Vinny and Co Consulting Limited

28/04/2025

https://ive.soundestlink.com/ce/v/0/680f412bf2ae8b9446d36bb2

You commit to a “premium” email tool. It’s sleek. It’s shiny. It’s got dashboards more confusing than your ex’s texts. But after a while, you realise:

08/02/2023

Opening with a quote from this report by WARC "Plenty of practitioners have started to wake up to the fact that ecommerce does not, after all, provide a cheap ticket tot he promised land. (unfortunately, armchair academics far revmeod from the commercial reality still appear sound asleep onboard the discorient express, drawing all the wrong conclusions.)

The Gravity of eCommerce

This report sheds an interesting light on the challenges of modern ecommerce. Gone are the hedonistic days of the early 2000's and in its place we have omnichannel "commerce". There is a very strong leading narrative as to why this is so - The switch from a Many-to-One to a ) One-to-Many model has brought with it a new cost model making profitability extremely difficult to achieve.

In markets such as today's marketers should be going back to basics and utilising all 4 Ps.

Place
👉 Increased fulfilment offerings - convenience
👉 Distribution bundling - profit not in single unit selling
👉 Delievery & Return Optimisation - process efficiencies

Price
👉 Holistic pricing and Price maintenance
👉 Fee Structures - Unit economics

Product
👉 Marketplace creation - Maybe I say participation
👉 Channel expansion - growth | new customers
👉 Retail Media Networks
👉 Business Model | Partnerships | White label

Promotion
👉 Internal and External Comms
👉 High net reach brand building - possible for small guys?

I will be digging more into this, as there is so much but some other headlines.

Over the last few years, I have mentioned that pureplay only is a challenge most brands will struggle to overcome. Pure-play e-retailers are twice as likely as brick-and-mortar retailers to report that they’re unprofitable (44% versus 20%), and are nearly twice as likely to say they are struggling to make the investments necessary to improve profitability (69% versus 39%), according to a survey of global retail leaders conducted by Ipsos for Publicis Sapient and Salesforce.

In considering your strategy, factor this in. This is a fantastic read JP Castlin and James Hankins albeit stark. The opening paints a picture you should absorb, adjusting your thinking as you do. Tomorrow, I will share the "well what can we do about it" part - Defying Gravity

Full report here: https://bit.ly/40FyYkV

02/02/2023

Benchmarking can be a marmite topic for many, but at a macro level, benchmarking can be insightful and shines a light on emerging trends. It informs us to make decisions. I have been digging in on this data with Simon Deeny and Fran Quilty from Conjura - and some of the themes emerged.

Brands whose revenues are in excess of $20M are coming back to growth. Despite revenue not hitting the heights of 2021, traffic did perform slightly better. Those businesses with a GMV above $20m saw traffic grow by a median of 3.8% in 2022.

Smaller businesses have also seen more of a struggle to acquire new customers in 2022. However even the larger fir-ms – across all geographies – have struggled to some degree, seeing new customers dropping to 63% in December 2022.

Globally, growth rates are not increasing hugely, but are increasing, except in the EU. global retail outside of Europe has done well in 2022. The US and the rest of the world saw revenues up 5.2% and 3.1% respectively. Europe dropped 11.3% and the UK 9.7%. Quarterly interest hikes are going to hurt spending, not consumer confidence, it is spending. Patterns seem to be moving more towards consideration.

Growth varies and we know that, but it is the % of new customers dropping that poses the biggest challenge IMO.

The landscape in 2023 presents a number of challenges to brands:

1. Increasing number of channels
2. Requirement to spend "wherever your customers are"
3. Deciding on budget and allocation is not a skill many have in great depth
4. Retail Media - Great opportunity - but real impact 12 months away (IMO)
5. With slowing growth rates and new customers acquistion slowing down, cash flows are slowing down - not helping continued marketing investment

Something I never never mentioned but have been talking about alot now - there is not a linear relationship between marketing investment and resultant sales.

A metric we should have on our objective list - reduction in days to purchase - days between purchases. But this is a challenge. Finance teams work month to month and even over a year, marketing does not behave in that way - because customers don't.

