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Checklists and tests for ecommerce stores and the agencies that run them, from both founders of Obsession, with every source linked.

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The Black Friday checklist that starts as a new customer

Your dashboards show what you sent. A new customer shows you what arrived. 12 tests to run from a fresh inbox and phone before Friday 27 November, in the order a shopper meets them, with what each one can’t tell you.

Seun AkinniranyeCofounder
James AkinniranyeCofounder

23 Oct 20269 min read

Every article

For agencies
Your Black Friday rival report: a one page template to send clients on 1 December
A client reads it in 2 minutes: when each rival started, how often they sent, how deep the offer went and where the button led. Here is the page, filled in with invented brands, and how to collect every line by hand.
23 Oct 20269 min read
marrowleaf.example · stranger test with a control address1 silent flow
Address A signs up through the pop up; address B through the footer form
Tue 09:00A and B sign up, 1 minute apartBoth new Gmail addresses, both with the marketing box ticked
Tue 09:03B: welcome email with 10% offPrimary tab, 2 minutes after sign up
Thu 09:01A: no welcome email in 48 hoursThe pop up feeds a list the welcome flow doesn’t start from
Thu 09:06Control: a plain campaign reaches ASending works, so the fault sits in the flow
The control settles it: the address can receive mail, so the silence belongs to the flow.
Check your own journeys
Klaviyo flow not sending: why a welcome or basket email never arrives
Your flow report can look fine while a welcome or basket email never reaches the shopper. Sort the leak as silent, late, broken or wrong, check the cause that fits, and put a number on one month of it.
23 Oct 20269 min read
An assistant, connected to the spare inbox
CustomerWhat did Wrenfield email its new subscribers in the last 30 days?
AssistantI can search the inbox you connected. It subscribed to Wrenfield on 28 October, so I can see 3 emails since then: a welcome with 10% off, a restock note and an early access teaser.
Before 28 OctoberNothing to read. An assistant answers from the inbox it can see, and that inbox only began the day it signed up.
Watch other companies
Can ChatGPT or Claude watch your competitors’ emails?
A spare Gmail address, a sheet and an assistant answer what 1 to 3 rivals sent you since you subscribed. Five assistants’ own help pages show where that stops: one inbox, capped schedules, no past, no proof.
23 Oct 20268 min read
fernwood.example · site chat, asked as a customer at 07:02
CustomerI bought a jumper in the sale. How long do I have to send it back?
Chat · AIYou can return any item within 30 days of delivery for a full refund.
Your returns page, read at 07:02Sale items: 14 days from delivery. The chat quoted the full price window.
Check your AI agents
Is your store’s chat telling customers the right returns policy? How to test it
Ask your chat the questions customers ask this season, as a customer, and hold every answer against your own page. Eight questions, one scoring sheet and a repeat after every change, before Black Friday on Friday 27 November.
23 Oct 20269 min read
Watch other companies
A rival’s real price is the price after the welcome code
A rival’s page price is where its offer starts, not where it ends. Build a rival offer sheet by hand, from the welcome code to the emails of the days after sign up, before Black Friday on Friday 27 November.
23 Oct 202610 min read
oakhouse.example · what a new customer got in 48 hours
Signed up Monday 09:02 on a phone · read Wednesday 09:02
StepWhat arrivedWhen
Pop up15% off promised09:02
Welcome email10% off, not 15%5 h 35 min later
Text opt inNo confirmation textNone in 48 h
Basket leftReminder with product, photo, price1 h 04 min later
Checkout leftNo reminderNone in 48 h
The first line: the pop up promised 15%; the welcome email came 5 hours 35 minutes later, with 10%.
Attach both emails as they arrived, with their times.
Leave the sum for the owner: their sign ups, their rate, their average order.
For agencies
Audit a prospect’s email and SMS without a Klaviyo login
Every agency offers a free audit, and most need the brand’s login first. Sign up as the prospect’s new customer instead, and send the owner the email itself with its time.
23 Oct 202610 min read
northmark.example · morning check, Wednesday 08:02£36 of clicks since 14:00
Meta adTrail trainer, 20% off this week
Landing pageLoads in 1.4 seconds on a phone
ProductSold out in every size since 14:00 yesterday
CheckoutNever reached
The ad ran on all afternoon. The sum: £90 a day, 40% of the clicks after 14:00, £36 spent on a page that couldn’t sell.
Check your own journeys
Final URL expansion and sold out products: a morning check of where your ads land
Final URL expansion can send a click to a page you never wrote into the ad, and a sold out product keeps its ad until the data behind it changes. A 10 minute check in a shopper’s steps, before ad costs climb from Monday 9 November.
23 Oct 20269 min read
tarntea.example · weekly flow receipt, week of Monday 19 October2 of 3 on time
A new customer each run: fresh address, private window, a phone
Mon 09:01Welcome fired, with its code1 minute after sign up, Promotions tab
Mon 10:08Basket reminder firedSmoked Oolong, £14, named with photo and price
Wed 09:14Checkout reminder did not fireNothing at 48 hours
Wed 15:40Fix live, approved by the client at 15:10A filter left from the summer sale
Thu 10:02Checkout checked again: firedLeft at 09:00, reminder at 10:02
Found, approved, live and checked again: a record the client can open in their own inbox.
For agencies
Show the client the receipts: a weekly proof that every flow fired
Attribution reports get argued; a receipt gets checked. A weekly format that shows, flow by flow, that each one reached a new customer this week, what it costs in hours, and how to send it without claiming more than it proves.
23 Oct 20269 min read
terncoffee.example · 1 question, asked 3 times on 1 assistant
AskedWhat’s the best coffee subscription in the UK to give as a gift?
Run 1 · new chatNames Tern Coffee among 4 brands, at £24 a month.Old price
Run 2 · new chatNames 4 other brands. No Tern Coffee.Not named
Run 3 · new chatNames Tern Coffee first, at £22 a month.Named, right price
Named in 2 of 3. Price right in 1 of 2. One run is a screenshot; three begin a rate.
Check your AI agents
What ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google say about your store: a check you can repeat
One screenshot of what an AI assistant said about your store is one draw from many. Ask your customers’ questions 3 times on each assistant, log the date and the country, and score how often you appear and how often the claims are right.
23 Oct 202610 min read

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