The Unofficial Shopify Podcast

"You can play video games all day if you want, but I'm busting my ass, I want to build an empire." That's what Beav Brodie told me about his journey building his Shopify store TacticalBabyGear.com, an amazing niche store selling tactical-style diaper bags for today's dad. (I know I'm buying one.) Dads are actively dedicating themselves more than ever to their children’s upbringing these...

Building a base of loyal and repeat customers is a top goal of many Shopify stores. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find what characteristics these valuable customers share so stores end up with weak, generic customer retention plans which lose them customers. Instead, by focusing on three key metrics for your repeat customers in your retention plan, you can keep those customers loyal and grow yo...

Ezra says, "If you have a business driven by the ad model, you MUST understand upsells, cross sells... it's what's allowed us to grow to $1.5million/month." Ezra Firestone is a partner in BOOM! by Cindy Joseph and the company’s head of digital marketing. He runs a private network of eCommerce websites and regularly consults for companies across the U.S and Canada. He is the founder/creat...

What's the best product to sell? Your own! Most people have likely had an idea for a product they'd like to make, but that's all they have: an idea. We don't know what to do next. In today's episode, I talk to product designer Dorian Ferrari about what exact steps to take to go from idea to reality, how much it'll cost, and what pitfalls to watch out for. Dorian Ferrari helps inventors and small b...

In this listener mailbag episode, I discuss the must have apps for your Shopify store. As you'd expect, it's opinionated, but only five minutes. Have a question you'd like answered? Subscribe to my newsletter at http://kurtelster.com then reply to any email, and let me know what question you'd like answered. — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopif...

Ever experience a crappy product and think, "I can do that better!" That's what happened to Joe Scarpati. When faced with a nylon watch strap that didn't meet his expectations, he decided to do something about it. But not before some research to ensure his success. Joe’s background is in market research, which he has leveraged to offer watch enthusiasts a better nylon watch strap through...

Can you build a profitable brand by ignoring all that online marketing bullshit? Today's guest, Matt Giovanisci, believes you can, and intends to prove it. Matt is the creator of Swim University and a co-founder of Listen, Money Matters, a personal finance podcast that gets more downloads in a day as The Unofficial Shopify Podcast gets in a week. He also recently started MoneyLab, a series of docu...

"The first time we ran video ads, sales immediately tripled." Andy has been running PPC ads for a while, but struck gold about a year ago with Facebook video ads. After just 2 weeks of running video ads he was able to triple the revenue of a large Shopify store. Now he has set up thousands of ad campaigns, and he has discovered a formula for telling good stories that make great video ads...

Jay Myers is one of the co-founders of Bold Commerce. He has a long history in ecommerce and uses that to help build some of the best apps on Shopify. Currently he heads up marketing at Bold, and works very close with the product team. With 22 apps in the app store, and a staff of one hundred, Jay Myers and the Bold Apps team has learned a lot about ecommerce. Jay had some online retail shops that...

Email marketing can be HUGE for ecommerce stores and online retailers. Problem is, most companies do it wrong. Or they just don’t do it at all. Joining us to unpack email marketing is John McIntyre. John McIntyre is the founder of ReEngager, a done-for-you ecommerce email marketing agency. ReEngager helps ecommerce companies increase total sales by 15-30% with email marketing. He is the host of Th...

"We all have the currency of time that we can't get back, so where do we invest it?" Nate Murray is the founder of Merchline. Merchline is "Official Online Storefront Fulfillment Provider & Screenprinter to the band/artist/apparel line industries." Started in 2001, Merchline now operates a whopping 42 Shopify storefronts on behalf of artists like Skrillex, Christina Perry,...

One of the most misunderstood aspects of any online business is SEO. (And that’s for several reasons that I could do an episode on alone but I won’t.) Instead, we talk to a guest that I’m honored to have, Rand Fishkin Rand Fishkin uses the ludicrous title, Wizard of Moz. He's founder and former CEO of Moz, co-author of a pair of books on SEO, and co-founder of Inbound.org. Rand's an unsaveable add...

