Advertise on podcast: The Unofficial Shopify Podcast

"Succeeding with paid was not about how good your ROAS was. What the paid experts did so well was they had built a business model structurally that allowed them to put as much money as they possible into that paid engine." Andrew Youderian surveyed 300 store owners representing $3.5 billion in revenue for the sixth annual eComFuel Trends Report, and the data broke four things Shopify merchants have been told were true. AI adoption is at 72% and producing zero financial edge. Non-AI adopters are growing profits faster than adopters. Amazon's share of revenue is back to 2017 levels while more brands than ever are selling on it. Gross margins hit an all-time high the same year net margins hit an all-time low. In this episode we dig into the paid traffic reversal that changed Andrew's own mind, why 97% of stores now run paid ads, the P&L math that separates winners from losers, and the financial literacy stat that moves net margins by 50%. SPONSORS Swym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more getswym.com/kurt Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopify cleverific.com Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels zipify.com/KURT LINKS eComFuel 2026 Trends Report: ecommercefuel.com/ecommerce-trends/ Financial Mastery for Ecom Store Owners (free course): https://www.ecommercefuel.com/mastery/ WORK WITH KURT Apply for Shopify Help ethercycle.com/apply See Our Results ethercycle.com/work Free Newsletter kurtelster.com The Unofficial Shopify Podcast is hosted by Kurt Elster and explores the stories behind successful Shopify stores. Get actionable insights, practical strategies, and proven tactics from entrepreneurs who've built thriving ecommerce businesses.

Recorded live at Smart Marketer Mentor Tables in Nashville, this is Kurt's full talk on why most people are bad at AI and what to do about it. The pitch was that AI would let you do less work and produce better output. What actually happened: everyone is producing more slop, faster. Inside: the RTF framework that fixes any prompt in 30 seconds, the 10 AI tools Kurt actually uses every day (not the ones he gets paid to recommend), and why Claude Cowork is the single tool worth your attention in 2026. SPONSORS Swym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more getswym.com/kurt Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopify cleverific.com Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels zipify.com/KURT LINKS Smart Marketer: https://smartmarketer.com Microsoft Clarity: https://clarity.microsoft.com Topaz Labs: https://www.topazlabs.com Adobe Enhance: https://podcast.adobe.com WhisperFlow: https://wisprflow.ai Whisper Transcription (Mac app): https://goodsnooze.gumroad.com/l/whisper-transcription Adobe Firefly: https://firefly.adobe.com Nano Banana (Google): https://gemini.google.com Grok: https://grok.com Claude Code: https://claude.com/claude-code Claude Cowork: https://claude.com Crisp Chat: https://crisp.chat Tidio: https://www.tidio.com Matrixify: https://matrixify.app WORK WITH KURT Apply for Shopify Help ethercycle.com/apply See Our Results ethercycle.com/work Free Newsletter kurtelster.com The Unofficial Shopify Podcast is hosted by Kurt Elster and explores the stories behind successful Shopify stores. Get actionable insights, practical strategies, and proven tactics from entrepreneurs who've built thriving ecommerce businesses.

This is a memorial republish. Casey Bard, founder of Tacticalories Seasoning Co., died in early April 2026 after a three-year fight with Stage 4 colorectal cancer. Casey told the people close to him that when he was gone, he wanted them to tell stories about him. This is Casey in his own words, recorded in March 2021. Casey started Tacticalories with $500 and mixed his first batch in his bathtub. By 2020 the company had grown 4x. We talked about building a brand around a personal Venn diagram of interests, why he drops one product at a time instead of seasonal collections, the 2020 manufacturing chaos, and why he refused to dropship, refused coupon codes, and refused to take outside money. GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/casey-is-choosing-to-continue-the-fight LINKS Tacticalories: https://tacticalories.com Casey Bard: https://caseybard.com GoFundMe (supporting Casey's family): https://www.gofundme.com/f/casey-is-choosing-to-continue-the-fight Struggle Well (documentary about Casey's story): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=908HdjZFyjk

