Ecommerce

𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚'𝐬 "𝟏𝟎-𝐏𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐦𝐮𝐦" 𝐓𝐚𝐱: 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚’𝐬 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐍𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐚 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐭 I visited my local chemist recently for a 3-day course of medicine. The strip had 10 pills; I needed 6. The chemist refused to cut it. The reason I asked? "If I cut it, the next customer won’t buy it because they can’t see the expiry date." He’s right - but only because our packaging design is stuck in the past. This isn't just a minor inconvenience; it’s a systemic failure that leads to MASSIVE MEDICAL WASTE and an unfair "waste tax" on every Indian household. 📈 THE NUMBERS TELL A STORY: The Indian pharma industry is a global powerhouse. In 2025, the domestic market grew to ₹2.4 lakh crore, with top companies enjoying operating profit margins of 25% to 32%. When an industry is this profitable and growing at 9-11% YoY, the oft-touted argument that "retooling packaging is too costly" loses its sting. Improving packaging isn't a cost - it’s a basic requirement for patient safety and affordability. ❌ THE PROBLEM: In India, manufacturing and expiry details are usually printed in a single block on one end of a strip. Cut the strip, and you lose the "source of truth." 💡 THE "ZERO-WASTE" SOLUTIONS: (Common elsewhere, missing here) 1️⃣ Vertical Repetitive Printing: Regulators (CDSCO) should mandate that expiry and batch info be printed across every single blister cell, not just once per strip. 2️⃣ Unit-Dose Perforation: Designing strips that are pre-perforated into single, fully-labeled units. You buy one pill; you get the full data for that one pill. 3️⃣ Micro QR Codes: Every pill pocket could carry a 2D data matrix. A quick scan by the consumer verifies the batch and expiry instantly, no matter how the strip is cut. 🎯 THE BOTTOM LINE: We are the "Pharmacy of the World," yet we are forcing our own citizens to buy 40% more medicine than they need just because we haven't updated our printing standards. Pharma companies have the margins to absorb this transition. It’s time for regulators to move from "bulk-first" to "PATIENT-FIRST" packaging. What do you think? Is it time for a mandate on unit-dose labelling?

Website traffic was a valuable metric correlated to growth. Now it may be a vanity metric, not correlated to growth. Search has been disrupted. Visits to your website are declining. So, marketers - what now? The search landscape was already shifting (I talked about this at INBOUND last year). Now, the change is accelerating dramatically: - AI Overviews appear in 43% of Google searches – when they do, organic CTR drops by nearly 35%. - Google’s AI Mode and audio AI overviews are coming – they will cause clicks to collapse further. - More buyers are using LLMs to find information, ChatGPT search in Europe grew 3.7x in six months. So, what should marketers do? And how can AI help? 1. Be everywhere and diversify your channels The days of relying solely on Google search are way over. You need to show up on YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, podcasts, and in niche communities. The good news? AI makes multi-channel, multi-format content creation scalable – even for small teams. 2. Be specific with context In the past, broad informational content was the way to rank in Google. Today, buyers expect results deeply relevant to them, whether they’re on Google, LLMs, or Reddit. You need specific content that reflects your expertise and resonates with your buyers. 3. Optimize for conversion, not clicks Traffic was once the lever you could pull. Now, conversion is where the opportunity lies. AI enables you to deliver personal messages that drive better conversion. Don’t ask, “How do we get more blog visits?” Ask, “How do we convert more prospects into customers across all channels?” The changes in search are sending shockwaves across marketing teams and media companies everywhere. The era of traffic-based marketing is ending. But a new era full of opportunity is just beginning. Super exciting times for marketers to reinvent the playbook!

