TaskHusky Curated Newsletter #009

Jeff Bezos is the gift that keeps on giving, eCommerce chargebacks suck, Shopify Captain Obvious, and more.

February 19, 2019

Heya -

Did you know that you can buy a ton of books about self-improvement and marital advice on Amazon? Jeff Bezos doesn’t. If this guy has one more scandal he’ll be qualified to run for Congress. But he sits atop the eCommerce throne (at least for now), so he makes our news.

Let’s get on with the stories of the week.

1. Sometimes the Headlines Write Themselves …

So, last week Jeff Bezos and the National Enquirer sued each other over the threat/negotiation/blackmail publication of Bezos’ … ahem … “private” sexting pics and messages. Billionaire-eCommerce-monopolist-philanderer vs soulless-gossip-tabloid owned by (I kid you not) a guy named David Pecker. This whole thing reads like a Monte Python parody sketch.

The only real shame is that they can’t both lose. Who’s watching the business while these guys burn each other to the ground? Evidently no one – over the last few weeks, the stock market’s been going up, but Amazon is going down. Anyway … here’s a short video report on the whole “affair” so far, if you can take it:

2. More Secure eCommerce Transactions and Fewer Chargebacks

Chargebacks suck. We all know they suck. You know what else sucks? Overly-technical articles that talk about a problem but don’t necessarily fix it. But here’s the deal … we love you so much that we are willing to read the crappy, boring stuff and let you know about it here in this hallowed email.

A recent report – that costs a lot of money – discusses the growing problem of credit card fraud and fraudulent chargebacks. Recent upgrades to the EMVCo security standard help physical POS systems reduce fraud by 75% (vs 46% for the rest of the industry). But the new systems are not working on eCommerce transactions yet. We are rooting for them.

If you’re sad and lonely and want to read the boring and expensive report for yourself, you can find the release info with additional links here (but we’ll keep you updated in this newsletter so do what you want):

3. 5 Qualities of Successful Entrepreneurs

Want to know what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur? We found a “Guest Writer” at Entrepreneur Magazine who thinks he knows, and he’s more than willing to tell you all about it. Do you know what’s not on his list? Probably the three most important qualities: work ethic, patience, and the willingness to eat ramen noodles and drink stale beer so long as it means you don’t have to work for someone else. While this guy is name-dropping Elon Musk click bait and telling us to “live your purpose” there are real entrepreneurs staying up until midnight writing content and fulfilling orders while loving every minute of it.

Forget it … don’t read this article:

4. Calling Captain Obvious

One of the most respected financial newspapers in the world is Investor’s Business Daily. But last week they still ran the headline: “Shopify Earnings Seen Getting a Boost from Holiday Season eCommerce.” Shocking, right? Talk about breaking news! Just imagine our surprise when we heard that an eCommerce company got more sales at Christmas.

If you can get past the “Captain Obvious” headline, the article breaks down and celebrates Shopify’s growth as a business. There are a lot of positive reports out there if you want more info, but this one will get you started:

5. Thinking About Payment Methods

We understand that accepting different payment methods can be a pain and that some of them are expensive to take. But we still think that eCommerce merchants should take as many different legitimate payment methods as possible – especially when you’re trying to grow. The last thing you want is for the customer to experience any friction. When someone wants to send you money, let them do it any way they want. We give this advice all the time.

Well, turns out that there is a good reason to take AliPay – the most popular third-party payment system in most of Asia – even if you do not ship to China. More than three million Chinese visit the US each year. And there are nearly 400k Chinese college students here all the time. The point is, there are a lot of opportunities where the customer might want to use AliPay. The first link is the article with the info. The second link is a set of instructions from Shopify on how to accept AliPay in your store. If you need help, let us know.

We love to share real data and statistics. Did you know that people who forward and share our emails are more generally attractive and successful than those who don’t? Really … it’s science. So, to all the sexy beasts on their way to entrepreneurial success, thank you for sharing these emails. As for the rest of you, well … we love you anyway.

Happy Selling,

Zachary