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Published by Steve Hutt | Shopify and eCommerce Expert
Running a Shopify store? You already know success isn't about finding the right app—it's about knowing which strategies actually work at your specific stage of growth. I'm Steve Hutt, and I've lived every level of the ecommerce journey. From eBay Power Seller shipping products from my garage, to co-founding and scaling VisionPros.com (an optical DTC startup) through to a successful exit, then spending 6+ years as a Shopify Merchant Success Manager helping 100+ brands from startup to enterprise scale, including working with teams at Tentree, Dr. Squatch, Bulletproof Coffee, Salt & Straw Ice Cream, MUD/WTR, Bokksu, and many more. Here's what makes this podcast different: I've been on both sides of the table. 6+ years working inside Shopify gave me access to what's coming before most merchants know it exists. Building, scaling, and successfully exiting my own ecommerce businesses taught me what actually works when your money and reputation are on the line. That combination of insider access plus real operator experience gives you a perspective you won't find anywhere else. Since 2018, eCommerce Fastlane has delivered over 430 episodes and more than 2 million downloads to ambitious Shopify founders and marketers. Every week, I chat with operators, developers, and experts who share what's actually moving the needle right now—not theory, but patterns I've seen work consistently across dozens of brands at multiple stages. Whether you're launching your first store or scaling past seven figures, every episode gives you stage-aware strategies you can implement this week. We dig into Shopify apps, digital marketing, retention tactics, AI tools, and the operational stuff that actually reduces overwhelm—while building customer loyalty that lasts. You'll learn how to leverage emerging tech without losing what makes your brand unique. You'll also hear real founder stories, including lessons from my own journey building and exiting a DTC brand, plus insights from guests across 430+ episodes who've been exactly where you are. This isn't content for content's sake. It's what you'd get sitting at a mastermind table with someone who's built, scaled, and exited—and helped hundreds of others do the same. Ready to grow smarter, not just faster? Join thousands of founders and marketers in the eCommerce Fastlane community through our podcast, newsletter, blog, and forthcoming book "Thriving with Shopify." Steve Hutt DTC Founder | Podcast Host Find Us Online Website: eCommerceFastlane.com Newsletter: FastlaneInsider.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/shutt X: x.com/stevenhutt Instagram: instagram.com/ecommercefastlane Email: steve@ecommercefastlane.com
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Shoppers often choose your product on a comparison site before reaching Amazon or Shopify, and most brands never see it. In this episode, Tigran Egoyan, Founder and Chief Growth Officer at BestChoice.guide, breaks down: Why Microsoft Ads converted two to three times better than Google for high intent desktop shoppers The dynamic landing page tactic that lifted conversion about 40%, and how Shopify catalogs can use it What earns a sponsored top three placement, and why 100 near perfect reviews can qualify a new brand Whether you're a new Amazon brand or a category bestseller, this conversation delivers strategies you can test this week. 📝 Full show notes + resources: https://ecommercefastlane.com/podcast/episode-486/ Connect with us: 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/stevenhutt/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shutt/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thrivingwithshopify/
Weak product images cost Shopify brands sales every day, and agencies charge $3,000 per listing to fix them. In this episode, Monte Desai, co-founder of Pixii, breaks down: How one listing URL becomes seven optimized visuals in three minutes, then scales to 500 products The AIDA image sequence that carries a shopper from attention to add to cart across seven frames Why Shopify pages win on storytelling while Amazon listings have to beat the competitor beside them Whether you're doing $250K a year or $5M, this conversation delivers strategies you can test this week. 📝 Full show notes + resources: https://ecommercefastlane.com/podcast/episode-485/ Connect with us: 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/stevenhutt/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shutt/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thrivingwithshopify/
Selling on Shopify, Amazon, and wholesale but still running inventory from spreadsheets? That disconnect is quietly costing your product brand time, money, and customers. In this episode, Ben Hussey, Co-CEO at Katana, breaks down: - Why connected multichannel starts with one source of truth for stock, orders, and available-to-sell inventory - How Katana customers cut order processing time 25% in six months, with one finding $40,000 in unknown inventory - How AI replenishment and Katana's MCP let you forecast demand and query live inventory using Claude or ChatGPT Whether you're doing $500K a year on two channels or $10 million across five, this conversation delivers strategies you can test this week. 📝 Full show notes + resources: https://ecommercefastlane.com/podcast/episode-484/ Connect with us: 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/stevenhutt/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shutt/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thrivingwithshopify/
