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 #327 - Rebuy rates as indicators, Live store reviews
Rebuy Rates Kevin Hillstrom recommends using rebuy rates as an indicator for what your marketing should be focused on. It's an interesting idea and could simplify how some stores approach customer loyalty. Live Shopify Store Reviews Ilana and Kai will be performing live Shopify store reviews mid-January. These can be...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #326 - Shopify Markets developer preview
Developer preview: Shopify Markets Shopify Markets, their tool for managing international markets, is now in developer preview. This is where apps are able to start working with the new features and reporting issues ahead of the full launch. My hope is that this will unite a lot of international components...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #325 - Shopify collection page SEO, Competitive pricing
SEO for Shopify Collections Kai Davis (no relation) writes about how to improve your collection page SEO. The collection content (or more common, the lack of any content) is the biggest limitation I've seen with collection pages in most Shopify stores. Even a little bit of unique content can turn...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #324 - 2021 Black Friday results, B2B ecommerce trends
Sales Report: 2021 Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday With more data coming in from reporting sources, Marcia Kaplan highlights how the 2021 holiday season started. The amount of early shopping was interesting and should cause you to consider starting your deals in early November next year. The B2B Ecommerce...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #323 - Shopify Black Friday / Cyber Monday 2021 results
Early Black Friday / Cyber Monday results from Shopify Shopify's released two press releases about 2021's early results from Black Friday and the Black Friday / Cyber Monday weekend. Highlights are that sales are up (though how much is due to Shopify's own market growth?), cart sizes are up, and...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #322 - Free samples, Hide products from search engines
The Science of Free Samples: How Freebies Keep Customers Coming Back For More Elise Dopson writes about how to use free samples in your Shopify store and their benefits. Geared towards in-person retail, there are a couple of ideas for online-only stores too. Hiding products from search engines using metafields...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #321 - Pre-Black Friday survey, Customer loyalty
Shopify's Black Friday / Cyber Monday shopping survey reveals 2021 season trends Shopify shares details from their pre-Black Friday / Cyber Monday survey. Some parts are what you'd expect (e.g. more in-person shopping vs 2020) but some are interesting (e.g. shoppers started looking for deals in early October). Why Customer...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #320 - Unique content marketing, Quick holiday VIPs
What Ecommerce Consumers Really Want from Branded Content Marketing Jessica Wynne Lockhart writes about how unique, branded content marketing is important and will become even more important in the coming years. It talks a lot about how that drives organic traffic but unique content can be reused in numerous places...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #319 - Customer attributes, Shopify Email updated
Attributes That Matter Kevin Hillstrom writes about how some customer attributes matter when it comes to repeat purchases. His conclusion is important, some attributes and customers aren't worth focusing your limited marketing resources on. Shopify Email New Templates and Sections Shopify Email received an update with new BFCM templates and...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #318 - More email marketing, Optimize product pages for conversions
There's Email, Again Kevin Hillstrom writes about the purposes of email marketing and uses recent client data to support how customers sourced from email marketing out-perform other sources. Given that Shopify's data show email marketing is the best converting sales channel overall and how all of the data supporting how...