TRANSCRIPT
SPEAKERS
Mariah Parsons, Tim Masek
Mariah Parsons 00:02
Hello and welcome to Retention Chronicles, a podcast sponsored by Malomo. A shipment tracking platform that helps ecommerce brands turn order tracking into a profitable marketing channel. On this podcast, we welcome leading DTC brands and experts to chat about all things customer retention, and E commerce. We absolutely love highlighting all the amazing things that our customers are doing in the post purchase space. If you like what you hear, be sure to check out our website go malomo.com. Maybe you'll even be featured on this podcast someday in the near future, who's to say to help us continue to bring new guests and information to you. Please be sure to subscribe to this podcast wherever you like to listen. On this episode of Retention Chronicles, we're joined by Tim Masek, who is the founder of a one 800 DTC and has helped many brands with growth marketing. 100 DTC is a directory for E commerce brands that are considering all of their tech stack possibilities. So one 800 DTC gives them recommendations as well as provides them with a community that can help answer questions or identify trends between brands. In this episode, you'll hear about Tim's under the hood interviews, where he dives into the operations behind the brand to give a technical approach to success, as well as how to turn a one time purchaser into a subscriber. Whether having a subscription only business is right for you how to stream how to have a streamlined tech stack. What patterns have emerged after looking at and working with a ton of different brands, how to outshine competitors. And most interesting to me, I thought is the idea of driving exclusivity through memberships, gated communities, dark stores, etc. It's great episode and we hope you enjoy So welcome everyone. Today we are joined by Tim at one 800 DTC so excited to have you here today. Tim, could you kick us off? Give an intro explain to our listeners what exactly you do at one 800 DTC?
Tim Masek 02:22
Sure. So first of all, thank you for having me. I want to tell all the listeners that you're a pleasure to be to work with to be friends with and thank you so much for having me on the on your podcast. So 100 Deep Sea is it's it started off as a directory to help people identify the stacks of different DTC brands. So the premise behind it is that it's really difficult to always keep on top of the different the new tools that are coming out in the world of E commerce. And this is a way to streamline your decision making to identify trends and stocks between these great DTC brands, and make decisions for yourself. So that's, that's, that's the main core proposition. And then it's evolved into more of a community. Community around the world of E commerce, where some founders share insights on how they built up their business. And other team members get involved in sharing their insights on the world of E commerce as well.
Mariah Parsons 03:27
Yeah, no, it's awesome. I remember you telling me about kind of how you started when 100 DC and like, how it really was more of like a guide. And now it's really like you've you've taken it and made it such a useful useful tool for, of course, ecommerce brands to really like go to and get, you know, the kind of like, the lowdown on what the new technology is, like, what brands are out there doing really cool things. And so I think it's really cool, because they're definitely I mean, there's, there's no limit on our access to information, right? Like, we're overloaded with it. And so it's really cool that you simplify it and make it digestible, like all in one place. I, I was love looking through like your newsletter and your website, because it's very, like visually appealing, yes, but just like so such great information condensed down and thank you for the compliment, too. In the beginning of your show, I very much. I very much appreciate it. And so I thought it would be great, like just kind of from a general standpoint of talking to all these brands talking to all these partners, these tech companies, what have you learned about the DTC space since starting this?
Tim Masek 04:41
So I was already very plugged into the world of E commerce before starting it and that's kind of what gave me the idea to start it. I was running growth for a lot of E commerce brands. So that's that was kind of my perspective. And so you know, paid media analytics conversion, rate optimisation, retention, though as well, things that I was quite plugged in on stuff that I've learned a lot about is operations. So, could you do fulfillment yourself? I mean, Malomo comes into picture, you know, right then and there as well. But, you know, what do you do when you want to do sell internationally? How does that work? What's a three PL, what's a four PL, all of those components are, were pretty new to me, because I never got involved on that, on that side of things. And they're so critical. Uh, you know, I met recently with the, the team at x CJ dumplings, okay, super, super cool business, they sell, they were a restaurant in Seattle. And during the pandemic, they were forced to shut their doors. And instead, they pivoted to, to selling their dumplings frozen online. And they, they were so successful with it. So they raised some VC money, and they're just they're thriving business. And and the reason they're thriving businesses, one because the dumplings are good, but two, because they're able to ship those frozen goods nationwide, in a very streamlined environment. And so there's a couple of touch points along along the way to give that good experience to the consumer. And I learned a lot about the world of operations. So it's a long answer. But yeah, I think, for me, the new stuff I've learned about is operations in the world of DTC this big thing.
