campaign”.

Here’s a handy visual tutorial:

Once keywords, bids, and budgets are set, you can add a mix of video and carousel assets, with TikTok auto-selecting the best creative match for each search.

You can even update keywords and assets mid-campaign to adapt to any ongoing trends!

Let’s have a look at how these search ads perform in different niches:

1️⃣ Clinique

Using Search Ads resulted in Clinique getting 74K+ incremental search impressions, and an insane 441% conversion rate increase 🔥

2️⃣ DIBS Beauty

CPA lowered by 22%, +8% in CR, and their conversion rate during Black Friday was increased by 6x with Search Ads compared to in-feed ads 👀

P.S — BFCM is right around the corner, and if you want to be best prepared for it, check out our BFCM Campaign Checklist.

Now, we’ll show you a goldmine of consumer behavior data for market research, right within TikTok’s app.

3. Market Research Right Inside of TikTok? 📊 

TikTok Creator Insights — this is the goldmine of market research. You can type "Creator Search Insights" in the search bar or find it directly from Creator Tools in settings.

Here’s a visual showing where you can find it and how it looks:

Creator Search Insights shows popular search topics, that you can filter by categories like tourism or sports, or by relevance to the creator’s content.

It also highlights "content gap" topics — subjects that are frequently searched but have few related videos available, a.k.a big problems people are having that don’t have solutions.

In short, TikTok Creator Insights:

1️⃣ Shows What People Desperately Need

2️⃣ Highlights Topics with High Demand but Low Supply

3️⃣ Reveals Trending Questions in Every Industry

4️⃣ Tracks Search Growth over 14-day periods

The coolest thing about Creator Insights is that it’s real-time market research, showing real-time actual user intent, it’s free and nobody is actually using it 👀

And that’s that! We’ve gone over what TikTok Search Ads are, how to set them up, a few sick case studies & a free hidden gem for market research 🔥

BTW — If you want to learn about TikTok growth methods that you can implement alongside your Search Ads Campaign, check out our post on TikTok Growth Hacks!

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Need help with your ecommerce project? Wanna learn more about Shopify in our weekly blog? Just hanging around?

Thanks for reading and supporting E&U (Ecommerce & Unicorns)

Daniil from ECORN

Hey there 👋

It's almost here — the four days when inboxes are flooded, ads are everywhere, and DTC brands either win big or... don’t.

But you’re here, so won’t be in that second group — in today’s post, we’ll break down how to nail BFCM without relying on 70% off banners like it's 2012 😂 

Let’s get into it 🔥

1. Q4 Sales Calendar 📆 

Before we get to BFCM, you need to know the most important dates pre, during, and post-BFCM so that you can prepare your campaigns for them, too:

Halloween (October 31)

During Halloween, costumes, decorations, party supplies, and makeup all drive eCom sales — and for those that don’t sell any products of that nature, updating your brand to be more in-season does the job.

P.S — We’ve already done the work for you, check out our DTC Halloween Guide to prepare your store for the spooky season! 👻 

Singles Day (November 11)

With a larger presence in Asia, this day is also significant globally — consumers shop for cosmetics, skincare, electronics, apparel & household items on discount.

If you have an Asian market, and also sell any of these goods, you should add Singles Day to your sales calendar.

Black Friday (November 29)

The biggest date in Q4 eCom — all major global & local eCom platforms participate & offer big discounts on goods.

Cyber Monday (December 2)

The following event right after Black Friday, Cyber Monday also surges eCom sales, especially for brands that sell tech. These two dates will be the focus of this post!

Double 12 (December 12)

The Double 12 is another big retail sales event, giving shoppers another chance at grabbing the deals following Singles Day. Just like for Singles Day, if your brand has a presence in Asia, leveraging it is a no-brainer.

Christmas Eve & Christmas Day (December 24-25)

Christmas always has high retail sales, especially in regions where it is widely celebrated — during this time, consumers usually purchase gifts (which include the entire spectrum of goods, from luxury clothing to toys for kids), you can’t miss out on this period.

Now that you’ve marked your calendars, let’s get into the BFCM Checklist 🔥

1. Segment & Target. Right Now. ⏲️ 

Focus on high-value segments — loyal customers, recent buyers, and cart abandoners. These groups are most likely to convert quickly, so prioritize targeting them over cold prospects.

Warm them up with personalized campaigns, so that by November your brand is on their mind, and they’re to buy. There’s a ton of ways to do this, here are some we love:

1️⃣ Use dynamic email content that shows each customer’s most viewed or wishlisted products, with a message like “Have you seen X?”

