retail.tea.leaves: In N' Out N' Doin' It Live
Welcome to retail.tea.leaves for week 6 of 2023, a companion newsletter to my broader?marketing and trends newsletter. Let's get into it.
In N’ Out
Trying to plan out initiatives for 2023? Wondering what the competition might be up to? Just looking for ideas?
Let’s take a look at what’s In and Out in retail right now.
IN: Brick and Mortar borrowing from Ecommerce
Give your phone number to get access to something, like the physical product. Some stores are testing a piece of anti-theft tech that allows shoppers to unlock items themselves, if they hand over their phone number or a biometric. The data won’t be used for anything else, of course. (Until it is?)
Along with a few more things we’re used to seeing in ecomm stores. And if they’re worth stealing, they’re worth making sure you have in the first place. Here’s your checklist:
OUT: Treating B2B Buyers Differently
Breaking news: business buyers want to be treated like normal buyers.
Studies show that 90% of B2B buyers want DTC-style experiences from the suppliers they buy from
This triggered a rant.
IN: ThE FuTuRe
Why build with physical materials when you can do it with pixels? Check out the new alo yoga virtual store. It’s virtual reality, no goggles required.
OUT: Celebrity Collabs
Beyoncé’s Ivy Park collab with Adidas is looking like a rare miss for the Queen. What can we learn from this?
If one of the world’s most successful artists can sell out of concert tickets but not exclusive drip, it’s possible that fans would rather invest in experiences than material things amid economic uncertainty.
Economic Quick Hits
The jobs report for January was quite nice. And Fed Chair Powell says inflation is starting to ease, but interest rates are still likely to rise thanks to that strong job market.
But inflation rose 0.5% in January. 0.2% if you exclude food, energy, and shelter. On the flipside, Adobe says January marks fifth straight month of falling online prices.
Everything is Customer Service
Everything your brand does is customer service. And every customer (or potential customer) is a media entity that could reach millions.
An Etsy seller’s interaction with a customer over a faulty product went viral on TikTok, and not in a brand building way.
McDonald’s new AI-powered ordering system is taking over The Clock App, but not in a good way. Turns out, when people order a water and an ice cream, they don’t want 4 ketchups and 2 butters.?
Getting the customer to your brand’s store is just the first step. Everything after that deserves just as much focus, though I would argue far more. Zappos became famous for its customer service department, sometimes it’s easier to start at the end and work backwards.
This is a quick post that is worth reading at least twice. The gems start with the title: The customer is always right in matters of taste.
Then there’s this:
From a marketing perspective, the customer is never wrong. If you offer two colors of a product, your opinion on which color is better doesn’t matter much
Or this nugget from Zendesk:
领英推荐
Assuming the customer is always right is about assuming responsibility for our own customer experience.
Amazon’s Smile Becoming A Frown?
It’s a rough time to be Amazon right now. Earnings were rough and according to Jungle Scout’s State of the Amazon Seller report:
In 2023, sellers are focused on expansion within Amazon and beyond. 50% will explore new ecommerce platforms, with a similar percentage eyeing new global marketplaces.
The news that The Everything Store now takes a 50% cut of sellers’ revenue is making all kinds of headlines.
And then there are these headlines:?
Buy Now, Pay Later
Apple is adding Pay Later to Apple Pay, joining the BNPL arena. (If you accept Apple Pay, you’re all set to “accept” Apple Pay Later.) Apple should be able to quickly establish a foothold in the competitive field thanks to brand trust, ubiquity, and the ease of not needing to create a new account.
Of course, the competition could make it easier for them too.
Do you offer Afterpay as a payment option? If so, you might want to be aware of the growing body of complaints filed with the FTC by consumers. Common themes are: support is hard to reach, charges remaining on incomplete or canceled orders, and being told “talk to the retailer” after the retailer sends them to Afterpay.
Apple isn’t inherently better suited for any of these than Afterpay, but its track record suggests it will be better at all of them.
Inspiration Station
Pop quiz: your brand’s theme song is used without permission in a post that goes viral, what do you do? Don’t call the lawyers, pull a Home Depot. Post that bop for all to use and see what happens.
Need some more inspiration for your TikTok? Try this rec from DTC Daily:
I'd really encourage you to take a look at Plufl's TikTok. They're not pulling in huge numbers but they are posting high-quality, consistent content that ties into trending sounds and memes on the app.
Collaborative ads were hot like Hansel for the Super Bowl this year. Might be worth testing out the approach even if you don't have Big Game Bucks.
Do It Live?
Fanatics is going to do it live. The plan is to sell cards and collectibles via the great white whale of ecommerce channels: livestream shopping. This may be the year the medium sinks or swims for good.
But what makes for a good livestream?
If you’re thinking about giving the medium a shot, check out this guide for all the deets in getting started.
Before you go all in, consider that Instagram has gotten out of the liveshopping game, which means Meta is 100% out on the medium for the time being.?
?? Attacks & Hacks
There’s a strain of malware targeting ecomm companies called GuLoader. It’s been around for a bit but it’s recently evolved. The new version has been used in the US and South Korea.
the new phishing wave employs NSIS [Nullsoft Scriptable Install System] files embedded within ZIP or ISO images to activate the infection.
Translation: beware executable and zip files from unknown sources.
Another reminder that humans are the weak link in the security chain:
Thanks for reading! If you learned something and want more, think about subscribing and/or check out the other stuff I write.
-Kyle