Kevin Hillstrom: MineThatData

Here in Phoenix, the USL team (Phoenix Rising) has an Academy. This is common in soccer / football, of course. The next generation of players are developed, giving the parent team an opportunity to lock-in talent trained in the methodologies and strategies of the parent team.

The NBA has a G-League and College Basketball.

The NFL has College Football.

MLB has the Minor Leagues (Rookie, A, AA, AAA).

E-Commerce is already being filled with Academies ... they are otherwise called "AI". We're in the top-of-the-first-inning in AI. We are training AI to do things to make our lives both easier and more strategic in nature.

As you already know, AI needs to be "trained". It isn't magic. It requires human smarts.

Are you a good "trainer"? Do you know what information AI needs to be trained properly. Does the agency that uses AI know what information needs to be used to train AI properly?

The answer is invariably going to be "no". Dumb people, dumb agencies, and smart algorithms will produce dumb outcomes.

You can train AI to create the best-performing omnichannel campaigns on Facebook, and AI will do what you train it to do. But if you have no business sense whatsoever and want to push moronic ommnichannel slop at a customer who could care less, you will optimize a very low performing campaign into low-performing territory.

Somebody has to be the smart person in the room. Why can't that person be you?

        

This video of a Backgammon championship garnered more than 175,000 views to-date. It's on YouTube, there are analysts discussing the match, they have a computer that assesses who is "making errors" in real-time, the computer shares the probability of winning in real-time, and the analysts even play a game during a break with one of the individuals in live chat.

Also - Pickleball TV is now a channel on YouTube TV ... nearly ten million subscribers can watch professional pickleball matches 24/7/365. Was that ever a possibility a decade ago? As of tonight, you can't watch ESPN or ABC on YouTube TV but you can watch the World Championships of Pickleball live.

What does this have to do with e-commerce?

There is a lot of innovation these days. Here's an AI tool that promises to replace most of the functions of marketing for small businesses, allowing the marketer to be "strategic". Which is code, of course, for "we're going to take your job and you will be the one who will pay us to give up your job". A lot of innovation, no doubt ... similar to the Backgammon channel above, where the computer is doing a lot of work and yet the analysts still convert everything into plain language. The analysts also promote the book they wrote during the match ... monetizing the event in their favor. Heck, they promote their book being on Backgammon Galaxy (click here). Who knew there was a store called Backgammon Galaxy? More important - that store is on Shopify. While you were trying to adhere to a nonsense-based Omnichannel Thesis that your boutique agency demanded you adhere to (#printisback), Shopify took over the world.

Imagine five years from now ... your store is on Shopify, Shopify AI is doing your marketing and is fully integrated with the Shopify Ecosystem so when your prospect purchases a t-shirt from Backgammon Galaxy Shopify AI sends the customer a text message encouraging the customer to buy from your store ... all automated, all out of your control.

It's coming. You know it is coming. You and I are unprepared for this future. We will adapt.

P.S.: One of the analysts on the Backgammon broadcast said "Learn the Rules, then Break the Rules". That's a smart line. How does that line apply to your business?

P.P.S.: Backgammon Strategy meets AI Principles. A book on Backgammon Galaxy. Would you be able to write a book called "E-Commerce Strategy meets AI Principles"???

        

Since the pattern has repeated for more than twenty years, I thought I'd coin a term for you. Those who participated in the October run of the Elite Program already know the answer to what is coming.

The "Cyber Window": The period between the day before Thanksgiving (November 26 this year) and the Saturday after Cyber Monday (December 6 this year). A timeframe featuring a veritable buffet of profitless discounts / promotions designed to please anybody that does not have p&l responsibility.

Identify the quality of new customers acquired during the "Cyber Window". It's a fun / revealing analysis.

        

Chinese headphone companies offer lots of discounts / promotions on November 11.

One of the big umbrella brands, Linsoul, is offering three tiers of discounts that you pre-purchase. Here is one of the tiers.

By spending $1.11, you get $25 off $60 plus access to the event. That's the Bronze Pass. Here are the Silver and Gold level incentives.

Now, from a data collection standpoint, imagine what you could do with knowledge of the fact that some of your customers will "pre-pay" for access to discounts? How does this fact differ from the sloppy customer who simply gets 30% off from the even-sloppier marketer?

If you're about to criticize me for sharing a tactic with you (and yes, I get mail when I do this stuff), think about taking a look in the mirror and asking yourself why your 60% off plus free shipping is more useful than what is outlined above?