1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:03,200 Today on the Winning with Shopify podcast, we do them 2 00:00:03,200 --> 00:00:06,120 based on what we think and we do them based on gut feel, not 3 00:00:06,120 --> 00:00:07,840 based on data. And that, I think, is one of the 4 00:00:07,840 --> 00:00:10,640 biggest crimes people commit. But it's not always that simple. 5 00:00:10,720 --> 00:00:12,720 What's the point? Like, I want to thank them for 6 00:00:12,960 --> 00:00:15,880 their review because I know what it's like on the other side. 7 00:00:15,920 --> 00:00:19,440 Would you say that actually AI is enabling humans to do their 8 00:00:19,440 --> 00:00:22,360 jobs better, or is actually it starting to replace humans? 9 00:00:22,360 --> 00:00:25,360 Or is it a murky mix of the two? Those are my favorite projects 10 00:00:25,360 --> 00:00:27,720 where I get to sink my teeth into it and say, all right, 11 00:00:27,720 --> 00:00:30,160 we've got a. Problem to solve every day, make 12 00:00:30,400 --> 00:00:32,720 tons of mistakes, don't. We. 13 00:00:39,560 --> 00:00:42,360 All as a new seller myself or as in or the person who's going to 14 00:00:42,360 --> 00:00:44,160 sell new products for the for the first time. 15 00:00:44,400 --> 00:00:46,920 I already know this guy succeed very early. 16 00:00:47,120 --> 00:00:49,040 It means he's doing something very good. 17 00:00:49,360 --> 00:00:51,280 The demand is there, the product is there, right? 18 00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:53,760 So I already know the success rate is higher. 19 00:00:53,760 --> 00:00:56,960 Now I I second things. I recognize an opportunity where 20 00:00:56,960 --> 00:01:00,640 I can offer this product in bundles or I can add something 21 00:01:00,640 --> 00:01:03,080 else to the product. Maybe I can improve a feature. 22 00:01:03,360 --> 00:01:07,200 Maybe I just recognize that the SCO can be done much better. 23 00:01:07,720 --> 00:01:10,600 Yeah, yeah, I I love that. And it's when we look at 24 00:01:10,600 --> 00:01:15,080 competitors, the, the thing that I, I find mildly frustrating, I 25 00:01:15,080 --> 00:01:18,040 will say, so any existing clients listening, like, please 26 00:01:18,040 --> 00:01:21,000 don't think I'm moaning here, but we make a lot of decisions 27 00:01:21,040 --> 00:01:23,600 and I'm on a war against making decisions this way. 28 00:01:23,840 --> 00:01:26,400 We do them based on what we think and we do them based on 29 00:01:26,400 --> 00:01:29,560 gut feel, not based on data. And that, I think is one of the 30 00:01:29,560 --> 00:01:31,960 biggest crimes people commit. Come back to your murder scene. 31 00:01:32,720 --> 00:01:35,520 The biggest crimes people commit on their own brand is to say, 32 00:01:36,080 --> 00:01:38,560 we're going to launch a red one. This product so popular, this 33 00:01:38,560 --> 00:01:40,880 blue product, we're going to launch a red one, let's do it. 34 00:01:41,120 --> 00:01:43,080 And then it flops. And because you've not looked 35 00:01:43,080 --> 00:01:45,720 properly at the data, as you say, to understand what is the 36 00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:48,280 best color to be offering. Well, why don't you actually do 37 00:01:48,280 --> 00:01:50,640 a sample run or use data like you've got to say, well, 38 00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:53,880 actually on eBay at the moment and in the Shopify marketplaces, 39 00:01:54,200 --> 00:01:58,520 there are 10,000 blue ones being sold, 40,000 yellow ones and no 40 00:01:58,520 --> 00:02:00,200 red ones. And we're thinking of selling a 41 00:02:00,200 --> 00:02:01,880 red one. Well, like you're trying to sell 42 00:02:01,880 --> 00:02:03,320 one that nobody wants to buy at the moment. 43 00:02:03,320 --> 00:02:05,320 So why don't you? I guess it's two sides to this, 44 00:02:05,320 --> 00:02:06,840 isn't it? One is jump on the bandwagon and 45 00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:09,400 say popular product, let's offer the same thing, sell the same 46 00:02:09,400 --> 00:02:11,720 thing, offer our own variation on this. 47 00:02:12,280 --> 00:02:15,200 The other one that sprung to mind when you were explaining 48 00:02:15,320 --> 00:02:18,200 that that new seller that sold 10,000 units, I was thinking 49 00:02:18,200 --> 00:02:22,160 that actually, if you kept an eye on how much your competitors 50 00:02:22,320 --> 00:02:26,480 sold out on certain products and, and I know a way to do this 51 00:02:26,480 --> 00:02:28,720 off the back of Shopify and it'll be to use their shopping 52 00:02:28,720 --> 00:02:30,200 fee. I just want to take a moment out 53 00:02:30,200 --> 00:02:33,080 today's show to tell you about sales tax, which you probably 54 00:02:33,080 --> 00:02:36,280 find overwhelming, never mind the stress that comes with when 55 00:02:36,280 --> 00:02:38,880 you're working with a provider that's overpriced, unreliable 56 00:02:38,880 --> 00:02:40,480 and leaves you waiting days to get a reply. 57 00:02:40,560 --> 00:02:42,680 Tax Cloud is here to tell you that there's a better way. 58 00:02:42,760 --> 00:02:44,920 They're not just at all. They're a trusted filing partner 59 00:02:44,920 --> 00:02:47,480 for growing Shopify brands. They'll work directly with the 60 00:02:47,680 --> 00:02:50,840 dates on your behalf to handle registrations, filings, and 61 00:02:50,840 --> 00:02:53,480 ongoing compliance so you can stay focused on growing your 62 00:02:53,520 --> 00:02:55,760 business. Plus, with a 4.9 star rating on 63 00:02:55,760 --> 00:02:58,600 the Shopify App Store, merchants trust Tax Cloud to get it right, 64 00:02:58,720 --> 00:03:00,480 and you can too. Go ahead and check them out 65 00:03:00,480 --> 00:03:03,760 taxcloud.com/winning or mention us when you sign up. 66 00:03:03,920 --> 00:03:07,000 Us being the winning Shopify podcast listeners get a free 67 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:09,360 migration and boarding service when they decide to make the 68 00:03:09,360 --> 00:03:12,840 switch. That's taxcloud.com/winning. 69 00:03:13,160 --> 00:03:16,560 Back to the show, every Shopify store has a shopping fee that 70 00:03:16,560 --> 00:03:18,800 comes out to Google. So if you check those every 71 00:03:18,800 --> 00:03:21,880 morning and set up some sort of alert to go my competitors 72 00:03:21,880 --> 00:03:25,040 product here has gone out of stock since yesterday. 