"These tools rely on automation that only catches 30% of issues. And for blind users with screen readers? The overlays often conflict with their assistive tech—making the site harder to use."

Bet Hannon runs AccessiCart, an agency that fixes accessibility problems for e-commerce stores—usually right after they've been sued. We talked about why "quick fix" overlay plugins are making the problem worse, the four accessibility issues you can fix right now, and what the European Accessibility Act's €100K fines mean for US-based stores.

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

• AccessiCart: https://accessicart.com
• Bet on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/bethannon
• WAVE Accessibility Tool: https://wave.webaim.org
• Overlay Fact Sheet: https://overlayfactsheet.com

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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.

I spent three days at Smart Marketer Live in Denver, capturing raw conversations with agency owners, brand founders, and Meta reps about what's actually working in 2025.

This isn't your typical conference recap. We're talking about Meta's Andromeda update that killed everyone's ad performance over the summer, why TikTok Shop might be a trap, and how a chicken supplement business owner plans to poach employees like she's manifesting herbs.

Featuring Beav Brodie (Tactical Baby Gear), Brett Curry (OMG Commerce), Attila from Smart Marketer, and Celia Hatch (Buff Clucks).

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

• Tactical Baby Gear: https://tacticalbabygear.com
• Fight Soap: https://fightsoap.us
• Buff Clucks: https://buffclucks.com
• OMG Commerce: https://omgcommerce.com
• Smart Marketer: https://smartmarketer.com

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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.

So there's this baseball media company. They make shirts about guys with nicknames like "The Big Dumper." And they needed three different store experiences, but only wanted to use one store. What our co-host Paul Reda figured out next is either brilliant or insane. Maybe both.

Today on the show, we're asking: when does a hack become a feature? When does one store become three? And why would anyone voluntarily remove every frontend app from their Shopify store? Plus, ChatGPT can now sell your products directly. No, really. We'll explain how that works and why Kurt thinks automated fraud prevention might actually matter this time.

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

• Jomboy Media Shop: https://shop.jomboymedia.com/
• ChatGPT Shopping Signup: https://shopify.com/chatgpt
• Customer Category Segmentation: https://changelog.shopify.com/posts/segment-customers-based-on-the-product-categories-they-ve-browsed-or-bought
• Automated Fraud Prevention: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/fraud-prevention/index
• Unofficial Shopify Podcast Insiders (Facebook Group): https://www.facebook.com/groups/UnofficialShopifyPodcast/

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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.

"ChatGPT is not that sophisticated yet. So for marketers, what that means is there are real ways right now for arbitrage in this short period of time before ChatGPT gets good enough to say, no, we're only showing the proper result."

Mac King from Domaine breaks down why merchants are seeing ChatGPT and Perplexity show up as referral sources in their analytics—and what to do about it. We talked about the terminology wars (GEO vs AEO vs AI search optimization), why AI engines favor content from Google's 10th page, and the Reddit strategies that actually work without getting banned.

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

• Domaine AI Commerce Suite: https://www.meetdomaine.com/insights/domaine-news/domaine-launches-ai-commerce-suite
• Mac King on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mackenziepking/
• Mac King on Twitter: https://x.com/MacKing/
• Profound (tracking tool): https://www.tryprofound.com/
• Shopify Knowledge Base app: https://apps.shopify.com/shopify-knowledge-base
• SEOFOMO newsletter: https://seofomo.co/
• Commerce GPT newsletter: https://www.yotpo.com/commerce-gpt/

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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.

Jamil Bhuya has scaled businesses across three wildly different industries: restaurants, beauty, and now Shopify agencies. That multi-industry perspective gives him a unique superpower—he can spot the conversion killers that store owners become blind to. We talked about why fresh eyes matter more than fancy tools, the psychology behind purchase objections, and how being too close to your business destroys your ability to see what customers actually need.

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

• Other Half Studio: https://otherhalf.studio
• Jamil on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/jamil-bhuya

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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.

We're seeing 10x more bots than humans on client stores. Fraudsters are buying your cheapest items to test stolen credit cards. Your SEO agency wants 150 new collections.

This week, we dig into the actual problems hitting Shopify stores right now. Not theory, not best practices, but the real BS we're fixing for clients. We break down why your analytics are lying, how to stop credit card testers, and whether more granular SEO collections are brilliant or idiotic.

Plus: The free Shopify app that caught a critical launch mistake, proof that ChatGPT drives revenue, and beta access to our new Promo Party app.

