TaskHusky Curated Newsletter #029

It’s Freak’in Hot 🔥 , the Disruptive 10%, more Prime Day stuff, Bolt gets TONS of Cash, and more.

July 16, 2019

Yo - 

Officially, the “Dog Days of Summer” run from July 12

through August 20

this year. And – arriving right on time – we’re getting a heat wave in the Midwest this week. And not just any heat wave … no sir! Here at TaskHusky Central Command in Michigan it’s going to be in the high 90s. We have a team member in Nebraska and it’s going to be over 100 degrees there, and that means the heat index is going to be … well, it’s going to suck.

Berber nomads in the Sahara pity us.

The devil is thinking, “This place ain’t so bad.”

Folks in Phoenix are shouting, “Who’s laughing now, funny-boy?”

Here are this week’s top stories.

1.  Keep an eye on these guys – Bolt

If you search for the word “bolt” you will get a bazillion hits of companies, track stars, and lightning enthusiasts. So even though they seem to be calling the company “Bolt” to communicate that they’re super-duper-fast, well, I’m worried about brand confusion quite frankly. But since they own the domain bolt.com, they might be OK. 

Anyway … just a few days ago they got a big bucketload of cash dropped off at their front door by VC investors. The idea is to make a super-duper-fast eCommerce all-in-one payment gateway. Think of it as sort of like PayPal with an Amazon-like checkout experience. And that could be a pretty good thing me’thinks.

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2.  Shopify Shout-out… “Hey there Kelly!”

Do you listen to podcasts? I’m starting to get into ‘em. And we’re even thinking about doing one too. But if you’re into development and code and websites and stuff, there are four women who do a podcast called “Ladybug Podcast.” One of those women is Kelly Vaughn. No… they’re not paying us. This is so NOT a commercial. We just think she’s doing a good job.

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3.  The Prime Day Lift Experience

Last week in this hallowed email blast we reminded you about Amazon Prime Day and how it was so Awesome-azon that it would run for two days. You’re receiving this email on day two of this Amazona-palooza.

First, an editorial comment. “Woo Hoo! Jeffy My Bestie Bezos is even richer today than yesterday!”

Doesn’t that just make you a little bit sick? Anyway … Adobe Digital Insights tracks the numbers and does a pretty good job of it. They are estimating that the other big online retailers have gotten good at marketing into this fake holiday buying binge to steal some of the Amaza-magic from Mr. Droopy-pants. It is estimated that tomorrow (today for you) online sales will top $2 billion for only the third time on a non “real” holiday.

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4.  So, How disruptive is 10%?

You’ve seen all those reports about how eCommerce is all “disruptive this” and all “retail apocalypse” that, right? Well, being the data-hounds that we are, we dug up a report that says that eCommerce accounts for 10% of retail in the United States right now. And while that is a lot of money, it’s only an existential threat if your bricks-and-mortar business is running on loans that leverage you to the hilt and have razor thin margins to begin with. Them’s just the way it is folks. And if eCommerce is just 10% of the market now, that means there’s still a lot of room for this pony to run.

Ponies actually have nothing to do with this, but it was fun to write it. 

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5.  Talk about mixing Greek mythic metaphors!

Amazon may have exposed its Achilles Heel.

A few weeks ago we wrote about how Amazon was really screwing-over their third-party sellers. It started when Amazon would track third party sales and then develop private label versions of the best-selling stuff to sell at an undercut price (yes, the struggle is real folks). Then Amazon raised their fulfillment rates. Then – a month or so ago – they started limiting new sellers coming into the market and eliminating selling tools. Well, these investor gurus think that this is going to come back to bite the Grand Poohbah of Amazon-land in the patootie.

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Deal of the Week – 

Last week we offered two lucky-ducky customers the chance to get a half-price SEO Audit in exchange for permission to use their report as a case study and example. Well, a lot of folks tried, and the first two are having their reports prepared now. But guess what… we also need samples of our Website Teardown. That’s where we literally review everything we can find on your website from page speed and layout to email campaigns sign-up forms and checkout process. So, same deal as last week. The first two who buy a Website Teardown with the promo code 

DANGITSHOT

will get it at half price – under the condition that we can use it in promotion. And a few people were a little sore that they missed out on the previous offer. So this time – for the next two days only – if you miss the 50% off on the Website Teardown you’ll get 25%. You’re welcome.

Seriously folks … send us some Shopify development work this week. We need to keep the A/C on and that electric bill ain’t gonna pay itself.

Oh… and forward this email on. We ain’t proud.

Happy Selling,

Zachary