October eCom Wrap-Up - Everything You Can't Miss

TikTok Smart+, Trump, FTC's New Rule & More

Hey šŸ‘‹

Hope you had a happy Halloween! šŸŽƒ Octoberā€™s over, and hereā€™s the gist of all things eCom, including:

FTCā€™s ā€œClick To Cancelā€ Rule āŒ 

Tiktokā€™s Smart+ Campaign for Automated Advertising šŸ’°ļø 

Consumer Product Content Benchmark Report šŸ“‰

New & Improved AI Google Shopping šŸ¤–

Squarespace Going Private (again, officially) šŸ˜‚ 

ā€¦and some more hot topics (including Trumpā€™s election), plus a freebie waiting for you at the end šŸ‘±ā€ā™‚ļø

Letā€™s get right into it šŸ”„

1. FTCā€™s ā€œClick To Cancelā€ Rule āŒ

No more endless subscriptions ā€” the FTC just introduced the ā€œClick to Cancelā€ rule, making it super easy for a consumer to cancel a subscription.

This also makes it very hard for the companies that trap those same people in an endless cycle of ā€œwhere did my money go again?ā€.

Sellers need to follow this exact legal framework:

1ļøāƒ£ Avoid misrepresenting important details when marketing products or services with a negative option feature

2ļøāƒ£ Clearly disclose key terms before collecting a consumerā€™s payment information

3ļøāƒ£ Obtain the consumerā€™s clear consent before charging for a negative option feature

4ļøāƒ£ Provide an easy way for consumers to cancel and stop charges immediately

Honestly, certain subscriptions have been impossible to cancel ā€” and now companies are forced to be transparent, and Iā€™m all for it šŸ”„

Stay tuned for more exciting updates from Ecommerce & Unicorns! Subscribe now:

2. TikTokā€™s Smart+ Campaigns šŸ¤– 

TikTok just added a new advertising option thatā€™ll help advertisers automate campaign creation ā€” Smart+ šŸ¤” 

Advertisers input their assets, budget and targeting goals, then Smart+ auto-creates and selects the best creative assets using TikTok Symphony (Tiktokā€™s very own AI content creator). Finally, Smart+ chooses the right audience and time to show the ad.

This looks like near-complete automation of the advertising process, and itā€™s available in these formats:

TikTok said that advertisers using itā€™s Smart+ campaigns see an improvement of +52% in ROAS by lowering CPA, and even Ray-Banā€™s performance marketing manager claimed -50% in CPA, a 47% increase in conversion rates, and a 42% improvement in ROAS.

TikTok doing my ads for me was NOT on my bingo card this year šŸ˜‚

P.S ā€” This goes hard with the newly released TikTok Search Ads šŸ”„

3. Consumer Product Content Benchmark Report šŸ“Ÿļø 

1WorldSync shared their 4th annual report with insights gathered from 1.75k shoppers from the U.S. & Canada, here are the stats that matter most:

1ļøāƒ£ eCom Growth ā€” 41% of shoppers increased their use of online sites and marketplaces, with only 9% reducing online shopping

2ļøāƒ£ Shift Away from DTC ā€” 21% are using D2C sites less, likely moving to more established marketplaces

3ļøāƒ£ Reviews & Mobile Research ā€” 11% of shoppers use mobile devices to research products before they purchase (in-store, by the way), and 65% of shoppers read ratings & reviews often or always, with 49% leaving pages with too few reviews

4ļøāƒ£ Holiday Shopping ā€” 42% plan to do more holiday shopping online, with 10% intending to shop online-only

5ļøāƒ£ Influencers Have A Big Say ā€” 49% made a purchase from an influencer recommendation, and 26% shopped on TikTok Shop (mostly due to influencer suggestions and/or discounts)

DTC traffic dipping by 21% just means Amazonā€™s winning, again... šŸ˜¬

4. New & Improved Google AI Shopping šŸ›ļø 

Not many use Google Shopping at all, so Googleā€™s stepping up their game by adding.. even more AI to it?

As per Google, theyā€™ve paired 45 billion product listings in the shopping graph with their Gemini AI model, hereā€™s what that actually means (most of these points can be seen in the visual above):

1ļøāƒ£ AI Shopping Assistance ā€” searches will provide an AI brief showing the most important things to know before buying, say, a jacket for Seattleā€™s winter, with recommendations showing you why some fit your needs

2ļøāƒ£ Shopping Feeds For You ā€” just like TikTokā€™s ā€œFor Youā€ page, Googleā€™s copycat will help you discover new products based on your interests & search history

3ļøāƒ£ Tools for Deals ā€” itā€™s easier to find absolute steals with price comparisons, insights & even price tracking, theyā€™ve even gone as far as making a personalized deals page

Weā€™ll just have to wait and see how ad-infested this whole thing will be šŸ˜‚

5. Squarespace Acquired & More News 

Finally, Permira completed itā€™s $7.2B acquisition of Squarespace, bringing the company back to private ownership and removing it from the NYSE.

As a part of this transition, CEO & Founder of Squarespace, Anthony Casalena, kept a big portion of his stake in the company, making him one of the largest shareholders ā€” heā€™ll also continue in his roles as CEO & Chairman of the Board.

Here are some more hot topics that came about last month:

1ļøāƒ£ Shopifyā€™s New Customer Account Page is now branded

2ļøāƒ£ Temu has been selling products in Vietnam without a license since early October

3ļøāƒ£ Elonā€™s X is charging companies with API access

4ļøāƒ£ How Trumpā€™s election can impact eCom

5ļøāƒ£ Walmart and Amazon announced their upcoming Black Friday deals

ā€¦and speaking of BFCM, check out our BFCM Checklist to see if youā€™re ready for it šŸ”„

Your Freebie šŸ’ 

Check out the latest Operatorā€™s Newsletter post, with Ridge CEO roasting the operations of almost every DTC brand & other partners (warning ā€” heā€™s unhinged šŸ˜‚)

šŸŽ§ ECORN Radio This Week:

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Thanks for reading and supporting E&U (Ecommerce & Unicorns)

Daniil from ECORN

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