Podcast
The Unofficial Shopify Podcast
Hosted by Kurt Elster, Paul Reda · EN
NEW EPISODES EVERY TUESDAY, SUBSCRIBE FOR UNBEATABLE ECOM RECON – Every Tuesday since 2014, host Kurt Elster shares the Shopify success stories that nobody tells you about, straight from the entrepreneurs living it. Subscribe for a raw look at what it really takes to succeed on Shopify.
34episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
The 3 Red Flags That Mean It's Fraud
6d ago00:49:16Tap to summarize"I shipped the bike and a couple of weeks later, the real credit card holder got a statement, said I didn't place that order, filed a chargeback, and then the money was gone." Also on YouTube: https://youtu.be/6k4iyfvjuTA John Murphy's first-ever Shopify sale was a total scam. Two weeks into launching, he wired a $5,000 e-bike to a guy putting on an old man's voice over the phone. That single chargeback kicked off an eight-year obsession with not getting burned again. He grew eBike Generation into a $3M store and pieced together a fraud detection stack that didn't eat his razor-thin drop shipping margins. Now he runs FRIQ Labs, productizing the system he built for himself. We covered the trifecta of red flags that almost always mean fraud, why you should never auto-capture payments on Shopify, and how being curious about a single weird order can save you thousands. SPONSORS Swym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more getswym.com/kurt Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels zipify.com/KURT Promo Party - We built an app!https://promoparty.app/ LINKS FRIQ Labs: https://friqlabs.com Drop Ship Breakthrough: https://dropshipbreakthrough.com Ben Knegendorf's episode: https://unofficialshopifypodcast.com/episodes/ben-knegendorf-dropships-FLGufeLE Ekata: https://ekata.com Shopify Protect: https://shopify.com/protect WORK WITH KURT Apply for Shopify Help ethercycle.com/apply See Our Results ethercycle.com/work Free Newsletter kurtelster.com The Unofficial Shopify Podcast is hosted by Kurt Elster and explores the stories behind successful Shopify stores. Get actionable insights, practical strategies, and proven tactics from entrepreneurs who've built thriving ecommerce businesses.
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Print on Demand's Real Playbook w/ David Hooker
2w ago00:48:35Tap to summarize"70% of stuff never goes sold. So you have to be prepared to interact with that level of rejection." David Hooker is the brand director for both Printify and Printful, which merged in late 2024 to form FYUL. He's got access to the data behind millions of print on demand sellers, and what he's learned is both humbling and useful. The top 1% aren't more talented. They're more consistent. We get into AI-generated mockups that actually look real, why email marketing is still a "print money button," and how community-driven niche selling beats paid ads for customer acquisition in 2025. Also available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ppYhfdota7k SPONSORS Swym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more getswym.com/kurt Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels zipify.com/KURT LINKS Printify: printify.com Printful: printful.com David Hooker on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/davidhooker/ David Hooker's TEDx Talk on Visual Literacy: ted.com/talks/david_hooker_the_importance_of_visual_literacy WORK WITH KURT Apply for Shopify Help ethercycle.com/apply See Our Results ethercycle.com/work Free Newsletter kurtelster.com The Unofficial Shopify Podcast is hosted by Kurt Elster and explores the stories behind successful Shopify stores. Get actionable insights, practical strategies, and proven tactics from entrepreneurs who've built thriving ecommerce businesses.
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Ecom Vibe Check: What's Working in 2026
3w ago00:54:30Tap to summarize"If your product sucks, you're never going to succeed. A lot of people are trying to solve product problems with marketing spend." Chase Clymer runs Electric Eye, a Shopify agency deep in CRO, redesigns, and migrations. He also hits about one industry event a month, which means he's got a real read on how merchants and partners actually feel right now. Not the Twitter version. The hallway version. We got into the real state of ecom in 2026: Facebook CPMs nearly doubling since the pandemic, why most brands under $5M shouldn't be split testing at all, how agencies are using AI tools like Claude and Nano Banana to skip hours of busywork, and Chase's bold prediction that Shopify is about to overhaul its partner program after a failed enterprise bet. SPONSORS Swym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more getswym.com/kurt Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopify cleverific.com Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels zipify.com/KURT LINKS Electric Eye: https://electriceye.io/ Honest Ecommerce podcast: https://honestecommerce.com/ Fathom (sales call recording): https://fathom.video/ Nano Banana / Gemini image generation: https://gemini.google/overview/image-generation/ Figma Make: https://www.figma.com/ WORK WITH KURT Apply for Shopify Help ethercycle.com/apply See Our Results ethercycle.com/work Free Newsletter kurtelster.com The Unofficial Shopify Podcast is hosted by Kurt Elster and explores the stories behind successful Shopify stores. Get actionable insights, practical strategies, and proven tactics from entrepreneurs who've built thriving ecommerce businesses.
