The TL;DR:

• Let’s Chat D2C: How is ANYONE still on Mailchimp? I’ll migrate you from your legacy tech platform to the modern, ecommerce-specific version of it (i.e., Mailchimp to Klaviyo) FOR FREE.

• What I’m Thinking about this Week: I’ve dug in over the last few months to rapidly grow SCALIS’ in-house team (we’ve hired 9 new team members in less than 4 weeks, leveraging deel to manage international payments and compliance) and have run the gamut over the past few years with development talent from all around the world. Long story short, I am all in on nearshoring.

• The D2Z Podcast: In this week’s episode, I sat down with Tom Mercer, Founder & Director at Bean Ninjas, a best-in-class bookkeeping, accounting, virtual CFO, and tax service provider for E-commerce businesses.

• App Updates & Highlights: Octane AI quiz A/B testing, Triple Whale releases Trends, Malomo and Yotpo integration, and Rebuy Smart search are here.

• Upcoming Events: I’m currently on the plane to Vegas for Shoptalk! Let me know if you’re attending and want to connect.

Let’s Chat D2C - How is ANYONE still on Mailchimp?

Fresh off of Jeremy Horowitz’ Top 20 Shopify Plus apps report, I’m left wondering how in the hell 10% of Shopify Plus brands are STILL ON MAILCHIMP?! In case you missed it, here is the breakdown:

1. Klaviyo - 61%

2. Hotjar - 24%

3. Zendesk - 19%

4. Yotpo - 19%

5. Gorgias - 18%

6. Klarna - 15%

7. Afterpay - 14%

8. Microsoft Clarity - 14%

9. Back In Stock - 13%

10. Recharge - 13%

11. Rebuy Engine - 12%

12. Google Optimize - 12%

13. Shogun - 12%

14. Attentive - 12%

15. Instafeed - 12%

16. Judge.me - 12%

17. Awin Global - 11%

18. Trustpilot - 10%

19. SwellRewards (Yotpo) - 10%

20. Intuit Mailchimp - 10%

Legacy Tech Still Has Market Share

One of the most shocking things about this report is the market share legacy tech platforms that don’t specialize in ecommerce still have. Zendesk is an objectively not great solution for ecommerce brands, yet 19% of Shopify Plus brands are still using it. Mailchimp is complete garbage compared to Klaviyo, Attentive, Sendlane, and quite literally insert any ecommerce-specific email marketing platform here, yet 10% of Shopify Plus brands still use it.

If you’re still using one of these legacy solutions, I’ll migrate you for free to an ecommerce-specific platform of your choice. Specifically:

• Mailchimp —> Klaviyo or Attentive

• Zendesk —> Gorgias

Sloppy Tech Stack Management

Google Optimize was SHUT DOWN 6 months ago on September 30, 2023. Let me repeat that. Google Optimize was SHUT DOWN 6 months ago, and over 12% of Shopify Plus brands still have it installed on their website.

You should be regularly auditing your site’s tech stack, and it’s mindboggling to me that there are still so many brands with Optimize installed. Cleaning up unused Shopify apps is such an easy way to improve site performance as the JS on every app that’s installed slows speed significantly.

My Predictions

I don’t have a magic 8 ball, but I am feeling lucky en route to Vegas for Shoptalk. Here are my predictions for the next 12 months:

• Klaviyo will continue to lose Plus market share. The average GMV of a Plus store is only $2m, and Klaviyo has made it very clear they do not care about this market segment.

• Gorgias will jump to over 20% - all they have to do is attack every brand still on Zendesk.

• Rebuy will leap into the top 10 as it continues to broaden its product offering and become the all-in-one platform for ecommerce personalization.

• There will be a fight amongst new and existing A/B testing solutions to capture Google Optimize’s market share, but I expect a platform like Rebuy to just add it to its product offering.

What I’m Thinking About This Week - The Rise of Nearshoring

I’ve dug in over the last few months to rapidly grow SCALIS’ in-house team (we’ve hired 9 new team members in less than 4 weeks, leveraging deel to manage international payments and compliance) and have run the gamut over the past few years with development talent from all around the world.

Long story short, I am all in on nearshoring.

Offshoring vs. Nearshoring

First, what is the difference between offshoring and nearshoring? Nearshoring is a subset of offshoring with the main differentiator being that the outside company or resources are located a bit closer to you, but still in another country. For example, when SCALIS worked with a development team in Eastern Europe, that was offshoring, but now with our in-house team in Brazil, we are nearshoring.

Benefits of Nearshoring

TIMEZONE!!! I can’t express enough how much of a pain in the ass working with teams in Eastern Europe and India was for us in the early days when it came to communication.

LANGUAGE BARRIER!!! Perhaps this is just my experience, but I’ve found it significantly easier to communicate and collaborate with our South American team versus our India or Eastern Europe team.

COST!!! While this holds true for both offshoring and nearshoring, I’ve found the quality of work product coming out of South America to be significantly better than that of other areas.

Managing Hiring and Payments for Nearshoring

With the rise of platforms like deel, it’s never been easier to hire and pay workers from around the world. You can even completely offload compliance to them so that you don’t have to worry about running amuck with various international labor laws.

This Week’s The D2Z Podcast

#97 – How to Navigate E-commerce Tax Challenges

🎧 Listen Now 🎧

In this week’s episode, I sat down with Tom Mercer, Founder & Director at Bean Ninjas, a best-in-class bookkeeping, accounting, virtual CFO, and tax service provider for E-commerce businesses. Specifically, we explored the following:

💰 The nuances of US sales tax compliance across different states

📲 Recommendations for tax software tailored to e-commerce merchants

😎 The importance of preemptive tax planning

🚀 Tom’s own entrepreneurial journey

App Updates & Highlights - Too Many to Count!

Octane AI’s A/B Testing

A/B testing for quizzes is now available for Octane AI! I don’t have to tell you about the value of A/B testing in generating iterative results, but here are a few ideas for you to start testing.

Triple Whale Trends

With Trends by Triple Whale, any ecommerce brands can access industry benchmarks powered by one of the largest datasets in ecommerce. You can filter by industry, annual revenue, and average order value to see the benchmarks most relevant for your brand.

Malomo x Yotpo

Malomo and Yotpo now integrate so that every Shopify merchant utilizing Yotpo’s Email & SMS product can personalized their transactional notifications with Malomo. I’ve been adamant about how important it is to take control of your customer’s transactional communication experience for years now, even having the Malomo team on the D2Z Podcast all the way back at Episode 8!

Rebuy Smart Search

Rebuy Smart search is here, another step in their progress towards becoming an all-in-one platform for commerce personalization. There is literally not a single client I don’t use Rebuy with, and this just adds another product line that makes their platform even more valuable.

With smart search, you can:

• Weave personalized product recommendations into search results

• Get access to robust data & analytics

• Easily customize and configure Smart search without developer support

Upcoming Events

I’m currently on the plane to Vegas for Shoptalk! Let me know if you’re attending and want to connect.

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