TaskHusky Curated Newsletter #027

Yo - 

One of our subscribers replied to the survey and said, “Your newsletter is the Bo Derek of newsletters – a 10.” So, I immediately had my hair woven into beads, put on a sexy one-piece swimsuit, and jogged in slow motion on the shore of Lake Michigan.

Fortunately, I was able to make bail and get released from protective custody in time to find this week’s top stories … and here they are:

1.  Shopify-ers, Unite!

Have you ever been to Shopify Unite? It’s their big vendor/customer/partner conference held near their corporate headquarters in Toronto of the Great White North. I would LOVE to be super-snarky about the whole thing, but they actually do a pretty good job once you see past the cultish branding (last time I was there I sat on a Shopify pillow whilst sipping a Shopify coffee). The whole thing is slickly produced, and the catering is good … which is what most attendees really care about anyway if we’re honest.

Any-who … each year the minions gather in the Emerald City to hear what’s coming next. And this year did not disappoint. So let’s talk about a few of them, shall we?

2.  Shopify Becomes a Fulfilling Experience

This is a natural for Shopify. In fact, a certain member of my team predicted this exactly one year ago and he can’t stop bragging about it. This can be good for small retailers – there is a lot of new automation and integration that might make our lives easier. And they are promising two-day shipping that will allow a LOT of little folks like us to compete with Amazon better. But if you’re in the logistics business, this announcement probably gave you some heartburn. As you well know, them there’s a TON of dough in shipping stuff. And them there wrustlers up there at corporate wants them a share of that there loot!

ZDNet quoted Shopify CTO Jean-Michel Lemieux as saying that the fulfillment network, “will include a mix of Shopify-owned and shared distribution centers.” We think that Shopify has its sights set on total control of the delivery channel. And we’ll go out on a limb here and say that they want to refine that fulfillment in the US first, then Canada, then … the EU. We think that they will either buy their logistics partners or prove-out the model and replace them. Seriously … it makes business sense. It’s just going to be a bit disruptive. You don’t spend a billion dollars on something that you don’t intend on controlling.

Read about the billion dollars here

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3.  There’s Actually a Bunch More Stuff

Seriously … the announcements went on and on and on for like forever! But there is a lot of work in there. Last year they promised more foreign language support, and this year they delivered. They’ve improved cross-border selling, which was needed, along with a bunch more languages. They’re adding video and 3D snippets that you can put where you put your product images now, which is cool. I think that the video thing will be useful right away, but 3D is still a ways out until the tools and apps are better to allow small shops to shoot that themselves. And product pages get sections, which absolutely EVERYONE wanted.

There’s more, but I’m getting tired of typing so read the rest for yourself here

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4.  And The Award for Worst Headline Pun From Elitist Media No-Nothings Goes to ….

With all the Shopify news over the last few weeks, online journa-torialists everywhere have been stumbling over each other to out-pun each other via headlines while saying absolutely nothing of value whatsoever. Our nominations include:

“

Shopify Has Cracked the Code on E-Commerce

” – on The Street

“

Shopify Has Cracked the Code on Succeeding in eCommerce

” – said the copycats at on Forbes

“

What Goes Up Must Come Down

” – said Captain Obvious on YahooFinance

5.  Speaking of Milestones

This is interesting … Seems that the big-shot wiggetty-wigs divide retail into three categories these days: General Merchandise Stores, Grocery Stores, and so-called Nonstore Retailers. Nonstore Retailers is – logically – just what it sounds like. It includes catalog-only retailers, TV-only retailers like QVC, and online like us. Well, the numbers are in and Nonstore Retailers sales beat both other categories for the very first time in an entire month ever. But it’s probably a fad.

Read about the fad results on Statista

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The guys in the office were worried that no one would get the Bo Derek joke at the beginning of this email. “It’s a movie from the 70s,” they said. “The kids just won’t get it,” they cried. But I stood up for you. I told them that our readers are smart, savvy, good looking, and know how to Google stuff. All they have to do is type “Bo Derek Runs on Beach in the Movie 10” in that search bar thingy and … forget it.

But don’t forget to share this email because ... well, just because. And have a great 4

of July Holiday while you’re at it. Serious … pig out on hot dogs, apple pie, and watch some fireworks. I want you to be happy.

Happy Selling,

Zachary