73 00:03:25,480 --> 00:03:28,120 You could use your data to go it's gone out of stock and tons 74 00:03:28,120 --> 00:03:31,080 of them are selling on the marketplaces and eBay right now. 75 00:03:31,400 --> 00:03:34,360 Therefore, we've got some of those we need to e-mail our 76 00:03:34,360 --> 00:03:36,600 customers about them, put it on our homepage, push it in our 77 00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:38,800 marketing because we're not pushing it right now, but we 78 00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:40,440 know someone else is selling out of it. 79 00:03:40,760 --> 00:03:43,000 As much as, as you say, the devil's in the detail of looking 80 00:03:43,040 --> 00:03:45,400 at these products are doing well and we're pushing all this stuff 81 00:03:45,400 --> 00:03:47,800 over here. I, I so often see it with brands 82 00:03:47,800 --> 00:03:50,080 as well where you've got like 10 kind of flagship products and 83 00:03:50,080 --> 00:03:52,320 two of them sell really well. The other rate you're trying to 84 00:03:52,320 --> 00:03:54,560 push because you accidentally ordered too many. 85 00:03:54,560 --> 00:03:57,360 And I think you again using the data to avoid things like that 86 00:03:57,360 --> 00:03:59,200 happening. Is is so important, isn't it? 87 00:03:59,400 --> 00:04:02,840 Of course, and this and what you just say like this is like the 88 00:04:02,840 --> 00:04:05,960 way you explain it. This is how every brand owner 89 00:04:06,400 --> 00:04:09,640 should play your because imagine people are going investing 90 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:12,760 thousands of dollars on stock, building a website, building a 91 00:04:12,760 --> 00:04:17,600 brand, social channels. It's you should use all set of 92 00:04:17,600 --> 00:04:20,000 different analytic tools and combine the data together. 93 00:04:20,120 --> 00:04:23,880 And we have few unique use cases of sellers are doing it and 94 00:04:23,880 --> 00:04:26,280 they're extremely well. They use, you know, like you 95 00:04:26,280 --> 00:04:30,200 say, they come from U world, Google shopping, Google, Google 96 00:04:30,800 --> 00:04:34,360 Edwards and all these kind of things, bringing traffic data, 97 00:04:34,520 --> 00:04:37,200 but then combining it with real demand and real sales. 98 00:04:37,680 --> 00:04:42,240 And then it works both for EDS and for SEO. 99 00:04:42,560 --> 00:04:44,160 Why? Because suddenly it's not just 100 00:04:44,360 --> 00:04:47,880 this, this search term have 50,000 surges every month is 101 00:04:47,880 --> 00:04:50,440 this search that maybe have just 5000 surges every month. 102 00:04:50,720 --> 00:04:53,400 But the conversion rate and the sales that this search term 103 00:04:53,400 --> 00:04:57,080 actually bring on Shopify and on eBay, which by the way, eBay in 104 00:04:57,080 --> 00:05:00,080 this game terms of SEO much more powerful because it's a surge 105 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:01,480 engine. Yep. 106 00:05:01,680 --> 00:05:03,800 It's it's amazing conversion rate. 107 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:07,560 So now I actually should go and spend on this keyword much more 108 00:05:07,560 --> 00:05:10,640 money because the conversion rate on this keyword is much 109 00:05:10,640 --> 00:05:12,880 powerful. But obviously, I mean, sales tax 110 00:05:12,960 --> 00:05:15,080 as APPC guy, I've spent so much time dealing with it. 111 00:05:15,080 --> 00:05:17,200 Google Merchant Centre needs to know all the different taxes 112 00:05:17,560 --> 00:05:19,840 trying to get it right. And then Google goes, no, when I 113 00:05:19,840 --> 00:05:21,920 had this product to cart and I get into check out, it's, you 114 00:05:22,320 --> 00:05:24,600 know, like it's different and the tax isn't the same as what 115 00:05:24,600 --> 00:05:26,040 you've told me. So I'm going to disapprove all 116 00:05:26,280 --> 00:05:28,160 your ads. It's something that's always 117 00:05:28,160 --> 00:05:32,160 affected the, the, the work that we do, especially again, so it 118 00:05:32,160 --> 00:05:33,360 does relate some of the fun stuff. 119 00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:35,640 What's the first thing Shopify store owners should really be 120 00:05:35,640 --> 00:05:38,600 thinking about cleaning up in their Shopify stores when it 121 00:05:38,600 --> 00:05:41,400 comes to sales tax, especially across certainly across the US? 122 00:05:41,840 --> 00:05:44,640 Yeah, Yeah. I think the the biggest thing I 123 00:05:44,640 --> 00:05:47,760 always tell people to start out is just first understanding 124 00:05:47,760 --> 00:05:51,520 where you actually have what's called in the US Nexus. 125 00:05:51,880 --> 00:05:55,840 So, so tax Cloud, we primarily service businesses that are 126 00:05:55,840 --> 00:05:58,160 based in the US, So I'll give that perspective. 127 00:05:58,160 --> 00:06:01,400 But I think this is applicable to wherever you're selling 128 00:06:01,400 --> 00:06:04,880 today. And in the US in particular, we 129 00:06:04,880 --> 00:06:08,040 actually have the challenge where every state across the 130 00:06:08,040 --> 00:06:11,520 country has their own tax laws, their own tax rules, and 131 00:06:11,520 --> 00:06:14,800 different requirements that tell you whether or not you actually 132 00:06:14,800 --> 00:06:16,800 have tax obligation in that state. 133 00:06:17,120 --> 00:06:20,440 And so this whole idea of understanding where you actually 134 00:06:20,440 --> 00:06:24,240 have met the threshold in that state is your first starting 135 00:06:24,240 --> 00:06:25,760 point. There's an important 136 00:06:25,760 --> 00:06:27,520 consideration when it comes to Nexus. 137 00:06:27,560 --> 00:06:31,600 There's this idea of physical Nexus, and there's an idea of 138 00:06:31,680 --> 00:06:34,360 economic Nexus. When you're talking about 139 00:06:34,520 --> 00:06:38,440 physical, as you may expect, it's based on where you're 140 00:06:38,520 --> 00:06:42,200 actually physically located, but it's not always that simple. 141 00:06:42,600 --> 00:06:45,360 If you happen to have employees in different states or different 142 00:06:45,360 --> 00:06:49,320 areas, that can also trigger physical Nexus in that state. 143 00:06:49,560 --> 00:06:52,800 Or if you have a warehouse where you're storing product, 144 00:06:53,080 --> 00:06:56,040 depending on the state, that could also trigger physical 145 00:06:56,040 --> 00:06:58,080 Nexus as well. So that's, there's a lot to 146 00:06:58,080 --> 00:07:00,080 think about there. And so you start with physical 147 00:07:00,080 --> 00:07:03,120 understanding that. And typically if you're a small 148 00:07:03,240 --> 00:07:05,960 and you're just starting out, you'll know the taxes in your 149 00:07:05,960 --> 00:07:07,520 state, that's where you have physical Nexus. 150 00:07:07,520 --> 00:07:09,640 So get registered and start collecting there. 151 00:07:10,080 --> 00:07:14,120 The others that economic, typically it's based on number 152 00:07:14,120 --> 00:07:19,320 of transactions or total revenue and that will give you a sense 153 00:07:19,320 --> 00:07:22,880 of where you're at today, not to pitch Tax Cloud too early in the 154 00:07:22,880 --> 00:07:25,320 conversation here. So whether you use Tax Cloud or 155 00:07:25,320 --> 00:07:28,680 any other tool, generally any sales tax solution is going to 156 00:07:28,680 --> 00:07:32,200 offer a free plan where you can connect your Shopify store and 157 00:07:32,200 --> 00:07:35,720 get a very quick view of your economic Nexus. 