eCommerce Fastlane: Shopify Growth Strategies—Where AI Efficiency Meets Human Connection

 Welcome back to eCommerce Fastlane! Here's a painful reality that's quietly killing Shopify brands: you're spending thousands driving traffic to your store, but 98% of those visitors are complete ghosts.They browse, they leave, and you have zero way to bring them back—while your competitors who've cracked visitor identification are building massive email lists from the exact same traffic.If you're feeling the squeeze of rising acquisition costs while retention gets tougher thanks to the cookie apocalypse, this episode is your wake-up call.My guest today is Liam Millward, Co-Founder and CEO of Instant. After working with 1,000+ Shopify brands—including headliners like Liquid I.V., July Luggage, and The Oodie—Liam's team has cracked the code on turning "anonymous" traffic into high-ROI repeat customers.While most brands are still playing the "pray they come back" game with tools that identify maybe 5% of visitors, Instant routinely identifies 40-60%—turning anonymous browsers into revenue-generating customers. We're talking about brands like July Luggage adding $1.2M in incremental revenue in just 10 months, and College & Co seeing 62x ROI in their first 30 days.Today, Liam reveals why most retention solutions are leaving money on the table, how AI-powered flows are eliminating the manual email grind, and why the brands implementing smarter identification now are building unfair advantages for Q4—while their competitors will be fighting for scraps from traffic they can't even track.  Check out his YouTube channel here for more strategies!Reach out to us! We welcome questions and comments about this episode. Connect with us here or through our socials — your feedback is always welcome.TwitterLinkedInFacebookFor more ecommerce, marketing, and growth strategies, check out the eCommerce Fastlane Insights Blog. 

 Welcome back to eCommerce Fastlane! Here's a story that might sound familiar: you're spending $10,000+ a month on ads, traffic looks solid, but somehow you're barely breaking even. Sound familiar?The hard truth is that most Shopify merchants don't realize they have a revenue leak problem. While you're obsessing over getting more traffic, your store is quietly bleeding money through hidden conversion killers and psychological friction points that drive customers away.I see it every BFCM season—brands celebrate stellar top-line numbers only to discover their net profit has vanished into the red. The real challenge isn't getting more eyeballs; it's plugging the invisible leaks that are costing you thousands every month.My guest today is Matt Stafford, Managing Partner at Build Grow Scale. Matt's been in the trenches for nearly 30 years, scaling multiple 7- and 8-figure brands and helping close to a thousand founders break through growth plateaus. But here's what makes him different: he doesn't just tweak conversion rates—he decodes the psychology behind why people buy and why they don't.Matt learned this the hard way. After selling $15 million in t-shirts, he launched a kitchen gadgets store that was crushing it at 100-200 sales per day...until it suddenly wasn't. Orders dropped to 30-40 per day, and with hundreds of thousands in inventory on the way, he had to figure it out fast.That crisis became his breakthrough—and today, he's going to share the frameworks that can help you stop the bleeding and start scaling profitably. Check out his YouTube channel here for more strategies!Reach out to us! We welcome questions and comments about this episode. Connect with us here or through our socials — your feedback is always welcome.TwitterLinkedInFacebookFor more ecommerce, marketing, and growth strategies, check out the eCommerce Fastlane Insights Blog. 

