In this timely episode, Brett Curry (https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebrettcurry) sits down with Nick Flint (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominic-flint-b46063b3/), Director of Email Marketing, to tackle the pressing challenge facing e-commerce brands today: how to maintain profitability amid rising tariffs. As import costs surge, they share actionable strategies for protecting your bottom line without sacrificing growth. Whether you’re considering price increases, optimizing marketing spend, or leveraging email to boost customer loyalty, this episode delivers practical solutions you can implement immediately.

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Sponsored by OMG Commerce - go to (https://www.omgcommerce.com/contact) and request your FREE strategy session today!

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Chapters: 

(00:00) Introduction

(01:28) Increasing Profitability in the Current Landscape

(04:30) Strategies for Princing and Bundling

(06:32) Effective Cost-Cutting Measures

(11:51) Maximizing Email Marketing Effectiveness

(15:06) Final Thoughts

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Connect With Brett: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebrettcurry/ 
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@omgcommerce 
• Website: https://www.omgcommerce.com/ 

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Past guests on eCommerce Evolution include Ezra Firestone, Steve Chou, Drew Sanocki, Jacques Spitzer, Jeremy Horowitz, Ryan Moran, Sean Frank, Andrew Youderian, Ryan McKenzie, Joseph Wilkins, Cody Wittick, Miki Agrawal, Justin Brooke, Nish Samantray, Kurt Elster, John Parkes, Chris Mercer, Rabah Rahil, Bear Handlon, Trevor Crump, Frederick Vallaeys, Preston Rutherford, Anthony Mink, Bill D’Allessandro, Bryan Porter and more

- It's not just raising prices,

but how do we introduce

things like limited

edition specials?

How, how can we introduce

things that feel more valuable

and are more valuable so that

we can charge a a premium?

All right, Nick Flint,

the buzz for right now

and likely the foreseeable future is

what do we do about the tariff madness

that's impacting our industry?

And so wanted to have you on here

so we could talk briefly

about what are some ways

that we can mitigate risk,

that we can protect profits

so we can cut costs so that

we can still find opportunity

for growth and opportunity

to thrive even in this climate.

And so let's dive in. But

first of all, how's it going?

By the way,

- I'm doing pretty good over here.

Really starting to dial in

with some of our clients

and the strategies that they

have with these new changes

and what they might see

in their price structure,

differences in the future.

- Great. Well, email's gonna

play a big part of this.

So Nick is our, our director of email.

And I think now is the

time we lean into the tried

and true, right?

Doing more for our customers,

leaning into them more.

Email is one of the, the

most guaranteed returns

and the lowest cost to execute on.

So now is the time for emails.

We'll lean into some tips there,

but ultimately what we're

looking for right now

and whatever brand wants is

how do I protect profits?

How do I continue to grow?

How do I protect profits?

And I think ultimately

the first thing, Nick,

that we gotta look at is how

can you increase prices and

or increase profit per order

without tanking conversion rates, right?

Without killing conversions.

'cause not just as simple as raising

rates through the roof, right?

Raising prices through the roof

because then people will stop buying.

And so let's talk

through some suggestions

here on, on what we can do.

So, so raising prices.

One thing to keep in mind, Nick,

and you know, we've been talking to a lot

of our, our bigger clients.

I've had 10 to 15 calls recently.

We've been texting,

messaging, you know, talking

to clients frequently.

And so one thing I'm hearing

a lot from bigger brands is,

Nick, they're just gonna raise prices.

They're just gonna raise

them, have not heard fully,

you know, what, what percentage

kinda lift that's gonna be

that that's gonna be brand by brand,

it's gonna be depending on

the category, depending on

how much room the brand thinks, they have

to still remain competitive.

Depends on the strength

of the brand as well.

But also a lot of people are

just gonna raise prices, right?

And so I think you gotta look at that

and whether that's a 5%,

10%, maybe a 20% increase,

it's gotta be on the table

and you gotta be talking about it.

One of the other things

that we're looking at is

how do we maybe bundle things

and come with creative offers

so that we can raise the a OV

and and like the raise

the profit per order.

So what, what are your thoughts

on both of those items?

What are you hearing? What are you seeing?

- What's, what's funny

is a lot of the stuff

that we're looking at, you

should be doing this year round,

but it's really top of

mind right now. Like

- Yeah,

- What does it come down to?