Sold out does not have to mean lost sales. Out-of-stock product pages leak demand every week that Shopify brands could capture with preorders. In this episode, Sandesh Kulai, CEO of STOQ, breaks down: Why batching back in stock alerts to your actual restock quantity beats notifying the entire waitlist When to collect full payment upfront versus a deposit, and what Shopify Payments requires How waitlist and preorder data tells you what to reorder before your next purchase order Whether you're doing $20K months or $2M months, this conversation delivers strategies you can test this week. 📝 Full show notes + resources: https://ecommercefastlane.com/podcast/episode-483/ Connect with us: 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/stevenhutt/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shutt/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thrivingwithshopify/
Your Shopify store's revenue isn't what buyers pay for. After 72 acquisitions, here's what actually sets your exit valuation. In this episode, Bawar Ahmad, founder at eComma, breaks down: Why founder dependency caps valuation, and the two-week holiday test buyers use to measure it The profit band that gets real offers, $100K to $2.5M a year, and what gets rejected fast Why earnouts rarely pay out, and how to negotiate terms instead of fighting over price Whether your brand clears $100K in profit or $2.5M, this conversation gives you an exit playbook you can start building this quarter. 📝 Full show notes + resources: https://ecommercefastlane.com/podcast/episode-482/ Connect with us: 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/stevenhutt/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shutt/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thrivingwithshopify/
Most Shopify brands hire offshore for the wrong reason, and it often costs them double what they think they're saving. In this episode, Nicolas Bivero, CEO and co-founder of Penbrothers, breaks down: Why chasing the cheapest labor costs brands more, and what cost efficiency looks like instead The 6-month Hypercare framework Penbrothers uses to onboard both new hires and clients successfully How one e-commerce client scaled to 80+ Philippines hires and sold at a higher EBITDA multiple Whether you're filling your first process-driven role or scaling a full offshore team, this conversation delivers strategies you can test this week. 📝 Full show notes + resources: https://ecommercefastlane.com/podcast/episode-481/ Connect with us: 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/stevenhutt/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shutt/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thrivingwithshopify/
AI search drives just 1 to 5% of your traffic today, but it converts far better than the rest. Here's how Shopify brands get recommended. In this episode, Robert Langenback, President and COO at Eight Oh Two, breaks down: Why LLM traffic converts nearly as well as branded search, and why it's up 1,200% year over year The product page miss: naming products "the Emma" instead of calling a shirt a shirt Why collection pages, not product pages, capture buyers who have not picked a brand yet Whether you're doing $50K months or $10M years, this conversation delivers strategies you can test this week. 📝 Full show notes + resources: https://ecommercefastlane.com/podcast/episode-480/ Connect with us: 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/stevenhutt/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shutt/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thrivingwithshopify/
De minimis is gone and tariffs are squeezing Shopify brands manufacturing overseas, but cash flow is still the real bottleneck. In this episode, Izzy Rosenzweig, CEO & Founder at Portless, breaks down: Why cutting inventory from 6 months down to 4 to 6 weeks can free up hundreds of thousands in cash How eliminating stockouts lifted customer revenue 20 to 35% without extra ad spend Real case studies: Craft Club tripled revenue in 3 months, Memo Bottle cut cash cycles to 6 weeks Whether you're doing $1M or $50M a year, this conversation delivers strategies you can test this week. 📝 Full show notes + resources: https://ecommercefastlane.com/podcast/episode-479/ Connect with us: 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/stevenhutt/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shutt/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thrivingwithshopify/
AI assistants don't care what page you rank on. They care whether your Shopify product data is structured to be found. In this episode, Morten Poulsen, founder and CEO of Plytix, breaks down: Why content led growth expands on SEO instead of replacing it, and what actually changes How FAQs, use cases, and structured attributes make your products readable to AI agents The single source of truth foundation that keeps Shopify, Amazon, and international listings accurate Whether you're doing $50K months or $50M years, this conversation delivers strategies you can test this week. 📝 Full show notes + resources: https://ecommercefastlane.com/podcast/episode-478/ Connect with us: 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/stevenhutt/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shutt/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thrivingwithshopify/
