Issue 072: Early Black Friday Sales + The Big PUSH

PLUS: Taylor Swift Breaks The Internet 💥🌎

November 16, 2023

Yahoo! Finance via USA Today officially confirmed it so we’re happy to rubber stamp this one: Taylor Swift officially ruins Christmas.

When Taylor Swift unleashed her holiday magic with 'Swiftmas' ornaments, it didn’t just make 'Sparks Fly'—it was a full-blown 'Love Story.'

Swifties raced to her store and caused a Kardashian-esque level meltdown, leaving merchants struggling to 'Shake It Off,’ as their stores were caught in the ‘Red’ zone and left as nothing but a ‘Blank Space.’

One merchant who wished to remain anonymous said, “There is officially ‘Bad Blood.'“

| TWEET O’ THE WEEK

This little tip brought to us by Connor Shelefontiuk, Workspace6 member, CRO aficionado and bee enthusiast. We’re gonna let him tell you in his own words what he found in the code of his site after a recent site speed optimization…

The team & I made a bit of a disturbing discovery this week. If you've ever had a Site Speed optimization done by someone on Fiverr/Upwork, or even an agency there's a large chance that you got scammed.

We found code on three of our client stores that masks your true site speed to give you an A grade when using popular site speed measurement tools like GTMetrix.

They're essentially:

  • charging you to improve site speed

  • adding (and hiding) code on the site that identifies when you're running a side speed test on a measurement tool

  • hiding the majority of your site from loading on the tool

  • giving you a an A grade on the site speed report

  • making it look like large improvements have been made

This is incredibly problematic for 3 reasons:

  1. Your site speed wasn't actually improved (The most obvious one)

  2. This code slows down your site further

  3. The code can seriously hurt your Google paid/organic rankings & SEO

I've attached a couple images of what it looks like and my COO shot a short video on how to identify if you've been impacted by it.

In one instance, we found that they also removed the code at a later date and followed up to upsell additional site speed improvements when the site speed declined from the removal of the code, re-adding the code again once paid to make it look like they made additional improvements.

The code is generally in the header, if you run into this issue or have any trouble finding the code and need a 2nd pair of eyes, we're happy to take a look for you free of charge and remove it if it's there. Shoot me an email and we’ll chat.

The rage from our members that ensued in the thread of this tip in our community was cheering to the soul. If you’re looking for a community of like-minded merchants where you can rail against the diabolical powers intent on keeping you down, apply to join here.

| YOUTUBE UNIVERSITY

How Deion Sanders got 400m People Talking About Sunglasses - Sweat Equity Ep 02

| TOGETHER WITH OPENSTORE

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| QUICK HITS

  • @greggcarey: I have been deeply influenced by @TaylorHoliday and his contribution margin drumbeat for a year now. Revenue has been ~10%, but I've engineered significantly more contribution margin by doing the following 🧵

  • @mrsharma: He raised $3M in funding with just an idea and a presentation. In 2 years, his company passed $8M in revenue. Now, they're making over $100M as a sustainable outdoor gear brand. The story of how Davis Smith built Cotopaxi

  • @zachmstuck: November’s performance has been soft across our portfolio of clients at Homestead (over $1B in revenue in 2023). *Especially for brands waiting to launch their BFCM offers (including my own brands). But looking at the macro environment it makes total sense, and what it means for Q1 2024 🧵

  • @CoryDobbin: This might be controversial, but if you don't have a product-market fit, you don't have a business, you have a liability.

  • @TaylorHoliday: At first glance this looks like a brand that is on a death spiral. Top line revenue has suddenly collapsed from a peak over $2M. but let's shift the lens for a second... [CHART]

| HERE FOR THE MEMES

| AND IN OTHER NEWS…

  • SmartCompany: Shopify outage in peak sales week no barrier for these Aussie brands

  • Yahoo! Finance: 'Merry Swiftmas to us': Fans crash website after Taylor Swift Christmas gifts released

  • The Drum: Kevin Lynch was Oatly’s creative director for several years. Then he got the axe. Here's what he learned shaking up the dairy sector.

  • Inc: How Partnerships Can Catalyze Growth for Small Businesses

  • CNBC: Home Depot says the worst of inflation is over — that could be good news for retailers and shoppers

| DTCCI

| GET LINKED

🧠 Daniel Kahneman is an Israeli-American trailblazer in psychology and economics, renowned for his groundbreaking work in hedonic psychology, judgment and decision-making, and behavioral economics.

Here’s 12 lessons you need know from this consumer psychology master:

1. We're not always rational: Our decisions are often driven by emotions and biases rather than pure logic.

2. Our minds operate in two modes, fast thinking (intuitive) and slow thinking (analytical). Our fast-brain influences us most.

3. Anchoring bias skews decisions: We tend to rely heavily on the first piece of information we encounter when making decisions, even if it's irrelevant.

4. Loss aversion is powerful: People fear losing what they have more than they desire gaining something new, impacting choices.

5. We base judgments on readily available information, even if it's not representative of the whole. This can heavily affect our decision-making.

| THE OUTRO

Solidarity, friends!

Whether it was Swift & The Swifties or just a big glitch, we may never know. But now’s not the time to show them you’re scared.

🤨 No matter who’s to blame…

Adios!

Workspace6