

The Unofficial Shopify Podcast
Kurt Elster, Paul Reda
NEW EPISODES EVERY TUESDAY, SUBSCRIBE FOR UNBEATABLE ECOM RECON – Every Tuesday since 2014, host Kurt Elster shares the Shopify success stories that nobody tells you about, straight from the entrepreneurs living it. Subscribe for a raw look at what it really takes to succeed on Shopify.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Oct 16, 2018 • 48min
What's New in Klaviyo
Klaviyo is the most recommended email marketing platform for Shopify merchants.
In this episode, we hear what features are new in Klaviyo that you should implement before the holidays. Plus we discover the interesting views on marketing that Klaviyo's company culture has produced.
Jake is the Director of Product at Klaviyo. Jake has been working in marketing since he was one, when his parents started an advertising agency. He started going grey at age 9 — draw your own conclusions! He is an eternal optimist and has dedicated his career to helping businesses who are short on bandwidth, budget or expertise market like the most sophisticated brands on earth and grow incredibly fast. He prioritizes his family, then Klaviyo, then golf.
We'll find out:
Why Klaviyo's new form builder is the best out there
How to leverage the power of "progressive profiling" to increase conversions
How the Klaviyo team studied their own friendships to build more relevant tools
Klaviyo's investment in dynamic web personalization
How you can submit feature requests to Klaviyo (that actually get heard, considered, and implemented)
Why Klaviyo is in the business of helping you send less email, not more
Tune in for more details!
Resources
Don't have a Klaviyo account yet? Get one free at klaviyo.com
Klaviyo Blog: AI-Powered Customer Lifetime Value
Klaviyo on LinkedIn
Klaviyo is offering free BFCM Strategy Assessments to get you prepared for the Holiday Season. Our email marketing and e-commerce experts at Klaviyo will work to understand your current strategy and give you a customized recommendation to drive better results this Holiday season. Go to klaviyo.com/bfcm to sign up for your free assessment.
Share your thoughts
Ask a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group
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Never miss an episode
Subscribe on iTunes
Join Kurt's newsletter
Help the show
Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings & reviews help, and I read each one.
Subscribe on iTunes
What's Kurt up to?
See our recent work at Ethercycle
Take a ride with Kurt on YouTube
Grow Your Store in 2018
Apply to work with Kurt to grow your store.
Prefer to DIY? Read a free sample chapter of Kurt's book Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com
Learn what's Shopify Plus got that regular Shopify doesn’t?”
Sponsors
Try Bold Product Upsell free for 90 days
Save 20% on Turbo, a blazing fast Shopify theme
Improve your shop’s search engine ranking with Venntov SEO Meta Manager

Oct 9, 2018 • 45min
Cowbucker: Starting a Hat Revolution
Today we're hearing from the co-founder of Cowbucker, inventor of "the Bucker," a hat that's part trucker lid and part cowboy brim. According to them, it's "probably mankind's greatest invention."
Here's the wild part: they have sold close to 50,000 of them since launching in October 2014.
In today's episode, Derek shares his journey with us, and tells what he's learned along the way.
We'll find out:
How they sold their 144 units as their first order... with only a prototype
The unfair advantages that propelled their early success
After that initial success, how they scaled by repeating the same success
Derek's advice for running a successful Kickstarter
How Cowbucker drove traffic to their Shopify store
Tune in for more details!
Resources
Cowbucker - Use code KURT25 to get 25% off your Cowbucker hat. (Good from 10/9/18 to 10/16/18)
Kickstarter Campaign: Cowbucker Presents the Bucker
Book Recommendation: Traction by Gino Wickman
Book Recommendation: Marketing That Works by Leonard M. Lodish
App Recommendation: Tidio
Share your thoughts
Ask a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group
Share this show on Twitter
Never miss an episode
Subscribe on iTunes
Join Kurt's newsletter
Help the show
Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings & reviews help, and I read each one.
Subscribe on iTunes
What's Kurt up to?
See our recent work at Ethercycle
Take a ride with Kurt on YouTube
Grow Your Store in 2018
Apply to work with Kurt to grow your store.
Prefer to DIY? Read a free sample chapter of Kurt's book Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com
Learn what's Shopify Plus got that regular Shopify doesn’t?”
Sponsors
Try Bold Product Upsell free for 90 days
Save 20% on Turbo, a blazing fast Shopify theme
Improve your shop’s search engine ranking with Venntov SEO Meta Manager

