The Unicorn Rule: Why The Lad Collective Publishes 15,000 Ads to Find 10 That Work | #639

The Shopify App Store Is Not Dead. Martin Cox on What Has Changed | #643

Martin Cox walked away from agency life two months ago. No business plan. Four Shopify apps with animal mascots. A clear view of where the ecosystem is heading. If you've been in the Australian Shopify scene for any length of time, you've heard Martin's name. He's the guy people mean when they say "we should just ask Martin." After more than a decade agency-side, he's now co-founder of Native App Co [https://apps.nativeappco.com], a Melbourne studio building a small family of focused Shopify apps that don't feel like apps. He also co-hosts The Shopify App Show [https://au.linkedin.com/in/martincox100], so he sees the ecosystem from both inside the build and across the platform. Nathan sat down with Martin to dig into what's actually changing for merchants in the AI era: why store credit is the promotional lever most operators are sleeping on, why product data is the new SEO, and what the global Shopify catalogue means for how stores get found from here. Today, we're discussing: * Why an app's real job in 2026 is to put guardrails around AI, not just add features [05:00] * How store credit beats discount codes for spreading acquisition cost across two baskets [17:30] * The musky tobacco t-shirt rule for product data in the age of AI search [32:00] * Why Shopify Flow integration is the single strongest quality signal when evaluating an app [44:30] * Where the global catalogue could take Shopify and what merchants should do about it now [35:30] * Martin's easy in, easy out framework for choosing apps that won't burn you [44:00] Use the code ADDTOCART for three months free on any Native App Co app: nativeappco.com/addtocart [https://nativeappco.com/addtocart] Connect with Martin Cox [https://au.linkedin.com/in/martincox100] | Explore Native App Co [https://apps.nativeappco.com] | Listen to The Shopify App Show [https://au.linkedin.com/in/martincox100] Subscribe to the Add To Cart newsletter [https://newsletter.addtocart.com.au/subscribe]  SMS us to Suggest a Guest [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2521371/fan_mail/new] Connect with Nathan Bush [https://au.linkedin.com/in/nathbush] Join the Add To Cart Community  [https://community.addtocart.com.au/]

How to Get More From Influencers by Spending Less | #642

Influencer marketing is still a young line item, the pricing is all over the shop, and you can spend real money on a creator without ever being sure what you got back. So plenty of teams treat it with one eyebrow raised. But the problem was never influencers. Most brands treat influence as one big post, from one big name, a single moment they hope lands. The brands getting real value treat it as a relationship instead: the same credible people showing up more than once, who actually believe in the product. The brands getting this right do three things differently. In this playbook, based on a conversation with Jess Hatzis, co-founder of Frank Body and Willow & Blake, we cover three things ecommerce operators need to know about getting more from influencers for less: * Influence works on frequency, not one big post, so the same credible people need to show up for you again and again * Pick creators who already believe in your product, then treat them like partners rather than a media buy * Bring creators together in person and do it on repeat, which buys frequency, content and a real bond for about a tenth of the cost Connect with Jess Hatzis [https://au.linkedin.com/in/jessica-hatzis-strategicadvisor] Explore Willow & Blake [https://willowandblake.com/] Subscribe to the Add To Cart newsletter [https://newsletter.addtocart.com.au/subscribe]  SMS us to Suggest a Guest [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2521371/fan_mail/new] Connect with Nathan Bush [https://au.linkedin.com/in/nathbush] Join the Add To Cart Community  [https://community.addtocart.com.au/]

Doesn't Cost You Anything to Do Good: Rohan McCloskey on Building GoGenerosity | #641

Rohan McCloskey refunded $350,000 in donations, gave up his salary for a year, and nearly lost everything. He's still building GoGenerosity. And he'd do it again. That kind of conviction usually comes from one of two places: delusion or proof. In Rohan's case it's the latter. One in six customers at his best-performing store donate every single time they shop. Ninety-eight percent of mystery shoppers said they were more likely to return to a brand running GoGenerosity than a competitor selling the same product. Only one merchant in his ideal customer profile has ever churned, and that was because the merchant's business hit financial difficulty, not because the product failed. Rohan is Founder and CEO of GoGenerosity [https://www.gogenerosity.com], a Shopify app that turns small customer contributions at checkout into real goods delivered to charity partners. The model is cleaner than it sounds: a customer adds a $2 or $3 donation at checkout, those donations pool, and the charity receives a gift card at full retail value redeemed in-store. One hundred percent goes through. GoGenerosity charges merchants a monthly SaaS fee on top. Before all of this, Rohan ran three restaurants in Mount Maunganui through COVID, survived, and then decided to start a tech company instead. Today, we're discussing: * How the GoGenerosity checkout model works in practice and why 100% of customer donations reach charity partners [05:03] * The Hume mystery shopping data: 98% of shoppers were more likely to return to a brand running GoGenerosity than a direct competitor [15:26] * Why one in six customers at Rohan's best-performing store donates $5 every single visit, and what two years of that data actually proves [18:07] * The no-login product philosophy: why GoGenerosity deliberately has no merchant portal and sends monthly reports by email instead [28:38] * Why raising capital too early nearly killed the business and what a two-year enterprise sales cycle actually costs a startup [47:35] * What Rohan's psychologist told him on Christmas Day 2023 and how he kept building through a serious burnout [44:16] Connect with Rohan McCloskey [https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohanmccloskey/?originalSubdomain=nz] | Explore GoGenerosity [https://www.gogenerosity.com] | Connect with Rosa Willis [https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosa-clara-willis-23761066/] | Connect with Nathan Bush [https://au.linkedin.com/in/nathbush] Subscribe to the Add To Cart newsletter [https://newsletter.addtocart.com.au/subscribe]  SMS us to Suggest a Guest [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2521371/fan_mail/new] Connect with Nathan Bush [https://au.linkedin.com/in/nathbush] Join the Add To Cart Community  [https://community.addtocart.com.au/]

