Hi Shopifreaks I hope you had a great week! I just arrived home from Alibaba's CoCreate 2025 event in Las Vegas. It was a great event, with speeches from Shark Tank's Lori Greiner and Daymond John, as well as speakers from Alibaba (of course), Kickstarter, Fast...
#241 – De Minimis ends globally, Shopify upgrades fulfillment, & Nano Banana explodes
Hi Shopifreaks Thanks for joining me for yet another jam-packed edition of Shopifreaks. Just when I thought this newsletter couldn't get any more comprehensive, here comes edition number 241! In this week's edition I cover: What comes after de minimis Shopify...
#240 – USA buys Intel, TikTok requires GMV Max, & Google’s powering everyone’s AI ambitions
Hi Shopifreaks This is one of my biggest and most important editions of the year, covering everything from the U.S. acquiring a stake in Intel to leaked documents from The Trade Desk. I've also got a conspiracy theory for you that you will either find enlightening or...
#239 – Amazon Perishables, eBay 2.0, and Etsy’s advertising black hole
Hi Shopifreaks Shoutout to everyone attending Commerce's BigSummit 2025 this week. Sorry I couldn't make it, but thanks for the invitation. It's a full day of travel to fly from Cuenca, Ecuador to Austin, Texas, and I'm still tired and catching up on work from having...
#238 – Shopify takes over the world, Yotpo quits e-mail / SMS, & ChatGPT-5
Hi Shopifreaks I'm finally back home in Cuenca, Ecuador after spending a few weeks in Western North Carolina. It's nice to be back! Now I just need to work on losing that 10 pounds that the U.S. donated to my belly. 🤣 I almost forgot how big the portions are... I've...
#237 – Drop the “Big,” Trump Ends De Minimis, & Google Chrome adds AI store reviews
Hi Shopifreaks Before we begin, I want to take a moment to recommend Lexi Grant’s They Got Acquired newsletter if you're interested in stories and insights from entrepreneurs who’ve successfully exited their companies -- or if you hope to have a successful exit...
#236 – Walmart’s Four AI Horsemen, Amazon kills its Google Ads, & PayPal’s Pay with Crypto
Hi Shopifreaks This newsletter has experienced significant growth during the past few months -- now surpassing 23,000 subscribers! Thank you for sharing and recommending it, which has been my number one growth driver. Given the amount of new subscribers, I want to...
#235 – ChatGPT’s Squeeze, Agentic AI Wars, & Gmail Shopping
Hi Shopifreaks I'm back in the U.S. for the first time in over a year -- and man have things changed! Starbucks wants $4.55 for a Grande Americano. Order at the counter restaurants flip their iPads around to display tipping tiers that start at 20%. Walmart had a...
#234 – Click-to-Canceled, Amazon’s secret Starfish project, and OpenAI’s browser launch
Hi Shopifreaks Before we begin, I'd like to welcome TaxCloud to the Shopifreaks family as our newest official News Partner! 🎉🥳 TaxCloud is a U.S.-based sales tax compliance platform built for online brands. With over 15 years of experience in sales tax technology,...
#233 – Death to De Minimis, Google Offerwall, & OpenAI Consulting Services
Hi Shopifreaks Major news this week -- de minimis is officially coming to an end! Learn more in this week's headline story below. I’d love to hear your thoughts on how this will impact the economy, the retail industry, and/or your business in particular. Hit reply and...
#232 – Walmart dark stores, Target wants to be Temu, & AI’s failed vending machine business
Hi Shopifreaks Is AI ready to run a small business by itself? Is Target leadership running out of ideas? Can "dark stores" give Walmart a leg up in its battle against Amazon? Answers to these questions and more in this week's edition! Btw, feel free to forward these...
#231 – Shoppable PayPal Ads, Reddit UGC Ads, & Amazon’s Controversial AI Agenda
Hi Shopifreaks I can't control the news, and inevitably, some weeks are more interesting than others in the world of e-commerce. That being said -- today's edition is by far one of my favorites of the year! Big news this week, so let's dive right in... In this week's...
#230 – Stablecoins, Superintelligence Teams, and Shopify’s landmark lawsuit
Hi Shopifreaks I hope all the fathers who read this newsletter had a great day yesterday, which personally marked my 3rd Father's Day since Mia was born. When I launched this newsletter in Jan 2021, I had no idea that four years later I'd be celebrating 18,000...
#229 – Humanoid Delivery Robots, Defense Contractors, & Meta quits e-commerce again
Hi Shopifreaks I saw a LinkedIn post by Eduardo Ordax talking about how AI isn't so random, and to put it to the test, he asked various AI chatbots to come up with a random number. I almost didn't believe his results until I tried it for myself! Watch my video on...
#228 – Blocked tariffs, Amazon’s product purge, & Meta’s fully automated advertising
Hi Shopifreaks Does Amazon have TOO MANY or TOO FEW products to choose from? Are Trump's tariffs legal? Will businesses trust Meta to create and manage their ad campaigns completely with AI? After reading today's newsletter, you be the judge! In this week's edition I...
#227 – Summer ’25 Edition, Google AI Shopping, and… boobies?
Hi Shopifreaks Have you been as excited for Shopify's Summer '25 Edition as I have? Or I a just an e-commerce nerd? I've got another jam-packed edition for you this week (that will likely get clipped in Gmail), so let's dive right in! In this week's edition I cover:...
#226 – Walmart Raises Prices, Consumer Protections, & Temu Ships from China again
Hi Shopifreaks In the past few weeks, I've received e-mails from readers introducing themselves that said: "My new manager at BigCommerce suggested your newsletter." "This newsletter was recommended to me by the founder of my old company when I asked for advice on...
#225 – Postmaster Generals, Amazon Haul UK, and Tariff Ceasefires
Hi Shopifreaks Before we begin, I want to take a moment to recommend Jon Elder's Amazon Insiders newsletter if you or your company sell on Amazon. Jon has actually become one of my sources that I use to keep up with Amazon news, however, his newsletter also dives...


