Oct 4, 2018 • 41min
My Wife Started a Shopify Store! (BONUS EPISODE)
Less than one month after launching her first Shopify store, I interview Julie Elster about her experience so far.
Julie Elster is the owner of the one-month old Disney World-planning info-product empire Double Your WDW.
In 2015, she achieved viral success among freelancers when she started (and just ended) Just Tell Julie, an accounts receivable service.
We'll find out:
what’s working & what’s not,
her marketing plan,
the unexpected reaction from family and friends,
her unfair advantages,
why she had to blow up her last business,
...and more in this candid interview in our pajamas.
Tune in for more details!
Resources
Double Your WDW
Instagram: @DoubleYourWDW
Contest Opt-in Page
Share your thoughts
Ask a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group
Share this show on Twitter
Never miss an episode
Subscribe on iTunes
Join Kurt's newsletter
Help the show
Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings & reviews help, and I read each one.
Subscribe on iTunes
What's Kurt up to?
See our recent work at Ethercycle
Take a ride with Kurt on YouTube
Grow Your Store in 2018
Apply to work with Kurt to grow your store.
Prefer to DIY? Read a free sample chapter of Kurt's book Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com
Learn what's Shopify Plus got that regular Shopify doesn’t?”
Sponsors
Try Bold Product Upsell free for 90 days
Save 20% on Turbo, a blazing fast Shopify theme
Improve your shop’s search engine ranking with Venntov SEO Meta Manager

Oct 2, 2018 • 44min
Holiday SEO: Leverage the Holiday Search Traffic Spike
It's not too late to drive additional revenue with holiday SEO. And it's easier than you think.
In this episode, we walk through each step of the holiday SEO planning process in detail. We'll learn how to engage in thoughtful keyword research, create optimized content for the season, and even the right way to link to your holiday content properly.
Dale Bertrand runs Fire&Spark, an ecommerce marketing agency in Boston, MA. His clients include Citizen Watch, Ministry of Supply, Makerbot, Raymond Weil and Bulova. He has two decades of experience applying his graduate school work in artificial intelligence to digital marketing. Dale started his career building high-performance computing systems for the National Security Agency. Now, Dale is a specialist in search engine marketing, online advertising and analytics. In his spare time, Dale enjoys tennis, skiing and urban adventures with his two kids.
We'll find out:
How to find and target effective keyword phrases
How to best create holiday landing pages in Shopify (without spending hours on writing)
How and why to market your holiday pages year-round
The minimum viable strategy for Holiday SEO
Tune in for more details!
Resources
Fire&Spark
Google Keyword Planner
Keyword.io
Dale's Holiday Season SEO article
Share your thoughts
Ask a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group
Share this show on Twitter
Never miss an episode
Subscribe on iTunes
Join Kurt's newsletter
Help the show
Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings & reviews help, and I read each one.
Subscribe on iTunes
What's Kurt up to?
See our recent work at Ethercycle
Take a ride with Kurt on YouTube
Grow Your Store in 2018
Apply to work with Kurt to grow your store.
Prefer to DIY? Read a free sample chapter of Kurt's book Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com
Learn what's Shopify Plus got that regular Shopify doesn’t?”
Sponsors
Try Bold Product Upsell free for 90 days
Save 20% on Turbo, a blazing fast Shopify theme
Improve your shop’s search engine ranking with Venntov SEO Meta Manager

