In: Retailing Tips|Last Updated:
Building a Customer Retention Strategy

Most CPG founders are so focused on acquiring new customers that they don’t spend enough time and energy retaining their existing ones. According to Neil Patel, “The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-80%, while the probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20%.” On top of this, customer acquisition costs for new customers are much higher than for existing customers.

Are you building your strategy around retention first and acquisition second? If not, you should be as it’s the foundation to building a successful business.

Let’s break down what a retention first strategy looks like and how to build one for your business.

First, let’s look at a traditional marketing funnel.

Marketing funnel

Ideally, each potential customer moves from awareness down to advocacy. Now it’s called a funnel because at each stage you’ll have fewer and fewer people moving to the next step. Sometimes it’s because the product isn’t a fit, while other times people are simply busy and forget. As a company, your goal is to:

1) Build as many advocates and loyalists as possible, and 

2) Increase the number of people moving from one stage to the next without exiting the funnel

Why? Advocates and loyalists …

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Shop Pay: What It Is, How It Works, and How To Use It

One of the biggest considerations for ecommerce store owners is their website’s user experience. Are customers in and out in a quick and convenient way? Most importantly, is there anything that’s causing them to abandon their carts or otherwise fail to follow through with checkout? Shop Pay checkout is one solution to this.

Shop Pay helps to build a seamless experience for users, saving their information so they can complete their order in a few clicks. Customers can also access features like  setting up monthly payments to ease the cost burden. You can enable it on your Shopify store, as well as through social channels like Google, Instagram, and Facebook.

In this article, we’ll take a dive into what this feature is, how Shop Pay checkout works, and how you can use it to help boost your customer experience.

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What is Shop Pay?

Shop Pay  is an accelerated checkout solution Shopify introduced in 2017. It securely stores the payment information customers enter on a store’s checkout page and then autofills it on return visits. This allows for faster purchases and eliminates the need to re-enter billing and other …

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In: Retailing Tips|Last Updated:
This Veteran-Owned Sauce Brand Proves to Retailers That “It’s Gon Be Good”

John Walden, Founder and Chief Quality Assurance/Quality Control Officer of J.W. Southern Sauce grew up in restaurants. His parents and family worked long careers in the service and restaurant industry, where he learned a lot about what makes a good meal. The secret? Sauce. While his love for food and delicious sauces sparked at a young age, manufacturing and producing his own masterful sauces was a new endeavor. From 2005 to 2011, Walden served in the United States Army, where he completed two combat tours in Iraq. While serving in the Army, he started developing J.W. Southern Sauce, born through his collective experiences across several countries and many years of trying to make military food more flavorful. Several years and lots of hard work later, the one-of-a-kind LGBTQ-, veteran-, and now Black-owned and operated brand launched on March 18, 2021. 

J.W. Southern Sauce

We mustard from the beginning 

Before launching J.W. Southern Sauce, Walden received formal education about the sauce manufacturing industry by attending an array of food-safe programs and the University of Georgia’s Department of Science and Technology’s Better Process Control School. From there, he needed a message behind his brand, something that represented all his hard work and would resonate with …

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In: Dropshipping|Last Updated:
Jewelry Photography: How to Take Pictures of Jewelry

When it comes to ecommerce, your photos can often make or break your store’s success. Jewelry photography is no exception.

If you’ve attempted jewelry photography before, or just admired how other brands do it, you’ve probably realized how difficult it can be. Many say that photographing jewelry is tougher than other items, like clothes or furniture.

It’s true that photographing jewelry can be tricky. But with the right tools and tips, you’ll find that it’s not impossible to have beautiful photos without hiring a professional. 

In this article, we’ll give you a crash course on how to take jewelry pictures like a pro.

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Jewelry photography equipment

Taking great photos of jewelry doesn’t have to involve purchasing high-end gear. With just a few essentials, you can create your own photography kit and take beautiful product images.

Let’s explore each of the items you’ll need for your jewelry photography shoot: 

Camera 

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need a high-end camera lens to create good jewelry images. New jewelry sellers can also execute a shoot with an Android or iPhone. Personally, I suggest using whatever camera you have handy, be it a …

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In: Retailing Tips|Last Updated:
Hitting the Big Time: Are You Ready for Retail?

Many small businesses and startups are conceived to bring new and unique products to market. Entrepreneurs often start by selling their products via local boutiques and company websites. However, to reach a wider audience and achieve greater success, you will need the bigger, broader sales channels and supply chain acumen of retail and e-commerce marketplaces to help you grow. Here’s what it takes to make that leap: 

Establish credibility with major retailers

Before you can sell your product through a national retailer, you must sell it to them. In addition to pitching your product, you’ll have to pitch your company – and prove your ability to meet their requirements. Scale is an obvious point: do you have the production capacity to meet the retailer’s needs? If demand takes off, will you be able to meet it? 

You also need to demonstrate your company’s credibility in a marketplace that utterly depends upon customer satisfaction – timely delivery, sufficient supply, reliable quality, and product authenticity. The gatekeepers will carefully vet new products and suppliers, so it’s important to work within an infrastructure that supports the retailer’s systems and reputation. 

One key qualifier large retailers look for is the implementation of a standardized, …

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In: Dropshipping|Last Updated:
Clothing Photography: How to Take Pictures of Clothes

When it comes to ecommerce, your product photos are one of the most important elements to determine if a “window shopper” will convert into a customer. Clothing photography is no exception.

But you might be thinking, “How on Earth can I afford to keep up with the clothing giants?” There’s good news: you don’t have to spend a fortune on professional gear. You can create gorgeous clothing photography with a modest budget and a desire to learn the tricks of the trade.

In this article, we’ll take a look at how you can take professional-looking apparel photography on a budget, including the equipment you’ll need, the steps to take, and some tips along the way.

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Clothing photography equipment

The equipment you use will depend on your budget. You can buy more expensive gear if you want special lights or displays. Or you can keep costs by buying a few of the items below. 

Here’s some of the basic clothing photography equipment you’ll want to get:

Camera 

If you think you need the most expensive camera to take good apparel photos, think again—new clothing retailers manage shoots with just a smartphone…

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