Advertise on podcast: The Unofficial Shopify Podcast

"BFCM is a funnel clearing event, not a list growth event." Jimmy Kim has spent 18 years in email. He built an in-house email tool for his men's clothing store, turned it into Sendlane, and built his own sending network along the way. Now he co-hosts Send It! with Chase Dimond. His view of Black Friday: stop casting a wide net and move every segment one step down the funnel. Jimmy explains why you ramp send volume in October instead of November, how many emails to send on Black Friday and to whom, and why a new product launch beats another discount. SPONSORSSwym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & moregetswym.com/kurt Promo Party Pro - Free gifts that drive bigger ordersapps.shopify.com/promo-party-fgwp Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnelszipify.com/KURT What you'll learn: Why Black Friday should move every segment one step down the funnel instead of growing the listGetting VIPs to raise their hands for early access, so they reserve a budget for youThe segments to build now: prospects, first-time buyers, repeat customers, VIPs, and lapsed customersWhere identity resolution works (browse and cart abandonment) and where it doesn't (list building)Why unengaged prospects get cut, while lapsed buyers from the last 365 days get one more shotRamping send volume in October, because a 2 to 3X spike in November is a red flag to inbox providersAdding unengaged contacts at 10% of your list, never doubling itFive to eight emails on Black Friday, with different messaging and frequency per segmentSMS as an urgency channel, not an echo of your emailWhat unsubscribe rate means pull back: 0.2 to 0.5% is normal, worry at 20 to 30% above your baselineWhy a new product launch beats another discount, plus bundles, gift with purchase, and tiered spendThe post-BFCM lag, the second purchase, and faster abandoned cart timing for the holiday weekGuest: Jimmy Kim, co-host of the Send It! podcast and founder of Sendlane. LINKSThe eCom Email Marketer (Jimmy's daily newsletter): https://ecomemailmarketer.comSend It! podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SendItPodcastSend It! on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/send-it/id1772942834Montana Knife Company's Black Friday episode: https://ethercycle.com/blogs/unofficial-shopify-podcast/inside-montana-knife-companys-black-friday-2025-the-unofficial-shopify-podcast WORK WITH KURTApply for Shopify Helpethercycle.com/apply See Our Resultsethercycle.com/work Free Newsletterkurtelster.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.

"Now everybody knows code. It's called English." On October 1, Shopify launched Canvas, a new theme editor built around Sidekick. Ben Sehl is Director of Product for Online Store at Shopify. He built themes as a partner, cofounded the clothing brand Kotn, and led Hydrogen from zero to one. Now he's replacing a theme editor that has worked for 15 years, and he says Canvas will be the only one in time. Ben explains what Shopify rebuilt under the hood, who should use Canvas today and who should wait, and why he thinks agencies are worth more now than before AI. SPONSORSSwym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & moregetswym.com/kurt Promo Party Pro - Free gifts that drive bigger ordersapps.shopify.com/promo-party-fgwp Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnelszipify.com/KURT What you'll learn: Why Shopify rebuilt the editor instead of adding AI to the old oneThe artboard view: every page of your store on one screenHow a client-side Liquid renderer lets you click any text and edit it where it livesWhy Sidekick for big changes and direct edits for small onesTheme settings: why Horizon was peak settings, and why two or three variants per block is the new ruleWhat happens to your theme, your JSON templates, and your GitHub sync when you switchAutosave, version history, and theme check before publish, built inWhat Canvas does not support yet: Theme Store themes, apps, and MarketsWhy Ben hired an agency for Kotn instead of using Canvas, and why he thinks AI makes agencies more valuableShopify's zero-breaking-changes promise, back to store number one, SnowdevilThe one prompt to try first: "redesign my store"Guest: Ben Sehl, Director of Product, Online Store at Shopify. Cofounder of Kotn. LINKSBen Sehl on X: https://x.com/benjaminsehlBen's site: https://sehl.caKotn: https://kotn.comCommerce-UI (Kotn's agency): https://commerce-ui.comIntroducing Canvas (Shopify): https://www.shopify.com/news/introducing-canvasCanvas changelog: https://changelog.shopify.com/posts/design-a-fully-bespoke-store-with-canvas WORK WITH KURTApply for Shopify Helpethercycle.com/apply See Our Resultsethercycle.com/work Free Newsletterkurtelster.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.

