Nimi Kular

Everyone’s panicking about DTC being “dead” because Shopify numbers are down and Prime Day was weak. I’m here to tell you that you’re simply focused on the wrong things. The brands that are profitable on first purchase are doubling down and winning, even now. The brands dependent on cheap acquisition are getting ran over by reality. Here’s what’s actually happening: Most DTC "brands" were never brands at all → they were transaction machines disguised as businesses. And you know what happens when acquisition gets expensive? Transaction machines die. Think about Apple vs. Android: Switching doesn't just mean a new phone: 👉It feels like losing part of your identity 👉Messages turn green, your ecosystem breaks 👉Friends judge you for “downgrading” Now, think about your favorite DTC brand. If they disappeared tomorrow, would you feel like you lost part of yourself? So what do you do if acquisition is expensive and retention sucks? 👉Stop chasing new buyers 👉Focus on making existing customers feel like their identity DEPENDS on you Loyalty programs won’t save you. Make your brand so wrapped up in their identity that switching feels illegal. The DTC shakeout separates real brands from transaction machines. Tariffs and Shopify numbers are just noise. Now's the time to decide which one you are.

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We've seen some massive changes over the last 3/4 months on our demo calls. There’s a real shift happening in DTC right now. If you go back even two years, the idea of tracking profitability outside of a monthly P&L was practically unheard of for most DTC brands. Back then, we were explaining contribution margin on every single call, and having to walk brands through why relying on in platform ROAS as their north star was not the goal! Fast forward to today, and the shift toward profit-first thinking in DTC is HUGE. It’s surprising it took this long, especially given the savage margin pressure brands are facing, not just from rising Meta/Google ad costs, but also tariffs, supply chain challenges, and inflation driving up operating costs across the board. Today, brands are coming to calls already knowing they can’t trust Meta or Google blindly, and they understand they need to track profit properly. Agencies are also leading the charge on educating their clients, and the rise of fractional CFOs is giving brands access to financial expertise that’s tailored to DTC. Ecommerce is no longer a marketing play, it's a numbers game wrapped in a marketing cloak!

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Just published 6 podcast episodes all about AOV growth with operators from David, BREZ, BrüMate, DUDE Wipes, Fresh Chile and Aftersell by Rokt on the Chewonthis DTC podcast. We went deep on the exact tactics the top 1% of Shopify brands are using to increase their cart size. Here’s my favorite 4 👇 🌿 Brez – Think Bigger on Upsells Nick Shackelford’s team tested a full year’s supply post-purchase offer, right after a customer checked out. While the take rate wasn’t massive, the AOV spike per conversion made the math work beautifully. It’s a reminder: People aren’t only shopping for themself, think about the whole household. ☕ BrüMate – Bundle Based on Psychology, Not Price Most brands bundle for discounts. BrüMate bundles for desire. When they drop a limited edition colorway such as “Sunset Orange”,  they release it across multiple SKUs at once: the 40oz tumbler, the coffee mug, the water bottle. Customers don’t want just one… they want the whole matching set. It taps into the same psychology as luxury handbags or makeup palettes, we love cohesive collections. Example - Their “Mini and Me” bundle: a full-size tumbler + a matching kids version. No forced discounting, no random add-ons,  just a natural use case that drives up AOV without hurting experience. 🧬 David Protein – Make Customers Feel Smart for Spending More Instead of running “20% off” promos (which feel like markdowns), David Protein tested “Buy 4, Get 1 Free.” It outperformed percentage discounts because it rewards quantity rather than devaluing the product. The shift in psychology is subtle but powerful, customers feel like they’re making a smart, strategic purchase rather than just being sold to. 🌶️ Fresh Chile Co. – Turn Objections Into Revenue Shipping cost was their #1 customer complaint. So instead of racing to the bottom, Chris Lang launched a $199/year membership with free shipping, exclusive drops, and community access. It now drives 6 figures in annual recurring revenue and better yet, the community sells it for them. When someone complains in their 30K-member Facebook group, other customers jump in with testimonials and membership plugs. It’s objection handling on autopilot. — If you’re not optimizing the post-purchase moment, you’re missing your highest intent window. This series was one of our most tactical yet and we couldn’t of done it without our sponsor Aftersell by Rokt. Aftersell provides a simple way to implement all of the tactics mentioned above. #AftersellPartner