Sep 18, 2018 • 1h 1min
$500k/mo in 4 hours/week: The Story of BombTech Golf
Want to do seven-figures in revenue and work four hours a week? How about getting there in two years?
Today's guest has done just that. He's sold 170,000 golf clubs resulting in $6.3 million revenue last year with just three employees and a four hour work week.
We're joined by BombTech Golf's Tyler 'Sully' Sullivan who shares with his story, what's worked, what hasn't, and how you can emulate his success in your own store.
Early on, I would make videos that were terrible, but I put my face to the brand and made it personal. Attaching myself to the brand was one of the key reasons why I was able to scale up the business.
You'll Learn
The mindset shifts that enabled Sully's success
How community engagement was pivotal to building going from zero to seven figure
Sully's advice on how to vet a fulfillment center
How delegating everything in his business led him to a 4-hour work week and increased sales
Why design doesn't matter as much as you think.
How doing email really well has been critical to their success (and the three tips that have driven their success)
Why personal branding is necessity
Tune in for more details!
Resources
BombTech Golf
Klaviyo Case Study
Sully's amazing about page
Ecom Growers - Sully's email marketing consulting business.
Share your thoughts
Ask a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group
Share this show on Twitter
Never miss an episode
Subscribe on iTunes
Join Kurt's newsletter
Help the show
Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings & reviews help, and I read each one.
Subscribe on iTunes
What's Kurt up to?
See our recent work at Ethercycle
Take a ride with Kurt on YouTube
Grow Your Store in 2018
Apply to work with Kurt to grow your store.
Prefer to DIY? Read a free sample chapter of Kurt's book Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com
Learn what's Shopify Plus got that regular Shopify doesn’t?”
Sponsors
Try Bold Product Upsell free for 90 days
Save 20% on Turbo, a blazing fast Shopify theme
Improve your shop’s search engine ranking with Venntov SEO Meta Manager

Sep 11, 2018 • 43min
How To Use Facebook Messenger To Sell Online
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 he's tested chatbots in the wild. In addition, he runs the popular blog and podcast MyWifeQuitHerJob where he teaches others how to start a profitable ecommerce business.
You'll Learn
Why the quality of messenger subscribers is better than email
The easiest way to get messenger subscribers
How Steve uses chatbots to answer customer service inquiries
How to not violate Facebook's Messenger Terms of Service
The amazing way to improve your Facebook Ads' effectiveness with Messenger
How to mix Facebook Messenger with email
Tune in for more details!
Resources
Steve's Facebook Messenger Marketing for Ecommerce post
The Ultimate Guide To Messenger Marketing and Facebook Chatbots
ManyChat
Bumblebee Linens
My Wife Quit Her Job.
Share your thoughts
Ask a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group
Share this show on Twitter
Never miss an episode
Subscribe on iTunes
Join Kurt's newsletter
Help the show
Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings & reviews help, and I read each one.
Subscribe on iTunes
What's Kurt up to?
See our recent work at Ethercycle
Take a ride with Kurt on YouTube
Grow Your Store in 2018
Apply to work with Kurt to grow your store.
Prefer to DIY? Read a free sample chapter of Kurt's book Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com
Learn what's Shopify Plus got that regular Shopify doesn’t?”
Sponsors
Try Bold Product Upsell free for 90 days
Save 20% on Turbo, a blazing fast Shopify theme
Improve your shop’s search engine ranking with Venntov SEO Meta Manager

Aug 28, 2018 • 47min
6072 Subscribers in 14 Days: How to Run a Giveaway
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 episode, My Wife Quit Her Job's Steve Chou reveals the exact step-by-step giveaway strategy to grow your email list and increase your sales.
Shopify merchants will hear how giveaways are an effective strategy for both growing your email list and increasing your sales
Steve runs the popular blog and podcast MyWifeQuitHerJob where he teaches others how to start a profitable ecommerce business. In addition, he runs an ecommerce store with his wife at BumblebeeLinens.com and an annual conference called the Sellers Summit. His latest business venture is GoBrandWin which is a platform that facilitates group giveaways for brands.
You'll Learn
What to give away
Strategies to promote giveaway
When not to run a giveaway
Steve's exact Facebook ad & email strategy
Tune in for more details!
Resources
https://gobrandwin.com/
[https://gobrandwin.com/advertise/](Apply For GoBrandWin's Next Giveaway)
https://mywifequitherjob.com/
[https://apps.shopify.com/viralsweep](Viral Sweep)
Share your thoughts
Ask a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group
Share this show on Twitter
Never miss an episode
Subscribe on iTunes
Join Kurt's newsletter
Help the show
Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings & reviews help, and I read each one.
Subscribe on iTunes
What's Kurt up to?
See our recent work at Ethercycle
Take a ride with Kurt on YouTube
Grow Your Store in 2018
Apply to work with Kurt to grow your store.
Prefer to DIY? Read a free sample chapter of Kurt's book Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com
Learn what's Shopify Plus got that regular Shopify doesn’t?”
Sponsors
Try Bold Product Upsell free for 90 days
Save 20% on Turbo, a blazing fast Shopify theme
Improve your shop’s search engine ranking with Venntov SEO Meta Manager