158 00:07:36,280 --> 00:07:38,040 So we always recommend starting there. 159 00:07:38,040 --> 00:07:41,000 Again, Tax Cloud's great for it, but there's other tools you can 160 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:43,040 use as well. Connect your store, get your 161 00:07:43,040 --> 00:07:46,520 orders in there and we'll tell you where you have Nexus today. 162 00:07:47,520 --> 00:07:50,880 I can also speak to the the one other thing I could talk to is 163 00:07:50,960 --> 00:07:54,920 the fact that some orders you deal with some exemptions. 164 00:07:55,880 --> 00:07:59,120 The if, if you're selling different products, a lot of 165 00:07:59,120 --> 00:08:01,280 people don't know that certain products are taxable and certain 166 00:08:01,280 --> 00:08:03,640 aren't. This is where it starts to get 167 00:08:03,800 --> 00:08:07,560 really tricky as well. So that's another thing to think 168 00:08:07,560 --> 00:08:09,520 about as well. Birth where you have Nexus. 169 00:08:09,760 --> 00:08:12,720 Also, depending on the sort of products you sell, do you 170 00:08:12,720 --> 00:08:15,040 actually have to collect taxes on its products? 171 00:08:15,040 --> 00:08:18,480 And there's a lot of interesting rules that you'll have to think 172 00:08:18,480 --> 00:08:20,240 about when it comes to certain product lines. 173 00:08:20,920 --> 00:08:22,440 Yeah, yeah. Now you've just bought back a 174 00:08:22,440 --> 00:08:26,200 tiny bit of PTSD in my head of when I was in San Francisco and 175 00:08:26,200 --> 00:08:29,640 I went into a cafe and compared to the coffee price in the US, 176 00:08:29,720 --> 00:08:32,880 compared to the UKI went in and thought that's quite an 177 00:08:32,880 --> 00:08:35,360 expensive coffee price. And they had a coffee called the 178 00:08:35,440 --> 00:08:38,240 Gibraltar Coffee. I thought, oh great, this little 179 00:08:38,240 --> 00:08:43,360 English town in Spain, which is English, UK British, sorry, in 180 00:08:43,360 --> 00:08:46,200 the UK from the UK. So I went in and ordered that 181 00:08:46,320 --> 00:08:49,240 and I had a minor heart attack going, oh, it's only like half a 182 00:08:49,240 --> 00:08:51,560 dollar or a dollar more expensive than the UK. 183 00:08:51,720 --> 00:08:53,280 It's a bit pricey. And then they added the state 184 00:08:53,280 --> 00:08:56,160 tax, the federal tax. And then this little lady at the 185 00:08:56,160 --> 00:08:57,840 till was looking at me with a big smile. 186 00:08:57,840 --> 00:08:59,840 And I looked down at the screen on the till and it said like 187 00:09:00,040 --> 00:09:01,640 what tip would you like to give and look? 188 00:09:02,320 --> 00:09:04,960 And it just a minor heart attack of thinking I've paid nearly 189 00:09:04,960 --> 00:09:08,240 $10.00 for a coffee. And when I told an American 190 00:09:08,720 --> 00:09:11,040 friend of mine out there, they said $10. 191 00:09:11,440 --> 00:09:13,360 Where'd you get that from? That sounds really, really 192 00:09:13,360 --> 00:09:14,920 cheap. I was like, are you crazy? 193 00:09:14,920 --> 00:09:18,480 Like like even with the pound to dollar ratio as it was back 194 00:09:18,480 --> 00:09:20,600 then. So I think my, my point being, 195 00:09:20,920 --> 00:09:23,480 which I think is a really good reason that you should, you guys 196 00:09:23,480 --> 00:09:26,560 should definitely investigate something like tax cloud rather 197 00:09:26,560 --> 00:09:27,880 than which is the next note on my list. 198 00:09:27,880 --> 00:09:30,680 Doing it manually is I think you've just described really 199 00:09:30,680 --> 00:09:32,760 well Ryan and, and done it in a really very, actually quite 200 00:09:32,760 --> 00:09:36,080 simple kind of broken down way of like it's really flipping 201 00:09:36,080 --> 00:09:37,960 complicated. And I think I, I joked earlier 202 00:09:37,960 --> 00:09:41,360 about my first VAT return in my business, it, it really scared 203 00:09:41,360 --> 00:09:43,680 me because it was like, I don't, I haven't even looked at VAT. 204 00:09:43,760 --> 00:09:46,360 I've, I've been focused on how do I get enough revenue through 205 00:09:46,360 --> 00:09:50,000 the door that I can survive at night and buy food and, you 206 00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:52,160 know, have a roof over my head and this kind of thing which we 207 00:09:52,200 --> 00:09:53,720 all go through and we set up a business. 208 00:09:54,080 --> 00:09:57,160 So actually getting the tax wrong is like, just seems like 209 00:09:57,160 --> 00:10:00,440 one of the most awful byproducts that you could end up going, 210 00:10:00,440 --> 00:10:01,440 right? We've just broken even. 211 00:10:01,440 --> 00:10:03,360 But actually we've made a loss, like I say, because of the tax. 212 00:10:03,360 --> 00:10:06,440 So it's, it's so important, isn't it, to get a system that 213 00:10:06,440 --> 00:10:08,440 will make it easy and actually look into some of those things 214 00:10:08,440 --> 00:10:11,840 that you've just explained to us about the Nexus Plus also like 215 00:10:11,840 --> 00:10:14,320 some things are exempt, which if something is exempt and you're 216 00:10:14,320 --> 00:10:17,080 selling it, guys, that's every reason you should know about 217 00:10:17,080 --> 00:10:19,440 that thing for sure. Totally, totally, yeah. 218 00:10:19,440 --> 00:10:24,000 And that's a big one like it, it, it's not always really 219 00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:26,080 simple for for businesses either. 220 00:10:26,080 --> 00:10:29,760 Like we know a lot of Shopify stores might fall into the broad 221 00:10:29,760 --> 00:10:32,480 category of selling clothing, right? 222 00:10:32,520 --> 00:10:35,360 A clothing and apparel well within that. 223 00:10:35,400 --> 00:10:40,400 In some states, if it's athletic clothing or shoe, athletic shoes 224 00:10:40,400 --> 00:10:43,760 where kids might be using it, those could be exempt because 225 00:10:43,760 --> 00:10:47,600 certain states have those or in other states they may not be, 226 00:10:47,600 --> 00:10:49,440 right. Food is another great example. 227 00:10:49,440 --> 00:10:52,760 You mentioned coffee, but there's some states where I 228 00:10:52,760 --> 00:10:57,160 think in California there's a that you have to pay taxes on 229 00:10:57,160 --> 00:11:02,280 candy, whereas in Texas you may not, you know, so it's it's all 230 00:11:02,280 --> 00:11:05,600 this very intricate stuff that you can think about. 231 00:11:06,280 --> 00:11:08,760 You can kind of manually track that yourself. 