Going Deep on Subscriptions with Gavin Ballard of Submarine

Accept All Cookies: Making Compliance Fun With Elena Tsacheva from ConsentMo

Compliance. It's the 4PM Friday conference slot that clears the room faster than a fire alarm. But get the right person talking about it and suddenly it's actually kind of fascinating. Elena Tsacheva from ConsentMo is that person — she makes cookie banners and GDPR regulations genuinely watchable, and she's built one of the most sophisticated consent platforms in the Shopify ecosystem to back it up. We get into why 20 US states now have their own privacy laws (and why that number keeps climbing), what's actually broken about the vibe-coded cookie banner approach, and why Shopify's built-in banner is fine right up until it isn't. We also discuss * the Digital Omnibus directive * why compliance and AI are increasingly at odds with each other * why the future of consent might not involve cookie banners at all. Outside the product, we hear about running team brainstorms in a toddler café, dressing for Paris Fashion Week at an e-commerce conference, and getting surprised with a birthday cake by the Zapier team in the middle of the Wide event. We've put together a Compliance Playbook [https://open.substack.com/pub/theshopifyappshow/p/why-compliance-in-e-commerce-is-good?r=4s8na6&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true] to go with this episode. Search for The Shopify App Show on Substack. And if you're not already subscribed, do the thing — like, subscribe, share, all of it. This episode is sponsored by The Support Heroes — dedicated Shopify support agents who actually know what they're doing. Head to thesupportheroes.com [http://thesupportheroes.com]. Checkout Consentmo [https://www.consentmo.com/] for your privacy compliance needs, and for Price Tracking compliance, check out one of my apps, Omnibus Owl [https://omnibusowl.com/en/]. And most importantly, we featured my daughter's cookie business, Sophies Cookies [https://sophiescookies.shop/], on this episode. YouTube Chapters: 00:00 — Introduction 01:29 — Making compliance content people actually watch 03:12 — What ConsentMo actually does (it's a lot) 06:56 — What drives the roadmap — and what gets a hard no 10:02 — Saying no: the art of not shipping everything 13:34 — Will merchants just vibe code their own cookie banner? 16:19 — Why hasn't Shopify just built all of this? 20:35 — Why human support still matters (especially in compliance) 21:32 — What's next: Germany's cancel law and the Digital Omnibus 25:16 — Will cookie banners eventually disappear? 27:00 — Martin's daughter's cookie website makes an appearance 27:38 — The Wide Paris event: fashion week for e-commerce 31:12 — Wrapping up

Going Deep on Subscriptions with Gavin Ballard of Submarine

Subscriptions are the holy grail if you get them right: recurring revenue from your best customers. Gavin Ballard has spent 15 years tackling the hardest problems in the Shopify ecosystem, founded Disco Labs, and now runs Submarine — the platform powering subscriptions, memberships and pre-orders for some of the most complex Shopify brands out there. This chat's timely - Gavin just got back from Sub Summit in Kansas City (the only conference dedicated entirely to subscription commerce), and Recharge just aquired Skio for $100M, a massive deal in thhe Shopify Subscriptions space. We get into why slapping a "subscribe" button next to "add to cart" doesn't work anymore, what AI is actually unlocking (A/B testing your cancellation flows in real time, infinite personalisation segments that used to be impossible), and why you're not just competing with other Shopify subs — you're competing with Netflix, Spotify and every other line on your customer's recurring bill. If you run a store, build apps, or you're an agency talking to merchants about retention — this one's loaded. Bonus: The Shopify Subscriptions Playbook [https://theshopifyappshow.substack.com/p/the-shopify-subscriptions-playbook] goes with this episode. Sponsor: The Support Heroes [https://www.thesupportheroes.com/] — trained Shopify support specialists who plug into your help desk, learn your brand voice, and handle your tickets like they actually give a shit. Tell them I sent you. And one from me — Product Pelican [https://apps.shopify.com/product-pelican]. Audits your whole product catalog, finds the gaps — missing alt text, weak descriptions, uncategorised products, FAQ generation — and helps you fix them in bulk. Free to try or HMU for a demo! In this episode * What Gavin learned at Sub Summit in Kansas City * Why "add subscribe button" isn't a subscription strategy * You're competing with Netflix, not just other Shopify stores * AI unlocking infinite personalisation segments * A/B testing your cancellation flows in real time * The Recharge–Skio deal and what it means * Build vs buy your own subscription platform * Memberships — the Qantas and Costco model * How to actually get a subscription program off the roadmap Chapters 0:00 Intro 1:37 Recap of SubSummit Kansas City 4:34 Why merchants get subscriptions wrong 6:39 You're competing with Netflix, not other stores 8:04 AI in the subscription space 8:57 The personalisation segments AI unlocks 12:01 A/B testing your cancellation flows 13:39 Sponsor — The Support Heroes 13:59 The Recharge–Skio acquisition 15:49 Where Submarine sits in the new landscape 18:36 Build vs buy your subscription platform 21:29 Where AI actually adds value — connectors and custom logic 23:23 Membership programs vs subscriptions 24:03 The Costco & Qantas models 26:13 What makes a membership program actually work 27:55 How to get started if it's been on your roadmap for years 30:34 Wrap up 31:46 Product Pelican Promo

