eCommerce Fastlane: Shopify Growth Strategies—Where AI Efficiency Meets Human Connection
Steve Hutt | Shopify and eCommerce Expert
Running a Shopify store? You already know success isn't about finding the right app—it's about knowing which strategies actually work at your specific stage of growth.
I'm Steve Hutt, and I've lived every level of the ecommerce journey. From eBay Power Seller shipping products from my garage, to co-founding and scaling VisionPros.com (an optical DTC startup) through to a successful exit, then spending 6+ years as a Shopify Merchant Success Manager helping 100+ brands from startup to enterprise scale, including working with teams at Tentree, Dr. Squatch, Bulletproof Coffee, Salt & Straw Ice Cream, MUD/WTR, Bokksu, and many more.
Here's what makes this podcast different: I've been on both sides of the table.
6+ years working inside Shopify gave me access to what's coming before most merchants know it exists. Building, scaling, and successfully exiting my own ecommerce businesses taught me what actually works when your money and reputation are on the line. That combination of insider access plus real operator experience gives you a perspective you won't find anywhere else.
Since 2018, eCommerce Fastlane has delivered over 430 episodes and more than 2 million downloads to ambitious Shopify founders and marketers. Every week, I chat with operators, developers, and experts who share what's actually moving the needle right now—not theory, but patterns I've seen work consistently across dozens of brands at multiple stages.
Whether you're launching your first store or scaling past seven figures, every episode gives you stage-aware strategies you can implement this week. We dig into Shopify apps, digital marketing, retention tactics, AI tools, and the operational stuff that actually reduces overwhelm—while building customer loyalty that lasts.
You'll learn how to leverage emerging tech without losing what makes your brand unique. You'll also hear real founder stories, including lessons from my own journey building and exiting a DTC brand, plus insights from guests across 430+ episodes who've been exactly where you are.
This isn't content for content's sake. It's what you'd get sitting at a mastermind table with someone who's built, scaled, and exited—and helped hundreds of others do the same.
Ready to grow smarter, not just faster? Join thousands of founders and marketers in the eCommerce Fastlane community through our podcast, newsletter, blog, and forthcoming book "Thriving with Shopify."
Steve Hutt
DTC Founder | Podcast Host
Find Us Online
Website: eCommerceFastlane.com
Newsletter: FastlaneInsider.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/shutt
X: x.com/stevenhutt
Instagram: instagram.com/ecommercefastlane
Email: steve@ecommercefastlane.com
I'm Steve Hutt, and I've lived every level of the ecommerce journey. From eBay Power Seller shipping products from my garage, to co-founding and scaling VisionPros.com (an optical DTC startup) through to a successful exit, then spending 6+ years as a Shopify Merchant Success Manager helping 100+ brands from startup to enterprise scale, including working with teams at Tentree, Dr. Squatch, Bulletproof Coffee, Salt & Straw Ice Cream, MUD/WTR, Bokksu, and many more.
Here's what makes this podcast different: I've been on both sides of the table.
6+ years working inside Shopify gave me access to what's coming before most merchants know it exists. Building, scaling, and successfully exiting my own ecommerce businesses taught me what actually works when your money and reputation are on the line. That combination of insider access plus real operator experience gives you a perspective you won't find anywhere else.
Since 2018, eCommerce Fastlane has delivered over 430 episodes and more than 2 million downloads to ambitious Shopify founders and marketers. Every week, I chat with operators, developers, and experts who share what's actually moving the needle right now—not theory, but patterns I've seen work consistently across dozens of brands at multiple stages.
Whether you're launching your first store or scaling past seven figures, every episode gives you stage-aware strategies you can implement this week. We dig into Shopify apps, digital marketing, retention tactics, AI tools, and the operational stuff that actually reduces overwhelm—while building customer loyalty that lasts.
You'll learn how to leverage emerging tech without losing what makes your brand unique. You'll also hear real founder stories, including lessons from my own journey building and exiting a DTC brand, plus insights from guests across 430+ episodes who've been exactly where you are.
