If I had to build a Shopify brand from scratch today, I would do almost everything differently.

Ecommerce has changed. Customer acquisition is more expensive, competition is everywhere, AI is changing how people discover products and the brands that win are no longer just the ones with the best products — they are the ones with the best systems.

In this episode, Nick breaks down exactly how he would build a Shopify brand from zero in 2026, covering everything from finding the right opportunity and creating demand to building a brand that can scale profitably.

This is the blueprint for building a modern ecommerce business — not just a store that generates sales, but a valuable brand with predictable growth, loyal customers and long-term potential.

You’ll learn:

• Why you should start with the customer, not the product
• How to validate demand before investing in inventory and development
• Why distribution matters more than ever in modern ecommerce
• How SEO and AI discovery should shape your strategy from day one
• Why relying purely on paid ads can make your business vulnerable
• How to launch with a focused offer instead of an overwhelming product range
• Why conversion optimisation needs to be built into your brand from the beginning
• How AI can become a powerful advantage for ecommerce teams
• Why retention and customer relationships are key to profitable growth
• How to build a Shopify business that someone would actually want to buy

In this episode:
(00:00) - If I Started a Shopify Brand From Scratch in 2026
(01:09) - 1. Start With the Customer, Not the Product
(05:12) - 2. Validate Demand Before Building Anything
(06:40) - 3. Build Distribution Before Inventory
(09:44) - 4. Obsess Over SEO & AI Discoverability
(12:04) - 5. Don't Become Dependent on Paid Ads
(16:21) - 6. Launch With One Strong Hero Product
(20:50) - 7. Build Conversion Into Your Brand From Day One
(22:58) - 8. Make AI a Member of Your Team
(25:18) - 9. Build Retention Before Chasing Scale
(27:58) - 10. Build a Business Someone Wants to Buy

Nick also shares the mistakes he would avoid, the channels he would prioritise and the strategies he believes will separate successful Shopify brands from everyone else over the next few years.

Follow Winning With Shopify for practical ecommerce growth advice every Tuesday and Friday.

Exclusive listener offers:
Ships-A-Lot - Improve fulfilment costs and find hidden shipping margin leaks.
Inventory Planner - Free seven-day inventory bootcamp.
Omnisend - 30% off paid plans for three months with code WINNINGWITHOMNISEND.
Yoast - 15% off Shopify and WordPress with code WWS.
506 - Extended 30-day free trial on any of their three Shopify apps with code WWS.

About Winning With Shopify
Winning With Shopify is powered by Winning With Shopify, helping ecommerce brands grow through practical Shopify strategies, expert interviews and actionable advice.

Spec Digital is a PPC & SEO agency helping ecommerce brands grow through performance marketing.

SEO is changing. Shopify brands that want to grow need more than keywords — they need search engines and AI platforms to understand, trust and recommend their products.

In this episode, Nick is joined by Alex Moss from Yoast to break down everything Shopify brands need to know about SEO, from the foundations of technical SEO to creating content that drives qualified organic traffic.

Alex explains why successful ecommerce SEO is no longer just about rankings, and why data quality, structured information and trust signals are becoming increasingly important as search continues to evolve.

You’ll learn:

• The SEO fundamentals every Shopify brand needs to get right
• Why technical SEO and data integrity are becoming more important
• How Shopify stores can help search engines better understand their products
• Why content strategy and topical authority matter for ecommerce growth
• The biggest SEO mistakes holding Shopify brands back
• How SEO is evolving alongside AI search and changing customer behaviour

Alex also shares practical advice on building a stronger SEO foundation, improving website trust signals and creating a Shopify store that is easier for both customers and search engines to understand.

In this episode:
(00:00) - Shopify SEO mistakes and content neglect
(03:45) - Fixing Shopify site structure and product discovery
(06:08) - Why you need to keep updating old content
(09:48) - How customer search behaviour is changing
(12:01) - Word of mouth, reviews and AI search
(13:48) - Links vs mentions and citations in the LLM era
(16:21) - Forums, communities and building brand authority
(22:21) - Is Shopify ready for AI and agentic commerce?
(25:12) - How to structure product content for AI
(27:51) - Brand perception in the AI era
(30:52) - How to write content AI can actually use

Useful resources:
Why Data Integrity Is The New Technical SEO: Search Engine Journal
SEO Glossary: Yoast SEO Glossary
Listen to the Yoast Podcast: Yoast Podcast

Follow Winning With Shopify for practical ecommerce growth advice every Tuesday and Friday.