Mariah Parsons 06:28
It's funny that you mentioned operations because our it hasn't been released yet at the time of this recording, but the episode that will be right before yours is all about three pls. So we yeah, we spoke with Marco at whiplash. And so I had never had to understand what a three PL is. Right? Like I Yeah, so it's funny that you mentioned like that operation side, understanding the logistics and how ecommerce like fulfillment, shipping fulfillment, and all of the logistics that go into that. Yeah, it is very, like nice, but now that I feel like at least I have somewhat of a better understanding of what like the three PL does and just that whole side of things like the warehouse, and you know, how that all can impact and experience? It is it is fascinating to me, but I'm right there with you where operations is definitely I think the the aspect of E commerce that it was the least knowledgeable area for me. And so with, you know, the your background, with E commerce you find like, in writing, this is going to be a little bit of a tangent, but I love it in writing for winning 100 Like, do you see? Are you picturing like, what you what is most important to the brands, or the tech companies like you kind of know, from speaking with so many that you can then like, tailor the writing or make it super. Yeah, super tailored towards your audience,
Tim Masek 08:08
in terms of translating, so getting insights from the people I speak with, and then translate, translating them into pen and paper for the audience. Yeah, yeah, I kind of so for me, the guiding light is always is just going to be useful for brand operator, I don't care about anybody else. And of course, there's lots of other entities who, you know, want to play a part in the world of 100, DC, you know, maybe investors and things like that. And I think it's great because we're all supporting the world of E commerce. But ultimately, that's all I care about is is this insight going to be useful to brand operator, and then the that's the first layer. The next layer to that is I feel like I've got a pretty inquisitive about what's actually happening under the hood. I care about the operations, I care about what's happening on the paid acquisition front, tell me about your conversion rate optimization tests, etc. I do want to go deep on those things. Because I think I've seen and I've worked with so many ecommerce businesses, where it's a three, four or five person team and they're doing everything at once. And oftentimes, they they just have a passion for and that's what you should start with a passion for a product or a passion for a brand, but not necessarily the technical know how to do all the DTC things that we take for granted and that we think about all the time. So if that's the lens, I look at it through as can be insights when I'm speaking somebody can I can I gather insights that are super actionable, and quite detail oriented, so that an ecom operator can move, move faster, move further without information?
Mariah Parsons 09:51
Yeah, I definitely see it come out in those writings like i i might not say this correctly. But is it the Lamar Rue La Maru. Maru? Yeah, I definitely see that like, come out when you're having the under the hood interviews, which for our listeners, Tim will go talk to brands. And kind of, you know, get under the hood and figure out like, what are you doing for these specific questions, kind of the questions that you wouldn't necessarily see on like in other content, but it's still super fascinating. So I definitely I definitely see that come out in your, in your newsletter and everything. Yeah. And so I think now, it'd be great to dive into, like, how you help brands with their growth. And so like, obviously, we're on retention Chronicles. So with that lens, it would be great because I think retention touches so many different points, right? So if you could kind of walk us through how you help those brands that are coming to one 800. Do you see that would be great.