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

• Shopify Launch Check
• Microsoft Clarity
• Fraud Control
• Checkout Blocks
• Beta test Promo Party: Contact Kurt via newsletter or LinkedIn

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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.

"I'm not very good at success. That's something I learned as part of this."

Ben Knegendorf went from forklift operator at Walmart to selling his stake in an indoor golf business for $720,000. Then he watched most of it disappear through lifestyle creep, speculative investments, and financial ignorance. His second exit was different - and his brutal honesty about where the money went offers real lessons for entrepreneurs facing their first big payday.

Swym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more
getswym.com/kurt

Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopify
cleverific.com/unofficial

Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels
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• Ben Knegendorf: https://www.benknegendorf.com/
• Dropship Breakthrough: https://dropshipbreakthru.com/
• Ben's 2022 Episode: https://unofficialshopifypodcast.com/episodes/ben-knegendorf-dropships-FLGufeLE
• John Murphy's Episode: https://unofficialshopifypodcast.com/episodes/john-murphy-ebikegeneration-IcHgGRVa

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The Unofficial Shopify Podcast explores the stories behind successful Shopify stores. Get actionable insights, practical strategies, and proven tactics from entrepreneurs who've built thriving ecommerce businesses.

Also available on YouTube: youtu.be/gGdS45JY2Yo

Andrew Le and Tu Pham acquired Edit Order, a distressed Shopify app with a terrible reputation, for just 2x revenue in 2015. Ten years later, they've transformed it into Cleverific—a multi-million dollar order editing powerhouse.

Guests:

• Andrew Le - Co-founder & Lead Developer, Cleverific
• Tu Pham - Co-founder, Marketing & Design, Cleverific
• Website: https://cleverific.com/

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

Apply for Shopify Help - ethercycle.com/apply
See Our Results - ethercycle.com/work
Free Newsletter - kurtelster.com

The Unofficial Shopify Podcast explores the stories behind successful Shopify stores. Get actionable insights, practical strategies, and proven tactics from entrepreneurs who've built thriving ecommerce businesses.

Also on YouTube: youtu.be/56r_UJZbtLg

"We want to make sure that merchants who are starting their business who don't know what are all the jobs they need to take care of for shipping to merchants who are thriving and understand the space and have complex workflows, we can solve this problem for everybody."

Vibhor Chhabra, Director of Product at Shopify, breaks down how Shopify Shipping has evolved into something completely different from what you might remember. We covered the new carrier integrations (including FedEx), bulk label printing for up to 250 orders, automatic shipping insurance up to $200, and why Amazon is now a fulfillment partner through SFN. Plus how shipping transforms from a cost center into a competitive advantage.

Swym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more
getswym.com/kurt

Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopify
cleverific.com/unofficial

Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels
zipify.com/KURT

• Email: [email protected] (feedback welcome)
• Shopify Shipping: https://www.shopify.com/shipping

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The Unofficial Shopify Podcast explores the stories behind successful Shopify stores. Get actionable insights, practical strategies, and proven tactics from entrepreneurs who've built thriving ecommerce businesses.

Also available on YouTube: youtu.be/0HHJ5tONfVo

Most Shopify store owners are doing growth completely wrong. They're trying to lower ad costs, make prettier websites, and rush customers to buy. Devyn Merklin from X-Scale flips all of this on its head with counter-intuitive strategies that actually work.

In this episode, you'll discover why the biggest mistake seven-figure brands make is racing to the bottom on customer acquisition costs instead of learning to outbid competition. Devyn shares how one brand tripled subscription revenue from $6K to $22K MRR in just 45 days using gamification instead of discounts.

You'll learn the psychology behind giveaway strategies that actually build qualified prospect lists, why ugly websites convert better than pretty ones, and the empathy-driven approach to customer journey optimization that most brands completely miss.

Sponsors:

• Swym (getswym.com/kurt) – Wishlists & back in stock alerts
• Cleverific (cleverific.com/unofficial) – Smart order editing
• Zipify (zipify.com/KURT) – High-converting sales funnels

Key takeaways include the LTV vs CAC mindset shift that separates big brands from struggling stores, the month 4 subscription churn fix that prevents customer dropout, and why your landing pages are probably bleeding money without you knowing it.

If you're tired of following conventional wisdom that doesn't work, this episode reveals the contrarian strategies that actually drive results.

Guest: Devyn Merklin, X-Scale (thexscale.com)

Links:

• Apply to work with Kurt: ethercycle.com/apply
• Kurt's newsletter: kurtelster.com
• Free growth mastermind: thexscale.com