I ruthlessly unsubscribe from almost all newsletters. Eric’s one of a select few that I look actually forward to opening because it has proven itself consistently valuable for Shopify merchants.
— Kurt Elster, Ecommerce Strategist, founder of Ethercycle, and a top Shopify Plus Expert.
Past issues
Shopify Dispatch Issue #431 - SEO spiders, Ecommerce taxes
Issue #431 - December 27th, 2023 Have you ever watched a spider? Ilana Davis writes about SEO spiders and why worrying them might be a waste of time. Boxing Day Kevin Hillstrom writes about how ecommerce stores are paying "taxes" to everyone now. Google tax, attribution tax, influencer tax... Segment...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #430 - Merchandising, Find 404 pages
Issue #430 - December 20th, 2023 Happy holidays to everyone reading this. I hope your 2023 has been everything you hoped it would be. Just Like Sports Kevin Hillstrom compares sports teams and merchandising. The final part is one reason why you get lots of seemingly conflicting advice. Marketing/messaging is...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #429 - Website name in SEO results, Late shoppers
Issue #429 - December 13th, 2023 Showing site name in search results Ilana Davis describes a new Google result update where the website now has control over the website name shown in the search results. It's a minor tweak but can help those who implement it. Here come the late...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #428 - Sold out alternatives, False-pressure subject lines
Issue #428 - December 6th, 2023 Sold-out products should link to an alternative Ilana Davis writes about how to link to alternative products on out-of-stock products. What Is The Message? Kevin Hillstrom shares a series of email subject lines one store sent them about their Black Friday sale. Segment your...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #427 - Why offer 50% off, Shopify Black Friday results
Issue #427 - November 29th, 2023 Inflection Points: Thanksgiving Kevin Hillstrom asks, why offer 50% to a customer who would be willing to pay full-price? This is how you can make customer segmenting pay for itself many-times over. Shopify merchants break Black Friday record with $4.1 billion in sales Looks...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #426 - 1 or 3-Page Checkout, Handling Black Friday
Issue #426 - November 22nd, 2023 All merchants can now choose between the one-page checkout and three-page checkout Shopify has added the option to use a one-page or three-page checkout for all non-Shopify Plus stores. Both should be tested to see which performs better but I doubt there's enough time...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #425 - Shipping and fulfillment, SEO meta descriptions
Issue #425 - November 15th, 2023 5 Reasons to Ship and Fulfill With Shopify This Holiday Season Maria Acle gives a few tips about shipping for the 2023 holiday season including avoiding the holiday surcharges in Shopify Shipping. Crafting meta descriptions to get the click Ilana Davis writes about meta...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #424 - Difficult customer acquisition, Shopify Tax Platform
Issue #424 - November 8th, 2023 Times Have Changed Kevin Hillstrom writes about how 2023's customer acquisition is getting so difficult that stores are reaching for deep discounts even before the holiday season starts. The Shopify Tax Platform: Automated Sales Tax Built for Enterprise Businesses David Toper writes about the...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #423 - Shop cash on web, Using Shopify AI content
Issue #423 - November 1st, 2023 Shop Cash Expands to the Web, Just in Time for Holiday Shopping Shopify has released the Shop search and marketplace to the web. This now makes it possible to search all of the stores and products in Shop without installing the mobile app. Should...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #422 - GeoIP, Rebuy rates impact loyalty
Issue #422 - October 25th, 2023 GeoIP is now a part of Automatic Redirection Shopify has moved the GeoIP feature from Shopify Plus into the Automatic Redirection. If you use either of these, you'll want to do some extensive testing to make sure it's configured correctly for Google and any...