This isn't content for content's sake. It's what you'd get sitting at a mastermind table with someone who's built, scaled, and exited—and helped hundreds of others do the same.
Ready to grow smarter, not just faster? Join thousands of founders and marketers in the eCommerce Fastlane community through our podcast, newsletter, blog, and forthcoming book "Thriving with Shopify."
Steve Hutt
DTC Founder | Podcast Host
Find Us Online
Website: eCommerceFastlane.com
Newsletter: FastlaneInsider.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/shutt
X: x.com/stevenhutt
Instagram: instagram.com/ecommercefastlane
Email: steve@ecommercefastlane.com
Episodes
Mentioned books
Sep 3, 2018 • 41min
19: Learn How To Incentivize Your Customers To Drive More Revenue And Lifetime Loyalty
Welcome to Episode 19. On today’s episode, I sat down and had a chat with Josh Enzer the co-founder of Swell Rewards. They've developed an incentive marketing platform that helps Shopify store owners drive more revenue and lifetime loyalty.Swell can help enhance your full marketing strategy, improving performance in customer acquisition, customer retention, and most importantly, customer lifetime value. Rewards, referrals, influencers, and email acquisition are all part of their marketing suite. If you’ve not invested in this necessary tech stack to grow and scale your Shopify store, this is a great episode for you! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 30, 2018 • 36min
Learn How To Create A Gift Card Strategy That Drives Huge Revenue And Lifetime Loyalty
Welcome to Episode 18. On today’s episode, I sat down and had a chat with Ari Yahalom from Gift Wizard. You'll learn about the exciting opportunity that store owners have with the use of gift cards as part of multichannel customer acquisition and retention strategy. We also discuss a recent technical breakthrough with how gift cards can be purchased and redeemed online and in-store. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 24, 2018 • 32min
Discover How You Can Sell More Through An Omnichannel Approach
Welcome to Episode 17. On today’s episode, I sat down and had a chat with Rytis Lauris the CEO of Omnisend. We discuss why omnichannel is the real holy grail of marketing automation. You’ll learn, what omnichannel means in marketing automation, how it helps to expand your targeted reach and retain more customers which ends with having more sales. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 14, 2018 • 35min
16: Learn How To Source And Build Better Products While Increasing Margins
Welcome to Episode 16. On today’s episode, I sat down and had a chat with Nathan Resnick the co-founder of Sourcify. They are an automated sourcing platform that provides a straightforward way to source products from overseas factories. You get pre-vetted factories, real-time messaging with suppliers, product specification tools, and a team of dedicated sourcing experts to make running your production needs through Sourcify simple, reliable, and safe. Matching your product with the right overseas factory is their specialty. They really take pride in helping their customers build better products while increasing margins that allow their brands grow beyond the original vision. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 9, 2018 • 21min
15: Learn How To Run Influencer Campaigns With Your True Customers
Welcome to Episode 15. On today’s episode, I sat down and had a chat with Brett Bernstein the co-founder of Gatsby. He discusses the small change you can make on your site to increase conversions and streamline your micro-influencer strategy. Most brands or Shopify store owners, don’t know the personas or individuals buying their products online. They also don’t know which of those customers ARE being social...and even if they did know, there hasn’t been a mechanism to scalably reach out to or activate that influence, until now with the Gatsby App. Brett and his team have built this platform to solve these problems, with the end goal of helping you run influencer campaigns with your true customers, which has been defined on this show as authentic marketing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 7, 2018 • 58min
Learn How To Build Shopper Trust To Improve Your Conversion Rate