Shopify just opened up its foundational B2B features to all paid plans, not just Plus. Samir Pradhan, VP of Product at Shopify, joins the show to break down what merchants actually get: company profiles, up to three custom catalogs, quantity rules, ACH payments, vaulted credit cards, and 50+ features total, at no additional cost. We walk through the setup, talk about what stays Plus-only, and dig into why B2B was consistently a top three merchant request. Plus, 96% GMV growth for merchants already using these tools. If you've been avoiding wholesale or duct-taping workarounds, this is the episode. LINKS Shopify B2B Newsroom Post: https://www.shopify.com/news/b2b-for-all Shopify B2B Help Docs: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b Samir Pradhan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samir-pradhan-71978120 SPONSORS Swym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more getswym.com/kurt Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopify cleverific.com Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels zipify.com/KURT WORK WITH KURT Apply for Shopify Help ethercycle.com/apply See Our Results ethercycle.com/work Free Newsletter kurtelster.com The Unofficial Shopify Podcast is hosted by Kurt Elster and explores the stories behind successful Shopify stores. Get actionable insights, practical strategies, and proven tactics from entrepreneurs who've built thriving ecommerce businesses.

"I don't have any really relevant credentials or qualifications when it comes to this sort of thing." Noam Sugarman got fed up trying to find a stereo system that looked good, sounded good, and didn't require an engineering degree to buy. So he built his own. With no audio background, he launched Dum Audio, raised $75K on Indiegogo, then ditched crowdfunding platforms entirely to run pre-order campaigns on his own Shopify store, where he saw better return on ad spend. Five years and $300K+ in sales later, he's shipping hi-fi turntables, speakers, and amps direct to consumer. We talk about pricing in a market where a stereo can cost $100 or $100,000, why his self-run Shopify campaign outperformed Indiegogo, and how 60% of his crowdfunding buyers added a subwoofer upsell he only expected a third to take. SPONSORS Swym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more getswym.com/kurt Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopify cleverific.com Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels zipify.com/KURT LINKS Dum Audio: https://dumaudio.com/ Design Momentum (industrial design): https://designmomentum.com/ WORK WITH KURT Apply for Shopify Help ethercycle.com/apply See Our Results ethercycle.com/work Free Newsletter kurtelster.com The Unofficial Shopify Podcast is hosted by Kurt Elster and explores the stories behind successful Shopify stores. Get actionable insights, practical strategies, and proven tactics from entrepreneurs who've built thriving ecommerce businesses.

"There were three or four years straight where we were like, if it doesn't go the way we need it to go, we'll close it down at the end of the year -- and then year end comes and we're just like, close enough to keep going." Ethan Haber was a college sophomore with a studio art degree, a hamster named Mooksy, and a problem: the hamster ball hadn't been improved since the 1970s. So he invented a better one. Then came COVID, molds stuck at the Port of Long Beach, a packaging supplier who switched materials without telling him, four years of unprofitability, and social media backlash from people who don't even own hamsters. 2026 is his first profitable year. We talked about how he got to 750 retail locations, why he quit Meta ads and tripled Amazon sales, and the cold LinkedIn DM that landed him the founder of PetSmart as a mentor. SPONSORS Swym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more getswym.com/kurt Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopify cleverific.com Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels zipify.com/KURT LINKS Happy Habitats (Shopify store): https://www.happyhabitats.net Happy Habitats on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com (search Happy Habitats) Happy Habitats on Chewy: https://www.chewy.com (search Happy Habitats) Happy Habitats on Walmart: https://www.walmart.com (search Happy Habitats) Ethan's plush work (Instagram): @HaberPlushProductions Jim Dougherty (PetSmart founder) book: "The Pet Project" -- search on Amazon P9 Design (Ethan's design partner): https://www.p9design.com Shopify Collective (free app): https://www.shopify.com/collective Mark Knology (marketplace management): [URL not provided in episode] Trover Saves the Universe (Squatch Games): https://troverthegame.com WORK WITH KURT Apply for Shopify Help ethercycle.com/apply See Our Results ethercycle.com/work Free Newsletter kurtelster.com The Unofficial Shopify Podcast is hosted by Kurt Elster and explores the stories behind successful Shopify stores. Get actionable insights, practical strategies, and proven tactics from entrepreneurs who've built thriving ecommerce businesses.

