“Innovation most often involves connecting dots that are already there.”
– Seth Godin, 21 Bestselling Author
Two days ago, I got inspiration from John Bejakovic, who quoted the legendary Jay Abraham:
“valuable practices that are as common as gravel in one industry can be imported profitably into your own industry, where they appear to be magic, or gold.”
My first thought:
“That sounds cool.”
My second thought:
“I wonder if there’s an existing one for e-commerces.”
My third thought:
“I should start my series with this theme.”
And a wise comedian once joked:
“The key to a happy marriage is never to speak the first or second thing that comes to your mind.”
So…
The third it is.
This is what my new Sunday series, Ecom Trends [ET] is all about –
Find exciting news, trends, ideas, and business practices in other industries—and show you how to apply them to sell physical products online.
(Sorry John, I know you requested one for online information business)
With that being said…
Let’s dive into the first issue:
The US election created a new wave in the US (& global) economy, pumping a bit too much confidence into specific markets.
But most of these effects are temporary…
Because nothing has really “changed” yet.
Here’s what the trend looked like in the past few years, quoting a post I read from Maria Sparagis (founder of Directpaynet Merchant Account Solutions):
“Sales are down across the board
This is to be expected – the economy’s weak.
I run payment processing for thousands of merchants. Here’s a trend that all merchants should pay attention to:
Monthly subscriptions are doing well
Bundles aren’t converting
It’s a great idea to offer buy-now-pay-later payment options right now”
First, this does NOT mean:
High-ticket is dead.
Bundles (like cow shares) are doomed.
Or you can’t presell store credits anymore.
But it does mean that…
People are conscious about their spending across the board, plus…
Trust in marketing/advertising is at all times low.
(that includes whatever YOU are selling)
There are many ideas you can test here:
For example:
* get your foot in the door with a lower-ticket front-end offer
* use order bumps, upsells, or Before It Ship Flow to increase the AOV
* delay the payment
But I want to highlight one thing in this issue:
It’s great to have a monthly subscription—even if it’s pocket change.
A monthly subscription creates a cushion for your business.
It’s predictable, giving you peace of mind.
The best part is—you can get creative with the subscription without creating a physical shipment or SaaS.
Let me give you two examples:
Ryan Levesque once created a tiny membership called Green Thumb Club for his Orchid business. It’s a low ticket.
(I think it was initially only five or seven a month)
You get one orchid lesson a week, which is delivered via email.
You also get member savings from gardening sites.
That’s it.
This membership costs them very little to run but cultivates a community of raving super customers. If I’m in the Green Thumb Club… and get a discount from a specific gardening store… I won’t buy from another source.
Here’s another example:
Peloton.
Peloton’s stock price has dropped off the cliff since the pandemic ended (and after it made many silly marketing mistakes).
They would be out of business if they were only selling stationary bicycles.
But they’re more than that…
They are a subscription business.
They have a group of subscribers paying for the training/community.
So… they still have a shot.
(yes, Peloton has software for this, but you can easily achieve it with the bare minimum tech stack)
Now, it’s your turn.
Think about how you can tag a low-ticket subscription behind your product. Something that can save your customers a lot of headaches and create loyal super fans.
This will create a moat around your business
Cheering for you,
– WYH