Welcome to Frankly eCommerce, a weekly DTC newsletter from Austin, TX. Martech, culture, & economy for brand builders by Patrick Scott Pitman.

Building upon the 15 year tradition of the Austin Shopify Meetups and supporting the first season of Frankly Workshopsl. Thanks Marc Nathan!

In this issue:

  • 🛒 Post-purchase email & SMS flow automations

  • 🎙️ Gabrielle Pitman BFCM Retention podcast interview

  • 🍹 Preview of Austin Shopify Meetup Nov 11

  • 🏷️ Comparing margin of Shopify vs Amazon vs brands doing BOTH

  • 📆 Events and links worth sharing …

Let me know what you find valuable — and whether this message is delivered to your inbox? Also reply if you want Hal Smith’s paid traffic guide for BFCM from our Oct 2 Acquisition workshop.

Subscribe here if you were forwarded this by a friend.

If you like something, forward it?

~ Patrick

P.S. This season of Frankly eCommerce is presented by Tie. Join the brands turning anonymous intent into revenue their stack was missing. Special offer.

Gabe Hernandez and Busra Saahin contributed to the Oct 23 Retention workshop in Austin.

Hold the attention of your first time BFCM buyers

Workshop participants organized post-purchase automations

The BFCM deal only works for the brand if the person returns to buy a second time. So Oct 23 workshop lead Gabrielle Pitman focused on post-purchase flow automations:

  • Communicate to first purchase customers as if they are yet to believe in your brand or product. They’re just testing, sampling!

  • Organize flow automations so they are aware of the timing of product delivery. Don’t ask for the next order until the first has been received.

  • Build automations intentionally simple in structure. One flow for each type of customer: new, repeat, 3+. Make it easy to maintain.

America’s #1 vibration plate brand Lifepro sent Head of Marketing Hillary Corrigan to the workshop because retention is their number one problem.

Corrigan joined in order to:

  1. Seek advice on repeat orders of a high-ticket durable good.

  2. Get POV on platforms as she evaluates the martech stack.

  3. Broaden perspective: what am I missing in my day to day?

What caught her attention? “The conversation about when somebody makes purchase one time they are a buyer, not yet a customer,” said Corrigan.

“People that make one-time purchase are just giving it a shot, whether it’s $10 or $300 purchase. It was a small comment that turned into a big train of thought. It makes me want to consider how we incorporate that into our post-purchase education.”

Gabrielle Pitman shared a prioritized list of flows developed at ebusiness pros. Numbering from 1 to 65 in order of revenue impact, they are grouped by situational purpose and identify their trigger in Klaviyo.

Reply to this email to request a link to this prioritized directory of flows!

Gabrielle Pitman led the Oct 30 Retention workshop in Austin.

Turn anonymous shoppers into loyal customers (Sponsor)

Most of your visitors stay anonymous in your existing stack — and that’s where the real revenue is hiding.

Wunderkind uses a privacy-safe consumer identity network to turn that anonymous traffic into known, reachable customers. Then they observe website visitors’ real-time intent to unlock revenue lift across every channel.

All of this happens through your existing Marketing Automation Platform or ESP like Klaviyo. Works with your CDP or onsite tools.

You get the next best action for every individual without ripping anything out.

HOW IT WORKS FOR ECOM →

Podcast Episode 7: Retention after BFCM

Oct 30 workshop lead Gabrielle Pitman talks branding, deals, & repeat buyers:

11:27 - Simple Flow Architecture
14:09 - Timing Post-Purchase Messages
16:17 - Brand Loyalty vs. Discount Hunting
21:17 - Avoiding Early Sale Teases
27:36 - Post-Cyber Monday Strategy
29:39 - Selling Without Coupons
35:05 - Prospect Aggression & Peak Revenue
40:16 - Unsubscribes & Brand Voice

Events near Austin

Mostly business things to do. Send us your event!

Ideas worth sharing

  1. Stellar brand collab: Vivobarefoot x Moonlight Gear. Example of what’s possible when brands sync up and build upon the enthusiasm of their respective communities of fans. Strong photography and story to support product launch! Watch Youtube documentary here.

    The UK based low profile footwear maker Vivobarefoot sent Nicholas Charlier to Austin last year as GM to build their North American HQ. He’s probably hiring…

  2. LTV, CAC, and payback period for a food brand. An interview of Thomas Lalas, author of Retention Economics, on what 3,000+ US brands like Grüns and AG1 teach about retention and what challenger brands can learn from it.

    Look for Lalas as a future guest on the podcast!

  3. Own larger share of small pie? Or smaller share of larger pie? The perpetual founder vision and growth dilemma. Check out Charles Chakkalo’s take on Andrew Youderian’s take on data from Finaloop:

    Amazon-only brands: 19% contribution margin.
    Shopify-only brands: 29%.
    Brands on BOTH: 27%, avg 3.3x larger than Shopify-only brands.

  4. Get to know me, Patrick, editor of this newsletter by reading the Austin Founders Feed interview. I describe working with family, doing less in order to double, and my experiment with a Quaker-style clearing committee.

Resources & tools

This season of Frankly eCommerce is made possible by support from:

  • Alia for AI powered popups to boost your optin rate.

  • Wunderkind to maximize revenue with AI decisioning

  • Swym to engage shoppers, improve conversions.

  • Klaviyo for customer relationships built autonomously.

  • Tie to reach every shopper at the right moment.

Before you go…

That’s all for this week!

Your feedback is welcome! Got an event to share? Email me here.

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