"I think this is a revival of SEO, a little bit of a resurrection." SEO expert Patrick Rice is back, and this time he brought receipts. His agency got a Shopify brand to show up in ChatGPT recommendations 60-70% of the time and in Google AI Overviews 86% of the time, with a 35-40% sustained increase in branded search. All in six months. We dig into the exact GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) tactics that made it happen: web consensus through listicle outreach, structured data, Reddit strategy, and why the AI search land grab looks a lot like early SEO, before the filters catch up. SPONSORS Swym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more getswym.com/kurt Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopify cleverific.com Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels zipify.com/KURT LINKS Patrick Rice Co.: https://patrickriceco.com AI Visibility Audits: https://patrickriceco.com/ai BBC Future article: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260218-i-hacked-chatgpt-and-googles-ai-and-it-only-took-20-minutes Rand Fishkin / SparkToro study on AI brand consensus JSON-LD for SEO (Shopify app by Alana Davis) SEO Gets: https://seogets.com Screaming Frog: https://screamingfrog.co.uk Matrixify (Shopify app) Patrick Rice's first episode: https://unofficialshopifypodcast.com/episodes/patrick-rice-advanced-seo-cA2PDVhP WORK WITH KURT Apply for Shopify Help ethercycle.com/apply See Our Results ethercycle.com/work Free Newsletter kurtelster.com The Unofficial Shopify Podcast is hosted by Kurt Elster and explores the stories behind successful Shopify stores. Get actionable insights, practical strategies, and proven tactics from entrepreneurs who've built thriving ecommerce businesses.

Amanda Engelman is the Director of Product at Shopify leading advertising and channel expansion. She built the Shopify Product Network, a free app that lets other Shopify merchants' products appear on your store. You earn commission on every sale, you keep the customer, and you get category expansion insights without carrying a single unit of inventory. One store earned over $3,000 in commissions in just two months. We dig into how SPN decides what products to show (and how they're solving the "taste" problem), the checkout engineering that makes multi-merchant transactions seamless, and why this might be the lowest-risk growth lever available to Shopify merchants right now. SPONSORS Swym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more getswym.com/kurt Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopify cleverific.com Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels zipify.com/KURT LINKS Shopify Product Network App: Shopify App Store Shop Campaigns: Shop Campaigns Amanda Engelman on LinkedIn: Amanda Engelman WORK WITH KURT Apply for Shopify Help ethercycle.com/apply See Our Results ethercycle.com/work Free Newsletter kurtelster.com The Unofficial Shopify Podcast is hosted by Kurt Elster and explores the stories behind successful Shopify stores. Get actionable insights, practical strategies, and proven tactics from entrepreneurs who've built thriving ecommerce businesses.

"Even if it ends up being something that ends the universe, it at least will have been a fun ride. So let's do it." That's what Karl Meisterheim said when Kurt pitched him on building a Shopify app. Over a year later, Promo Party Pro is live, and the journey from "this should be easy" to "why is the cart API doing that" was anything but smooth. Kurt, Paul Reda, and Karl sit down to talk through the whole thing: why free gift with purchase is Kurt's favorite promo, the edge cases that nearly broke them, the popup cooldown debate that consumed days, and what it actually takes to ship a polished app on Shopify in 2025. SPONSORS Swym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more getswym.com/kurt Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopify cleverific.com Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels zipify.com/KURT LINKS Promo Party Pro: https://promoparty.app/ Crowdfunder App: https://apps.shopify.com/crowdfunder Ethercycle: https://ethercycle.com WORK WITH KURT Apply for Shopify Help ethercycle.com/apply See Our Results ethercycle.com/work Free Newsletter kurtelster.com The Unofficial Shopify Podcast is hosted by Kurt Elster and explores the stories behind successful Shopify stores. Get actionable insights, practical strategies, and proven tactics from entrepreneurs who've built thriving ecommerce businesses.

