The Unofficial Shopify Podcast

"Is dropshipping dead?" That was one of the most common questions I got toward the end of the last year. Here's the thing– I don't know! Is it? Why are you asking me? There are certainly people more suited to answer this than me. To find out, we're talking to Tomas Slimas, Chief Marketing Officer at Oberlo. He should know– Oberlo users have dropshipped more than 100 million products duri...

Doing business online without retaining an Internet lawyer is the equivalent of playing Russian Roulette– things tend not to end well. The days of the Internet being the Wild West are long gone. The empire is striking back! You need an experienced Internet attorney to guide you through the ever-growing collection of newly enacted laws and regulations governments are launching to address online leg...

Ever wonder what it's like to be married to an entrepreneur? Or how a self-employed couple make it work and what the potential pitfalls may be? My wife and I both are business owners who work together, and we make it work, but not without a few key considerations. In this bonus episode, my wife and I discuss our unconventional relationship from our bedroom. You'll learn The one trick to know when...

If you've ever had a brilliant million dollar idea for a product, you've wondered, "How do I get it manufactured?" To do that, you'll need to find a manufacturer who will work with you. And that's where the nightmare starts for many entrepreneurs. That's when you discover that for most people it's a web of miscommunications, middlemen, and missed deadlines. So how do you do it right? How...

As you grow your business, you'll soon need to start delegating things. First is usually fulfillment, and soon after is customer support. So how do you get customer support off of your plate while providing an amazing experience for your customers? The answer might be automation. I first met today's guest while speaking at the Day With Shopify tour, and immediately knew that he'd made something sp...

The hardest part of building a brand is often attracting an audience. After all, if no one has heard of you, how will you sell to them? That’s why it’s been no surprise to me that over the last two years, I’ve helped quite a few successful Amazon sellers expand onto Shopify. Starting in a marketplace like Amazon customers find you more easily, and rapidly validate your product-market fit. Once val...

When starting out with your store, most folks struggle to get their first sale. Then, if you do find your product-market fit, and get traction in your niche, you set your sites on growing to your first million dollars in revenue. And if you can get there, you’d feel pretty great. Now what if I told you our guest today got to a million dollars in revenue in a few months on a single new product laun...

You already know Facebook is the #1 acquisition channel for your online business. We’re seeing clients with 4-6x returns on ad spend using Facebook ads. But Facebook is a rapidly evolving platform. It seems like new features are being added every day. So what should we ad types and features should you be looking to use to grow your Shopify store as we start 2018? Joining us to discuss is Facebook...

On Shopify, fashion & apparel is the largest vertical. It’s always one of the most difficult. One threat fashion retailers face is purchasing too much inventory. The solution that many merchants choose to avoid inventory issues is dropshipping. It’s inexpensive, accessible, and easy… depending on the products you want to send. If you’re looking for licensed products like pop culture apparel, i...

We’ve talked often on this show about the importance of emails. But leveraging emails as a marketing channel requires having a list of customers and prospects to send those emails to. So what do you do? The answer is pop-ups. In this episode, we discuss best practices and benchmarks for pop-ups with the founder of popular pop-up app Privy, Ben Jabbawy. Through Ben’s leadership, he has helped grow...

As founder and chief optimizer at GetUplift, Talia Wolf uses emotion, customer-centric research and persuasive design to generate more revenues, leads and sales for businesses. Recently listed as one of the most influential experts in conversion optimization, Talia is a conversion optimization specialist, trainer and keynote speaker. Today she’ll teach us her emotional targeting methodology and wh...

As your store grows, you will inevitably have to hire freelancers, consultants, or employees for your tech team. It can be an intimidating process that leaves you struggling to keep projects on track. You don’t have to learn how to be a great manager the hard way. Our guest today wants to help you level up faster. Marcus Blankenship gets paid to coach overwhelmed technical managers. He's managed a...

One of the most successful Shopify businesses I've run across doesn't sell any physical goods at all. They sell digital goods and did $1 million in revenue in their first year. Joining us to share his journey is Gary Martin, the co-founder of RGG EDU, a documentary based production company that specializes in the most comprehensive photography & Photoshop tutorials in the world. After turning...

