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Good morning,
Cotopaxi’s Del Día bags begin with leftover fabric. The colors are unpredictable, so factory workers choose each combination. The result is a bag no one else has.
Today’s story is about the decision behind that product. Cotopaxi took a supply constraint and made it something shoppers could want.
Today:
We unpack Cotopaxi’s one-of-a-kind product strategy, put a Black Friday offer on Google product listings, cover five commerce updates and check failed subscription-payment retries.
Free Live Workshop
Bring one product. Leave with a Black Friday funnel plan.
Bring a product you want to sell this Black Friday. I’ll show how to build its offer, ad angles and landing page together, using lessons from seven ecommerce brands that reached $100M in under four years.
We’ll work through what to promise in the ad, where to send the click and what the page needs to prove.
Wednesday, November 11 · 9:00 AM Central Time
Free live session with Kaushal Pratap, founder of DTC Daily.
Bring one product. Build the path from offer to ad to page.
In the Headlines
The EU’s €2 import handling fee is live. It applies per customs declaration line on direct-to-consumer shipments bought outside the EU, including orders above €150. The fee is not refunded on returns. Recheck landed margins and delivery messaging.
Amazon has published its 2027 FBA fees. Fulfillment fees rise by an average of $0.19 per unit from January 15, but the change varies by SKU. Use Amazon’s Fee Change Comparison before adjusting prices.
Shopify app vendors face a deadline before BFCM. Public apps using bulk operations need an IP allowlist by November 12 or those operations will be blocked. Ask vendors of critical inventory and order apps whether they are ready. Existing installations do not all stop on that date.
Amazon Ads can target purchases made at other retailers. Attain’s retailer and category audiences are now available inside DVA+. If you use that ad product, test whether they bring new buyers before scaling.
ChatGPT Ads is moving from bid caps to cost targets. Advertisers can begin moving to Target CPA or Target CPC on November 9. These are average-cost goals, not hard ceilings.
On Socials
1/ Black Friday buyers may behave differently later. Feras Khouri reports lower 180-day repeat purchasing among one brand’s Q4 buyers than its Q3 buyers. Separate holiday buyers before setting retention forecasts.
2/ Check who gets your Meta budget. Ben Radack shares a BFCM split for new, engaged and existing customers, with spend caps on the latter two. Inspect whether Meta is taking credit for shoppers already returning through email.
Today’s Deep Dive
Cotopaxi Turned Leftover Fabric Into a Reason to Buy
Leftover fabric does not arrive in tidy, repeatable colors. Cotopaxi uses those remnants for its Del Día collection, then lets factory workers decide the color combination of each bag.
The outcome is the offer: each bag is one of a kind.
Del Día makes the fabric variation visible before explaining it.
The constraint became the product promise
Cotopaxi says Del Día began with a wish to give factory workers more creative control. They assemble colorways from the available fabric, making each combination their own.
That decision turns a difficult-to-standardize supply into something a shopper can recognize and value. The maker’s choice is visible in the finished bag.
Shoppers know what will vary
The collection still sells familiar bag models with clear sizes and uses. The colors change. Some product tiles say “Choose Color”; others offer “Surprise Me.”
Buyers can select a colorway or opt into the surprise.
That choice matters. A customer can buy the bag for its intended job while deciding how much visual surprise they want.
What to copy
Look for a genuine variation in your own production: a limited material, a hand finish, a small batch or a changing ingredient. Ask whether someone would value the result, not just forgive it.
Keep the product’s core quality and purpose dependable.
Show real examples of what changes.
Let customers choose the variable part, or knowingly opt into a surprise.
A constraint becomes an advantage when customers want what it creates.
The How-To
How to put your Black Friday offer on Google product listings
A sitewide discount helps only after someone reaches your store. Merchant Center Promotions can show an offer beside eligible Shopping ads and free listings while shoppers compare products.
Step 1: Turn on Promotions
In Merchant Center, open Settings → Add-ons. If Promotions appears under Discover, select Add. Availability depends on your account, products and selling country. Check Google's requirements.
Step 2: Create the offer
Open Marketing → Promotions → Add promotion → Create promotion. Choose the country, promotion type, dates and eligible products. Enter the exact discount and code, if one is required. Preview how the offer will appear.
Step 3: Check the checkout and approval
Test the offer on your store, then submit it early. Google says its policy and product reviews can take up to 72 hours. Return to Marketing → Promotions to check whether the status is Under review, Approved or Disapproved. See the review process.
Result: Once approved, the offer can appear before a shopper clicks. A saved promotion alone is not live.
Daily Growth Rep
Today’s Growth Rep: Check what happens after a failed renewal
If you sell subscriptions, check whether one declined payment can end a customer’s plan.
Why this works:
A payment failure can interrupt repeat revenue even when the customer still wants the product.
A retry window gives that payment another chance before the plan is skipped or canceled.
Your rep:
If you use Shopify Subscriptions, open Apps → Subscriptions → Settings → Billing attempts.
Check the retry count, days between attempts and final action after repeated failures.
Confirm customers can update their payment method from the subscription notification. Adjust the settings if your current path ends plans too quickly.
Report: “Renewal retries checked.”
Keep willing subscribers from disappearing after a single failed charge. Shopify’s settings guide shows the controls; other subscription apps use their own.
In Case You Missed It
Shopify’s Fall ’26 Edition: What Founders Should Check Before BFCM We sorted the announcements into founder decisions, with the changes worth acting on first.