šŸ’ø Bye USPS

USPS chaos incoming, Shopifyā€™s CRM play, and Amazonā€™s latest death.

Good morning, eComm legend.

Heck. The USPS saga continues, like a long-running TV show nobody asked for, yet weā€™re all still watching (I prefer Severance). This time, itā€™s not just about slower shipping or missing packagesā€”thereā€™s talk of a government shake-up that could send your shipping costs spiking harder than your caffeine intake after an all-nighter spent fixing a broken checkout page.

If youā€™re selling online in 2025, itā€™s adapt-or-die season. Grab your coffee (or your radioactive-green energy drinkā€”no judgment), because things are getting real.

In todayā€™s agenda:

1) USPS overhaul: who pays? (hint: you šŸ«µ)

2) Soā€¦ Klaviyo is now a CRM?

3) Buy with Prime: Adidas is leading the way šŸ§‘ā€āœˆļø

4) TikTok: 1, Amazon Inspire: 0. Game over.

ā€” Written by Alex Secanove

1) USPS overhaul: who pays? (hint: you šŸ«µ)

The USPS drama is back. But this time, itā€™s not just slower delivery times making your customers rage-tweet at you. President Trumpā€™s looking at shifting the USPS into the Commerce Department, and if you run an ecommerce business, youā€™re about to feel it in your margins.

Whatā€™s actually happening: Trumpā€™s floating an executive order that would wipe out the USPS Board of Governors and move the whole operation under Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnickā€”yes, the same guy who runs Cantor Fitzgerald. The USPS already bleeds $10 billion a year, and the move could be a stepping stone toward privatization (TL;DRā€”you paying even more to ship your stuff). The current board is lawyering up to block it, arguing the Constitution says Congressā€”not the presidentā€”controls the Postal Service. That means lawsuits, delays, and a whole lot of uncertainty.

How it could wreck your shipping game: If this move leads to USPS rate hikes or service cuts, youā€™ll be the one eating those costsā€”or passing them to customers (and watching them abandon carts). Potential nightmares include:

  • USPS dropping six-day delivery (because who needs weekend sales, right?)

  • 10,000 rural post offices shutting down (bye-bye, affordable last-mile delivery)

  • Shipping rates jumping 15-20% (hello, profit margin erosion)

  • Private carriers like UPS and FedEx charging even more (because monopoly)

What you should do now: You donā€™t have to wait for the chaos to hit. You need a Plan B.

  • Test alternate carriers: Get quotes from UPS, FedEx, and regional couriers now. Rates might change fast. Try GoShippo.

  • Negotiate discounts: USPS hikes arenā€™t immediate, so lock in commercial rates with an NSA while you can.

  • Optimize fulfillment: Consider 3PLs (like ShipBob, Flexport) that might buffer you from sudden cost spikes.

  • Warn your customers: If shipping gets pricier, bake it into pricing early instead of blindsiding buyers.

Long-term reality check: If this USPS shuffle moves toward privatization, itā€™s not just about your shipping ratesā€”itā€™s about control. Right now, USPS is required to serve every address in the country. Private carriers will drop unprofitable routes in a heartbeat. That means if you ship to rural customers, you might see entire zones become shipping no-goā€™s.

X-Ray of the Week: JB Hi-Fiā€™s $9.59B Growth Engine

šŸ›’ Platform: Shopify
āœ‰ļø Email Marketing: Klaviyo
šŸ§± Page Builder: PageFly
šŸ’° Upsells: LimeSpot
šŸ“£ Marketing: Vitals
šŸ” Subscription: Recharge
šŸ‘š Product Customization: Infinite Product Options + Inkybay
šŸ’” Product Recommendations: Wiser
šŸ“¢ Ads: Meta Ads
šŸ’• Loyalty: Growave Wishlist
šŸ“¦ Inventory: Back in Stock + PreOrder Globo
šŸšš Post-Purchase: TrackingMore Order Tracking
ā­ļø User-Generated Content: AliReviews + Loox + Opinew + Rivyo
šŸ•µļøā€ā™€ļø Fraud Prevention: Riskified
šŸ“ž Customer Service: Zendesk + PushOwl + POWR
šŸ” Search & Navigation: Algolia
šŸ“Š Analytics: Google Analytics

You can also X-ray the growth engine behind ANY 8-figure Shopify store's success with our Free Chrome extension, revealing their growth apps and tech stack.

2) Soā€¦ Klaviyo is now a CRM?

The super popular email-and-SMS marketing platform that everyone (and their dog) relies on now claims to be a CRM. Shopify owns 44.36% of Klaviyo now, which means tighter integrations, fewer third-party hacks, and hopefully, fewer broken Zapier connections (RIP to the hours you spent setting those up).

Why this matters: If youā€™re drowning in a mess of marketing tools and customer data scattered across five platforms, Klaviyoā€™s CRM is trying to be your new best friend. Happy Wax and Dollar Shave Club have already jumped in, claiming they slashed support tickets by 75% and doubled ROAS (casually flexing their newfound efficiency). If youā€™re still downloading CSVs like itā€™s 2013, itā€™s time to rethink your life choices.

Whatā€™s actually useful: Forget the buzzwords; hereā€™s what you can do right now:

  • CRM stuff ā€“ Klaviyo combines customer profiles, order history, and email engagement in one place (meaning, no more detective work before answering a support ticket).