Most brands spend a lot on media, but treat landing pages as an afterthought If you’re running ads and sending traffic to a homepage or a poorly built landing page, its almost criminal. Specially when gen AI has reduced the cost and time for content creation drastically Here’s how to get landing pages right. Consistently. 1. Match Intent, Not Just Aesthetics The #1 job of a landing page? Continue the conversation you started with your ad •If your ad says “energy efficient fans”, the landing page should show highlight this feature front and center •If your Google ad targets “Mixer Grinders under ₹5000,” don’t show ₹8000 models on the page. Message match > Visual design 2. Keep the Hero Section Clean & Focused Above-the-fold matters. You need to have •Clear headline – Say what the product is and why it’s special. •Key benefits – 3 crisp points max. •Visuals – High-quality product image or demo video. •CTA – One action. Not three. Buy Now,” “Book a Demo,” or “Know More”—but pick ONE 3. Product Benefits, Not Just Features Nobody cares that your mixer uses XYZ motor tech. I mean they do care but only if they care how it helps them They care a lot more that the mixer has a coarse mode which enables silbatta like texture resulting in great taste And that BLDC or intelligent motor tech enables it 4. Solve for Trust People are skeptical by default. Give them reasons to believe •Ratings & Reviews – Show real customer ratings (4.5 stars? Flaunt it). •Media Mentions – “As seen on The Hindu / NDTV” works. •Certifications – BEE 5-Star? BIS approved? Display badges. •Guarantees – Free returns? Warranty? Mention clearly 5. Speed & Mobile Optimization Today at least 80 percent of your traffic is mobile. If your landing page loads in 4 seconds, you’ve lost half. Aim for <2s load time. Avoid fancy animations that slow things down. Test your page on Mobile (3G/4G) and in all browsers Chrome, Safari etc 6. Minimize Distractions A landing page is not your website. •No top nav bars with 7 menu items. •No footer clutter. •No exit doors—except the CTA you want. Keep it focused. Keep them moving toward action 7. Strong CTA (Call to Action) •Make it obvious. One clear button. •Use actionable language: “Get My Free Sample,” “Book a Demo,” “Shop Now.” •Repeat CTA 2-3 times as they scroll, especially after key benefit sections. 8. A/B Test, but with caution: Gen AI makes it very easy to do so. Test •Headlines •CTA text and colors •Images vs Videos •Long-form vs Short-form copy But get the fundamentals of A/B testing right. You need statistically significant sample sizes for each test A good landing page doesn’t sell the product by itself. But It removes friction so the product has a better chance of selling And when done right, your CAC drops, your ROAS climbs, and your ads finally start working to their fullest potential

Shopify is wild: - Their core product team bans KPIs - They optimize for churn - They keep multi-year holdouts for every experiment - The product roadmap is driven not by metrics and goals but by intuition, taste, and a 100-year vision from Tobias Lütke - They now power over 10% of all U.S. e-commerce - Last year's GMV of $235B is equivalent to the economy of Finland I sat down with Archie Abrams, VP of Product and Head of Growth at Shopify—where he leads a 600+ person growth org across product, design, engineering, data, ops, and growth marketing—to discuss: 🔸 Why Shopify optimizes for churn 🔸 Why the core product team avoids metrics-based goals 🔸 How they structure their growth team 🔸 Why they keep multi-year experiment holdouts 🔸 The benefits of not having a CMO 🔸 Lessons learned about integrating sales into a product-led growth model 🔸 The power of discounting as a growth lever 🔸 Much more Listen now 👇 - YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gAazz3FM - Spotify: https://lnkd.in/g-D4wmrQ - Apple: https://lnkd.in/g9DKGtt4 Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for supporting the podcast: 🏆 Explo — Embed customer-facing analytics in your product: https://explo.co/lenny 🏆 Dovetail — The customer insights hub for product teams: https://dvtl.link/3Za7aa0 Some key takeaways: 1. Shopify optimizes for getting as many new merchants as possible to start businesses, even if many of them fail. This approach works because the few successful merchants generate enough revenue to make up for the many that don’t succeed. 2. Shopify has found that 30% to 40% of experiments that show positive short-term results have no long-term impact. Initial lifts can be misleading, and some of your “losers” might actually yield unexpected long-term value. 3. Adopt a “hundred-year mindset” in your decision-making. Stop chasing short-term wins that feel good now but might sabotage your future. Every decision should be about building a product or service that can withstand the test of time. If it feels like a quick buck, it probably isn’t worth it. 4. Don’t shy away from shipping experiments that may have neutral impacts. If your intuition suggests that an idea is beneficial, validate it by launching it. Just because the initial data doesn’t show a positive lift doesn’t mean it won’t create value in the future. Let the market respond, and be open to adjustments based on real user feedback. 5. Shopify’s growth team is divided into two main groups: Growth R&D (product, design, engineering, data) and Growth Marketing (paid acquisition, SEO, email, content). The company also uniquely includes customer support within the growth organization. This clarity helps teams align their goals and understand their unique contributions to the overall growth strategy.

