succulentoats

Work started 2023-06-09

We are merchants.

There was a time when being a merchant was not only a profession, it was also a dangerous and adrenaline filled profession. It attracted capitalist adventurers, they took risks not only with their money but also with their lives.

Today, it's way more subdued. I wish it wasn't so 5% of the time, the rest of the time I'm really happy to be able to do conduct commerce from behind my desk and 5m away from my kitchen. Although I run and own an e-commerce business, I like to say that I'm a merchant. It's closer to reality and it helps me think that if I was born in the 18th century I would own merchant ships and travel to unknown places to discover new products.

Most of our business is on platforms.

It has become sexy to move away from platforms and build something on Shopify. We have stayed away from that. We have found that the economics of platforms are very attractive. Also, it allows you to expand to different categories blazingly fast.

Although growth has stagnated slightly on platforms for the last 10 months or so (at least in our categories), the organic traffic is still doing its job. We pay about 15% for our traffic which we find is cheaper than what you have to pay through google, meta or other ads platforms.