黑料门

Transcript

Jesse: What鈥檚 going on? How鈥檚 it going today, Richard?

Richard: It鈥檚 going well. How about yourself?

Jesse: It鈥檚 an excellent day here. It鈥檚 Friday.

Richard: Are you on special behavior today?

Jesse: Special behavior? How so? Oh yes, I鈥檓 on special behavior because my boss is in the studio today. So let鈥檚 bring him on. This is V.P. of marketing at 黑料门, David Novick.

David: Hey everybody. Thanks for having me onboard today, I appreciate it. Jesse, I expect you to be your normal random awesome self.

Jesse: I鈥檒l try to keep it random, not best behavior.

Richard: Beautiful Sunday. I鈥檓 excited to have you in. Sounds like you have some interesting stats coming up for the holiday season, and just what鈥檚 been going on in the state of the Internet and e-commerce. What are the stats that you have, what is something that someone should be interested in as far as just something that is compelling, that most of the news hasn鈥檛 shared with yet?

David: Sure, sure. So you know I love getting the opportunity to work with you guys. I see it from the periphery and see that you do an awesome job. What you鈥檙e doing is really going into the detail to help our merchants and anybody else out there to learn more about how to do e-commerce, how to grow their own business, how to live their true authentic lives, and be that business person they always wanted to be. I think it鈥檚 a great service. What I wanted to do today and what I think would be most helpful is to kind of step up a level and maybe give like a 30000-foot viewpoint of what鈥檚 happening in e-commerce. I might have a little broader purview of what鈥檚 going on out there and how we鈥檙e helping to steer the development of 黑料门 commerce to be that amazing tool to help people live their dreams. So it鈥檚 exciting.

Richard: Sounds good.

David: OK. I鈥檝e got a long list of cool stuff that people really don鈥檛 know about, some really late breaking news. Hopefully, they鈥檒l find that as exciting as I did just reading about it, researching and writing it down.

Richard: Awesome.

David: I鈥檒l just start rattling some stuff off. Love to hear your thoughts about these, we haven鈥檛 even gone over them yet. It鈥檚 kind of interesting but we鈥檙e at them, it鈥檚 amazing. It鈥檚 an amazing thing — the growth of the Internet and e-commerce. I鈥檝e been doing this over 20 years and it just continues to increase the excitement levels and growth, it is just amazing. We鈥檙e at the point right now where the world is growing and the world of Internet users is growing at even much faster pace. We are expected to eclipse 3.6 billion Internet users in 2018, and some of these notes (this one in particular) are from a gal named Mary Meeker. She puts out stats of the state every year, we can share. Jesse, we can share resources later on.

Jesse: We鈥檒l put this on the blog page. 黑料门.com/blog/podcast out there.

David: You don鈥檛 need to take any frantic notes either. We鈥檒l take care of this for you. It鈥檚 a good opportunity to help digest some of this stuff. So over 50 percent of the population is now Internet users in the entire globe.

Jesse: That鈥檚 pretty amazing. I mean I think you know we鈥檝e been around a long time. There鈥檚 some gray hair here in this office. When you think about it, back a long time ago the Internet was OK for universities and then it was business people. Now everybody has the Internet in their pocket. Everybody, meaning half of the world, there are people that maybe have never sat down on the computer as we might think of a computer, but they have the Internet in their pocket.

Richard: That鈥檚 part of what鈥檚 going on with the smartphone. Was it really the Internet or is it the smartphone that鈥檚 doing this? I mean, you have to have the Internet obviously. But that computer — because it鈥檚 really a computer in your pocket that happens to make phone calls. We鈥檙e talking鈥� So first off you guys provide the opportunity for people to create a business, and they can do it internationally, they can do it domestically. These numbers are international now, going global.

David: We all should be thinking globally at this point. Even small businesses.

Jesse: That鈥檚 the part that鈥檚 fascinating. There are 3.6 billion people that you have access to鈥�

David: Exactly.

Richard: 鈥�For the cost of your cell phone plan or whatever plan you have.

David: Let鈥檚 think about this. Not only there are 3.6 billion Internet users in 2018, but the time on the internet in the past eight years has also actually doubled. So, each user is now averaging 5.9 hours a day, not a month, not a week, per day. And we鈥檙e all guilty of this. Let鈥檚 think about this. But the efficiency of using your mobile device to figure things out, to entertain yourself, to communicate with others is phenomenal. Right. We do need to be careful here a little bit. I mean 5.9 hours is a lot. Yesterday was鈥�

Jesse: Cut the kids off a little bit.