Bigger discounts don't win. Shopify brands offering 10% off in email pop-ups see better revenue per visitor than those offering 15%. In this episode, Taras Talimonchuk, CMO at Claspo, breaks down what billions of pop-up views reveal: Why steeper discounts lift opt-ins but attract discount hunters who erode revenue per visitor The 3% opt-in ceiling most ESP-native pop-ups hit, and why anonymous traffic is the reason How agentic AI builds pop-up variants, runs the A/B tests, and optimizes conversion for you Whether you're doing $50K months or $5M years, this conversation delivers strategies you can test this week. 📝 Full show notes + resources: https://ecommercefastlane.com/podcast/episode-477/ Connect with us: 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/stevenhutt/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shutt/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thrivingwithshopify/
Your AI tools don't actually know your ecommerce business, and that's why the answers sound confident but the numbers are wrong. In this episode, Bryan Mahoney, former Glossier CTO and now Co-Founder & CEO of Chord, breaks down: Why a data context layer can make your existing AI tools up to 5x more effective without switching models How brands move from fact-checking AI against dashboards to trusting conversational AI as their primary interface The "buy then build" approach to replacing 25 point solutions with one trusted data foundation Whether you're doing $2M or $20M+ in revenue, this conversation delivers strategies you can test this week. 📝 Full show notes + resources: https://ecommercefastlane.com/podcast/episode-476/ Connect with us: 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/stevenhutt/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shutt/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thrivingwithshopify/
Counterfeiters can now clone your Shopify product, listing, and website in minutes using AI, and most brands never see the revenue leak coming. In this episode, Mario Simonyan, founding attorney at ESQgo, breaks down: Why unauthorized sellers and buy box hijackers start eating your revenue once you cross $5M and expand into retail How AI lets copycats rebuild your listing and site in minutes, then tank your Amazon reviews with their inferior product How enforceable IP moats raise your exit multiple when PE firms and aggregators judge the predictability of your revenue Whether you're nearing $5M or scaling past $20M, this conversation shows you how to protect the revenue you've already built. 📝 Full show notes + resources: https://ecommercefastlane.com/podcast/episode-475/ Connect with us: 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/stevenhutt/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shutt/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thrivingwithshopify/
Reshooting every season for your Shopify store? Dreem turns one phone photo into a full product content kit, no studio required. In this episode, Sam Thomas-Davies, Head of Content at Dreem (a Creative Force company), breaks down: Turn a single phone photo into a full content kit: pack shots, on-model imagery, lifestyle scenes, and video Access a 400-plus talent library, or create custom AI talent, with human-in-the-loop art direction at every step How two-way Shopify sync pushes generated assets straight to product pages, cutting time-to-market from weeks to days Whether you're doing $10K months or $10M years, this conversation delivers strategies you can test this week. 📝 Full show notes + resources: https://ecommercefastlane.com/podcast/episode-474/ Connect with us: 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/stevenhutt/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shutt/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thrivingwithshopify/
Small and mid-sized Shopify brands have been priced out of the pro-level ad testing that eight-figure DTC brands rely on. In this episode, Armen Mkrtchyan, CEO and co-founder of Extuitive, breaks down the AI system changing that: How 150,000 AI consumer agents rank and pressure-test ad concepts so you know what converts before launch The poly-intelligence process that turns one product photo into 20-plus validated variants, not a single ChatGPT guess Why you can upload existing ads for instant scoring, then push winners to a pre-built Meta campaign Whether you're doing $25K months or $5M years, this conversation delivers strategies you can test this week. 📝 Full show notes + resources: https://ecommercefastlane.com/podcast/episode-473/ Connect with us: 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/stevenhutt/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shutt/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thrivingwithshopify/
