Your category page is speaking the wrong language

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We're doing a 100 days of stealing strategies from brands that are already winning.

For day 13, we have Method.

Most stores make you filter by category.

This one asks "show me products that..." and gives you cards like "are so spa core," "shower me earthy and surfy," "smell like vacation."

What they are doing here is, instead of using generic catalog langauge, they’re speaking how actual Gen Z talks on TikTok.

The page feels like it was built by someone chronically online.

It’s important because shoppers don't think "I want something citrus." They think "I want to feel like I'm on vacation." This page speaks that language directly.

So here's what you should do today: add one way to shop by mood instead of category, and write it in the words your customer already uses online.

Lounge Underwear hit $19 million in sales in 2020, a 300% jump from the year before. The founders trace it back to a decision made in year one: sign a small group of influencers to extended contracts instead of gifting products for one-off posts.

Most brands run influencer marketing like a media buy. Send product, get a post, move on. Lounge did the opposite.

Co-founder Mel Marsten introduced the brand personally to early influencers and explained the company's values before asking for anything.

Those same influencers are still posting the brand today, unprompted.

Start by pulling your own influencer list and flagging anyone you've worked with more than once. That repeat group is where the leverage is.

A one-off post gets you a single placement.

A long-term deal gives someone time to actually use the product and start mentioning it without a brief.

Take your best repeat names and move them onto a 3-6 month minimum contract instead of another round of gifted posts.

Before you lock in deliverables, have an actual conversation with them about the brand and the product. Marsten works with very few influencers on a one-off basis for exactly this reason — the extended contracts are what make the partnership feel real instead of transactional.

Action Summary:

Credit: Shopify Masters

Here's a sentence a lot of AI tools will generate for a skincare offer:

"Unlock radiant, glowing skin with our revolutionary formula designed to transform your daily routine."

Here's the same offer written by an actual person:

"I used to spend $80 a month on serums that did nothing. This one's the only thing that's actually changed my skin, and I'm annoyed it took me four years to find it."

Read them back to back. The first one is smooth. It's also forgettable, because it could be describing literally any product in the category.

The second one has a specific number, a specific complaint, a specific timeframe. That specificity is what makes it sound like a person talking, not a template.

There's a name for why the smooth version feels off: the uncanny valley effect. It's the same discomfort people feel looking at a robot or CGI face that's almost human but not quite.

Something about it registers as wrong even before you can say why.

This matters because people don't buy from perfect. They buy from people they relate to.

The typos, the offhand asides, the very specific way someone complains about a problem, that's what makes a reader think "this person gets me."

The fix isn't to throw out AI or stop using it to draft. It's to go back through your copy and find the sentences that could have been written about any competitor's product, then rewrite them with something only you would say.

Action Summary:

Credit: Alex Cattoni

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