232 00:11:08,760 --> 00:11:11,800 But then there are tools like tax code where we use taxability 233 00:11:11,800 --> 00:11:15,880 codes that we kind of have broad taxability codes that we kind of 234 00:11:15,880 --> 00:11:18,960 help map products to. And typically, you know, we can 235 00:11:18,960 --> 00:11:20,840 help handle a lot of that for you. 236 00:11:20,840 --> 00:11:23,520 So basically we're just trying to make sure any of this sort of 237 00:11:23,520 --> 00:11:24,840 stuff that you don't have to think about it. 238 00:11:24,840 --> 00:11:26,440 We can just help on that as well. 239 00:11:26,640 --> 00:11:29,000 But as you're starting out, definitely only something to be 240 00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:31,080 thinking about. Do I have exempt products? 241 00:11:31,120 --> 00:11:33,720 In addition to understanding your Nexus for sure how? 242 00:11:33,720 --> 00:11:35,560 Let's start off with like how AI, right? 243 00:11:35,560 --> 00:11:38,400 How is it transforming customer service for businesses? 244 00:11:38,400 --> 00:11:40,400 Like what are some of the fundamental things that's 245 00:11:40,400 --> 00:11:43,160 changing apart from, you know, you might, you might have some 246 00:11:43,160 --> 00:11:45,520 of the obvious bits, but what are the less obvious things than 247 00:11:45,520 --> 00:11:48,240 just saving time, saving money, less humans on the ground. 248 00:11:49,400 --> 00:11:54,000 Yeah, I think a big thing that I see from larger businesses, at 249 00:11:54,000 --> 00:11:56,480 least this is what they claim. It has nothing to do with saving 250 00:11:56,480 --> 00:12:01,160 money, nothing to do with alleviating workload on agents. 251 00:12:01,160 --> 00:12:05,480 And it's all about speed and offering a level of support that 252 00:12:05,480 --> 00:12:09,320 they otherwise couldn't. So I think that's a big thing is 253 00:12:09,320 --> 00:12:13,520 just the, the pace at which support operations are working 254 00:12:13,520 --> 00:12:15,560 at now. And they've, you know, we've 255 00:12:15,560 --> 00:12:18,400 kind of shifted from using automations think like chat 256 00:12:18,400 --> 00:12:21,280 bots, whereas really our expectation was just that 257 00:12:21,280 --> 00:12:23,640 they're going to help us sort out the volume, right? 258 00:12:23,640 --> 00:12:25,760 Things like a main menu, they take everyone in and then they 259 00:12:25,760 --> 00:12:28,800 help compartmentalize all these requests so that we can work 260 00:12:28,800 --> 00:12:33,360 through them faster. And now we're way beyond just 261 00:12:33,360 --> 00:12:35,960 sorting and organizing these requests so that humans can 262 00:12:35,960 --> 00:12:38,720 answer them. We're, we are answering them, 263 00:12:38,760 --> 00:12:41,640 right? We're trying to resolve tickets 264 00:12:41,640 --> 00:12:44,000 before they become tickets in the 1st place. 265 00:12:44,000 --> 00:12:48,000 So, yeah, maybe that's the more obvious the Level 0, but I think 266 00:12:48,640 --> 00:12:51,080 something maybe less talked about, it's just the general 267 00:12:51,080 --> 00:12:54,600 speed and customer expectations that go with that. 268 00:12:55,600 --> 00:12:58,280 Which I think is amazing because speed is not what I thought you 269 00:12:58,280 --> 00:13:00,200 were going to say, but I think it's such a valid point. 270 00:13:00,200 --> 00:13:01,880 It's such a logical point when you think about it. 271 00:13:02,160 --> 00:13:04,320 Hey guys, I just want to take a moment aside from today's 272 00:13:04,320 --> 00:13:06,680 episode to introduce one of our amazing sponsors, Covella. 273 00:13:06,680 --> 00:13:09,240 They are the all in one platform that helps you design, sample 274 00:13:09,240 --> 00:13:12,040 and launch your product lines. Covella are helping Shopify 275 00:13:12,040 --> 00:13:16,560 brands save up to 40% on stock costs thanks to their smart, 276 00:13:16,560 --> 00:13:19,480 streamlined supply chain. That means more profit for you, 277 00:13:19,720 --> 00:13:23,880 less costs, and loads of time saved in trying to get stock on 278 00:13:23,880 --> 00:13:26,840 your shelves right now. You can fast track their waiting 279 00:13:26,840 --> 00:13:31,120 list and get 50% of your first sample order just by using the 280 00:13:31,120 --> 00:13:34,280 code winning at checkout. This exclusive offer for winning 281 00:13:34,280 --> 00:13:36,880 with Shopify podcast listeners. Just go to the link in our 282 00:13:36,880 --> 00:13:39,440 description or in our bio to unlock the savings and skip the 283 00:13:39,440 --> 00:13:41,160 cube. We build your brand, save on 284 00:13:41,160 --> 00:13:43,760 stock and step into the future of e-commerce with Cabela. 285 00:13:43,920 --> 00:13:46,400 That code again, winning. Back to the episode. 286 00:13:46,800 --> 00:13:48,600 So I mean, we're kind of hinting at this anyway. 287 00:13:48,920 --> 00:13:52,920 Would you say that actually AI is enabling humans to do their 288 00:13:52,920 --> 00:13:55,800 jobs better, or is actually it starting to replace humans? 289 00:13:55,800 --> 00:14:01,240 Or is it a murky mix of the two? I would say it's a non murky mix 290 00:14:01,240 --> 00:14:05,720 of the two, like it's and and yeah, I think I work in sales so 291 00:14:05,720 --> 00:14:07,840 I need to know my audience most of the time. 292 00:14:07,840 --> 00:14:12,240 And a lot of times you might have customer support directors 293 00:14:12,240 --> 00:14:15,320 and things like that where they don't want to hear anything 294 00:14:15,320 --> 00:14:18,240 about replacing human agents, right. 295 00:14:18,520 --> 00:14:21,760 But then we might talk to. The finance they have. 296 00:14:21,880 --> 00:14:24,720 Finance or even like these bigger organizations, they have 297 00:14:24,720 --> 00:14:28,400 teams that are like director of process improvement. 298 00:14:28,480 --> 00:14:32,360 And so look, that's all they want to talk about is how can we 299 00:14:32,360 --> 00:14:35,040 improve process. And if that's replacing people, 300 00:14:35,320 --> 00:14:37,520 that just means we're going to use those people to do something 301 00:14:37,520 --> 00:14:39,000 more valuable. It doesn't mean we're just going 302 00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:41,880 and sweeping through the organization and firing 303 00:14:41,880 --> 00:14:45,520 everyone, right? But I think that, yeah, as far 304 00:14:45,520 --> 00:14:49,120 as helping human agents, we think about things like Copilot 305 00:14:49,120 --> 00:14:53,440 where it's the AI's already tapped into the conversation and 306 00:14:53,440 --> 00:14:57,880 I'm not having the AI take over the conversation entirely. 