Happy Wednesday!

Can you believe Q2 is 11 Days from wrapping? Time absolutely flies.

Some housekeeping: I’m CONSIDERING moving the newsletter to biweekly instead of weekly. I like to make my newsletters dense and filled with thoughtful info. Might be better for readers (and myself) to potentially have these go out every other week, considering we all have time limitations. Thoughts?

If you're an ecommerce brand, understand that consumers have different preferences: some like purchasing on a brand's mobile website, some like purchasing within the social app they discovered the brand, some like purchasing directly within a video they just watched without interrupting their experience, some like purchasing on desktop, and some really don't care!

You need to cater to each of these divergent needs. One thing that is more apparent than ever: the emergence of affiliates influencing ecommerce sales.

Enabling ordinary people to enter the conversation and generate income from pushing products they believe in.

The small screen is largely replacing the big screen. Meet consumers where they're hanging out. Social commerce is the new wave of influence.

1. Advantage+ Shopping: PAY ATTENTION!

Advantage+ Shopping Campaign (ASC) has been one of Meta's biggest revelations as a company.

It's a big reason why $META stock doubled in 2023.

Meta now recommends ASC to represent 70% of ad spend!

This is BOLD.

Well, we 2x'd our ASC spend on one of our largest spending brands to 53% in 2024. What happened might not be what you expect. THIS IS A MUST READ FOR MARKETERS.

> > Find out what happened HERE < <

2. Threads API is now LIVE.

Meta’s Threads app finally released public access to its free API. This will enable seamless content syndication to the Threads app from content creators that focus mostly on 𝕏 and LinkedIn.

While this means duplicate content is incoming, it also means more interesting content is coming to Threads users who aren’t necessarily fond of 𝕏.

According to the Director of Engineering at Threads:

Expect a ton of analytics around Threads post performance now.

Meta has been testing the API with a small number of developers such as Hootsuite, Sprinklr, and Sprout Social.

If you currently post on 𝕏 or LinkedIn, it’s a no-brainer to syndicate that content to Threads as well moving forward.

3. Most Stable Sector in CPG?

It’s no secret that retail performance has been STALE the past couple of years thanks to inflation and interest rates rising.

Consumers have been spending less on “things” and more on “experiences.”

The one category that seems like the exception?

PETS.

When looking at indexed spend over the past 4 years, you’ll note that ALL RETAIL indexed spend is WEAK for 2024 (red line in graph above) relative to other years. You’ll also notice that indexed spend for retail overall is widely variable year-to-year.

You might also notice that when you look at indexed spend on pet shops, pet food, and pet supplies that there are very little year-to-year fluctuations and that 2024 is another solid year relative to the past 4 years.

Is the PET industry the most resilient sector within commerce?

I suspect the same trend would hold true for the baby/infant/children’s sector.

People are more likely to cut spend on themselves before cutting spend on their cherished pet or child.

Hmmm. 🤔

Funny Business Going on in the Shopify App Space?

Past couple years have been particularly painful for all in the consumer space, including Shopify Apps. We’ve seen apps shut down, get acquired, and acqui-hired.

Apps have had trouble raising new rounds, growth has stalled, funding and cash flow have dried up.

Has this led to funny business in the app space? People are mentioning that they’ve seen fraudulent groups install and delete apps after a couple weeks across different apps in the space. Could this be a ploy to inflate new app download numbers?

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

Interesting….

What I’m Listening to 🎧

Beats of the Week: MOOJO / Live From London 2024 (Full Set)

Moojo, one of the best in the game, just dropped a livestream of his recent London set on this quiet Wednesday.

Much needed energy for today. He’s got some phenomenal remixes in here of songs you’ll know… like Drake songs.

Enjoy.

I welcome all feedback. Good, bad, everything in between.

Hit reply, and let’s hear it! 👂

📧 Share your thoughts or what you want me to cover next!