An-Hacking : episode 6 🦑
Shopify Summer Editions '24, Rains' brand new website, my experience as a consumer on Birkenstock e-shop, 3 Shopify agencies out of France, et Yotpo tools suite
Hello all! 👋
I hope you’re all doing well this morning and that you had a fantastic May (those long weekends were pretty great, right?!). Most importantly, I hope you’re ready for this new episode of An-Hacking #Lightsaber.
To those joining us for the first time, welcome! 🤗
As you may have noticed, Episode 6 is arriving a bit late (it was originally scheduled for Tuesday, June 25). But for a very special reason, I had to delay its release: on June 16, I had the immense joy of becoming a father! I’m dedicating this episode to my partner, who did most of the hard work and makes me incredibly proud 🥹.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to announce that there won’t be any episodes this summer, but we’ll be back stronger than ever at the end of September for the new season 👌.
Lastly, thank you all for reading! Feel free to share An-Hacking with your network, leave your feedback and comments on the episodes, and let me know if there are any specific topics you’d like us to cover in the future 🤓.
Happy reading, and see you soon! 💚
Today’s Agenda:
Summer Editions ‘24 by Shopify 🤯
The new Rains website is a masterpiece!
My experience with Birkenstock 🤬
Musical interlude 🎶
3 Shopify agencies outside France: Episode 1 🫶
The Yotpo tools suite 💙
Bonus
Let’s go! 🚀
1. Summer Editions ‘24 by Shopify
This is undoubtedly one of the most significant events of June for the e-commerce and retail ecosystem: Shopify held its Summer Editions 2024.
It has become a tradition for the Canadian platform: every six months, Shopify announces a series of new features that are either launched immediately or set to roll out in the coming weeks or months.
In the second episode of An-Hacking, we covered the Winter Editions from earlier this year (feel free to check out that episode for more details).
Interestingly, it was during the Summer Editions 2023 that Shopify announced one of its best features (at least one of my personal favorites), which is still only available in the US: Shopify Collective. This feature allows Shopify merchants to connect with other Shopify brands to sell their products on their store, increasing their AOV without worrying about order fulfillment.
For example: I’m Brand A selling shampoos, and I add Brand B’s hairbrushes to my store—this creates upsell and cross-sell opportunities for complementary products.
So, what do we think of Summer Editions ‘24?! 😎
Overall, the theme is UNIFIED, reflecting Shopify’s ongoing strategy over the past several months to strengthen omnichannel capabilities:
Across international markets (Markets),
In physical stores (POS),
And with resellers (Marketplace connections).
Here are five highlights I found particularly interesting: 👇
🔹 Ship to & from retail stores:
Soon, we won't just be talking about omnichannel but unified commerce. This new feature represents a major shift in the shopping experience, allowing your consumers to choose to receive their orders wherever they want—including in your stores. It’s a great opportunity to bring them into your physical locations to enhance their experience and even offer them additional or unique options: a truly unified omnichannel experience!
🔹 Events impact tracking:
It makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?! Think about all the conversations where merchants ask if other brands have noticed drops in traffic, conversion rates, etc. This embedded feature is basic yet essential and is now available natively: merchants can identify correlations between events (e.g., app installation, theme updates, new code lines) and underperformance or success.
🔹 Split shipping at checkout:
This is a particularly interesting feature, especially for brands that want to apply shipping rules by warehouse (e.g., separating light products from heavier ones). It also benefits consumers, who can see if their order will be split and personalize their shipping choices—opting for the cheapest, fastest, or most suitable shipping method by product (e.g., if you break a lamp, you might want the replacement shipped express, while a new table can wait).
🔹 Updates to Markets:
One of Shopify’s biggest innovations in 2023, Markets allows merchants to address different markets with tailored languages and currencies. Shopify is doubling down with enhancements like:
Unique catalogs for each Market,
Product restrictions by Market (e.g., composition-specific rules),
New UPS Worldwide integration,
The ability to assign a legal entity to each Market,
Inclusion of taxes and customs fees directly on product pages to avoid unpleasant surprises at checkout for international consumers.
🔹 New B2B features:
A brand-new pre-designed B2B theme, the ability to add a dedicated B2B store for each Market (customizable by available products, pricing, etc.), and a powerful new feature allowing you to collect deposits at checkout—customizable by B2B customer account.
And just like with the last Winter Editions, I invite you to check out the recap video by the excellent team at Moon Moon, who once again did an outstanding job summarizing these announcements
2. The new Rains website is live !
This is one of my favorite exercises: discovering a new site and breaking it down. Today, I’m thrilled to talk about the website of the iconic brand Rains 🫶.