Charging the right amount and

then cutting your costs across

the business when possible

and trying to run a lean

operation so you stay profitable.

And it really comes to the

forefront where you're starting

to look at every dollar, every statement,

every transaction coming through.

Yep. So some of the

easiest low hanging fruit

that they can be doing

right now to help raise

that average order value, not

give away too much margin.

'cause if you can not

discount your products

and extra 10%, that kind of combats

that 10% extra that you're paying Yes.

Over on your, your cost of

goods coming across the seeds.

So off the bat,

one thing we've been

shifting is the initial,

just the popup offers on the site

and the intro, instead of

going with like a standard,

you know, 10, 20% off your first order,

we're putting a minimum

threshold in there now.

So, you know, $10 off any order

of $50 plus if they're gonna

spend 70, 80, 90 bucks,

that $10 is gonna stay the same

and not gonna be that fixed

percentage versus 20% off

of your $90 order.

It's eight bucks that the brand saves.

- Yeah, I love that. So,

you know, one, one of the,

the best tools we have

to grow our email list

and grow our email marketing is the,

is the popup in the offer.

But nows may be a time to, to be less

liberal with your, your discount.

So make that a flat dollar amount

so it doesn't scale to infinity.

Also, maybe just raising the

threshold for when that kicks in.

So yeah, we're, we're

going to limit that, right?

I think the other thing to

think about is, is, you know,

how do we bundle products to, to,

and create some interesting

pricing there where we're,

we're still getting more profit

per transaction even while

maybe our, our cost structure,

our cogs have gone up.

So I think that's an

interesting one to look at.

And it's something

you've talked about Nick,

and we, we've seen this

with brands like Nike

and others, is it's not

just raising prices,

but how do we introduce

things like limited

edition specials?

How, how can we introduce

things that feel more valuable

and are more valuable

so that we can charge a,

a premium? So what, what

are your thoughts on that

- For these limited edition items?

It works for whatever level you're at.

That, that's one kind of really unique

thing about this strategy.

If you're selling a $10 cup,

launching a limited edition

collab with someone,

or even like a new colorway,

you're just doing 200 of,

you can now sell that

for 15 instead of 10.

Same thing on like the sneakers.

Just like you talk

about, you know, instead

of $150 via sneakers,

you're now going for 180

'cause it's a limited edition release.

So if you can find some kind

of way to implement scarcity

with a new product, launch a new variant,

we have a coffee brand doing this,

they're leaning into

more select roasts from

around the world and they're

really putting the emphasis on

the Costa Rican farmers

who are making these beans.

And that's why it's slightly more per bag,

but the quality's there

and people appreciate it.

And you also see people start

to splurge on some stuff like

that, you know, when they're starting

to look at their own bank

accounts a little bit tighter,

you know, I'm not gonna go

buy a new car right now,

but you know what, I'll

spend 15 for bank coffee.

Might not my coffee. Yeah,

totally. It's every morning then.

Really good.

- Yeah, it's a really good thought that,

that even when the consumer

is, is pinched a little bit,

even when the consumer

confidence is low, it's not

that they stop buying, right?

We still, we all, we love to buy things.

It's our favorite recreation, you know,

retail therapy is a real thing,

will always be a real thing.

But yeah, how can you lean into

something where, hey, okay,

may, maybe I'm trading

down in other categories,

but I'm trading up in your category and

and that's what you want

to try to, to create there.

So yeah, I I really wanna

underscore, you know,

this is not a time to cut

growth costs, I believe, right?

And, and this is, we were talking

about this in our morning,

Monday morning meeting today,

Nick, where you know, David,

David Ogilvy, legendary

ad guy, the the guy

behind Dove stoke and

man in a halfway shirt

and Rolls Royce and a number of others.

He talked about, man, I I view advertising

as an essential part of every product,

just like I would an essential,

an essential ingredient

or central component.

And just when times get

tough, I'm not gonna cut,

I'm not gonna cut the tires

outta my Rolls Royce, you know,

because times are tough.

I I've gotta, I've gotta invest in that.

And same is true for marketing.

We don't wanna pull back on marketing

otherwise we'll lose market share

otherwise we'll, we'll create

a death spiral potentially.

And so lean into marketing,

maybe you wanna lean into it

in a more efficient manner.

Maybe you raise your mirror,

things like that, but don't

but your advertising and growth budgets.

