Latest Tech News, A Shift in Returns Strategy, Gamifying Promotions & Useful Resources
???? James Gurd
Ecommerce Strategy + Technology Selection (Replatforming) Consultant ?? Fractional Ecommerce Director + Host of Inside Commerce Podcast ????
Part One - Interesting Tech Discoveries / News
???? BIG NEWS
PayPal to process card payments in Shopify Payments
Currently, you can take PayPal card payments & offer PayPal wallet on Shopify as a 3rd party payment provider, but not as part of Shopify Payments, so you end up with different data flows and reports. This new partnership simplifies payments on Shopify even further and also means the default gateway won’t always be Stripe (bet that went down well with Stripe!). It's good news for ecommerce businesses.
Here’s the announcement from PayPal CEO Alex Chriss :
We need tech vendors who focus on solving a specific problem instead of targeting mass market feature appeal. Dot On bridges the gaps between Shopify and Brightpearl by Sage to enable a seamless integration for orders, customers, stock and returns.
Key features include order edits, cancellations and fulfilment holds for greater operational flexibility. Customers include CurrentBody and FAIRFAX & FAVOR .
To find out more, connect with co-founder & CEO Jonathan Petrie .
Shopify x Roblox
I picked this up via Liam Quinn , whose enthusiasm for Roblox is way greater than my middle-aged cynicism! Even Superdrug has a game in Roblox, so what do I know!
As a parent, I don’t like the commercialisation of gaming spaces, it’s insidious. However, from a brand and ecommerce POV, a direct integration between Shopify and one of the world’s largest immersive virtual worlds that has an estimated 79 million daily users makes perfect sense.?
Shopify will pilot its checkout in Robolox sometime early 2025, allowing merchants on Shopify to sell directly in the virtual world. For influencers, it will offer a rapid route to selling merchandise and, I suspect, become a major affiliate opportunity for brands (I write weeping at the prospect).
More info here: https://www.shopify.com/news/shopify-roblox
Their advanced AI video generation platform just got more, well, advanced. You can now do video-to-video editing on its Gen-3 model, allowing text commands to make changes to a video e.g. “change the background bar to be a London pub”.
Early feedback indicates the edit quality is variable but the potential for marketers is exciting. See this example, showing how you can use it to change product backgrounds to tell a richer product story.
Part Two - Video on How Ecommerce Refunds Strategy Needs to Change
Returns can cost up to 66% of the original order value; on slim margin items, that’s a profit killer. According to Signifyd , rate of returns is growing faster than rate of ecommerce sales growth. In the US, 16.5% online purchases were returned in 2023 according to National Retail Federation, which also reported that nearly 11% of those returns were fraudulent.
In this 10 minute returns strategy masterclass we cover:
We're dropping a full podcast on this topic tomorrow with a more detailed discussion on returns strategy, good practice and future direction. If you want us to let you know when it's ready, just add a comment with "Pod please" or something equally banal!
We're not the only ones banging the drum for an evolution in attitude towards returns. Luke Hodgson and the team at Commerce Thinking recently posted articles on this topic. Here's Luke's take on paid returns.
Paid returns aren’t just a cost recovery measure; they’re a strategic lever. Brands can guide customer behaviour, reduce unnecessary returns, and maintain profitability. But they expose product quality and consistency issues that most brands haven’t got a plan for. Do it right and it can be a profit driver, do it wrong and you’ll have a PR disaster.
Part Three: Psychology in Ecommerce
The gamification of discounts
I recommend reading Nick Kolenda newsletter.
His latest edition reminded me of a principle I tested and saw good results from many years ago, but haven’t had the occasion to use for many years.
Customers can respond better to the potential for a “lucky discount”, even if that discount isn’t guaranteed. One example is researchers who bought a vending machine that sold $0.75 chocolate bars (e.g. Snickers, Twix).
They ran two discounts:
领英推荐
The uncertain discount boosted sales by 50%. Lots of us love the prospect of winning big and are willing to eschew a guaranteed discount. It's the double or nothing principle in black vs. red on a roulette table.
I love this next example Nick cites. Researchers tested mechanisms to drive sign-up for online video tutorials:
Guess which option won? Yep, the gamified approach!
There are many ways to apply this into ecommerce and retail, and which work best requires a sensible approach to piloting, testing and tweaking. A few ideas:
* If you listen to the Jordan North Capital Radio show in the morning, this is an online version of The Bong Game. My kids have cultured me.
This example from Motion Grey at least demonstrates a value prop to encourage more data sharing.
Part Four - Useful Resources & Digital Jobs
Interesting reading
Thought provoking article from AE Studio on what consciousness is, in the context of AI and algorithms:
Useful global ecommerce market stats from Artur Stańczuk :
Meet Magento 2024 conference playbook, key insights packaged into a handy ebook by Jamie Huskisson :?
Cool digital jobs
Ecommerce Trading Executive (Maternity Cover) - Bath/Hybrid - Lovehoney Group >
Director of Ecommerce EMEA at sportswear brand On >
Head of Ecommerce Customer Analytics at my favourite denim brand Levis’Store >
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We can help you with your ecommerce strategy or technology selection.
If you're a ￡5million+ ecommerce business, simply DM ???? James Gurd or Paul Rogers, or email [email protected] for more info.
We've helped leading DTC brands and B2B ecommerce business future-proof their tech stack and build a business case for change, providing truly objective and tech agnostic advice.
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awesome read, thanks for including us! if anyone is interested in this, we're continuing to research this as part of our neglected approaches approach to ai alignment https://ae.studio/blog/ae-studios-alignment-agenda-the-neglected-approaches-approach
CEO @ JH (The Breakthrough Agency), Meet Magento UK Organiser
2 个月Thanks for including our ebook! I appreciate it.
?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? always a fantastic read! Thanks so much for including dot on | doton.io, you're super stars!
Chief Strategy Officer at Packhelp | Marketplace, Retail & Digital experience | Entrepreneurial spirit
2 个月???? James Gurd thank you for the mention! Proud to be a part of such a great issue!
Ecommerce & Innovation | Advising international brands & building best-in-class tech.
2 个月Ahh thanks for the shoutout, in a way ??