Hi Shopifreaks Have you seen my new video series 90 Second Pitches? If not, check it out on YouTube and LinkedIn. My goal for the channel is to help merchants discover innovative e-commerce technology from the industry's most promising startups, while giving those...
#262 – The 4% Rule, TikTok’s logistics push, & the future of Shopify Partnerships
Hi Shopifreaks, Before we begin, I’d like to welcome Seguno to the Shopifreaks family as our newest official News Partner! 🎉 Seguno offers an email marketing suite, a bulk discount code generator, and a seamless Canva integration made specifically for Shopify...
#261 – ChatGPT Ads, Google Siri, & Amazon objects, your honor!
Hi Shopifreaks Real Quick: Do you know of any cloud e-mail services that can consolidate multiple personal and work e-mails into one inbox? And actually store the e-mails in one place? Preferably in the cloud and not on my hard drive. I've learned that Google is...
#260 – Universal Commerce Protocol, Shopify’s new Agentic plan, & Copilot Checkout
Hi Shopifreaks 🎉 Before we begin today's edition, I'm excited to present to you a new pitch from my video series 90 Second Pitches -- a channel that helps you discover innovative e-commerce technology from the most promising startups. You can subscribe to the channel...
#259 – Meta’s Government Playbook, OpenAI’s Secret Pen, & The Booming Returns Business
Hi Shopifreaks Happy New Year! Thank you for continuing your readership of my newsletter into 2026. I started Shopifreaks five years ago in January 2021 as a way to "publish my homework" that I was doing each week to keep up with the industry and best serve my...
#258 – E-commerce Predictions 2026, OpenAI’s Ad Mockups, & TikTok Gift Cards
Hi Shopifreaks Happy New Year! I've got something special for you today -- my fourth annual 2026 E-commerce Predictions Report! Every year I ask you, "What are your e-commerce predictions for next year?" My annual report curates those submissions alongside predictions...
#257 – The Great TikTok Heist, PayPal Bank, & Temu launches a Shopify App
Hi Shopifreaks Happy Hanukkah! Merry Christmas! And soon to be Happy Kwanzaa! I hope that you've been enjoying the holiday season so far and continue to in the coming week. It's honestly hard to believe that 2025 is nine days away from being over. It flew by, but at...
#256 – The RenAIssance Edition, New LLMs, & Alexa+ is always listening
Hi Shopifreaks My daughter Mia started her first day of baby school today! She's 2 years, 8 months old and recently began asking about going to school because she wanted to play with other kids. We had tried a Montessori school when she was a year and a half, but she...
#255 – Shopify’s silence, OpenAI’s Code Red, & Amazon’s inflated pricing for schools
Hi Shopifreaks Before we begin, I’d like to welcome Napster to the Shopifreaks family as our newest official News Partner! 🎉🥳 Yes — that Napster. Earlier this year, the iconic brand from my Millennial past came back with an entirely new mission for e-commerce...
#254 – Shopping Research, ChatGPT Ads, & Shopify’s Inflated Commissions
Hi Shopifreaks Happy Cyber Monday! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoyed some time off with your friends and family -- or traveled to a remote beach in the Philippines by yourself -- whichever suits your fancy! 🎉 Before we begin today's edition, I'm...
#253 – TargetGPT, Australia bans kids from social media, & Meta isn’t a monopoly
Hi Shopifreaks Before we begin, I'd like to welcome Cloudways to the Shopifreaks family as our newest official News Partner! 🎉🥳 Cloudways is a managed web host built with intelligence that offers simple, scalable hosting with AI-powered server diagnostics and...
#252 – Rufus is no doofus, Amazon Ads Agent, & Apple’s Mini App Partner Program
Hi Shopifreaks Guess what time of year it is again? Predictions time! Each year at Shopifreaks I publish an annual report featuring the best e-commerce related predictions in our industry. Here's last year's 2025 E-commerce Predictions report if you'd like to see who...
#251 – Siri by Google, Amazon Bazaar, & Perplexity is wrong
Hi Shopifreaks Two weeks ago I introduced my new video series 90 Second Pitches -- an entertaining way to discover innovative e-commerce technology from the industry's most promising startups. Please subscribe to the channel on LinkedIn and YouTube if you haven't...
#250 – PayPal takes over agentic commerce, OpenAI restructures, & Amazon might actually do it
Hi Shopifreaks Last week I presented my new video series 90 Second Pitches -- an innovative way to discover e-commerce apps and SaaS products that help you grow your store. We kicked off the series with a pitch from Carson and Bridger Hart, founders of Infinite Color...
#249 – Lovify, OpenAI’s Browser, & Help Me Decide
Hi Shopifreaks Before we begin, I'm excited to present to you my new video series: 90 Second Pitches! 🎉🥳 90 Second Pitches are a new way to discover innovative e-commerce technology before everyone else. Watch as founders present their startups in a 90 second video...
#248 – Walmart embraces ChatGPT, Twitch adds Amazon live shopping, & AppLovin admits no wrong
Hi Shopifreaks Are we gearing up for an OpenAI + Everyone vs Amazon scenario? I've never seen major platforms and retailers embrace a new untested acquisition channel faster than they're jumping on the Instant Checkout bandwagon. This is the first time in decades that...
#247 – Chinese tariffs (again), Etsy’s membership program, & PayPal’s retail media network
Hi Shopifreaks What a week! I woke up last Tuesday with a 102 degree fever and couldn't get out of bed most of the week. I think my body instinctively knows that I need to write this newsletter on Sunday and Monday, so it waits until Tuesday to get sick. LOL. I hope...
#246 – Instant Checkout, Amazon Grocery, & Shopify’s WordPress plugin
Hi Shopifreaks Holy cow I've got a big edition for you this week! This is one of the most exciting editions I've written in 2025 -- covering everything from ChatGPT's new Instant Checkout and Shopify's WordPress plugin to Amazon's revamped grocery brand and Meta...


















