Hey everyone. Scott Austin here.

This week I wanted to talk to a Shopify store owner and understand their journey with their brand to help share their experiences with other Shopify store owners. So today I have Stacey Blood from Blue Shark Journey. Welcome, Stacey.

Can you tell me a little bit about Blue Shark Journey and what it is that your brand stands for and what it is you're selling? And a little bit, you know, quantity of, you know, how big your business is, how long it's been around, those kind of details.

Yeah. That makes total sense in that,

retention is easier for you. Because one of the things I was thinking about before, this podcast episode, when I think about your brand is your, you know, your consumables right now. You have a lot of brands that I work with that are consumables. And we always say, oh, consumables are a great business.

You can do subscriptions, you do always have the things to do retention. However, many consumables are optional. Your consumable. If you own a fish tank, you have to keep it cleaned or maintained or whatever the right term for that is. It's not optional.

And that, I think, gives you a little bit of a different

advantage or twist or whatever

in your retention programs.

Then like a food company might, or a coffee company might kind of thing. And that's what I want to dig into a little bit, is understanding, you know, how you're doing the acquisition and how you're doing that retention. And before we get into that, just explain for a quick second, if you would, what is Blue Stream, what services are they providing to you.

So people understand when you refer Blue Stream what it is.

You know.

So one of the things you mentioned there that interests me. Well, all of it interests me. But the one that I want to ask questions about and understand better is you mentioned, you know, what type of fish your customers have and other parameters around their hobby. How are you collecting that information?

So it sounds to me like a bit of an expert system. Where you know you are in the back end, setting up a bunch of information about X, Y, and Z questions to ask so you understand your customer better. And then once you understand your customer better, then you're calling them journeys. So you you put them on a journey based on their answers, which is going to, you know, guide them towards.

It's an expert system telling them what they need to be doing at the right time. So and I love the example you gave of like, you know, we don't have to tell them when we sell something that two weeks later this is the next thing to happen. We can wait two weeks later and tell that to them then.

So it's the right time in the right place. And they're not bombarded with too many messages.

As we go ahead.

Yep. Yep. How do you. What? Sounds like a lot of work to set up that one. I'm just going to call it an expert system to set that all up

with the questions that you ask and the journeys and the content that you push out to them along the way. How much work was that and how much expertise did it take?

Was it already you guys had that knowledge in-house or it's just a matter of documenting it, or you had to figure some things out and answer some questions, and you got smarter during the process.

Yeah. And on your website. Is is is that the thing? It's in the header where it says,

SMS, WhatsApp guidance. Is that how they start the

process on the website?

So if someone buys a product, you also walk them through this or give them the option to go through this experience.

On the SMS side, I assume it's the normal double opt in rules that SMS requires.

And what I'm wondering is, what do you do for WhatsApp? Opt in or the rules around that that you have to comply with? Or

because WhatsApp is a private platform, I'm wondering if you're exempt from all those, you know, rules about data, you know, opt in, you know.

Yeah. Especially in your business and all businesses.

Even diamond engagement rings can benefit from customer retention. Just not as much as you can.

So what other things did you tried before that, you know, for retention, loyalty that,

you know, didn't work well for you, that made you come down this path instead?

it's.

Yeah. No. It makes total sense to me. Yeah. You said. Oh, it's surprising that you know this. This is better way to communicate to me. That wasn't surprising at all, because just like you said,

we're removing the middleman who really doesn't have skin in the game on your business as much as you do, of course. Right.

And, you know, it's sort of like trying to sell your products on Amazon.

Everybody would

rather sell their products on their own Shopify store, because they get that direct communication to the customer, and they get to Remarket and all that kind of stuff to them. We're on Amazon. You know, you're a little more hands off and a little less control. So

it sounds like this is a tool that's allowed you to figure out how to not just to have a loyalty or a retention program, but to actually have a conversation and an education.

It's more than a conversation in my mind. It's the education that you're providing to them, and you're helping them. I love the word you're using journey because, you know, there's this journey of, you know, owning an aquarium and learning about it and getting better at it and getting skills in your hobby. And you're there partner in that versus a retailer in that.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, you've got this knowledge base, right? And creating a knowledge base is, you know, is not easy to do. But once you do that, that knowledge has value to it. And now you get to output that knowledge in different channels and, you know, get the benefit of that value.

Yeah, yeah. And we'll get to numbers in a minute. I want to talk about metrics and all that,

one interesting thing about your space as you're talking about aquatics is really hard. But as I'm listening to you talk, what I'm realizing is you have an advantage over some other brands also in that your customers really care about their hobby. Right? They've got these fish,

and anybody who's had a fish tank and it all died on you, right?

