Did you see more sales come in via the Shopify Shop app in August?

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Happy Monday, 10,000+ Shopify rockstars, and happy August bank holiday to those in the UK :-)

Here is what is inside today's edition:

• Shopify is making its biggest holiday push for the Shop app yet.

• The $1 packaging upgrade that drove 15% higher LTV.

• Audit your packaging in 60 minutes.

• Mini Rice Cooker.

Let's get into it.

Apparently, Shopify wants more holiday shopping to happen inside Shop 

I don't know about you but we’ve seen 200% more orders via Shop in August, compared to July. We weren’t sure whether or not this was down to all the SEO work we’re doing, or if it was down to Shopify doing something different (or indeed, both).

Until I found that Shopify has already kicked off a major holiday campaign for Shop, running from now through December. The app has grown from package tracking into a customer acquisition channel with AI-powered search, personalised recommendations and shoppable posts that help shoppers discover new brands.

For us merchants preparing for Q4, it looks like Shopify is about to spend the holiday season bringing more customers via Shop. Now’s the time to make sure your store can be found there - review how your products appear, update your Shop presence and make sure your strongest offers are easy to discover before holiday shopping picks up.

Growth Hack: The $1 Box That Changed Everything

Most brands obsess over their marketing spend and ignore the one thing customers actually hold in their hands.

A DTC founder who has sold over $500 million in goods shared something on X this week worth sitting with. At his fine jewelry brand, the packaging did not match the quality of the product. It looked cheap. Customers noticed. Even his friends noticed.

So he upgraded the box… at the grand cost of $1 more per unit.

The results over 12 months: 15% higher customer lifetime value, 10% more word of mouth measured through post-purchase surveys, and over 20% higher posting rate from influencers he seeded products to.

The lesson is not that every brand needs more expensive packaging. It is that the box, bag, or wrap holding your product becomes part of what the customer thinks they bought. If it feels cheap compared with the product inside, that disconnect can undo some of the work your marketing did before the sale.

This matters even more if you sell on TikTok Shop, do influencer seeding, or are moving into retail. In all three cases, the unboxing moment is the content.

Holiday Creator Calendars Are Filling Up. Q4 Panic Is Optional.

Creators lock in their holiday content calendars 90 days out, before most ecommerce brands finalize their commission strategy and way before Black Friday and October deal events.

Get ahead of the seasonal rush with The 90-Day Holiday Sprint, a practical guide for brands that want creators driving holiday demand while competitors are still recruiting:

• Structure commissions by lifetime value, not just first-order margin

• Lead with the right products so creators promote with confidence

• Recruit and onboard creators with a day-by-day plan for the first 30 days

• Read performance early and pull program levers by Day 60

• Brief creators with a holiday checklist before calendars fill up

Your 90-day countdown starts now.

Get the Free Guide

Challenge: Audit Your Packaging in 60 Minutes

Step 1 (20 mins): Order your own product and experience the unboxing as a customer would. Does the packaging match the price point? Does it feel like something worth posting about or something worth throwing away immediately?

Step 2 (20 mins): Pull your post-purchase survey data or your most recent customer reviews. Look for any mention of packaging, presentation, or unboxing. One or two comments is a signal. Several is a pattern worth acting on.

Step 3 (20 mins): Get one quote from your current supplier for an upgraded packaging option. Calculate the cost per unit increase, then work out how much additional repeat business or customer value that upgrade would need to generate to pay for itself.

Trend: Mini Rice Cooker

Mini rice cookers are compact versions of the kitchen staple, designed for smaller portions and smaller spaces. Most keep things simple with one-touch cooking, a keep-warm setting and a non-stick pot. Interest is climbing quickly, with searches up 438% and monthly search volume now around 22,000. The appeal goes beyond rice too. Students, solo households, travellers and people living with limited kitchen space all want appliances that are useful without taking over the counter.

3 ways to cash in on this trend:

Sell the small-space lifestyle. A mini rice cooker makes much more sense when you show it inside a dorm room, studio apartment or tiny kitchen. Give shoppers a reason to picture where it fits into their own routine.

Show what else it can make. Rice may get the customer interested, but simple recipe content gives the product more mileage. Show quick meals and other foods that can be prepared in the cooker, especially for buyers cooking for one.

Build a compact kitchen collection. Mini blenders, electric lunch boxes, small kettles and food storage products appeal to the same space-conscious buyer. Bringing them together gives shoppers an easy way to build a practical kitchen without filling every available surface.

Till next Monday,
Ada