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 #308 - Smaller JavaScript for performance, Shipping options
Shopify now serves minified JavaScript files automatically A technical update, but Shopify will now automatically minify your theme's JavaScript files. In non-tech words, Shopify will do an optimization for you automatically if your theme developer missed it. An easy performance win for stores. Ecommerce Shipping: How to Choose The Right...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #307 - Order fulfillment metrics
Lessons about order fulfillment from the Shopify Fulfillment Network Murilo Favari from Shopify writes about how to measure your order fulfillment for optimization. They only get into what metrics to look at and not the hows of optimization. Analyze your customer's behaviors before they defect Your customers aren't yours forever....
Shopify Dispatch Issue #306 - Google Review Snippet mistake
Google's Review Snippets severely impacted by recent Google algorithm changes Ilana Davis writes about how Google made a mistake at the end of July resulting in the loss of almost all Review Rich Results. Luckily Google ended up fixing it after a few days and it sounds like most sites...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #305 - Reactivating buyers, Sustainability in ecommerce
10% to 20% Kevin Hillstrom shows the math behind reactivating buyers and how can be more profitable than acquiring new customers. Sustainability in Ecommerce: How to Create More Sustainable Supply Chains Customers are wanting to buy from more sustainable stores and that's influencing their buying decisions. Jessica Wynne Lockhart writes...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #304 - Shopify Inbox, Mobile conversion rates
Introducing Shopify Inbox: Easily Manage Conversations So You Can Turn More Browsers Into Buyers Shopify has merged Shopify Ping and Shopify Chat into a new product, Shopify Inbox. This could eventually replace the need to have other live chat and messaging apps on your store. Why are mobile conversion rates...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #303 - Homepages, Welcome program example
The Current State of Homepage UX - 8 Common Pitfalls Baymard published part of their homepage evaluations from their research. There's a lot of good advice in here that can help most Shopify stores. Customer Development Example: Birds Aren't Real Kevin Hillstrom shares an example of a welcome program that...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #302 - Shopify Unite 2021 announcements
Shopify Unite 2021 announcements The big news since last week is from Shopify Unite 2021. Now that the event is over, there's been more details and documentation released. Shopify has created their own summarizes for merchants and for developers. The big one is what they are calling Online Store 2.0....
Shopify Dispatch Issue #301 - Major accessibility problems, Shopify Unite
94% of the Largest E-Commerce Sites Are Not Accessibility Compliant Accessibility, or rather the lack of it, has been big news for a couple of years now with many stores having lawsuits filed against them. The Baymard Institute just published their study on ecommerce accessibility and the results look poor....
Shopify Dispatch Issue #300 - Know your subscribers, Customize robots.txt on Shopify
Email Marketers Should Know Subscribers Better Armando Roggio and Val Geisler talk about how getting to know email subscribers preferences can improve campaign performance. They also briefly mention a powerful psychological behavior that can happen as a side-effect: "Second, subscribers who read the opt-out email but didn't respond could look...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #299 - Shop Pay installments, Google, Facebook, iOS and email marketing
Shop Pay updates Shopify has updated Shop Pay to launch installment payments in the US and with more details about their integrations with Facebook and Google Shopping. Apple's iOS 15 Will Change Email Marketing Apple is continuing to improve its privacy features in iOS and in an update later this...