To be completely transparent, this is undoubtedly one of the most stunning e-shops I’ve ever seen since diving into e-commerce and exploring site design (which has been almost 4 years now).
Let me be clear: the new Rains website is an absolute masterpiece 💣.
By every measure, the construction of this site makes it one of the most high-performing e-shops of 2024: UX/UI design, shopping journey, product visuals...
In terms of best practices, it checks many boxes:
👉 A sticky menu on desktop and accessible in one click on smartphones, a clear header displaying straightforward information (e.g., free shipping on orders over €60), a hero color, and reviews on every product page (I won’t go over the crucial role of reviews/UGC in driving conversion).
👉 Ultra-dynamic product visuals: This is undoubtedly the most “wow” effect of the overall onsite experience of this new Rains website. Each visual reacts dynamically when hovered over with the mouse, and on the product page, there’s a scrolling gallery showcasing the product. Add to that a stunning variant tool that lets you see each product in the desired color and in context.
👉 Sticky CTA on all product pages: On both mobile and desktop (the distinct approach for the two devices is impressively relevant), the add-to-cart CTA follows the shopping journey on the product page, always staying above the fold.
👉 Buyer reassurance: Several reassurance elements are in place to encourage purchases and minimize interactions with customer-facing teams (sessions must be used as effectively as possible!). Examples include a 2-year product warranty, free returns within 30 days, and free shipping on orders over €60, among others.
👉 Upsell & cross-sell strategies: Well-executed upsell and cross-sell strategies can be excellent ways to increase AOV (Average Order Value), which is arguably one of the main goals in e-commerce—if AOV goes up, CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) decreases relatively. At Rains, each product is designed with upsell (complementary products) and cross-sell (matching products) in mind. A gamified system even encourages users to reach a certain cart value to unlock a promo code and receive a gift with their order.
I could easily list ten more points, but I’ll leave it to you to explore for yourself, identify your own must-haves, and find inspiration!
3. My Catastrophic Experience with Birkenstock 🤬
This is a topic I rarely touch on, whether in my LinkedIn posts or daily conversations, but today I want to share a recent experience that was nothing short of disastrous: my consumer experience with Birkenstock.
Birkenstock is a brand I genuinely love—I grew up wearing Birks, and my sister and I always saw our parents in Birks. It’s almost a family tradition! 😅
Recently, my mom celebrated her birthday and hinted that she’d love a pair of Birkenstock mules as a gift—a model that has become a classic for the brand in just a few years. She knew her size and the color she wanted. It should’ve been smooth sailing, right?
Well, nothing went as planned 😱.
The Order
My mom’s birthday was on June 20, so I placed the order on May 29, receiving a shipment confirmation the next day. I decided to get ahead of the game!
Since this was my first time ordering from the Birkenstock website (I usually shop in-store because I’m cautious about sizing), I took advantage of a €10 promo code for first-time orders (dropping the price to €150 from €160—every bit helps!).
The Issue
I received the package on June 4, only to find the wrong model delivered 😨.
My first instinct was to check my emails and account to confirm whether I had made a mistake when ordering. Nope—I had ordered the correct model, but they delivered something else.
At this point, this was still a pretty standard scenario: delivery error, and I could return the item for free. Confident in my choice (my mom’s choice!), I decided to request an exchange.
The Shock
Here’s where things fell apart: Birkenstock does not allow exchanges 🤬.
The return process only allows you to send back an item for a refund—there’s no option to exchange it for another product.
Birkenstock requires customers to:
Return the original order, which will be refunded within 10 days of receipt at their warehouse.
Place a brand-new order for the desired item.
The Fallout
Remember the €10 promo code for my first order? Well, I couldn’t reuse it for the new order. Because the "exchange" was treated as a new transaction, I no longer qualified for the first-order discount.
In summary, I had to spend €310 to finally get the pair I had initially ordered.
The Takeaway
Brands must absolutely implement a system that gives consumers the choice to:
Get a refund,
Exchange for the same item in a different variation (size, color), or
Exchange for a different product, with the price difference either charged or refunded.
In this context, there are fantastic solutions, such as Baback (for Shopify merchants), Elyn, Yayloh, and If Returns.
What’s Surprising
It’s especially surprising to see a brand like Birkenstock—recently listed on the stock market and enjoying massive success (around €28M in revenue in France in 2023 and a **29% increase in global revenue from 2022 to 2023)—overlook such a critical part of the shopping experience: returns and exchanges.
A robust return and exchange policy is one of the main levers for conversion and reassurance in e-commerce. Offering the best return experience possible is a tremendous tool for loyalty and retention 💙.