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The B2B Quoting Episode
4w ago00:50:51Tap to summarizeDenis Dyli has spent 13 years building Shopify stores for the businesses nobody wants to talk about: industrial suppliers, janitorial distributors, pipe manufacturers. The unsexy stuff. He's now a Shopify Platinum Partner, and he's turning all that pain into an AI-powered deal room that converts messy email RFQs into structured quotes in minutes, not weeks. We get into why B2B and wholesale are fundamentally different buying experiences, how mid-market manufacturers ($20M-$100M) are the most underserved segment in ecommerce, and why your B2B quoting process probably still feels like 1997. SPONSORS Swym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more getswym.com/kurt Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopify cleverific.com Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels zipify.com/KURT LINKS Uncap: https://uncap.com Denis Dyli on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/denisdyli WORK WITH KURT Apply for Shopify Help ethercycle.com/apply See Our Results ethercycle.com/work Free Newsletter kurtelster.com The Unofficial Shopify Podcast is hosted by Kurt Elster and explores the stories behind successful Shopify stores. Get actionable insights, practical strategies, and proven tactics from entrepreneurs who've built thriving ecommerce businesses.
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76% of Subscribers Never Come Back (Here's the Fix)
Apr 2800:55:59Tap to summarize"It sucks to lose a customer not because of the product, but because of the mechanism in which they get the product." Jay Myers has spent a decade building one of the biggest subscription apps on Shopify. Now he's telling you subscriptions are broken. Bold's data backs it up: 82% of cancellations happen because customers have too much or too little product, not because they stopped wanting it. And 76% of those who cancel never come back. His fix is rePete, an AI-powered reorder concierge that predicts when each customer needs a refill and sends a one-click nudge at exactly the right time. We talked about the subscription death curve, why reorder revenue can 3-5x your business valuation, and the beta results that made me a believer. SPONSORS Swym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more getswym.com/kurt Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopify cleverific.com Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels zipify.com/KURT LINKS rePete by Bold: https://repeat.me Bold Commerce: https://boldcommerce.com Built Bar: https://built.com WORK WITH KURT Apply for Shopify Help ethercycle.com/apply See Our Results ethercycle.com/work Free Newsletter kurtelster.com The Unofficial Shopify Podcast is hosted by Kurt Elster and explores the stories behind successful Shopify stores. Get actionable insights, practical strategies, and proven tactics from entrepreneurs who've built thriving ecommerce businesses.
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The 2026 EcomFuel Report
Apr 2100:51:59Tap to summarize"Succeeding with paid was not about how good your ROAS was. What the paid experts did so well was they had built a business model structurally that allowed them to put as much money as they possible into that paid engine." Andrew Youderian surveyed 300 store owners representing $3.5 billion in revenue for the sixth annual eComFuel Trends Report, and the data broke four things Shopify merchants have been told were true. AI adoption is at 72% and producing zero financial edge. Non-AI adopters are growing profits faster than adopters. Amazon's share of revenue is back to 2017 levels while more brands than ever are selling on it. Gross margins hit an all-time high the same year net margins hit an all-time low. In this episode we dig into the paid traffic reversal that changed Andrew's own mind, why 97% of stores now run paid ads, the P&L math that separates winners from losers, and the financial literacy stat that moves net margins by 50%. SPONSORS Swym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more getswym.com/kurt Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopify cleverific.com Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels zipify.com/KURT LINKS eComFuel 2026 Trends Report: ecommercefuel.com/ecommerce-trends/ Financial Mastery for Ecom Store Owners (free course): https://www.ecommercefuel.com/mastery/ WORK WITH KURT Apply for Shopify Help ethercycle.com/apply See Our Results ethercycle.com/work Free Newsletter kurtelster.com The Unofficial Shopify Podcast is hosted by Kurt Elster and explores the stories behind successful Shopify stores. Get actionable insights, practical strategies, and proven tactics from entrepreneurs who've built thriving ecommerce businesses.