But on the topic of cost cutting, Nick,

I think this is a real thing, right?

We've gotta look at how can we get lean?

How can we be lean and mean right now?

So what are some suggestions there?

What have, what have

you heard from others?

What tips do you have?

- Especially on the SMS side of things,

we're getting really tight with

who we're sending to right now.

You might have a 20,000 per

SM person SMS list with,

you know, 10 k those being engaged

and the other 10 k is like,

you're hopeful they'll purchase one day,

they've been hanging around forever

and you will send them those texts

for the big launches or product drops.

But now we want to tighten up that window

so those SMS sends are to

your more guaranteed segment,

keep the revenue coming in from them

and then as things start to normalize,

then breach back out into

that broader audience

that you were looking at before, kind of

that hopeful window you're

spending some extra money on.

- Yeah, I love it. And you know, one

of the other things we're,

we're leaning into, you know,

we do a lot with obviously

Amazon ads and Google ads

and YouTube and things like

that is, you know, there,

there are times when,

when things are smooth

and easy where, where maybe you kind of

ignore some wasted ad spend, right?

Where maybe there's some

keywords that are not gonna

performing with an Amazon

ads with Google ads,

but when times are good,

you kinda let that slide.

We audit, you know, dozens

of accounts every month

and we regularly see, you

know, wasted ad spend in the 10

to 15 to $20,000 a month

range, meaning you could cut

that ad spend and sales would not dip.

Now's the time to be

looking at stuff like that.

So don't cut your overall ad

budget, but man, cut the waste.

And so I think that's

something you wanna lean

into and look at right now.

You know, one of the basic

things we do all, all the time

as an agency, Nick, is we

at least quarterly and,

and now I'd say you

probably do this monthly,

look at all your recurring expenses.

What, what are, what are we paying for?

What tools, what softwares,

what are we paying

for that we're not using?

And we see this a lot where

maybe you're like, oh wait,

we're paying for three multi-touch

attribution tools, right?

We're paying for these two tools

and those reporting, we don't,

we don't need all that, right?

And so what can we cut

to get lean and mean?

Because really I think right

now we're kind of fighting

and scrapping for every point, every point

of profit that we can get.

And so looking to cut expenses,

cut software costs, cut,

cut opex, things like that.

What are the tips or insights you have

on, on cost cutting? Nick,

- It is funny for that.

That's one thing I don't

recommend automating it is going

over your p and l.

Yeah. Like, yeah, QuickBooks

could automate for you

and shove into the different categories,

but even for my own personal

finances on Sundays, I sit down

and I go look at every line item.

And if I have a, a late fee for my gym,

'cause I missed a class, I

punch myself in the arm for

that $15 feed. I they hit you with

- Your wife's like Nick pushups right now.

- They, they get you

with those cancellations.

But looking at like cost

cutting as a whole, get aligned

with your inventory forecasting,

sit on the extra inventory

might have been a nice safe play

and good to have in the future.

And what if sales just

spike up outta nowhere?

Then I have the inventory for it.

But really start to figure

out how much you are selling

through on a 30, 60 day basis.

How much you need to be ordering

so you're not running out of product.

And then start saving some costs.

'cause you don't have a bunch

of debt inventory sitting

there in some kind of three pl

- Love it man.

And this is also the time of

you looking at your three pl.

How can we cut costs there?

How can we renegotiate?

How can we lower shipping costs?

Obviously talking to your

factory, to your, your factory,

to the manufacturers you work with.

How can we extend terms,

how can we maybe share in

some of the price increases?

So get creative there and,

and really just look for any way

that you can save and partner.

Really nothing should be off the table

because every point of

margin matters at this point.

And, and you know, another,

another thing we recommend on

the, on the Amazon side,

we got a couple services we

recommend where they will go

and help you recover fees from Amazon

because there's probably

some fees you've been charged

that you can get a refund

on for a variety of reasons.

But often that amounts to 1000,

5,000, $10,000 a month type

of thing in, in recouped fees.

So now is the time to look at

everything like that as well.

Try to save as much as you can without

reducing product quality

and without taking your

foot off the gas pedal

because you want to still

be gaining market share

and growing through this time.

Now another thing we, we

talked about Nick, as you know,

hey, now's the time to

lean into email marketing.

So what are some creative things we can do

to make our email marketing

better that's going

to lift sales, lift profits.