307 00:14:57,880 --> 00:15:00,840 But there are definitely instances where I can say, oh, 308 00:15:00,920 --> 00:15:03,440 this is what the AI would have said to this question that the 309 00:15:03,440 --> 00:15:05,720 customer just asked me. I could sit here and retype this 310 00:15:05,720 --> 00:15:08,640 whole thing, or I could just edit or send what the AI has 311 00:15:08,640 --> 00:15:11,840 already typed. So in many ways, speed, like 312 00:15:11,840 --> 00:15:15,640 it's helping the agents work faster, it's helping the agents 313 00:15:15,640 --> 00:15:19,160 avoid those questions that make their eyes roll. 314 00:15:19,280 --> 00:15:20,960 You know, and when you're dealing, when you're a live 315 00:15:20,960 --> 00:15:23,800 agent and you're handling, you know, maybe 100 chats, 50 plus 316 00:15:23,800 --> 00:15:28,200 chats a day, you'd have plenty of those eye roll moments. 317 00:15:28,200 --> 00:15:30,480 It's those questions that are on the website. 318 00:15:30,720 --> 00:15:32,560 Like there are things that are on the homepage that visitors 319 00:15:32,560 --> 00:15:35,840 will ask your live agents. So I think in that respect, we 320 00:15:35,840 --> 00:15:40,240 clean that up. It is just completely false 321 00:15:40,280 --> 00:15:44,880 though to say that like AI is not taking anyone's job and this 322 00:15:44,880 --> 00:15:47,400 isn't just in the respective support, right? 323 00:15:47,400 --> 00:15:51,520 If if I have a team of 100 people with 0 automation in 324 00:15:51,520 --> 00:15:57,320 place and in a matter of 30 to 60 days I can have 50% of all of 325 00:15:57,320 --> 00:16:00,960 our previous chats resolved in a couple of, you know, back and 326 00:16:00,960 --> 00:16:05,160 forth messages with the AII need my human agents who were 327 00:16:05,160 --> 00:16:08,440 responsible for that 50%. I need to give them something 328 00:16:08,440 --> 00:16:11,200 else. So it's, yeah, not that they're 329 00:16:11,200 --> 00:16:13,400 disappearing, but like Tedio went through this, we went 330 00:16:13,400 --> 00:16:15,520 through this ourselves. We didn't used to have AI 331 00:16:15,520 --> 00:16:18,040 support in our chat. We have full live team of human 332 00:16:18,040 --> 00:16:21,040 agents and we still do. But those live agents are not 333 00:16:21,040 --> 00:16:23,480 working on level 0. They're working on level 1, 334 00:16:23,480 --> 00:16:25,640 Level 2. They're working on multi day 335 00:16:26,280 --> 00:16:29,560 tickets that require external teams from the support team to 336 00:16:29,560 --> 00:16:32,360 help with that kind of stuff. So everything's shifting up. 337 00:16:32,680 --> 00:16:35,160 I mean, you see this in coding, you see this everywhere. 338 00:16:35,360 --> 00:16:39,840 Say apps, I know from experience if I start deleting apps and 339 00:16:39,840 --> 00:16:42,160 depending on which ones I delete, SEO starts going up 340 00:16:42,200 --> 00:16:44,960 because and our rankings go up and traffic increases because of 341 00:16:44,960 --> 00:16:47,360 the page, page speed and page load and that sort of thing. 342 00:16:48,240 --> 00:16:50,280 Give us an overview then to how you guys, because you mentioned 343 00:16:50,280 --> 00:16:52,480 kind of that's one of the things you would advise people on the 344 00:16:52,480 --> 00:16:54,760 shop, how rebel cheese in your role. 345 00:16:54,760 --> 00:16:58,520 Have you actually attacked some of the page speed problems, some 346 00:16:58,520 --> 00:17:00,960 of the functionality problems? You mentioned you listened to 347 00:17:00,960 --> 00:17:02,640 podcasts, but what have been some of the outputs that you 348 00:17:02,640 --> 00:17:04,560 guys have been like? Have you developed your own code 349 00:17:04,560 --> 00:17:06,720 for things? Are you using an all more all in 350 00:17:06,720 --> 00:17:08,480 one apps? You've got one app to 20 things 351 00:17:08,480 --> 00:17:10,319 or have you gone for small but really light apps? 352 00:17:10,480 --> 00:17:13,720 What's your approach? So great question. 353 00:17:13,720 --> 00:17:18,079 So one of the well, couple of apps that I use are Microsoft's 354 00:17:18,079 --> 00:17:22,000 clarity for heat map and tracking and also seeing some of 355 00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:26,520 the page lags, but also Shopify's own web page 356 00:17:26,520 --> 00:17:32,480 performance on the analytics on the theme editor and Lighthouse 357 00:17:32,760 --> 00:17:37,840 are great tools that help you just know, are we accidentally 358 00:17:37,840 --> 00:17:41,760 inadvertently putting too much JavaScript heavy big images. 359 00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:46,840 Now Shopify is good about making sure that it's helping you not 360 00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:51,880 have 50 Meg PNGS jpegs just by the nature that it prevents you 361 00:17:51,880 --> 00:17:54,560 from loading them into the store to begin with. 362 00:17:54,880 --> 00:17:58,640 But still, you still want to make sure that you don't have a 363 00:17:58,640 --> 00:18:02,240 death by 1000 paper cuts. Because if you get a little lazy 364 00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:06,320 with some Jpegs and PNGS after you have a few 100, then 365 00:18:06,320 --> 00:18:10,280 overall, you know, you kind of you've lost the plot as far as 366 00:18:10,280 --> 00:18:13,880 the page speed and time. And it also helps you. 367 00:18:13,960 --> 00:18:17,840 What I like to do with my Shopify specialist who helps be 368 00:18:17,840 --> 00:18:22,440 my counterbalance is about every so often 30 days, we do an 369 00:18:22,440 --> 00:18:27,920 analysis to read, to reassess, like OK with AB testing of the 370 00:18:27,920 --> 00:18:32,680 landing page, product pages, even the images. 371 00:18:33,240 --> 00:18:35,040 Is this still the best thing that's working? 372 00:18:35,240 --> 00:18:37,760 So we'll do that through a careful balance of the 373 00:18:37,760 --> 00:18:40,720 quantitative data, like I just said, using some of the tools 374 00:18:41,160 --> 00:18:44,960 either built within Shopify or Lighthouse or heat Clarity for 375 00:18:44,960 --> 00:18:49,200 heatmap testing, AB testing, but then also the qualitative. 376 00:18:49,480 --> 00:18:52,040 So we do. I have a post purchase. 377 00:18:52,640 --> 00:18:55,400 I use user loop for my post purchase survey. 378 00:18:55,720 --> 00:18:59,000 So that's what I found is the hottest time to get someone. 379 00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:02,240 They've already spent 110 to 120, thirty dollars. 