Newsletter #45: migration A/B testing, MoneyWise, and small talk

Hi there,

I hope you're feeling good.

I think living in the UK is a beautiful opportunity for me to discover, not just London, but the whole country. Last weekend, I visited Manchester. I walked 20km and explored the city under a sunny weather. I had a great time!

In today’s edition, we’re discussing migration A/B testing, MoneyWise, and small talk.

Let's dive in.

Work

I recently read an interesting interview of Xavier Armand, CEO at the ecommerce agency Vaan Group.

Xavier was interviewed by Timothy Richardson, founder at Your Basket Is Empty, in September 2023.

In this interview, Xavier presents his views on Magento, Shopify, and headless. He also explains how his agency Vaan Group handles migration projects.

Here are some keys points that Xavier makes:

• Every month that goes by that a brand stays on Adobe Commerce Magento is a month they are falling behind their competition on Shopify Plus. Why? Because Shopify's consistent datasets and APIs allow them to be greatly positioned to use AI and make the most of it.

• Magento makes sense for the same reasons that headless can make sense: complex commerce use cases. In fact, Xavier argues that, if a brand is considering Magento, they may want to consider headless first.

• Xavier mentions that the theme of the year 2023 has been "headless regret". He explains that many of his agency's biggest deals in 2023 consisted in replatforming brands from headless to a Shopify theme. Why? Because the current economic environment forces companies to examine their P&Ls. And cost of ownership begins to trump less tangible factors like flexibility or customizability.

• Xavier shares complex use cases for which his team has built headless architectures: a children’s gaming and commerce platform, a creator-led beauty marketplace with creator payouts, and an NFT-based membership ecommerce brand.

On top of these key points, I'm taking away a very interesting information that Xavier shared about how his team handles migration projects, i.e. projects where a brand moves from another platform to Shopify.

The context is a simple fact: migrations are scary, and redesigns are not guaranteed to be a success.

To allay their clients' fears, Vaan Group does one thing: they commit to a sitewide A/B test to validate the performance of the new Shopify site.

How does it work?

Vaan Group sets up a redirect test where they send 20-50% of the traffic of the existing Magento site to the new Shopify site. Then, they monitor sitewide performance, particularly for new customers. This gives their client tremendous confidence in their new Shopify store.

To illustrate this strategy, Xavier tells the story of a client that Vaan Group did 5 Magento to Shopify migrations for during a 24 month period.

For each migration, Vaan Group ran this A/B testing playbook.

In 3 of the 5 cases, the new Shopify site outperformed the previous Magento one, on day one. In the other 2 cases, they worked with the client to identify areas of improvement and rectified them before going live.

I find this approach fascinating. I'd never heard of any other agency doing this.

What do you think of it?

Learn more by reading the full interview.

Inspire

In edition 10, I wrote about one of my favorite podcasts, "My First Million".

“My First Million” was created by Sam Parr and Shaan Puri, two entrepreneurs who sold their respective companies for millions of dollars a few years ago.

Today, Sam is the founder of Hampton, a highly vetted membership community for entrepreneurs, founders and CEOs. Members benefit from monthly small group discussions, in-person events, a digital community, speaker talks, and exclusive perks such as discounts for popular softwares.

In January 2024, Sam went on a solo quest and launched a new podcast, called "MoneyWise".

"MoneyWise" is a podcast that reveals personal finances of high net worth people. It is presented as "a way to hear conversations that only happen privately".

From an entrepreneurial point of view, “MoneyWise" is a great way for Sam to leverage the learnings that he is gathering at Hampton. It's also a smart marketing tactic to spark people's interest and make them want to join this private club.

From a listener point of view, I find "MoneyWise" to be quite original and interesting.

Usually, interviews of entrepreneurs are focused on their journey, their struggles, and eventually their success. The day that they achieved a significant milestone, such as an IPO or a sale, is often presented as the end of the narrative. It’s a point in time where we stop and start to reflect on the journey that lead to that day.

Very rarely are these successful entrepreneurs asked about what they do now, unless they're launching a new venture.

"MoneyWise" has an interesting angle in which the significant milestone is the beginning of the story. Sam is interested in what happened next: how the founder chose to live after that huge exit, more specifically with regards to money.

Initially, the podcast started with a rather psychological topic, with the main question being: "At what liquid net worth did you stop worrying about money?".

It later expanded to very precise topics such as monthly expenses, and asset allocation.

The format of the podcast is a bit odd to me. Sam sometimes talks to the guest, and sometimes talks to us directly, in a sequence that was recorded post-production. He likes to sum up things that the guest said, and ask us to focus on what comes next. Personally, I prefer unedited conversations where I'm an unsolicited observer. However, I do appreciate the effort in style, and I enjoy the topics being discussed in “MoneyWise”.

The last episode was about someone who made $120M after selling his company. What did he do after that? He swore off making more money ever again.

Discover more by listening to "MoneyWise" on Spotify.

Explore

I just finished reading a book called “There is no such things as small talk”, written by Robert Poynton and published in 2024.

You might have heard people say “I don’t like small talk”, or even “I don’t do small talk”.

I never liked those two sentences, often pronounced with a disdainful expression. And, in this book, I found the right words to express why.

As Robert Poynton explains, small talk is not a failed attempt at conversation, it’s just extended greetings. You could choose to just say “hi” to your neighbor. Instead, you extend the greetings: you talk about the weather, and ask about the kids.

Like the author, I don’t see anything wrong with small talk. I don’t perceive it as something that should be eradicated in favor of more “meaningful” talks.

In this 130-page book, Robert Poynton beautifully writes about the magic in conversations: how this common act that we take for granted is actually something very complex, which can be analyzed from many angles.

I had a very nice time reading this book.

Here are several quotes I’m taking away from it:

• “Conversation is remarkable. Somehow, by blurting out a stream of sounds, pulling a few faces and waving our hands around a bit, we are able to make meaning together.”

• “Conversation isn’t a problem to be solved but an experience to be lived.”

• “For me, the hallmark of a good conversation is that something appears which was not there before.”

• “Conversation is an end in itself and yet it serves many purposes. You get something by not aiming for anything.”

• “Listening can be generous, but so can speaking. Your words can spark off ideas or trains of thought, make sense of things or share a truth that others connect with. Speaking can be selfish, but so can listening. If you only listen, you take little responsibility or risk and give others little to work with.”

• On how to host a conversation: “The physical space you use is more than a practical issue, it also has symbolic value. It will affect how people feel, how they listen to each other and what they say.”

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for reading this edition until the end.

I'll talk to you soon.

Take good care of yourself.

Coralie