Shopify was too busy rolling out its Summer 24’ Editions update to write a good blog post about it. It doesn’t even cover half of its own top 10 updates. 

All good, we took care of it.  

In this Issue:

• A walkthrough of Shopify Summer Editions

• The pitfalls of moving into big box retail (from someone who has done it)

• What VCs look for in consumer brands 

Let’s get into it

Shopify Editions Summer ‘24

Shopify is working toward unifying commerce like no other. After a 

This edition is about reducing your workload by doing all the little things for you. There’s AI to help you get around and execute marketing, less work to do when you expand internationally, easier to customize analytics and more. 

Get the full breakdown here.

Markets

They’ve released a new, single command center for global expansion which includes: 

• Duties, taxes, compliance

• Language support & regional pricing, along with seamless multi-currency support

• Better inventory solutions 

• Easier shopping page customization by market

• Detailed analytics for each

For more details, watch the Markets video here. 

Store Design and Development

Shopify is making store design and development more accessible to all. 

On the design side of things:

• You can make more edits without having to code

• You can reuse theme sections 

• There is more drag n drop, plus better preview features

For more details, watch the video here. 

On the development side, i.e. editing or building new pages, you can also do more without code. However, the code remains the main source of truth. 

• Devs and non-devs can work on a page at the same time, all updates are immediately pushed. 

• Devs can create more presets a modules for non-devs to work with

• Non-devs can implement preset data-enriched elements into pages

And a number of other small details that will make life a lot better for teams. For more, check the video out here. 

Magic (lol, no. AI)

It’s all about Sidekick. An AI assistant integrated in Shopify that can help you find your way around Shopify itself, but also your own business. 

Say you want to launch a marketing campaign targeting your best customers – just ask Sidekick to reach out to them with a personalized email and a discount. 

Next, they remind us that providing shoppers with real time answers can increase conversions by up to 69%. That’s why they let their AI suggest custom responses to customers based on your store’s particularities, which can help you cut down on your response time. 

For more details including expansion of their image generation features, watch the video here. 

All new Analytics

Often the most satisfying (or depressing) place to spend our time. Now more customizable with better presets. 

• Data is real time. You can access to-the-minute data on how your store is performing.

• The dashboard is better. You can rearrange it with simple click and drag, and there are a ton of preset data cards that answer businesses’ most common questions. 

• You can customize reports. See whichever data points you’d like side-by-side for a personalized view of your company’s performance. 

Get more details in the video here. 

Split Shipping

Customers used to only see one option and price for the delivery of a multi-product order. 

Now, it is… 

1. Possible to see whether items will be transported in multiple shipments, and 

2. Have control over each item’s delivery. 

Say you need a particular item delivered quicker compared to the rest of your order. You can now pick faster delivery option for that particular item. 

Neat.

You can watch the video here for more details. 

Shop Campaigns & Audiences

Shopify has enhanced its tools for ad campaigns through its platform, increasing their reach and allowing for better targeting. 

• You can launch campaigns across Meta, Google and TikTok through Shopify.

• They’ve released advanced targeting features based on Shopify-specific data, and say that their customers have seen great results. 

• They released better retargeting algos last edition which have performed well (according to them) and have now refined them further.

Here’s a link to the video if you want to learn more. 

Easy retail checkout

More than a few new features for POS as Shopify continues to push for unified retail, including:

• One tap digital receipts

• Opt-ins for marketing

• Prompts for email

• Sales attributions for high-performing staff

• Automatic detection of whether a product can be returned with context for staff

…And a few more quick updates

• Shopify Flow for All Plans: Automates tasks like emails and inventory updates.

• Shopify Bundles App: Streamlines product bundling for better sales and inventory management.

• Shop Pay Installments: Flexible payment options to increase accessibility and sales.

Takeaway: Some of these updates are big, some are relatively minor, but altogether they add up. Additionally, the fact that Shopify is committed to making these bi-annual mini-revamps is what makes them far and away the market leader in e-commerce and DTC.

The landmines to avoid along the path to retail

You guys have heard of Obvi right? Obviously. 

Founded in 2019 by Ronak Shah, Ankit Patel, and Ashvin Melwani. Obvi saw a gap in the collagen market - no fun flavors or packaging. 

The three were familiar with the health industry and already running a marketing agency, so they made the shift and jumped in. 

Long story short, they achieved $40M in revenue in just 5 years. 

They did this with a heavy reliance on DTC channels, great community building, and a little Amazon & other marketplaces on the side. All digital.

Then, something quite exceptional happened. 

They became one of the 32 brands each decade to get into Walmart. 

Not only are they nationwide now, but they’re in retail. Easy transition for a brand doing so well already. 

Jk, NOPE. 

The rules in retail are wildly different from those in DTC and, this week, Ron shared just how tough a lesson that was.

1️⃣ Does online popularity translate to real-world popularity? 

Hell no. 

Had that been the case, it could have justified them setting their usual online prices in Walmart. Turns out, their competitors were selling at competitive prices, and had a real-world following. 

Whereas everyone who knows and loves Obvi was still getting theirs online. 

Ron’s takeaway: “You’re entering a new customer pool, so treat your brand like it just launched for the first time ever and price yourself as little as you can in comparison to your competitors while still being profitable.”

2️⃣Think people want to try some cool flavor instead of the usual unflavored stuff? 