380 00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:05,600 Ask them a question, two or three questions right away. 381 00:19:05,800 --> 00:19:08,840 I give them a 10% discount if they answer all the questions 382 00:19:09,240 --> 00:19:11,480 and I have like a 37% response rate. 383 00:19:12,040 --> 00:19:16,080 After about a year of doing it, I'd like have 100 and 1110 384 00:19:16,080 --> 00:19:19,520 thousand responses. So huge amount of qualitative 385 00:19:19,520 --> 00:19:23,840 responses to find out. One of the reasons it's good to 386 00:19:23,840 --> 00:19:29,320 do that, not just for different demographics, but it was a big 387 00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:32,320 eye opener. Before Shark Tank, of course, 388 00:19:32,320 --> 00:19:36,720 our world was a lot smaller and therefore our customers were 389 00:19:36,760 --> 00:19:39,840 vegan or vegetarian. After Shark Tank, when I 390 00:19:39,840 --> 00:19:42,640 launched that post purchase survey and I asked what's your 391 00:19:42,640 --> 00:19:44,520 lifestyle? How would you describe yourself? 392 00:19:44,520 --> 00:19:47,680 Vegan, vegetarian, lactose, dairy and tolerant are 393 00:19:47,680 --> 00:19:49,880 sensitive. Our world shifted. 394 00:19:49,880 --> 00:19:54,160 So we have a steady 35% of our customers are about or would 395 00:19:54,160 --> 00:19:58,840 describe themselves as vegan or vegetarian. 55% of our customers 396 00:19:59,320 --> 00:20:02,760 are dairy, lactose intolerant or sensitive. 397 00:20:03,040 --> 00:20:06,160 So that's to what you were saying earlier, a huge eye 398 00:20:06,160 --> 00:20:10,360 opener from a marketing, whether it's paid or organic. 399 00:20:10,440 --> 00:20:13,160 We need to start looking at the much bigger slice of the pie 400 00:20:13,160 --> 00:20:17,760 because in the US, about 3% of the pop of the US population 401 00:20:17,760 --> 00:20:22,960 identifies as vegan versus. About 55 to 60% of the US 402 00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:26,040 population has some sort of dairy sensitivity, whether it's 403 00:20:26,040 --> 00:20:29,480 full blown lactose intolerance or it makes their, you know, 404 00:20:29,520 --> 00:20:32,880 digestive system not happy. So why would we go after a small 405 00:20:32,880 --> 00:20:36,400 little slice first? A large, large swath. 406 00:20:36,880 --> 00:20:40,480 So that's been very eye opening as far as testing not just 407 00:20:40,480 --> 00:20:44,760 messaging apps performance, but knowing where we want to shift 408 00:20:44,760 --> 00:20:48,240 our messages along the way. We've spoken about apps then, so 409 00:20:48,560 --> 00:20:51,680 bigger than just the apps in Shopify, your bigger, wider tech 410 00:20:51,680 --> 00:20:53,960 stack. Are there any specific decisions 411 00:20:53,960 --> 00:20:57,040 you made early on that you've actually gone, that was a 412 00:20:57,040 --> 00:21:00,160 terrible idea? Or actually, it's been a game 413 00:21:00,160 --> 00:21:01,960 changer for us and we should have done it sooner. 414 00:21:01,960 --> 00:21:04,360 Or we didn't understand how powerful it was when we first 415 00:21:04,360 --> 00:21:07,160 integrated that tech or used a new piece of software. 416 00:21:09,120 --> 00:21:12,000 Well, everyday I make tons of mistakes. 417 00:21:13,240 --> 00:21:16,120 Don't we all? I always hope I learn from them, 418 00:21:16,800 --> 00:21:21,960 but I think again, it was lack of time and just having wearing 419 00:21:21,960 --> 00:21:24,440 too many hats. I wish that I had more time 420 00:21:24,520 --> 00:21:30,080 earlier after we launched our Shark Tank episode to be able to 421 00:21:30,080 --> 00:21:34,960 get a really good understanding of the shipping costs for which 422 00:21:34,960 --> 00:21:39,120 would include things like Because We are plant based 423 00:21:39,120 --> 00:21:42,160 cheeses were perishable. So that means our goal is to try 424 00:21:42,160 --> 00:21:44,280 to get the product to you once we ship. 425 00:21:44,520 --> 00:21:48,080 So the fulfillment may take 3 or 4 days for the kitchen to make 426 00:21:48,080 --> 00:21:51,040 the products etcetera. But once we say your product is 427 00:21:51,040 --> 00:21:54,840 shipped 2 days or less. So that means we have to have 428 00:21:55,120 --> 00:21:58,440 insulation in the boxes that we make sure are compostable or 429 00:21:58,440 --> 00:22:02,480 recyclable ice packs that are going to be enough ice packs 430 00:22:02,480 --> 00:22:07,240 that will keep the product at 40° Fahrenheit or less for that 431 00:22:07,400 --> 00:22:11,880 one to two day travel. And also not 'cause the box to 432 00:22:11,880 --> 00:22:15,720 waste so much that we pay a crazy amount of shipping costs 433 00:22:15,720 --> 00:22:20,080 from FedEx or UPS. So we my Co founder Fred and I 434 00:22:20,080 --> 00:22:24,880 are constantly analyzing and re analyzing who is the best 435 00:22:24,880 --> 00:22:28,520 cardboard box vendor, who is the best insulation vendor, who is 436 00:22:28,520 --> 00:22:31,800 the best ice pack vendor as well as other things like the tape 437 00:22:31,800 --> 00:22:34,280 that goes on there because everybody wants to sell you 438 00:22:34,280 --> 00:22:38,040 stuff. But if one of our sub goals as 439 00:22:38,040 --> 00:22:42,680 Rebel cheese is to also be sustainable and you try to have, 440 00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:45,760 you know, the the least impact on the planet as we can as far 441 00:22:45,760 --> 00:22:48,880 as these materials, that already eliminates a lot of those. 442 00:22:49,200 --> 00:22:53,920 And once we make that sign that contract for truckloads of boxes 443 00:22:53,920 --> 00:22:55,600 and ice. One of the things I didn't 444 00:22:55,600 --> 00:22:58,840 mention is we own our own vertical, our entire vertical. 445 00:22:59,040 --> 00:23:03,120 So we have our own production kitchen, our own warehouse, our 446 00:23:03,120 --> 00:23:05,520 own fulfillment center. So we own everything, which 447 00:23:05,520 --> 00:23:09,640 allows us to own everything, but also make our own mistakes that 448 00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:13,000 can be very costly. Last thing on my list to ask you 449 00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:16,720 about is product reviews to obviously help help convert 450 00:23:16,720 --> 00:23:19,600 customers. Now, I, we work quite a lot with 451 00:23:19,600 --> 00:23:22,800 a lot of review platforms, so I'm totally at home with how 452 00:23:22,800 --> 00:23:25,080 reviews work and stuff. So my question to you really, 453 00:23:25,080 --> 00:23:27,080 Tina, rather than telling us like what are reviews and how do 454 00:23:27,080 --> 00:23:29,040 they work? I want to, what I'd love to find 455 00:23:29,040 --> 00:23:31,720 out from you is how do you leverage the review content 456 00:23:31,720 --> 00:23:33,000 itself? How do you get customers leave a 457 00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:34,600 review? But how do you leverage that 458 00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:37,880 content once customers have reviewed something to get more 459 00:23:37,880 --> 00:23:39,840 customers or encourage people to buy another product? 