Behind The Tool: John From Depict

What made you realize visual storytelling on collection pages was such a major gap in ecommerce?

We were shocked with how much time (months), money (millions) and effort (large teams) brands put into their stores to showcase their brand identity, but still fall short with storytelling on collection grids. Many of our merchants were struggling to display their storefront grids regularly at 3am, with 1000s of actions, over the weekends trying to tell more engaging stories and balancing inventory management. I see tons of people on planes, trains, and in cafes doomscrolling for hours on ecomm collection grids struggling to be inspired and unable to discover what they are looking for.

What’s a common misconception brands have when it comes to product positioning and grid performance?

That the position of a product in a grid (#1 is best) correlates to conversion/success! We regularly see products in position #13 and #25 outperforming the 1st row simply because the visuals resonated with shoppers.

How did your personal background in ecommerce shape the way you approached building Depict?

I am obsessed with digital commerce. I sold a profitable ecommerce store myself and led the integration of two multi-billion dollar digital commerce companies (Zettle + PayPal). I felt a deep itch to help brands create unique storefront discovery experiences!

What’s the moment that makes new customers say “wow” when using Depict for the first time?

The wow moment when they see how Depict can elevate their collection page grid layouts (in seconds) with large content blocks, using our intuitive UI.

How is Depict different from other merchandising or collection page tools in the Shopify ecosystem?

Most ecommerce stores end up on one end of the spectrum, focusing on brand or performance. Supergrid by Depict solves for both. We are the only creative merch tool that allows for dynamically re-ordering product grids in real-time that can mix in images, GIFs, videos and instagram content.

What shift in ecommerce are you seeing that not enough people are talking about?

AI is moving so fast, it can feel like the ground you are walking on is shifting by the hour. But the first principles of great products and great companies remain. You can't go wrong if you focus on creating more value for another human being everyday.

What’s one hard lesson you’ve learned while building Depict that you’d share with other tool founders?

All startups are badly broken at some point. You can only focus on 1-3 things as a company every week if you care about building something great.

If you could rewind back to Day 1 of Depict, what’s one thing you’d do differently as a founder?

Don’t scale your team/product until you have built something people love.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received that still guides how you work today?

Humans on average have 4000 weeks to live. Life is short. Make it count by spending your time helping or creating something that matters to another person.