Podcast
Learn from Fast Growing 7-8 Figure Online Retailers and eCommerce Experts
How to Maximize the Impact of Emerging Technology for your Store
About the guests
Derric Haynie
Derric Haynie is the Founder of Ecommercetech.io – Where eCommerce stores go to research, discover, and buy the right tools to grow their store. Half of his day is spent reviewing tech tools, and the other half is talking with merchants to help them discover which solutions are right for them. When he’s not doing that, you can find him speaking, networking, or grabbing a drink at any of your favorite Ecommerce events.
On today’s episode, Kunle is joined by Derric Haynie, Founder of eCommerce Tech – an agency specialising in researching, reviewing and recommending apps for your Shopify store.
5 apps, on average, are added daily to the Shopify app store. Considering the thousands already available, selecting the right app for your store becomes an arduous task. We all want to leverage the latest tech to get a leg up on the competition. But too many businesses don’t research apps enough and only realise the mistake once a new app breaks something in the store. Treating your store like your phone can prove to be very costly.
If you are looking for a new app, it is essentially because you’re looking to solve a problem. It is critical to examine the problem in the context of your overall business strategy. The app must check a lot of boxes, as we discuss in the episode, but most of all it should be compatible with your existing tech stack and resources.
In this episode, Kunle and Derric talk about the nitty-gritties of choosing apps for your Shopify store. You will get to hear about how to vet apps, how many you should have, how often you should audit them, and a bunch of recommended apps for different categories.
Here is a summary of some of the most important points made,
-
- Free apps are ok to try, but they won’t make you money
- Tools should fit your business strategy, not the other way around
- Don’t count the number of apps installed, rather their individual ROI
- Fast growing firms should review their tech stack every quarter
- Apps have to be compatible with the rest of your tech stack
- Reviews and Ratings can be gamed and are unreliable at times
- Rev-share model apps are ok if you know exactly how they do their attribution
- When dealing with enterprise apps, look for ones specific to eCom
- Trust Badges can act as a handy social proof
Covered Topics:
On today’s interview Kunle and Derric discuss,
- Avoiding Trial & Error
- Vetting Apps
- How many apps to have installed
- Rev-share pricing models
- Improving Attribution
- App Recommendations
- Trust Badges
Timestamp:
- 09:45 – Meet Derric:
- Started making money playing Poker
- Worked in marketing and growth space
- 12:30 – Why trial and error doesn’t work for stores
- Shiny object syndrome
- “If you think a free app is going to make you a lot of money, you’re sorely mistaken”
- Some apps just scrape data
- Tools should fit the strategy of the business not the other way around
- 14:30 – App landscape:
- Almost 5 new apps daily
- Companies are specialising in one core service and then acquiring other companies
- Now companies are trying to consolidate offerings
- 17:10 – Will consolidation create monopolies?
- All inclusive tools will eliminate some of the smaller players
- But some standalone companies will survive
- 20:35 – How many apps are too much?
- No such thing as too many
- But many apps are useless and slow down the sight
- Measure the ROI of each tool
- Successful stores have an average of 25 apps installed
- 23:45 – Frequency of auditing apps
- Fast growing firms should review the tech stack every quarter
- 26:50 – Chrome Tools
- Commerce Inspector
- 28:20 – How to vet apps:
- Reviews and Ratings are unreliable many times
- Recommendations from trusted sources
- Forums help to find options
- Venture-backed developers are better bets
- Demo the service
- Apps should be compatible with the rest of the stack
- Resources and metrics required to use the tool successfully
- How the app bills
- 34:05 – Shopify Plus apps
- They are the cream of the crop
- More reliable partners
- But they are likely to be more expensive
- 39:05 – Rev-sharing Pricing Models:
- Make sure you know how it is calculating
- Not viable long term strategy for businesses
- 44:00 – Apps outside Shopify app store
- Look for tools that are specifically built for eCommerce
- 46:00 – Attribution:
- Humans can’t solve attribution by themselves
- Complex models and tools are required
- Post purchase surveys also very important
- 52:10 – Shopify API:
- Did it to capture subscription revenue
- Every payment has to go through Shopify pay
- 60:15 – Top 3 apps for store design
- 60:40 – Top 3 apps for notifications & popups
- 61:10 – SEO tools:
- 62:13 – Top 3 Checkout apps:
- 62:50 – Orders and Shipping:
- 63:42 – Invoices and Receipts:
- 64:38 – Loyalty programs:
- 65:08 – Reviews:
- 65:50 – Inventory Management:
- 66:45 – Trust Badges
- Act as social proof
Takeaways:
- Free apps usually don’t boost profitability
- Apps must fit your overall business strategy and be compatible with the rest of your stack
- Calculate ROI for each apps installed on your store
- Fast growing firms should review the tech stack every quarter
- Using surveys on thank you pages help boost attribution data
- When dealing with enterprise apps, look for ones specific to eCom
Links & Resources
Tweetable Quotes:
“Split test your technologies.”
Facebook Group • Continue the Conversation
The eCommerce GrowthAccelerator Mastermind Facebook Group has just launched.
It is a community…
✔️ for founders and experts passionately involved in eCommerce
✔️ for the truly ambitious wanting to make an impact in the markets they serve
✔️ for those willing and open to help and share with other members
Here is where to apply to join the Facebook group
>>http://bit.ly/ecommercefb<<
———–
SPONSORS:
This episode is brought to you by:
This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo – a growth marketing platform that powers over 25,000 online businesses.
Direct-to-Consumer brands like ColourPop, Huckberry, and Custom Ink rely on Klaviyo.
Klaviyo helps you own customer experience and grow high-value customer relationships right from a shopper’s first impression through to each subsequent purchase, Klaviyo understands every single customer interaction, and empowers brands to create more personalized marketing moments.
Find out more on klaviyo.com/2x.
This episode is brought to you by Rewind – the #1 Backup and Recovery App for Shopify and BigCommerce stores that powers over 25,000 online businesses.
Direct-to-Consumer brands like Gymshark and Movement Watches rely on Rewind.
Cloud based ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce do not have automatic backup features. Rewind protects your store against human error, misbehaving apps, or collaborators gone bad with Automatic backups!
For a free 30-day trial, Go to Rewind.io,
reach out to the Rewind team via chat or email and mention ‘2x ecommerce’
This episode is brought to you by Famous.
Famous enables brands on Shopify to easily build beautiful landing pages and product pages that include custom video, animations, and more. All pages built on famous are optimized for storytelling and selling on desktop and mobile.
Famous’ software allows you to build your pages in minutes without code, so you don’t need a developer. You just need to want to build a better experience for your customers. Famous has worked in the past with many leading online retailers including Honest, Justfab and more.
You can try it for free at famous.co/2x.
This episode is brought to you by ShipBob.
ShipBob is an end-to-end global fulfilment provider trusted by thousands of DTC brands. With the recent launch of their first UK fulfilment centre, in London, merchants that work with ShipBob now have access to ecommerce markets in Europe as well as North America.
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About the host: Kunle Campbell
An ecommerce advisor to ambitious, agile online retailers and funded ecommerce startups seeking exponentially sales growth through scalable customer acquisition, retention, conversion optimisation, product/market fit optimisation and customer referrals.
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