David: There are some great apps out there to cut your kids off and I think that鈥檚 a super important thing.

Jesse: Sure.

David: Careful about that. Anyway, business is happening on the internet and you need to be there and if you鈥檙e listening to this, obviously you are there. Hopefully, we鈥檒l give you a couple more pieces of ammo today to help you refine your game in a couple of pieces that might help you up your game as well. Let鈥檚 move on and talk about some other interesting stats. The National Retail Federation released some interesting news. We found out that last year鈥檚 holiday spending hit 814 billion dollars, not million. I said something with a B.

Jesse: Yeah, that鈥檚 a big number. Can I get just one of those?

David: I鈥檒l take them! Yeah!

Richard: It鈥檚 crazy because you say one of those, and it鈥檚 so easy when you hear million, billion, trillion, no, it鈥檚 not just a different letter, different pronunciation. There鈥檚 a thousand M鈥檚 for every B. Yeah. Say that out loud. There are eight hundred and sixteen thousand million dollars being spent. That鈥檚 freaking ridiculous.

Jesse: If you saw my front door, you would start to understand why I participate. Yeah. There are packages there. Like for my wife. I鈥檓 going to say, it鈥檚 mostly for my wife. Yeah. There鈥檙e just packages every single day and multiple ones and I don鈥檛 know what鈥檚 in there.

David: It鈥檚 everyday business now and it鈥檚 fantastic. It makes things a lot more efficient. Who really wants to go out to the store? If you have a complex product that you really need to see like a large stereo — you want to hear a stereo. Well, you go to the store and you listen to it, and then maybe buy it online.

Jesse: On your phone when you walk off the store.

David: It鈥檚 come down to kiosks at some point and showrooming is happening. Yeah, let鈥檚 continue a little bit. So, it鈥檚 814 billion according to Mary Meeker. E-commerce is now about 13% of total retail. Retail is a much bigger piece of the pie. But e-commerce continues to accelerate its portion of the entire puzzle. And you鈥檙e looking at the acceleration increasing, not decreasing. When I say “acceleration” that means the percentage of growth of e-commerce as a part of retail is an increasing pace. That鈥檚 pretty exciting, given the fact of the prevalence of e-commerce in general. but now it鈥檚 paces.

Richard: They鈥檙e all merging together too. Right. We use this term e-commerce sometimes as if it鈥檚 just one small thing, it鈥檚 a widget but it鈥檚 all kind of blended now. What is social, and e-commerce, and Yelp — it is internet but it could be driving still more retail sales through your brick and mortar location. It鈥檚 all morphing together. And even though e-commerce is growing, in this stats, we don鈥檛 really know, where there could be this hidden gem. Maybe she鈥檒l have a new stat next year. It鈥檚 driving more restaurant sales, or just doing your social stuff, bringing people into your brick and mortar stores. Now it doesn鈥檛 seem to be working for Sears and J.C. Penney鈥檚 and, Toys R Us, so something鈥檚 changing. It鈥檚 growing but how are we seeing this behemoths disappearing too. What are they doing wrong? What鈥檚 going on?

David: You make an interesting point and it鈥檚 not necessarily a problem with the physical store. Physical stores are alive and well. If you look at the stats, and I don鈥檛 have them here with me today, but you will see that mall closures are definitely happening and some store footprints are disappearing. But some of the higher-end stores are actually increasing, and you鈥檒l see a lot of the upscale products are doing quite well. People do what it really needs to be if you were going to be a physical store and do well as you need to have an experience. Brands that do recognize that and realize that and take advantage of that are doing great. So they鈥檙e having both, it鈥檚 really about the omnichannel piece. Selling both online and offline is really the key to larger retail success.

Jesse: I think part of the reason for this continued growth is more and more people are getting used to buying a lot of things online and not just the things they used to not just buy, like books on Amazon. They鈥檙e essentially buying everything online even when you鈥檙e like: “OK, it鈥檚 my kid鈥檚 birthday coming up in a couple days, so we could go to Target and whatnot and buy stuff but we just bought online because it鈥檚 so much easier”. And then you see the rise of the direct to consumer brands. Now if you have a good idea, if you either make the product yourself, you get it manufactured somewhere. Now you are the whole brand and basically, it opens up a lot of 黑料门 merchants to be able to create a brand and sell online. People are not afraid to buy online at all. It happens all the time. These success stories.

