Steve Hutt | Shopify and eCommerce Expert

eCommerce Fastlane: Shopify Growth Strategies—Where AI Efficiency Meets Human Connection

Business EN ↓ 474 episodes

Running a Shopify store? You already know success isn't about finding the right app—it's about knowing which strategies actually work at your specific stage of growth. I'm Steve Hutt, and I've lived every level of the ecommerce journey. From eBay Power Seller shipping products from my garage, to co-founding and scaling VisionPros.com (an optical DTC startup) through to a successful exit, then spending 6+ years as a Shopify Merchant Success Manager helping 100+ brands from startup to enterprise scale, including working with teams at Tentree, Dr. Squatch, Bulletproof Coffee, Salt & Straw Ice Cre...

Author

Steve Hutt | Shopify and eCommerce Expert

Category

Business

Podcast website

ecommercefastlane.com

Latest episode

Jul 9, 2026

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Episodes

Glossier's Former CTO on Why Your AI Doesn't Actually Know Your Business 09.07.2026

Your AI tools don't actually know your ecommerce business, and that's why the answers sound confident but the numbers are wrong. In this episode, Bryan Mahoney, former Glossier CTO and now Co-Founder & CEO of Chord, breaks down: Why a data context layer can make your existing AI tools up to 5x more effective without switching models How brands move from fact-checking AI against dashboards to t...

Copycats Are Stealing 20% of Your Revenue and AI Just Made It Worse 07.07.2026

Counterfeiters can now clone your Shopify product, listing, and website in minutes using AI, and most brands never see the revenue leak coming. In this episode, Mario Simonyan, founding attorney at ESQgo, breaks down: Why unauthorized sellers and buy box hijackers start eating your revenue once you cross $5M and expand into retail How AI lets copycats rebuild your listing and site in minutes, then...

From Phone Photo to Full Content Kit: How Shopify Brands Are Using AI Product Photography and Video 02.07.2026

Reshooting every season for your Shopify store? Dreem turns one phone photo into a full product content kit, no studio required. In this episode, Sam Thomas-Davies, Head of Content at Dreem (a Creative Force company), breaks down: Turn a single phone photo into a full content kit: pack shots, on-model imagery, lifestyle scenes, and video Access a 400-plus talent library, or create custom AI talent...

150,000 AI Shoppers Vote on Your Ad Before You Spend a Dollar 30.06.2026

Small and mid-sized Shopify brands have been priced out of the pro-level ad testing that eight-figure DTC brands rely on. In this episode, Armen Mkrtchyan, CEO and co-founder of Extuitive, breaks down the AI system changing that: How 150,000 AI consumer agents rank and pressure-test ad concepts so you know what converts before launch The poly-intelligence process that turns one product photo into...

The TikTok Shop Halo Effect: How Creator Content Lifts Amazon, Retail, and Your Store 25.06.2026

Acquisition costs creeping up? If you're a Shopify brand treating creators as a gamble, TikTok Shop is turning them into a measurable acquisition channel. In this episode, Myriah Castillo, president of Joybyte, breaks down: - The "stoplight system" that tells you exactly which creator videos deserve paid ad spend - How TikTok awareness drives a 20% to 40% lift in Amazon sales, tracked not guessed...

The Hidden Revenue Leak Sitting on Your Shopify Collection Pages 23.06.2026

Sorting your Shopify collection pages by bestsellers feels smart, but it quietly buries your highest margin products and leaks revenue. In this episode, Julia Wawrzynek, Marketing Manager at Sortwise, breaks down: Why sorting for profit beats sorting for popularity, and how to surface high margin products without a clearance bin look The two metrics that prove your merchandising is working: click...

The AI Employees Running Your Amazon Brand While You Sleep 18.06.2026

One Amazon brand added $215K in annual profit across 15 SKUs by replacing its software stack with coordinated AI agents. In this episode, Chad Rubin, founder and CEO of Profasee, breaks down: How named AI agents own pricing, PPC, and demand planning, working your Amazon business 24/7 Why coordinated agents beat disconnected point tools when a stockout should pause ad spend automatically The "Ask M...

