The TL;DR:
- Let’s Chat D2C: Shopify Editions Summer ‘23 Analysis dissecting over 100+ product updates!
- What I’m Thinking about this Week: 3 things we’re not doing that we should be doing. I go under the hood around how we’re trying to improve Electriq continually.
- The D2Z Podcast: I sat down with former Enterprise AE at Shopify and the newest Electriq/DRINKS team member, Patrick Pazos, on the state of sales at Shopify and the ecommerce opportunity for alcohol.
- App Highlight - Status: Status is a newcomer that has taken the Shopify ecosystem by storm with its ridiculous signed-in shopper results.
- Upcoming Events: Last chance for the Private Dodger Stadium Suite with Recharge on August 2 in LA!
Random tip: More often than not, indecision can run rampant when you’re in a group because no one wants to stick their neck out and put forward a plan. Be that person, and everyone else will follow!
Let’s Chat D2C - Shopify Editions Summer ‘23
Shopify is back with its Edition release for Summer ‘23! Packed with over 100 product updates, I compiled an overview with my in-depth analysis. But here’s the TL;DR:
Shopify, just like most Tech Giants, is Hyper-Focused on AI.
Shopify Magic, Shopify Sidekick, etc., etc. They’re not kidding when they say they’re building an entrepreneurship copilot. Given the immense amount of data they have to work with to train their AI models, I expect their product capabilities to continue to improve rapidly. Right now, I’m most excited for Shopify Sidekick to augment our team’s workflow in the platform, reducing the time to handle manual tasks such as creating a discount code or getting us to an answer faster when troubleshooting a problem.
One-page Checkout
An accelerated checkout like Shop Pay will have higher conversion rates and less friction, but this is an excellent solution for brands with a high volume of non-Shop Pay customers.
Anecdotally, many brands I work with used to leverage an app to have a one-page checkout, but Shopify pulled support for it last year, leaving a lot of merchants scrambling to figure out an alternative solution. Most who had to revert to a three-page checkout experienced a tangible decline in conversion rate.
Don’t have access yet to the one-page checkout for your store? You can join the waitlist at the bottom of this page.
Solving the Customer Acquisition Crisis
Whether it’s an improved Shopify Audiences algorithm, Shop Cash Offers, Shopify Collabs Network, or Shopify Marketplace Connect, Shopify continues to invest in helping its merchants acquire customers. More customers mean more GMV, which means more payment processing volume for Shopify.
Shopify is Eating the Ecosystem with its Apps
Shopify continues releasing products that may infringe on the app ecosystem. Still, for the most part, they are basic products built for smaller merchants that act as a placeholder until they can graduate to more advanced products created by app developers. Here’s a recap of what they released native to the platform:
- Shopify Subscriptions: More of an onramp for merchants to more advanced subscription platforms, like Recharge. Their app won’t include functionality such as swaps, prepaids, gifting, min/max months, bundling, or integrations.
- Shopify Bundles: Finally! Bundles are native to Shopify. Unless you’re trying to do mix-and-match bundles, you won’t need a 3rd party app anymore.
- Search & Discovery App: Enhanced filtering and auto recommendation functionality.
- Shopify Collective: This already existed in the ecosystem with products like Carro, but Shopify has now internalized these capabilities. Again, this is another product release leveraging Shopify’s massive merchant ecosystem and network effects to help everyone grow and increase the visibility of their brand.
If you Want to Nerd Out
The way Shopify is building its global infrastructure while also redefining its Liquid rendering pipeline to provide static website speed times for dynamic storefronts is quite impressive. Here’s the article Deep-dive that explains more.
Some of my Other Favorite Releases
This email would be a mile long if I dove into everything, so here’s the 21-page analysis, but there are a few other features I want to share with you:
- Order Routing Location Rules: Prioritize and rank locations, set maximum order counts per location, and establish rules around which locations deliver to which areas.
- Vaulted Credit Cards: For B2B and DtC customers.
- Admin Block Extensions: Allows apps to embed functionality natively into Shopify admin pages via “blocks.”
- Online Store Editor updates that make it simple to adapt store design with context-specific pages for wholesale and international customers.
Download the Full Analysis Here!
