Home Podcasts The Unofficial Shopify Podcast
The Unofficial Shopify Podcast

The Unofficial Shopify Podcast

Kurt Elster, Paul Reda 540 Episodes Aug 18, 2026

Host Kurt Elster shares Shopify success stories from entrepreneurs, offering a raw look at what it takes to succeed on the platform. New episodes every Tuesday since 2014.

Episodes

Why Your Subscription Program Stopped Growing — Matt Holman
Why Your Subscription Program Stopped Growing — Matt Holman Aug 18, 2026 00:45:20 Your subscription program is adding customers every month—so why has it stopped growing? Matt Holman, founder of Subscription Prescription and known as “The Subscription Doc,” explains how churn creates a hidden ceiling: eventually, the subscribers coming in simply replace those going out. Matt and Kurt discuss why improving the offer can produce a better return than obsessing over retention, inc
REPORT: AI is 0.1% of $274M in sales analyzed
REPORT: AI is 0.1% of $274M in sales analyzed Aug 11, 2026 00:44:24 "This traffic is nothing. It is a rounding error." Kurt and Paul pulled 24 months of raw order data from 10 established Shopify stores: 94 million sessions, 2.2 million orders, $274 million in revenue. They went looking for the AI shopping revolution and found 0.1% of revenue. The catch: those referrals convert better than any other channel, and getting ready for them takes one afternoon of free w
He Sold a Startup, Now He Sells Viral Dog Pajamas
He Sold a Startup, Now He Sells Viral Dog Pajamas Aug 4, 2026 00:45:22 "Man, what didn't I get wrong? It's so much harder." Brian Nolan sold his SaaS company Sellbrite to GoDaddy. Then he bought Darren & Phillip, an Australian dog apparel brand built around viral matching dog-and-owner bathrobes, and found out that owning a store is a different beast than building software for stores. The founder was the face of the brand, and she left with the sale. The Google Works
Kurt & Paul: Agentic Rants
Kurt & Paul: Agentic Rants Jul 28, 2026 00:47:42 Kurt pulled the agentic sales numbers on a store doing $1.8 million a month. ChatGPT drove $4,200 of it. So he dragooned business partner Paul Reda into an unscripted reaction to Shopify's Editions announcements. No pre-cleared questions, no talking points, just two people who've optimized eight-figure stores for AI search comparing notes on what's actually real. They get into why Universal Commer
Shopify's Campaign Autopilot: AI Ad Agent?
Shopify's Campaign Autopilot: AI Ad Agent? Jul 21, 2026 00:41:21 "It's an in-house, ready-to-go agency. Which is free for all merchants." That's how Sachin Malhotra, Shopify's Director of Product for Merchant Marketing, describes Campaign Autopilot, the new AI marketing tool Shopify just announced as part of Editions. It sets up your ad accounts, syncs your catalog, and runs Meta Advantage+ checkout campaigns inside the guardrails you set. You teach it your bou
Agentic Storefronts: You're Already on ChatGPT
Agentic Storefronts: You're Already on ChatGPT Jul 14, 2026 00:39:17 "Being on Shopify means you get access to agentic automatically, out of the box." Your store is already selling inside ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, and Shop, whether you've noticed or not. Aaron Glazer, Director of Product at Shopify, joins Kurt to explain Agentic Storefronts, the new Admin experience that finally makes that presence visible and controllable. The buyer behavior has already shifted. S
How Shopify POS Got a Minute Faster Per Sale
How Shopify POS Got a Minute Faster Per Sale Jul 7, 2026 00:37:12 "I hear store associates asking people in person for their email all the time, and it always is a little bit awkward." Helen Mou runs product for retail at Shopify, and she just helped rebuild the thing every store runs on. This spring edition is the fastest POS Shopify has shipped. The rebuilt core selling flow saves over a minute on complex transactions, the kind with multiple items, stacked dis
Shop: The Sales Channel You Shouldn't Ignore
Shop: The Sales Channel You Shouldn't Ignore Jun 30, 2026 00:33:51 Also on YouTube: https://youtu.be/bgrJVYiDQKc "If I don't see that purple button at checkout, bye-bye." That's what Shop's buyers tell Kenny Cohen, and it's a clue to why Shop has quietly become one of the most valuable channels a Shopify merchant has. Kenny runs product for Shop, and in this spring edition he walks Kurt through three updates. Agentic Shop Search now understands a buyer's taste fr
Inside Shopify's "Everywhere" Edition | Spring 2026
Inside Shopify's "Everywhere" Edition | Spring 2026 Jun 23, 2026 00:46:13 VP of Product Vanessa Lee joins Kurt to break down the 2026 "Everywhere" edition and the years of quiet groundwork behind it: taxonomy, attributes, clustering, and a universal product identifier that now power a search catalog of billions of products. The payoff for merchants is strange and good. You're already enrolled in agentic commerce by default. One real store is doing $60K a month through i
How We Built MKC's Montana Landing Page
How We Built MKC's Montana Landing Page Jun 16, 2026 00:44:29 Also on YouTube Montana Knife Company was finally releasing its first folding knife, a $390 piece their fans had been begging for, and they wanted an announcement page worthy of the moment. Apple-style scroll animations. Exploding diagrams. Every element on screen doing something. The catch: you couldn't buy anything from it. The entire page existed to introduce the new product, build the hype, an
Top 1% of Shopify. 8 Figures. Profit in Year 6.
Top 1% of Shopify. 8 Figures. Profit in Year 6. Jun 9, 2026 00:43:51 Also available on YouTube "It was a mind and body brokenness. I'll just say like depression." By 39, Chris Lang was running 10 businesses and falling apart. He killed most of them and bet everything on Fresh Chile, his bootstrapped Shopify chili brand from Hatch, New Mexico. It cracked the top 1% of Shopify and 8 figures in revenue, but didn't turn a profit until Q1 of year six. Inside: why he sta
He Reviewed 500 Deals Before Buying One Shopify App
He Reviewed 500 Deals Before Buying One Shopify App Jun 2, 2026 01:06:45 "You would probably prefer to take money from Tony Soprano." Jeremy Horowitz has spent a decade in the Shopify ecosystem, scaled brands at Gorgias, and now runs a PE fund that's reviewed nearly 500 deals. He acquired a WhatsApp marketing app called Coco AI and he's still hunting for his next Shopify brand in the $10-100M range. We get into what actually makes a business sellable (and what kills a

Recommended