Tim Masek 10:57
Yeah, so So my, again, my background is in growth. And that's where I spent a lot of time helping brands. Now I do a couple of different things, because I work with storetasker, where we connect brands to Shopify developers and other econ talent. So that's more of a like a connector type of role. And way 100 DC I focus a lot on, I'm getting more and more requests and saying like, Tim, I'm looking for a good review solution. What are what are your thoughts? Or I'm investigating different subscription options? What are your thoughts, so it's more around the stack, but for but for the people who know me as as a growth person, it was, it's a skill set that's starts with analytics and tracking. So, you know, got really good with Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, and then all the Facebook pixel implementation and stuff like that, that then once you have that sorted out, then you can focus on the acquisition front. So it's good on the paid media buying side, Facebook, Google AdWords, Google Shopping. And now I never spent too much money on tick tock, but I can now connect to people who know how to navigate that space. And then like said conversion rate optimisation leading into retention. So it's, yeah, it's, you know, there's, on the retention front, I spent a lot of time looking at Clay vo flows and figuring out how to upsell from a one one time purchase to subscription, for example, or what happens when somebody's purchasing a handful of times and then stops purchasing and then comes back. How do you navigate that? And that that's all built into the world? Of subscription. Yeah, I hope that answers your question, but it just on the on the it on the growth front, it was always full funnel is everything from analytics down to retention?
Mariah Parsons 13:06
Yeah, no, I mean, that's awesome. Just here, like kind of having that wide range of knowledge is so applicable, right? Like, and even you said, the subscription example of how do you take like one time per purchaser and influence them or hope that they like your product enough to then get on the subscription model. And it's very timely, we we have a webinar coming up about that, and so and it's with like, recharge and rebuy. Clay, VO So it's an electric as well, but like, it's a very, I think, relevant topic right now. So I'd love to hear kind of what are your thoughts on turning that like one time purchaser purchaser into a subscription? Or someone who subscribes
Tim Masek 13:52
so my, my, I think a good amount about this stuff. And I find it let's it's such a fascinating topic. My, my big thing is you have to treat every customer individually. Because when you're when you're looking at subscription, you're forcing a cadence onto people. Which, you know, people behave in different ways. It's we're so hard to predict. There's very few things that that I can reliably and comfortably subscribe to. I always talk about this but you know, Netflix, I'm going to subscribe to Amazon Prime I'm going to subscribe to and you can do well you know, Netflix is just my entertainment or Spotify is all my music. So these are things that I've done. I've listened to music my entire life. You know, I've watched movies, documentaries, etc. My entire life so I'm very comfortable in subscribing to it. However, you know, a new chocolate, sweets or sweets or candy business. I might not be comfortable Trying to because I'm not used to that behavior for my entire life. So. So I think you have to treat your customers as individuals. And, and the businesses who are really smart are able to use technologies to help identify trends and patterns in their customers. And, and make it a seamless experience for them to, to get as much out of the brand as possible. So, so if you can track certain buying behaviors, then you might send the right reminders at the right time, or the right notifications about shipment, shipment, updates, etc, at the right time. That's, that's, I think that's kind of state table stakes. And it's where people should continue investing time and resources and figuring out what that ideal experience should look like at the individual level. And that that is, you know, that should feed into all your insights when you're speaking to somebody on gorgeous, for example, in your customer support dashboard, you should have a good sense of their buying patterns and help them out along the way. But then the other the other thing too, all that is the world of subscription. And the one model that I find absolutely fascinating is subscription only businesses. And I do think it's quite nice to be in that space for the right products. It does make sense to subscribe. And it doesn't make sense to have a subscription only business. And when you have a subscription only business one of the key benefits is that all of your communication as a brand are directed towards that. It's all it's all you know, as a brand. And therefore all the efforts of everybody on the team will always be directed towards making, you know, clarifying and communicating the value props of the subscription. Once you start offering the two things one off, and subscription, you have a little bit of diverted diverted attention. And when you're all in on subscription, it makes a lot of things much more crisp, a lot easier to understand. And then you can really focus on the subscription experience. So yeah, big, big fan of businesses who are getting the subscription only Rob
Mariah Parsons 17:17
hmm, yeah, it's interesting you say that because I think it is so unique to see like subscription only businesses because I really similar to you from what I'm hearing is the like comfortability factor of subscribing. I am not like personally, it's like Netflix, Spotify, and I am I don't think I have any other subscriptions. And so it is very interesting to see. And, you know, Malomo We work with some subscription only businesses as well. So like, seeing all that communication diverted to just one, you know, business model. I do think you know, like you said, it makes it very crisp. And you you kind of brought out those key factors without me having to ask, which I love. But I will also ask you, do you think there's any like dangers to having a subscription only model? It's okay, if you don't think there are but I have to play devil's advocate here.