Exclusive listener offers:
Ships-A-Lot - Improve fulfilment costs and find hidden shipping margin leaks.
Inventory Planner - Free seven-day inventory bootcamp.
Omnisend - 30% off paid plans for three months with code WINNINGWITHOMNISEND.
Yoast - 15% off Shopify and WordPress with code WWS.
506 - Extended 30-day free trial on any of their three Shopify apps with code WWS.

About Winning With Shopify
Winning With Shopify is powered by Winning With Shopify, helping ecommerce brands grow through practical Shopify strategies, expert interviews and actionable advice.

Spec Digital is a PPC & SEO agency helping ecommerce brands grow through performance marketing.

Black Friday is broken. Shopify brands can no longer win by simply offering bigger discounts — the future winners will be the brands that AI can find, understand and recommend when customers are ready to buy.

Black Friday and Cyber Weekend are changing. As customers increasingly use AI shopping assistants, personalised recommendations and new search experiences to discover products, Shopify brands need a new strategy to compete.

In this episode, Nick breaks down how AI will transform ecommerce sales, why the old Black Friday playbook is becoming outdated and how smarter brands are using AI to improve discovery, create better offers and turn seasonal shoppers into long-term customers.

You’ll learn:

• How AI shopping assistants could change Black Friday and ecommerce discovery
• Why Shopify brands need to make their products easier for AI to understand and recommend
• How AI can analyse customer behaviour and create personalised offers
• How brands can use real-time data to improve ad creative and campaign performance
• Why the smartest Shopify brands use Black Friday as a customer acquisition opportunity, not just a discount event
• How to convert Black Friday shoppers into repeat customers after Cyber Weekend

Nick also shares five tools Shopify brands can use to prepare for the biggest shopping period of the year, covering AI-powered marketing, ecommerce SEO, conversion optimisation, inventory planning and fulfilment.

In this episode:
(0:00) - Why Black Friday is broken for Shopify brands
(2:15) - The shift from traditional discounts to AI-driven personalization
(5:42) - How AI agents will handle customer shopping in 2026
(8:30) - Predictive inventory: Using AI to prevent stockouts
(12:10) - The "Death of the Storefront" and the rise of headless commerce
(15:45) - Building a brand that survives the AI revolution
(19:20) - Actionable steps to prepare your Shopify store now

Follow Winning With Shopify for practical ecommerce growth advice every Tuesday and Friday.

Exclusive listener offers:
Ships-A-Lot - Improve fulfilment costs and find hidden shipping margin leaks.
Inventory Planner - Free seven-day inventory bootcamp.
Omnisend - 30% off paid plans for three months with code WINNINGWITHOMNISEND.
Yoast - 15% off Shopify and WordPress with code WWS.
506 - Extended 30-day free trial on any of their three Shopify apps with code WWS.

About Winning With Shopify
Winning With Shopify is powered by Winning With Shopify, helping ecommerce brands grow through practical Shopify strategies, expert interviews and actionable advice.

Spec Digital is a PPC & SEO agency helping ecommerce brands grow through performance marketing.

Most Shopify brands use Google Ads to drive sales. The fastest-growing brands use it to build a DTC brand.

Google Ads has become one of the most powerful ways for ecommerce brands to find new customers - but many Shopify stores are still optimising for short-term ROAS instead of long-term growth.

In this episode, Nick explains why most Shopify brands get Google Ads wrong and how successful DTC brands use paid search, Shopping ads and customer data to build a scalable acquisition engine.

Want some help with profitably scaling your Google Ads? Reach out to Nick's agency: team@spec.digital

You’ll learn:

• Why chasing ROAS alone can limit Shopify growth
• The difference between buying clicks and building customers
• How Google Shopping acts as your digital storefront
• Why product feeds, creative and offers matter more than ever
• How leading brands measure profitable customer acquisition
• Why Google Ads and retention need to work together

Nick also shares the biggest mistakes Shopify brands make with Google Ads, why better data leads to better automation and how to build a paid acquisition strategy designed for long-term brand growth.