460 00:23:40,960 --> 00:23:45,520 So my first trick is I'll show you for people that are 461 00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:49,320 watching, we have thank you cards and they're usually blank. 462 00:23:49,440 --> 00:23:53,240 And then we write their name and on the back it says you can save 463 00:23:53,240 --> 00:23:57,560 $5 off if you leave a Google review or Facebook review, or 464 00:23:57,560 --> 00:23:59,000 this is how you leave one on our site. 465 00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:02,920 And if they leave one on our site, they'll automatically get 466 00:24:02,920 --> 00:24:07,960 an e-mail to leave another review for another discount 467 00:24:07,960 --> 00:24:10,360 code. We also send an automation 468 00:24:10,360 --> 00:24:13,000 e-mail that thanks every customer for their order. 469 00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:16,760 And then we also send an e-mail to give a referral to a friend 470 00:24:16,760 --> 00:24:18,240 and then they both get codes off. 471 00:24:18,520 --> 00:24:22,320 So the customer's always getting something because like, what's 472 00:24:22,320 --> 00:24:24,080 the point? Like I want to thank them for 473 00:24:24,320 --> 00:24:26,560 their review because it's work for them. 474 00:24:26,680 --> 00:24:29,720 Because I know what it's like on the other side to leave a 475 00:24:29,720 --> 00:24:32,240 review. It means a lot for the business. 476 00:24:32,240 --> 00:24:34,000 So the least I could do is thank them. 477 00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:36,800 And then there's also reviews on our site. 478 00:24:36,800 --> 00:24:40,400 If you leave 1, you get an e-mail discount code right away. 479 00:24:41,280 --> 00:24:42,920 Amazing. And I think the the right away 480 00:24:42,920 --> 00:24:45,000 is so important. Is it you don't want a customer 481 00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:47,480 going, I've done something and I've got nothing that's worth 482 00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:49,040 than not offering it in the first place. 483 00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:50,800 I think having it automated is amazing. 484 00:24:51,800 --> 00:24:55,120 If I, if I, if a client asks me, can you explain how we should 485 00:24:55,120 --> 00:24:57,200 get more reviews? Everything you've just said, I 486 00:24:57,200 --> 00:25:00,320 think is what I should probably say to them in such a concise 487 00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:03,240 way of saying, I, I, I guess it almost sounds like your mission 488 00:25:03,240 --> 00:25:06,520 is as soon as someone's bought a product from us, we need to get 489 00:25:06,520 --> 00:25:08,400 a review from them, whatever it takes. 490 00:25:08,480 --> 00:25:11,480 And if they leave one, we should thank them, which I, I imagine 491 00:25:11,480 --> 00:25:15,240 must, it must create such a good long term like communication and 492 00:25:15,240 --> 00:25:18,120 relationship between you and customer as a business, because 493 00:25:18,120 --> 00:25:20,160 you've already given them a reward, they've given you a 494 00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:22,040 review. It's like that's quite a strong 495 00:25:22,040 --> 00:25:24,720 relationship compared to just I bought something and never spoke 496 00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:27,840 to them again. Definitely. 497 00:25:28,560 --> 00:25:29,920 Nice. So there we go guys. 498 00:25:29,920 --> 00:25:31,760 That is a review strategy in a nutshell. 499 00:25:31,880 --> 00:25:33,560 But obviously there's a technical challenge in there for 500 00:25:33,640 --> 00:25:36,200 music in O'Brien of right. We've got this new e-mail list 501 00:25:36,200 --> 00:25:39,920 like no one knows the new brands and we know what Google and 502 00:25:39,920 --> 00:25:42,160 Microsoft and all the servers are going to do if we suddenly 503 00:25:42,160 --> 00:25:44,400 e-mail them all. Talk us through that process of 504 00:25:44,400 --> 00:25:48,040 introducing that new brands to everybody from a both technical 505 00:25:48,040 --> 00:25:49,240 and kind of marketing perspective. 506 00:25:49,960 --> 00:25:53,680 No, you're, you're, you're directly on, on the nail with 507 00:25:53,680 --> 00:25:55,840 that one. I mean, the biggest thing is, 508 00:25:56,760 --> 00:26:00,640 you know, we, you can't, you're, you're on. 509 00:26:00,640 --> 00:26:02,680 And I think it, it probably breaks so many people's hearts 510 00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:05,640 that I can't just take an e-mail list from one brand and say, 511 00:26:05,640 --> 00:26:08,640 I've got all these emails and I can, I can send them whatever I 512 00:26:08,640 --> 00:26:12,200 want. You can, you're welcome to most 513 00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:14,040 of those emails are going to end up blocked or in the spam 514 00:26:14,040 --> 00:26:16,960 folder. And one of the things that is 515 00:26:16,960 --> 00:26:19,640 really important to us is that when we're sending emails to 516 00:26:19,640 --> 00:26:23,200 customers, that our customers are, that our customers are 517 00:26:23,200 --> 00:26:24,840 successful reaching their customers. 518 00:26:25,760 --> 00:26:29,520 And so that really is a guiding principle for us to protect the 519 00:26:29,520 --> 00:26:33,080 inbox from that junk, which then make sure that the good emails 520 00:26:33,080 --> 00:26:35,880 do make it into the inbox. Something that was really unique 521 00:26:35,880 --> 00:26:40,040 was I actually, I knew about Pat and Quill before I got into E 522 00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:42,320 com and before I got into e-mail marketing, I was working at the 523 00:26:42,320 --> 00:26:46,400 Apple Store and a few of the, the guys at the Genius Bar had 524 00:26:46,400 --> 00:26:49,720 their PQ cases and everyone was always envious. 525 00:26:49,760 --> 00:26:52,840 And you know, something that was really cool is it was never just 526 00:26:52,840 --> 00:26:56,960 like 1 product, right? It was, you had fans, real 527 00:26:56,960 --> 00:26:59,000 people that were, were truly fans. 528 00:26:59,400 --> 00:27:02,760 So, you know, I always, whenever somebody says I need to rebrand, 529 00:27:02,760 --> 00:27:04,200 I approach it with a little skepticism. 