Richard: Yeah, it鈥檚 a lot different when we first started. I think back to starting days, I actually started with physical or not physical, but the credit card processing piece of it. It was like “wow I could see behind the scenes they鈥檇 send me their statements”, you try to get them a better rate and not always it would be the best-looking store selling the most stuff. I remember this one guy that sold saddles in 2001. He sold saddles on the sort of million dollars plus and it was the ugliest site ever. But he had his market. He had his audience, it just made sense to his audience. They didn鈥檛 mind getting lost in his sight. They didn鈥檛 mind sticking around and looking for a while. You could barely even find the “how to buy” buttons. Wow. It was crazy. Yet a million plus and then sometimes you鈥檇 have these people that would say: “Oh I want to get that theme and make it look like Amazon”, the exact opposite extreme. Good luck. Yeah, it鈥檚 fascinating. Just what people are able to do these days. It doesn鈥檛 necessarily have to be some super fat complicated fancy site. You could just test something out to your point. You make something, you want to test something, and 黑料门 can put it up in a day.

Jesse: And you鈥檙e online.

David: One of the things that I like that Richard said, it鈥檚 really interesting how it was back in the day. Suppose you鈥檙e a saddle guy and I think I heard about this story. It was really about having that content, having that product and being able to get it out there to your audience. Getting to your audience is the thing that we鈥檙e really focusing on now at 黑料门 E-commerce in general. We鈥檝e had these great capabilities to develop a store quickly and efficiently. With even a small shop you could use 黑料门, get your stuff rolling very quickly. But what it鈥檚 coming down to now is a lot more about the distribution of your content. That鈥檚 really one of the key pieces that we鈥檙e actually bringing to our merchants. We want our merchants to be successful, so we鈥檙e rolling out new tools to allow that to happen. And that鈥檚 really the key component there. This is a quote that I liked from my days back at the Chive and it was: “Content is king”, meaning having great content on your website that was really interesting was king. But distribution is the queen and she actually wears the pants in the family which was funny at the time but it didn鈥檛 really hit home until you think about it. It鈥檚 one thing to have great product content. The other piece is really getting your message out there which is the key piece. So if you鈥檙e the saddle guy it wasn鈥檛 just that his product was so great. His website could really be awful. He was able to somehow get everybody to his website in order to sell these saddles. And that鈥檚 really where we are today. 黑料门 provided the tools for a small shop to be able to make their own website. And now we鈥檙e trying to, we鈥檙e not trying, we have built tool sets that are really functional and working for a lot of our customers that are allowing you to get that distribution piece, get the word out there about your products. That stuff have been diving into every week.

Jesse: The important part is having the infrastructure taken care of. 黑料门 really takes care of that for you. You get your products future prices, tax, shipping, all that stuff is now taken care of that used to be a very expensive process back in the day. A many-month process, and now you can do it in an afternoon if you just stick to it. It鈥檚 really up to you as the merchant to work on that distribution. How do you get the message out? There鈥檚 a ton of different ways to do that. Richard, what鈥檙e the latest stories we鈥檝e heard on people getting the word out.

Richard: Oh, man. First off it goes back to what we were talking about earlier with the 3.6 billion people online. Those people are sharing things online. Those people are mostly consuming which is good for e-commerce people. Right. They鈥檙e mostly consuming. And if you鈥檙e creating media鈥� First, I鈥檓 going to to take a broad answer to that. Which path do you want to go down first? You want to talk about social. You want to talk about other marketplaces. There鈥檚 just so many distribution channels these days. What I love about what you guys are doing is you鈥檙e basically setting up a system to where — what is your strength — and you can focus on that. If you want to do marketplaces, 黑料门 can hook you up to do Amazon too, if you want to. So help me narrow it down first because this one is huge.

Jesse: Yeah, it鈥檚 a pretty broad.

Richard: Three point six billion people.

David: You know what. Here鈥檚 the thing. As even some of the pro guys, I鈥檓 looking at here. Where do I start on this topic and it is tough but that鈥檚 what we want to do. We want to make it easy for you. The tools that we bring onboard are the ones that we believe in. If you鈥檙e not successful as an 黑料门 merchant, we鈥檙e not successful. We鈥檙e only going to steer you toward things that we have proven and do work. When it comes down to it鈥� Look there鈥檚 a couple of things that we鈥檝e been focusing on lately. Social selling is a huge piece and social selling is kind of a new term. People didn鈥檛 believe in it at first but look. I鈥檓 going to hop into my stats a little bit more here. Did you know that there is 48% as of this year of the U.S. population is either Millennials or Generation Z. Crazy right. Crazy sell, baby boomers. I mean they鈥檙e adopting digital faster than almost anybody as a percentage. But anyway millennials and Gen Z are a huge piece and growing鈥�

Jesse: What makes that interesting is if you鈥檙e not in Generation Z, what鈥檚 the picture you have of this person. Right. You have a picture of somebody probably looking down at their phone. Right. So looking at their phone, you assume they鈥檙e looking at social media. That鈥檚 the place where you need to target people.