In this episode:
(00:00) Why Good ROAS Doesn't Always Mean Profit(01:14) Stop Using Google Ads Just to Generate Sales(03:00) ROAS vs Customer Lifetime Value(05:12) The Snowball Effect of Repeat Customers(06:31) The 4 Metrics Shopify Brands Should Track(08:02) Fix Your Google Shopping Customer Journey(11:59) Why Product Feeds Matter So Much(14:04) How to Set a Profitable Google Ads Target(16:09) How to Increase Repeat Purchases & LTV(20:00) How AI Is Changing Google Ads(22:14) 5 Things Scaling Brands Do Differently(25:09) The Key to Profitable Google Ads Scaling

Follow Winning With Shopify for practical ecommerce growth advice every Tuesday and Friday.

Exclusive listener offers:
Ships-A-Lot - Improve fulfilment costs and find hidden shipping margin leaks.
Inventory Planner - Free seven-day inventory bootcamp.
Omnisend - 30% off paid plans for three months with code WINNINGWITHOMNISEND.
Yoast - 15% off Shopify and WordPress with code WWS15.
506 - Extended 30-day free trial on any of their three Shopify apps with code WWS.

About Winning With Shopify
Winning With Shopify is powered by Spec Digital, a PPC & SEO agency helping ecommerce brands grow through performance marketing.

When customers can buy the same products from dozens of retailers, your Shopify store needs to give them a reason to choose you.

In this episode, Nick is joined by Alan Dowell from Escentual, an online beauty retailer specialising in fragrance, skincare and cosmetics, to discuss how brands can differentiate in crowded markets, build customer trust and turn more first-time buyers into loyal customers.

Learn more about Escentual:
https://escentual.com/

Connect with Alan Dowell on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dowell-alan/

They reveal why many ecommerce brands struggle despite selling great products, how removing friction can improve conversion rates and why the best brands focus on customer experience rather than competing purely on price.

You’ll learn:

• How to differentiate when competitors sell the same products
• Why customer education, reviews and trust signals drive conversions
• How removing unnecessary friction can improve the buying journey
• Why having too many Shopify apps could be slowing your store down
• How testing, personalisation and retention create long-term growth
• Why mobile-first experiences are essential for ecommerce success

The episode also covers how removing 70+ Shopify apps improved conversion rates, why brands should test instead of assume, and how better customer communication can create stronger loyalty and repeat purchases.

In this episode:

(00:00) - Competing when everyone sells the same products
(01:21) - How Essential differentiates its ecommerce experience
(02:42) - Removing friction from the customer journey
(05:48) - Why A/B testing beats assumptions
(08:47) - The 70+ Shopify apps problem
(11:41) - Why too many improvements made performance worse
(12:20) - From 3.8% to 5.5% conversion rate
(15:50) - Testing your store like a real customer
(20:02) - Turning first-time buyers into loyal customers
(25:00) - Customer data, loyalty and segmentation
(30:00) - Revenue vs vanity metrics
(32:28) - Turning winning tests into growth
(40:13) - Final takeaways

Follow Winning With Shopify for practical ecommerce growth advice every Tuesday and Friday.

Exclusive listener offers:

Ships-A-Lot - Improve fulfilment costs and find hidden shipping margin leaks.
https://info.shipsalot.com/winning-with-shopify

Inventory Planner - Free seven-day inventory bootcamp.
https://info.brightpearl.com/winning-with-shopify-holiday-planning-bootcamp

Omnisend - 30% off paid plans for three months with code WINNINGWITHOMNISEND.
https://www.omnisend.com/wws/

Yoast - 15% off Shopify and WordPress with code WWS15.
https://yoast.com/product/yoast-seo-shopify/

506 - Extended 30-day free trial on any of their three Shopify apps with code WWS.
https://www.506.io/wws

About Winning With Shopify

Winning With Shopify is powered by Spec Digital, a PPC & SEO agency helping ecommerce brands grow through performance marketing.

https://spec.digital/

Most Shopify brands don't have a traffic problem. They have a conversion problem.