Aug 21, 2018 • 57min
Proven Abandoned Cart Email Tactics
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 work.
Adii Pienaar, founder of Conversio, joins us today to explain. Prior to Conversio, Adii was co-founder of WooThemes/WooCommerce, where he made his early entrepreneurial mistakes while learning about building software for ecommerce stores.
You'll Learn
The current state of abandoned carts in ecommerce
The best practices for abandoned cart sequence you need to implement today
Three out-of-the-box ideas to test in your sequences
Tune in for more details!
Resources
https://conversio.com/ - Email marketing and reviews for your store.
https://kickbox.com/ - Email list hygiene service
[https://adii.me/](Adii's blog)
Share your thoughts
Ask a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group
Share this show on Twitter
Never miss an episode
Subscribe on iTunes
Join Kurt's newsletter
Help the show
Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings & reviews help, and I read each one.
Subscribe on iTunes
What's Kurt up to?
See our recent work at Ethercycle
Take a ride with Kurt on YouTube
Grow Your Store in 2018
Apply to work with Kurt to grow your store.
Prefer to DIY? Read a free sample chapter of Kurt's book Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com
Learn what's Shopify Plus got that regular Shopify doesn’t?”
Sponsors
Try Bold Product Upsell free for 90 days
Save 20% on Turbo, a blazing fast Shopify theme
Improve your shop’s search engine ranking with Venntov SEO Meta Manager

Aug 14, 2018 • 43min
Don’t be a Vending Machine: Going Beyond Rewards to Build Loyalty
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 today's episode, you'll learn how going beyond basic rewards programs can help you stop discounting and start building a community of loyal customers.
Steve Deckert is the founder of Smile.io. They power reward programs for 20,000 merchants across the globe. Use Smile.io to reward your customers for completing profitable actions.
You'll Learn
Why your store maybe a vending a machine (and what to do instead)
How to build a VIP program
How to reward customers for micro actions like writing reviews
Tune in for more details!
Resources
https://smile.io/ - Sign up for the Smile basic plan or above & mention the Unofficial Shopify Podcast, and get one free Smile app integration.
Share your thoughts
Ask a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group
Share this show on Twitter
Never miss an episode
Subscribe on iTunes
Join Kurt's newsletter
Help the show
Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings & reviews help, and I read each one.
Subscribe on iTunes
What's Kurt up to?
See our recent work at Ethercycle
Take a ride with Kurt on YouTube
Grow Your Store in 2018
Apply to work with Kurt to grow your store.
Prefer to DIY? Read a free sample chapter of Kurt's book Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com
Learn what's Shopify Plus got that regular Shopify doesn’t?”
Sponsors
Try Bold Product Upsell free for 90 days
Save 20% on Turbo, a blazing fast Shopify theme
Improve your shop’s search engine ranking with Venntov SEO Meta Manager

Jul 31, 2018 • 51min
Bulletproof Your Store: How to Protect Yourself from Data & Security Disasters
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 entrepreneurs like to move fast and break things. To that, Mike Potter would say: “go ahead and break things - just make sure you have a backup.” Since launching Rewind in 2015, he’s talked with hundreds of merchants who really did break their store - whether it was their fault or not - and helped them get their site back to normal.
Having experienced data loss himself, Mike is passionate about helping small businesses to better protect their data and digital assets.
You'll Learn
The state of backups in Shopify
Top 3 risks to your store
How to mitigate those risks
Best practices to lockdown your store
Backing up your store manually and automatically
Tune in for more details!
Resources
Get an exclusive extended 45-day free trial of Rewind
1Password
Increase Shopify Security With Two Factor Authentication
Backups and duplication
Share your thoughts
Ask a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group
Share this show on Twitter
Never miss an episode
Subscribe on iTunes
Join Kurt's newsletter
Help the show
Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings & reviews help, and I read each one.
Subscribe on iTunes
What's Kurt up to?
See our recent work at Ethercycle
Take a ride with Kurt on YouTube
Grow Your Store in 2018
Apply to work with Kurt to grow your store.
Prefer to DIY? Read a free sample chapter of Kurt's book Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com
Learn what's Shopify Plus got that regular Shopify doesn’t?”
Sponsors
Try Bold Product Upsell free for 90 days
Save 20% on Turbo, a blazing fast Shopify theme
Improve your shop’s search engine ranking with Venntov SEO Meta Manager