David: That is true. We鈥檒l share this online as well. There was an Audi ad survey in 2018. A very competent group put it together and it showed that for millennials and Gen Z the most relevant ad medium is not television, it is actually social media. For the first year this year in 2018 we鈥檙e expecting mobile advertising, meaning display ads on your mobile devices that few of us ever really try to hit purposely. We think that it鈥檚 surpassing television advertising in spend. Ad investments by all these major brands, believe me, we know what we鈥檙e doing, they know what they鈥檙e doing. It has shifted from television as the primary to mobile devices as the primary advertising, the single largest advertising investment that brands are making is now mobile. Crazy, right?

Richard: Let鈥檚 tile those together now. We originally started with like “Richard, what do you think of distribution stat?” I said that鈥檚 kind of wide. That鈥檚 OK. What kind of wide and we narrow down to some of the things that are going on. You guys are working on social selling and to your point and the stats right there. We have 48 %. They are these millennials that Jesse鈥檚 for the most part.

Jesse: Millenials and Z.

Richard: They are staring at phones and so we鈥�

Jesse: Don鈥檛 quote me on that (laughing.)

Richard: I know there are other ones changing the world鈥� one shoe at a time. But where I was going at, you have to keep that in mind as a seller. If that鈥檚 your market where do you need to be to get in front of them? Because in this world where they say no like and trust I can鈥檛 guarantee they鈥檙e going to like you, I can鈥檛 guarantee they鈥檙e going to trust you, but I can guarantee you they鈥檙e not going to like you or trust you if they don鈥檛 know about you. Sure. Right. And so where are they? If you鈥檙e not necessarily selling to them you might get a get out of jail free card on that because you鈥檙e not selling to millennials maybe, but there are grandmas on there. There are all kinds of people out there.

Jesse: It鈥檚 not just millennials who鈥檙e looking at their phones. We鈥檙e all looking our phones too and we might think we don鈥檛 click on those banners or we might not think we鈥檙e not affected by them. But there鈥檚 a reason that mobile ad spending is going to surpass TV like it obviously works, it鈥檚 super target.

Richard: Literally where I was going with it. Think of the old term — broadcast. It was about casting a broad kind of wide message that you hope would stick with someone. But now with all the A.I. and all this stuff going on, they鈥檙e getting better and better at putting in your feed what you鈥檙e interested in.

David: Well, let me give you some more stats because it鈥檚 kind of why I鈥檓 here for and it鈥檚 fun. Again the National Retail Federation says (and this just came out) that one-third of shoppers say that they are influenced by promotions for their holiday shopping by online vendors and display. And so you don鈥檛 think you are influenced. They鈥檙e talking about not just e-commerce but sales across all channels. This is an eleven point four percent increase year over year. A full one-third of holiday shoppers might have had another idea and they鈥檙e influenced by the advertisements that offer promotions. We do expect that to continue to grow.

Jesse: I mean, advertising works, period. Right? When you think about that mobile ad spending is now surpassing TV. I think that鈥檚 a huge opportunity for small merchants because for a small merchant the ability to make a TV commercial is probably not going to happen. It鈥檚 a tough deal: you鈥檝e got to have creative commercial it鈥檚 is expensive, period. But creating a mobile ad is very easy. You have a phone in your pocket, you pick it up. You push the button. You record a video. I could record you two sitting across from me right now and we can make a video commercial. Maybe not the best one but then you can add all these different graphics and things. It鈥檚 amazing what you can do with your phone to create a really good ad.

David: Yes. And you鈥檝e actually just added steps of complexity that aren鈥檛 even really needed. The tools that we offer right now allow you to just simply connect your product feed in the artificial intelligence that we鈥檝e aligned as partners. 黑料门 allows you to actually choose a category and a basic target and set your budget and artificial intelligence will actually do most of it for you. That鈥檚 a no-brainer. That鈥檚 what I love about this stuff. You know when I think about it, I love that we really serve smaller businesses and I love that we鈥檙e bringing these great technologies that used to be really reserved for only high-end brands that had huge development teams and analysts and now we bring these tools right in for these solopreneurs. It鈥檚 amazing but that鈥檚 kind of where I see it. So I think most of the tools that you see us offering, to be honest, are really strong and they鈥檙e definitely worth working with. We鈥檙e now deep, Jesse. This is huge news, huge news people.