After auditing 50 Shopify stores and analysing hundreds of ecommerce experiences, Nick reveals the biggest mistakes that stop visitors from becoming customers.

In this episode, you'll discover the product page, trust, UX and conversion issues that could be costing your Shopify store sales - and the changes successful DTC brands make to turn more visitors into buyers.

You’ll learn:

• The product page mistakes making customers hesitate before buying
• Why great products fail without trust, proof and clear positioning
• How reviews, content and social proof influence purchase decisions
• Why your mobile experience could be losing potential customers
• The biggest friction points stopping visitors from converting
• How successful Shopify brands continuously improve conversion rates

Nick shares real examples from Shopify stores, explaining how brands can remove buying friction, improve customer confidence and turn more of their existing traffic into revenue.

In this episode:
(00:00) - Why Shopify stores lose sales
(01:42) - The 4 questions every customer needs answered
(02:37) - Mistake #1: Product pages that don't help customers buy
(05:05) - Mistake #2: Lack of trust and price justification
(07:38) - Mistake #3: Poor product photography
(11:21) - Mistake #4: No clear differentiation
(12:00) - Mistake #5: Website friction killing conversions
(13:09) - Mistake #6: Ignoring mobile-first shopping
(15:36) - Mistake #7: Not A/B testing your Shopify store
(21:04) - Final Shopify conversion takeaways

Follow Winning With Shopify for practical ecommerce growth advice every Tuesday and Friday.

Exclusive listener offers:
Ships-A-Lot - Improve fulfilment costs and find hidden shipping margin leaks.
Inventory Planner - Free seven-day inventory bootcamp.
Omnisend - 30% off paid plans for three months with code WINNINGWITHOMNISEND.
Yoast - 15% off Shopify and WordPress with code WWS15.
506 - Extended 30-day free trial on any of their three Shopify apps with code WWS.

About Winning With Shopify
Winning With Shopify is powered by Spec Digital, a PPC & SEO agency helping ecommerce brands grow through performance marketing.

Your Shopify discount strategy could be costing you sales and profit.

Want to test smarter promotions on your Shopify store? Try 506’s Shopify apps with an extended 30-day free trial using code WWS.

Should you offer 10% off, give customers a free gift or encourage shoppers to spend more to unlock a better deal?

In this episode, Nick is joined by Charlie Tyler from 506, the team behind EasyGift, 506 Sale & Bulk Discount, EasyScan and EasyLink, to reveal how Shopify brands can create promotions that increase conversion rates and average order value without unnecessarily sacrificing margin.

You’ll learn:

• When free gifts outperform traditional discounts
• How to use spending thresholds to increase average order value
• Why some promotions train customers to wait for sales
• How to run BOGO offers, quantity breaks and tiered discounts effectively
• The biggest discounting mistakes Shopify brands make

Charlie also shares how growing ecommerce brands can use smarter promotions, urgency and offer structures to increase sales while protecting profitability.

In this episode:
(00:00) - Free gifts vs discounts
(03:45) - How free gifts can increase AOV by 30%
(05:05) - Finding the right free gift threshold
(06:35) - What gifts should you offer customers?
(10:10) - Mystery gifts and digital gifts
(15:10) - Free gifts vs traditional discounts
(20:10) - Automating Shopify discounts and offers
(25:20) - Tiered gifting to increase customer spend

Follow Winning With Shopify for practical ecommerce growth advice every Tuesday and Friday.

Exclusive listener offers:

506 - Extended 30-day free trial on Shopify apps with code WWS.
Ships-A-Lot - Improve fulfilment costs and find hidden shipping margin leaks.
Inventory Planner - Free seven-day inventory bootcamp.
Omnisend - 30% off paid plans for three months with code WINNINGWITHOMNISEND.
Yoast - 15% off Shopify and WordPress with code WWS15.

About Winning With Shopify
Winning With Shopify is powered by Spec Digital, a PPC & SEO agency helping ecommerce brands grow through performance marketing.