Pon Pandian Paulswamy

Founder and CEO of TargetBay. Driving revenue for e-commerce stores using emails, SMS, reviews and rewards. Great team and powerful product.

[Pon Pandian Paulswamy @PonPandian]

@EtihadHelp I understand eight days might not be a lot of time according to @etihad standards. Do you have a resolution time for this issue?

[Pon Pandian Paulswamy @PonPandian]

@etihad We recently flew from Abu Dhabi to Atlanta. Our flight was diverted to Charlotte because of bad weather in Atlanta. We had to sit inside the flight in Charlotte for 4.5 hours with two small kids. We got no help from Etihad ground staff. Still waiting for reimbursement.

[Pon Pandian Paulswamy @PonPandian]

@EtihadHelp That’s what I said in my previous post. You replied with nothing. When a case is open for 8 days and your team does not have a resolution date, that is a nothing reply. Do you want to provide the resolution here in this thread?

[Pon Pandian Paulswamy @PonPandian]

@EtihadHelp @etihad has an interesting customer service approach. They ask you to reply via DM. They don’t provide any answers via DM. It has been 8 days since I opened the case and they are still investigating :)

Don’t fall for their fancy marketing

[Pon Pandian Paulswamy @PonPandian]

@EtihadHelp I have sent you a DM. It has been 8 days since the case was created. No word from your team.

[Pon Pandian Paulswamy @PonPandian]

@etihad They were supposed to provide some form of transportation from Charlotte to Atlanta. We waited till noon the next day and it was a complete chaos. Finally, someone figure out your own transportation.

[Pon Pandian Paulswamy @PonPandian]

@etihad I understand weather is not in your control. But after we landed in Charlotte, we got very little support from the Etihad ground staff. Baggage claim was a mess, they gave hotel, but we could not get to the hotel because there was not shuttle.

[Pon Pandian Paulswamy @PonPandian]

@EtihadHelp I sent you a DM. It has been a week since I created the case for your customer support team. I have not heard anything back from your team. It is unprofessional.

[Pon Pandian Paulswamy @PonPandian]

@EtihadHelp We recently flew from Abu Dhabi to Atlanta. Our flight was diverted to Charlotte because of bad weather in Atlanta. We had to sit inside the flight in Charlotte for 4.5 hours with two small kids. We got no help from Etihad ground staff. Still waiting for reimbursement

[Pon Pandian Paulswamy @PonPandian]

$15/month pricing can work for reviews, rewards and helpdesk. It will be difficult for email and SMS. @TargetBay is doing email and SMS and there is a variable cost associated with the usage of the client.

We use Mailgun and SES for emails, we need to pay for the IP addresses, emails and few other add-ons. There are some companies that use their own MTAs to deliver the emails and that still entails some cost.

I would love to see another company replicating what Judge me has done for reviews at $15/month in other categories.

[Pon Pandian Paulswamy @PonPandian]

Most of these spam calls originate from toll-free numbers or 800 numbers. These toll-free numbers are really cheap to register ~$1/month. Ideally, these numbers go through a verification process before they could be used for text or outbound calls. After they purchase a number, they use a API outbound calling platform to make these spam calls.

Zipwhip is the entity that is responsible for verifying the business information of the companies that are registering these toll-free numbers. All of my clients go through this process and it is fairly extensive process to get the number verified.

But this verification system is broken because of the spam calls everyone is getting. There has to be an unground system where these shady actors are getting access to these toll-free numbers and using them before verification. They are burning a number and moving onto the next number.

[Pon Pandian Paulswamy @PonPandian]

@celispj @judgeme $12 million ARR without any funding is not easy. Fermat has raised $17 million and $45 million in funding in two rounds. I am not sure if it is going to end well for him.

[Pon Pandian Paulswamy @PonPandian]

@TargetBay is bootstrapped and we have been migrating clients from Klaviyo to TargetBay for the past two years. We have good deliverability and do free migration.

A decent number of stores using Klaviyo do not need all the bells and whistles and they are happy to switch to a platform that does the job. Every time Klaviyo increases their price, we get busy 👍

[Pon Pandian Paulswamy @PonPandian]

I am super excited to announce our partnership with TikTok. TargetBay clients can syndicate their reviews from their ecommerce stores to their TikTok shops.

[TargetBay @TargetBay]

Sync your reviews straight from BayReviews to TikTok Shop! 🚀

Boost trust and conversions with real customer feedback

No hassle, just results!

