Can you believe that September is already half over? What in the name of all that is good made that thing happen. Steven Hawking says that time travel is not possible, but the way the calendar is flipping on me these days tells me he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Here are this week’s top stories.
1. We’re #2! We’re #2!
Shopify isn’t an eCommerce website … not really. It’s a platform where folks like you and I host our websites. And even though there are site-builders and theme templates, it’s not a website content management system like Wordpress or Joomla either. It’s somewhere in the middle. That’s why analysts tend to compare it to Amazon, Alibaba, and eBay rather than BestBuy, Target, and Zappos. Anywho …
Based on quarterly revenue, Shopify has risen up the ranks while making Tobi Lütke a billionaire.
Read the story on Observer.com.
2. Kick the Ship Out of It.
Speaking of Shopify, regular readers of this email have been following along with us as Shopify builds out a distribution network. And while this is causing panic attacks in the offices of their logistics app partners, it’s a strong move that kind of feels necessary to keep the power-mad Jeffy “Baggy-Pants” Bezos at bay. And along that line, Shopify just dropped some SERIOUS cash to acquire a piece of their distribution puzzle.
Read about the insidious plan.
3. Is That Your Logo or Are You Just Glad to See Me?
We’ve seen entrepreneurs invest a bazillion hours into their business logo. Hey, we get it! Brand is important and you want to get it right. But what does “get it right” mean? We found an article that doesn’t answer all the questions, but it addresses one of them – to go abstract or descriptive and what it means using social science.
Read the article on Harvard Business Review.
4. Influencers Go mainstream Affiliate
This is actually an interesting idea that levels up influencer marketing. And Amazon thought of it all on their own.
The whole “influencer” thing is crazy. Those cats get paid to use a product or take a photo of a product and post it on their social media … that kind of thing. But Amazon has created a way for influencers to systemize and analyze the influencer influencing that they do … and get paid by Amazon.
Read about influencer affiliates on AdExchanger.
5. Bespoke Hand-crafted Artesian Whatever
People have been making things and selling them since the dawn of time. Everyone has an Aunt Jeanie who sends out those hand-made Christmas gifts each year – and actually does a really really good job on them – making everyone else feel lame in the process. But turns out that there is a huge market for the Aunt Jeanie’s of the world. Aunt Jeanie is a business model.
If you’re an Aunt Jeanie or know someone who is, check out this blog post.
And just like that … we conclude the thirty-eighth edition of this little newsletter slice of entrepreneurial life we call Checkout Weekly. Not even Stephen Hawking could do better.