"Not knowing what we were doing, just bobbling through it, we did a couple thousand dollars an hour and we were like, whoa, this might be something." John Roman bought BattlBox back in 2023 and went looking for the next channel. With over a million TikTok followers, TikTok Shop looked obvious. Then a Whatnot sales rep sent an email. Seventeen months later, live selling on Whatnot does $447K a month, with no ad spend. John breaks down why Whatnot buyers spend three times what TikTok Shop buyers spend, what a three-hour show looks like when each product gets 30 seconds, and the host-hiring mistake that seemed like a sure thing. SPONSORSSwym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & moregetswym.com/kurt Promo Party Pro - Free gifts that drive bigger ordersapps.shopify.com/promo-party-fgwp Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnelszipify.com/KURT What you'll learn: The ramp: $25K in 10 hours the first month, $447K in 317 hours last monthWhy buying intent on Whatnot beats TikTok's algorithm: "You don't open up the Amazon app to look at content"Auctions, dollar starts, and the deal-hunter problem that hurts your marginThe format: 30 seconds per product, 50 to 60 items per three-hour show, 200 SKUs in rotationThe setup: a phone, good lighting, a home studio, and OBS for effectsWhere hosts come from, and why the TikTok Shop affiliates they recruited didn't work outRaids and community boosts, the features that keep Whatnot buyers coming backHow members get box items six months before they reach WhatnotWhy they turned off Whatnot ads after a holdout test, and how their Meta CAC changedWhat's next: Battl Games season three, a six-part YouTube series starting in NovemberGuest: John Roman, CEO of BattlBox. Last on the show in January 2023. LINKSBattlBox: https://battlbox.comBattlBox on Whatnot: https://www.whatnot.com/user/battlboxJohn Roman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-romanOnline Queso (John's blog): https://onlinequeso.comJohn's previous episode, "How a Subscription Box Biz Got a Netflix Show": https://unofficialshopifypodcast.com/episodes/john-roman-battlbox/ WORK WITH KURTApply for Shopify Helpethercycle.com/apply See Our Resultsethercycle.com/work Free Newsletterkurtelster.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.

Kurt spent a day at Beanstalk, an invite-only ecommerce conference at Industry City in Brooklyn, recording 15-minute conversations under a tent. Seven made it to tape. Every guest is on Shopify. Not one led with paid ads. The lineup: Matt Butcher of Adam's Polishes on why he comes. Jay Wright, who spends about a billion dollars a year on Meta, on why your media buying is "completely cooked." Maria Lopez-May, VP Marketing at Nugget, on life after the pandemic lottery. Vivek Kumar, CEO of Articore (Redbubble and TeePublic), on their new Shopify integration and a $20 million turnaround. NJ Falk of APL on $400 sneakers and the thing she noticed about Sidekick. Robbie Bent of Othership on building $15 million bathhouses and marketing through the local dentist. Ali Weiss, former CMO of Glossier, on launching NoBiggie and choosing not to turn on paid. Paul was not there. He asks what you would ask. What you'll learn: Why a curated conference beats a big one: "everyone I bump into here is worth chatting with"Jay Wright: Meta is an auction, someone is winning at that CPM, and it is not the person buying like it's 2022The biggest mistake Jay sees: founders abdicating growth to a $1,000-a-month retainerHow to label your ad creative so your own account tells you what to make nextMaria Lopez-May of Nugget: right product, right time, then the dupes, then Amazon and CTVArticore's first profit since listing and a Shopify integration that launched ten days before the interviewWhy print-on-demand sellers should not put "the kitchen sink" on their storeAPL: Magento to Shopify Plus in a week, then a flagship store opened four months before lockdownThe Sidekick detail NJ Falk noticed and Kurt never didOthership: a horse trough in a backyard, 90 people screaming in a dark sauna, and why brick and mortar takes two decadesWhy local influencers (the trainer, the stylist, the bartender) beat wide-reach channels for a neighborhood businessAli Weiss on unlearning beauty margins, "playing on hard mode" with two buyers, and why getting on a Target shelf is the easy partNoBiggie Neighbors: free product for your kid's birthday party as the whole acquisition strategyThe hard decision to not turn on paid until repeat purchase shows up across channelsHosts: Kurt Elster and Paul Reda, co-owners of Ethercycle, a Shopify-exclusive agency. SPONSORSSwym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & moregetswym.com/kurt Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopifycleverific.com Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnelszipify.com/KURT LINKSBeanstalk: https://www.beanstalkevents.comAdam's Polishes: https://adamspolishes.comEcommerce Equation: https://ecommerceequation.comJay Wright on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaywrightofficial/Nugget: https://nuggetcomfort.comArticore Group: https://articore.comDashery: https://www.dashery.comAPL: https://athleticpropulsionlabs.comOthership: https://othership.usNoBiggie: https://nobiggieplease.comWORK WITH KURTApply for Shopify Helpethercycle.com/apply See Our Resultsethercycle.com/work Free Newsletterkurtelster.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.

