March Madness ... On Shopify

March Madness ... On Shopify

Hello —

I have a few quibbles to start off the month.

Do you know what month it is?

OK … that’s an easy question. It’s April … April 5th when you read this, but April 4th as I write it. This brings us to the next question … do you know what “March Madness” is?

If you are into college basketball, you DEFINITELY know what March Madness is. But even if you are not into college basketball, you have seen the guys at the office or maybe your spouse building a bracket and vying to win a pot in a friendly neighborhood wager amongst friends by picking the ultimate winners of this, the most important college basketball tournament of the year whilst painting their faces in neon-hued school colors, chest-bumping with each 3-pointer, and screaming until they are horse.

This … this is march madness.

But one might suppose logically that the “March” in March Madness would suggest … perhaps strongly imply … that the “madness” part occurs in the month of March. And you would be right … unless the weekends do not line up correctly to maximize viewership and such. Then they will end this madness any dang time they want to. Which is why it is April 4th as a write this, and the NCAA Tournament Championship Game which doth culminate the madness happened a few scant hours ago.

I’ve got to admit, however, that I am indeed conflicted.

A little over a week ago, my home team — Michigan State, GO SPARTANS! — were eliminated in the Sweet 16 round by Kansas State (they who shall not be named). We are proud of our team, and making it all the way to the Sweet 16 is an accomplishment unto itself. So, you might ask, why am I conflicted?

Good question. You ask good questions because you are a reader of this, the best Shopify eCommerce newsletter in the entire multi-verse and that means that you are both intelligent and good-looking. But as I sit here writing, I know that the ultimate winner of the NCAA Madness was the University of Connecticut – or “UCONN” as it is known to beer-bong-swilling frat boys.

The conflict arises because the metonym of the fraternity-laden criminal conspiracy masquerading as an institute of higher learning in the State of Connecticut is … The Huskies. And you know I loves me some huskies.

Anyway … the UCONN Huskies won the championship last night … so good on them. I mean it. I am a teenie-tiny bit jelly jelly … but good on them.

Anyway … I found a very successful Shopify site that sells basketball stuff. Let’s have a look, shall we?

Happy Selling,

Zach

App of the Week

This is a cool app. It helps you use email and SMS to get customers and visitors from the past and bring them into the present.

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This Week’s Shopify Business Teardown Target: BasketballProductsInternational.com 

I always kind of like it when a business name tells you everything you kneed to know. Google? In the early days — before “google” was a verb — no one knew what Google did. Hershey’s? Imagine you are an alien from another planet or Elon Musk — but I digress — and you her the word “Hershey’s” for the first time. There is no way you know that it means chocolate. When you hear “Basketball Product International” you know EXACTLY what they sell.

And it ain’t soy milk or Nintendo consoles.

And this Shopify site was launched on September 3, 2021. It’s less than 20 months old, and they already are in the top 5% of Shopify sites. Crazy, right? I can’t see anything before than … or anything outside of that. They may have existed prior to September 2021, but they do not state it on their About Us and I do not see the domain used on Shopify … so, whatever.

According to our analytics tools, this Shopify merchant is selling approximately $30k per month in “basketball equipment for competitive play.” Not bad, right? For the balance of this edition of Checkout Weekly, let’s call them BPA.

The Shopify Theme They Use

Allow me to cheer for BPA. They are enjoying success WITHOUT spending too much for their Shopify site. This site uses a carefully modified and customized version of a very nice, but eminently normal Shopify theme called FLEX from our good, longtime friends at Our of the Sandbox. Do you like the theme as much as I do?

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What They Do Right