TaskHusky Curated Newsletter #007

Amazon & Jeff Bezos' Very Very Bad Terrible Month, The Best Super Bowl Commercials, Magento Heartache, and more.

February 05, 2019

Heya -

TaskHusky is based in the Midwest. Last week it was -20F with a wind-chill of “holy-mother-of-crap-it’s-cold.” If you are an eCommerce merchant based in Florida or Hawaii or Phoenix, we still love you and will happily do your Shopify development projects with calm professionalism and gratitude even though we’re a tiny bit jelly-jealous right now.

Here are this week’s stories.

1. Jeff Bezos is Having a Really Bad Month

I know, I know … it’s hard to muster up any sympathy for a guy worth more than $140 billion, but the guy’s having a bad month. First, there are his … ahem … personal issues – meaning he’s going to lose half his cash in the divorce settlement. Then there is the fact that his money-losing-est business-unit just wasted $10 million on a vanity Super Bowl ad that won’t sell a single thing. Now, the nation of India has slapped Amazon’s hand in the cookie jar – and this is something you should know about.

Amazon is infamous for monitoring the sales of third-party vendor products on their platform, then developing private-label versions of the same thing and giving those proprietary products top billing in Amazon searches. It’s kind of shady. Well, India – population 1.3 billion – just passed a law making that practice illegal. If other nations follow suit, it’s a good thing for us merchants and more bad news for mister richy-pants.

2. As Long as We’re Talking About the Super Bowl

It was the lowest rated Super Bowl in years and the lowest scoring Super Bowl ever. The half-time show looked like Adam Levine of Maroon 5 was auditioning for a remake of Bohemian Rhapsody. And Tom Brady now has more championship rings than he has fingers. But some of the commercials were pretty darned good – which is why a lot of folks watch the game anyway. The Stella Artois beer commercial was funny, retro, and brilliant, and the New Avengers movie ad made us scream, “take our money now!”

3. If Only Getting Acquired By Adobe Solved All Their Problems ….

Magento was getting its eCommerce heinie kicked by all the new platform players – including Shopify – and Adobe needed to get back into the market. That’s why Adobe bought them last year. But Spaghetti-Code problems and non-updated software do not go away overnight. So, what do you do when “most” Magento websites get compromised?

We don’t wish this nightmare on anyone – it’s bad for the whole industry. But some of our Shopify customers also manage a little Magento business on the side. If that’s you, this site shows you how to identify the hacks.

4. If You’re Still Looking for Things to Sell

Since they have hundreds of thousands of shops on the platform, Shopify has some really interesting data on what’s been selling. Some link-bait sites write stories like this with a bunch of keyworded nonsense. But Shopify actually published a list of the top 10 hottest trending products – including actual metrics on specific products which is super-cool insight worth a look.

5. Crazy eCommerce Story of the Week

I just had to find a way to include this story, so I made up a new category. “Crazy eCommerce Story of the Week” will be awarded to … well, something really crazy that I’ve got to fit in someplace. File this story under, “No longer feeling safe in the universe.” Enjoy, or not … it’s your choice.

Valentine’s Day is next week. Do you know what makes a great gift for your entrepreneurial sweetheart? Subscribing to the TaskHusky mailing list. In fact, if you’re still single, a great way to meet that special someone is to forward this email to them. Go ahead … do it right now. It’s like sending a digital Cupid’s arrow of eCommerce love over the interwebs.

I can hear harps playing.

Happy Selling,

Zachary