Every time a card payment is processed, 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 main types of fees are involved. Here’s a simple breakdown of the Three Core Fees: 1️⃣ Interchange Fee This is paid by your acquiring bank (or payment processor) to the cardholder’s bank (the issuer). It’s set by the card networks (like Visa and Mastercard; sometimes regulated), and is designed to cover things like fraud, credit losses, and infrastructure costs. 2️⃣ Scheme Fee Charged by the card networks themselves, this fee covers the operation of the payment system (“rails” that process the transaction). 3️⃣ Acquirer Markup This is the fee your acquirer or payment service provider (PSP) charges you, the merchant. It includes their costs, risk management, and profit margin for processing and settling the payment. The total cost a merchant pays is called the Merchant Service Charge, which is the sum of these three components. The Main Pricing Models: ► Bundled Pricing All fees are grouped into one flat rate. This is very common with small businesses. It’s easy to understand but doesn’t provide insight into what you’re actually paying for. ► Interchange+ The interchange fee and the acquirer’s fee are shown separately, but the scheme fee is typically bundled with the markup. This model offers some transparency. ► Interchange++ Each fee—the interchange, scheme, and acquirer markup—is itemized separately. This is the most transparent model and is favored by larger or multi-country merchants who want to track costs precisely. Who Chooses the Pricing Model? Most acquirers and PSPs decide what pricing model you’re offered. Unless you negotiate or have significant transaction volume, you’re likely to get bundled pricing by default. Larger or more experienced merchants who understand payments often push for Interchange++ for its clarity and fairness. Smaller merchants often aren’t aware that alternatives exist or find it difficult to compare offers. How Interchange Fees Vary Globally: Some regions (like the EU, UK, China, and Brazil) cap interchange fees to lower costs for merchants and stimulate competition. The US regulates only part of the system—such as capping debit card fees for large banks (the Durbin Amendment)—while credit card interchange remains uncapped and usually higher. Other countries, like India and Brazil, regulate interchange as part of broader financial inclusion goals. In markets with stricter regulation, merchants often benefit from lower, more predictable fees, making it easier to accept cards. Where fees are higher and less regulated, issuers can offer consumers more rewards (like cashback), but those costs are passed back to merchants—and sometimes their customers. Every model shifts the balance of costs and benefits between banks, merchants, and consumers in different ways. More info below👇, and I highly recommend reading my complete deep dive article about Interchange Fee and what factors impact the rate: https://bit.ly/44T4VJA

Vietnam's E-commerce ecosystem is growing at a staggering pace. +35% Year-on-Year growth has pushed the total GMV to $16.4 Billion in 2025. 🤓 While the top-line numbers make headlines, the real story lies in the "Shake-Out" happening to professionalize e-stores. The "Wild West" era of digital retail is effectively over, active sellers are down by 7.4%. Rising costs, fierce competition, and higher consumer expectations are weeding out small-scale and amateur vendors. 🟠⚫️The battle is a two-horse race. Shopee is still the market leader with a 56% share, but they are visibly losing ground to the TikTok Shop juggernaut, which has surged to 41%. Shoppertainment has officially moved from a "nice-to-have" to a "must-execute." 👉 Winning Categories: Beauty, Home & Lifestyle, and Women’s Fashion remain the undisputed champions of the digital basket. 👉 Industrial Provinces Surge: Binh Duong led with a 122.1% jump in sales, followed by Long An, up 63.41%, and Hung Yen, up 39.41% 👉 The "Mall" Dominance: Here’s the key - flagship, official stores account for only 2% of current stores but capture 32% of the value. 🤔 ... 📦 I find the "Fewer Items, Bigger Baskets" trend particularly telling. While transaction volume grew by 15%, total revenue surged by nearly 35%. This shift compels sellers to pivot their strategy from not just driving volumes (at overt discounts), but enhancing quality of product & marketing. That makes for a healthier value chain. Is the era of volume-driven expansion behind us? As the market matures, the winners won't be those with the most listings, but those who master product quality, brand positioning and operational efficiency. Building a sustainable, long term ecosystem for a brand starts with price structure & a willingness to invest to 'hold it'.👌 Source: Metric, YouNet ECI, The Investor, VnEconomy *While information from Asia Circles is publicly accessible and derived from third-party sources, its verification and validity are not guaranteed. #ConsumerInsight #MarketInsight #VietnamMarket #EcommerceTrends #Shoppertainment 