2️⃣ Leverage customer data to send out “We thought you might like”-style emails, showing similar products to what they’ve bought before (with a discount, ideally)

3️⃣ Celebrate loyalty milestones for the customers that have stuck around for a while — “Thank you for being with us for 1 year! Here’s a super special offer just for you”.

It’s optimal to collect emails using a site-wide discount survey, which segments the shoppers — here’s a perfect example from Create:

And for your least engaged segments, reactivate them with a low-risk, irresistible offer — like a huge discount with no strings attached, knowing what products they viewed prior would also increase CR%.

Stay tuned for more exciting updates from Ecommerce & Unicorns! Subscribe now:

2. Paid Ads & UGC 🤳 

Stick to your most proven creatives & reliable segments, and focus your ad budget on them.

1️⃣ Retarget cart abandoners and past visitors with dynamic ads showing the products they viewed

2️⃣ Sync ad creatives with landing pages, so that both the visual & messaging are consistent

3️⃣ Focus mainly on mobile-optimized ad creatives since predictions state that 75% of consumers will engage in mobile shopping during this BFCM, with 45% purchasing via mobile devices

And if there’s one thing worth dabbling into if you haven’t already — it’s UGC.

Half the world is on social media, and having micro-influencers with tens of thousands of followers promote your products can funnel in entire new audiences.

I can’t stress enough how important UGC is for DTC, and we’ve already made a complete eCom UGC Guide so that you can learn about it fast 😄 

3. Landing Pages 101 📃 

Speed & simplicity are everything — your landing pages need to guide visitors to the products they want, and then to the checkout page with zero friction, in as little time as possible.

1️⃣ Optimize page speed with an emphasis on mobile devices

2️⃣ Add FOMO elements like real-time stock alerts or countdown timers

3️⃣ Make it easy for customers to purchase — it’s bad if a visitor can’t get to checkout in less than 30 seconds.

4️⃣ Group offers visually by category to avoid overwhelming your customers — Hint does this well, with an irresistible & easy-to-purchase new customer bundle:

Also, make sure your customers can easily tell what your brand sells and it’s USP right from the home page, and that product pages clearly show who that product is for & what problems it solves.

4. Upselling & Selling Without Discounts 😶 

Instead of slapping a 40% off on everything, you can offer value through strategic bundling and upselling to increase AOV.

Exclusive product bundles are perceived to be higher in value, and you can further up the perceived value by making it limited in stock or limited-edition, right now it’d be best to make a BFCM-themed bundle.

It’s also great to highlight savings in dollar amounts to further show the value, something like “Save $50 on this bundle!”.

Here’s a pretty overkill, but great example of bundling from Innosupps:

As for upselling & cross-selling, here are a couple of key steps you can’t skip:

1️⃣ Add product recommendations to checkout — “People who loved this also bought X”

2️⃣ Offer limited-time post-purchase discounts to nudge impulse buys, for example, a pop-up saying “Add this for 15% off your next order”

3️⃣ Use Browsing & Purchase history to personalize upsell suggestions

To increase AOV even further, you could use mechanisms like custom bundles, gift boxes, mystery boxes, sample packs, subscription boxes, or even mix subscription boxes with free gifts like the Innosupps example above.

5. Email Marketing & Post-Purchase Surveys ✏️ 

Standing out is important, especially during BFCM — your email campaigns need to be urgent, frequent, and simple:

1️⃣ Send back-to-back launch emails for both Black Friday & Cyber Monday, only focusing on your best deals

2️⃣ Use clear subject lines to cut through inbox clutter (something simple such as “24 Hours Left — Don’t Miss Out!", or leading with a discount)

3️⃣ Abandoned carts will be frequent, so remind shoppers and throw in a last-minute discount to close the deal — it’ll also help if the subject line is emotional, like “Don’t leave me behind!”

And finally, something that’ll give you instant feedback during BFCM — post-purchase surveys.

Ask your customers honest questions like “What made you buy today?” and “What almost stopped you from purchasing?” — you’ll get an unbiased perspective, and you can use these responses to adjust your BFCM messaging on the fly.

P.S. — If you happen to sell on Shopify & want to learn more about it’s email platform, check out our guide on Shopify Email for Merchants 🔥

🎧 Bonus Podcast w/ BFCM Email Strategies:

Listen To The World's Best Email and Retention Podcast by The DTC Podcast Network & Learn BFCM Email Strategies!

Click here to listen now

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Need help with your ecommerce project? Wanna learn more about Shopify in our weekly blog? Just hanging around?

Thanks for reading and supporting E&U (Ecommerce & Unicorns)

Daniil from ECORN