#TikTok #TikTokShop #Integration #eCommerceStrategy #EcommerceGrowth #BayReviews #TargetBay

[Sean Heilweil @seanheilweil]

Are your emails vanishing into the void? 🕳️📩

You're not alone...email deliverability is a nightmare.

🚫 High bounce rates
🚫 Spam folder traps
🚫 Wrecked sender reputations

Good news:
@TargetBay + @Emailablehq just teamed up to fix it.

✅ Smart automation
✅ Clean, verified lists
✅ Inbox reach, not inbox hope

This collab = your new email cheat code.
Inbox or bust.

[Pon Pandian Paulswamy @PonPandian]

@BrandanAdams Agreed

[Pon Pandian Paulswamy @PonPandian]

VC-Funded vs. Bootstrapped: The E-Commerce SaaS Dilemma over the past few years, we’ve seen massive VC investments in e-commerce SaaS companies:
💰 Yotpo – $436M
💰 Okendo – $33.5M
💰 Skio – $3.7M
💰 Gorgias – $104M
💰 Nosto – $32.8M
💰 Shogun – $115M
💰 Tapcart – $64M
💰 Postscript – $137.98M
💰 Emotive – $73.9M

But despite raising these large amounts of money, these companies have not gone public. The reason? Slower growth and ongoing work toward profitability. The pressure to scale quickly and hit big milestones often leads to a lot of noise without real substance.

Klaviyo is the exception, having gone public in 2023. But with that comes a new pressure from Wall Street to show profitability, which has led them to raise prices—something that’s now affecting the merchants who relied on their platform.

For the rest of these VC-backed SaaS companies, staying private long-term, like Stripe or Ramp, isn’t going to be easy. Unlike those giants in the fintech space, these DTC-focused companies don’t have the same TAM or market growth potential. So, what’s next for them? Likely an acquisition, but finding the right buyer at the right price won’t be simple, especially when profitability is now the priority.

Meanwhile, bootstrapped companies like TargetBay, Judgedotme, and Omnisend continue to grow steadily and profitably—without the pressure of VC expectations or Wall Street’s watchful eye.

[TargetBay @TargetBay]

Selling on Walmart? Getting listed isn’t the problem. Getting remembered is!

Right now, you’re probably:

- Cutting prices to stay competitive
- Spending more on ads to get traffic
- Seeing customers buy once and never come back

You’re playing the short game. Winning brands play the long game.

Instead, try  to:

- Position your brand to stand out
- Build trust and credibility that converts
- Leverage UGC to turn shoppers into repeat customers

If you’re tired of competing on price and want to start competing on brand, this webinar is for you.

From Listings to Loyalty: Crafting a Strong Brand on Walmart is happening in two days.

We’re breaking down the exact strategies top Walmart brands use to scale beyond transactions.

Join us THIS Thursday February 27th, 2025 @ 1:00 PM EST

Register now: https://t.co/XXY2BzQUsz

Featuring:
@johnaspinallctr – CEO, Aspi
Will Haire – CEO, @BellaVix_Amazon
@CraneFord91117 – Director of Partnerships, @TargetBay

You’ve done the work to get listed. Now it’s time to get remembered.

[TargetBay @TargetBay]

Apple Mail’s iOS 18.3 update is here, and honestly? It’s a mix of chaos and opportunity.

● Emails are now auto-sorted into Primary, Promotions, Transactions, and Updates
● AI-generated previews let users skim emails without opening them
● Some people love the organization. Others? Panicking because their emails feel “lost.”

For email marketers, this isn’t just an update—it’s a shift in strategy.

Here’s how we adapt:

1) Promotions isn’t the enemy. People open it when they want to buy
2) Your first line just became mission-critical. AI summaries mean subject lines & preheaders
must deliver value instantly
3) Test your data aggressively. Some users will disable categories—know your audience
4) BIMI matters. Your brand logo could be the difference between being ignored and getting
opened

Apple changed the inbox. Now, it’s on us to change our approach!

[Pon Pandian Paulswamy @PonPandian]

Amazing 5 star review from Aroma Retail 🎉

[TargetBay @TargetBay]

What’s stopping your brand from building stronger customer loyalty? If complicated systems are holding you back, it’s time to rethink. Let’s talk about how easy it can be to boost customer loyalty today. DM us for more! #LoyaltySimplified #SmallBusinessGrowth