🚫 How to Run UX Research Without Access To Users. With practical techniques to avoid guesswork and gather insights if you can’t talk directly to users. Attached cheatsheet (with and without access to users) by Nielsen Norman Group. 🚫 Ask for reasons for no access to users: there might be none. ✅ First, study job openings to map existing workflows/tasks. ✅ Make friends with sales, customer success, support, QA. ✅ Find colleagues who are the closest to your customers. ✅ Convey your questions indirectly via your colleagues. ✅ If you can’t get users to come to you, go where they are. ✅ Ask to observe or shadow customers at their workplace. ✅ Listen in to customer calls and interview call centre staff. ✅ Request access to analytics, CRM reports, call centre logs. ✅ Use Google Trends to find product-related search queries. ✅ Gather insights from search logs, Jira backlog, support tickets. ✅ Explore past/ongoing NPS and Voice-of-Customer programs. ✅ Study reviews, discussions, comments for your product/competitors. ✅ Map key themes and user sentiment on TrustPilot, AppStore etc. ✅ Recruit users via UserTesting, Wynter (B2B), Maze, UserInterviews. ✅ Ask for small but steady commitments: 5 users × 30 mins, 1× month. 🚫 Avoid ad-hoc research: set up regular check-ins and timelines. As H Locke noted, if we shed the light strongly enough from many sources, we might end up getting a glimpse of the truth. Ironically, the stakeholders who can’t give you time or resources to talk to users often are the first to demand evidence to support your initiatives. Sometimes the reason why companies are reluctant to grant access to users is simply the lack of trust. They don’t want to disturb relationships with big clients which is carefully maintained by the customer success team. They might feel that research is merely a technical detail that clients shouldn’t be bothered with. Show that you deeply care about that relationship and that you don’t want to disturb it any way. What you do want though is to reduce costs and risk — the risk of drawing wide-reaching conclusions from very little research, or none at all. Your best shot is to explain research as a powerful risk mitigation tool. And: search for people whose priorities align with yours — people who value and see the impact of UX in their units. They would absolutely love to support your work because it also supports their work — and they will put up a good word for you if they only had known that you existed. ✤ Useful resources: UX Research Cheat Sheet, by Susan Farrell from NN/g (attached) https://lnkd.in/eUTHKWvF What Can You Do When You Have No Access To Users?, by H Locke https://lnkd.in/ewHEKhBS UX Research When You Can’t Talk To Users, by Chris Myhill https://lnkd.in/ez5-b6zf #ux #research

All of our feeds: "AI is killing Google Search!" But what does the actual data show? Our new research reveals: → Google Search grew 21.64% in 2024 → Google receives ~373x more searches than ChatGPT → Even if you combined ALL AI tools, they'd represent < 2% of the search market Here's what a lot of marketers get wrong about AI hype: We confuse our tech-forward bubble with mainstream behavior. Those 20 people in your Twitter feed who "never use Google anymore"? They're not representative of the 14 billion searches happening on Google every day. But here's what a lot of us REALLY get wrong: We can't hold the tension of 2 competing truths in our mind. Because our new research doesn't mean you should ignore AI tools. If your audience is early-adopting and tech-forward, being visible on platforms like ChatGPT makes perfect sense. But for most brands? Your audience is still primarily using traditional search. Smart marketers follow their audience data, not media headlines. Full research on the SparkToro blog, with all the math showing exactly how we calculated these comparisons. Link below in the comments (and hopefully, soon, in the AI Overview 😏).

