CheckoutWeekly/TaskHusky Curated Newsletter #2135

Hey *|FNAME|* … Taking It Yeezy on Shopify

Hello -

I’m writing this email today, but you will read it tomorrow. So, when I say that today is the most ironic day of the year, you will need to hop in your intellectual DeLorean and travel back in time to today — which will be your yesterday. Got it? Labor Day … as others have observed, is a holiday when we do not work. Except for me. I have to write this email. So, while you and yours take one last trip to the beach or fire-up the BBQ for some burgers and brews, I am staring at the blank page of my computer screen conjuring up every remaining ounce of wit and wisdom to make sure that your Tuesday-after is both fun and informative. You’re welcome. Ah, the life of a successful Shopify entrepreneur is not an easy one my friends. I just make it look that way. But if not easy, at least it can be Yeezy. And by Yeezy I am referring to the collaboration between Adidas and Kanye West to make shoes. More on that in just a minute. I was thinking about “Take it Easy” … the classic song by the Eagles and what would happen if you combined it with Kanye to make a song called “Take It Yeezy.” I often ask myself stupid questions like that. But in the interest of pseudo-science I played Kanye’s hit “Love Lockdown” at the same time as I played “Hotel California” by the Eagles. This sonic confluence caused a rip in the space-time continuum and sent me into the future … which means I already know what will happen tomorrow … which is your today. Hint: You will be amused and enlightened by an email newsletter about the branding power of Kanye West and Yeezy. Dang I’m good! Let’s get to it.Happy selling,Zachary

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This Week’s Target: YeezySupply.comCompany ProfileWhen I think of Kanye West I think of a common man of the people who has his feet firmly planted in practical reality and is likely in need of a few extra bucks to make life a bit easier … or, in this case, Yeezier. Said no one ever. Mr. Kardasian-West needs no introduction. The billionaire singer / producer / designer / Presidential Candidate / etc. designed a shoe for Adidas in 2006, but it never saw the streets. Then he made shoes with a company called Bape … that no one ever heard of so let’s forget about it. Then he made a pair of “Air Yeezy” shoes with Nike, but they disagreed about the nature of gravity of whatnot, so he eventually came back to Adidas in 2015.Now, they sell nearly $2 billion worth of Yeezy shoes per year …. that’s two … freak’in … BILLION … dollars … worth of ugly shoes each year, netting the Kanye-ista a cool 10% of in royalties. Dang. The Shopify Theme They UseThis is one of the most custom Shopify sites in the history of Shopify sites. It’s so custom with so much code stripped from it that many tools do not even recognize it as a Shopify site at all. The Good StuffOK … the question becomes “why” did I choose YeezySupply as our Shopify teardown this week? The answer is “brand.” The website is super stripped down. It uses a joke of a font, a monospace font similar to “courier” that everyone makes fun of. AND it’s in all-caps. The products are all sold out … or you have to register for an email blast to get a chance at buying a pair when they are released. This takes the concept of “scarcity” to a whole new level. They don’t even tell you the price. No one knows how much it will cost until they are triggered to make the purchase. This site is a speed ROCKET SHIP. I have NEVER ever seen a perfect Google speed score before … until today. It gets a “100” on both mobile and desktop. Needs ImprovementThis is normally the section where I point out all the things that a website does wrong. And make no mistake … the YeezySupply site does many, many things wrong.  But it just doesn’t matter. This is the power of brand in action. It is the “Holy Grail” of marketing. There is no SEO, no risk reversal, no upselling, no … nothing. But it does not matter because there is a legion of fans waiting for the “next shoe to drop” — said both literally and ironically. Apps They DeployWe ran a scan to see what Shopify apps & supporting services they are deploying. Get a load of this list:

  • Krux Digital — User data collection.

  • Mixpanel — A/B testing and analytics.

  • Cookiebot — Collects consumer intent and acceptance of tracking.

  • ExactTarget — Multi-channel marketing.

  • DoubleClick — Retargeting ad platform.

  • Mandrill — Email marketing.

This may not be a complete list. But notice how SMALL this list is. I mean holy crap … there are almost no apps or widgets. That is one of the main reasons this site is so incredibly fast.

Marketing Stuff They DoThis is normally the section where I share the marketing and advertising that a Shopify site does. Let me put it this way …. YeezySupply launched its Facebook page (123k followers) in 2015 at the same time the products launched with Adidas. That was 6 years ago. Since then, they have made ZERO posts. I looked hard and dug deep … and I can find a lot of folks reselling Yeezy shoes in ads, but no ads from YeezySupply. I can find ZERO paid search ads. There are social media communities called “The Yeezy Mafia” that announce shoe and clothing releases (drops). Here is the Facebook “community,” (>80k followers) and here is the one on Twitter (>650k followers). In these communities the re-sale and exchange of Yeezy merchandise is encouraged. The YeezyMafia team also has an Instagram page with … brace yourself … 3.1 million followers.  The YeezyMafia has its own website: https://yeezymafia.com But this site also sells banner ads. You can subscribe to be notified of the “drops” on the site, and they only provide suggestions and guidance as to what the price may be. The line between Yeezy, YeezySupply, and The Yeezy Mafia is fuzzy at best. But the effect is clear. Millions of fans wait in eager anticipation for the “next shoe to drop” and this creates a profit monster.

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