Spilling the Beans on Shopify POS for Cafes with Adam & Carmel Wooding

Shopify POS is one of the biggest unlocks on the platform, but most merchants are scared to make the move — and honestly, a lot of POS apps are half-arsed. So this episode I'm going proper niche: POS Cafe, built by Carmel and Adam, who run the whole thing out of remote Queensland and service merchants all over the world. We get into how two ex-agency operators stumbled into a gap nobody was filling (a merchant wanted to open a coffee shop inside their store), why the "do one thing well" advice broke down for them almost immediately, and how they've ended up with what's basically 5–10 apps in one, including an Uber Eats–style online ordering extension. If you run a retail or food business, build apps, or you're weighing up a POS migration — this one's worth your time. Bonus: I've put together a Mastering the Move to Shopify POS Playbook [https://open.substack.com/pub/theshopifyappshow/p/the-shopify-pos-playbook-one-source?r=4s8na6&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true] drawing on this chat plus my earlier ones with Josh Bitossi and Jordan Finneran. Sponsor The Support Heroes [https://www.thesupportheroes.com/] — trained Shopify support specialists who plug into your help desk, learn your brand voice, and handle your tickets like they actually give a shit. Carmel and Adam set night alarms to check their tickets — they could use these guys. Tell them I sent you. And one from me — Product Pelican [https://productpelican.nativeappco.com]. Audits your whole product catalog, finds the gaps — missing alt text, weak descriptions, uncategorised products — and helps you fix them in bulk. Free to try. In this episode * How an agency side hustle became a Shopify POS app * The cafe gap nobody was filling * Why "do one thing well" didn't work for POS Cafe * Modifiers, KDS, print servers and online ordering * Building the "Shopify way" — metafields, metaobjects, draft orders * Why POS apps have to be stable 100% of the time * The POS APIs they're still waiting on * Where Shopify POS caps out (and why they think it doesn't) * The other niche POS devs worth knowing Chapters 0:00 Intro 1:05 From custom furniture to Shopify — Adam's origin story 3:40 The cafe request that started it all 4:22 What a food service business actually needs 5:00 Launching POS Cafe and 18 months of feedback 6:13 What POS Cafe does that Shopify POS can't 6:57 Modifiers done properly 7:26 KDS, print servers and receipt printing 8:30 Native discounts and online ordering 9:33 Why "do one thing well" broke down 10:58 Sponsor — The Support Heroes 11:27 Product Pelican 12:07 Why good service is what makes the product 13:08 Building for scale and stability 14:30 The "Shopify way" — metafields, metaobjects, draft orders 16:07 What's still hard to do on Shopify POS 18:42 Bringing merchants into the feedback loop 20:00 Where does Shopify POS cap out? 21:14 POS as the front door to Shopify 22:04 Other niche POS devs worth knowing 23:54 The Shopify dev community 25:08 Marketing a product from remote Queensland 25:25 Building trust from the other side of the world 27:17 Why passion cuts through 28:26 Wrap up

Check, Check, Check, Check Out - Shopify Checkout Wisdom with Blake Waldron from Checkout Components

