It's You vs. Amazon/Aliexpress this Q4

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Happy first Monday in October, 10,000+ Shopify rockstars!

Ada here, with your weekly dose of ecommerce insights designed to boost your store's sales by at least 1% this week.

Here is what is inside today's edition:

• Industry: You VS. Amazon/Aliexpress

• Growth Hack: Stop judging your ads with tunnel vision.

• Weekly Challenge: Read your ad metrics as one equation.

• Trend: Loop Earplugs and the stylish hearing protection wave.

so….

You vs. Amazon/Aliexpress

If you haven’t heard, Amazon is piloting a same-day delivery scheme this Q4 and AliExpress is launching an invite-only Elite programme (aka loyalty scheme)….basically both taking the gloves off and making it harder for smaller Shopify stores to compete on price/delivery/convenience.

If you're selling the same products as these marketplaces, trying to beat them at their own game is a losing strategy.

Q4 isn’t a season to compete on commodity products alone. Give your shoppers a reason to buy from you: products they can’t get anywhere else, bundle products, exclusive bonuses, improved packaging, expert advice or a stronger brand story. Then make those differences obvious in your product pages and ads.

How you can fight back: Find your 5–10 most important products and ask, “Why would someone buy this from my store instead of Amazon?” If the answer is simply “because we're cheaper”, you've got work to do. Build an offer Amazon can't easily copy

Growth Hack: Stop Judging Your Ads With Tunnel Vision

One of the easiest ways to misread your ad performance is to look at CPM in isolation.

In this example, ad spend climbed from $28.6K to $48.4K, while CPM increased from $33.26 to $36.10. At first glance, that looks like things are getting worse.

But look at the rest of the picture.

CTR rose from 1.65% to 1.92%, which pushed CPC down from $2.01 to $1.88. And conversion rate actually improved from 1.93% to 2.10%.

So you're paying more to reach people, but getting more people to click and more of those clicks to convert….that's the bit to watch.

Don't judge an ad account by one metric. CPM tells you what you're paying for attention. CTR tells you how well your creative turns that attention into clicks. Then AOV and conversion rate tell you whether those clicks actually turn into revenue.

So next time CPM jumps, don't immediately kill the campaign.

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Weekly Challenge: Fight back with a solid customer retention plan

If customers can find the exact same product on Amazon or AliExpress, you're playing a game where someone else can always win on price.

This week, spend 60 minutes making your store less comparable.

Option 1: Create something only you sell

Create a branded version of one of your existing products. Basically custom designs, packaging, bundles or a product variation that turns a generic item into something that feels like your product.

Option 2: Give customers a reason to come back

Set up a simple loyalty programme. Give customers a reason to choose you again rather than searching Amazon the next time they need something similar.

The goal isn't to have the cheapest product, no… it's to become the brand customers remember.. which brings to mind this quote I came across recently

Trend: Loop Earplugs

Loop Earplugs are reusable earplugs designed around different situations, from reducing noise for sleep and focus to making concerts and social settings more comfortable. Unlike traditional earplugs that are mainly positioned around noise reduction, Loop has made hearing protection feel more like an everyday accessory. Search volume is currently at 673K, with 82% growth, making this a category worth watching.

3 ways to cash in on this trend

Sell by situation, not just product. Create shopping paths around sleep, travel, work, concerts or social situations. Help customers find the right product by starting with the problem they are trying to solve.

Make product differences easy to understand. If you sell multiple versions of a product, comparison content can become part of the selling process. A simple “Which one is right for you?” guide can help shoppers choose faster.

Make hearing protection feel like an accessory. Show the product being worn in real-life settings and lean into colour, design and portability. If customers are going to use something regularly, presentation can make a functional product feel like something they actually want to carry around.

Till next Monday,

Ada