This Week’s Shopify Teardown: mnml.la
MNML is what they call a “fast fashion” company. That means they find new, hot, trending styles and then make near identical version for their own label. Do you want the Saint Laurent label? You’ll pay a lot. MNML has replicated the styles and fabrics to a T and sell it themselves for sometimes s80% less.
Yes, that means that the big designer houses kinda hate them ... a lot. But it also means that they get covered in GQ magazine and such. And since they got acquired about 6 months ago for a nearly $49 million, I’m guessing that they can live with a few rage posts and some hate mail from Gucci and Ralph Lauren. But to this day the founders try to remain anonymous.
Their branding is based on Los Angeles (LA) urban chic. So instead of spending a load of cash on a fancy short .com domain, they purchase a “.la” domain. “LA” is the domain extension for the country of Laos. And it looks like that was a good call.
The Shopify Theme They Use
Yadda yadda yadda … custom theme … yadda yadda yadda ,,, they’re wasting money ,,, yadda yadda yadda … folks like this never listen.
What They Do Well
These guys are a marketing and logistics machine disguised as a Shopify online retailer. If you think about it, they do not create their own designs and they outsource all manufacturing. They are an office of a handful of people in Los Angeles watching what other do and then getting to market first with a heavy emphasis on social media and influencers.
If you’ve been around a while, then you’ve heard me talk about risk reversal and trust badges. Even the best s=Shopify stores normally only put these things on the product and checkout pages. Mnml puts the “Free Express Shipping,” “Hassle-Free Returns, and “Secure Checkout” claims right up front on the home page just below the fold.
We are going to use this particular product page as an example, but what I am about to say now and later on applies to all of the product pages. They do a good job of including video action snips in the product galleries.
Good clean checkout process with plenty of Express payment options.
What Needs Improvement
Look at this product page. See the “Add to bag” button? I almost missed it. Dark gray text on a black button? That’s just odd. I can hear the web planning meeting in progress. “Joe, we are a bargain brand but we need to seem more exclusive and such things.” “Well sir, what if we make the call to action button very very hard to read so they think we don’t care?” “Brilliant, Joe!” Sure, when you select a size the text changes color, but this looked like a mistake and that means it WAS a mistake.
Speaking of that product page, allow me to just say that if you’re a trendy urban youth living in an American city and using your Dad’s credit card to buy Woodland Camo Cargo Pants you have lost the meaning of the words “Woodland Camo Cargo Pants.”
The Shopify Apps They Use
- Hotjar — customer analytics based upon attention heatmaps. Good stuff.
- Loop Returns — A returns and exchanges app focused on customer retention.
- GRIN — Influencer marketing… and they do a LOT of it.
- Attentive — Personalized mobile messaging.
- Klaviyo — Customer lifecycle management.
- SMSBump — Text messaging built for eCommerce.
- Covet Pics — An app that makes your Instagram feed into a retail sales channel. And they are using the HECK of that app.
- Back in Stock — Inventory alerts and notifications.
- Okendo - Customer reviews.
- Searchandise — and the name suggests, eCommerce website search.
- Smile IO — Loyalty rewards system.
- Bugsnag — The snagger of bugs … in the code.
- Signifyd — Anti-fraud and chargeback tool.
- PayPal/AmazonPay/ApplePay/ShopifyPay — Express payment options.
- Gorgias — Aside from the funny spelling of “gorgeous,” this is a customer service helpdesk system.
- Flickety — Touch responsive carousels.
- Bommerang — User-centric performance checker.
- BounceX — An app to monetize website bounces.
- DoubleClick — Ad network.
- Route — Shipping protection.
- Zendesk — Another support app?
- Shogun - Landing page builder
That’s a lot of apps, and some of them have duplicated features. The code is fairly clean but the site is still slow. Some of those apps duplicate features. Hmmmm …. do I have to spell it out for you?
With them being a
Marketing Stuff They Do
Like I mentioned earlier on, these guys do heavy social media for darned near EVERYTHING! That definitely includes influencer marketing, and I can see it working for them. But they also have amassed a great bit of their own followers and focused on only 2 social channels: their Facebook page has nearly 200k follows and their Instagram account has more than 900k followers.
Those are some BIG numbers.
They also pay for both search and social ads, and I have include 3 examples of each for your viewing pleasure.
Sponsored
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