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- đ¸ More Tariffs + BIG NEWS
đ¸ More Tariffs + BIG NEWS
No spoiler
Good morning, eComm legend.
Alright, deep breath⌠this oneâs gonna sting.
4 Bullet Points is retiring next week.
Aaaaaaand there it is. Ripped the Band-Aid off. That stung a little.
It had a good run, but letâs be honestâit always sounded a little too much like a PowerPoint your boss sends at 8:52 PM with a âQuick thoughts?â (which, of course, means pulling an all-nighter).
So, no transition: meet Don't Park That Cart.

Same old, same old. Still the same newsletter in your inbox on a Wednesday. Same obsession to help you grow your eCommerce store. Same weirdos behind the keyboard.
But something is changing: weâre doubling down, going all in, stacking the best insights, tactics, and strategies to help you actually grow.
Now, our life mission is simple: to help you get customers who donât park that cart. And there are explosions too (have you seen the thumbnail?).
Over time, this will become the one place you turn to when you want to scale, optimize, and win in eComm. Think of it as upgrading from âjust vibesâ to âfull send.â
Big things are coming next week, but for now, letâs focus on today: your business, your growth, and keeping customers from ghosting youânot like Timmy, your high school lab partner who promised to do his half. Letâs roll.
In todayâs agenda:
1) Canada, Mexico, China: Tariffs are up, margins are down.
2) TikTok just bulldozed TikTok Creator Marketplace for something better đď¸
3) Flexport just made logistics... kinda sexy?
4) Yottaaâs new Web Performance Services = a triple espresso shot for online shops âď¸

1) Canada, Mexico, China: Tariffs are up, margins are down.

More tariffs! Yay! As of March 4, 2025, imports from Canada and Mexico now carry a 25% tax and Chinese goods jumped to 20%. If your supply chain touches any of these, congratsâyouâre about to have a very interesting next few months.
Your costs just jumped: If you import, your price tags are going up. Itâs about as avoidable as stepping on a wet bathroom floor while wearing socks. Goods hit hard include machinery, cars, and even aluminum for those cute branded cans you just started making. If your suppliers are in China, that extra 10% tariff means a 20% total tax.
What to do right now: Itâs not panic mode, but itâs definitely âpull up a spreadsheet and pour coffeeâ mode. Your options:
Renegotiate with suppliers (because loyalty is cool, but lower costs are cooler). Ask for bulk discounts or see if theyâll eat part of the cost.
Source from tariff-free or lower-tariff countries (Vietnam, Taiwan, and Latin American countries outside Mexico). Theyâve been scaling up production and can be cost-effective. Try Accio to find suppliers.
Optimize pricing (yes, customers will hate it, but small increases > running a charity). Test strategic hikes on bestsellers first.
Cut unnecessary imports (if itâs not a bestseller, do you need it?).
Next steps, before itâs too late: This isnât a one-time headache. As long as these tariffs are in place, the costs keep stacking. Lock in new supply chains, tighten your pricing strategy, and brace for customer pushback. If you wait too long, your competitors will have already adapted, and youâll be left playing catch-up like someone who just remembered they were supposed to post on Threads.
Sources: cbsnews.com, axios.com


X-Ray of the Week: Peetâs Coffeeâs $300M Growth Engine
đ Platform: Shopify
âď¸ Email Marketing: Klaviyo
𧹠Page Builder: Builder.io
đŁ Marketing: Iterable
đ Subscription: Ordergroove
đ˘ Ads: Meta Ads + TikTok Ads + X Ads + LinkedIn Ads + Quora Ads
đŚ Inventory: Back in Stock
đŹ Customer Communications: Attentive
âď¸ User-Generated Content: Bazaarvoice
đľď¸ââď¸ Fraud Prevention: Kount
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Cookie Consent: Consentmo
đ Analytics: Elevar + 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) TikTok just bulldozed TikTok Creator Marketplace for something better đď¸

TikTok just hit refresh on brand collaborations like a Sims player who got tired of their messy house and bulldozed the whole thing. TikTok Creator Marketplace will officially retire (RIP) on April 1, and in its place will be TikTok Oneâa shinier, more advanced ecosystem.
TikTok Creator Marketplace, but make it obsolete: TikTok Creator Marketplace launched in 2019, back when "Renegade" was a full-time job and people still believed whipped coffee was gourmet. It was supposed to be a simple way for brands to find influencers, run campaigns, and pay creators without shady DMs. Fast forward to 2023, and brands complained it was clunky, creators said payouts were sketchy, and TikTok itself realized it was outdated.
Whatâs actually new: The new TikTok One is the equivalent of finally upgrading from gas station coffee to a real espresso machine (more efficient and better results):
AI-powered creator matching: Instead of manually scrolling through influencers, TikTok suggests them based on style, audience, and engagement history.
Trend intelligence tools: It scans meme trends, song virality, and hashtag velocity so youâre not hopping on a dead trend (my dad tried the "ice bucket challenge" last month).
Co-creation workspace: Better collaboration tools so you donât have to send âper my last emailâ messages to influencers.
Next steps: Running TikTok ads without TikTok One is like trying to win a Dance Dance Revolution battle in flip-flops. Hereâs how to win:
Migrate your data from the Creator Marketplace (or another dashboard called the TikTok Creative Challenge) to TikTok One.
Start with AI creator matching: Instead of guessing which influencer âfeels right,â let TikTok Oneâs algorithm match you with creators who actually fit your brand.
Use the trend tracker religiously: If a niche sound is blowing up, test a quick campaign before it dies in 48 hours.
If your TikTok ad strategy is just âvibes and hope,â you might as well be making it rain Monopoly money. TikTok One actually helps you track whatâs working before your budget ghosts you. Not bad.
Sources: techcrunch.com, tiktok.com