What I’m Thinking About This Week - 3 Things We’re Not Doing We Should Be Doing
Linkedin is a cesspool of self-praise and doesn’t ever really get into what is ACTUALLY going on behind the scenes. Building a business isn’t just all rocketship emojis and diamond hands. So, with that in mind, I want to share the behind-the-scenes takeaways from our extensive team meeting this past week at Electriq, where each team member submitted three ideas of what we’re not doing that we should be doing. We broke it down into the following sections.
Team-Building
To be blunt, team-building at a remote-first company is extremely challenging. Our current structure is not by design and is a byproduct of COVID more so than anything. If I could have everything my way, we’d be hybrid in-office. That being said, building a team culture is critical, and we have to bring solutions to the table given our current environment:
- Lunch & Learn Series about Other Departments
- Monthly Virtual Trivia
- Regional Meet-ups
- Team Building Committee
Professional Development
Part of your job as an employer is to continue to elevate your team member's skills, and we can always do a better job of this:
- Training Request Form: Once a month, team members will submit one idea for a new training resource or video tutorial for me to create.
- Implementation of “Manager Training”
Internal Processes
These can ALWAYS be improved, and this is something we’re intensely focused on as a differentiation factor for how we can service our clients:
- Cybersecurity: If I have to 2FA one more time, I think I might cry, but it’s critical we continue to enhance our processes to protect data.
- Internal Development: Custom solution development, like our electriq.app for web project management.
- Hourly Analysis: Monthly breakdown for each team member on where they spend their time and more transparency around client account profitability.
- Meetings: Establish meeting guidelines to avoid wasting time on unnecessary meetings.
Client Relationships
The #1 thing that keeps an agency running is its clients!
- CSM Elevation: Elevate Client Success Managers within each client account to take more ownership of the relationship.
- EIQ Branding: Our decks and reporting materials just got a BIG revamp, and they look SO much better, clearly conveying information while presenting professionally.
Service Offerings
We continue to refine and hone in on what we do best. Currently, we offer Shopify Consulting, SEO & Content, Retention (Email/SMS/Push/Direct Mail), and Web. With the merge of DRINKS and Electriq, we’ll be adding a separate creative service offering based on all of the DRINKS team's work with brands such as Instacart, Thrive Market, Macy’s, and more.
This Week’s The D2Z Podcast
#68 – Evolving an Antiquated Wine Industry
🎧 Listen Now 🎧
In this week’s episode, I sat down with Patrick Pazos, Sales Manager at DRINKS and Former Enterprise Account Executive at Shopify, to explore the intersection of alcohol and ecommerce:
💰 The huge opportunity that wine producers have in the ecommerce space with Shopify
📲 Transitioning to a modernized tech stack that is fully integrated with one another
😎 How to establish and nurture a direct relationship with the customers
🚀 The future of AI in alcohol and ecommerce
App Highlight – Status
Status provides more signed-in shoppers + a tailored on-site experience = more $ and first-party data for brands.
❓ What is It: Customer account for Shopify Plus brands that increases sign-in rates, shopping activity, and tech stack performance.
🏅 Differentiator: Status tracks shoppers across every session - saving product views, clicks, and add-to-carts to the customer account. This increases AOV by 20% on average from signed-in shoppers. Status also supercharges signed-in shopping rates through intelligent log-in tools and integrations, 3x’ing sign-in rates for most brands.
💰 Starting Price: Free for 60 days, then a monthly subscription based on # of customers in the last 12 months.
🚀 How we use it: Status is redefining what a customer account can do:
- Capture more first-time customers (expensive segment to retain)
- Improve loyalty program performance (Status puts points and credit in front of shoppers)
- Supercharge wishlist engagement (shoppers actually use their wishlist)
- Customize email/sms flows with recently viewed products, saved items, and cart data.
- Unify tech stacks behind a single log-in (returns, tracking, subscriptions, credit, etc.)
Upcoming Events
Last chance for the Private Dodger Stadium Suite with Recharge on August 2 in LA. After a successful and fun first go at this, we’re back with another! There is limited space for merchants, so RSVP ASAP if you’d like to attend, but no guarantees!
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