Tim Masek 18:20
No, no, I mean, there's there's definitely dangerous. I mean, it's like you, you basically have to pick the right category for it. Like if it if it's, if it's a category where I don't know, you, you, let's say you're selling some people like the idea of selling soft socks on a subscription, which some businesses work really well, I think but that sock fancy does a good job on subscription only socks. But for me, I'm just I have this idea in my head that like, okay, yeah, I'm low on socks, I'm gonna subscribe to sock fancy. And then I'm gonna get one month worth of socks, and then another month or two socks, and then the third month forces socks. Like, at one point I'm not I'm not wearing these out every month, you know, at one point I'm gonna I'm gonna have too many stocks in my home. So that's when you're going to that's when you're going to cancel versus versus seed you know, in the in the in the gut health space as I subscribe to them. And every month I'm it's something you take on for you consume every every day for presumably for the rest of your life. So it doesn't make sense to be subscribed to that. So the only danger of subscription only business is be careful which category you go into and um, think about it long and hard but that's you know, that's so obvious that so obviously, maybe what maybe one more I guess danger is it's really hard I think to flip messaging to be one day a subscription only business and then be like We also offer one off, or two always will be one off. And that offers subscription or then transitioning to subscription only business. You You don't realize as a brand, but you put out so many feelers into the world on what your brand is about and how people should consume your brand. If all of a sudden you switch your business models every other day, it's so confusing for people and it's not going to be good for your business.
Mariah Parsons 20:24
Have you seen that? Like a, you don't have to name them? If you don't want to? But like, have you seen a brand, been able to switch? You know, business models like subscription to one off or reverse successfully? Like, can you think of an example? Because I don't I don't know if I can, I can think of brands that went from like one off to then, as they were growing, grew into subscription models, and they had both, but I don't know if I can think of one that flipped.
Tim Masek 20:54
That's done subscription only? Yeah, I can't think I can't think of a good example. I'm sure there are many, of course, you like you said, you see so many businesses who go from one off to then adding subscription, not necessarily subscription only but from one off to or one offense subscription to subscription only, there has to be a few examples, I would imagine there's a bunch of like the I don't know, the pet the pet space, when you get into pet food and who may have had like trials or you know, selling selling bags of food and then decide on a one off basis and then deciding you know what, it's going to make much more sense if we streamline everything into a subscription only. So there has to be a few businesses that have done that. Yeah,
Mariah Parsons 21:39
yeah, we have a fact check at the end of this episode. So I'll definitely see if I can find seven let you know. Yeah, cuz I'm curious. Because yeah, I think that transitioning like the messaging, and it's hard to quantify how much messaging really like resonates with your customers, right? Because it really is more emotions based and feeling based, right? Like all that branding. And if you're a one off brand turning into subscription, like if they go back to your website, and they don't, they don't see what they would want and just want to buy it one time. Again, then there's that there's that friction point where they're expecting one thing, and then they have a different experience. So yeah, it definitely is one of those. I think, like bigger questions, but I'll do a deep dive and see if I can, if I can find anything. That was good. And so with that, I want to go back, like you mentioned, some brands coming to you or like, like E commerce, I forget the name you use, but the person that you speak with, like the brand manager or whatnot, they come to you. And they're like, What are your thoughts on this tech sock? Like I'm trying to solve this issue? So with that, being, you know, so knowledgeable and just like the tech space, and what new platforms are out there, what a lot of brands are using? What do you think it's what do you think it's important for brands to consider when they're looking to like build their tech stack? or modify it or streamline it? What would you advise brands to really look out for?