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3) Flexport just made logistics... kinda sexy?

Flexport just pulled a Tony Hawk Pro Skater 900 on supply chain managementâspinning out 20+ AI-powered logistics tools and landing clean. The Winter Release is here, and while it's not dropping a mixtape, itâs got serious upgrades for eCom brands tired of their supply chains moving at dial-up speed.
Flexport Intelligence is a supply chain therapistâŚ: Your supply chain is messy, inconsistent, and full of surprises (like that one friend who âforgetsâ their wallet every time). Flexport Intelligence turns chaos into clarity by letting you ask normal-people questions like, âWhy are my shipments always late?â and getting instant insights. It auto-builds reports, visualizes data (because spreadsheets are a crime), and saves all your searches in one place. Finally, some answers.
âŚwhile Control Tower is the command center: This is Flexportâs âbig brotherâ tool, watching over your entire shipping networkâeven the parts it doesnât manage. Itâs got real-time tracking, supplier scorecards (for when vendors start getting sloppy), and can even help you cut freight costs by 10% on average. Basically, itâs like having a top-tier operations manager, minus the six-figure salary.
Tactical moves:
Know if Flexport is right for you: If youâre doing $500K in revenue but keeping inventory in your big garage, probably not. If youâre scaling past $5M, dealing with imports, expanding internationally, or targeting 2-day delivery, itâs worth considering.
Check your supplierâs report card: Those scorecards show whoâs actually reliable (and whoâs a red flag).
Run a test order: If youâre skeptical, start small. See if the AI planning tools actually help before going all in.
What this actually means for you: Less wasted time, fewer shipping âsurprises,â and actual cost savingsâaka, more cash to spend on things that actually grow your brand. Logistics isnât sexy, but neither is losing customers because your inventory got stuck in a warehouse limbo (I said LIMBO, not LAMBO).
Sources: flexport.com

4) Yottaaâs new Web Performance Services = a triple espresso shot for online shops âď¸

Yottaa just gave ecommerce speed a caffeine shot. Their new Web Performance Services is basically a personal trainer for your websiteâexcept instead of abs, itâs optimizing your load time, security, and script efficiency (which, letâs be honest, could use some work).
Your site is probably slow: If your product pages load like theyâre stuck in 2012 Wi-Fi purgatory, congrats, you're losing customers by the second. Yottaa is now launching its fully managed offering (for large eCommerce stores), including an ultra-fast CDN, bot mitigation, and real-time performance monitoring.
Bots are stealing your lunch money: If you think your traffic is popping off, check againâhalf of those visitors might be bots trying to scrape prices, commit fraud, or just ruin your day. Yottaaâs HUMAN Defense Platform basically plays bouncer at the door, blocking sketchy traffic before it drains your ad budget or fakes a flash sale by carting 1000 items and never checking out (rude).
What you actually need to do if you have a small to medium-sized eCommerce business:
Run a speed test on your site (Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, or Yottaaâs free scanner)
Identify which third-party scripts with Yottaa Insights are making your load time suffer (spoiler: it's probably that chatbot you thought was cute)
Set up bot mitigation (Cloudflare, HUMAN, or Fastly can help)
Compress your images with Crush because a 5MB product shot isn't impressing anyone
Monitor Core Web Vitals (because Google decides who lives and dies in search rankings)
Ecommerce speed is a game of milliseconds. If your site isnât optimized, your customers are leaving faster than someone who just realized theyâre in an MLM recruitment meeting. Fix it now, or keep watching your bounce rate climb like itâs trying to break a record.
Sources: yottaa.com

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* Executive Cheat Sheet
Tariffs â Taxes imposed on imported goods, which increase costs for businesses and consumers.
AI-powered creator matching â A technology that uses artificial intelligence to recommend influencers to brands based on style, audience, and engagement data.
Control Tower (Logistics) â A centralized system that provides real-time visibility and management over an entire supply chain.
Bot Mitigation â Security measures that detect and block automated bot traffic to prevent fraud, fake traffic, and website disruptions.