NFR #22 - Shopify, Meta & $5 Trillion Super Apps

The latest eCom news, industry trends, mental models and interesting quotes

December 08, 2021

☕️ Morning Inspiration:

“The separation of talent and skill is one of the greatest misunderstood concepts for people who are trying to excel, who have dreams, who want to do things. Talent you have naturally. Skill is only developed by hours and hours and hours of beating on your craft."

→ Will Smith

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🤖 eCommerce News:

“Today, Shopify announced a record-setting Black Friday / Cyber Monday weekend with sales of $6.3* billion globally from the start of Black Friday in New Zealand through the end of Cyber Monday in California. This represents a 23% increase in sales from the more than $5.1 billion reported for Shopify’s 2020 Black Friday / Cyber Monday weekend, and more than double our merchants' sales from the same holiday shopping weekend in 2019.”

“Alibaba Group Holding Ltd said it will reorganise its international and domestic e-commerce businesses and replace its CFO - changes that come as the tech giant grapples with an onslaught of competition, a slowing economy and a regulatory crackdown. It will form two new units - international digital commerce and China digital commerce which it said was part of efforts to become more agile and accelerate growth.”

“Pinterest is further investing in creator tools and video with today’s news that it has acquired the video creation and editing app Vochi for an undisclosed sum. The company will be bringing in both the IP at Vochi and its 40-person team, including its founders, to expand Pinterest’s set of video creation tools and to help its creators make more dynamic videos.”

Facebook’s parent company is changing its direction to focus on selling more products directly through its already existing apps Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, according to leaked documents seen by Business Insider.

Leaked information behind Business Insider Paywall (Link)

“Less than six months after raising a $157 million Series D round, AI-powered transcription and captioning platform Verbit announced today it has closed $250 million in a Series E round that values the company at $2 billion. The latest funding brings its total raised to more than $550 million.”

“Helen of Troy, which owns Vicks, Drybar and Hydro Flask, among others, on Monday acquired outdoors backpack brand Osprey for $414 million in cash in a bid to "accelerate profitable growth" through acquisition.”

“TradeDepot, a Nigeria- and U.S.-based company that connects consumer goods brands to thousands of retailers and helps with distribution, has raised $110 million in new equity and debt funding as it looks to bring in more retail stores and expand its buy now, pay later service across the continent.”

“Edgewell, the maker of Schick, Wilkinson Sword and Skintimate, has acquired DTC razor brand Billie for $310 million in cash. The deal has closed after being cleared under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act, the company announced in a press release Monday.”

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📈 Trends Of The Week:

Education for Kids on the Road

“As the number of digital nomads rise so will the demand for remote education options. More than a quarter of digital nomads have children 18 and under, and 40% of them travel with their children.

The opportunities in this space are not limited to remote learning platforms, homeschooling programs, and cohort-based courses.

You could also help nomadic parents re-create the school experience by focusing on the social-emotional, mental health, and physical health benefits of in-person schooling.

B2B may be an attractive route to market in this space. You could target remote companies that may want to add remote schooling as a company benefit.”

Merch Goes Back to Basics

“The size of the custom T-shirt market, which represents only a small portion of the overall merch market (worth ~$290B in 2020), is set to grow ~73% from $1.79B in 2020 to $3.1B in 2025.”

“Stevie Hopkins is a serial entrepreneur in the entertainment and merchandising & CEO of Second City Prints,

There is an opportunity to differentiate yourself in the merch space with a premium offering and/or brick-and-mortar footprint. You could take inspiration from Adidas and Nike by offering in-store personalization and customization.

You could also follow in the footsteps of startups designing high-end products that leverage the eco-friendly trend to create an eco-friendly luxe merch brand.”

Asterisks denote projected numbers. Source: Statista

Battle of the super apps…A $5 Trillion business?

“The super-app market is the digital Iron Throne.

Super-apps live on mobile, and mobile is the internet in emerging markets.

India, for example, has three times as many cellular subscribers as the U.S., and Indians spend 17% more time per day on their phones.”

“Payment processing is the foundation of a super-app. It’s the glue that integrates core features with those provided by third parties on the platform, and it gives users the convenience of not needing to enter credit-card information across apps and sites”

Image Credits: Sensor Tower

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🛍 My marketing highlight

This clip was posted on @MercedesF1 official Tik Tok page yesterday.

In my opinion this is a perfect demonstration of reactive marketing.

In the viral clip Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff is shown slamming down his headphones in frustration after a tense clash between Lewis Hamilton & Max Verstappen during the weekends F1 race.The caption → Sorry @Boseofficial 😅

The clip accumulated 3.2m views and over 354k likes in under 24 hours

What incredible exposure for both the Mercedes team & one of their top sponsors 👏

Link to Tik Tok clip (Here)

The brands that are smart enough to tap into the excitement of viral moments like this, gain monumental amounts of organic exposure.

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❓Quotes that make you think:

  • “Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake up in the day to find it was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.” T. E. Lawrence

  • “Be patient with yourself, nothing in nature blooms all year.” Lisa Kelly

  • “Laughter is the lubricant that makes life liveable” Russel Howard

  • “People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true…No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in” Rosa Parks

  • “Everyone should ask themselves each day whether you are not too readily accepting negative solutions.” Winston Churchill

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⛓ Mental Model Of The Week:

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📚 Book I'm Still Reading:

Will: Will Smith - Link to book

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Happy existing 👋