Place pixels from wherever you think you will be spending — Pinterest, Snapchat, TikTok, Google, Quantcast — because many platforms use pixel data as inputs on how to better optimize your ad targeting. Don't end up regretting not doing it later.
When you upload your product feed to social platforms, add a UTM to the URL so your site knows how to differentiate that traffic. Then you can change the pop-up from email collection to phone number collection, or highlight a better first-time offer.
94% of customer service inquiries are usually for the same things: 'Where's my order?' ... 'Does this contain allergies?' ... 'What is the return policy?' Automate those and save your team for the conversations that actually matter.
Tag customers in Shopify for any actions you think might impact their LTV or behavior. Think about all the spots in a customer's journey that you want to see down the line. It'll help you visualize patterns and make smarter decisions.
Always put Microsoft Clarity (free), advertising pixels, attribution software, UTM pass-through, and a floating CTA on every landing page. Even though only 10-50% of traffic ends up in checkout, putting pixels on landing pages lets your ad platforms collect as much data as possible.
Go into each part of your tech stack and figure out how to use the app 10% more than how you're currently using it. There are so many wins hiding in your existing tools.
If you have a high SKU count or high repeat purchase rate, a mobile app makes sense — even if only the top 1% of customers install it, it's worth it. Push notifications are free marketing, and your app becomes a hub for community, loyalty, and subscription management.
Don't blindly enable every payment processor on your store. Saving 0.1-0.5% or the secondary 30 cents per transaction at scale can be enormous. You don't even need to switch — just ask for a lower rate as you grow.
On your website and with any apps in your tech stack, don't push updates during a sale. If you absolutely need to, test it thoroughly in a staging environment first.
Don't ever sign a vendor agreement without understanding SLA (response time for support) and out clauses (how fast you can get out of a contract when needed).
Place pixels early — even before you spend on a platform. Pinterest, Snapchat, TikTok, Google AdWords/YouTube, Quantcast. The data collected by each pixel becomes an input for how the platform optimizes your future ad targeting. Waiting to place them means you're starting from zero when you flip ads on.
Microsoft Clarity session recordings show where visitors spend the most time. If a comparison chart or specific review gets more attention, move it higher on the page or change your headline to reflect that angle.
Cohort analysis questions most brands never ask but should: What ad creative drove the highest subscriber LTV during Black Friday last year? Which sponsored newsletter traffic built the best 1% lookalike audience? What was the newsletter opt-in rate for visitors from different influencer swipe-ups? The questions feel random, but the answers give you leverage.
None of your software platforms will ever tell you to go look at your data differently. They want you to believe their dashboard is the single source of truth. The problem is it never tells the full story. You need an analyst — or at minimum, the discipline to download reports and cross-reference them yourself.
UTM parameters were created by a company called Urchin, later acquired by Google for ~$30M and turned into Google Analytics. Meta lets you dynamically insert creative file names into UTM links. In 6 months, you can see the LTV of customers who came from a static image ad versus a video ad. That's how you stop guessing.
SimilarWeb generally under-reports traffic numbers by 20-40%. Use it for relative comparisons between competitors, not absolute traffic counts.
If you have a heavy Shopify app load, host your landing pages on a subdomain using something like Unbounce so it doesn't load every app installed on Shopify. Apps you've deleted often still have code embedded — check with BuiltWith.com.
For product launches, always set your SEO share image — it's what shows up when your URL is shared in iMessage and DMs. Most brands forget this and lose a free branding touchpoint.
AI in DTC right now is like Facebook ads in 2010 — mature enough to drive insane results, but most people are too scared to hit the gas. Just as every marketer kicks themselves for not spending more on social ads 10 years ago, they'll kick themselves in 2030 for not taking AI more seriously today.
Phase 1 of AI was rule-based automations ('if this, then that'). Phase 2 was predictive models (Netflix recommendations, Amazon's 'you might also like'). Phase 3 is generative AI and agents — software that creates, personalizes, and acts autonomously. Most brands are still stuck treating Phase 3 tools like Phase 1.
Most brands give their VAs a ChatGPT account for simple copywriting or admin work and think that's 'using AI.' That's the bare minimum — it's like saying your growth strategy is posting on Instagram twice a week. The smartest operators are building unfair advantages through complex automations, better software, and AI agents.
Vibe coding — using AI to build apps with you — can eliminate $50-$250/month in Shopify app charges. You can build a functional back-in-stock app or other small apps in 45 minutes with zero coding experience. It's free, low-risk, and has massive upside.
Vibe coding tools like Cursor, Replit, and Lovable let non-technical founders build fully functional Shopify apps from text prompts in 60 minutes. Paying $50/month for a small app can now be replaced with your own vibe-coded solution. Billy Howell got a C+ in his college coding class but now runs an agency building custom apps for businesses with vibe coding.
Focus on ADA compliance for your website. Dozens of brands have been hit with frivolous lawsuits over missing alt text, poor color contrast, lack of keyboard navigation, missing form labels, or non-captioned videos. Pro tip: have someone run quarterly audits using the same tools the ambulance-chasing attorneys use to find you, so you have the evidence ready.
One of my clients recently started ranking as the AI answer to 'I'm currently pregnant, what will help with bloating?' — that's AEO (Answer Engine Optimization). You can track your AI rankings with tools like Ahrefs or AthenaHQ, and use GA to understand your LLM traffic.
AEO/GEO — how your brand shows up in ChatGPT for answers — is the next frontier. You need specific scripts and files on your site for LLMs to crawl properly. This is like early SEO: the brands that set it up now will dominate AI-generated recommendations.
Direct fulfillment from Asia ships 90% of orders in 6-8 days with local carrier tracking at $5/package. Brands like Jolie, Moment, and Wyze use it — customers have zero idea the package originated from Asia. Lead times cut by 90%, cash flow up 3x.