Tim Masek 23:18
I think there's, it's, you have to start with a foundation, there are certain tools that you absolutely need, like day one. For me, I think of like, a simple example would be a customer support solution. And people are looking at a couple different solutions. They might be looking at Zendesk by people connect gorgeous. I, I think gorgeous is a great tool. So that's typically what I've been recommending. So that, that those types of decisions, you actually have to take day one, or very close to day one. Yeah, then the next the next kind of the next piece of advice is usually take your time, as soon as you really start feeling a pain point. Let's say it's about order tracking. Now start looking into that. Let's say it's about finding, you can no longer handle your your fulfillment from your own garage says okay, now go speak to shipbob go speak to air house and see if they can help you out. Like, or even like loyalty and referrals. You know, take a look at conjured referrals or to like that, but don't do it until you have had like enough signals from consumers saying, this is something I'm really hoping to do. But I don't have the you know, I can't currently do it based on what you have on your website. So listen to the consumer signals and take it day by day. There's, there's because otherwise you'll be spread too thin and trying to manage all these different parts of your tech stack with no much you know, if not much volume or not much usage coming out of all these different tools. So take it day by day and As cheesy as it sounds like, you know your stack, you just have to go layer by layer. And as you get more and more complex as a business, then you can start adding things. And hopefully, you can even start removing things at the same time. Because what you don't want is just a million different apps, slowing down your website, you want to have a streamlined tech stack. And final point on that is is, is it has to make sense. Like you have to you got to pick the right tools, because they have to, they have to work with each other. If you're going to invest time and money in finding the right partners to work with, make sure they're not just good tools individually, but they work well within an ecosystem. And yeah, I think Malomo You know, you guys do that? Well, I know you have a good partnership with with electric, for example. And I know he's done a good job at kind of like, simplifying what that right stack should be for a sharp five business with an you'll be better at, you know, a name dropping the people there, but I think rebuys involved on that, or CLEVEO is going to be involved. And that's nice, because these tool can these tools can work well with each other. So yeah, make sure well take it day by day, really feel the pain before you start outsourcing it to an app, so you can really understand which app to use and how. And then when you pick that up, take into consideration the other apps you've already been using.
Mariah Parsons 26:27
Ya know, I love that point about like the ecosystem, because I feel like it's very easy to get siloed and be like, Okay, this is the pain point, right? Like you said, like, wait until you have a pain point and then try to solve it. And so like, if your pain point is in customer success, you're obviously going to look for technologies that are specified, like specified, or specifically geared towards solving customer support. Tickets are like taking that, that load off of your team. But I love that you also emphasize like, also taking another step back and seeing like, Okay, how do these technologies all work together to enhance each other and like, work in the ecosystem together, because at the end of the day, that's what is going to make your job and the customer experience better. And so obviously, if you can afford to do that, and you're hopefully smart in choosing what technologies you are using, then it'll pay off in the dividends when you know, like all these technologies or partners are all working together to then make a better experience for both internally and externally. Yeah. So would you say like, there's usually, are there any, like patterns that you've noticed that have emerged? When talking to brands? Like, I, personally, maybe it's because we're in the space of post purchase, or, and because, you know, we concentrate about post purchase, like on this on this podcast, and in our webinars, but I feel like a couple of times over we get, you know, post purchases and newer aspects. So it is not as I think, proven out or it is not as you know, there's kind of that educational factor that still has to be there, right? Like when you look at kind of the things that have been around for a while, you don't really have to do some of that education as to what's important. So I'm curious if there's like, certain points that you feel like, are more ambiguous, where brands are like looking to get advice from you on? Like, oh, we're seeing this pop up a couple of times, like, can you tell us more about that the technologies in that space or anything of the sort?