What can we do right now?

- I really like leaning

into the brand's tone

and the brand's voice.

And just remember that you're talking

to other people on the other

side of this transaction email

or SMSI can see a lot of brands kind

of just sending out this

one way informational bit.

One account I was auditing

earlier today, a text,

it was just super scientific, followed

by read the blog post here.

I'm like, do you think

your customers really want

to get this text and will

it make them feel special

like that the blog post?

Like, come on, figure out

a new way to phrase that

and relate to your customers

and work on your tone.

You know, general population

probably a little bit stressed

out now as well.

So connect

with them on a personal level

that'll make them feel more

connected to your brand.

And a great way to do

this is just, you know,

asking questions and having a

real conversation with them.

Especially if it's your top a

hundred, 300, 500 customers.

I always recommend sending

out a question type email

campaign to get those replies

to help with deliverability

and to boost your results in the future.

But for now, if you don't

have like the customer service

backend to deal with a

thousand replies, start

with your top a hundred, 300 customers

and figure out what

question you wanna ask them

and actually relate to

them and have that back

and forth conversation.

And it's more likely could

get you some referrals in the

future when they send people your

- Way's.

Really great. And you know, one

of the other things I'll mention

an idea that we actually,

we did this a couple years

ago for another client

where they were about

to raise their prices.

They had not raised

prices in quite some time

and so they emailed their entire list.

I think they started with our VIPs

and then they emailed

everybody, but they said, Hey,

you know, we're raising our

prices on this date, here's why.

And I, and I think it's another way

where email gives you the,

the freedom to do this.

You just explain this to your

customers that hey, our cost

of goods are going up 50% right now,

so we're not raising our prices 50%,

we're raising our prices 10%

or whatever the case may be.

But here's why we have

to do a price increase.

We just, we have to, right?

But here's what we wanna do for you

because you're a valued

customer locking in the existing

price through this date.

And what's interesting about that is it,

it's basically a sale.

It's not a sale. 'cause

you're not discounting,

you're just saying we're

about to raise our prices,

but you can order right now.

Now obviously there are

a few things you gotta

keep in mind there.

If you're low on inventory,

you can't do it if, if you're,

you know, inventory forecasting is not

precise right now you can't do it.

But if all those things are good

and you wanna raise a little

bit of cash right now to kind

of help weather the

storm, it's a great way

to do a quote unquote sale

without doing a discount.

- Especially if you have a

subscription based business.

Hey, you know, subscribe

now to get 10% off

for every order moving forward.

Yes. And that'll give 'em reason

to not cancel in the future

because we'll see those

new price increases.

Oh, if I cancel then I gotta

come back into this new higher

- Rate.

Yeah. And maybe, maybe make

that offer just for subscriptions only.

We're like, hey, we're

about to raise prices,

but not only are we not

raising prices on our existing

subscriptions, we're on

this current discount.

So get locked in now so

that you don't have to

worry about it later.

And, and yeah, that creates

predictable, consistent revenue,

which is worth it in the long run.

So Nick Flint, any, any final thoughts?

How do we protect profits, cut costs?

How do we find ways to win right now?

- Yeah, closing out in

less than a minute here,

focus on what's working for

your business right now.

Probably don't use this time

to test out a ton of new things

that are gonna cost you a lot of money.

So focus on what's working for you.

Communicate with your customers openly

and like a human, actually

connect with them.

Look at all of your costs.

And then lastly, consult

an actual tariff lawyer.

You know, yes, before you do

something silly, like try to

backend this secret deal

with your manufacturer

where they put it as half the

cost when it comes overseas

and you're gonna get audited

and probably sent to prison,

dodge all that by talking

to an actual professional.

'cause it's hard

to sell products when

you're in a jail cell.

- Yeah, yeah. That, that cut in profits,

reduce profits much easier to

tolerate than prison foods.

So I I like that. That's really,

really sound advice, Nick.

I appreciate that. And,

and just final thought as

we wrap up here is that

even in the midst of tariff craziness and,

and the way this all will, will shake out

and likely change a

million times here in the,

in the coming months,

there's always, always,

always a path forward.

There's always a way to win,

there's always a way to grow,

there's always a way

to gain new customers.

And so that's why we

wanna bring you solutions.

And so with that, we'll

wish you good luck.

Thank you Nick, for joining

us and until next time,

- See you then.