In 2012, Doug Geiger stole his wife’s crockpot, bought $400 worth of lanolin while already in debt, and powered through his own self-doubt and anxiety to start his beard care company. Today, Doug’s products can be found in over 150 stores nationwide. Doug is not only the founder of Can You Handlebar he is the driving force behind the company and its myriad endeavors. Having found success with Can...

Do you feel overwhelmed? In discussions and surveys from Shopify store owners and listeners of this show, we’ve learned one thing: you feel overwhelmed. That’s the number one answer to the question, “What’s the number one problem you’re facing with your Shopify store right now?” In today’s episode, I sat down with an author who was instrumental in the success of my business. You’ve heard me recomm...

If you listen to this show, you probably doing some email marketing for your Shopify store. One problem: so does everyone else. It's tough to stand out, and it's certainly tough to innovate with new campaign ideas that achieve meaningful results. In today's episode, we'll do some outside the box thinking to build growth into your ecommerce email campaigns. Joining us to discuss it is Shanelle Mull...

The archetypal internet startup story is this: two room mates start a website out of their dorm room, and rapidly become so successful, going to college doesn't even make sense anymore. I've yet to meet anyone who fit that mold, until now. Six years ago, Max Zitney and his twin brother, Zach, started selling beef jerky with $1,200 and a website from their Ohio State University apartment as college...

If you’ve ever worked with me on something, then you know I love automation. All kinds of automation. My house is loaded with home automation gadgets, and my business has been built on marketing automation. Why? Because it saves time, keeps me efficient, and is all-around convenient. Automation never sleeps. Which is why at last year’s Shopify Unite, there was one feature announcement in particula...

If there’s one industry that’s harder than most to market, it’s fashion. Why is it so intrinsically difficult to market a fashion store? And if we know why, what can we do about it? Joining us to break it down is Jacklyn Deans. Jacklyn Deans is the Founder and Principal eCommerce Consultant at Flash + Color. Flash + Color helps Fashion, Beauty, and Lifestyle brands establish and expand their busin...

In the last several years, big data has been a buzzword. But big data is just that: big. It can be overwhelming. Today we’re going to talk about small data: customer research. Customer research is vital to high-impact marketing. Let’s say you’ve found something gone awry in your Google Analytics. A page that underperforms, what do you do about it? That’s where Customer Research and “small data” ca...

It’s 2017, forget about flying cars, where are our smart clothes? Today’s guest is making smarter clothes Peter Netzel of Kelvin Techstyles joins us today to discuss his journey. He drops a megaton knowledge bomb regarding sourcing and manufacturing products through Alibaba. If you’ve ever considered having a product manufactured, but didn’t know where to start, Peter makes it sound easy. Listen n...

If this show had a mantra, it might be "People buy from people, not brands." I've certainly said it enough times because I believe firmly in the power of selling H2H, human to human. I've seen solopreneuer stores try so hard to make themselves look bigger than they are, and we see right through it. Hey, I did the same thing when I started my own business eight years ago. But one of the t...

Last week we heard from Kaleigh Moore on ecommerce trends that will optimize your store in preparation for Black Friday One of the suggestions from that episode that got most excited was the idea of a buyer’s guide– specifically having customers segment themselves into new vs returning customers by offering a buyer’s guide on the home page. That’s a simple but powerful example of customer segmenta...

The year is half over, which means the holidays will be upon us before we know it. The summer, right now, is the time to start preparing for the holidays. One way to prepare is to look at what’s working for other ecommerce retailers and cherry pick those ideas for your own brand. Joining us to discuss several actionable example of revenue-boosting trends is Kaleigh Moore. Kaleigh is a freelance wr...

Everyone wants better ranking but that’s not really what they want. Stores want more traffic. They want that because it leads to sales. Sales is what really matters. All of SEO is just a marketing channel to get more visitors who turn into customers. The main FIX for SEO is better rankings What if there was a way to get more sales with the existing rankings you already have? How? By convincing mor...