The Shopify checkout is the one part of the customer journey that's guaranteed — every customer goes through it, no matter how they got to your store. So I've grabbed Blake Waldron, who spent years building Shopify stores and now runs Checkout Components, the app for making that critical moment actually work for you. We get into what makes a good checkout (hint: stop assuming every customer wants to see the same thing), why an always-on upsell isn't distracting — it's table stakes, and the body shop trick that lifted sale conversions instantly. Plus we cover ShopPay rendering gotchas, Australia's at 50% ShopPay adoption and what that means for your extensions, and the OpenAI backflip that confirmed checkout is now the only guaranteed touchpoint. We also get into the basics everyone's ignoring — clean product data, accurate prices, Shopify's product taxonomy — and why getting those right matters more than chasing the agentic commerce hype. If you run a store, build apps, or you're an agency still treating checkout as "set and forget" — this one's worth your time. Bonus: I've put together a Checkout Playbook [https://open.substack.com/pub/theshopifyappshow/p/our-playbook-to-milk-every-bit-of] to go with this episode. Sponsor The Support Heroes [https://www.thesupportheroes.com/] — trained Shopify support specialists who plug into your help desk, learn your brand voice, and handle your tickets like they actually give a shit. Tell them I sent you. And one from me — Stork Credit [https://apps.shopify.com/stork-credit]. Dead simple, native-built Shopify app for issuing store credit instead of discount codes. Free to install. In this episode * What actually makes a good checkout * Why an always-on upsell is table stakes * The ShopPay rendering toggle most people miss * The Body Shop sale-banner trick * Honest analytics vs vanity attribution * Why product taxonomy is the real agentic commerce prep * What Blake saw at Shop Talk in Vegas * Where Checkout Components is heading next Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:57 What makes a good Shopify checkout 2:48 The always-on upsell (and 10,000 pairs of socks) 3:43 Why replatformers don't touch checkout — and why they should 5:33 Upsells without overwhelming the form 7:31 ShopPay — the toggle most extensions miss 8:54 ~50% ShopPay adoption in Australia 10:50 Sponsor — The Support Heroes 11:35 Stork Credit 12:00 Agentic commerce and the OpenAI backflip 13:43 Checkout as the only guaranteed touchpoint 14:38 The body shop sale-banner trick 17:00 Honest revenue attribution vs double-dipping 19:35 Building an analytics system that actually works 21:13 Product data, taxonomy, and the low-effort high-impact win 24:28 Plug — Product Pelican for bulk catalog cleanup 25:48 Inventory and prices — the boring stuff that matters most 27:25 Two takeaways: get your data right, get your checkout right 27:42 Shop Talk Vegas — what's happening in North America 30:27 Translation, Europe, and 600+ installs 33:19 What's next for Checkout Components 37:03 Wrap up

Inside Shopify Flow: Under the hood with Paul Nuschke from Shopify

This is a big one. Shopify Flow has had the biggest glow-up of any feature on the platform, and today we're going inside the mothership to talk to the bloke running it. Paul Nuschke leads Shopify Flow, and he joins me to unpack one of the most insane stretches of shipping in Flow's history - Sidekick integration, and so many other improvements. We get into what it took to make Sidekick build working workflows without hallucinating itself into oblivion (fact: 40% of new Flows are now created with Sidekick), why Flow has out-shipped Zapier for Shopify use cases, and the apps doing the most interesting things with Flow connectors. Plus: scheduled jobs vs product update triggers, why Flow doesn't do Git integration (yet), Flow vs custom middleware, and what's coming at Editions and Dotdev. If you build apps, run a store, or you're an agency still telling clients "Flow can't do that" — this one's going to change your mind. Bonus: I've put together a Shopify Flow Playbook [https://open.substack.com/pub/theshopifyappshow/p/the-shopify-flow-playbook-how-to?r=4s8na6&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true] to go with this episode. Link below. ---------------------------------------- Sponsor The Support Heroes [https://www.thesupportheroes.com/] — trained Shopify support specialists who plug into your help desk, learn your brand voice, and handle your tickets like they actually give a shit. Tell them I sent you. And one from me — Stork Credit [https://apps.shopify.com/stork-credit]. Dead simple, native-built Shopify app for issuing store credit instead of discount codes. Free to install. In this episode * Teaching Sidekick to build working workflows * 40% of new Flows are built with Sidekick * Using Flow templates * The product update trigger problem (and the workaround) * Flow as middleware — when it makes sense * Why there's no Git integration (yet) * App connectors — who's doing it right * What's coming at Editions and Partner Conference ---------------------------------------- Chapters 0:00 Intro 1:08 Welcome Paul + recent Flow updates 1:34 Top-down editor, testing, Sidekick 3:26 New queries and closing API gaps 4:38 Has Flow out-shipped Zapier? 5:08 Sidekick — how big a lift was it 6:06 Teaching Sidekick to build workflow JSON 7:19 Why testing was non-negotiable 7:31 The drill-down problem Sidekick killed 8:30 Order confirmation emails + run code 10:06 40% of new Flows built with Sidekick 10:55 Sponsor — The Support Heroes 11:35 Stork Credit 12:14 Templates and the blank-canvas problem 13:10 Why describing what you want is the bottleneck 14:03 The gnarliest workflows Paul has seen 15:08 Metafields — Flow's most underrated unlock 15:25 The product update trigger problem 17:03 App-built triggers and infinite loops 18:15 Flow as middleware vs Boomi 21:09 Version control and managing Flows across stores 25:25 Why editing a .flow file outside Flow is risky 27:30 Copy to another store 28:00 App connectors — who's doing it right 30:14 Why most app-to-app integrations should use Flow 32:16 Advice for app devs building connectors 34:18 Get involved in the dev community 35:05 What's coming at Editions and Partner Conference 37:03 Wrap up