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 #188 - Shopify Retail Kit, Optimizing images for SEO
Introducing the Shopify Retail Kit: Unify Your Online and Offline Business Shopify introduced a new POS system for ipads called the Shopify Retail Kit. The portable Tap & Chip Reader is pretty interesting. Optimizing Images for Google Search Results Jill Kocher Brown writes about how to optimize product images for...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #187 - Product page UX, About Us pages
Product Page UX: Data Should Be Synchronized Across Product Variations (28% Don't) The Baymard Institute has released another set of guidelines for product pages, this time about handling product variations. Some Shopify themes still handle variant data poorly and sometimes product data is so confusing that customers leave without buying....
Shopify Dispatch Issue #186 - Product descriptions, Google Shopping
SEO: Product Descriptions Are a Blind Spot for Ecommerce Merchants A big deficiency with Shopify stores are having too little, weak, or copied product descriptions. Multiple times per week I've making recommendations to customers about theirs as part of my app. Jill Kocher Brown outlines why you should write your...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #185 - Conversation rate optimization, Email marketing
15 questions about conversion optimization answered Sharon Hurley Hall has written a great introduction guide to conversation rate optimization that walks you through how to create your first hypothesis. Email Marketing 101: How to Build Your List, Send Effective Campaigns, and Track Results Shopify has been on an email marketing...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #184 - Copywriting mistakes, Email marketing
Are These 6 Common Copywriting Mistakes Costing You Sales? Henneke Duistermaat shares a handful of things to improve your product copywriting. These are why I consider copywriting a superpower, one that every business should learn. Email Marketing Best Practices: How to Improve (Almost) Every Email Mark Macdonald shares a few...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #183 - Google Ads, Keyword research
The Google Ads Playbook: 13 Campaign Types And What to Expect From Them With the dizzying list of options for online advertising, it can be confusing to know how to best use Google Ads. Marc Weisinger has created a playbook of 13 Google Ad campaign types and when's the best...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #182 - Google Data Studio, Google algorithm update
Using Google Data Studio to Report Gross Profit by SKU I've done some development with Google Data Studio recently to understand my traffic sources and full conversions rates. It has wider uses than just traffic analysis though. Morgan Jones shows how to combine Google Analytics data with a custom COGS...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #181 - Content marketing thru checkout
How Blue Bottle Coffee uses content marketing to educate customers Sam Hollis breaks down Blue Bottle Coffee's content marketing and how easily it flows from content to store and finally to checkout. This level of integration can be difficult to achieve, but it ensures that a lot of your prospective...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #180 - Protecting SEO, Welcome program
Replatforming SEO Strategies to Protect Rankings, Boost Traffic, and Drive Sales Andrea Wahbe writes about SEO considerations when you switch platforms, but the advice is just as valid if you're making a major change to your Shopify store like a new theme. I've seen too many stores wipe out or...
Shopify Dispatch Issue #179 - Value of a subscriber
How to calculate the value of an email subscriber Samantha Connors at Jilt wrote how to calculate the value of an email subscriber along with several different methods and metrics to track. You'll probably just want to pick one method and stick with it, too many methods and metrics can...