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 #238 - Shopify Email available, Post-pandemic customer retention
Shopify Email Is Now Available and Completely Free Until October 1, 2020 Shopify's new email marketing system was released early and is now free for all merchants until October. From what I've heard it's missing a lot of features as it is still under active development, so it won't replace...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #237 - Easier US sales tax, Store trust checklist
Simple, clear, and accurate US sales tax setup Shopify's updated their US sales tax to make it easier. Given the complexity of sales tax, this update could simplify things for a lot of stores. The 39-Point Store Trust Checklist: How Trustworthy Is Your Online Store? Adam Rogers wrote up the...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #236 - Local delivery, PPC mistakes
It's April 1st but I have been forbidden from telling dad jokes today. I do have a good one about cheese that everyone is dying to hear... Quickstart Guide: How to Start Selling Online With Local Delivery Shopify has created a guide to start selling online with local delivery. While...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #235 - Short-term revenue tactics, Gift cards for all
Short-Term Revenue Strategies for Brick-and-Mortar Retailers Navigating COVID-19 Roxanne Voidonicolas wrote up a dozen ways to secure short-term revenue and cash. Some will have long lasting impacts, positive and negative but those options might make sense if you're about to fall off a cashflow cliff. Gift Card Support Is Now...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #234 - Video uploads come to Shopify, Lessons from the 2008 recession
Bring Product Pages to Life with Built-In Support for 3D Models and Video Shopify now supports video and 3D models for your product pages. Depending on your theme it might require an upgrade or code update. Ecommerce Lessons from the 2008 Crash Dale Traxler shares what they learned from the...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #233 - Dormant Christmas buyers, Amazon SEO lessons
It's March, and Those Christmas Buyers are Dormant Kevin Hillstrom highlights an important post-holiday problem, right around now those new Christmas buyers are showing signs of defection. You've probably already lost the majority of them. But you could change that by timing your acquisition and welcome campaigns differently for the...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #232 - Rebuy rates and acquisition costs, Shopify accessibility
Here's A Huge Advantage Kevin Hillstrom connects how important your rebuy rate is to the cost of acquiring new customers. This concept is important and could be behind why so many stores are struggling on the ad-buying treadmill. Avoid the ticking time bomb with this podcast Ilana Davis shares her...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #231 - Ecommerce search, Goodbye nofollow
Deconstructing E-Commerce Search: The 8 Most Common Query Types Jamie Appleseed at Baymard has published a massive article about ecommerce search that lists many different ways customers search and how majors stores succeed or fail at them. Google Downgrades Nofollow Directive. Now What? You used to be able to use...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #230 - When to scale SEO, Fast stores
SEO: When to Scale (or Not) Bill Sebald writes about when to scale your SEO activities and when not to. I see Shopify stores getting this backwards all the time, scaling up the things that need a manual touch (titles, descriptions, content) and doing things that by hand that should...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #229 - Shopify outage status, Good conversion rates
Check your store's status on the updated Shopify status page Shopify's updated their status page so that it can now tell you if there's an outage that impacts your specific store. It's an interesting evolution over the previous "some stores are impacted by ..." status page but the loss of...