"Nobody wants to get rich slowly." Nick Mertz started Pins and Aces with $6,000 and zero outside capital. Today, his golf lifestyle brand does $25 million a year, employs over 40 people, and ships every order from their own warehouse outside Denver. But with customer acquisition costs through the roof, Nick stopped fighting the ad auction and built an omnichannel machine instead. We break down how live selling on Whatnot and TikTok became a serious revenue channel ($400K in December alone on TikTok Shop), why licensing collabs with Coca-Cola and South Park actually boost brand legitimacy, and how wholesale is flipping from 10% to 40% of revenue. Plus: the grab bag strategy that went nuclear, and why Nick runs his family business like a sports team. SPONSORS Swym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more getswym.com/kurt Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopify cleverific.com Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels zipify.com/KURT LINKS Pins and Aces: https://pinsandaces.com Nick Mertz on Instagram: https://instagram.com/nvmertz Pins and Aces on Instagram: https://instagram.com/pinsandaces Nick's first episode (June 2023): https://unofficialshopifypodcast.com/episodes/[LINK-TO-ORIGINAL-EPISODE] Whatnot: https://whatnot.com TikTok Shop: https://shop.tiktok.com WORK WITH KURT Apply for Shopify Help ethercycle.com/apply See Our Results ethercycle.com/work Free Newsletter kurtelster.com The Unofficial Shopify Podcast is hosted by Kurt Elster and explores the stories behind successful Shopify stores. Get actionable insights, practical strategies, and proven tactics from entrepreneurs who've built thriving ecommerce businesses.

"I kinda told myself I need to take a step back from e-commerce. When I took a step back, e-commerce said no and put me back in." Amer Grozdanic burned out running paid media for brands. The results were good — but never good enough. So he walked away, rebuilt his agency around what he could actually control, and landed clients like MVMT Watches and Billie Eilish without spending a dollar on ads. Today, Praella works with brands up to $400M in revenue, and Amer's seen the same blind spots in almost every store. We dig into the Shopify features most merchants ignore (B2B, Markets, Flows, Collective), why BattlBox's Whatnot channel converts 10X better than TikTok Shop, and the one question you should ask any agency before signing a retainer. SPONSORSSwym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more getswym.com/kurt Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopify cleverific.com Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels zipify.com/KURT LINKSWatch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/J3QTUEVulFcPraella: praella.comAmer on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/amergrozdanicWhatnot: whatnot.comBattlBox: battlbox.comShoplift (A/B testing): shoplift.comIntelligems (A/B testing): intelligems.ioShopify Collective: shopify.com/collectiveShopify B2B: shopify.com/plus/b2bShopify Flow: shopify.com/flowWORK WITH KURTApply for Shopify Help ethercycle.com/apply See Our Results ethercycle.com/work Free Newsletter kurtelster.com The Unofficial Shopify Podcast is hosted by Kurt Elster and explores the stories behind successful Shopify stores. Get actionable insights, practical strategies, and proven tactics from entrepreneurs who've built thriving ecommerce businesses.

For most direct-to-consumer brands, the term "ERP" evokes dread. Six-month implementations. Six-figure costs. Software built for factories, not Shopify stores. Kyle Hency experienced that pain firsthand. He scaled Chubbies Shorts past $100 million in revenue, and along the way, his "sophisticated" spreadsheet system (built by a former banker) completely fell apart. The breaking point? When Nordstrom called wanting to stock Chubbies, and his team realized they had no infrastructure to even accept the order. That painful lesson led Hency to raise $13.5 million for GoodDay Software, an ERP designed from day one for Shopify merchants. In this episode, we demystify what an ERP actually is, identify the warning signs that a brand has outgrown spreadsheets, and explore why the traditional barriers to operational infrastructure are finally falling for smaller businesses. Hency makes the case that it doesn't have to be this hard anymore. SPONSORSSwym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more getswym.com/kurt Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopify cleverific.com Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels zipify.com/KURT LINKSGoodDay Software: https://gooddaysoftware.comKyle on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/kylehencyThe Normal Brand case study: https://bit.ly/4bzwcFMWORK WITH KURTApply for Shopify Help ethercycle.com/apply See Our Results ethercycle.com/work Free Newsletter kurtelster.com The Unofficial Shopify Podcast is hosted by Kurt Elster and explores the stories behind successful Shopify stores. Get actionable insights, practical strategies, and proven tactics from entrepreneurs who've built thriving ecommerce businesses.