Tim Masek 28:46
Yeah, I think you're right, and like the whole post purchase journey. And even the term CX in general, it's been, it's been an area of focus for a lot of operators, or an increasing increasingly popular area of focus for operators. Because the information is basically out there on how to create a good looking brand with a well functioning website and setting up your email marketing. Like that's, and then running paid ads, like that playbook is has been written so many times over that, that people just you know, that's a starting point. Yeah, it's
Mariah Parsons 29:34
kind of assumed that you like have that, right. That's like table stakes. Yeah,
Tim Masek 29:38
that's truly table stakes. So you, you start getting questions around that. And then you start you start saying, Well, okay, well, now I have to compete against all these other businesses who are in the same category as me. How can I outshine them, and that's by taking care of the will on one part is by taking care of the customer. And that's the whole space Have CX and taking care of the customer? That's when you start really looking at not just customer support. But what does delivery look like? When are the notifications? How are the notifications sent? What's the experience to track my shipments and all that, and and why you guys are thriving in that space is because it's because of those factors. And will will will continue to see you work in seat we're seeing like continuations of that with the whole world of memberships, for example. Right? So we're no longer just talking about subscription, we're now talking about memberships, gated communities, NFT, power gated communities, dark stores, all of those things, that's, that's basically saying, you've the people who are purchasing from you are part of your community. And now you're going to build a little world around them. And it's like CX, which then explodes into something much bigger than that. And then the other area where people ask a lot of questions is, is attribution and analytics. So should you use triple? Well, should it be North beam? Should it be something else? And that's because, well, you've got some changes on the web, you know, iOS 14, and, and, and tracking in general. But also because people people are getting smarter. It's it's like, it's it's table stakes to know how to navigate your your Google Analytics and be able to make some good decisions based on that. But if you want to take it a step further, now you have to look into those types of tools. And before they weren't, people weren't asking so much about, you know, extra analytic solutions. Now, everyone's looking at them. And then once they've looked at them, and those two that I mentioned, then they started saying, Okay, I'm now starting to sell omni channel, do I need to use glue? Or should it be dasa T? Or should it be something else? And how does that plug into them? tracking my keeping an eye out on my delivery? Will you guys have analytics? Right, like delivery? wait times and all those things? Yeah. So analytics becomes bigger and bigger. That that's the other areas like CX on one side and analytics and tracking on the other?
Mariah Parsons 32:20
Yeah, okay. Cool. Um, I would say I think that's like, I have a similar perception of the spaces. That seems kind of to be what is like, hot in the DTC ecommerce world, like what everyone is kind of tuning into. And I think, I mean, we have a eBook about privacy changes, and it has been, like, our most successful ebook, like piece of content. And I really think the, like, attribution and the analytical side of things is because of all those changes, I mean, it's just like, you know, such a big monumental shift. And so, of course, you brands are trying to find ways of how to stand out and, like, not the, you know, the typical ads that like, get skipped over or anything like that, and then the, the, like, all whole other brands of CX, and kind of like that exclusivity factor of like, being in the memberships, I think is so interesting, because communities are, like, very, I feel like more recent and that like, it's like, Oh, you want to be a part of a community and it's becoming more more common, right? Like to be like, oh, like, I'm in this community, I'm connected with these people. Like, there's more of an added importance. And I think that's just because of whatever like social media just living more online, right? But can you walk through like, like the NFT memberships and dark stores? Can you explain that a little bit more just
Tim Masek 33:52
the the main, the main way people are thinking about leveraging those tools now is to basically have access to call it like a password that unlocks gated, either content or goods. So the tools in the space, I mean, there's novel, that's a big player in this space, they've done some stuff that gets off limits on the on the cereal side of things. But it's like, once you once you have once you own that, that NFT that they've put out to the world, then all of a sudden you can access a whole different part of the website. That's the that's dark stores. And then And then around communities. That you I think it can come in different forms. One side could be just a regular kind of like discord only community, the way you would normally have it with just traditional NF T's. So x accessing the members of the other customers and the members of a certain brand. So you can think about that. Like that. Let's say it's like an expensive car, right? It's like a Ferrari, like Ferrari, you could think that they have, you can have access to a token that shows that proves your ownership of a Ferrari vehicle. And now you can start talking in this chat with other Ferrari owners. And that's that, that could be valuable for a certain brand. And then And then the last component is about content, and events and things like that. So it's sort of an in between the two, where you can, you can subscribe to, it's almost like being part of a paid sub stack. And, and that can be unlocked by owning the the NFT that the brand has put out into the world.