We talk with Eric Bandholz of Beardbrand on how we went from community to business. Growing slowly and organically at first, and eventually blowing up into a bearded sensation that's sparked copycats and inspired thousands. "At Beardbrand, we're trying to change the way the world views beards." Eric is a self-described "husband, father, entrepreneur, world traveler, ancap, designer...

"If I was 95 and selling toys, would I be happy? Yea!" -Chris Tsang on finding your passion Chris Tsang is the founder of Mindzai, a designer toy store and toy design company. Chris started his company in his bedroom 3 years ago and has since grown his business into 2 brick and mortar shops in Canada and now expanding into the US Market. In addition, after 2 successful Kickstarter campai...

Jake Starr, a 12 yr veteran firefighter, always enjoyed making his own gear by hand. He worked with leather and fashioned gear that included backpacking hammocks. After joining the Louisville fire department, Jake’s need to create handmade goods would not go extinguished. A few years ago his department was getting ready to replace older hoses. He asked his Chief if he could take some of the discar...

"We don't know anything about marketing." That's what one entrepreneurial couple with a successful niche store and growing community of brand evangelists told me. They may think they know nothing about marketing, but they're actually doing everything right. This is one of our favorite episodes because it's jam-packed with great advice from regular folks. Lizzy and Spencer both quit their...

Richard is the brains and the stomach behind The User Is Drunk, a site set up a few months ago to help people learn just how their site looks to a drunk person. Here is his process: Richard gets drunk, looks at your website, and tries to give advice about how it could be better while he pretends to be a normal user. Richard and I talk a bit about his story and what you can do today to make your si...

Our topic today is using lead magnets to triple your email opt-in rate! An important topic because every online entrepreneur is in the business of list building. But that old opt-in form in your footer won’t collect much of anything these days. As marketers, though, we evolve with the times, and our tactics evolve, too. We began to offer free products such as e-books, courses, checklists, and vide...

To build a sustainable ecommerce business, getting customers to buy should only be the start of a much longer relationship. Retaining customers (and turning them into brand evangelists) is the secret of revenue maximization that the big boys have known for years. Ross Beyeler of Growth Spark joins us today to discuss how to achieve prolonged success with your Shopify business. You'll learn the 5 S...

Alex O'Byrne recently launched the new Negative Underwear website, which took an astonishing 100 orders on the first day alone, followed by 7000 unique visits in just 5 days. A fantastic achievement that any ecommerce entrepreneur would be thrilled with. Alex pulls back the curtain and discusses the strategies necessary to achieve those results... and they're surprisingly grassroots. Alex O'Byrne...

Diana is an authenticity driven entrepreneur who is constantly seeking, creating, developing, growing and learning. She is passionate about business, personal development, wellness, travel, spirituality, productivity and maximizing her time and life to live exceptionally across all facets: faith, relationships, business and health. Being very unsure of her career path in her youth, she became even...

I owe much of my business success to my Mastermind group– I credit being in a mastermind with boosting my revenue 10x. So what is a Mastermind, how do they work, and why or how should you join one? To answer that question, Kai Davis and Jonathan Stark join Kurt to discuss their own mastermind experiences. Jonathan Stark is a mobile strategy consultant who helps senior executives transition their b...

The year is almost over, and that means one thing: time to get your books in order! With running a business, you already know you need to stay on top the accounting that goes along with running a store. Joining us in this episode is Donnie Cooper of LessAccounting, to discuss why and how to make bookkeeping nothing like going to the dentist. You'll learn: The difference between an accountant and a...

Joining us is friend and colleague Keir Whitaker. Keir works at Shopify as their Designer Advocate. Like us, he's also had a lot of side projects. In this episode we discuss: What's a side project, why have one? The importance of projects. I have many, some worked, most didn't, and all were lessons learned Using Shopify to launch an MVP and validate a side project. How despite all the advances in...

Want to stop competing against Amazon and everyone else? Consultant Philip Morgan will teach us how to use hyper-specific positioning to make that happen. In this episode, you'll hear how to position your business in a way that leads to higher conversion rates and better customers. Get Philip's free crash course on positioning - https://philipmorganconsulting.com/free-positioning-crash-course - Th...