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A brand was burning HOURS every Monday just to figure out one thing: 👉 “Which products do I need to reorder... and how many?” They weren’t even tracking inventory in Shopify. Their supplier just sent them a messy Google Sheet. Here’s how we built an AI agent that turned that chaos into a crystal-clear reorder system (and saved her hours every week): 1️⃣ Pull in the data We connected Triple Whale’s Get Data from Google Sheets step to automatically grab their supplier’s inventory sheet. 2️⃣ Add sales velocity Next, the agent pulled order history by SKU, so it could see exactly how fast products were moving. 3️⃣ Hard-code their formula They had their own restock rule: – Keep 67 days of stock on hand – Subtract current inventory – Factor in lead times (different for each SKU) Using Prompt-to-Python, we turned that formula into live code. ⚡ The Agent now runs the math and generates a simple report: ✅ What to reorder now ⚠️ What’s running low 🕑 What’s coming up soon 👌 What’s safe The founder’s reaction? “I can’t believe how much time this just saved me.” AI agents aren’t just for creative. They can run your ops. They can save you hours. They can tell you exactly what to do next. If you’re still buried in spreadsheets, it’s time to let an agent handle the heavy lifting. 🚀

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Vibhor C. just revealed how Shopify Shipping became unrecognizable after two years of heavy investment. But most merchants have no idea these changes exist. "I get these messages on X sometimes where a merchant will go, 'Hey, I tried Shopify shipping after a year and this is a completely different product. I'm going to move to Shopify shipping now.'" We spent 40 minutes recording to break down what actually changed... → Automatic $200 shipping insurance on every package (Shopify covers the cost, most merchants don't even know it exists) → Bulk label printing for up to 250 orders at once, plus warehouse pick lists  → Volume discounts from UPS, USPS, FedEx, DHL without setting up carrier accounts → Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment managed directly from Shopify admin → Built-in address validation that prevents delivery delays and correction fees → Shop app push notifications that eliminate "where's my order" support tickets And ultimately, how shipping transforms from a cost center into a competitive advantage. If you're shipping 10+ orders per day, this episode will save you serious time and money. If you're avoiding Shopify Shipping because you tried it years ago, you need to hear what's changed. Just dropped. Check replies for links.

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Shopify just made a big move for agentic commerce: yesterday they announced their agentic commerce tools, all available through an MCP server. For the first time, third-party agent developers can: 1) Search across Shopify’s entire merchant catalog (hundreds of millions of products) 2) Manage a cart session 3) Trigger checkout This is the first real “batteries included” setup for commerce agents, without any PCI or complexity involved. Millions of merchants are now agent-ready out of the box for commerce agent developers. But there are still gaps: the cart doesn’t yet support purchases from non-Shopify merchants, and multi-merchant carts still require multiple separate checkouts. There is also the issue of merchant control – millions of merchants in the catalog, but only a few can surface in the GUI at a time. Who gets shown first? Despite the challenges, this feels like a zero-to-one moment. Shopify is the first to make commerce agents first-class citizens. Others will follow quickly, and 2025 is shaping up to be the year agentic commerce becomes real. We wrote more about it here: https://lnkd.in/dPbVycgn

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ChatGPT doesn’t know why your MER is 35% worse this month. But there’s an AI that does. I’ve been playing with Moby AI from Triple Whale, and it actually “gets it.” Probably because it’s trained on billions of DTC transactions and was built specifically for brand operators. Unlike generic AI agents / tools that give surface-level recommendations, Moby understands: - DTC metrics like MER, AOV, LTV, and seasonal patterns (like an expert) - The nuance of revenue from email vs revenue from organic - Your language as a brand operator Some questions you can ask Moby: “For orders from the last 30 days with both TikTok & Meta touchpoints, which channel is driving more incremental value?” "How should I spend $20K of incremental ad spend to drive the most profit?" "What's my customer acquisition payback period by cohort?" "Based on the last 3 years of sales data, which products should I prioritize for creative that will launch in August?” I can’t stress this enough. The difference is that it’s not generic, beginner-oriented AI advice. To get the most out of Moby, you do need to understand prompting. So the TW team put together a prompting guide for DTC operators... 25+ specific prompts for creative analysis, media analysis, and budget decisions. To get the DTC prompting guide: 1. Like this post 2. Comment "Moby" below 3. I'll DM you the link to the guide --- EDIT: Just decided to post the prompting guide: https://lnkd.in/euJSsDhF And you can try Moby out here: https://bit.ly/44v6gHH --- ♻️ Repost to get the guide first #TripleWhalePartner