Welcome to Episode 14. On today’s episode, I sat down and had a chat with Matt Goodman the co-founder of Okendo. A platform you may not have heard of yet but they have developed a compelling solution that adds the “like” and “trust” factor to your Shopify product pages in the form of ratings and reviews that builds excitement and creates a compelling reason for the site visitor to click the BUY button. Along with a host of other features including user-generated photos and videos, highlights of your products unique selling points and key value drivers. An extremely powerful multi-channel marketing section to extend the value of your customer-generated content. Inline SEO, rich snippets (which shows review metadata next to your product page links), Google shopping (pushing review data to your shopping feeds to increase conversion), Facebook, dynamic and lookalike audiences ad serving and much more. Regardless if you are using a competitive solution to generate reviews you owe it yourself to see what you are missing. Innovation is happening now! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 31, 2018 • 29min
Breakthrough Platform To Unify All The Tools You Need For More Profit
Welcome to Episode 13. On today’s show, I’m chatting with Chad Rubin the co-founder of Skubana, a platform that unifies your ecommerce operation and acts as the central nervous system of your Shopify stores operation. We discuss the fragmented solutions that have ruled the commerce landscape for so long. Many Shopify store owners have come to accept that stitching together software, public and private apps, running complicated workflows, and viewing inconsistent data is just part of doing business in ecommerce. Skubana unifies all the tools you need to run your business, automates all repetitive tasks, and even thinks for you about profitability, forecasting, and demand planning.Some features include:Connect and import orders from every channel you sell on, like marketplaces and retailers (they connect to over 20!!) Imagine being truly multi-channel with one unified platform. You can actually sell and manage orders on Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Jet.com, QVC, Norstrom, Costco, Target, BestBuy, Bed Bath & Beyond, Home Depot, and so many more!Print shipping labels from all major carriers or automatically route your orders to 3rd party fulfillment centers, all from one centralized place.View, manage and synchronize your entire inventory across all sales channels, warehouses, 3PLs, drop-shippers, and FBA distribution centers. 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.TOPICS INCLUDE: Advertising, Affiliate Marketing, Amazon, Attribution, Automation, B2B, Brand, Customer Retention, Customer Support, Data + Analytics, Data Trust + Security, Dropshipping, Ecommerce SEO, Email Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Founder Stories, Influencer Marketing, Legal, Logistics, Shipping, Loyalty, Rewards, Retention Marketing, Marketing, Sales, Conversion, Money From Home, Operations, Payments, Finance, Tax, People, Personalization, Post Purchase Experience, Print On Demand, Product Development, Retail, Shopify POS, Reviews, Search, SMS Marketing, Social Commerce, Social Media, Live Shopping, Startup Ideas, Store Design, Mobile Apps, Sustainability, TikTok, Trends, Ultimate Guides, Web3, best Shopify apps, and more.
Jul 25, 2018 • 33min
12: Find Hidden Profit In Your Shopify Notification Emails
Welcome to Episode 12. On today’s show I’m chatting with Björn the founder of FORSBERG+Two. He discusses the Shopify notification emails, and the simple changes you can make to generate more revenue for your store. You really can optimize your Shopify notification emails to sell more and match your brand perfectly. You can also include product recommendations, discount codes, and promotions. All 18 email templates are included and fully customizable. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 19, 2018 • 28min
11: Shipping Internationally Is Now As Simple As Shipping Domestically
Welcome to Episode 11. On today’s episode, you’re going to learn that expanding globally doesn’t have to be scary. I sat down and had a chat with Tommaso, the Co-Founder of Easyship.com. Thankfully, there’s a lot to learn from some of the top international ecommerce websites that successfully expanded internationally, and there are some repeatable concepts and trends that you can apply to your Shopify store. If you’ve put the brakes on international expansion, today's episode will help build and crystallize a new plan to make it a reality. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 17, 2018 • 30min
10: Learn How To Protect Your Shopify Store Through Automatic Backups
Welcome to Episode 10. On this weeks episode, I have a chat with Mike Potter, the co-founder, and CEO of Rewind. He talks about the misconceptions of cloud-based software, like the Shopify Platform and some of the challenges that store owner can face in regards to their data and day to day operations of running an ecommerce store. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