Mariah Parsons 35:48
Ah, interesting. Okay, thank you. Yeah, cuz I like membership. I feel like I think about it in terms of like, what you would think about membership, like, in my mind, it's closely tied to subscription, right? Like, you get a VIP status. And so I imagine and I'm curious to hear if you would agree, like, building a membership is just another kind of way to keep like the customer engaged with your brand to keep them like coming back, keep adding value to, you know, whatever, whatever the community, whatever the membership looks like. So like building out that membership, yeah, super interesting.
Tim Masek 36:29
Yeah, totally. And I think that's where, for me, I see it as like, we were still pretty new in the world of E commerce. Like actually, when we'll take a step back, we're still in the early days of the world of E commerce. And we've used very in the world of Shopify, we've used very simple tools to do things like SMS things like email, etc. And now we're now that those things are kind of solved for we're looking at solving the bigger the bigger challenges and one brand that I think a lot about in the world of when it comes to subscription or sorry memberships. Is Rafa are a PHA it's a cycling to cycling brand. And Rafa has they've got an online store but they've they've got retail stores all around the world. And you can buy you can buy their clothes, etc. One thing that they have is called the Rafah cycling club the RCC and the RCC is like everything ever. Although if you got walk into the store, you'll see a rack of like, you know, blue shirts and dark green shirts and white shirts, etc. And then on the right you're gonna see pink shirts. And this is not exactly right. It's it's a little bit more nuanced than that. But the pink shirts that's for the RCC members. Oh, interesting. And you pay a membership fee to Rafa to become an RCC member Rafa Cycling Club member, and not membership gets you new swag, that's pink. So when you're cycling on the road, and you see somebody in the pink slang, you're like, okay, they're serious, they're about their business here. But you also get access to free coffee in all their locations around the world. Because people typically after a ride, stop to a coffee shop. So you can just stop after your ride to get coffee for free at the cycling store. And if you're traveling, let's say you live in LA, and you're traveling to New York, and you're not going to bring your bike with you, you can rent one of their super premium bikes from their store via the membership. So there's all these great benefits that come with having a cycling membership, I refer. And, and I just think about that being like the perfect example of what a beautiful membership should look like. And it's so complex the way that's run, I mean, it's a physical card, it's yeah, they got to keep track of the membership, they got to keep track of the coffee usage, they got to do the separate apparel, all those things. And they're using structures that are not built, or not accessible to the ecosystem of Shopify. And so now we're a bit by bit we're getting there in the world of Shopify, we're unlocking things that we've seen in other brands who are much, much, much bigger and much more dev firepower, and making that more accessible to the masses.
Mariah Parsons 39:25
Yeah, that's a great example. I mean, like, even just hearing about that I'm not a cyclist. So I'm like, Oh, I like that would be fun, right? Like to be part of that community. And like, it's that recognition factor. When you're on the road cycling, you're like, oh, they have a picture either pink shirt, like, you're kind of more connected to them, even if you don't know them at all right? Like, you can just be like, Oh, you're part of that club too. And like the added perks, like having, you know, the access to the bikes and the coffee and everything. I think that's a great example. Thank you for sharing for the the membership and so as we've talks about community, I want to use the last couple minutes here to really talk about your community. You have yellow notes, which is your newsletter that goes out. So I love that you can kind of like speak to that. Just a little bit.
