The Unofficial Shopify Podcast

"Shopping is in our blood. It's the one thing that we care about the most, more than anyone else. And so if anyone's gonna do that work, why not us?"Shopify VP of Product Vanessa Lee returns to break down the Fall '26 Edition, Shopify's tenth, which Shopify calls the Exponential Edition. The theme is network effects: features only Shopify can build because millions of merchants share one platform.Vanessa covers Shopify Protect writing chargeback evidence with AI, Shop Promise opening to far more stores, and Shop MCP and shop.md, which turn any AI agent into a personal shopper. Then the surprise: Shopify's catalog is expanding to products that are not on Shopify. Plus a $50 bet on how fast shoppers adopt AI agents.SPONSORSSwym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & moregetswym.com/kurtPromo Party Pro - Free gifts that drive bigger ordersapps.shopify.com/promo-party-fgwpZipify - Build high-converting sales funnelszipify.com/BFCMWhat you'll learn:Why the tenth Edition is called "Exponential," and what network effects mean for a store of any sizeShopify Protect now covers all orders, not just Shop Pay, and uses AI to write dispute evidence for each card networkAbout 40% more "product not received" disputes won with Shopify Protect, per VanessaRule builder: add a 3DS challenge to risky orders, for example anything over $1,000Shop Promise: a new delivery prediction model makes 20x more merchants eligible for the badge, with the same $5 Shop Cash guarantee to shoppersShop MCP and shop.dev: catalog, cart, checkout, and order tools for anyone building a shopping agentShop Pay as an agent wallet, with a spending budget you setshop.md: copy one prompt and any AI agent becomes your personal shopper, tuned to your own habitsCatalog expansion (beta): products from stores not on Shopify, cleaned to Shopify's taxonomy, in one APIWhy speed (a 180 ms search target) and the satisfaction of checkout matter for AI shoppingWindow shopping vs. efficiency shopping, and where agents fit eachKurt's own agentic workflow, in production with merchants in eight weeksGuest: Vanessa Lee, VP of Product, Shopify.LINKSShopify Fall '26 Edition: shopify.com/editions/fall2026shop.md, turn any agent into a personal shopper: shop.mdshop.dev, Shop MCP for agentic commerce: shop.devVanessa Lee on X: x.com/vlaurenleeVanessa Lee on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/vlaurenleeWORK WITH KURTApply for Shopify Helpethercycle.com/applySee Our Resultsethercycle.com/workFree Newsletterkurtelster.comThe 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 the largest purchase they make after a car and a house."Matt Davy spent his twenties fixing engines on 450-foot superyachts, earning six figures tax free. He ran a high-ticket dropshipping store from the engine room, picked pottery because his partner is a potter, then switched to selling his own pottery wheels. Kiln Crafts hit its first £1M in about 900 days. The second million took seven months.Matt explains why his customers want a phone call, how draft orders became his best-converting Klaviyo flow, and what changed the month he moved his business into Claude Cowork.SPONSORSSwym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & moregetswym.com/kurtPromo Party Pro - Free gifts that drive bigger ordersapps.shopify.com/promo-party-fgwpZipify - Build high-converting sales funnelszipify.com/BFCMWhat you'll learn:Why a superyacht engineer earning six figures tax free walked away, and how he ran a store from the engine roomHigh-ticket dropshipping for 14 months at £2,000 to £2,500 profit a month, then the move to his own pottery wheelsShipping 100 lb wheels and 500 lb kilns in the UK for £50 to £60, and baking it into the priceWho buys: women aged 55 to 75 who want a phone call before the biggest purchase after a car and a houseThe phone team, the scripts that took a year and a half, and why they ask about the dog barking in the backgroundDraft orders sent to a 10-email Klaviyo flow, the store's best-converting flow, with a call-back task in a weekA custom CRM that records, transcribes, and scores every sales callThe month he moved the business into Claude Cowork, and why every employee takes the Anthropic coursesWhy Meta stays mostly out of cold traffic when the buying cycle runs for monthsRunning short on a redesigned best seller going into Q4Next: £300 to £400 add-on products, a Netherlands 3PL for the EU, and US certification for 110 voltsGuest: Matt Davy, co-founder of Kiln Crafts. Kiln Crafts is based in the UK.LINKSKiln Crafts: https://kilncrafts.co.ukKiln Crafts on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kiln.craftsKiln Crafts on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@kilncraftsWORK WITH KURTApply for Shopify Helpethercycle.com/applySee Our Resultsethercycle.com/workFree Newsletterkurtelster.comThe 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.

"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/kurtPromo Party Pro - Free gifts that drive bigger ordersapps.shopify.com/promo-party-fgwpZipify - Build high-converting sales funnelszipify.com/KURTWhat 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-podcastWORK WITH KURTApply for Shopify Helpethercycle.com/applySee Our Resultsethercycle.com/workFree Newsletterkurtelster.comThe 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/kurtPromo Party Pro - Free gifts that drive bigger ordersapps.shopify.com/promo-party-fgwpZipify - Build high-converting sales funnelszipify.com/KURTWhat 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-canvasWORK WITH KURTApply for Shopify Helpethercycle.com/applySee Our Resultsethercycle.com/workFree Newsletterkurtelster.comThe 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/kurtPromo Party Pro - Free gifts that drive bigger ordersapps.shopify.com/promo-party-fgwpZipify - Build high-converting sales funnelszipify.com/KURTWhat 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/applySee Our Resultsethercycle.com/workFree Newsletterkurtelster.comThe 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.