The Unofficial Shopify Podcast

Learn how Facebook Messenger marketing with chatbots gets My Wife Quit Her Job's Steve Chou incredible results that blow email marketing out of the water. Steve's getting: Open rates 5X better than email Click through rates 8X better than email Revenue per subscriber 3.5X better than email Steve lays out his success for us. Steve runs an ecommerce store with his wife at BumblebeeLinens.com where h...

Do giveaways work? Are they an an effective strategy for both growing your email list and increasing your sales? Yes! In a published study from ColorIt.com, giving away $447 dollars worth of product resulted in: 6072 Email Subs 6176 Tweets 5000 FB Likes 2500 More Twitter followers 159 Orders During The Contest 85 Orders After Contest Ended $3.47 Per New Customer Acquired What's the secret? In this...

Approximately 70% of your customers will abandon their carts... if you're lucky. That's why the most profitable email marketing workflow you can possibly run is an abandoned cart sequence. In today's episode, we'll cover the best practice four email sequence guaranteed to help you re-engage customers and recover revenue. After that, we'll talk through three out of the box ideas that are proven to...

Is your business just a vending machine? And is that vending machine on fire? Consider this: Facebook ad costs have gone up substantially since last year. CPM’s have increased on average 35% since last quarter. If a significant portion of your qualified traffic is coming from paid traffic, your business is actively on fire. Today's guest thinks so, but he's got some ideas on how to solve it. In to...

In this episode, we’re talking about how to bulletproof your online store from data disasters and security issues that are more common than you think. Mike Potter joins us to discuss. He’s the co-founder and CEO of Rewind.io, an online backup service for SaaS apps. His company is trusted by thousands of ecommerce merchants to backup their Shopify and BigCommerce stores. There’s a saying that entre...

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality are no longer the stuff of science fiction. Apple and Google's mobile operating systems already ship with software components to support AR, hardware prices for VR are rapidly dropping, and the industry is expanding. VR, AR, and 3D is already here and even in use today by merchants on the bleeding edge of technology. Soon 3D and virtual reality could be seamle...

(Video of this episode is available on YouTube .) Everyone's looking for the silver bullet to grow their business. Growing globally through internationalization is may just be the only way to get that big win. It's a scary proposition. International expansion sounds like it should be wrought with challenges and complexities. Joining us to discuss it is marketing wunderkind Andy Bedell. In this epi...

Today's guest did what some people will tell you is impossible. From his kitchen, he built an ecommerce business from 0 to £250K+ in 2 years in a saturated market without borrowing money. UK-based entrepreneur Tom Brown joins us to discuss the journey, mindset, and tactics that helped him build a successful business selling protein bars online. You'll Learn How Tom got his first customers with zer...

When you first start your business, that first sale is a big deal. It's proof that your idea is valid. The excitement wears off and the second sale just isn't as exciting. It quickly becomes a game of chasing the dragon to repeat that success high. Maybe it's your first 100 orders, or your first $100K. Either way, the only way to maintain the high of achievement is to keep scaling. There's a lot o...

Rounding up our four-part series this quarter on content marketing, in this episode, we discuss practical approaches on building relationships with content marketing (and several mistakes you're probably making.) By creating a content marketing plan, publishing videos, blogs, and even Facebook Live, you'll gain consistent branding, amplified online exposure, and real relationships with your custom...

In today's episode, you'll learn how to sell more, more often with personal branding, an often overlooked strategy that lets you sell person to person at scale by sparking that human connection. Two reasons: People buy from people, not brands. As a business owner, you are your own best brand ambassador. We're joined by recurring guest, good friend, and master of his own brand, Kai Davis. Kai Davis...

Ever meet those entrepreneurial super heroes who can do it all? Today's guest definitely falls into that category. After double majoring in Business and Economics, Dan Cox fell back on his love for athletics and nutrition and started opening up 5 nutrition stores in Las Vegas and Southern California. Seeing a gap in the market, Dan then also started developing his own all natural Supplement lines...

As of May 25th, 2018, the European Union requires companies of all sizes to take steps to help secure personal data rights and more generally protect that data. (And if you don't comply, that'll be a 20 million euro fine.) But what does it mean for US stores? You will hear about it, and it will impact you, but to what degree? Joining us to decipher the law's impact on US merchants is Dave Rodenbau...

