CheckoutWeekly/TaskHusky Curated Newsletter #2204

Namaste Baby! ... on Shopify

Yo -  So, last week we talked about a company that smelled of testosterone and Old Spice. This week we’re going to talk about a top Shopify site that smells of Chai Tea and Spandex. I’ll bet you thought I was going to talk about football again, huh? Psyche! But here’s the thing … when your girlfriend comes into your office and “catches” you looking at … well, let’s just call them “attractive” women stretching to and fro’ in yoga pants with that pouty model-on-the-catwalk look, there is nothing you can say to convince her that you are evaluating the website for your successful eCommerce newsletter. You get comments like, “Oh, I see … ‘evaluating the website’ … is that what they call it these days? Un huh. Oh, and don’t try that old line about gift shopping because I don’t do yoga.” I laughed nervously and told her that we’d get her favorite take-out food tonight because she’s my Shnookums. But the truth is there’s no way in heck I’m gonna let her make dinner tonight. I didn’t get to be the founder of a tech company like TaskHusky by being dumb. Anyway … this company bends over backwards to get sales, and the whole thing is pretty darned impressive … the website, I mean … not the yoga models. I mean I didn’t notice the models, they just happened to be in my field of view. Dang … let’s just get to the Shopify teardown already.Happy Selling,Zach

This Week’s Shopify Target: AloYoga

AloYoga started in 2007. Obviously … they started as a yoga studio in Los Angeles, California. I mean come on, right? They have a “studio to street” design ethos. That means that they want you to wear their yoga designs all the time. Stinky-sweaty hot-yoga garb is not their core audience.

This site has risen to #8 in Shopify-land and is an impressive top 5k site in the US. It looks like they moved to the Shopify platform in 2017. Their site ranking is continuing to rise, so good on them. They sell on their site,

, through a network of branded stores and resellers, and VERY impressively via social media … and we will get to that in a minute.

The Shopify Theme They Use

I looked deep into the code and yes, this is a custom theme. I can see that their web team has hidden some notes to themselves n the code … for example, this is version 25 of the site and this one was revised and published to production at 4:00 pm Monday, January 24

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We I find things like that hidden in the code I get a little rush of accomplishment that proves to one and all that I am a bit of a nerd.

As far as yoga is concerned … I can plank … I do it for 8 hours per day … in my bed … while sleeping. I am just that good.

What They Do Well

This site is a case study in market maximization. They have captivated the entire yoga lifestyle and created a platform. Here’s a list:

I’m probably forgetting something.

Do one other thing … go to the home page and then scroll down to the section that say “Alo on Insta.” On desktop you can see it right away … those little plus sings (+) on the images. On mobile, if you click on the image you can see them. These are smart links. Click them once to see an offer, follow the offer to buy online.

Really, really well-executed.

There is just a TON of goodness here to love … the shopping cart is slick and fast and upsells coordinated merch in real time. There are plenty of the right Express Payment options. The scheduling tool and store locator work flawlessly. The photography is strong and the video ads are very well-produced.

I normally do not gush like this. But this website is so much more than just a pretty face. This is one of those aspirational sites with lessons to teach anyone interesting in marketing women’s fashion online.

What Needs Improvement

Nothing. This site is one of the best I’ve seen. I have a minor comment that they do not have installment payment options like AfterPay running … at least not that I could see with my regional locators on. Nothing but props other than that.

The Shopify Apps They Use

  • iGoDigital — Use behaviroal analytics.

  • Hotjar — Visitor heatmaps … lets you see into behavior.

  • Optimizely — A/B testing.

  • LaunchMetrics – This is cool … a marketing and analytics tool specializing in fashion.

  • Heap — User behavior capture.

  • Preact — Customer support.

  • New Relic — eCommerce dashboard view.

  • TalkTable — Customer reviews.

  • Back in Stock — Inventory alerts.

  • Bambuser — Video publishing to websites.

  • Bugsnag — The hottest code error app going these days.

  • YotPo — The Po of Yots … actually, it’s a way for customers to write reviews and such.

  • Signified — Fraud and chargeback protection.

  • PayPal/GooglePay/ShopPay/ApplePay — Express Payment Options.

  • Zoom — This is a first … they are using Zoom for online video customer support … at least that’s what it looks like.

  • Boomerang – Website performance measurement.

  • ExactTarget — Marketing messages.

  • DoubleClick — Ad network.

  • The Trade Desk — Online media buying platform.

  • PepperJam Network — Affiliate Marketing.

That’s a hefty list. But they are using them all and the marketing is so slick I forgive the heavy lifting.

Marketing Stuff They Do

We have covered a bog chink of the impressive marketing that this company is doing. They also buy a TON of online ads … both search and social media. If you have some time, I would recommend walking through some of it for yourself.

That said, here are 3 examples of Facebook/Instagram ads and 3 search ads that they are running right now.

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