The 2023 Highlight Reel: Major Wins For Shopify Stores Using Privy (And What To Expect In 2024)
17 min read time
Published on Dec 19, 2023
Written by Ryan Pinkham
Your success is always #1.
And 2023 was packed with major highlights to help you win.
From product enhancements…
To resources to help you bring in sales and grow your business…
There’s SO much to celebrate from 2023. But mostly, it’s YOU.
It’s not always easy, but you should feel incredibly proud of what you’ve accomplished this year (we know we’re proud of you).
Keep reading for the highlight reel from this past year and get a sneak peek of what’s coming in 2024:
- 6 Major 2023 Privy Product Enhancements
- 6 Major 2023 Content Milestones
- What to Look For in 2024....
6 Major 2023 Privy Product Enhancements
In 2023, we…
#1: Boosted Segmentation Capabilities
With Privy, it’s easier than ever to advance your segmentation strategy and send messages to the right contacts. With this year’s enhancements, you can now:
- Drill in deeper to review contacts within your segments
- Easily identify, target or remove unengaged contacts
- Create segments based on email engagement and purchase behavior
- Exclude segments from sends for improved targeting
#2: Streamlined the Email Campaign Creation Experience
To help get your campaigns out the door faster, we streamlined the email campaign creation experience and revamped how you build email automation series, giving you more flexibility to customize automations for your business.
#3: Published 40 Email Templates
Last year, more email templates was one of the top requests from customers. Well, you asked and we delivered. Our team published 30 seasonal and 10 evergreen email templates in 2023 with proven layouts that take the heavy lifting of designing campaigns off your plate.
#4: Revamped Performance Tracking
And once your campaigns and automations are out in the wild, you need to know if they’re driving results. So we took things a step further, giving you more visibility into your campaign and automation performance with:
- Link click tracking and 6 new activity filters to help you understand how customers are engaging with your marketing messages
- Automatic link shortening to make it easier for you to track revenue from your SMS messages
- Enhanced revenue reporting to let you see which customers made a purchase and what products they bought from your store
#5: Updated the Privy Text Editor
This year, we’ve seen even more Privy customers adopting SMS as a marketing channel. And as more brands like yours establish their SMS presence, we want to make sure we’re setting you up for success.
That’s why we updated the text message editor with more built-in best practices. With recommended character counts and automated link shortening, it’s easier to follow best practices and drive engagement with your SMS campaigns.
#6: Refreshed the Privy Plays Editor
And we wrapped up a productive year by refreshing the Privy Plays editor with a more intuitive interface and the ability to add, delete, move, resize and edit elements, giving you greater control over the look and feel of your displays.
Our product team fine tuned features and experiences across the Privy platform in 2023.
All so you can confidently represent your brand with every popup, email and text – without losing countless hours in the process.
6 Major 2023 Content Milestones
From campaign examples (hello Swipe Files!), to customer wins and success stories, to podcast episodes, and more, we’re committed to giving you constant inspiration and ideas to help you grow your business.
Especially if they’re bite-sized enough that you can give them a shot for yourself! Here’s a roundup of some of the biggest 2023 content milestones. But really, they’re just ideas you can steal heading into next year.
#1: 5-Star Campaigns from Privy Customers
Throughout the year, you’ve sent some incredible emails and texts (the real hard work!). And these are just some of our favorites.