 Welcome back to eCommerce Fastlane! Today, we're tackling the hidden growth killer that's sabotaging even the best DTC brands—and most founders don't see it coming until it's too late.You know the story: you've nailed product-market fit, your marketing is humming, orders are pouring in... then everything falls apart. Split shipments eat your margins. Inventory nightmares unfold. Customer complaints spike. And suddenly, you're drowning in operational chaos instead of celebrating growth.Here's the thing most brands miss: those first warning signs are almost invisible. You start solving fulfillment problems with your leadership's time—founders manually fixing orders, ops managers chasing inventory issues. You're reacting instead of scaling, and that's where growth stalls.My guest today is Aras Kolya, Chief Revenue Officer at ShipMonk, one of America's fastest-growing 3PLs that's doing things radically differently. While most 3PLs are just brokers stitching together fulfillment networks with middleware, ShipMonk is what Aras calls a "tech-enabled operator"—they own their warehouses, control their labor, and run their entire technology stack under one roof.Their proprietary four-in-one platform combines warehouse management, order management, inventory systems, and transportation optimization into a single, real-time control tower. And here's why this matters: they're not just moving boxes—they're helping brands like Dr. Squatch scale from startup to 8-figure powerhouse without hitting that invisible ceiling.If you're spending all your energy on acquisition but ignoring the post-click experience, you're leaving money on the table. Because as Aras puts it: "Fulfillment IS marketing." It's the fuel that feeds conversion, retention, and lifetime value—and most brands are getting it dead wrong.  Check out his YouTube channel here for more strategies!Reach out to us! We welcome questions and comments about this episode. Connect with us here or through our socials — your feedback is always welcome.TwitterLinkedInFacebookFor more ecommerce, marketing, and growth strategies, check out the eCommerce Fastlane Insights Blog. 

Jeff Oxford, Founder and CEO of 180 Marketing, dives into the evolving realm of eCommerce SEO. He shares how to capitalize on AI-driven changes in search engines rather than fearing them. Discover strategies that propelled his clients' traffic from 3K to 70K monthly visitors. Jeff emphasizes the significance of high-quality content, technical SEO, and the merger of AI with the shopping experience, revealing fresh pathways for brands aiming to thrive in a competitive landscape. Get ready to unlock new growth opportunities!

 Welcome back to eCommerce Fastlane! Today, we’re spotlighting a marketing channel that’s quietly dominating Europe, Australia, and beyond—but is still underused in North America: WhatsApp marketing.While most Shopify brands are stuck battling expensive Facebook ads and crowded email inboxes, a new frontier is emerging that offers 80–90% open rates and instant, conversational engagement.To break down this opportunity, I’m joined by Jeremy Horowitz, CEO of CocoAI. Jeremy’s background in private equity, Shopify app acquisitions, and international DTC growth gives him a unique vantage point on why WhatsApp is poised to become the next big wave for Shopify merchants—especially as brands look to expand internationally and leverage AI-powered automation.If you’re ready to move beyond traditional channels and tap into a high-value, conversational approach to commerce, this episode is your playbook for getting started.  Check out his YouTube channel here for more strategies!Reach out to us! We welcome questions and comments about this episode. Connect with us here or through our socials — your feedback is always welcome.TwitterLinkedInFacebookFor more ecommerce, marketing, and growth strategies, check out the eCommerce Fastlane Insights Blog. 

Welcome back to eCommerce Fastlane! A fundamental shift is underway in how customers discover and purchase products, and most Shopify merchants are unaware of it.The days of relying solely on Google search are numbered as consumers increasingly turn to AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity for buying advice.But here’s the problem: 80-90% of Shopify stores are currently invisible to these AI platforms.Today, we’re pulling back the curtain on this new “AI Commerce” with a true industry insider. My guest is Tanner Larson, CEO of Built to Scale and author of the wildly popular book, E-commerce Evolved. Tanner has spent the last year working behind closed doors in the AI Commerce beta programs for major AI platforms, giving him a front-row seat to the biggest disruption since the smartphone.If you’ve ever wondered why your store isn’t getting recommended by AI, Tanner explains that it’s not an SEO problem—it’s an infrastructure problem. This episode is a masterclass on how to fix that visibility gap and position your brand for the $47.6 billion revenue shift that’s happening right now.Check out his YouTube channel here for more strategies!Reach out to us! We welcome questions and comments about this episode. Connect with us here or through our socials — your feedback is always welcome.TwitterLinkedInFacebookFor more ecommerce, marketing, and growth strategies, check out the eCommerce Fastlane Insights Blog. 