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Got into a heated debate last night about product marketing hires—specifically, whether or not subject matter expertise (SME) should be a requirement for a PMM role. The setting was a swanky dinner roundtable in SF with a dozen or so growth and marketing leaders—no actual product marketers were present (or harmed) at this meetup. The general crux of the debate was whether SME could/should be learned on the job and, if so, on what time horizon. The group fell into two camps: 1) Camp SME required 2) Camp SME not required Here’s a case for and against each camp… 🏕️ Camp SME required Case for 👍 - Faster onboarding cycle - Built in empathy with core ICP - More autonomy (fewer asks of others to review work) Case against 👎 - Longer time to hire - Smaller candidate pool - More challenging to scale - Too close to the problem (grasping at straws a bit here) Disclaimer: It should be noted that I fell into this camp. Reflecting on my marketing failures, I realize it’s often been where I lacked firsthand experience of the target audience’s pain points and lost trust with both them and the CEO. –––––– 🏕️ Camp SME not required Case for 👍 - Faster time to hire - Larger candidate pool - More repeatable/scalable motion - Not jaded by the curse of knowledge - Flexibility to move to alternative product lines Case against 👎 - Longer time to ramp - Risk of losing credibility with core audience - Slower to ship (e.g., asking SME for feedback) –––––– Anyway, I don’t think we got to a consensus but it was definitely a fun and lively debate. Would love to hear from some ACTUAL product marketers and others with strong opinions on the matter—you know the drill :) ======= P.S. Big thanks to Theory Ventures and Tomasz Tunguz for hosting!

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Shopify stores are f*cked. They can't pay their way into AI interfaces like you did with social media. The visibility game has fundamentally changed. In the AI era, your content quality matters more than your ad budget. Take any e-commerce store outside the top 100. Look at their product pages: • Color: White • Material: Cotton • Season: All-year That's it. That's their entire product description. Compare this to Lululemon: • Detailed material benefits • Specific use cases for different activities • Clear reasons why someone should choose this product Your products need to be findable and searchable through detailed, structured information that AI can digest and present to customers. My advice: • Write clear, detailed product descriptions • Explain why your product deserves to exist • Give AI platforms something substantial to index If you can't list 10 clear reasons why someone should buy your product, you don't deserve to be found. The days of throwing money at Meta to get customers are over. Your new competitive advantage: Actually having something worth saying about your f*cking products.

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The possibilities of what Shopify dropped last week are endless! No exaggeration. This is a game changer for commerce in my opinion. Here's a sneak peak at my headline story being published this afternoon on Shopifreaks E-Commerce Newsletter. Subscribe here to get the full edition: https://lnkd.in/ebJvGQs3 HEADLINE: Shopify launches Checkout Kit, Catalog, & Universal Cart Shopify launched three new tools aimed at making it easier for developers to embed e-commerce into their apps, websites, and AI bots without a lot of extra coding or having to deal with compliance management. Here's what's new: ① Checkout Kit - embed commerce widgets and checkout directly into your agent and chat. Already in use by Microsoft’s Copilot. ② Shopify Catalog - low latency global product search across millions of merchants. ③ Universal Cart - shop from any store, anywhere, in one cart. CEO Tobias Lütke wrote on X: "With these, you can build seamless embedded commerce experiences quickly, starting with all the best products by the best merchants in the world instead of having to sign them all up individually. No need to build a complex new checkout, or dealing with regulatory marketplace rules. Commerce just plugs in and feels seamless in conversations. We believe commerce should be everywhere people are, so we’re making that as easy as possible for the AI age." Last year I was pitched a product search website that was effectively trying to emulate what Shopify just launched to everyone -- curating products from hundreds of thousands of Shopify stores and building a search layer and checkout experience on top of it. It was an interesting idea, but the work involved was incredibly resource intensive, requiring the platform to constantly crawl and scrape Shopify stores to build their database, and the checkout experience left a lot to be desired. Now, with Shopify's new tools, anyone can easily and cost-effectively build a commerce layover on top of Shopify's product catalog. ✨ The possibilities are endless, but here are a few examples: ➤ Building niche marketplaces powered by products from Shopify merchants ➤ Shopping directly inside an AI chatbot or messenger app, without ever leaving the interface. ➤ Shopping via voice assistants like Alexa, Siri, or Google Assistant that pull from Shopify's catalog and complete purchases on your behalf. ➤ Making in-game purchases of real-world merchandise from Shopify stores directly inside games or virtual worlds (which Shopify has been experimenting in the past with already). ➤ Integration with business apps, such as a hotel app that lets guests book accommodation and buy local goods from Shopify-powered stores in the area, all within one flow. The reach that these three new features bring Shopify merchants are unprecedented and will make it very difficult for merchants who want to tap into multiple "non-Amazon channels" to avoid Shopify moving forward. No other e-commerce platform offers anything like this.

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