CheckoutWeekly/TaskHusky Curated Newsletter #2138 (copy 01)

Hey *|FNAME|* … Pucker Up and Gimme a Kith … on Shopify

Hello —

I totally screwed up. So, when we started these newsletters “The Old Guy” said that the best day to send emails was on Tuesdays because folks are overloaded with emails on Mondays. He even had like “official” stats and crap to prove his point. That’s why we started sending these emails on Tuesdays, which means I write them on Mondays. But here’s the deal … we have this nasty habit of moving any holiday that can possibly be moved to Monday so ALMOST EVERYONE gets a long weekend. So while we may get some kind of fractional bump in email open rate, sending the emails out on Tuesdays GURATANTEES that I will have to work EVERY Monday … including every possible fungible holiday from now until the end of the internet. Like right now … today is some kind of holiday — I know because the banks are closed and my doctor is having all his calls forwarded to the pro shop at Bushwood Golf Course. Half of everybody has a day off and I have to work. The only question is whether The Old Guy did this to me on purpose because I swear that he looks extra-special chipper after he enjoys a long weekend these days. Even now I’m convinced that I can hear him laughing in the hallow echo of his Weber Kettle grill. I’ve got my eye on you Old Guy! Anyway … if you had Monday off, good for you. If you didn’t, welcome to life in eCommerce-land. But we actually have a real rags-to-riches story this week. An inner-city kid who went from working at his uncle’s shoe store at age 13 to a Top 10 Shopify store and Super-Influencer status. Let’s get to it.Happy Selling,Zachary

This Week’s Target: Kith.comCompany ProfileAaron “Ronnie” Fieg started working as a stock-boy at the age of 13 for his uncle’s chain of footwear stores called “David Z” in New York. When he got a little older, he became a salesman. Shortly after that he worked his way up to manager and head buyer. He changed up merchandising and made sales jump by stocking trendy athletic designs … you know, sneakers.  In 2007 ASICS gave him the opportunity to create a custom series and Ronnie created 3 limited edition styles in bright colors that he called “The 252 Pack.” The colors were so radical that they captured the attention of a journalist who put a picture of them in The Wall Street Journal. The entire stock sold out in less than 24 hours. This success and fame launched his career. Since then he has collaborated with every major brand of sneaker-maker and dozens of celebrities. He has his own chain of high-end shoe and apparel shops called “Kith” and some of them have “Kith Treats” bars that serve breakfast cereal and ice cream all day (I knew I liked this guy). Importantly for us, his online store is on Shopify Plus and is … hang on to your sneakers … in the Top 10 of all Shopify stores. The Shopify Theme They UseKith refreshes their entire site regularly. This current version was updated just a few days ago on October 8th. And that’s kind of how it got my attention. And yes, it is a custom theme with the internal development name “Fall Homepage Refresh” … which make sense.  The Good StuffThe site is extremely well-designed from an aesthetics point of view. And if you are patient enough to wait for the pages to fully load, you can see that video product pages are like mini trips to New York Fashion Week. Look at this example. And if you are selling $400 corduroy jackets, you’d better be high-end. The whole site has an aspirational “want to be cool like us?” vibe to it that really works for this high-end brand. The Add-to-cart function works well and fast and give instant upsells and Express Checkout options. Once they have you on the hook they move quickly to close the deal.  Needs ImprovementMany of the models in the photos and videos have that same dis-interested snot-hole pouty-lipped sleepy-eyed stare that makes you want to take away their trust funds and send to Army boot-camp. But maybe that’s just me. So … according to the “stats” and official “analytics algorithms” the pages load fine on desktops and like crap on mobile. But Kith.com has a similar advantage to Kanye West’ “YeezySupply” site we reviewed last month — BRAND Power. Ronnie Fieg is driving culture. His online stores do not rely on Google algorithms or paid ads. People wait anxiously for new shoe and clothing releases that sell out quickly and they will wait a few extra seconds for the page to load. No installment payment options? At these price points? Doesn’t make sense to me. I ran through a complete purchase cycle and they kept trying to guess my info. But it loaded old addresses from years ago. Haven’t seen that before. They may have purchased old data. Apps They DeployWe ran a scan to see what Shopify apps & supporting services they are deploying. Get a load of this list:

  • Klaviyo — eCommerce marketing platform.

  • Searchanise — eCommerce product search.

  • Zendesk — Customer support system.

  • Happy Fox Chat — Live website chat function.

  • Bugsnag — This code-fixer app is EVERYWHERE these days.

  • Usercentrics — User consent.

  • ShopifyPay/ApplePay/PayPal — Express payment options.

  • DoubleClick — Ad network.

This may not be a complete list. But that is an impressively SHORT list. Top 10 Shopify site rarely have tons of apps.

Marketing Stuff They DoI can’t find any ads … not on social, not on search. I thought I found some, but it was a fake sites knocking them off with a brand name that would get them sued were they not located in Easter Europe and run by the KGB … I hear Putin shops there. Anyway …. The reason that Kith does not need to buy ads or even have an Amazon store front? Rapid followers. They have 138k followers on Facebook, 262k followers on Twitter, and 2.2 MILLION followers on Instagram. And they reward those followers with active original content and organic reach. This is where they spend their marketing dollars (in addition to retargeting ads). And since there are no ads to show you this week, here’s a GIF of a Sith Kitten battling Jedi Dogs to entertain and reward you for reading the entire newsletter this week.

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