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In today’s newsletter,
Are you leaving money on the table? 💸
A $400 Watch Made Me Line Up at 9:30 AM
AI Launch Codes: Audit discount stacking with Shopify Sidekick to find (and fix) hidden margin leaks
This issue takes 3 minutes to read.
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Let’s dive into it👇
Rewards
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Growth Playbook
A $400 Watch Made Me Line Up at 9:30 AM
When most of us hear artificial scarcity, we think of luxury brands like Rolex, AP, or Hermès. Or Nike sneaker drops.
I recently experienced another version.
One that doesn’t end after a single drop. One that doesn’t rely on luxury pricing or exclusivity.
A version I’d call Gamified Artificial Scarcity.
I walked into a Swatch store to buy a MoonSwatch.
Swatch’s collaboration with Omega. A case study in itself, but that’s for another day.
I tried a few, picked one, and was ready to pay.
Then I noticed another model. It was sitting in a glass box.
I asked to try it.
“You can’t,” the salesperson said. “It’s limited edition.”
Fine. I’ll just buy it then.
She smiled.
“You can’t buy it either. It’s sold out.”
When does it come back?
“We’re not sure. You’ll have to check the website. It’s only available when it snows in Switzerland.”
I bought another watch and left.
The story should have ended there.
It didn’t.
That night, I read more about the watch I didn’t get.
This MoonSwatch only drops on days it snows in Switzerland. On those days, a small number land in stores around the world.
So I started checking the website everyday
The snow symbol on the top right shows when stock will be available
.A week later, it snowed. (In December the frequency was much lower so i had to wait a week)
I reached the mall at 10:30. The store opened at 10. They had ten pieces. The last one sold minutes before I walked in.
Now I really wanted it.
A few days later, it snowed again. I reached at 10:05. Sold out.
Third attempt. This was the last day i had to exchange the watch since they only offer a 14 day exchange and i had already bought the other one.
I reached at 9:30. There was already a line. I was number nine. No one knew how many pieces were coming.
At 10:00, the store opened. One by one, the watches sold.
Then the store manager told the people behind me that I was getting the last piece.
By 10:30, twenty-five people were in line.
All for a $400 Swatch.
Here’s what Swatch actually did.
This wasn’t a limited drop.
A drop creates hype, then it’s over. You buy or you miss.
Swatch used gamified artificial scarcity.
Supply exists. The product isn’t rare. It’s going to be sold till end of march (i.e stops snowing in Switzerland)
But access is conditional, unpredictable, and requires effort.
You’re never fully out. You stay invested.
Hermès does the same thing with Birkins. The currency is different.
You invest money instead of time.
You need to spend roughly the value of a Birkin just to get on the list.
Then you wait.
And when the call comes, you buy from what you’re offered.
Different brands. Different price points. Same strategy.
What to take away
Artificial scarcity limits supply and creates desire.
Gamifying it creates obsession.
This works because customers are never fully in and never fully out.
They stay eligible. They keep checking. They stay engaged.
This won’t work for every brand
Use this when:
the product is non-essential
anticipation adds value
the purchase is emotional, not urgent
Its a want, not a need
Do not use this for:
essentials
replenishment products
anything where convenience is the value
What to do next
If you’re launching something new or seasonal, don’t default to a drop.
Instead:
keep supply steady
but make access conditional
remove predictability
let effort replace discounts
Swatch didn’t restrict production.
They restricted certainty.
That’s the strategy.
Reply to this email and tell me about a product you kept coming back for, even when you couldn’t buy it right away.
I’d love to share your store with the audience as well.
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Audit discount stacking with Shopify Sidekick to find (and fix) hidden margin leaks
Discount stacking is one of those things that can easily eat up your margins without you even realize.
There’s no alert that says,
“Hey, three discounts just teamed up and have been eating up your margins that wasn’t intentional”
Most stores only notice something’s off when:
margins have taken a hit
AOV refuses to go up
or finance team starts asking uncomfortable questions, etc.
And the assumption is almost always the same:
“If discounts are live, they must be set up correctly”
That’s rarely true. And discounts don’t get designed all at once, but they start accumulating.
One for a campaign.
One for free shipping.
One added by an app.
One that was meant to be temporary.
Each discount makes sense on its own.
The problem starts when they meet at checkout.
A cart discount fires.
Free shipping kicks in.
A manual code still works.
A FREE GIFT applies automatically.
Now you’re not running a promotion.
You’re running an unintentional bundle deal.
What makes this worse is that you usually don’t see it.
Shopify doesn’t flag bad stacks.
Apps don’t warn you when rules overlap.
And unless you’re manually digging through orders, everything looks normal.
This is where Shopify Sidekick comes in.
Not because it just gives you advice, but because it forces you to map reality, and help you with the audits, analyze them, make a decision on what to keep and what not to, and lastly, with your permission, it can actually implement these tasks all by itself.
Step 1: Get your discount inventory (the foundation)
Before you talk about margin, you need to know:
how many discounts actually exist
which ones are automatic vs manual
and what Shopify allows them to combine with
If you don’t understand what can stack, you’ll never catch what is stacking.
At the end of this workflow, this is what I prompted:
This matters because not all stacking is equal.
Free Shipping + cart discount is often intentional
Manual codes stacking with FREE GIFT or other discounts could be accidental
Sidekick immediately surfaced multiple red flags.
What Sidekick found:
1) Codes stacking with FREE GIFT (100% automatic)
Percentage codes applied, but completely nullified
Customers entered a code and got no extra benefit
The code value was wasted
2) Extreme 4-discount stacks
FREE GIFT + cart discount + free shipping + manual code
Very low AOV
No incremental lift
Clear over-discounting
3) Codes stacking with automatic discounts
The manual code did nothing literally
Same outcome with or without the code
Sidekick didn’t stop at analysis though.
After identifying the issues, it generated a clear to-do list:
review FREE GIFT combination rules
update 100% discount stacking behavior
restrict specific problematic codes
verify app-level discount rules
test combinations after changes
And yes, if you give Sidekick permission, it can help implement all of this.
Or you can take the checklist and do it manually.
I dig deeper into this and show the full process in the paid section.
To continue reading..
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