This week's obsession: What happens to email marketing when AI manages the inbox? Does that mean email marketing as we know it is dead? 💀 Email has been the GOAT for years. I've probably told all of you at least once: Email has been the only place where people—not algorithms—are in charge. It’s been the only place where people *choose* to hear from you, instead of standing in the center of the Marketing Square, shaking a tin cup at the Fickle Algo Gods for a few puny shillings of attention. Email lets you show up in an inbox like, hey, 'sup. I’ve loved that for us. I’ve loved the high bar it has created for serious marketers. But now that’s all changing. The robots are in the inbox now, too. Or they will be. Soon—if not already—email messages are filtered, summarized, collapsed, prioritized, pasteurized, pulverized, purified, processed, and (I'm out of P words) before a human ever sees them. A human is summoned only according to certain set parameters. (Another P word! There it is!) For marketing, that means the holy grail of permission no longer guarantees visibility. Deliverability doesn’t guarantee it, either. It’s not enough to make sure all your T’s are crossed & I’s are dotted so you land in the primary inbox, high-fiving all the other emails that dropped in alongside you. YOU MADE IT is no longer the goal. The new goal is neither access nor deliverability. It’s being *chosen*. >>> The old way: deliverability was king. >>> The new way: selection is king. It means a person plucking your fresh email, new & telling AI: "Yo. Save those for just me, bestie." Your relationship with the recipient is the difference between being seen… and being skipped. For years, we optimized for deliverability—how to get in. Now we need to optimize for selection—how to be chosen. That changes the work, right? 👉 From messaging → making meaning Not just delivering info, but helping your reader make sense of it. 👉 From broadcasting messages → corresponding with people Pillow over the face of “dear audience.” More “hey this is for you” energy. 👉 From scale-first → story-first Less sending for the sake of sending; more personality and point of view. The only email strategy that actually works from here on out is being someone your reader would genuinely miss if you stopped showing up. That’s a relationship problem, a writing challenge, and—if you’re willing to invest the time—an opportunity. When speed becomes cheap, judgment carries a premium. That’s true in marketing strategy. It’s true in content. And now…it’s especially true in email. We need to show up differently when AI is triaging the inbox. Do this: Pull up your last 3 email sends. Look yourself squarely in the eye and answer with unflinching honesty: Would an AI assistant surface this for my reader? Would my reader save it for their own human eyes? Is this genuinely worth their time? That, my friends, is the new bar. And actually… I kind of love this new bar for us, too. You?

We analyzed 4 million recruiting emails sent through Gem. Most get opened. But only 22.6% get replies. Half those replies are "thanks, but no thanks." We dug into what actually works. Here are 8 factors that drive REAL responses: 1. Strategic timing beats everything else - 8am gets 68% open rates. 4pm hits 67.3%. 10am lands at 67% - Most recruiters blast at 9am when inboxes are flooded - Avoiding peak times alone can boost your opens by 7-10% 2. Weekend outreach is criminally underused - Saturday/Sunday emails get ≥66% open rates consistently - Why? Empty inboxes. Zero competition. Candidates actually have time - Yet few recruiters send on weekends. Their loss is your gain 3. Keep messages between 101-150 words - Shorter feels spammy. Longer gets skimmed - You need exactly 10 sentences to nail the essentials - Every word beyond 150 drops performance 4. Generic templates kill response rates - Generic templates: 22% reply rate - Personalized outreach: 47% increased response rate - Even adding name + company to subject lines boosts opens by 5% 5. Subject lines need 3-9 words - Include company name + job title for highest opens - "Senior Engineer Role at [Company]" beats clever wordplay - 11+ words can work if genuinely intriguing, but why risk it? 6. The 4-stage sequence is optimal - One-off emails are dead. Send exactly 4 follow-up messages - You'll see 68% higher "interested" rates with proper sequencing - After stage 4, engagement completely flatlines. Stop there 7. Get the hiring manager involved - Having the hiring manager send ONE follow-up boosts reply rates by 50%+ - Yet most recruiters don't use this tactic - Weekend advantage: Minimal competition for attention 8. Leadership involvement is a cheat code - Role-specific timing (tech vs non-tech) matters - Technical roles: 3 of 4 best send times are weekends - Engineers check email differently than salespeople. Adjust accordingly TAKEAWAY: These aren't opinions. This is what 4 million emails tell us. Most recruiting teams are stuck in 2019 playbooks wondering why their reply rates won't budge. Meanwhile, recruiters who implement these 8 factors see dramatically better results. The data is right there. The patterns are clear. The only question is: will you actually change how you operate? Or will you keep sending the same tired emails at 9am on Tuesday? Your call.