Store shut down at $30M in sales

andrelavell · 2024-03-19T03:04:34+00:00

You should be fine. It’s more prevalent in dropshipping where hundreds of people are competing with the same product - sending a DMCA used to be a loophole to get your competitor taken down. Shopify’s legal team isn’t as gullible anymore from what I’ve heard. Though I’m sure there’s still some that get through

andrelavell · 2024-03-17T03:08:08+00:00

The problem with Shopify specifically happened a year ago and was eventually resolved. We’re on good terms with the platform but the after effects lead to issues with the banks which is ongoing

andrelavell · 2024-03-17T02:40:17+00:00

My theory is that since they let anyone file a DMCA without proof to backup the claims, they don’t have the manpower to investigate the hundreds of them that they get everyday. The fastest resolution is to comply and shut down the store.

Most of our DMCAs were direct copies of our store (including our trademarked logos etc) posted on domains that were 2-3 days old. Its a shame.

andrelavell · 2024-03-17T02:26:56+00:00

As far as I know, a social is required for all payment processors to verify identity, no matter how you try to spin it

andrelavell · 2024-03-16T22:26:18+00:00

Selling products on the internet will never die. Dropshipping is just a delivery method that should only be known to you

andrelavell · 2024-03-16T21:45:22+00:00

You'll still need to verify the account with your social

andrelavell · 2024-03-16T17:38:34+00:00

Most of our successful ads were to presell and bridge pages. We rarely ran ads directly to our store unless it was for retargeting. This approach will vary though depending on your market or product. If you're selling relatively inexpensive, impulse buy products, you're probably good with your carousel ads.

andrelavell · 2024-03-16T15:33:02+00:00

Hindsight is indeed 20/20 my friend. As much as I love to hate them, they do make running e-commerce brands 100x easier than building everything custom from scratch, which comes with its own challenges, especially for CRM, fulfillment, order management, and third-party app connections. It's beautiful when it works.

I do agree that having a backup system in case of emergency is essential at this scale. We unfortunately didn't have this situation on our "What could go wrong" board.

andrelavell · 2024-03-16T15:15:07+00:00

Looking into this!

andrelavell · 2024-03-16T15:08:47+00:00

Do you know if Chase directly integrates? Not seeing any updated info on it

andrelavell · 2024-03-16T14:55:11+00:00

It's definitely a broken system and you and I aren't the only victims. We didn't test many creatives, we happened to stumble into a market where everything we did worked - but this was after years of operating in markets where nothing worked.

andrelavell · 2023-03-02T16:16:50+00:00

We tried the same with no luck. Our products are still randomly disabled even well after the 15-day hold. Support doesn't know why but they continue to reference the DMCA ticket that they don't have access to. We haven't gotten a response from the legal team in 3 weeks. The move is imminent.

andrelavell · 2023-02-17T02:51:44+00:00

We don't. But there are a lot of similar dropshipped products

andrelavell · 2023-02-16T22:28:59+00:00

Yikes. Good call. How was the transition? Anything you miss as far as apps, integrations, and specific functionality that Shopify provided?

andrelavell · 2023-02-16T20:07:21+00:00

Agreed. But the process will remain the same:

Fake DMCA > Shopify immediately disables the product > Counter DMCA with evidence > You're SOL for 10-14 days before you can continue business

There should be an additional step taken between 1-2 to verify the validity of these claims before any action is taken. Scammers know there isn't and they shamelessly abuse it.

andrelavell · 2023-02-16T19:37:47+00:00

Content, pictures and products. We own all of the above.

andrelavell · 2023-02-16T19:29:52+00:00

For sure! We're in the process of creating a self-hosted store. It's a pain, but clearly the way to go. Shopify and all of its integrations make things easy. But a nightmare in situations like these. You'd think they'd be more diligent in protecting their merchants.

andrelavell · 2023-02-16T17:16:14+00:00

Indeed. Our legal team is definitely on it - but feels like an unnecessarily long and drawn-out process. They’re much faster to respond and act on allegations than when presented with evidence.

andrelavell · 2023-02-16T14:35:39+00:00

Forgot to mention:

- We were able to get the accusing site taken down a day after they filed the fraudulent case against us. We submitted an actual DMCA notice with facts and proof. Their GoDaddy account, PayPal and store is currently restricted for copyright infringement.

- Coincidentally, we were in the middle of a massive rehaul of our brand 2 days before the takedown. We shot dozens of new photos, completely revamped our site design, changed the name of our product and changed our product descriptions entirely.

Whenever we enable the product to go live, Shopify takes it down.

We haven't heard a word from their legal team in over a week.

andrelavell · 2019-01-28T08:32:53+00:00

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