It's it's a very traumatic moment when your old tank dies.

they're really invested in this hobby and are going to do that time in research because I'm here, you say, oh, we're going to explain the difference between this battery and that picture. You a lot of my brands, the customers don't care. They won't spend the time to understand that.

But in your space, they actually probably do spend the time and, you know, engage with the content that you're creating for them, which is just wonderful. You have this channel

to, you know, take this knowledge base you have and push it out to people who actually care about what you're pushing out

Because in a lot.

Yeah.

Yep.

So what metrics are you used to measure your customer loyalty or your retention?

You know, what are you measuring to to see that this is working for you.

You

know.

So it sounds like you're measuring things like engagement and repeat sales. Are you also measuring CLV customer lifetime value? Or if you're not gotten to that point yet.

That is an amazing statistic. No one is unsubscribed.

Wow.

Yeah, well. And. But those those are key things that you're seeing there, right? The fact that it's a journey, it's a club. The way you're thinking about that is you're you're creating a relationship with your customers. And that's how you get retention and loyalty, right? You're not creating a gimmick like, oh, buy, you know, a punch card or in this places for punch cards.

I'm not I'm not disparaging them. But you know, your solution and approach towards this is a little more elegant and a little more partnership style than just let's play with pricing to to keep people coming back.

Yep.

Yep.

So

Tool. So I. I have to say it as you were talking about, you know, such bad advice out there. You know, my best practices never listen to a 22 year old, young, good looking man in front of a Ferrari on the YouTube thumbnail, right?

Because are so many of those out there kind of thing and everything.

when you're doing this blue stream is a platform that you're using.

They're they're what I'm thinking of as the expert, knowledge base there, you know, letting people engage, sign up, they're distributing messages. Are they also doing things like subscriptions or is that a different tool for you?

Yep.

Yeah, yeah. One of the, YouTube people that I do follow that does give good advice. In the short term rental space.

His rule that mimics what you said is buy nice, not thrice.

Because if you buy the cheap thing or to buy it three times, right. Kind of thing, just like you're saying.

In this, this blue stream space, you know, this expert system? Yeah. Customer relationship, whatever you want to call it. Well, let me put it this way. What do you call that system when you think about putting a name to it?

Okay.

Yeah.

Yep.

Yeah. Yeah. As with any harmony,

So, on this, you know, relationship tool,

you're all in on it, right? You're you're big thumbs up. You know, you love it. It sounds like. What sort of brands do you think it works for? And who should be considering something like this for their business?

Yep.

Yep. Yep.

you know, the question was. And you answered it quite well. I thought it was, you know, what sort of brands should think about this? And my takeaway was,

if you're in a highly competitive situation and you're, you're, you're going to be building a relationship or you want to build a relationship with your customer,

this level of content and expert advice is a great way to do that.

Yep.

Yeah. Absolutely.

And. Well, the example you gave also is, like,

the fish compatibility

has nothing to do with your products, but everything to do with your customer's passion around your products. And like,

so it's that

degree of separation, the fact you're tying that into your knowledge base. I'm super impressed by.

customers get to come to you

not just for understanding their water chemistry, but also other parts of the hobby, because you're going that extra mile to build that relationship and create that loyalty with them.

know.

You

know.

You.

So, on the. The reverse side of the. Who should use this?

Are there brands you think that shouldn't use this, or they're probably not ready for it. So they hit certain, you know, metrics.

who? Who's that listening right now? Should be thinking about something else to prioritize over loyalty through. Like a blue stream type system.

You.

Know.

You know.

Yeah.

Yeah, I love what you're saying. They're like you're doing pre-sales education and information. So your customer is coming to you with knowledge that they need your products versus they're coming to you without the knowledge of what they need. Right? I remember one time I was looking at buying a golf cart. I live in San Diego, and we drive around the golf carts in our neighborhoods.

And, you know, they're like 20,000 bucks for the really nice ones. And I went to the local factory where they make them and, you know, the owner did a great job of walking you through and give me a tour and selling me on it. I didn't buy it in the end, but I was like, imagine if that tour you just gave me was a video on your website,

and then so you didn't have to give it for 30 minutes, you know, every, every client was a 30 minute tour.

Like, what if you gave them a video about that and then they would come in informed and you wouldn't have to spend your time doing that every time. And it sounds like it's part of what you're getting here in the value is you're educating your customers automatically, or they're doing it on demand versus you having to to do it live with people.

totally makes sense to me. Makes sense. So I really appreciate you sharing all your, you know, your time invested into this platform with us. Any last advice for e-commerce brands who are thinking about, hey, I need to increase loyalty with my customers.

Yeah.

You.

Know your customer is fabulous advice.

I couldn't give better advice.

I appreciate your time today, Stacy. And sharing your experience with us.

And how can, people reach out to you if they want to engage with you some more?

All right. Thanks for your time today.