We've been ordering produce from a local wholesaler for a few months now. They have flat-rate next-day delivery and are 3 miles away so it makes sense to order bulky things from them instead of getting smaller quantities from our regular grocery store. The problem is that since their business...
This week we received our electricity bill and it was about 30% higher than last year. At first I thought our new ductless heaters were to blame. Maybe they weren't as efficient as I thought. After looking into the data and putting some thought into it, I realized I was...
Once piece of advice I often give stores is to add samples of their other products to an order. For example, if someone orders a soy protein shake mix you'd add in a single serving packet of pea protein. Or if someone orders a bunch of high-end shirts, you add...
Sometimes you just have to break things. Incremental change is less risky and usually a more successful strategy. Content optimizations. Copy tweaks. Website rescues. A/B tests. But in rare times it might be worthwhile throwing what you have out and breaking it all. Just don't mix up "the desire to...
Some industries foster communities. If you sell surfboards, blenders, or crafting tools, you already know your customers talk to each other. In these communities they share ideas, help each other, and recommend products and services. They also report on bad products and experiences. More and more communities are forming now...
Yesterday at 9am our time was the US Presidential Inauguration, a pretty big deal in the US. (Don't worry, there's no politics here). At 9:47am I received an email from Hulu letting me know I can watch the event live. The event started at 9am... 45 minutes ago... Hulu sent...
Over the next two weeks we're going to start having a bunch of trees, shrubs, and other plants delivered. Many will be bareroots so they'll need to be planted immediately or as soon as possible when they arrive. But we have no control over when they'll be shipped or delivered....
With the holiday rush and any post-holiday orders over, now's a good time to dig into your results. Ideally you tracked your traffic and orders which will make things easier (e.g. Google's UTM codes). Even if you didn't, you might be able to look at the timing of orders to...
A lot of customer retention and analysis can get complex and confusing fast. But there's one rule of thumb you can use to tell if you're doing a good job keeping customers coming back: At least 1 of every 4 customers should be a repeat customer. If that's not happening,...
I heard from a Shopify store that they are too busy for customer retention because all their time is focused on customer acquisition. They didn't realize that they were the ones creating the problem with their business. When you ignore customer retention, customers will leave. Some might stick around but...
Each tip includes a way to improve your store: customer analysis, analytics, customer acquisition, CRO... plus plenty of puns and amazing alliterations.