Last week, you heard the firsthand announcements from Unite attendees on-site at Toronto. Today, you'll get caught up on what’s new & improved from Shopify, what it means for your store, and how to avoid being overwhelmed. Joining us to break it down are fellow Shopify Partners and agency owners Ross Beyeler of GrowthSpark and Alex O'Byrne of We Make Websites. You'll learn our takes on: Overal...

This week we have a special Shopify Unite edition of the show in which we cover many of the announcements from Unite last week by interviewing the attendees on-site. In early May, Shopify Partners from around the world gathered together in Toronto for the 3rd annual Unite conference: a three-day event to discuss all things Shopify, commerce, and technology. And they announced a ton of stuff. Rathe...

Having a celebrity-endorsed brand and a great product must be like easy mode for ecommerce, right? Maybe not. In today's episode, we learn the behind-the-scenes story on how Jay Leno began selling a complete line of car care products. We're joined by Chris Walters, the Director of Marketing at Jay Leno’s Garage. You'll Learn What's it like working for a celebrity brand? What's Jay driving these da...

In this episode, you'll hear about some of the best ways find brand advocates because your affiliate program (or customer referral program) is only as good as its advocates! Arlen Robinson is a seasoned business owner and co-founder of OSI Affiliate Software which gives businesses the opportunity to setup and manage their own affiliate and customer referral programs. He should know, he's been doin...

In this episode, we're talking customer service. Great customer service can make or break your brand, and your sanity. Joining us to discuss it is a self-proclaimed provider of excellent customer service for the past 20 years, fellow podcast host Dave Rodenbaugh. Dave is the founder of Recapture, an email marketing and abandoned cart solution for Shopify and Magento. He's also the co-host of the R...

In this episode, we're talking sales automation. Specifically, how to use simple email sales funnels to automate the process of converting website visitors into new customers & repeat buyers. Catherine Langman joins us to discuss. She's the Founder and CEO of the Productpreneur Marketing. Her passion is to help entrepreneurs with eCommerce businesses businesses to be more successful and in con...

In this episode, you'll learn how to use content marketing to get traffic to your store, specifically, when it works, when it doesn't, and patterns we've noticed in successful content. The warm and knowledgeable Devesh Khanal joins us to discuss it. Devesh runs Grow & Convert, a content marketing agency producing magazine quality, in-depth blog content for companies. He's full of practical adv...

Why is copywriting so hard? It took me years to figure it out. The answer is likely mindset. There are a few mental hurdles you need to get over if you're going to write effective web copy that converts. (And you should, optimizing copy can do more for your conversion rate than any other tactic.) To help us break it down, fellow podcaster David Garfinkel joins us. David mentors business owners and...

In this episode, you'll learn how to think about launching lean, staying nimble, and growing fast! Galen King from O.G. Shopify agency Lucid joins us to discuss a practical strategic approach to launching new brands on Shopify. Galen King is the founder and creative director of Lucid, a small digital agency with offices in New Zealand and New York City. One of the first Shopify Partners, he's been...

For many merchants, design is the single hardest part of setting up and running a Shopify store. Chris Pointer of Pointer Creative has 16+ years of design experience. His agency works exclusively on Shopify and has produced custom themes for the NY Times, Death Wish Coffee, and others. In this episode, he teaches us how to approach design, communicate what we want to designers, and when & why...

Whether you're a wholesaler looking to start selling to your customers online, a manufacturer wanting to increase the orders coming through your website, or an online retailer looking to branch out into B2B sales, today's episode will take you through the key considerations to making B2B eCommerce a success for your business. Today's guest, Chloë Thomas, is an eCommerce expert focused on eCommerce...

If coming up with a good product idea is hard, then turning it into a successful brand is harder. Nicholas Galekovic, the entrepreneur behind Beard King, joins us to discuss a journey that went from his bathroom, to Shark Tank, to a viral-success product that has resulted in a seven-figure business in less than five years. In today's episode, Nicholas Galekovic walks through his journey bootstrapp...