  • Funnel forensic analysis: Visualizes drop-off points across touchpoints and prescribes corrective actions (e.g., "Add exit-intent popup on checkout step 3")

  • Use AI that actually does something ā€“ It suggests email segments, predicts churn, and tells you which customers are about to ghost you (so you can hit them with a last-minute discount like a desperate ex).

  • Automate customer service ā€“ Self-service options now handle almost 50% of returns/refunds, which means fewer angry ā€œwhereā€™s my orderā€ emails ruining your day.

The Shopify angle: If Shopify were a '90s reality TV villain, this would be its ā€œIā€™m not here to make friendsā€ moment. By integrating Klaviyo deeper into their ecosystem, theyā€™re making it harder for merchants to justify using other CRMs. The Shopify-Klaviyo stack now talks in real-time, so your storeā€™s data is synced instantly. The downside: if youā€™re not on Shopify, this might feel like an exclusive club you canā€™t get into.

Sources: klaviyo.com

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3) Buy with Prime: Adidas is leading the way šŸ§‘ā€āœˆļø

Adidas announcing they're rolling out Buy with Prime this spring, is kindaaa big deal. The sportswear titan isn't aloneā€”Steve Madden, Belkin, and even MrBeast have jumped on Amazon's latest checkout solution that's boosting conversion rates by a cool 25% for merchants brave enough to try it.

Fulfillment fantasy: The secret superpower of Buy with Prime: Amazon handles all the boring stuff while you focus on posting aesthetic product photos and crafting those perfect email subject lines. The Prime logistics network manages storage, packing, and shipping with delivery times as fast as one to two days. Great Circle Machinery reported 70% of their orders now use Buy with Prime.

Tech talk: Getting started is surprisingly straightforward for something made by tech giants. You'll need a few basics:

The real magic happens after installation when orders, promotions, and catalog data sync automatically within your Shopify admin. No more manually updating two systems like it's 2008 and you're maintaining both a MySpace and Facebook profile.

Cost considerations: Buy with Prime operates on a pay-as-you-go model covering payment processing, fulfillment, and storage. Sure, for high-volume sellers these costs add up faster than streaming subscriptions you forgot to cancel, but the ROI potential makes number-crunching worthwhile. With access to 200 million Prime membersā€”75% of whom are U.S.-basedā€”you're tapping into a customer base that values fast shipping more than they value having a sensible bedtime.

Sources: amazon.com

4) TikTok: 1, Amazon Inspire: 0. Game over.

Amazon just threw in the towel on Inspire, its attempt to make you shop like you scroll TikTok. Launched in 2022, Inspire was supposed to blend social media engagement with e-commerce, but letā€™s be realā€”it was like trying to make a book club happen in a Walmart checkout line. Now that itā€™s gone, hereā€™s what this means for your store and what you should be doing instead.

Why Inspire failed: Amazon forgot that people donā€™t go to its app to hang outā€”they go to buy toilet paper and accidentally order 50 AA batteries instead of 5. Inspire banked on influencers making fun, engaging content, but it didnā€™t pay them enough (seriously, $25 per video? Even exposure bucks are worth more). Plus, its algorithm prioritized sales over discovery, so users kept seeing the same 10 products over and over. Surprise, they got bored and left.

What this means for social commerce: Amazonā€™s loss is TikTok Shopā€™s gain. While Inspire crumbled, TikTok figured out that people will buy things impulsively while watching a 10-second video about ā€œlife-changingā€ kitchen gadgets. Pinterest and YouTube Shorts are also getting in on the action, and Amazon is now cozying up to these platforms instead of competing. Translation: if you relied on Inspire, itā€™s time to pivot.

What you should do now:

  • Double down on TikTok and Pinterest. TikTok Shop is exploding, and Pinterest is finally nailing the ā€œdiscover something, then buy itā€ experience.

  • Repurpose your Inspire content. If you made videos for Inspire (RIP), upload them to TikTok, Instagram, or Pinterest.

  • Lean into short-form video. If youā€™re not making product demos, behind-the-scenes clips, or customer testimonials in video form, youā€™re missing out.

  • Keep an eye on Amazonā€™s next move. Theyā€™re shifting focus to AI shopping assistants like Rufus, which could mean new opportunities for sellers.

The lesson: meet customers where they actually want to shop sociallyā€”on platforms designed for it. Now, go make some TikToks.

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  • Boosting up review rate

  • Paying influencers with only products (stop negotiating fees)

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  • Building brand awareness

  • Completely automating the process

* Executive Cheat Sheet

  • Privatization ā€“ The process of transferring a government-owned entity, such as the USPS, to private ownership, which can lead to increased costs for consumers and businesses.

  • Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) ā€“ A logistics service by Amazon that allows sellers to store inventory in Amazon warehouses and fulfill orders across various sales channels, not just Amazon.

  • Customer Relationship Management (CRM) ā€“ A technology platform that helps businesses manage interactions with customers, track sales, and optimize marketing efforts for better retention and conversion.

  • Exit-Intent Popup ā€“ A website feature that detects when a user is about to leave the page and triggers a pop-up message, often offering a discount or incentive to retain the visitor.