How to Ask for Help Before You Need It | #640

Ecommerce is still a young industry, and it's moving faster than anyone in ecommerce can keep up with. Nobody has all the answers, and the pressure to act as if you do can leave you in a precarious position. The ecommerce leaders who go furthest aren't the ones who faked it. They're the ones who asked for help early, while they were still learning, and kept doing it the whole way along. The asking was never the weak part of the story, it's what makes them the leaders they are today. The best operators do three things differently when it comes to asking for help. In this playbook, based on the most honest conversation we've had on the show with Grant Arnott [https://au.linkedin.com/in/grantarnott], who built Power Retail [https://www.powerretail.com.au/] and Click Frenzy [https://www.clickfrenzy.com.au/], we cover three things ecommerce operators need to know about asking for help before they need it: * Ask while you're still learning, not just when something has already broken * Build the network in the calm, because the worst time to find your people is the moment the problem is on fire * Treat asking for help as a leadership move, because ego is what is holding you back, not the question This episode touches on depression and some dark moments. If anything here is close to home, Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and Beyond Blue is on 1300 22 4636. This episode is supported by Shippit. 38% of shoppers buy more with an accurate delivery estimate, yet most retailers fail to deliver on that promise at checkout. Shippit's State of Shipping Report shows you how to fix it. Click here to find the Shippit report [http://shippit.com/state-of-shipping-report]. Connect with Grant Arnott [https://au.linkedin.com/in/grantarnott] Explore Power Retail [https://www.powerretail.com.au/] | Click Frenzy [https://www.clickfrenzy.com.au/], Subscribe to the Add To Cart newsletter [https://newsletter.addtocart.com.au/subscribe]  SMS us to Suggest a Guest [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2521371/fan_mail/new] Connect with Nathan Bush [https://au.linkedin.com/in/nathbush] Join the Add To Cart Community  [https://community.addtocart.com.au/]

The Unicorn Rule: Why The Lad Collective Publishes 15,000 Ads to Find 10 That Work | #639

The Lad Collective [https://theladcollective.com] has shipped roughly 15,000 ads in four years. Around 10 of those have been unicorns. Mark Broadhead [https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-broadhead-3a397b1a1/], Head of Creative and Growth, runs the Meta engine behind one of Australia's fastest-growing bedding brands, now 200,000 customers deep and expanding into North America. Mark joined as the founders' first employee, moving from his own vintage clothing business into the warehouse in Logan that The Lad Collective was running out of at the time. Four years later, he sits across creative, paid media and the brand's creative testing system. He's also one of the few people in ecommerce posting honest thinking on Meta account structures and AI in production on LinkedIn, which is what made him a must-have guest on the show. This episode picks up from The Lad Collective Story with founders Bill and Ed Ovenden in episode 160 [https://addtocart.com.au/add-to-cart/get-your-sheet-together-the-lad-collective-story-160/].  Today, we're discussing: * Why Mark doesn't study other bedding brands for inspiration [11:50] * The Unicorn Rule: 15,000 ads, 10 hits [27:3]How The Lad Collective uses content pillars to scale one idea across many formats [36:20] * 205 live ads, 260 campaigns, and the move toward 1,000 live creatives [18:08] * The customer-driven UGC pipeline that feeds itself [40:39] * The role of AI in ad production with Higgsfield [https://higgsfield.ai] and Kive [https://kive.ai] [46:46] * The Robert Irwin partnership and what it means for the US push [44:48] * Working with Shelley Craft and how big partnerships balance the lo-fi brand [42:30] * Why Mark will put almost any piece of content into the ad account [41:18] Read the full Showpo case study from our partners at Convert Digital → convertdigital.com.au/showpocasestudy [https://events.convertdigital.com.au/showpocasestudy/] Use the code from our partners → 🛍️ Shopify [https://www.shopify.com/au] | 📧 Klaviyo [https://www.klaviyo.com/au/] Connect with Mark Broadhead [https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-broadhead-3a397b1a1/] | Explore The Lad Collective [https://theladcollective.com] Subscribe to the Add To Cart newsletter [https://newsletter.addtocart.com.au/subscribe]  SMS us to Suggest a Guest [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2521371/fan_mail/new] Connect with Nathan Bush [https://au.linkedin.com/in/nathbush] Join the Add To Cart Community  [https://community.addtocart.com.au/]