Discounts are the biggest line item on your P&L that nobody approved. Kurt and Paul answer the questions merchants keep asking, then lay out the Black Friday plan. Part one is a mailbag pulled from r/ecommerce, r/shopify, and the Shopify Community: the Combines With checkbox that wiped the profit on 60 orders before lunch, influencer codes showing up on Honey, welcome codes reused by new Gmail accounts, and the eternal free-shipping-or-20%-off question. Part two is what to fix in September, and what three consecutive Black Fridays of gift-with-purchase data say about thresholds, gift size, and who actually takes the gift. What you'll learn: Why discounts deserve the scrutiny you give ad spend, and why almost nobody gives itHow one Combines With checkbox stacked free shipping, 20% off, and a bundle script into zero-profit ordersWhat to do about influencer codes on coupon sites (and why single-use codes don't solve this one)The rule Kurt uses on every code he creates: a 12-month expiry, no exceptionsWhy you can't stop welcome-code abuse, and the one-line fix from the top Reddit replyFree shipping vs discount codes: if you have to ask, you don't know your contribution marginThe September checklist before code freeze: SEO metadata, alt text, accessibility, Core Web Vitals, and a discount auditThree Black Fridays, one $50 gift threshold, and carts that landed at $98, $101, and $111The surprise in the data: gift-with-purchase skews to returning customers, free shipping to new onesThe segmented strategy: free shipping code for first-time buyers, gift for everyone elseThreshold math: gift at 2x AOV, free shipping 50% above AOV, gift retail value 10 to 15% of cartWhy Shopify's agentic catalog mapping did nothing on two stores for 14 daysHosts: Kurt Elster and Paul Reda, co-owners of Ethercycle, a Shopify-exclusive agency, and makers of Promo Party, a gift-with-purchase app. SPONSORSSwym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & moregetswym.com/kurt Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopifycleverific.com Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnelszipify.com/KURT LINKSAll three research reports: https://ethercycle.com/reportState of Discounts 2026: https://ethercycle.com/pages/state-of-discounts-2026Q4 gift-with-purchase report: https://promoparty.app/bfcm-gift-with-purchase/The $2K Combines With thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/ecommerce/comments/1qbvg5k/Free shipping vs discount codes thread: https://community.shopify.com/t/675799Welcome code abuse thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/shopify/comments/1u9i640/Influencer codes on Honey thread: https://community.shopify.com/t/222041WORK WITH KURTApply for Shopify Helpethercycle.com/apply See Our Resultsethercycle.com/work Free Newsletterkurtelster.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.

He sells vapes with no nicotine. Every ad platform, payment processor, and carrier treats him like Big Tobacco anyway. Conrad Kurth founded Cyclone Pods in 2018 after watching every friend he had get hooked on Juul. Eight years later the brand has grown every year with a 60 percent repeat customer rate, no paid ads, no Shopify Payments, and no USPS. This is what selling on hard mode actually looks like. What you'll learn: Why a product with no addictive ingredient still gets a 60% repeat rateWhere a new customer really comes from when Meta, Google, and TikTok won't run your adsWhy "alternative advertising" on age-restricted sites sent traffic that never convertedThe Sunday morning Shopify Payments shut off with no warning, and the standalone store he keeps ready for next timeHow UPS and FedEx agreed to ship after seeing lab data, and why USPS never willWhether publishing third-party lab results helps SEO (his honest answer: he can't prove it)Why Wisconsin only allows vapes from Philip Morris, Altria, and ReynoldsThe Focus Pouch story: caffeine plus lion's mane, reishi, and cordyceps, two years before caffeine pouches were a categoryVapes for dogs, the leaking device that got pulled, and what he'd tell his 2018 selfHis advice for anyone selling a restricted product: ignore the ad people, do the legwork yourselfGuest: Conrad Kurth, founder and CEO of Cyclone Pods, a nicotine-free vape and nootropic pouch brand based in Santa Monica, California. Former software engineer. Show Links: Cyclone Pods: https://cyclonepods.comEmail Conrad: [email protected] - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & moregetswym.com/kurt Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopifycleverific.com/unofficial Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnelszipify.com/KURT WORK WITH KURTApply for Shopify Helpethercycle.com/apply See Our Resultsethercycle.com/work Free Newsletterkurtelster.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.

