TL;42*
The chaos of recent years continues and the new normal is that everything sucks. Here are actionable strategies that you can consider and tackle as early as possible to make your future self’s life easier: focus on compliance, accessibility and performance.
Has each year since COVID been shittier than the one before, or is it just me?
We’re halfway through yet another year that began with the promise of being memorable for all the wrong reasons. I refuse to make a long, detailed, depressing list because I promised myself I’d avoid discussing sensitive topics at least until 2030. You probably have your own list. Feel free to share it with me, and we can comfort each other.
Because this, too, shall pass. Or, as we say in Spain, “no hay mal que dure cien años”. (No evil lasts a century). While we wait and pray for the shitshow to wrap up, we can make a pact to help each other be more focused on actual work, and less on the surreal nonsense that surrounds us.
The first step is to start planning for 2025 today, instead of what most of us do, which is brainstorm half-mumbled ideas and unarticulated post-it notes with action items on a wall the last week of December, only to realize they’re still there in March and we’re improvising budget and priorities as we go. Again.
When everything out of our control is fucked up, we can at least make sure we have what’s within our reach actually under control, which is why I want to share some humble tips about issues that regularly surface on most of our eCommerce audits**.
With a little work, you can solve them before they become problems.
1: Compliance. Those ugly cookies.
Yes, we’re witnessing the death of third-party cookies. It’s already in progress. The reasons look great on paper because we all reject the idea of being tracked, even though we do track for our businesses.
However, applying some relatively simple second order thinking can raise suspicions about what’s really going on, and what’s in it for Google. In any case, that’s a bigger, uglier topic, and one that is also beyond our control. For the matter at hand, here’s a potential tasklist:
- Understand your Cookies. What you have, what you need, what you can replace, what you use and what you can get rid of, what’s in tune with your policies and ethics, etc. Make that list.
- Choose the suitable replacements. Figure out what you can supplement with a better first-party data structure.
- If you already have good software running for first-party data (CRM, CDXP, etc) make sure it’s trimmed, updated, automated and adopted well enough.
- Catch up with your policies. Clear and transparent communication with customers and partners can prevent misunderstandings that can easily escalate into legal disputes. Make sure your terms of service, privacy policies, and contractual obligations are easily accessible and understandable.
- Don’t forget your markets. Make sure you’re covered against CPRA, GDPR, UK’s Data Protection Act, etc. Double check with your legal advisors.
- Remember Contextual Ads? If you’re not using them, you should. They force you to really understand your category entry points.
- Fix the attribution game. Or forget about it.
What do you mean forget about it? You nuts?
Attribution has been a white whale for everyone in eCommerce for the past 15 years. We bought the idea that the more accurate your data and sales attribution, the more money you make. We’ve become data obsessed and got used to being able to track data in the most complex ways, build lovely dashboards with predictive trends, and make the marketing job seem absurdly scientific. Spoiler: it’s not.
The industry is changing fast for all the wrong reasons. Regulations, generative AI, end of cookies, extreme competition, massive shifts in website and storefront design and build, Amazon’s de facto monopoly - the list goes on.
All of these changes converge into a single, massive problem: everyone’s doing the same thing. Bear with me, and see if it makes sense:
- We need Amazon, but everything there seems more like their brand and less like ours.
- We like AI but if we keep asking it to come up with strategies, product descriptions or marketing ideas, what are the odds that our prompts will be the original or interesting ones? Every one of your competitors is entering the same basic questions, and getting the same middle ground platitudes for an answer. The market will be infested with mediocrity in the blink of an eye.
- Our obsession with data turns budgets towards technical marketing, and away from strategy and brand building.
There are three kinds of lies: Lies, damned lies, and statistics
Twain or Disraeli, depends on who you believe
A lot of people lingered on data to avoid getting fired. Frame certain variables the right way and the diminishing brand presence can actually and seemingly grow your conversion rate.
We need to let go, return to basics, and have more consistent and cohesive campaigns so we can simply answer one question, which doesn’t need a computer at all: Are we selling more after the campaign?
#2: Accessibility. Spare yourself a stupid lawsuit.
95.9% of homepages have detected WCAG 2 failures.
As laws and regulations like California’s CDPA become more strict and evolved, with many other States following closely with their own set of rules, accessibility is no longer a feature. It’s a legal obligation, and also the right thing to do.
If that’s not enough incentive, have a look at the big increase in lawsuits in recent years. In our experience, some of these are real and well intended. You should be worried about ambulance chasers though, because those don’t want you to fix the problem but just to drain your money on a negotiation based on extortion.
So, if, like 95.9% of companies, you haven’t paid any attention to this yet, begin by fixing the accessibility level. It’s actually easier than you would expect.
#3: Performance. There’s no future-proof, but…
The truth is absolutely nobody, not even the big shots at the big companies, has figured out what search engines are going to be three years from now. GenAI is a pervasive and immature product but, because it’s generating a shitload of money, it’s being shoved down everyone's throats.
Are you annoyed with the AI-based results offered by your favorite mobile search engine already?
Where do you think your eCommerce site or online store is going to be found in the future, and how?
How will anyone find us, like us, and buy from us in the future?
While we figure this out and adapt, one thing will remain important: having a website that’s fast, performant, easy to navigate, and well-built according to all the best practices. When the dust settles and the New New Normal takes reign, whatever you invested into doing things right will pay off and become one less problem on your list.
Compliance, Accessibility and Performance. That's it.
Those are three things you can fix to save time, money and problems next year.
Now, some action items:
- Turn off the TV.
- Plan a brilliant 2025 ahead of schedule
- Prevent issues within your control. It’s much harder to tackle issues when running against a deadline.
- Book a complimentary strategy call if you think we can help.
- Keep your hopes high.
As business owners, we know how hard everything is. Let me say thank you for your hard work and for hanging in there through these uncertain times.
Stay strong and remember that, in the wise words of the Chairman of the Board, the best is yet to come.
*We like our TL;DRs in forty two words.
**We have a couple of Blueprint openings in September. Our Audit is our most popular service. It gives you a full analysis of your Ecommerce, from marketing to tech, and a list of everything you should fix or improve.If you read this newsletter you get $2,500 off.
That simple. Get in touch.