530 00:27:04,560 --> 00:27:06,760 In Brian's case, I had, I already had a personal 531 00:27:06,760 --> 00:27:08,880 connection. I knew that he was being honest 532 00:27:08,880 --> 00:27:10,840 that these are my customers and they love me. 533 00:27:10,840 --> 00:27:14,360 And a lot of these, I have 10 year buying relationships, 15 534 00:27:14,360 --> 00:27:15,720 year buying relationships with them. 535 00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:16,960 They've been with me the whole way. 536 00:27:18,200 --> 00:27:22,440 So what we needed to do was really make sure that the the 537 00:27:22,440 --> 00:27:27,640 story of who is Burton Goods and how did they end up in my inbox 538 00:27:27,640 --> 00:27:30,520 come across. Brian had already done a really 539 00:27:30,520 --> 00:27:34,040 nice job writing up a landing page about what happened to PQ 540 00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:37,440 and then where Burton came from that. 541 00:27:37,440 --> 00:27:40,240 So that was a big part of what we wanted to do with 542 00:27:40,240 --> 00:27:44,120 introduction. But it's not just that easy as 543 00:27:44,120 --> 00:27:48,480 you can't just take, you know, thousands and thousands of 544 00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:50,440 e-mail address and just say, hey, by the way, this is what 545 00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:50,960 happened. Yeah. 546 00:27:51,400 --> 00:27:53,920 Because if they don't recognize it right away, it's a it's a 547 00:27:53,920 --> 00:27:54,840 problem. Yeah. 548 00:27:54,840 --> 00:27:57,760 So and buy this product, look at these images, see all these 549 00:27:57,760 --> 00:27:59,440 links? It's like it's just a nightmare, 550 00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:00,640 isn't it? It's all the things you don't 551 00:28:00,640 --> 00:28:02,320 want a spam filter getting its hands on. 552 00:28:02,880 --> 00:28:05,120 Yeah. And we, I mean, Brian was really 553 00:28:05,120 --> 00:28:08,520 open to, to our input and that helped a lot for me. 554 00:28:09,440 --> 00:28:12,800 You know where we, I don't think we Brian, we didn't even feature 555 00:28:12,800 --> 00:28:14,800 products in the first couple of emails. 556 00:28:14,800 --> 00:28:18,360 It was a personal note. You know, we used a signature 557 00:28:18,360 --> 00:28:21,840 section in there to make it look like he had signed the e-mail. 558 00:28:22,840 --> 00:28:26,680 And it was all of the whole CTA was driving back to what 559 00:28:26,680 --> 00:28:31,080 happened to PQ. And that relationship, customer 560 00:28:31,080 --> 00:28:33,520 relationship, I think was something that Brian held on to. 561 00:28:35,320 --> 00:28:39,200 But in order to get to the inbox for that first one, we had to 562 00:28:39,600 --> 00:28:42,960 sift through all the MailChimp data and say, I need to find 563 00:28:42,960 --> 00:28:46,240 those super fans first. And this is something that we've 564 00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:51,080 talked about a lot, Nick before. But by taking your, your list 565 00:28:51,080 --> 00:28:54,120 and everyone thinks their list is just a monolith of just, I 566 00:28:54,120 --> 00:28:57,440 have an e-mail list and just push this block forward. 567 00:28:57,760 --> 00:29:00,600 But there's really, there are valuable sections within that 568 00:29:00,600 --> 00:29:03,680 list. And so we've started to dig into 569 00:29:03,680 --> 00:29:07,400 previous purchase data from Magento and previous engagement 570 00:29:07,400 --> 00:29:09,840 data from MailChimp. And we found those little bits 571 00:29:10,280 --> 00:29:13,360 and we started by stacking the deck with those little bits and 572 00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:17,080 getting those folks to to send. So I think, Brian, if I remember 573 00:29:17,080 --> 00:29:20,560 correctly, the first e-mail that we sent with Saguno had an open 574 00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:25,440 rate over 50%. And it was a lower volume, but 575 00:29:25,440 --> 00:29:29,400 it was, it's, it proved that, hey, there are people that want 576 00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:31,720 to hear from this. And it had a very low 577 00:29:31,720 --> 00:29:35,560 unsubscribe rate. And then we said, great, now 578 00:29:35,560 --> 00:29:38,200 let's take the next level of fans and the next level of fans. 579 00:29:38,640 --> 00:29:40,960 And we kept repeating that process until we'd gotten 580 00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:43,560 through everybody that had a previous buying relationship 581 00:29:43,560 --> 00:29:47,000 with with Brian or had been engaging with e-mail from 582 00:29:47,680 --> 00:29:49,760 MailChimp with Pat and Quill before. 583 00:29:50,800 --> 00:29:54,760 And so it's, it's not a fast process. 584 00:29:55,840 --> 00:29:58,880 But you know, there's another fortunate part of being on 585 00:29:58,880 --> 00:30:01,320 Brian's timeline was I want to do this right. 586 00:30:01,560 --> 00:30:03,480 We're willing to work with you to get it right. 587 00:30:03,480 --> 00:30:06,840 And so those are my favorite projects where I get to sink my 588 00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:09,960 teeth into it and say, all right, we've got a problem to 589 00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:13,600 solve. We know we've got a a really 590 00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:17,040 strong possible outcome on the other end, so let's work towards 591 00:30:17,040 --> 00:30:18,400 it. Do you ever find that in your 592 00:30:18,400 --> 00:30:21,240 warehouse you have dead stock, You can't sell it, no one wants 593 00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:22,680 to buy it, and you can't get a refund on it. 594 00:30:22,960 --> 00:30:26,000 Or alternatively, you're missing inventory in your warehouse that 595 00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:28,160 you need, you've got sales coming in and you're low on 596 00:30:28,160 --> 00:30:30,240 stock and you haven't ordered more stock. 597 00:30:30,280 --> 00:30:32,240 In time, all these things hit profit. 598 00:30:32,240 --> 00:30:34,000 And I've been there. I've run my own Shopify store 599 00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:36,560 and had exactly that problem, but we've partnered up with 600 00:30:36,560 --> 00:30:39,000 Inventory Planner who have the most incredible app to help you 601 00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:42,840 manage that and forecast exactly what products, what skews even 602 00:30:42,840 --> 00:30:46,160 down to what colour of products you need to order in advance to 603 00:30:46,160 --> 00:30:48,920 make sure stock layer levels remain consistent throughout. 604 00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:51,560 They're also running a seven day boot camp and if you want to go 605 00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:54,320 and sign up to that, it's 7 emails in seven days and it 606 00:30:54,320 --> 00:30:56,320 takes the same amount of time as your morning coffee. 607 00:30:56,360 --> 00:30:58,760 And in seven days, like me, you can become an inventory 608 00:30:58,760 --> 00:31:01,120 management pro. Both links are in the 609 00:31:01,120 --> 00:31:02,320 description. Enjoy.