Conversion Before Acquisition: How OptiMonk Uses AI to Turn Paid Traffic Into Sales 16.06.2026

Paying more for ads while 97% of your Shopify traffic leaves without buying? The cheaper growth lever is conversion, not acquisition. In this episode, Krisztian Kiraly, International Partnership Manager at OptiMonk and former CRO agency founder, breaks down: How one brand lifted revenue 12% in under three months using AI product-page optimization, no extra ad spend Why AI-generated product images,...

Your Conversion Rate Is Lying to You: The 4 Numbers That Actually Predict Revenue 11.06.2026

Your conversion rate is lying to you. If you're scaling a Shopify brand and treating CRO as a single number, this episode rebuilds how you diagnose what's actually broken on your site. In this episode, Anthony Morgan, founder and CEO of Enavi, breaks down: Why the "intra-site funnel" beats conversion rate, with target baselines at every step: landing to product view, add to cart, and checkout How...

From Dashboards to Doing: Triple Whale's Moby 2 with Maxx Blank 09.06.2026

Your attribution dashboard tells you ROAS dropped, but not what to do about it, and for scaling Shopify brands that gap costs real ad spend. In this episode, Maxx Blank, co-founder and COO of Triple Whale, breaks down: Why Triple Whale's AI specialists (media buyer, creative director, conversion optimizer) now execute on ad accounts, not just report How a $15M brand had Moby build a working invent...

What's Your Profit Target? The Question Most Shopify Founders Can't Answer (with Thomas Gleeson, StoreHero) 04.06.2026

Great ROAS but no profit? If you're a Shopify brand watching revenue grow while margin disappears, this episode shows you where the money actually leaks. In this episode, Thomas Gleeson, co-founder of StoreHero, breaks down: The "margin paper cuts" hiding in every order: shipping, duties, returns, and rogue discount codes draining contribution margin Why most brands chase efficiency when they shou...

The 5 to 15% of Revenue Hiding in Your Shopify Store (and Why You Never Capture It) 02.06.2026

There's revenue sitting in your Shopify store right now, and most brands doing $1M+ never capture it because they're too busy fighting fires. In this episode, Apoorva Modi, founder of Revenue Agent and ex-Google ads operator, breaks down: Why the revenue you're missing is already hiding across eight levers, from pricing and bundles to retention and checkout How most stores uncover 5 to 15% of annu...

Why AI Recommends Some Shopify Products and Ignores Yours 01.06.2026

ChatGPT and Google's AI are recommending products right now, and Shopify brands with messy, scattered product data are the ones getting skipped. In this episode, Trever Chidester, director of partnerships at Plytix, breaks down: Why clean, structured product data is the growth lever that gets you discovered in ChatGPT and AI search How to bulk edit descriptions, images, and SKUs across multiple Sh...

Voice Is the New SMS for Shopify (Here's Where It's Already Working) 26.05.2026

AI voice agents are recovering 35% of abandoned Shopify carts, and most operators haven't noticed yet. In this solo episode, Steve Hutt breaks down: Why AI voice beats email recovery flows by 3x on abandoned carts (and the stage where it actually pays off) How one Shopify brand cut $18K/month in support costs while CSAT jumped 22% The storefront voice concierge small brands can use to sound like t...

Why a 3,000-Follower Creator Beats a Celebrity Influencer (And How to Run It at Scale) 21.05.2026

Meta and Google CACs keep climbing, so Shopify brands are paying micro-influencers in product, not cash. In this episode, William Gasner, co-founder and CMO of Stack Influence, breaks down: Why the product-for-post model beats cash payouts at scale, with lifetime content rights and access to 11M+ vetted creators The Amazon cold start fix: how external influencer traffic feeds Amazon's algorithm an...

AI Brought a Stranger to Your Door. Now What? 19.05.2026

AI just delivered a stranger to your Shopify store who has zero brand context — and the first 48 hours after purchase decide whether they ever come back.  In this solo episode, Steve Hutt unpacks fresh Shopify data and breaks down:  Why AI-referred shoppers convert 50% higher with 14% larger AOV — and why most merchants still lose them  The 3-pillar post-purchase framework (first 48 hours, flow de...

