Your website probably doesn’t really matter
What matters is your ability to tell a good story, build connections, and engage on a human level.
Topic
Data-First
A collection of 8 issues
Why your Shopify BFCM sales data is probably wrong when compared to last year
25–28 November 2022 is the Friday through Monday following Thanksgiving—or BFCM. 25–28 November 2021 is Thursday through Sunday—an entire day short of BFCM!
DTC has replaced “the middle-man” with numerous other costs—and it’s arguably more expensive and less effective than traditional distribution channels
Most new (and many well-established) direct-to-consumer brands grossly underestimate how challenging and expensive it is to find and acquire good customers.
Growing faster and more sustainably on Shopify by adopting a “low-code mentality”
Despite all the best intentions, meticulous discovery, thoughtful design, and careful planning, how many ecommerce brands find themselves 6–12 months after launch of a new or refreshed site in a spiraling cycle of technical debt and increasing maintenance overhead?
A low-code experiment: using Retool to bulk identify and fix product issues in Shopify
Identifying and fixing issues with product data on large-inventory Shopify stores is time-consuming. This is an experiment to see what can be done by stitching together open-source or freemium tools using no-code or low-code principles.
Connecting marketing initiatives between the physical and virtual worlds
I am often surprised that so many brands send out direct mailers with no easy link between the physical and virtual experience—and no clear call-to-action or incentive to make a purchase.
Beware of the hidden costs of complexity
The more unknown unknowns there are in a design brief or system requirements, the more time is required to understand the core problems in order to design a suitable solution. Keeping things lean enables you to stay nimble, iterate faster, and grow more sustainably.
Designing with data, foundational principles, best practices, and facts
With any complex process, it’s important to separate pre-prescribed solutions from the ultimate goal. It’s important to fully understand the problems and the “whys”—and to avoid jumping to preconceived conclusions. Especially when problems aren’t fully understood in the first place.