The Unofficial Shopify Podcast

Ethercycle LLC

“How's an entrepreneur like me supposed to grow my Shopify store?” That's what The Unofficial Shopify Podcast aims to answer. Discover new opportunities to grow your store from the world’s most successful Shopify entrepreneurs. Hosted by Kurt Elster, a senior ecommerce consultant and Shopify Plus Partner, The Unofficial Shopify Podcast is not authorized, endorsed, or sponsored by Shopify– It's a no holds barred discussion of ecommerce growth strategy & tactics.

  • 51 minutes 45 seconds
    A Mushroom Brand's Bet Against Booze

    "I would have invested 100% of all of the money that we raised into Meta. I would have done nothing else but secure that one channel first."

    After launching Troop, a functional mushroom gummy brand, Jake Mellman discovered that community events and sampling don't pay the bills. What does: Meta ads, a 76% contribution margin, and defaulting customers to quarterly subscriptions. Now he's applied those lessons to Psilly Goose, a functional beverage targeting the 46% of American adults who've stopped drinking. The challenge: THC restrictions, heavy shipping costs, and a farm bill that could shut him down by November.

    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

    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.

    20 January 2026, 11:00 am
  • 26 minutes 31 seconds
    The First Shop Mini

    "Shop has this amazing opportunity to convert shoppers into people that are being entertained by shoppable content."

    Bill Staley built the first Shop Mini to launch on Shopify's Shop app. Food Social brings 10,000+ shoppable recipes to 200 million potential users. We dig into why Shop is Shopify's most underrated channel, how personalization matches recipes to purchase history, and why intent-based shopping beats interruption marketing every time.

    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

    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.

    15 January 2026, 11:00 am
  • 48 minutes 53 seconds
    The Period Brand That Won $1.5M in Pitch Contests

    Dana Roberts spent years watching fifth-grade girls panic through their first periods with ill-fitting products and no preparation. The period care aisle hadn't changed in decades. Same brands. Same sizing that was never designed for a 10-year-old's body. When she pitched the idea to her god-sister, Dr. Monica Williams, she got a polite brush-off. Years later, Monica's own daughter started showing signs of puberty, and suddenly the problem wasn't theoretical anymore.

    What followed was a brutal education in bootstrapping: churning through agencies, surviving iOS 14.5, and funding an entire company through pitch competitions because traditional VCs wouldn't write checks. Last year, a three-minute pitch won them $1 million from Pharrell Williams. Then Ulta told them to change their name if they wanted shelf space. They did it in 90 days.

    Now Scarlet by RedDrop is in almost 400 stores trying to fix something the industry ignored for generations. We talked about all of it, including the part where Monica says she wishes she'd never bootstrapped at all.

    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

    • Scarlet by RedDrop: tryreddrop.com
    • Ulta product page: ulta.com/brand/scarlet-by-reddrop
    • Black Ambition Prize: blackambitionprize.com
    • Klaviyo: klaviyo.com
    • Smart Marketer: smartmarketer.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.

    13 January 2026, 11:00 am
  • 47 minutes 52 seconds
    The €330M Exit Guy Shares His Europe Playbook

    "We were close to closing the company two or three times. Every winter was like, okay, that's it. Goodbye company."

    Chris Erthel built Meller sunglasses from a Spanish side project into a brand that sells a pair every 28 seconds. Along the way, he helped scale HelloBody from €30M to €107M as fractional CMO before its €330M exit to Henkel. We talked about why US brands fail in Europe, the cultural quirks that kill conversions in Germany, and why Italy requires cash on delivery or you're dead on arrival. He's run 3,500+ A/B tests and shares counterintuitive findings that challenge everything you think you know about landing pages and ad creative.

    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

    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.

    6 January 2026, 11:00 am
  • 53 minutes 37 seconds
    $1.7M BFCM: Inside Montana Knife Company's Black Friday

    Montana Knife Company pulled in $1.7 million over Black Friday weekend without discounting a single knife. Co-founder Brandon Horoho explains how: five targeted product drops, one for each customer persona. An email cadence so aggressive he was watching unsubscribe rates like a hawk. And a VIP program where the reward shows up unannounced in your mailbox. It's a story about knowing exactly who your customer is and giving them what they want before they ask. Also: why Brandon actually high-fives when his repeat customer rate goes down.

    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

    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.

    30 December 2025, 11:00 am
  • 32 minutes 24 seconds
    Native A/B Testing Hits Shopify: What You Need to Know

    "It's really about helping merchants become more informed, helping them make more bold decisions."

    Aaron Glazer, Product Lead at Shopify, reveals two features from Winter '26 Edition that change how merchants test and optimize their stores. Rollouts brings native split testing directly into the admin. SimGym deploys AI agents trained on billions of purchases to find what's broken before real customers do.

    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

    • Rollouts: Access via Markets tab in Shopify admin
    • SimGym App: Search "SimGym" in Shopify App Store

    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.