Packaging doesn’t hit the same on a store shelf. 

All the glitz and jazz from online graphics and advertising is out the window, and flashy colors don’t cut it if no one knows you. 

People saw this weird new brand and its funky flavors and decided to stick with what they knew. 

Ron’s takeaway: “Don’t showcase yourself too out of the box, otherwise you’ll scare people away. Match your competitors to a certain extent to gain trust, but make a better product to win the race.”

3️⃣Should you advertise the fact you’ve entered retail on your website? 

Dude. C’mon. No. 

Jk again, it's not that obvious. But here’s what happened to Obvi. 

They were proud of their achievement and let their online world know. And their online world listened. Tons of them started grabbing the product at Walmart and rarely ever bought from the online store again. 

Ron’s takeaway: “Don’t drive your worthy customers who’re buying consistently online away by marketing the hell out of your retail expansion on your website.”

4️⃣Should you just throw ALL of your products on the shelves? 

Yep. works like a charm! 

…

No, of course it doesn’t. 

Some are going to win, some are going to lose, and you’ll have to monitor your product mix in order to get it right.

Ron’s takeaway: “Launch small, but launch strong. And if some don’t work out, that’s ok! Be prepared to have some products flop and double down on what works.”

5️⃣ Test your packaging 

Ron recalls a story @AVEStyles told him about DYPER’s early days at Walmart. 

DYPER sells diapers made with plant materials, including bamboo. 

Well, people thought they were selling hard-shelled diapers made out of bamboo. 

Whoops.

Ron’s takeaway: “Test your packaging out on strangers before you launch into retail. Make sure everyone can understand what you’re selling and why right off the bat.”

The moral of this story is…

Don’t assume. 

In life, and especially in business. 

Ron and co.’s success with Obvi had them making assumptions again and it slapped them in the face. 

Props to Ron for sharing his experience and sharing his lessons. 

VCs want organic (no, not the produce kind) 

Josh Payne, co-founder and General Partner at OpenSky Ventures, says the one thing he always looks for when investing is “a very high percentage of organic revenue”. 

Why? 

Well, you probably have an inkling, but here’s what he says. 

“Leveraging a paid-first strategy, you'll never reach first-order profitably. Which will drive you to take out short-term Clearco/Shopify/Wayflyer loans or constantly get distracted trying to raise capital to keep your business afloat.

Both will blow up your company eventually.”

• Josh Payne, OpenSky Ventures

Here are some examples he shared of founders doing things right: 

1. Haley Pavone and her 1M+ followers for Pashion Footwear – building in public on TikTok to create virality. 

2. Raad Michael Mobrem with Intro – building an exclusive community around a premium offering. 

3. James Beshara and Magic Mind – achieving crazy repeat rates with “habit-forming products”

We all know why most don’t commit towards organic growth. 

It’s a simple problem of short term versus long term gratification. Like that test where if the kid doesn’t eat a masrhmallow, they get a second one a few minutes later. 

We live on short-term business cycles, striving to have weekly results to report and hit monthly KPIs instead of building a longer-term view of things. We also categorize different activities as profitable or not (and therefore worth our time or not) based on their short term yield. 

Organic is often a long-term play and rarely looks good through such lenses. 

Even if you were to invest in organic growth, it’s not easy. 

The idea of investing in a long term strategy that ends up failing is scary. 

They all say: “consistency will pay off”. Sure Bob, but when? 

All we can do is pull lessons from brands who’ve achieved organic growth and derive insights from what they all had/did in common. 

Then you give it your best shot and cross your fingers. 

Let’s say you are good at paid media. 

Your ROI is relatively consistent. That means you are buying customers at a fixed rate from Meta, Google or wherever. 

The fixed rate could actually change at any given time as we are all at the mercy of the almighty algos, which their parent companies tinker with constantly. 

Plus, paid ROI is dropping as the online space gets more and more crowded. 

As a result, you’re constantly coughing up cash to get each customer, at rates that are only getting worse over time. 

In fact, it is generally recognized that paid media’s ROI is a sacrifice you make to then get real returns through customer lifetime value. 

Reaching or maintaining first order profitability in these conditions is feasible, but difficult. And growing in difficulty every day. 

If anyone knows how to do it though, it’ll be the fellas over at the Common Thread Collective. Here’s an article of theirs on how to optimize ad spend for profitability. 

Organic on the other hand… 

… has quasi-infinite ROI potential. 

Since consistency is often touted as the key, let’s imagine you invest a fixed amount each month into organic content. 

At first, the ROI is null. 

But if you have what people want and create an environment where people want to be (e.g. social media platforms), your investments into organoic can compound over time. 

More importantly, organic following implies loyalty and market fit. Or in other words, stability. 

Everything a VC wants. 

Takeaway: You already know this, but organic growth is worth the investment. If you’re stuck in short-term cycles, it might be time to make a tough decision: either slowly let your business decline or start divesting some resources into strategies that promise longer-term, more sustainable growth.

Quick hits

• Amy Charlotte Kean made a satirical video on how UGC authenticity is dwindling. 

• Ryan Doney, co-founder of Pagedeck, released a tool that lets you search and find any brand’s landing page. It’s called the Lander library. 

• Jony Volk reported that Thrasio is selling some of the brands it bought back to their founders.

• A new meta bug has hit the shelves (credit: Harry Molyneux, founder of DTC Pages).