CheckoutWeekly/TaskHusky Curated Newsletter #2220

Time to Get Your Kicks … on Shopify

Yo - You know what I don’t get? I don’t get when a pair of sneakers sells at retail for more than my truck payment. I have never waited in anticipation for a new shoe to “drop” from my favorite brand.Sure, I had a pair of Air Jordan sneakers back in the day. But back when I was a kid they were like $60 and that was expensive. And — by the way — Michael Jordan was actually playing ball in the NBA at the time. Now, “retro” styled versions of the same dang shoe are more than 3x that price. And before you say “well that’s inflation for you old man,” you better wise up, keep you trap shut, and GET OFF MY LAWN!But while I would never buy a pair of sneakers for the price of a week’s groceries for a family of 4, a lot of folks would … and by “folks” I mean overly-marketed, pansy-butt, sheltered teens who should have a part time job and save up for their own darn shoes without mooching on the ’rents and ticking off this old man with their shenanigans.Anyway … this week’s Shopify store just landed MILLIONS of investment cash and they are in the high-end sneaker business. So, what do I know.Let’s get to it.Happy Selling,Zach

You Can Be Next!

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 Teardown Target: KicksCrew.com

If you read the

you get a whole bunch of gobbled gook. If you were reading this page while playing buzzword Bingo you’d have won the jackpot. What a load of crap. Seriously … what the living heck does this crap mean:

“Our dynamic platform provides access to a culture that transcends borders, connecting a growing number of creators, curators, and consumers into one inclusive community…. Our technology is powered by enterprise-level solutions optimized for efficiency and scale. As brands and boutiques come together within our ecosystem, KICKS CREW redefines retail and delivers a shopping experience like no other.”

Reading that. Do you know what KicksCrew does and why they do it? No ... no it does not. I’ll tell you what they do …

THEY SELL SNEAKERS!

How full of yourself do you have to be to write stuff like that. You know what? They probably paid some college student intern majoring in fraternity studies to flack those meaningless words together. The only words on that page that make any sense and are in any way related to what a real About Us page should say are the first 3 words … “Founded in 2008.”

If you read deeper you will eventually discover that the company was founded by

– an shoe-preneur based in Los Angeles, CA. The business is built around a platform model, sometimes referred to as B2B2C. that means that the KicksCrew site acts like a middleman. Other retailers sell their shoes and apparel on the KicksCrew site and drop-ship to the customer with KicksCrew getting a healthy cut. Sort of like a mini shoe-laced Amazon. And someone likes what they’re doing because

. So, Johnny Mak got bank.

The Shopify Theme That They Use

Fortunately, KicksCrew is smart enough to not spend a bazillion dollars on a custom Shopify theme. Their site is heavily modified, but they built it on a great theme from our friends at Clean Canvas. This is their Showcase theme using the Betty style with a bunch of tweaks and customizations. Probably saved them thousands and it still looks great.

If you want to see the premium theme they are using for yourself

.

What They Do Well

My favorite thing they do at KicksCrew is that they get right to selling sneakers. Hero image sells top-of-the-line products and as you scroll down you see nothing but things for sale. The customers that shop for expensive sneakers know what they want by sight, and the site gets right to showing it to them.

They are using Klarna for installment payments, which probably helps them on conversions.

The top menu nav … take a hard look. No nonsense. All about finding the brand you are looking for. No need to song and dance anyone when the kids are coming to get their fav Air Jordans or Yeezy’s.

What Needs to Be Improved

The returns and exchanges

. Customers do not get all their money back, pay for shipping in both directions, PLUS are dinged a restocking charge. Order cancelation costs money too … if you can believe it. And they do not even guarantee order processing or delivery times. Their target market skews younger, so maybe they just can get away with it. Dang these guys are harsh.

“Express checkout isn’t available right now.” What? I hit refresh a few times and then PayPal came up. Just one?

The “You May Also Like” cross-sell function is not working. The text ran off the page and no product images displayed during my test. Just totally broken. Hey KicksCrew … at TaskHusky we fix stuff like that for a low-price, dude … call me.

You know what? Maybe, just maybe none of their customers actually look at the website. I am pretty certain that the web team at KicksCrew doesn’t look. Otherwise you wouldn’t

. (see image below)

The Shopify Apps They Use

We used our top-secret Shopify scanning tools to determine that this site is using the following apps and plugins:

  • AdRoll Advertising — Ad platform

  • Bundler — Product Bundles

  • Easy Digital Products — Sell digital downloads, products and keys.

  • MailMunch — Subscriptions and emails

  • Gift Cards & Loyalty Program

  • Instafeed — Instagram Feed

  • Klaviyo — Email Marketing & SMS

  • Omnisend — Email Marketing & SMS

  • Product Warnings on Checkout

  • Returnly — Customer returns automation (why 2 returns apps?)

  • Return Magic — Customer returns automation (why 2 returns apps?)

  • Route — Purchase Protection & Tracking

  • Size Chart — Clothes Fit Guide

  • Voyager — Upsell & Cross‑Sell

  • Smile — Rewards & Loyalty

  • POWr — Make your website more powerful.

  • Back in Stock — Inventory Alerts

Do you see that there are 2 different “returns automation” apps? Classic mistake to forget to fully uninstall one.

Marketing Stuff They Do

Remember, the KicksCrew site is a reselling platform. That means that they make money when they redirect traffic away from smaller retailers and brand sites. Capturing that traffic is expensive and hard to do in a fickle market. That means lots of SEO, social posting, and ad-buying. The idea is to get the traffic and leverage smaller retailers to sell stuff.

They have extensive social media presences on

,

,

,

, and

.

As I said, they are running a TON of ads on search and social. 3 examples of each are displayed below for your inspiration.

Sponsored

Let us help freshen up those kicks. If you need help making Shopify website tweaks or fixing those little nagging things on your Shopify store, let’s get stuff done.