Bag-All’s Product Feature Email
If you’re ever stuck wondering what to send to your audience, a product feature email that highlights a specific product or collection is the perfect way to drive sales and educate subscribers (with or without a special offer!). Here’s a great example from Bag-All:
Luna Lifted’s Birthday Email
Sending a brand birthday email is an amazing way to celebrate a major milestone and come up with an offer your audience will love. Take this one from Luna Lifted:
Love That Bag Etc’s Valentine’s Day Email
After the holiday season, Valentine’s Day is one of the first major revenue-driving holidays. Which means it’s a great opportunity to come up with an offer and drive sales (even if you’re late to the game!) like this examples from Love That Bag Etc:
bryght’s Barbie Text
Any chance you have to capitalize on massive current events (like Barbie!), give it a shot! That’s exactly what the bryght team did with this text:
Truly Lifestyle Brand’s Free Gift Text
A free gift with purchase offer is something you can test out any time of year. And you can keep it as simple as you want, like Truly Lifestyle Brand Inc. did here with this free match box offer:
Raxtin’s Halloween Email
Even if you don’t sell Halloween-specific products, it can be a great excuse to reach out to your audience. Here’s a killer example from Raxtin (pssst they used a Privy template to make sending this super simple!):
Pork King Good’s Thanksgiving Email
It’s no secret that November is a MASSIVE month for ecommerce. But a lot of brands sleep on the chance to send an awesome Thanksgiving message. Pork King Good piqued subscribers’ interest with this gamified spin-to-win email campaign:
#2: Behind The Scenes of 4 Brands Using Privy to Win
There’s nothing we love more than celebrating customer wins. Something we started to do more of this year with stories like these:
- How Kōv Essentials Grew From 0 to 7 Figures in 1 Year With Privy (link)
- How Bdellium Tools Drove Over $1M in Sales And Made The Switch To Privy (link)
- How Bryght’s Segmentation Strategy Grew Revenue by 1500% for BFCM 2022 (link)
- A Behind-The-Scenes Look At How This Agency Delivers Real Results With Privy (link)
The best part? You can get each of these exact winning playbooks by checking out the links above! Because chances are, what’s working for them will work for you too.
Spoiler alert: we want to share even more customer stories in 2024. Have a win you want to share? Just email marketing@privy.com!
#3: The First-Ever Privy Office Hours
How many other apps do you use that offer 1:1 coaching ahead of the holiday season? Probably none…
But we know how valuable it is to talk to a real person to get answers. Which is exactly why we kicked off the first-ever Privy Office Hours with our entire team. Yep, everyone from the CEO, to engineering, to marketing took 50+ calls to help customers prep for the craziest time of year.
👆 based on these reactions, we hosted a second, smaller Office Hours. And we’re planning to keep them coming in the future. Because your success is always #1.
#4: 39 New Episodes of Ecommerce Marketing School
The Privy podcast, Ecommerce Marketing School, came back better than ever with ecommerce legend, Val Geisler, as host.
39 bite-sized episodes and countless tips for growing your brand later, Val chatted with experts from brands like Feastables, Jones Road Beauty, Carnivore Snax, and SO many more. And touched on topics like one brand’s winning abandoned cart playbook (listen here), how to hit 1 million email subscribers (listen here), how to build a magical post-purchase and winback experience (listen here) and more.
Plus, after 3 years, Ecommerce Marketing School, hit 1 MILLION downloads. A massive milestone thanks to loyal listeners who are committed to learning from the best of the best.
You can catch up on hundreds of episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
#5: The Most In-Depth Holiday Calendar of All Time
At the beginning of the year, we launched The 2023 Ecommerce Holiday Calendar. A jam packed calendar with some of the major holidays throughout the year that can be massive revenue drivers with the right campaign strategy.
Because holidays (even the little ones!) are the perfect excuse to come up with an offer and share it with your audience. It’s just hard to keep track of them all!
Which is why every month you’ll get a heads up about upcoming holidays plus campaign ideas and inspiration.
Sign up now to be the first to know when the 2024 holiday calendar drops (ahem, it’s soon!).
Oh yea, and don’t forget about our BFCM calendar! With weekly (instead of monthly) emails to help you stay on track for the holidays.
You guessed it…we’ll be bringing it back in 2024, too.
#6: 44 Swipe Files with 767 examples
This one’s pretty wild…but you know how we share campaign ideas throughout the year (check out The 2023 Ecommerce Holiday Calendar!)?
We put together 44 Swipe Files with 767 real brand examples to give you constant inspiration all year long.
These Swipe Files are collections of emails, texts, and popups. Think of them as ecommerce marketing moodboards. Browse through the collections to discover creative campaign ideas, eye-catching email designs, and well-crafted copy that you can use to inspire your own campaigns.
Like this Holiday Swipe File that’s perfect for this time of year. Head over to this page to browse the collections.
What to look for in 2024....
Now that you’ve seen some of the biggest wins from 2023, it’s time to get excited about what’s coming in 2024.
