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In today’s newsletter,
ChatGPT is becoming the new Google for shopping
The 5-cent upgrade that doubles retention
China+1 Strategy: The DTC Brand Guide to Vietnam Manufacturing
Your best-converting marketing asset isn’t your ad
While You Were Building
1.ChatGPT switches on cost-per-action ads
2.Tariff refunds accepted hit $85B
3.Amazon licenses its AI shopping stack
AI Launch Codes: Your Shopify Store No Longer Needs a Developer for New Sections
This issue takes 2 minutes to read.
Check out our DTC tool stack here
Let’s dive into it👇
AI Visibility
ChatGPT is becoming the new Google for shopping
Buyers are already asking AI:
“What’s the best moisturizer for oily skin?”
“Best running shoes for flat feet?”
“Best protein powder without artificial sweeteners?”
The problem is that most Shopify stores are invisible to AI engines.
The 90-day AI Visibility Sprint™ helps ecommerce brands optimize 1 product for ChatGPT, Google Shopping, Gemini, and Bing….so AI can actually understand, trust, and recommend it.
Here’s what you walk away:
AI visibility audit showing how your store is currently doing
Optimization for 1 product page
Store-wide Metadata + schema cleanup (improves the general performance of products not optimized)
At least 1 brand mention in a 3rd party publication (AI recommendation positioning)
Built for Shopify brands with at least one product doing $1k+/month.
$497.
90-day guarantee or we work for free.
Retention
The 5-cent upgrade that doubles retention
Most founders treat cost-per-unit like a hard wall.
They pick a number, $4.50 say, and every decision in development gets made around it. The chemist suggests a better ingredient. It adds five cents. The founder says no. The product launches, repeat purchases are flat, and they never connect the two.
Samantha Kent has watched this happen across hundreds of brands. Third-generation manufacturer, her family's been in the business since 1977. Her read: founders who shave cost end up with a product that's almost good. And almost good doesn't bring people back.
Every ingredient in your formula is doing a specific job. Something is holding the hydration in. Something is controlling the texture. Something is keeping bacteria out. When you cut cost, one of those jobs gets done a little worse.
Your customer can't tell you which ingredient you skimped on. They just know the cream feels slightly thin or the shampoo doesn't quite perform the way they expected.
They don't leave a bad review. They just don't reorder.
Before you lock your formula, ask your chemist this:
"What would an extra $0.05 per unit unlock?"
Sometimes the answer is nothing meaningful. But a lot of the time there's a better ingredient sitting on the shelf that didn't make it into your formula because the chemist was working to your budget.
Action Summary:
Ask your chemist: "What would $0.05 more per unit change about this formula?"
Write down the one thing you'd fix in version two. Fix it before launch instead.
Run the math: upgrade cost times first year units vs. value of one extra reorder per customer.
Credit: Shopify Masters
Fulfillment Friday
China+1 Strategy: The DTC Brand Guide to Vietnam Manufacturing
Vietnam isn't just a tariff hedge. Here's what the data actually shows.
D2C brands diversifying by moving manufacturing to Vietnam are finding it works better than expected. The numbers:
Labor costs run 30–50% lower than China. Chinese factory wages more than doubled between 2010 and 2020. The gap that made China the obvious choice has closed significantly.
Trade access is better. Vietnam's membership in CPTPP and EVFTA gives it preferential rates into the US, EU, and Australia that most China-sourced goods don't have.
The product range has expanded well beyond textiles. Vietnamese factories now handle furniture, kitchenware, pet products, outdoor goods, and eco-friendly home categories at scale.
"Made in Vietnam" moves product in some categories. Buyers in sustainable goods, handmade, and home décor are actively choosing non-China origins. The label is a selling point.
The high-tech buildout is real. Samsung announced a $1.5B semiconductor testing plant in Vietnam this week. Intel already operates its largest back-end chip factory in Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnam's first domestic wafer fab broke ground in 2025. Electronics exports hit a record $165B last year — computers and components crossed $100B for the first time. The government has a stated target of semiconductor self-reliance by 2027.
Vietnam's manufacturing ecosystem is still maturing, but the investment is locked in.
👉Read the full guide for e-commerce owners looking to diversify their supply chain to Vietnam by Wayfindr’s APAC expert Emma Newman!
This guest post is written by Nick Bartlett | Co-Founder @ Wayfindr — Asia's leading 4PL for global ecom brands
Influencer Marketing
Your best-converting marketing asset isn’t your ad
Your best-converting marketing asset is not a polished ad. It is a real customer holding your product on their phone.
Stack Influence is how brands like Martha Stewart, Unilever, and thousands of DTC operators turn that into a scalable channel.
Our AI matches your product with vetted micro-influencers from a network of 11M+ creators - they purchase on Amazon, generate authentic UGC, and drive external traffic that lifts your sales rank. No upfront creator fees, no inflated impression metrics, just real people creating real content. Brands have grown monthly revenue up to 13X.
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While You Were Building
1.ChatGPT switches on cost-per-action ads
OpenAI activated CPA bidding inside ChatGPT, the first performance pricing model on the chat surface. The answer engine now competes for the same conversion budget as Meta and Google.
via Digiday • Read more
2.Tariff refunds accepted hit $85B
Customs and Border Protection has now accepted $85B in tariff refund claims, with $20.6B already certified and paid out through its dedicated portal. Importers with prior duty exposure can still file.
via Retail Dive • Read more
3.Amazon licenses its AI shopping stack
Amazon began selling the technology behind its AI shopping assistant to other retailers, positioning itself as a commerce-AI vendor rather than just a marketplace operator.
via Modern Retail • Read more
Your Shopify Store No Longer Needs a Developer for New Sections
To create a custom section for your website that is not available in your current theme, you need to hire a developer.
And depending on the complexity of the section and how much code needs to be written, you will get a bill anywhere from $100 for simple tasks to upwards of $1,000.
Now with AI, you can vibe code these yourself in Claude. There is a bit of back and forth plus time involved, but you will be able to do it yourself.
However, we found a tool that enables you to create different sections for your website in minutes. They have over 700 sections ready. And on average these sections only cost $9 and take minutes to install, which will make you question if it is even worth vibe coding for free.
Here are some I really love.
An animated product picker that swaps the product as the shopper chooses.
1. Featured Collection
I love the animation and the way the color changes in the background. looks super clean.
2. Choose Your Color
Works wonderfully well when you want to show 2 color options
3. Before and After
Before and after format is probably one of the most powerful ways to show any transformation your product does.
4. Video Testimonials
Video testimonials do a far better job at building trust compared to image or plain text testimonials.
5. Payment Icons
These are just 5 that I felt were super useful. Similarly, they have over 700 such ready-to-use sections that pretty much covers everything your website would need.
The average cost of each of these is just $9. And they have many that are free as well.
There is no recurring fee or subscription cost.
Here is how you can get it for your store
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