The conversation will be about this:

CAC is increasing customer acquisition costs across all regions. In the UK the median CAC increased from $46 in H1 2021 to $71 in H1 2022 before dropping to $53 in H2 2022. In the US the median CAC increased from $38 in H1 2021 to $78 in H1 2022 before dropping to $58 in H2 2022, In Europe the median CAC increased from $63 in H1 2021 to $91 in H1 2022 before dropping to $68 in H2 2022.

When CAC is rarely in the control of your team. More useful questions - what is the best mix of spend across our funnel and customer life cycle stage?

If we think about this, should be part of all of our ecomm activity this year. Sweat existing assets.

In the report it looks at allocation (pg 19) You need to read this

28/01/2023

As you may be aware, our new online learning sessions being on Feb 27th. 3pm. We will be announcing our first partnering trainer this week. Having spent time sharing stories and methods and passions, I am beyond excited. Also for those signing up using Shopify, we will be providing benchmarking data and reporting. This is a new step for us, but will allow for real time impact measurement. We have a global partner for this who we will be revealing this week also.

Add me to the waitlist:

https://lnkd.in/eYv4H543

Why bother?

Well, if you are into my approach to ecommerce, you will know that I advocate for on the job style learning. It allows you to practice what you learn in real time. It's that simple. But also building a newtwork of people you can call on for a shoulder or an ear.

We will be including a slack channel this year too. Making comms simpler.

Time can be flexible, but time zones are in play now. For those signed up to the waitlist, thank you. For those who are not, please do so to avoid disappointment.

https://lnkd.in/eYv4H543

We will be shutting down all access to existing content in the coming 5 days in preparation for the year ahead.

Exciting stuff being prepped now too with Paul Mc Govern
going to share some of the tools we have been developing over the last 8 months or so. (Hint: We will write your content)

We are excited and nervous in equal measure for this one. Challenges like never before, but that is what this is all about.
In 2022, I spent alot of time writing on LinkedIn and achieved some personal goals. As of today, I have had content engagement that equates to almost 30% of the entire content engagement and views in the entire year. We are getting access to better info all of the time.
Thanks to all who took part last year and we hope you found value. Your time was, as ever, appreciated.

Please share some info with us so we can let you know when the Community gates are open. We cant wait to get started.

26/01/2023

As a business owner, I know how time-consuming it can be to create effective SEO Blog content. But I think we've found a solution to that problem.

We've been working hard over the last few months to combine the power of AI with our proven keyword analysis and SEO research methods that we teach our clients here at Vinny&Co. The result is a solution that saves you time and money and helps increase your website traffic and conversions.

We're offering a free sample of this Blog writing service to a select group of business owners like yourself. And all we ask in return is your honest opinion of the product.

The sample includes everything that you need, including:

Keyword Rich Title
Keyword Rich Shortform Blog
Engaging Royalty Free Ai Generated Images
Optimised Alt Text
Meta Titles and Descriptions
Social Media Posts to Promote This Blog on Facebook, Instagram, and Tiktok.

All you have to do is copy and paste it into your platforms.

I think this could benefit you, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. If you're interested in trying it out, follow the link below, and we’ll get your sample back to you in 48 hours..

Claim your free blog by filling out this questionnaire!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc5aFGNwxwwz4yYwKpO70yN1lT0wscFchzBXKBbr610Sm7utg/viewform

Save time and Money. A little bit of Ron Swanson get's us through the afternoon.

We are Ireland's most experience ecommerce training company. We specialise in on-the-job training for all levels of personnel. Vinny and Co are well known partners to BDO Eaton Square and many more.

25/01/2023

REMINDER ALERT

New Skool Year is begining on Feb 27th. 3pm. Time can be flexible, but time zones are in play now. For those signed up to the waitlist, thank you. For those who are not, please do so to avoid disappointment.

https://forms.gle/3CYiasPbYeKXu4x38

We will be shutting down all access to existing content in the coming 5 days in preparation for the year ahead.

Exciting stuff being prepped now too with
Mc Govern
going to share some of the tools we have been developing over the last 8 months or so.

We are excited and nervous in equal measure for this one. Challenges like never before, but that is what this is all about.

In 2022, I spent alot of time writing on LinkedIn and achieved some personal goals. As of today, I have had content engagement that equates to almost 30% of the entire content engagement and views in the entire year. We are getting access to better info all of the time.