Tim Masek 40:14
Yeah, the community aspect for me is, you know, super key. Basically, I come into my mindset with what I ever did see is I don't know everything, and there's no way I could know everything. And there's so many experts in the world of DC who specialized in different parts of the equation. So we talked about operations, there's some people who specialize in just the beverage industry as a whole. Others who specialize in email marketing, some who specialize in automation, others who specialize and specialize in tick tock ads. I want way 100 DT C to be the platform, that they feel comfortable sharing insights with the community on. And so I'm still kind of scratching the surface on unlocking that. But you can even see it in the world of Twitter, people have opinions on these very complex things. And they have very strong opinions about it, they love they love the space. And I want 100 Each seat to be extremely open. It's like your, your blank canvas, you can tell your story, you can share your insights. And, and hopefully bit by bit I can get there over time. And so there's there's things that I get when I see like, a long thread, long debate between should it be North beam or should it be triple? Well, I love that. Because it's it's so valuable. There's so many, there's no way one blog post that I write on the topic, could do all these nuances that are made in that thread justice. So and the technologies change over time. So I'm looking for more ways to integrate those types of insights into the world of one 800, etc. And so one way to express those insights via the newsletter, but your there's also presence on on Twitter, and there's a few others places where I try and take what I see to the world and and give it back to the founders.
Mariah Parsons 42:19
Yeah, yeah, that's really cool. I think that's, that's a beautiful thing. Like I love how you kind of painted that of like being a canvas to like, share. And have things like as many opinions as you can, like, housed in one spot to be as helpful, as many people as you can be. And so with that one of the questions or last question, what would you say like, what are some resources you would recommend to listeners? It can be like, exclusively in the E commerce DTC space, or just like general advice, we kind of let our guests run with it. But what would be what would be some resources that either you use or would recommend?
Tim Masek 43:01
I'd say one, one awesome resource recently has been the audit newsletter. Oh, Didi it. And you could also follow them on Twitter. Audit is, is a brand first CRO company. It's like a term they've coined. But basically, they, when you come to them with your ecommerce website, you can submit it to them by an audit from them. And they'll take a look at it and go through the entire experience a few times over with their designers. And point out, oh, this, this feels a little bit odd. Or this, you know, this call to action. You have it here. But it's not there. And that doesn't quite make sense for the user. And it's all these things that add a B tests on its own red button versus blue button wouldn't give you much insight on this more like a holistic view of your website, and how might you optimize the clarity of your messaging and the clarity of the purchase journey for the customer. So they do a really good job at that. And they they pass on a lot of the examples from existing businesses. They've done audits for via their newsletter, and via their Twitter account. So I'd say that's a big follow. And maybe one more on the note of like community insights kind of coming together. One big inspiration for me as indie hackers, indie hackers, is, it's a platform for bootstrapped entrepreneurs, for the most part, to share their insights on on what they're building and how they're building it. So like, I made 10k M I hit 10k MRR last month, building selling XYZ and you're just like, how the hell did you do that out of your bedroom? You know, and it's very, it's very community focused and there's a lot of insights that we can take from from those numbers on that community. Okay,
Mariah Parsons 44:50
those are great resources I haven't heard of either, so I'll have to look into them myself, and I hope our listeners love them as well. But this has been great Tim And thank you so much for coming on the podcast, being just such a good partner as well. I mean, I know I can always go to you and ask for opinions and such. So I love that we're connected now and that we've been able to connect you with our listeners so they can hear all your wonderful insights.
Tim Masek 45:16
No, appreciate you having me. Keep doing what you're doing. You're crushing it. And yeah, thanks so much for the podcast.
Mariah Parsons 45:25
Already, I really hope you all enjoyed that episode. Tim is a great friend and wonderful partner of Malomo O's. So here's our fact check. Let's kick it off. The first thing I wanted to say is that the webinar that I mentioned, with clay vo electric rebind recharge, that webinar link is now in the episode description. And there's a recording as this episode is coming out after the fact. I also did want to mention the other links that will be featured are the signup page for Tim's yellow notes. And the privacy ebook that I mentioned in the the only fact that we discussed that would need needed some checking was if I could find any businesses that had went from one off purchases to become subscription or vice versa. It was very tough to find this information. I did a lot of digging and couldn't find much. But I did find an interesting stat that stuck around with me. So I decided I would share that instead. And this is from Sora and it was written in 2020. It says that revenue among subscription businesses grew roughly five times faster than both the retail sector and the s&p 500 from January 2012 Through June 2019. So even though this was written in 2020 definitely interesting stats just to look back. Very cool stuff. We hope you enjoyed this episode.