It's game over for 3rd party marketplaces

Hi, Alex here!

Welcome to my first newsletter of the year.

I’m sure when you looked at your calendar today, you were in disbelief that it’s March already—you’re not alone.

The good news is that I’ve got a newsletter full of mouthwatering goodness that’ll get your brain firing for the upcoming quarter.

But first, after some deep soul-searching, I’ve decided to rename the newsletter to Shopify for Lifestyle Brands. I know what you’re thinking; it’s a shining example of linguistic innovation and creativity. The fact is, we live and breathe Shopify—day in and day out—and I want this newsletter to do what it says on the tin. So, let’s get into it.

Today’s issue:

• The new face of Shopify loyalty is here

• How to own your resale market

• How to generate videos from product URLs

• Roadmap launches its new Knowledge Hub
  

🚗 ALMOND LABS

Roadmap launches Loyalty (and Subscriptions are on the way)

Some of you may be aware that we’ve been working on our loyalty programme for months. At last, the time has come.

It wasn’t enough to simply offer a solution that mirrored our competitors—instead, we’ve created a programme that fully integrates with the Roadmap tag library, GWP and discounts.

This opens the door for more campaigns, increased growth and better analytics. So step this way…

Key features:

• Ways to earn

• Tiers (points and/or products)

• Referral engine

• Checkout redeeming (no painful discount codes)

• Custom UI and sections

Most importantly, Roadmap Loyalty will continue to evolve. We work with YOU, to develop and improve the entire Roadmap toolkit. Feedback is not only welcome, it’s integral to the process.

Giving users this level of influence and involvement in the development of a Shopify solution has never been done before, and we are honoured to be in the position to offer it.

So, tell us what you need.

POS support

No loyalty platform would be complete without full Shopify POS integration—now live.

We’re also very excited to integrate GWP and bundles with POS—coming soon!

Subscriptions incoming…

If that’s not enough, Roadmap subscriptions are on the way. Get in touch if you want to discuss subscriptions for your business.

🚗 ALMOND LABS

Want to own your resale market? Say hello to Cassi.

How big do you think the resale market is for your products?

Are other platforms like Facebook Marketplace, TradeMe and Designer Wardrobe capitalising on this offering while you look in from the sidelines?

With more and more consumers searching for pre-loved goods, circular fashion solutions and brands that prioritise waste reduction, resale opportunities are growing exponentially.

So, what would your business look like if you added this revenue stream to your ecosystem?

We are excited to introduce our next app from Almond Labs, Cassi: Buy-Back & Consignment. It is in the final stages of development and we are accepting beta users for our launch in Q2 2025.

Soon, you will be able to own your resale market while being able to provide x10 the traffic with 3x the buying intention of these incumbent 3rd party platforms.

Whether you sell clothing, furniture, or anything with resale value, you will soon be able to create your own consignment operation on Shopify and own your products’ resale potential.

Unlike 3rd party platforms, you have a dedicated stream of customers looking to buy your products specifically. Imagine what the conversion rate and volume of sales would be if those customers could buy or sell pre-loved items through your website, then earn money or redeemable points/credit to reinvest in new products.

With some key partners involved (yet to be announced), we have limited spaces left for our beta testing. Opportunities to be involved in the development of a platform like this are rare, so if you’d like to be one of the first brands to feed in and launch Cassi in Q2 this year, get in touch.

🤖 AI IN ECOMMERCE

AI generated product video reviews in minutes (literally)

We all know video content consistently performs well, but the time and resources involved to create it can be a roadblock.

Recently, I discovered a platform that can change that. It’s called Creatify AI. Here’s how to use it.

• Go to Creatify AI and create an account.

• Now enter your product link in the text box and click ‘Analyse URL’.

• Wait for a few seconds, then choose the AI script or write your own.

• Select the required video settings for your platform and add your target audience.

• Enter the product description and add product assets. (You can also use AI-generated assets.)

• Choose your favourite avatar from the list and click ‘Next’.

• Wait for a few seconds and you’ll get multiple AI-generated videos of your product.

• Choose the one you like, render it, and download it to be posted online. Easy.

🤓 RESOURCES

Our new Roadmap Knowledge Hub is live!

It’s been a long time in the works, but we are excited to have launched our new Knowledge Hub for Roadmap.

With videos, screenshots and feature walkthroughs, it is full of resources that teach you how to use and maximise Roadmap. And this is only the beginning.

Roadmap now comes with quarterly strategic sessions for all members. With a 2hr workshop every 3 months, we work with you to plan Roadmap activations that will hit your objectives and maximise your revenue.

Not a member of Roadmap yet? Our toolkit covers:

• Loyalty

• Discounts and GWP

• Reviews

• Bundles

• Theme extensions

• Wholesale / B2B

• Automation flows

• Personalisation

Watch a full demo of everything included below:

📣 HAVE YOUR SAY

How did we do?

Thanks for reading!

Have a great weekend.

Alex Murton
Managing Director & Co-Founder
Studio Almond