SHOPIFY
Shopify has more share of US retail e-commerce sales than Walmart, second only to Amazon
According to their Q4 results, Shopify has 8.6% share of US retail e-commerce sales, second only to Amazon which sits isolated with a massive 39% share.
Let’s share some key results and then highlight some of the other interesting things Shopify put out there.
- Revenue: $977.7M (up 94% year-on-year)
- Net income: $123.9M (compared to $0.8M Q4 2019 – we’ll let you do the percentage math there)
Those numbers beat expectations so e-commerce (and Shopify) seem stronger than ever.
What else stood out for us?
- Shopify gave an interesting outline on their user acquisition strategy, which is well worth checking out if you’re in B2B. Pages 6-8 on the slides here show the different targets and the different approaches Shopify has.
- Wholesale and B2B, Shop App, Shopify Balance and Shopify Fulfillment Network are all part of Shopify’s long-term initiatives.
- Their goal is to become a single integrated back office for commerce and provide businesses with everything they need, from capital, to marketing to inventory & fulfillment.
There’s certainly no lack of ambition there!
Video ads are going parallel
Parallel tracking for video campaigns is a must before April 30, 2021.
What is parallel tracking? It’s a form of click measurement that speeds up the loading process for users. Instead of using one or more redirects to take the user to the final page, with parallel tracking the user goes straight to the landing page while the tracking happens at the same time.
If you run Search campaigns on Google, you already have experience with this.
What do you have to do to prepare? Well, if you are doing it for Search ads, you have a head start. Aside from that, you should reach out to any click measurement provider that you use.
If you want to dig into the technical details of parallel tracking, check out Google’s documentation here.
COPYWRITING
Before you pick up the pen…
…Take some advice from growth marketer Julian Shapiro. In his landing page guide (which is very long and very good) he goes over all of the key steps to writing a good landing page. But today, we’re zooming in on the part about what to do before you stop writing.
Because, let’s face it, the temptation to simply wing your copy is a strong one. Here’s what Julian suggests you do first:
Create a table with three categories:
- Bad alternatives people will go to if they don’t have your product.
- How you do it better. Be specific here.
- Best customers. List out your ideal customer personas.
Spend a lot of time filling out the table. And, when you’re done, you have a great list of the true pain points you should be targeting.
Once your table is finished and you feel it’s comprehensive, you can start writing that kickass copy for your landing pages. But, instead of winging it, you’ve already come up with many of your value propositions (in the “how you do it better” section) and you’ve defined who you’re talking to.
If you want to learn about what comes next, you can check out Julian’s full landing page guide here.
ROUNDING UP THE STACK
FACEBOOK: Facebook was fined €7M in Italy for how it informs users about the uses of their data.
SEO: If your rankings are all over the place, you are not alone. There seems to be an algorithm update from Google (again).
TWITTER: Spaces (Twitter’s version of Clubhouse) is moving quickly. Let’s see if this concept of drop-in conversation catches on…
FACEBOOK: News publishers from Australia have their content restricted by Facebook from their pages.
YOUTUBE: Interested in YouTube as a content creator? Check out (some of) the platform’s 2021 planned updates and features.
INSTAGRAM: TikTok took the first step. Mark follows along… The app is working on an option that lets creators easily monetize their content through affiliate marketing.
BRAIN TEASER
There was something missing in yesterday’s newsletter, but nobody noticed. What was it?
You can find the solution here.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things marketers like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
There’s a film festival happening virtually… In Fortnite!
Not really a shocker: Virtual events are still the go-to almost one year after you-know-what.
But if you told us that Fortnite would be one of the places where virtual events happen… Well, we wouldn’t have laughed at you but we would have expected more concerts, like they’ve done in the past. (Ok, maybe we would have laughed at you a little.)
Instead, the next event is a freaking film festival called Short Nite.
Yes, players will log into Fortnite and instead of “playing the game”, they will be hanging out and watching some movies.
Too bad the name “Second Life” is already taken because that’s what Fortnite seems to be turning into.