    22 December 2025, 11:04 pm
  • 39 minutes 57 seconds
    SHOPIFY EDITIONS WINTER '26

    Shopify just dropped their "Renaissance Edition" with 150+ product updates. We cut through the noise. Sidekick finally works—I use it daily now for reports, segments, and Flow automations. Native A/B testing arrives with Rollouts and SimGym. The new Product Network let one early adopter earn $1,400 in commission in 30 days. And Shop App? #1 in the App Store over BFCM. Here's what actually matters for store owners.

    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

    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.

    16 December 2025, 11:00 am
  • 55 minutes 54 seconds
    Why Your Creative Strategy Is Burning Cash

    "Do you care enough about new customer acquisition? What you care about shows up based off of your actions, not your thoughts or your words."

    Meta's Andromeda update broke everyone's brain and most brands still haven't recovered. Nehal Kazim, CEO of Ad Pros, argues that the industry overcorrected by wildly overproducing content, burning through budgets on concepts that never receive meaningful spend. His math: you're paying $250-500 per asset for creatives that never get tested. Kazim has spent 13 years running campaigns for brands like Canada Goose and DTC companies doing $10-16 million a month. His solution is a profitability-first framework that tracks new customer contribution margin daily and calibrates creative output to what your budget can actually support. Also discussed: why Meta told him to stop hook testing, and the $25K Cardi B ad he hated that completely crushed.

    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

    • Ad Pros: https://adpros.com
    • Nehal on Instagram: instagram.com/nehalkazim
    • Nehal on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nehalkazim

    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.

    9 December 2025, 11:00 am
  • 48 minutes 51 seconds
    She Sold 250K Shampoo Bars Without Amazon or Ads

    Kate Assaraf tried every plastic-free shampoo bar on the market. They sat in her shower like, and I'm quoting here, "tombstones." Failed products. Dead ends. So she decided to make her own. Without Instagram ads. Without Amazon. Without any of the things you're supposed to need to build a business. Today on our program, we follow Kate's journey from beauty industry veteran to the woman who said no to everything, and built a million-dollar company anyway.

    In this episode, we explore how Kate sold 250,000 shampoo bars in 4 years while refusing Meta ads, Amazon listings, and influencer partnerships. When her contract manufacturer went under, she didn't find a new one—she built her own factory and hired the displaced workers. Now with 400+ retail partners and 7-figure revenue, Kate proves that sometimes the best growth strategy is saying no to growth hacks.

    GUEST BIO

    Kate Assaraf is the founder of DIP Haircare, a plastic-free beauty brand that's redefined sustainable haircare without compromising performance. With 20 years in the beauty industry, Kate launched DIP from her kitchen table in October 2021 after discovering that existing eco-friendly alternatives failed to deliver. Her shampoo and conditioner bars compete directly with luxury salon brands while lasting up to a year. By refusing traditional DTC tactics and focusing on local retail partnerships, she's built a 7-figure business that champions American manufacturing and community-first commerce.

    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

    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.

    2 December 2025, 11:00 am
  • 41 minutes 8 seconds
    What Discounts Actually Make People Buy (Study)

    There's this thing that happens when you run an e-commerce store. You know you need to discount, but you're terrified. Terrified of training customers to wait for sales. Terrified of looking cheap. So you do nothing, or worse, you slap WELCOME10 on your popup and call it a day. Meanwhile, the big brands? They're discounting constantly. Just invisibly.

    Cara Marin from Seguno looked at 162,000 discount code sets. Real data from real stores. And what she found flips everything we thought we knew. The most successful stores discount more, not less. They just do it smarter. With unique codes. With segmentation. With strategies that preserve brand value while driving conversions.

    The revelation that changes everything: it's not about the discount. It's about the delivery. 20% off might be the magic number, but 10% is secretly almost as effective. Gift with purchase is used 6X more by Plus stores. And those customer service recovery codes? They're turning angry customers into superfans. This isn't theory. This is what actually works.

    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

    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.

    25 November 2025, 11:00 am
  • 45 minutes 44 seconds
    This Founder Automated Influencer Outreach Completely

    So there's this guy, Bora Celik. Software engineer, thirty years in the game. Last year he tells his investors something crazy: SaaS is dead. Not dying. Dead. And here's the thing - he might be right. See, while everyone's playing with ChatGPT, asking it questions, Bora's building these things called AI agents. They don't just answer questions. They do the work. Like, actually reach out to influencers, negotiate deals, send products, follow up. No humans involved. One of his clients, Harney & Sons Tea, they've got agents running their entire influencer program. The agents find people, check their engagement rates, send emails, track who posts. Everything. And the wildest part? The CEOs of these $100 million companies are building their own agents now. Using tools anyone can access. Today, Bora shows us exactly how.

    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

    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.

    18 November 2025, 11:00 am
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