The Shopify Blog
You're Selling to Ghosts: Why the Average Shopify Customer Doesn't Exist
You're Selling to Ghosts: Why the Average Shopify Customer Doesn't Exist
Brice McBeth spent over $100,000 building an ecommerce store, and it flopped. Then he did something I'm not sure I'd have the stomach for. He threw it out for a $300 template,…
Your Shopify Support Data Is Worth Millions | Siena AI
Your Shopify Support Data Is Worth Millions
A CPG brand kept seeing the same request come through their support inbox. Customers wanted to try the product before committing to a full-size version. Not a discount. A smaller size.
So they built one.…
More 5-Star Reviews Won't Fix What AI Says About Your Shopify Store
More 5-Star Reviews Won't Fix What AI Says About Your Shopify Store
I was on a product page the other day, looking at a pair of athletic shorts, and a little bar dropped down beside the URL bar in Chrome.
"Analyze reviews."
That wasn't the store …
The Shopify Retention Math Nobody Runs
The Shopify Retention Math Nobody Runs
A brand sells you a bottle with five servings. You can use two a month. They charge you again on day thirty.
Then they hold a meeting about why churn is up.
Thomas Lalas has analysed real-time data from more…
Hello? Can I Speak To A Human Please? Why The Biggest Shopify Opportunity Right Now Isn't AI
Hello? Can I Speak To A Human Please? Why The Biggest Shopify Opportunity Right Now Isn't AI
A shopper got a text from a brand, replied, and then asked the most reasonable question in the world: are you a real human?
The AI on the other end said i…
How To Get More "Second Orders" on Shopify
Here's what most Shopify stores call a reorder strategy. They set one reminder, usually 30 days after purchase, and they send it to every single customer the same way, forever.
Think about who's getting that email. The person who bought one bag of …
The Repeat Rate Shopify Doesn't Show You (and How to Find It)
The Repeat Rate Shopify Doesn't Show You (and How to Find It)
Your Shopify dashboard says forty percent of your customers come back. You're above average, you feel good, you move on with your day.
Except that forty percent is quietly answering a d…
The Shopify Ad Budget Math Nobody Runs: Retention vs Acquisition
The Shopify Ad Budget Math Nobody Runs: Retention vs Acquisition
Two strategies can add the exact same revenue to your Shopify store and do the opposite thing to your bank account. One puts money in. One quietly takes money out. And the wild part i…
Repeat Commerce 01: What Number Predicts If Your Shopify Store Survives?
What Number Predicts If Your Shopify Store Survives?
In 2013, the average online store lost about $9 every time it won a new customer. After ad spend, discount codes, and returns, you were nine bucks in the hole before that person even opened the b…
You're the Moat: The One Thing AI Can't Copy About Your Shopify Store
You're the Moat: The One Thing AI Can't Copy About Your Shopify Store
I once bought skin lotion for my daughter and three weeks later I couldn't remember the name of the brand. Not roughly. At all. The order never showed up, and when I searched my …
Why 'Shop by Color' Might Be the Most Valuable Spot on Your Shopify Store
Why Shop by Color Might Be the Most Valuable Spot on Your Shopify Store
I've abandoned a store because I couldn't find a color. Not the wrong size. Not a bad price. I knew the exact shade I wanted, the store had it somewhere in the catalog, and I…
Shopify Dropped 150 Updates. Here Are the 11 I'd Turn On, and the One That Matters Most
Shopify Dropped 150 Updates. Here Are the 11 I'd Turn On, and the One That Matters Most
Short version: Shopify's Spring '26 Edition shipped over 150 updates, and the thread running through almost all of them is that there's now a fourth place your …
Here's Where Your Shopify Store Is Leaking Money (And How to Plug It)
I just got off a conversation with Adam Pearce, co-founder and CEO of Blend Commerce, and I cannot stop thinking about one number he hammered home.
The average Shopify store converts about 1.4% of its traffic. Read that again. For every 100 people …
Become the Store AI Recommends (Before Your Competitor Does)
I just got off the mic, and I can't stop thinking about a chair called "The Hugger."
Let me back up.
Right now — not someday, right now — there's a shopper asking ChatGPT to find them the best product in your exact category. And the AI is going to…
The Affiliate Illuminati: How the Best Shopify Brands Quietly Build Affiliate Programs That Print Money
The Affiliate Illuminati: How the Best Shopify Brands Quietly Build Affiliate Programs That Print Money
Let me start with a number that should make every Shopify merchant a little uncomfortable.
15%.
That's roughly how much of the average affilia…
Why Top Shopify Brands Are Quietly Spending Millions on Postcards (Yes, Postcards)
Why Top Shopify Brands Are Quietly Spending Millions on Postcards (Yes, Postcards)
If I told you in 2018 that one of the most profitable performance channels for Shopify brands in 2026 would be a literal postcard with a stamp on it, you would have …
Have Shopify Brands A/B Tested Themselves Into Invisibility? My Conversation With Phillip Jackson on the Sea of Sameness.
Let me ask you something brutal.
If someone stripped the logo off your Shopify store, the typeface off your header, and the branded color off your buttons, could your own customers still tell it was you?
Before you answer "of course they could," y…
Create a Referral Flywheel on Shopify. The growth channel you already own
Create a Referral Flywheel on Shopify. The growth channel you already own
Paid ads are not a growth strategy. They’re a coping mechanism.
That’s how this episode started, because the math is getting ugly for a lot of Shopify merchants. Meanwhile, …
Build a Shopify Business You Can Actually Sell.
Build a Shopify Business You Can Actually Sell. Notes from my conversation with Lexi Grant (They Got Acquired)
Big statement to kick this off. Most founders treat “selling your Shopify business” like it’s a graduation ceremony that automatically ha…
Be Everywhere. Why a Series Beats Trying to Go Viral (for Shopify brands)
Be Everywhere. Why a Series Beats Trying to Go Viral (for Shopify brands)
Right now, “going viral” is the most expensive marketing strategy on Shopify. Not because it costs money. Because it costs your sanity.
Here’s the uncomfortable reality. Vid…
If AI Can’t Explain Your Shopify Brand, It Won’t Recommend You
If AI Can’t Explain Your Shopify Brand, It Won’t Recommend You
I’m going to start with the sentence that either scares you or fires you up:
If AI can’t explain your brand in one clean paragraph, it won’t recommend you.
That sounds dramatic, but l…
10 Shopify Flow Automations You Should Build Today (So You Don’t Have to Hire 12 People)
10 Shopify Flow Automations You Should Build Today (So You Don’t Have to Hire 12 People)
I’ve seen this movie a thousand times in Shopify.
A brand is doing $1M to $20M. Ads are fine. Product is solid. Then volume hits and everything “after the cli…
Are Handwritten Notes on Shopify Really The Holy Grail?
Handwritten Notes on Shopify. The "Anti Inbox" Retention Play You Should Steal
If you are running a Shopify store and your entire retention strategy is “send more email,” I have bad news. You are competing with a digital landfill.
In a recent Micr…
Found by AI: Why Your Shopify Traffic is Dropping, and Where It Went
I’ve been in the ecommerce game a long time. Long enough to remember when "SEO" meant stuffing the keyword "luxury socks" into your footer 500 times in white text.
(Don’t act like you didn’t do it.)
But lately, I’ve been hearing the same panic fro…