The TL;DR:

• Let’s Chat D2C: The Ultimate Pre and Post-Purchase Customer Journey.

• What I’m Thinking about this Week: The Rise of the Creator Economy and TikTok Shop.

• The D2Z Podcast: We’re celebrating the 100th episode of The D2Z Podcast! A big thank you to everyone who has worked on putting this production together and all of the listeners and viewers who keep us going.

• App Updates & Highlights: Maverick - AI Personalized Videos For Email and SMS.

• Upcoming Events: ChargeX in San Diego 4/29-5/1!

Let’s Chat D2C - The Ultimate Pre and Post-Purchase Customer Journey

Customer retention starts even before the first order is processed! Last week, I presented at DTCX7 my ultimate pre and post-purchase customer, which you can access here!

If you have any questions about how this applies to your brand, feel free to reach out!

What I’m Thinking About This Week - The Rise of the Creator Economy and TikTok Shop

The Creator Economy

The creator economy is growing rapidly. Shopify’s Harley Finkelstein talks about it almost weekly. It’s worth over $100B. And it’s just getting started.

So why is this happening? Growth in the U.S. creator economy has been propelled by several key factors. The proliferation of digital platforms offering creators various avenues to publish content and engage with fans has been crucial.

YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, and Patreon, among others, have built features and functionality for creators to earn revenue through advertisements, sponsorships, merchandise sales, subscriptions, and direct support from their audience. These platforms continuously innovate to provide creators with more sophisticated tools for content creation, audience growth, and monetization, attracting a wider range of creators with diverse talents and niches.

Additionally, changes in consumer behavior, particularly among younger audiences like Gen Z, who prefer authentic, personalized content over traditional media, have significantly contributed to the rise of the creator economy. This shift has increased the demand for creator-produced content and opened up new opportunities for creators to monetize their influence and creativity.

For example, TikTok, with its algorithm that expertly tailors content to individual interests, provides a unique platform where discovery and purchase can happen simultaneously and serendipitously.

Economic opportunities within the creator economy have also evolved. Initially, ad revenue and brand sponsorships dominated, but now creators have a diversified income portfolio. Subscription services, exclusive content offerings, digital products, and fan patronage provide more stable and direct revenue streams. This diversification helps creators build more sustainable careers by reducing their reliance on any single income source or platform.

TikTok Shop

TikTok is the leading platform for a new era of creators, and TikTok Shop, TikTok's integrated shopping feature, has significantly contributed to the rise of social commerce.

The app's massive, engaged audience transforms viewers into shoppers through a seamless, interactive shopping experience directly within the app.

TikTok Shop capitalizes on the platform's viral nature and the authenticity of user-generated content. It enables brands and creators to sell products through in-feed videos, live streams, and a dedicated marketplace within TikTok. Live streaming, in particular, has become a cornerstone of TikTok Shop, offering real-time interaction between sellers and buyers. This format allows for immediate question-answering, live demonstrations, and exclusive deals, fostering a sense of urgency and community among viewers.

We see the largest creators building their own brands, but any creator can get started monetizing their content through TikTok Shop and selling products through TikTok Shop’s Affiliate Marketing program, providing creators with a low-risk way to start building their own commerce offering.

Creators <> Brands

Some of the most successful Shopify brands are now creator-led or founder-led. Consumers, especially in younger demographics, relate more to the founder's story and their personality than the brand itself.

It comes in two flavors: celebrity brands and brands with forward-facing founders.

Toty, florence by mills, and Chamberlain Coffee are all perfect examples of a celebrity brand where they are capitalizing on their audience and reach to build a brand around a product category they have influence within.

Then, you have what I would call “public-facing founders”. These founders weren’t famous before starting their brand, but their background and story are at the forefront of the company’s ethos and marketing message. Take immi, for example. It wouldn't be the same without Kevin’s personal background and connection to the brand. And just last BFCM, I got an SMS marketing message from poppi of the CEO packing boxes in the warehouse.

Consumers connect to people - not brands - in the 2024 ecommerce economy.

This Week’s The D2Z Podcast

#100 – Building a New Team and New Product for Scalability and Long-term Success

🎧 Listen Now 🎧

We’re celebrating the 100th episode of The D2Z Podcast! A big thank you to everyone that has worked on putting this production together as well as all of the listeners and viewers who keep us going.

On this special anniversary episode, I sat down with Roy Mathew, CTO of SCALIS, the world’s first dually integrated ATS and job board system that matches relevant candidates to relevant employers. This one was HEAVY on building a new team and new product. Specifically, we explored the following:

💰 Putting “underpromise, overdeliver” into action.

📲 The world of recruitment innovation and SCALIS’ approach to candidate-company connections.

😎 Fostering a culture of curiosity and honesty and leveraging customer feedback where appropriate.

🚀 Overcoming scalability challenges!

App Updates & Highlights - Too Many to Count!

With Windsor shutting down, I’ve been searching for a personalized video platform and finally found one!

Maverick

What is it: AI Personalized Videos For Email and SMS 

Differentiator: Maverick enables you to send personalized videos at scale to every single customer at key touchpoints in the user journey, resulting in a boost to customer delight, email engagement, and revenue. Maverick is the only AI personalized video platform built from the ground up for ecommerce brands, and it focuses exclusively on serving this customer base.

This means completely seamless integrations with your favorite ecommerce platforms (Shopify, Klaviyo, Postscript, etc.), support/optimizations for the use cases you care about most (post-purchase thank you, abandoned cart, welcome series, etc.), quick onboarding process (less than 1 hour total of time investment to get up and running), and clear attribution for the metrics that are most important for you (open/click/reply rates, $ driven, etc.). 

Starting Price: Plans start at just $100/month (scales with the number of use cases and volume of sends).

How we use it: Boost engagement and effectiveness of any email/SMS in the customer journey:

Upcoming Events

I’ll be at ChargeX in San Diego from 4/29-5/1, where Electriq is nominated for an award!

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