TaskHusky Curated Newsletter #004

A List of the Most Popular Products Sold By Walmart, the Award for Stupidest Government, and more.

January 15, 2019

Dear -

Hello

again my fellow eCommerce awesome-

preneurs

!

We, your humble servants in the

Official TaskHusky Division of eCommerce Research and Coffee-Drinking

have once again delved deep into the inter-webs to find the most interesting and important news and developments in the world of eCommerce and marketing for you to enjoy.

Here are this week’s top stories:

1. The Award for Stupidest Move By Governmental Bureaucrats Goes To ….

When it comes to economic ignorance, the competition among world governments is fierce. However, Chile has made a bid to win top position this month with a misguided proposal for a 19% tax on international eCommerce. This bone-headed move is supported by the Chilean Chamber of Commerce, the Confederation of Production and Commerce, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development – proving once again that the intelligence of any governmental regulation is inversely proportionate to the number of governmental agencies supporting it. It’s not a done deal yet, but if you are sending goods or providing services in Chile, you should read this article.

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2. Two Robots Get Married – SmartAssistant and ZOOVU

SmartAssistant is an online sales chatbot. ZOOVU is an AI-driven chatbot specializing in eCommcere with integrations in Shopify, Magento, and a bunch of other platforms. The two companies are billing the recent news as a “merger,” but ZOOVU is purchasing stock from SmartAssistant executives and providing investment capital for expansion – so this looks like an acquisition to us. AI and automated service solutions are likely to be a factor in eCommerce more and more, so we are keeping our eye on things.

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3. The Company that Did Everything that Sears SHOULD Have Done – Target Stores

It took decades of dedicated mis-management, but Sears and Kmart are sipping on cups of bitter black coffee in the waiting room of bankruptcy court. It’s not easy to remain that blind and out of touch for so long, so congratulations to them. One company that woke up and decided to actually innovate and adapt is Target. Let’s call them the “Anti-Sears.” Sales are up once again supporting their online/physical location hybrid strategy.

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4. Flattering the Heck Out of Walmart – Copy What Works

So this is interesting … USA Today was able to get their hands on the top-selling items in Walmart for each state and they wrote an article about it … along with the sale price of each item. So, we offer this tidbit of insider information to you before the marketing MBAs at Walmart wise-up and sue to have the list removed.

We say this because knowing which products and product categories are selling the most by region is … please pardon our enthusiasm …. freak’in marketing gold! Not all of you will be able to capitalize on the info, but a few of you might.

You’re welcome.

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5. Personalized Marketing Without Being a Stalker

I don’t know about you, but when a website welcomes me back by name and displays other things about me in their ads, it gives me the creeps. Sure, I “know” the power of data and that the big giants of retail have me plugged into the Matrix via the internet. I just don't want to have that reality shoved in my face. It’s off-putting. Turns out others feel the same way.

AdAge online published a story by Drew Neisser titled, “How to Do Personal Marketing Without Getting Creepy.” Seems like good advice to us.

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Happy Selling,

Zachary