Jesse: All right. Breaking news everyone. We did wait for this.

David: It鈥檚 the seventh year that 黑料门 has been plugged into selling on Facebook. OK. Seven years.

Jesse: Wow.

David: It鈥檚 huge. So that was really one of our number one. That was the number one sales tool for many years. Now we鈥檙e seeing the fastest growth and adoption obviously coming from Instagram. That鈥檚 been fantastic for our partners unrelated to these. Obviously, we鈥檝e already talked a lot about Facebook, we鈥檝e talked a lot about Instagram, but you know I think it鈥檚 really a smart thing to look at right now going into the holidays to be looking at probably you know the Google Shopping opportunities with artificial intelligence. I think that鈥檚 probably a pretty key point.

Jesse: Yeah, I mean we talked about this a couple weeks ago on a podcast, you can literally get going with Google Shopping. Automated Google Shopping thing. In, I don鈥檛 know, five minutes. Right. You just plug into it, you connect your products. Put a credit card in 鈥� Google鈥檚 going to want to get paid. You know there is a promo by the way. I think it鈥檚 pay 25 bucks you get 100 free or 150/150 but literally, in five minutes your products are going to be on top of Google. When people google your products, you鈥檙e there. And of course, Google is pretty smart. They know the right people to put your products in front of. They want to make you successful, so you keep advertising obviously it鈥檚 not a secret there. It鈥檚 an amazing thing to be able to do. You could pull over if you鈥檙e listening on the podcast in your car right now and set this up from your phone. It鈥檚 that easy.

Richard: That鈥檚 actually something I was going to ask earlier Dave. You guys really are amazing at getting something up and going quickly. And if someone wanted to do a side hustle and they just want to try something out before they may be quit their job or stay at home mother/father wants to do something on the side. But I鈥檝e also noticed the more I鈥檝e worked with 黑料门 that you get some pretty darn close to an enterprise if not enterprise features also. This isn鈥檛 really something that anyone does. You鈥檝e got to grow to a pretty darn big company before you鈥檙e even remotely thinking of switching out of this, so you can kind of get up and go and ride away. How big! What are some of the kind of interesting different things you鈥檝e seen someone doing with 黑料门 at a close to enterprise level? Do you have any clients that you could think of? You don鈥檛 have to specifically name them but just something interesting that they鈥檙e doing with the software.

David: You鈥檇 be surprised at the number of seven-figure people that we have selling the records of seven figures as a number. Plus six zeros. Right. So into the millions. Yeah you know and quite a few of them. And so it鈥檚 pretty exciting stuff to see. It is exciting. And what I really want to hear is more of the success stories. I mean if you guys are out there and you have success stories鈥�

Jesse: Yeah please, guys. This is a way for you to promote your store. We鈥檝e had some people on recently, you probably just heard Joe Colker from Heroic Kid. We had CakeSafe on. CakeSafe actually did a recent, what he called a case study. That鈥檚 what鈥檚 available on the website too. I mean we have a ton of examples of stores that are doing well with 黑料门. I think the best one good thing about this podcast is if you want thousands of people to hear about your store please, message us in the in the notes. Actually, it鈥檚 a podcast@ecwid.com if you want to send an email and tell us your story so we definitely want to have more merchants on to help your story and it鈥檚 the holidays too.

David: We love the feedback too. Literally, inside the company, we love talking about the success stories and sharing them. And it makes us all feel good because that鈥檚 kind of why we鈥檙e here. We all love what we鈥檙e doing here. Let me jump on that CakeSafe thing. You need to check this out, it鈥檚 not that super long. It鈥檚 a pretty short case study. But we鈥檝e been working with CakeSafe, we love these guys, really cool product. You know there are bakers out there, they make a cake and they鈥檙e trying to transport these things. It鈥檚 really actually pretty hard to do. So this is like a vault for your cake that makes it easy to transport without getting bumped so the wedding cake doesn鈥檛 get ruined. Anyway, they said, “we鈥檒l try this Google Shopping thing with you guys”. And they had an 18X return on ad spend. So I don鈥檛 want those return on ads been numbered to scare you guys. But what that means is if they invested one dollar they got $18 back on their investments. And it鈥檚 not like they鈥檙e not sophisticated marketers, they鈥檙e sophisticated chefs and bakers and they had a really cool original idea but it really comes down to the content that was great, and now it鈥檚 the distribution engine. So for small companies, it can really help to use paid media to try to get the word out there. Well, that鈥檚 one of the things about a big brand right. And when you know a lot of our clients are smaller brands and you know they grow.