He's shipped over a billion units. He says your Black Friday gets decided in September. Casey Armstrong, CMO of ShipBob, returns for his third appearance to break down peak season 2026. Five years ago the villain was Shipageddon. This year there's no single boogeyman, just tariffs that pushed brands global, an exploding channel mix, and AI quietly eating the back office. What you'll learn: Why right now is "inbound peak" and what to send your 3PL before OctoberThe real warehouse math: when one node beats five, and why split shipments crush marginsThe only two levers that lower shipping costs (and you can only pull one)The subscription discount trap that trains customers to game you, plus how Rise Coffee and Momentous do it rightHow brands turn screenshots into warehouse receiving orders in 30 seconds with AI agents in SlackShipBob Promise: delivery dates on the PDP and at checkout, built by the exec who ran Amazon's North America fulfillmentThe Watchmaster story: a crawler that undercut Rolex competitors $5 at a time to win Google ShoppingThe exact signal it's time to stop packing your own ordersGuest: Casey Armstrong, CMO of ShipBob, the global fulfillment platform with 70+ facilities worldwide. Previously VP of Marketing at BigCommerce. Show Links: ShipBob: https://www.shipbob.comUnpacked with Casey Armstrong, ShipBob's podcast: https://unpacked.shipbob.comCasey's prior appearances: Shipageddon (Dec 2020), 3PL ShipBob Sees Strong Black Friday Fulfillment (Dec 2021)SPONSORSSwym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & moregetswym.com/kurt Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopifycleverific.com Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnelszipify.com/KURT WORK WITH KURTApply for Shopify Helpethercycle.com/apply See Our Resultsethercycle.com/work Free Newsletterkurtelster.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 think you know what you're doing. Like I work at Shopify. I should be better at it." That's Atlee Clark, Shopify's VP of Partnerships, on running her own store, Pika Layers, for the past seven years. She's joined by Eytan Seidman, VP of Product for everything partners and developers touch. Together they just rewrote the deal for Shopify's entire partner ecosystem, and this conversation explains what that means for your store. We get into the new revenue share that pays partners on merchant GMV growth (Plus upgrades finally count), why Catalog and UCP put the world's products in a single API, and how Sidekick app extensions going GA changes what apps can do inside your admin. Plus the two areas both VPs say are wide open for anyone willing to build. Stick around for the complaint Eytan admits Shopify still hasn't fixed. 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 Partners: shopify.com/partners Shopify.dev: shopify.dev Pika Layers (Atlee's store): pikalayers.com Atlee Clark on X: x.com/AtleeClark PromoParty (Kurt's app): [URL] 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.

"It's more than 2x that conversion rate coming from another referral channel." AI shopping agents are already sending buyers to Shopify stores, and they convert at double the rate of your other referral traffic. Most merchants have no idea it's happening because the analytics show up as direct traffic. Archie Abrams runs growth at Shopify, and he's spent five and a half years building the infrastructure for exactly this moment: Shop identity, cart sync, and the Shop Product Network. Archie breaks down why AI traffic lands on product pages instead of your homepage, the five-minute ChatGPT audit that reveals what AI actually understands about your products, and which product categories are winning in agentic search right now. Plus the free growth levers already sitting in your admin, and why the smartest money might still be in direct mail. Sponsors Swym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopify Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels Links Shopify Collective Shopify B2B (now on all plans) Work With Kurt Apply for Shopify Help See Our Results Free Newsletter 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.

Your subscription program is adding customers every month—so why has it stopped growing? Matt Holman, founder of Subscription Prescription and known as “The Subscription Doc,” explains how churn creates a hidden ceiling: eventually, the subscribers coming in simply replace those going out. Matt and Kurt discuss why improving the offer can produce a better return than obsessing over retention, including: Why Matt considers a 40% subscription opt-in rate achievable How gifts can outperform deeper subscription discounts Why customers who switch products or flavors can be worth 6x more When migrating subscription platforms is worth the risk How to simplify the initial offer without limiting existing subscribers Which products probably shouldn’t be sold by subscription The inexpensive billing-email improvement most brands overlook They also compare Recharge, Skio, and Loop—and explore how AI could change subscription management. Guest Matt Holman, The Subscription Doc Subscription Prescription: https://thesubscriptiondoc.com The Cancel Page: https://thecancelpage.com Sponsors Swym — Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, and morehttps://getswym.com/kurt Cleverific — Smart order editing for Shopifyhttps://cleverific.com Zipify — Build high-converting sales funnelshttps://zipify.com/KURT Work with Kurt Apply for Shopify help: https://ethercycle.com/apply See our results: https://ethercycle.com/work Get the free newsletter: https://kurtelster.com