Thanks to all who took part last year and we hope you found value. Your time was, as ever, appreciated.

Please share some info with us so we can let you know when the Community gates are open. We cant wait to get started.

24/01/2023

Hey Folks, Vinny here from Vinny & Co. That's me in the video) Thanks for all of the interest in our content creation and Skool sign up forms. We added a whatsapp notification to our post and it got too busy. Sorry as silly as that sounds !

So to keep it easy if you want to know more about our Skool programme for eCommerce email to get on the waiting list:

[email protected]

For those into content generation:

[email protected]

We will send out forms soon and in the meantime, here is a video demonstrating what we are all about. Here is a snippet of our sessions on brand proposition for eCommerce.

https://www.loom.com/share/bb1617bf727e459b8e1af4c1678ac20b

Hello to all of our new followers in Cape Town - there is a strong and underserved community of brands growing there. I am hoping to build up a community and do a Face to Face session by September. I have a lot to prove until then :)

💻🖥💡😄

23/01/2023

Launching in 4 weeks. Date TBD.

If you haven't already done so, please pre-Register here. https://lnkd.in/epsFk_JB

- If you sign up, we will write 2 blogs for you using your tone, content suggestions and do the research too.

What will the 2023 Skool look like:

🚀 10 x Monthly Topics ( 5 will be predefined, 5 will be topical/seasonal)
🚀 Each month will take a topic and break it into 4 x weekly deepdives. They will be recorded and shared.
🚀 Decks/videos will be shared after each session
🚀 Weekly Q and A will be at a fixed day/time allowing for time zones.

This will carry a €20 per week with a commitment of 3 months minimum.

This covers time and costs.This type of learning is unique. BUT, it is only as good as your participcation.

So, I will be saying, we will not launch until we get a min of 50 sign ups.
We need to be realistic.
But, we think it could be the best ecommerce learning platfrom you will access this year.

What you get:
👉 Framework documentation
👉 On the job learning
👉 Peer Group for learning.
👉 Guest speakers from leading ecomerce disciplines
👉 Access to reports
👉 Access to discounts on ecommerce products

I have tried this before and it failed. (Not the participants, they were excellent) We want to make this part of our own learning and contribute to your growth.

Are you in?

Sign Up here: https://lnkd.in/epsFk_JB

Please share some info with us so we can let you know when the Community gates are open. We cant wait to get started.

23/01/2023

We have been working hard with ChatGPT (who hasn't) over the last while. We have been matching your needs and constant requirements to making something useful. We think we have. Content writing, from research to planning and content creation. We combined this, with tone of voice, customer profile.

This will only take you 2 mins! I promise. What will you get - 2 free blogs.

https://forms.gle/CiuZyBgrXhGbxVuJ9

If you like what you get. Our ask - a true review. Warts and all. If you like it, we will give you 3 months access for €89 plus VAT.

We have been working hard with ChatGPT (who hasn't) over the last while. We have been matching your needs and constant requirements to making something useful. We think we have. Content writing, from research to planning and content creation. We combined this, with tone of voice, customer profile.

This will only take you 2 mins! I promise. What will you get - 2 free blogs.

https://forms.gle/CiuZyBgrXhGbxVuJ9

If you like what you get. Our ask - a true review. Warts and all. If you like it, we will give you 3 months access for €89 plus VAT.

Thank you for the opportunity to allow us to prepare your blog content for you, please share as much detail as you can so we can dial in specifically to your ideal customer and convey your tone of voice as accurately as possible. Thank you

10/03/2022

Subscription in ecommerce is more often than not lazily put together. A cash grab rather than a customer experience. It rarely connects to something meaningful for or desired by a genuine customer. Pets Corner do it a little bit differently. They have designed a user experience and post sales experience that is in reverse - It actually comes from the mindset of the customer.

