Issue 158: Clock’s Ticking for TikTok: Sell by Jan 19 or Be Banned ⏰

Create cult like customers in less than hour

December 11, 2024

Y’all getting set up for your Q5 push? 😤 

But seriously, what influencer decided that was a thing we needed to stress about? 🙄 

50 Cent Fiddy GIF

| TWEET OF THE WEEK

Amazon FBA Survival Guide: Hack the Chaos, Save Your Profits 💡🚛

Amazon’s fulfillment network? 🚨 Total chaos. Sellers are stuck with delays, new fees, and a network overhaul that’s throwing everyone off. Here’s how to navigate the madness:

  • 💸 New Fees, New Frustrations: Amazon’s FBA Inbound Placement Fees and network restructure (hello, nIXDs, rIXDs, and FCs) = more hoops to jump through.

  • ⏳ Missed Pickups Everywhere: Partnered Carriers keep skipping LTL pick-ups because Amazon’s facilities are overwhelmed. Result? Delays that cost you big time.

  • 🚛 Hack Your Way Out: Use Amazon Freight’s scheduling tool 🗓️ to see a two-week calendar of pick-up availability. Plan smarter and dodge the worst of the chaos.

  • 📉 Money Moves You Can’t Miss: Amazon is holding your funds longer 💰 and raising AWD fees. If you’re not keeping track, you’re leaving money on the table.

🔥 Pro tip: Stay sharp, stay flexible, and get ahead of the game. Your profits depend on it! 🚀

| YOUTUBE UNIVERSITY

How to Create Cult-like Customers in 36 Mins

| TOGETHER WITH AFTERSELL

You know the power of upselling: higher AOV, better margins, and happier customers. But it’s not just about offering an upsell. It’s about offering the right upsell at the right time with the right strategy.

That’s why Aftersell created Upsell Academy — to help you go from good to exceptional.

🎓 Learn from experts like Nick Shackelford (BRĒZ) and Ron Shah (Obvi)

💡 Get exclusive tips, real-world success stories, and expert-backed strategies

 🚀 Streamline your process, scale faster, and dominate your niche

Upselling isn’t just a tactic. It’s your growth engine. Let’s take it to the next level 💸

| QUICK SHOTS

@anzedetn I’ve helped multiple 8-10 figure brands scale to another level

Sarah Levinger Average static design time: 20 min. Average GIF design time: 45 min. Average UGC production time: 3 hrs. Average pro video production time: 5 hrs.

@harleyf Total global Black Friday Cyber Monday sales by Shopify merchants over the last 5 years:

Peter Quadrel CMO: "We hit $11.2M this weekend. But here's what keeps me up at night..."

@MehtabKarta The absolute best marketers I’ve worked with:

Filippos Dematis There are two ways to add custom code to a theme in Shopify.

@sourfraser If you’re a founder and you’ve not made a UGC video yourself.
Go do it now.

| HERE FOR THE MEMES

| AND IN OTHER NEWS…

Google’s AI weather prediction model is pretty darn good

Google says it beat a leading forecast system.

These Were The Winners And Losers In A Boring Year For Startup IPOs

While 2024 has been a somewhat boring year for tech startup IPOs with just a handful of U.S. tech unicorns making it to market, we present some IPO winners and losers for venture-backed tech and biotech companies.

Retail returns: An $890 billion problem

As shopping reaches a peak in the weeks ahead, retailers expect their return rate for the holidays to be 17% higher, on average, than the annual rate.

As Australia bans social media for kids under 16, age-assurance tech is in the spotlight | TechCrunch

Age assurance, an umbrella term that refers to technologies for verifying, estimating, or inferring an internet user's age, is being thrust into the

The Weekly Closeout: ThredUp sells Remix for $1 and who really won Black Friday?

The resale business sold most of the European company to Florin Filote for one euro, while early reports suggest On and Amazon scored sales during the holiday.

| GET LINKED

Ankit Patel

Behind the scenes: 4 Obvi products that never made it to market (and why that's OK) 🧪

As brand builders, we often only share our wins. But some of our biggest lessons come from the products that didn't make it.

Here's a peek at 4 Obvi concepts that never hit the shelves:

Biotin Jelly Beans 

Sounds fun, right? But we hit a wall with COGS.

The hard truth: no matter how creative your concept, customers have price expectations (for supplements..and everything else, really). Sometimes innovation needs to bow to practicality.

Smoothie Bites

These dried smoothie balls were amazing in concept - we planned on releasing beauty, relaxation, and immunity varieties. Samples tasted great.

But our manufacturer kept pushing back the timeline until communication just... stopped. Lesson: sometimes great ideas die on the manufacturing floor.

(Oh yeah, if you know a supplier who can make these, please let me know!)

NAD Supplements

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide is a compound that supports cellular processes.

The science is solid. The benefits are real. But we discovered a crucial product-market fit issue: it was too complex for mainstream consumers to understand without extensive education.

I bet your attention started to drift when I described what NAD is there...

When your product requires a PhD to explain its benefits, you might be targeting too narrow a market.

Face Masks 

We actually launched these as a Black Friday gift! The cucumber mask was well-received, but it highlighted a bigger strategic question: what's the right bridge between supplements and topicals?

Sometimes good products need to wait for the right strategic moment.

I really love some of these concepts and products but here's what I've learned: Having unreleased products like this isn't failure - it's part of building a focused, sustainable brand.

Every "no" makes your "yes" products stronger.

| RECOMMENDED SOFTWARE & SERVICES

  • UPGRADED: Big brands don’t chase clicks—they chase revenue. Subject Line Genius 2.1 is built to do the same. With AI-crafted subject lines designed to sell, not just open, it’s been upgraded with 🔥 scroll-stopping remixes, 🎯 the latest BFCM-tested lines, and 🤝 seamless personalization integration. And the best part? It’s still free. Give it to your team and watch your email campaign placed order rates and AOV get jacked. 🦾

  • Are you a subscription business losing revenue to failed payments? Redux recovers what’s yours, purely on performance. Normally adding 3-8%+ in topline ARR growth. Redux’s ML/AI maximizes recovery, stopping churn from draining your ARR. Ready to stop the leaks? Let Redux handle the hard part while you enjoy the rewards. Learn more here.

  • As holiday sales increase, so does compliance risk. Zamp’s fully managed sales tax solution keeps 400+ brands like Cult Gaia, Glamnetic, and Tushy compliant, allowing them to focus on growing their business. Sign up here for free sales tax service through the end of the year (which includes January filings too!).

  • Every brand dreams of turning one-time buyers into loyal, returning customers—but most loyalty programs fall short. LoyaltyLion drives real growth by transforming fleeting transactions into lasting relationships with integrated programs, personalized experiences and actionable insights that boost revenue and lifetime value. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "Love LoyaltyLion. The software does an excellent job & the customer service is outstanding." Use our ROI Calculator to see how much you could add in incremental revenue.

  • BoxFort Commerce helps clothing & high-sku brands scale with efficient Shopify fulfillment. Unlike the Bobs & Monks of logistics, we ship hundreds of thousands of orders for 3 of our own clothing and jewelry brands, so it’s imperative that our processes are built around saving money & consistency. Learn more here.

| STAT ATTACK

| THE OUTRO

It’s at times like these we like to remember our favorite presidental quote:

“Don’t let the bastards get you down.”

Martin Van Buren

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