From industry trends to the Privy product, there’s SO much to look forward to.
7 Ecommerce Trends That Will Define 2024
2023 has been a massive (but trying!) year for ecommerce. So what should you expect to see heading into 2024?
Short answer…A LOT:
#1: Email will Continue to be the #1 Channel
With email marketing revenue expected to climb to $17.9B by 2027, email marketing isn’t slowing down any time soon (source).
Which means 2024 is the time to really hone in on your strategy and make sure you’re sending consistent messages to your audience.
#2: SMS will Continue to Grow (but Simplify)
SMS is an incredible channel for ecommerce brands, but the reality is: it can get expensive and most brands don’t get it right.
You can’t just copy and paste from your emails and hit send to drive results with such an intimate, real-time channel.
Which means in 2024 we’ll see brands reevaluate their strategies to improve ROI by simplifying and leaning into more meaningful messaging that build connection (and yes, ultimately brings in sales).
#3: Brands will continue to lean into personalization and relationship building
Your customers want to support real people they feel connected to. Not nameless, faceless businesses.
Which is why you should expect to see brands doubling down on personalization and relationship building in 2024. Think: more use of segmentation to send the right messages to the right people at the right time, a heavier focus on VIPs, and more direct mail campaigns.
#4: Spam and Compliance Rules Aren’t Slowing Down
The crackdown on spamming and spoofing continues with Google and Yahoo’s new sender requirements that go into effect in February 2024.
While you might be wondering what this means for your business (you can get the rundown on that here), rest assured that these changes are ultimately a good thing.
Good for your customers who will have greater protection from spoofing incidents. Good for your deliverability score because email servers will know your messages are from a legitimate source. And good for your bottom line because less emails will accidentally end up in the spam folder.
#5: More and More Brands will Lean into Holidays as a Lever for Driving Sales
From brand birthdays to brand-specific holidays (think: National Sock Day), expect to see a lot more holiday-specific messages and offers next year. It makes planning your calendar more straightforward than ever.
Get ahead by checking out The 2024 Ecommerce Holiday Calendar and flagging important dates for your business.
#6: Buy Now, Pay Later Options will Continue to Thrive
The ability for consumers to use Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options like ShopPay and Affirm boost conversion and have seen more traction than ever before in 2023. 5% of all online purchases in 2023 were paid for with BNPL platforms and that number is expected to climb in 2024 (source).
#7: There Will Be a Continued Focus on AI
AI was one of the hottest topics of 2023. But the biggest question for most merchants is, “OK, but how can I use AI for my business?”
That will continue to be answered in 2024 and beyond, but for now, a simple, everyday way to incorporate AI into your workflow is to use Privy’s email editor with AI-assisted text and image functionality.
What’s Coming at Privy in 2024
When we say Privy is purposefully built for businesses like yours, we mean it.
This year our team has hosted hundreds of customer calls, run surveys, and documented feature requests to learn what matters most to you when it comes to executing your marketing strategy.
(Spoiler alert: it’s not fancy bells and whistles with steep learning curves).
So as we head into 2024, our team is taking that to heart as we scope out what’s next for the Privy platform.
An Even Better All-In-One Platform
If there’s one thing Privy customers have consistently told us throughout the year, it’s that they simply don’t have the time to do everything they’d like.
The easier it is to launch displays, create campaigns and optimize automations, the better.
And we get it. The less time you spend setting up your marketing campaigns, the faster you can start driving revenue (and the more time you have to try something new).
Keep an eye out for even more enhancements around creating displays and popups that always feel on brand.
And more ways to grow your list and engage visitors on your site. Just to name a few. 😉
Even More Content to Help You Win
Plus, we’ll be doubling down on the types of content we know you LOVE.
Like a new and improved 2024 holiday calendar (with reminder emails!), a brand new SMS playbook, and a constant stream of examples and campaign ideas so you’re never stuck wondering what to try next.
And if you ever have any ideas or questions, we’d love to hear from you! Just reach out to marketing@privy.com.
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Written by Ryan Pinkham
As CEO, Ryan is leading the exciting next chapter for Privy. Everything he does revolves around helping independent businesses unlock more growth.
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