Interlude musical
For this sixth and final episode before the “summer holidays,” I want to bring you a little sunshine straight from Japan, with a trio of iconic artists: Akira Inoue, Masataka Matsutoya, and the brilliant Hiroshi Sato ☀️.
Individually, these three artists contributed immensely to Japanese synth-pop. Together, they formed the trio Seaside Lovers for a single, unforgettable album: Memories in Beach House 🏄♀️.
Let’s listen to the opening track of the album, Lovers Paradise.
It feels like summer—waves, warmth, and tranquility. It’s the perfect soundtrack to keep us cruising through this episode of An-Hacking with serenity. 🎶
4. Yotpo suite
It took until the 6th episode of An-Hacking for me to mention this. But it’s truly one of the best tools on the market...
Today, I want to share my thoughts on Yotpo and its suite of tools.
Yotpo defines itself as a retention solution, and that’s precisely the goal of every “layer” in the Yotpo platform: retain, convert, and build loyalty among your consumers 💙.
Yotpo supports brands at every key stage of the customer journey with a suite of five powerful tools:
👉 SMS Marketing: this is without a doubt Yotpo’s most important component. It’s widely used and highly effective at driving conversions. And while we love WhatsApp here (see Episode 1 of An-Hacking), SMS remains the best channel for open rates (98%), as noted by Sarah Hanney from Swanky in this excellent article.
👉 Email Marketing: one of Yotpo’s newest features is the introduction of an Email solution as part of its marketing automation platform. Now, brands can combine Email & SMS marketing natively within a single tool.
👉 Reviews & UGC: as I always point out, more than 3 out of 4 consumers say reviews influence their purchase decisions. Yotpo helps brands implement a reassurance strategy by making it easy to collect reviews and UGC for use onsite.
👉 Subscriptions: in my opinion, this is one of the best solutions on the market, ideal for Shopify merchants who have implemented or are considering a subscription model. Built on Shopify’s technical Subscriptions stack, Yotpo’s Subscription feature delivers the best possible experience for both:
Consumers (seamless onsite journey, easy subscription management).
Brands (simple technical integration, mandate migration, etc.).
👉 Loyalty & Referrals: the final and arguably most critical component, this feature reinforces all the work done beforehand. You’ve targeted prospects, converted them (via one-time or recurring purchases), and collected their reviews—now it’s time to turn them into brand ambassadors.
Yotpo’s Loyalty & Referrals stack enables consumers to refer friends and earn points. With a gamification system in place, this is without a doubt the most valuable layer in the Yotpo suite (#cherryonthecake).
5. A Shopify Agency Outside France to Watch 👀
You’ve probably noticed that I often highlight the work of digital agencies when analyzing e-commerce sites (whether in previous episodes or through my LinkedIn content).
But apart from the excellent design agency Numbered, which we discussed in my Top 10 Shopify Redesigns/Migrations of 2023 for their role in the Shopify revamp of Bonsoirs, we’ve rarely ventured outside the French ecosystem...
To break out of this “routine,” I’ve selected 3 outstanding Shopify agencies outside France whose work I truly admire, and I’ll introduce them one by one across this episode and the next two (one per episode).
🩵 Code : how could we not start this (non-exhaustive) list with the very first agency in Europe to achieve Shopify Plus Partner status?!
Code stands out for its history: created in 2005, Code is a Dutch agency with around 60 team members, specializing in the Shopify ecosystem for over 7 years (long before Shopify officially arrived in France!). As its name suggests, Code is an expert development agency known for its expertise in PIM and ERP integrations, as well as being an Elite Klaviyo Partner.
One of their most significant achievements remains the website for Namuk, a stellar UX/UI showcase built on a Shopify Plus environment. Code’s team supported the brand with the replatforming (formerly on Magento 2), building the new site, design, and Email Marketing 👇.
Bonus 🤩
For those who don’t necessarily have the time to read everything, today I’m sharing a video podcast where I had the pleasure of being invited by Benjamin Durand, CEO of the Social Ads agency Socialdesk (a big thank you to him for the invitation!).
In this podcast, I discuss:
👉 My perspective on the customer experience, both online and in-store.
👉 Solutions I truly admire, such as Regulo, Yotpo, Kleep, and Loyoly (which I often talk about here as well).
👉 Websites I consider masterclasses in must-haves and conversion, like Bonsoirs, Zeta, and Great Jones.
👉 My thoughts on the right mix between subscriptions and AOV.
👉 Data about the mobile/desktop split in terms of session numbers, repeat vs. paid traffic distribution, and why it’s crucial not to neglect any device.
👉 The role of payment in a growth strategy.
You can watch the episode right here!
See you soon, my friends! Much love 💚