CheckoutWeekly/TaskHusky Curated Newsletter #2211

|* A Hip Hop Geography Lesson … on Shopify

Yo - How’s your geography? I kind of suck at geography. I mean, I know absolutely everything about everything between Chicago and Detroit. But outside that, not much. Hear in western Michigan we’ve heard rumors about a big orange bridge north of Hollywood, but no one believes it. Have you heard of the country called Laos? Turns out it is a landlocked country of 7 million people in southeast Asia sandwiched between Vietnam and Thailand. Their biggest export is electricity – they provide power to all their neighbors – followed by copper. So, al that’s cool and all, but right about now you are probably starting to wonder if ‘ol Zach has slipped a few IQ points more than normal. But I’m not as crazy as … OK, that’s a lie. I’m pretty crazy, but I have a good reason to talk about it. That’s because our Shopify teardown target this week is a newly Top 10 ranked retailer who does NOT have a .com .net, .org, .io, or any other of the popular domains. Normally having a domain on an obscure extension is a handicap. But these guys transformed and virtually free domain into a Hip Hop branding play. And that’s worth talking about. Hang on to your TLDs this week kids, and let’s get this teardown started.Happy Selling,Zach

But First … I’ll Make You the STAR!

Well, not “you” exactly. Who wants to get a newsletter about ”you,” right? But if you have a Shopify site and want that site to be front and center in an upcoming TaskHusky Checkout Weekly newsletter this is kind of cool.

Here’s the deal … we have spent the last few years focused on the larger Shopify stores. That’s great and all, but I thought it would be cool to give a few “normal” sites a load of free advice and such. And I will do just that. But keep in mind that I tell marginally humorous jokes and poke fun at everything. So, well, you get the idea.

Just reply to this email and say

“Tear me down Zach!”

and I’ll put you on the list for an upcoming issue.

This Week’s Shopify Target: mnml.la

MNML is what they call a “fast fashion” company. That means they find new, hot, trending styles and then make near identical version for their own label. Do you want the Saint Laurent label? You’ll pay a lot. MNML has replicated the styles and fabrics to a T and sell it themselves for sometimes s80% less.

Yes, that means that the big designer houses kinda hate them ... a lot. But it also means that

and such. And since

for a nearly $49 million, I’m guessing that they can live with a few rage posts and some hate mail from Gucci and Ralph Lauren. But to this day the founders try to remain anonymous.

Their branding is based on Los Angeles (LA) urban chic. So instead of spending a load of cash on a fancy short .com domain, they purchase a “.la” domain. “LA” is the domain extension for the country of Laos. And it looks like that was a good call.

The Shopify Theme They Use

Yadda yadda yadda … custom theme … yadda yadda yadda ,,, they’re wasting money ,,, yadda yadda yadda … folks like this never listen.

What They Do Well

These guys are a marketing and logistics machine disguised as a Shopify online retailer. If you think about it, they do not create their own designs and they outsource all manufacturing. They are an office of a handful of people in Los Angeles watching what other do and then getting to market first with a heavy emphasis on social media and influencers.

If you’ve been around a while, then you’ve heard me talk about risk reversal and trust badges. Even the best s=Shopify stores normally only put these things on the product and checkout pages. Mnml puts the “Free Express Shipping,” “Hassle-Free Returns, and “Secure Checkout” claims right up front on the home page just below the fold.

We are going to use

as an example, but what I am about to say now and later on applies to all of the product pages. They do a good job of including video action snips in the product galleries.

Good clean checkout process with plenty of Express payment options.

What Needs Improvement

. See the “Add to bag” button? I almost missed it. Dark gray text on a black button? That’s just odd. I can hear the web planning meeting in progress. “Joe, we are a bargain brand but we need to seem more exclusive and such things.” “Well sir, what if we make the call to action button very very hard to read so they think we don’t care?” “Brilliant, Joe!” Sure, when you select a size the text changes color, but this looked like a mistake and that means it WAS a mistake.

Speaking of

, allow me to just say that if you’re a trendy urban youth living in an American city and using your Dad’s credit card to buy Woodland Camo Cargo Pants you have lost the meaning of the words “Woodland Camo Cargo Pants.”

The Shopify Apps They Use

  • Hotjar — customer analytics based upon attention heatmaps. Good stuff.

  • Loop Returns — A returns and exchanges app focused on customer retention.

  • GRIN — Influencer marketing… and they do a LOT of it.

  • Attentive — Personalized mobile messaging.

  • Klaviyo — Customer lifecycle management.

  • SMSBump — Text messaging built for eCommerce.

  • Covet Pics — An app that makes your Instagram feed into a retail sales channel. And they are using the HECK of that app.

  • Back in Stock — Inventory alerts and noptifications.

  • Okendo ‚ Customer reviews.

  • Searchandise — and the name suggests, eCommerce website search.

  • Smile IO — Loyalty rewards system.

  • Bugsnag — The snagger of bugs … in the code.

  • Signifyd — Anti-fraud and chargeback tool.

  • PayPal/AmazonPay/ApplePay/ShopifyPay — Express payment options.

  • Gorgias — Aside from the funny spelling of “gorgeous,” this is a customer service helpdesk system.

  • Flickety — Touch responsive carousels.

  • Bommerang — User-centric performance checker.

  • BounceX — An app to monetize website bounces.

  • DoubleClick — Ad network.

  • Route — Shipping protection.

  • Zendesk — Another support app?

That’s a lot of apps, and some of them have duplicated features. The code is fairly clean but the site is still slow. Some of those apps duplicate features. Hmmmm …. do I have to spell it out for you?

Marketing Stuff They Do

Like I mentioned earlier on, these guys do heavy social media for darned near EVERYTHING! That definitely includes influencer marketing, and I can see it working for them. But they also have amassed a great bit of their own followers and focused on only 2 social channels:

has nearly 200k follows and

has more than 900k followers.

Those are some BIG numbers.

They also pay for both search and social ads, and I have include 3 examples of each for your viewing pleasure.

Sponsored

Let’s get your Shopify Site on the catwalk. If you need help making Shopify website tweaks or fixing those little nagging things on your Shopify store, let’s get stuff done.