Welcome back to eCommerce Fastlane! If you’re running a Shopify store, you know the pain of email overload, endless internal threads, and the chaos that comes with managing customer conversations across multiple channels.Today, we’re tackling “inbox chaos” head-on with a tool designed to unify your team’s communication, streamline support, and bring true context-awareness to every customer interaction.Joining me is Philippe Lehoux, co-founder and CEO of Missive—a collaborative communication platform trusted by over 25,000 teams worldwide. Philippe’s spent the last decade obsessing over how to break down the silos between internal and external communication, and his platform is now a go-to for Shopify merchants who want to turn their service side from a cost center into a profit center.Whether you’re a solo founder drowning in emails or a fast-growing brand scaling your support team, you’ll hear actionable strategies to reduce context switching, leverage AI for smarter workflows, and create a seamless customer experience that drives loyalty and growth. Check out his YouTube channel here for more strategies!Reach out to us! We welcome questions and comments about this episode. Connect with us here or through our socials — your feedback is always welcome.TwitterLinkedInFacebookFor more ecommerce, marketing, and growth strategies, check out the eCommerce Fastlane Insights Blog. 

Welcome back to eCommerce Fastlane! Today, we’re diving into the world of challenger brands and what it really takes to break into—and win—in a market dominated by legacy giants.If you’ve ever walked down the cleaning aisle, you know it’s ruled by “Big Clean”—massive CPG players with decades of brand equity. But what happens when a new player, powered by celebrity founders and a mission-driven approach, decides to shake things up? Enter Clean Boss, a botanical cleaning brand co-founded by Joy Mangano (yes, the Miracle Mop inventor and inspiration for the movie “Joy”) and global superstar Pitbull.To unpack their journey, I’m joined by Nevin Jethmalani, Chief Digital Officer. Nevin’s got a front-row seat to what it takes to build a brand from scratch, leverage star power, and scale across DTC, Amazon, Walmart, and beyond. Whether you’re up against entrenched competitors or just looking for ways to stand out in a crowded market, you’ll hear actionable strategies for profitable acquisition, omnichannel growth, and building a business that lasts beyond the celebrity spotlight. Check out his YouTube channel here for more strategies!Reach out to us! We welcome questions and comments about this episode. Connect with us here or through our socials — your feedback is always welcome.TwitterLinkedInFacebookFor more ecommerce, marketing, and growth strategies, check out the eCommerce Fastlane Insights Blog. 

Ray Reddy, VP of Product for Retail at Shopify, discusses groundbreaking advancements with the Shopify Summer Editions 2025. He unveils the transformative Shopify POS 10, designed to enhance efficiency and unify online and in-store experiences. Reddy explains how this update optimizes customer interactions and streamlines workflows, empowering merchants to thrive in a competitive landscape. With a focus on intuitive design and improving user journeys, he highlights the importance of integrating technology to meet retail challenges head-on.

Welcome back to eCommerce Fastlane! I'm Steve Hutt, and today we're diving into something that honestly blew my mind during our conversation.Picture this: 95 million active buyers actively searching for unique products, built-in traffic you don't have to pay for, and a platform where most successful sellers never touch ads. Sounds too good to be true? That's exactly what I thought about Etsy before talking with today's guest.I'm chatting with Dylan Jahraus, who built a million-dollar Etsy shop, then pivoted to teaching others how to do the same. She's the founder of The Ultimate Etsy Ecourse and created etSEO, an AI tool that takes the guesswork out of Etsy SEO. But here's what really caught my attention—Dylan shows Shopify store owners how to use Etsy as their secret weapon for free traffic and customer research.If you've been burning cash on ads or struggling to find new customers, this conversation might just change how you think about growing your business.Check out his YouTube channel here for more strategies!Reach out to us! We welcome questions and comments about this episode. Connect with us here or through our socials — your feedback is always welcome.TwitterLinkedInFacebookFor more ecommerce, marketing, and growth strategies, check out the eCommerce Fastlane Insights Blog.