Here's something most merchants don't realize: you can run paid ads through an influencer's handle instead of your own. It's called whitelisting, and it converts about 15% better. Brad Hoos, CEO of Outloud Group and owner of Shopify store MuskOx Flannels, has been doing influencer marketing since YouTube was mostly cat videos. In this episode, he breaks down how whitelisting works step by step, why he thinks of creators as "decentralized media companies," and what most brands overthink when they're just getting started. SPONSORSSwym — Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more getswym.com/kurt Cleverific — Smart order editing for Shopify cleverific.com Zipify — Build high-converting sales funnels zipify.com/KURT Promo Party — Kurt's new app for free gift with purchase promotions promoparty.app LINKSOutloud Group: https://outloudgroup.comMuskOx Flannels: https://gomuskox.comWORK WITH KURTApply for Shopify Help ethercycle.com/apply See Our Results ethercycle.com/work Free Newsletter kurtelster.com The Unofficial Shopify Podcast is hosted by Kurt Elster and explores the stories behind successful Shopify stores. Get actionable insights, practical strategies, and proven tactics from entrepreneurs who've built thriving ecommerce businesses.

"You can't control tariffs. You can't control the weather. But you can control what's happening within your business." Salena Knight has audited thousands of retail businesses since 2007 and found that 4 out of 5 seven-figure stores share the same blind spot—and it's not marketing. It's money. We talked about why inventory is secretly taxable cash sitting on your shelves, how one brand increased profit margins 30% by auditing their pick-and-pack costs, and why running a 30% off sale on luxury products got zero orders. SPONSORSSwym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more getswym.com/kurt Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopify cleverific.com Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels zipify.com/KURT Promo Party Pro - Boost sales with promotional campaigns promoparty.app LINKSBringing Business to Retail Podcast: https://salenaknight.com/podcastSalena Knight: https://salenaknight.comThe Retail Academy: https://theretailacademy.comWORK WITH KURTApply for Shopify Help ethercycle.com/apply See Our Results ethercycle.com/work Free Newsletter kurtelster.com The Unofficial Shopify Podcast is hosted by Kurt Elster and explores the stories behind successful Shopify stores. Get actionable insights, practical strategies, and proven tactics from entrepreneurs who've built thriving ecommerce businesses.

"I would have invested 100% of all of the money that we raised into Meta. I would have done nothing else but secure that one channel first." After launching Troop, a functional mushroom gummy brand, Jake Mellman discovered that community events and sampling don't pay the bills. What does: Meta ads, a 76% contribution margin, and defaulting customers to quarterly subscriptions. Now he's applied those lessons to Psilly Goose, a functional beverage targeting the 46% of American adults who've stopped drinking. The challenge: THC restrictions, heavy shipping costs, and a farm bill that could shut him down by November. SPONSORSSwym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more getswym.com/kurt Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopify cleverific.com Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels zipify.com/KURT LINKSTroop Mushroom Gummies: https://trytroop.comPsilly Goose: https://drinkpsillygoose.comPrevious episode with Jake & Stephanie: https://unofficialshopifypodcast.com/episodes/jake-mellman-stephanie-moyalBreeze (Aaron Nosbish episode): https://unofficialshopifypodcast.com/episodes/aaron-nosbish-breezeWORK WITH KURTApply for Shopify Help ethercycle.com/apply See Our Results ethercycle.com/work Free Newsletter kurtelster.com The Unofficial Shopify Podcast is hosted by Kurt Elster and explores the stories behind successful Shopify stores. Get actionable insights, practical strategies, and proven tactics from entrepreneurs who've built thriving ecommerce businesses.