"This traffic is nothing. It is a rounding error." Kurt and Paul pulled 24 months of raw order data from 10 established Shopify stores: 94 million sessions, 2.2 million orders, $274 million in revenue. They went looking for the AI shopping revolution and found 0.1% of revenue. The catch: those referrals convert better than any other channel, and getting ready for them takes one afternoon of free work. Then the discount data. Across $285 million in gross sales, nearly every store hands the same 20% code to new and returning customers alike, all year long, while the promo type that wins on every metric gets 7% of the budget. Also covered: the channel quietly outselling all AI sources combined 35 to 1, and the leaked evergreen code that cost one store $349,000. 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 State of Ecommerce 2026 (AI traffic report): https://ethercycle.com/pages/state-of-ecommerce-2026 State of Discounts 2026: https://ethercycle.com/pages/state-of-discounts-2026 Promo Party (free gift with purchase app): [PROMO PARTY URL] Shopify Agentic dashboard: Shopify admin, under Sales channels 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.

"Man, what didn't I get wrong? It's so much harder." Brian Nolan sold his SaaS company Sellbrite to GoDaddy. Then he bought Darren & Phillip, an Australian dog apparel brand built around viral matching dog-and-owner bathrobes, and found out that owning a store is a different beast than building software for stores. The founder was the face of the brand, and she left with the sale. The Google Workspace account was locked to Australian billing. Moving inventory from Australia to the US costs more than shipping it from China. In this episode: what nobody warns you about when buying an 8-year-old brand, how customers with 80+ repeat purchases justify losing money on the first order, and the TikTok creator seeding playbook that works in the hundreds, not the tens of thousands. 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 Darren & Phillip: darrenandphillip.com Loop Returns (returns & exchanges): loopreturns.com Judge.me (reviews): judge.me Promo Party (Kurt's free gift with purchase app): promoparty.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.

Kurt pulled the agentic sales numbers on a store doing $1.8 million a month. ChatGPT drove $4,200 of it. So he dragooned business partner Paul Reda into an unscripted reaction to Shopify's Editions announcements. No pre-cleared questions, no talking points, just two people who've optimized eight-figure stores for AI search comparing notes on what's actually real. They get into why Universal Commerce Protocol is legitimately impressive tech still waiting for its payday, what the app store review crackdown means for honest developers, and a discovery buried in Shopify's dev docs: a commission-based paid placements program that might finally be the part that makes the money. 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 DollScout, Kurt's Universal Commerce Protocol tech demo: dollscout.com Promo Party Pro, Ethercycle's Shopify app: promoparty.app Shopify dev docs, agents/catalog (paid placements developer preview): shopify.dev/docs/agents 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.

"It's an in-house, ready-to-go agency. Which is free for all merchants." That's how Sachin Malhotra, Shopify's Director of Product for Merchant Marketing, describes Campaign Autopilot, the new AI marketing tool Shopify just announced as part of Editions. It sets up your ad accounts, syncs your catalog, and runs Meta Advantage+ checkout campaigns inside the guardrails you set. You teach it your boundaries, it does the heavy lifting, and you keep oversight the whole way. Sachin walks Kurt through how the "ask me first" controls work, why the tool optimizes across Meta, Microsoft Ads, ChatGPT, and Snap instead of fixating on one channel, and how it stacks with Shop Campaigns and its pay-only-when-you-get-an-order billing. If online advertising has ever felt like yelling into the void, start here. LINKS Campaign Autopilot: shopify.com/blog/introducing-campaign-autopilot Shopify Editions 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.

"Being on Shopify means you get access to agentic automatically, out of the box." Your store is already selling inside ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, and Shop, whether you've noticed or not. Aaron Glazer, Director of Product at Shopify, joins Kurt to explain Agentic Storefronts, the new Admin experience that finally makes that presence visible and controllable. The buyer behavior has already shifted. Shoppers now have long conversations with an AI about a whole use case, a camping trip, a problem, a gift, and arrive at your store already sold. Agentic Storefronts shows you the traffic, sales, and conversions from each AI channel, plus the real queries surfacing your products, so you can see where you rank and where you don't. Aaron and Kurt get into why this is the new SEO, why complete product data is the whole game, how Shopify Catalog structures your catalog for agents, what native checkout in an AI channel actually means, and why you stay the merchant of record with the customer relationship intact. Plus a bonus on Rollouts and SimGem heading into BFCM. 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 Agentic Storefronts: Shopify Admin > Agentic Storefronts (left nav) Shopify Catalog (for developers): build on the product discovery API Rollouts and SimGem: in Shopify Admin 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.