👉 It is beautifully designed
👉 Well thought through
👉 Branded brilliantly
👉 Makes sense
👉 Sets up ongoing marketing
👉 Enables content follow on
👉 Gives permission on data enrichment
👉 Centres on the pet - not the owner - that is key

In building your subscription plan you must think through the following

🤓 Can I deliver sustained value for my customers in bringing them a subscription option
🤓 Why do they want/need this in the first place
🤓 How can I understand the need for this subscription to be used
🤓 Have I thought about churn and how I can prevent it
🤓 Is my subscription transactional or will it lead to a better relationship?
🤓 Do I even want to know more - if the answer is no, then your subscription model - will fail

https://www.loom.com/share/a75ccc53a6c243a6bd96357fbf955fc7

26/01/2022

Or commerce as the good folk McKinsey & Company are calling it now. 2 weeks ago, I shared some info from Colin Lewis on the "Rise of Retail Media". The good ship McKinsery, didn't want to miss out.
What is commerce/retail media?

It makes advertising more effective by using transaction data to gain insights, improve targeting, deliver relevant experiences (cross channel/platform) and connect impressions to sales - on and offline.

Driving this?

Shift to accountable advertising
Budgets are in flux and digital is on the rise

Some numbers:
👉 2 - 3 X spend with retail media networks
👉 $100B in spend on these networks (incl Amazon ) by end 2024
👉 12+ RMN's launched in the last year

For brands in the space there is a need for some key considerations:

💡 Customers shop in a multitude of ways - you need to be present in most/all those places
💡 Shelf disruption is hard with no levers to pull
💡 PR and offline methods of advertising are effective but don't have accountability. Now, this won't fully solve that circle yet, but it is getting there.
💡 Reach new audiences and use data and insights to drive product decisions

Potential Flaws as I see it:

🚩 is not the ultimate measure of success - it will lead to poor decision-making - Amazon has long told us this. However advertising in this vein, is not necessarily marketing. We need to split and balance the 2.
🚩 Control of the type of advertising that goes on on the platforms will need to be watertight to compare like with like
🚩 The ad platforms themselves will need retailer to behave and view the world differently. Most RMN's have partnered with providers to give them the platform. But remaining impartial on results and performance is going to be a whole new mindset for them. Governance will need to be tight.

Required before you even consider this:

💲 Commit to a meaningful budget and don't expect results day 1

https://buff.ly/3H4rA8G

Commerce media is transforming advertising by using data to close the transaction loop.

24/01/2022

Mentoring plays a big part of the work I have done over the last few years. But it has evolved from "mentoring" into consulting. With existing commitments, we need to change our approach and we want to ensure the quality of time spent with you also.

New Plan of Approach
I am looking to have a working group of up to 25 brands/retailers for a 10 month period up to the end of November this year. The group will be a working consulting group, meeting once a month (virtually 8 times - twice in person). The approach is to aggregate the information shared, knowledge gained and to provide a working network to you all to share stories, opinions and challenges. Groupthink when it comes to contracts for things like fulfillment, for example, will always work out well.

Commitment required
👉 Half a day per month - costing €300 per month ( we will share 2 dates per month where the majority rules). We will record and share all sessions and if people cannot make either, we will make a separate time available for up to 1 hour. We will agree refunds on a per case basis, but will always be fair. 👉 Cancellations will be accepted up to and on the day. We cannot cover every scenario here, but you know me to be flexible.We can confirm dates at the end of each session to allow for diary co ordination.
👉 Access granted to sales/analytics/email tools
👉 Agreement to share data within the group (anonymised where sensitivities occur)
👉 Testimonial - review
👉 Sign up to a newsletter - up to mails per week (tips/industry news/insights and reports)

Provided
👉 Training on running your business and understanding ecommerce
👉 Training materials
👉 Group Slack Channel for ongoing discussions - 1-2-1 bookings can be made
👉 Weekly Q and A via Slack for " on the go" questions/problems
👉 Quarterly review and recommendations on an individual basis. The review will be a written review with the possibility for a 1-2-1 30 minute session to ask questions.

Getting work done
We will not be providing direct services ourselves for work to be done, but will, when asked, make recommendations to service providers. We do not receive commissions with partners, we always ask that this can be passed on as part of our relationships with various companies.
I am sending this as I will not be able to support more mentoring this year if things do not change by the end of the month. The group approach is a way to help you grow and stand on your own 2 feet and develop a network of people with whom you can share challenges and successes.

Sign Up Today

New Plan of Approach I am looking to have a working group of up to 25 brands/retailers for a 10 month period up to the end of November this year. The group will be a working consulting group, meeting once a month (virtually 8 times - twice in person). The approach is to aggregate the information sha...