Your Ads Know Your Customer. Your Website Doesn't 14.05.2026

Your ads are hyper-personalized. Your Shopify storefront isn't. That mismatch is leaking conversions for 7-figure brands. In this episode, Kratik Agrawal, founder and CEO of Kinect (YC-backed), breaks down: How real-time storefront personalization drove 10-12% conversion lift for early Shopify customers (and 2-3x for shoppers who engage the AI sales rep) Why non-commodity Shopify brands shouldn't...

How First-Party Shopify Data Cuts Meta Ad CAC by 30% 12.05.2026

Your strongest Meta ads signal is sitting in Shopify, not the pixel, and most brands are leaving it untapped. In this episode, Tiago Costa, co-founder and CEO of FULLVENUE (the team behind Clustie), breaks down: The two AI-built audiences Clustie pushes into Meta: high-propensity buyers and 30-day LTV predictions Why first-party Shopify data beats pixel tracking now that privacy changes have weake...

Revenue Up, Profit Flat: The Multi-Marketplace Trap Stalling Shopify Brands 05.05.2026

Scaling your Shopify brand to Amazon, Walmart, or TikTok Shop with revenue climbing but profit flat? You've hit the freelancer fragmentation trap. In this episode, Saad Sohail Khan, founder and CEO of Spectrum BPO, breaks down: Why the typical "PPC freelancer here, listing person there" stack quietly kills margins past $40K/month How an in-house team model with 400+ trained experts beats fragmente...

Only 30 Shopify Merchants Used OpenAI's Instant Checkout. Here's Why That Matters. 28.04.2026

Out of millions of Shopify merchants, only 30 went live with OpenAI's Instant Checkout before it got killed six months later. Here's what actually happened with agentic commerce, and what to do about it.  In this solo episode, Steve breaks down:  The foundational gap that doomed Instant Checkout from day one (OpenAI launched without solving for US sales tax)  The two-layer split that actually matt...

The $9,000 Affiliate Fraud Most Shopify Brands Are Paying For (And Don't Know It) 21.04.2026

A mom influencer with 3,000 followers pocketed $9K in fraudulent affiliate commissions in 90 days. If you run a Shopify affiliate program, you're likely overpaying too. In this episode, Yash Chavan, founder of Saathi (and Saral), breaks down: Why most affiliate dashboards lie about incrementality, and how to identify affiliates intercepting sales you'd already close The post-purchase survey method...

Your Shopify Store Might Be Selling at a Loss (And Your Inventory Is Why) 14.04.2026

Shopify's free inventory tool Stocky shuts down August 31—and most of the 100,000+ merchants using it don't have a replacement plan yet. In this episode, Riikka Söderlund, COO of Katana, breaks down: Why Shopify brands unknowingly sell at a loss—and how real-time COGS visibility fixes it How inventory accuracy now directly affects Google Shopping placement and AI product discovery How to connect S...

Your ROAS Is Lying to You: How Profit-First Marketing Actually Works 07.04.2026

Spending more on ads than ever but not seeing profit? Most Shopify brands trust their ROAS dashboards over their P&L—and it's costing them. In this episode, Matt Raminick, founder and CEO of Sunnyside, breaks down: Why chasing ROAS without tracking contribution margin leaves lifestyle brands unprofitable at scale The Profit360 framework that connects your P&L, creative strategy, and channe...

Your Shopify Store Is Already Inside ChatGPT — Here's What That Actually Means 01.04.2026

Your Shopify store is now live inside ChatGPT, Copilot, and Google AI Mode—and most merchants have no idea it happened. In this solo episode, Steve breaks down what Shopify's agentic storefronts launch actually means for your business: Why AI-referred shoppers convert 31% higher than other traffic sources—and how to show up before competitors do The Universal Commerce Protocol Shopify co-built wit...

Your Ads Aren’t Broken. Your Data Is. (Here’s the Fix) 24.03.2026

Three dashboards, three different numbers—if your Meta, Google, and Shopify analytics can't agree on conversions, you're making spend decisions on broken data. In this episode, Sean Larkin, Chief Product Officer at OpenSend and founder of Fueled, breaks down: Why browser pixels are losing catastrophic signal—and how server-side tracking typically recovers 20–30% ROAS on Meta How a single app insta...

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