The Dawn Run: My Morning Routine and a Week with Checkout Blocks

Early Morning Hustle: A Dawn Run with Man’s Best Friend

As an entrepreneur, my life often feels like a relentless pursuit of success, a ceaseless race towards an ever-receding finish line. This morning was no different - except that the race was quite literal. At 5am, the world around me was still enveloped in the soothing calmness of the pre-dawn haze. Most of the city was still asleep, catching their last few moments of dream-filled tranquility. But for me, and my four-legged running partner, Buster, it was time to hit the asphalt.

The pavement was cold under my running shoes, a stark contrast to the warmth of Buster’s fur as he excitedly bounded alongside me. The chill in the air was sharp, filling my lungs with every breath, clearing the remnants of sleep. We ran, our footfalls echoing in the quiet city streets, the only other sounds the occasional distant car or the whisper of early morning wind rustling the leaves.

Diving into Checkout Blocks: A Week-long Experiment

After the run, with Buster now happily snoozing at my feet, I dived into the experiment I’ve been running for the past week. I’ve been trying out a tool called Checkout Blocks, and I had some mixed feelings about it that I wanted to share.

Checkout Blocks, for those who aren’t aware, is a Shopify extension designed to boost your ecommerce revenue by adding feature-rich upsell blocks to your checkout process. It’s a neat concept and a tool that is designed to work without any code edits to your checkout, compatible even with Shop pay. It’s quite appealing to me, as an entrepreneur, because of its promise to quickly generate more revenue with a few simple clicks.

Over the past week, I’ve implemented Checkout Blocks on my online store, using it to suggest additional products to customers based on their existing cart items. The results have been promising - a noticeable uptick in average order value and a seemingly positive response from customers.

The Pros and Cons of Checkout Blocks

However, as much as I loved these features, there were some aspects of Checkout Blocks that fell short. The main issue I faced was the lack of support for subscription upsells. In my ecommerce business, we offer several subscription products, and it would have been great if we could upsell these at the checkout. Unfortunately, Checkout Blocks does not currently support this feature.

Also, while the tool provides a fair degree of customization, I felt it lacked some advanced design settings. Yes, you can change colors and use a high converting style preset or customize your own. But if you’re looking for deep customization options to make your checkout process truly unique, Checkout Blocks might feel a bit limiting.

In terms of pricing, starting at $199 per month (when billed annually), it might be a bit steep for smaller businesses. The tool offers a flat monthly cost, with no revenue share or usage charges, which is a plus. But, smaller businesses, particularly those processing fewer than 20,000 orders per month, might find this cost prohibitive.

To wrap it up, Checkout Blocks is a promising tool with a lot to offer. It’s built for Shopify Plus, supports multi-currency and multi-language, and offers robust personalization. It’s certainly worth a shot if you’re looking to increase your average order value and overall revenue. But do keep in mind its current limitations, and ensure it aligns with your specific business needs before diving in.

Stay tuned for more updates on my journey in the worldof ecommerce. There’s always something new to learn and share. The world of ecommerce is constantly evolving, and so is my journey as an entrepreneur. So, whether it’s my early morning run with Buster, or experimenting with new tools like Checkout Blocks, every day brings a new adventure and learning experience. And I can’t wait to share more of this adventure with all of you.

Remember, the road to success in the ecommerce space isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon. It’s about consistent effort, learning from our experiences, and constantly seeking out ways to improve. So, let’s keep running, keep learning, and keep growing together. Until next time!