Brand Lab: DO YOUR F*%$*#G RESEARCH
AI, Simplicity, and the One Hire That Changes Everything
🧪 The Brand Lab—building brand and ad concepts from scratch, every week, including AI workflows and a free edition covering all things e-commerce.
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Yoyo Founders,
Welcome to The Brand Lab #4.
Let me tell you the truth about finding a winning product…
Most founders guess or copy.
Smart founders RESEARCH DEEPLY.
I’m not talking about a few Google and Amazon searches. I’m talking hours of research.
If I had to quantify it, something like this:
1 hour - 80% failure chance
2 hours - 70% failure chance
3 hours - 50% failure chance
5 hours - 30% failure chance
10 hours - 10% failure chance
This is not scientific. I just came up with that.
But I bet it’s at least directionally right.
To put it simply: spend at least 3 hours of deep research over a week or two period as your BARE MINIMUM before you launch anything in e-commerce.
And during that period, do this:
Read at least five full Reddit threads
Read at least five full pages of Amazon reviews for three competitors
Read the ad comments of at least five different ads for three competitors
Watch at least 3 YouTube videos or podcasts related to your product and your target customer
That’s the BARE minimum. The more you do, the better your chance at success.
Here’s why:
Imagine you launch a winning product based on copying what you see others in the market doing. They are winning, so why can’t you?
Ok.
So you launch.
But then sales are scarce.
You spend on ads, and your conversions are way too expensive, so you lose on every sale.
You eventually run out of money.
Now, compare this to the founder who spent hours in research.
His listings, branding, visuals, content, EVERYTHING HE DOES from the start is speaking to his target customer because he KNOWS who that is and what he/she wants.
His ad costs are low, like insanely low. So he reinvests those savings back into acquiring MORE customers.
Word of mouth kicks in.
The Algo kicks in.
His Amazon listing takes off.
This game feels so easy.
BECAUSE IT IS WHEN YOU DO YOUR F*$(*$(*$ING RESEARCH.
-Colin Stuckert, Founder
Rize Brands → TT, IG, YT, X, Lkd, Rize Ads Account
I’ve been in e-commerce for 12 years, generating millions for my brands and clients. 👋 YouTube, Twitter, Instagram.
⛓️💥 Links Corner
🛍️ Amazon’s extended Prime Day drives $24.1B in U.S. online sales → A record-breaking four-day event beats last year’s Black Friday, with mobile commerce and AI tools setting the new pace.
📦 E-commerce brands in India saw a 19% spike in sales ahead of the festive season → Retailers are ramping up early in anticipation of a major Q3-Q4 push.
🥬 Online grocery hits $9.8B in June as delivery-first growth continues → Consumers are now defaulting to e-grocery in high-frequency categories.
🤝 Rokt acquires Canal to unlock new ecommerce revenue streams → The consolidation wave is officially here, and it's coming for your checkout experience.
🤖 Amazon quietly rolled out AI tools during Prime Day like “Buy for Me” → From pricing to search to ad optimization, AI is the silent operator behind record sales.
💨 Quick Hits
🎯 Hero SKU Rule: 80% of revenue should come from your top product. If not, you're unfocused.
📦 Inventory: Aim to turn inventory over 2x-4x per year
⭐ Early Reviews: Your first 10 reviews matter more than 100 reviews by month 6.
🚚 Free Shipping Sweet Spot: Set free shipping threshold at 105% - 150% of AOV (then test multiple ranges)
🎨 Color Psychology: Orange "Buy" buttons convert 21% better than blue in A/B tests.
☠️ Less is More → Pick one and OWN IT
Be patient. Launch your Shopify store + Amazon.
Then, pick either Meta, organic social, or Amazon PPC as your primary focus for new customer acquisition.
Then focus there until you reach a profitable or breakeven customer acquisition cost, and you reach your ceiling based on your capital/inventory constraints. Don’t mess with anything else until you’ve dialed this in.
👩💻 Tech stack
HIGHLY RECOMMEND: Buy 1-3 of these Anker batteries. The number of times this battery saved me when I couldn’t find a seat next to an outlet. 🤯
🎯 Focus is YOUR Advantage
Naval has a tech background, but this advice still has merit for ecom.
You always have to let the world know your product exists, but if you get the research/customer obsession part right, this becomes so much easier, and you’ll need less effort overall to get your flywheel spinning.
The right product with the right customer obsession gives you the fastest route to creating raving fans (and 1000 true fans) who will keep coming back for more (repeat purchases) and who tell their friends (word of mouth).
🎨 Ads Corner
Prompt: Give me 10 ad concept angles for feastables
🚀 Shopify Speed
SLOW LOADING TIMES KILL
Shrink every image before uploading.
Keep your website as simple as possible.
Avoid fancy animations or scroll effects.
Check your speed often.
Every Second Counts:
1-second delay = 7% reduction in conversions
2-second delay = Up to 20% drop in conversion rates
3+ seconds = 40% of users abandon the site entirely
Mobile Speed Impact:
53% of mobile users abandon sites that take >3 seconds to load (Google)
Mobile conversions drop 95% for every additional second of load time
🤯 Psychology
The Decoy Effect in Pricing People choose differently when presented with a strategically bad option...
3-tier pricing where the middle option looks not great vs. premium
Size options where medium is priced to push large
Real Example: Theater popcorn: Small $3, Medium $6.50, Large $7. Everyone buys large.
📚 Books
Book: "The Boron Letters" by Gary Halbert
Key Insight: Write copy like you're writing to one person you care about
Application: Replace corporate speak with conversational, direct language
🅡 Rize Offers
🎬 Beginners start here → Platform Selection Matrix → Which e-commerce platform should you start on? We’ll guide you through exactly what’s best for you.
🧠 The New Rules of E-commerce Course → What you MUST KNOW to succeed in E-commerce in 2025. Incept this into your brain before you spend another minute—or dollar—playing the wrong game.
👩💻 The Rize Blueprint System → From Idea to your first 100 customers in a step-by-step system built inside Notion with every tool, spreadsheet, and template needed to launch and run an e-commerce brand.
⚡️ Rize Labs Brand Build → Custom turn-key ready-to-launch product concept based on DATA: deep research, unique positioning, complete brand design build out, including static ad concepts, turn-key SEO articles, email flows, Shopify & Amazon copy, ad scripts, and everything else you need to launch a winning offer. Book a call
🏗️ Past Brand Builds
✌️ Till Next Time
📱Rize Brands Social: Instagram | TikTok | YouTube | Linkedin | Twitter
🖼️ Rize Ads Social → Sharing ad and brand concepts daily: Instagram
💌 Like it? Share with someone interested in e-commerce. They'll thank you.
🛠️ Free E-commerce Tools: Download our Brand Builder Toolkit
📝 Feedback: I read every email and often feature reader questions and feedback.