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A.I. Tool Time with Kurt
Apr 1400:40:00Tap to summarizeRecorded live at Smart Marketer Mentor Tables in Nashville, this is Kurt's full talk on why most people are bad at AI and what to do about it. The pitch was that AI would let you do less work and produce better output. What actually happened: everyone is producing more slop, faster. Inside: the RTF framework that fixes any prompt in 30 seconds, the 10 AI tools Kurt actually uses every day (not the ones he gets paid to recommend), and why Claude Cowork is the single tool worth your attention in 2026. SPONSORS Swym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more getswym.com/kurt Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopify cleverific.com Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels zipify.com/KURT LINKS Smart Marketer: https://smartmarketer.com Microsoft Clarity: https://clarity.microsoft.com Topaz Labs: https://www.topazlabs.com Adobe Enhance: https://podcast.adobe.com WhisperFlow: https://wisprflow.ai Whisper Transcription (Mac app): https://goodsnooze.gumroad.com/l/whisper-transcription Adobe Firefly: https://firefly.adobe.com Nano Banana (Google): https://gemini.google.com Grok: https://grok.com Claude Code: https://claude.com/claude-code Claude Cowork: https://claude.com Crisp Chat: https://crisp.chat Tidio: https://www.tidio.com Matrixify: https://matrixify.app WORK WITH KURT Apply for Shopify Help ethercycle.com/apply See Our Results ethercycle.com/work Free Newsletter kurtelster.com The Unofficial Shopify Podcast is hosted by Kurt Elster and explores the stories behind successful Shopify stores. Get actionable insights, practical strategies, and proven tactics from entrepreneurs who've built thriving ecommerce businesses.
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Remembering Casey Bard
Apr 900:44:59Tap to summarizeThis is a memorial republish. Casey Bard, founder of Tacticalories Seasoning Co., died in early April 2026 after a three-year fight with Stage 4 colorectal cancer. Casey told the people close to him that when he was gone, he wanted them to tell stories about him. This is Casey in his own words, recorded in March 2021. Casey started Tacticalories with $500 and mixed his first batch in his bathtub. By 2020 the company had grown 4x. We talked about building a brand around a personal Venn diagram of interests, why he drops one product at a time instead of seasonal collections, the 2020 manufacturing chaos, and why he refused to dropship, refused coupon codes, and refused to take outside money. GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/casey-is-choosing-to-continue-the-fight LINKS Tacticalories: https://tacticalories.com Casey Bard: https://caseybard.com GoFundMe (supporting Casey's family): https://www.gofundme.com/f/casey-is-choosing-to-continue-the-fight Struggle Well (documentary about Casey's story): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=908HdjZFyjk
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Why Shopify Opened B2B to ALL Plans
Apr 700:39:55Tap to summarizeShopify just opened up its foundational B2B features to all paid plans, not just Plus. Samir Pradhan, VP of Product at Shopify, joins the show to break down what merchants actually get: company profiles, up to three custom catalogs, quantity rules, ACH payments, vaulted credit cards, and 50+ features total, at no additional cost. We walk through the setup, talk about what stays Plus-only, and dig into why B2B was consistently a top three merchant request. Plus, 96% GMV growth for merchants already using these tools. If you've been avoiding wholesale or duct-taping workarounds, this is the episode. LINKS Shopify B2B Newsroom Post: https://www.shopify.com/news/b2b-for-all Shopify B2B Help Docs: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b Samir Pradhan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samir-pradhan-71978120 SPONSORS Swym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more getswym.com/kurt Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopify cleverific.com Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels zipify.com/KURT WORK WITH KURT Apply for Shopify Help ethercycle.com/apply See Our Results ethercycle.com/work Free Newsletter kurtelster.com The Unofficial Shopify Podcast is hosted by Kurt Elster and explores the stories behind successful Shopify stores. Get actionable insights, practical strategies, and proven tactics from entrepreneurs who've built thriving ecommerce businesses.
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He Had Zero Audio Experience. Then He Sold $300K in Turntables.
Mar 3100:49:11Tap to summarize"I don't have any really relevant credentials or qualifications when it comes to this sort of thing." Noam Sugarman got fed up trying to find a stereo system that looked good, sounded good, and didn't require an engineering degree to buy. So he built his own. With no audio background, he launched Dum Audio, raised $75K on Indiegogo, then ditched crowdfunding platforms entirely to run pre-order campaigns on his own Shopify store, where he saw better return on ad spend. Five years and $300K+ in sales later, he's shipping hi-fi turntables, speakers, and amps direct to consumer. We talk about pricing in a market where a stereo can cost $100 or $100,000, why his self-run Shopify campaign outperformed Indiegogo, and how 60% of his crowdfunding buyers added a subwoofer upsell he only expected a third to take. SPONSORS Swym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more getswym.com/kurt Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopify cleverific.com Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels zipify.com/KURT LINKS Dum Audio: https://dumaudio.com/ Design Momentum (industrial design): https://designmomentum.com/ WORK WITH KURT Apply for Shopify Help ethercycle.com/apply See Our Results ethercycle.com/work Free Newsletter kurtelster.com The Unofficial Shopify Podcast is hosted by Kurt Elster and explores the stories behind successful Shopify stores. Get actionable insights, practical strategies, and proven tactics from entrepreneurs who've built thriving ecommerce businesses.
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