Acquisition costs creeping up? If you're a Shopify brand treating creators as a gamble, TikTok Shop is turning them into a measurable acquisition channel. In this episode, Myriah Castillo, president of Joybyte, breaks down: - The "stoplight system" that tells you exactly which creator videos deserve paid ad spend - How TikTok awareness drives a 20% to 40% lift in Amazon sales, tracked not guessed - Why 80% of a healthy brand's TikTok Shop revenue comes from affiliates, and how to compound it Whether you're launching your first product or scaling a $10M Shopify Plus brand, this conversation delivers strategies you can test this week. 📝 Full show notes + resources: https://ecommercefastlane.com/podcast/episode-472/ Connect with us: 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/stevenhutt/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shutt/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thrivingwithshopify/
Sorting your Shopify collection pages by bestsellers feels smart, but it quietly buries your highest margin products and leaks revenue. In this episode, Julia Wawrzynek, Marketing Manager at Sortwise, breaks down: Why sorting for profit beats sorting for popularity, and how to surface high margin products without a clearance bin look The two metrics that prove your merchandising is working: click through rate by position and revenue per view (RPV) A 24 hour audit you can run from your phone to clear dead weight out of your top product slots Whether you're doing $50K months or $500K months, this conversation delivers collection merchandising moves you can test this week. 📝 Full show notes + resources: https://ecommercefastlane.com/podcast/episode-471/ Connect with us: 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/stevenhutt 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shutt/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thrivingwithshopify/
One Amazon brand added $215K in annual profit across 15 SKUs by replacing its software stack with coordinated AI agents. In this episode, Chad Rubin, founder and CEO of Profasee, breaks down: How named AI agents own pricing, PPC, and demand planning, working your Amazon business 24/7 Why coordinated agents beat disconnected point tools when a stockout should pause ad spend automatically The "Ask Me First" mode that earns your trust before agents touch a single price Whether you're doing $50K months or $5M years, this conversation shows what a coordinated AI workforce can unlock for your margins. 📝 Full show notes + resources: https://ecommercefastlane.com/podcast/episode-470/ Connect with us: 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/stevenhutt 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shutt/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thrivingwithshopify
Paying more for ads while 97% of your Shopify traffic leaves without buying? The cheaper growth lever is conversion, not acquisition. In this episode, Krisztian Kiraly, International Partnership Manager at OptiMonk and former CRO agency founder, breaks down: How one brand lifted revenue 12% in under three months using AI product-page optimization, no extra ad spend Why AI-generated product images, benefit badges, and 3-bullet summaries move the 99% of buying decisions driven by emotion The traffic threshold (10K to 15K monthly visitors) where AI-powered CRO starts paying off for your store Whether you're doing $50K months or $5M years, this conversation delivers conversion plays you can test this week. 📝 Full show notes + resources: https://ecommercefastlane.com/podcast/episode-469/ Connect with us: 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/stevenhutt 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shutt/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thrivingwithshopify
Your conversion rate is lying to you. If you're scaling a Shopify brand and treating CRO as a single number, this episode rebuilds how you diagnose what's actually broken on your site. In this episode, Anthony Morgan, founder and CEO of Enavi, breaks down: Why the "intra-site funnel" beats conversion rate, with target baselines at every step: landing to product view, add to cart, and checkout How Grubbly Farms lifted subscription take rate from 15% to 45% without raising churn The "besides price" survey trick that uncovers the real friction killing your add-to-cart rate Whether you're doing $10K months or $10M years, this conversation delivers strategies you can test this week. 📝 Full show notes + resources: https://ecommercefastlane.com/podcast/episode-468/ Connect with us: 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/stevenhutt 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shutt/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thrivingwithshopify
Your attribution dashboard tells you ROAS dropped, but not what to do about it, and for scaling Shopify brands that gap costs real ad spend. In this episode, Maxx Blank, co-founder and COO of Triple Whale, breaks down: Why Triple Whale's AI specialists (media buyer, creative director, conversion optimizer) now execute on ad accounts, not just report How a $15M brand had Moby build a working inventory forecasting app in 10 minutes The copilot-to-autopilot path that cuts your "ROAS dropped" question-to-action loop from days to minutes Whether you're doing your first $1M or scaling past $15M, this conversation delivers strategies you can test this week. 📝 Full show notes + resources: https://ecommercefastlane.com/podcast/episode-467/ Connect with us: 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/stevenhutt 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shutt/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thrivingwithshopify
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Observed September 20, 2026.
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