Hum...ai
How in the world could AI impact this little kitchen knife business?
This is 3Bits & Change, an email about building a service and retail business. This one was written to some KCRW streaming on the iPhone in speaker mode while a law was being mowed in the distance.
You’ve read about, maybe tried, these “AI” tools.
They’ll 1) 10x your work or 2) take your job or 3) answer in some unhelpful or underwhelming way. So, which is it? What can we expect from these hyped disembodied guessing engines?
I’ve been wondering, and testing, what a solo founder of a kitchen knife sharpening and retail store could gain from these tools. As a result of persistent iteration over the last months I’ve changed a few workflows including: 1) products and details, data based decisions, and content updates.
//no.1 - Products and details
I underestimated the amount of computer work required to keep a small retail organization going. Sure, the payroll and taxes and bills. Yes, those require computer work. But the ordering and product details… those have been way more time taxing than anything else.
Shopify has a core set of variables. The shopping feeds that integrate with other systems have a set. The search engines have a set, etc. And just like those sale side systems are divergent in what they offer and care about, so also are the vendors. Few, if any, of the vendors share a set of variables about their products. Some are multinationals. Some are garage startups. Neither create or distribute data about products in a way that makes it easy to get it in Shopify much less get it configured to sell at volume.
After many iterations I now have a workflow to streamline these efforts that takes a fraction of the time it did three months ago. I think it’s in the range of 20% of the previous effort for a new product coming into the store.
The single biggest gain? Uploading screenshots or pictures of data in the format it comes to me (and there are many) and having these tools move the data around to the fields that make both ordering and bulk uploads swift.
This is a game changing reduction in the amount of data variable laptop time in this business. Afterall, I might have 20 hours of laptop time a week. If 10 of it is on data entry… ick.
//no.2 - Data based decisions
You’ve seen dashboards. Maybe you’ve built them. They’re good if they were answering the questions you wanted to ask with relevant data. But, what about the questions you have not yet designed for? And the ones you have not thought to ask?
For example, how can you tell the dashboard that your city had extenuating circumstances in January and that the 38% YoY decline is out of norm and it should stop telling you how bad things are? Most can’t act on that data.
I’ve been pulling snapshots from various systems together in one place (which is now way easier than it’s ever been) and then asking for perspectives, new questions and pattern recognition from AI models. This has been helpful and is impacting how I think about the business. And because it’s chat, I can explore for a while through my lense and flip to “now, you’re a merchandising expert at xyz, tell me what you see.”
The game has changed.
So far, I’ve uncovered some insights about transaction types I did not expect… tested them and implemented changes that are… working to grow the business faster. A meaningful data driven improvement coming from chat cycles.
//no.3 - Content updates
Regarding organic content strategy. Wow.
I’ve written content for the gaps in topical content that were identified after data analysis in select AI tools. I can directly pin back the efforts to new traffic, and increases in conversions, in the last three months. The trendlines are super clear.
Just, wow.
Sum
I’m spending fewer hours on low, relative value, time suck tasks. I’m asking new questions and finding new opportunities and actualizing them. And organic traffic is notably up, as are conversions. The business is growing faster than it was 6 months ago.
These are arguably low impact first steps any worker or business can deploy with AI tools. Easy ones. The results of custom code driven efforts I have underway are TBD but also promising.
These are wild times!
Change
IYKYK - Chef’s Presses just arrived, again. We’ll have stock for a handful of days. That’s right. Hundreds of these now sell each week, when we have them. Order here.
The Ready Series, which we collaborated on with Justin from Running Man Forge, just got it’s third restock since December. It’s a hot series. So smooth and it hit some great design notes too. Line cooks to home cooks love these things. Order here.
Stop breaking your wine glasses. It’s patio season. Act now and grab these hot Italian unbreakable glasses. We sell at least 5x more of these online right now than I intially anticipated. Order here.
On Your Way
Spring has arrived in MN. But it’s also May-cember, and things are busy! May your graduations and end of school year activities and sports team startups and summer kick-offs all be wrapped in a sense of joy vs busy.
Happy cooking!
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