Shawn O'Neill

Each month I highlight the Lightspeed DMS release documents. These outline new features and fixes. Here is what is going on in November. LightspeedDMS 2024.11 R2 Release Notes: - Lightspeed has partnered with Paystand to provide more flexible electronic payment options for managing monthly Lightspeed invoices. - Google authentication is now available for communication accounts, allowing users to authenticate their email accounts. - Several mobile app enhancements were made, including the ability for technicians to add miscellaneous parts to repair orders and send click-to-pay links from the sales module. - Improvements were made to the speed of finalizing sales deals with a large number of major units. - New functionality was added to attach documents to vendor records and invoices in the accounts payable module. - Various bug fixes and minor enhancements were made across the Lightspeed DMS system. Overall, this release focuses on improving payment flexibility, mobile functionality, sales workflows, and accounting capabilities within the Lightspeed DMS platform. Full documentation attached. Click on through... #Powersports #Marine #RV #Lighspeed #LightspeedDMS

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Zig when everyone else zags ... You can apply this thinking to a lot of different areas... One in particular that came up during IgnitePOST's BFCM panel at Shopify is the surprising impact of plain text emails! Ashley Ismailovski from SmartSites 💡spoke about how she's seen simplicity in design lead to meaningful user engagement. If done well, plain text emails can come across as much more authentic and can really advocate for your brand. #DigitalMarketing #CustomerEngagement

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"It's table stakes for merchants to be everywhere customers are" - Harley Finkelstein, President of Shopify Finally a definition of omnichannel that I agree with -- from the lens of the consumer. Shopify & Target announced a partnership to allow select merchants to offer their products on Target Plus, the retailer's third-party marketplace. Why is this such a huge announcement? 1️⃣ It is a stamp of support by two of the largest commerce players that omnichannel is the future You need to be wherever your customers are. 2️⃣ Target brings the power of discovery to Shopify merchants. While Shopify has incredible enablement tools -- it is in the best interest of the merchants to support discovery channels outside of the extremely expensive Meta. Otherwise Amazon will continue to be the beneficiary of brands seeking discovery for their products. 3️⃣ For Target, this partnership provides their consumers with access to top brands that have cemented their success in the DTC world like True Classic & Caden Lane 4️⃣ DTC should not be thought of as separate to retail. They are both shopping experiences for the consumer that should speak to one another. 5️⃣ It cements the importance of marketplaces for both retailers and brands as key growth channels going forward. --- If you still think omnichannel is just a buzz word, you're wrong. If you still think retail & DTC should be thought of separately, you're so behind. Omnichannel is now and the future of how consumers will shop. Brij is building the solution that will help you connect consumer touch points across every channel you sell through. #shopify #target #omnichannel

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𝟓 𝐔𝐧𝐭𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐖𝐞𝐛𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐃𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 I wish someone had spilled the beans when I first started. These tips? They’re game-changers! 1️⃣ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅-𝐏𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐁𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝 Ever notice how people skim pages? It’s usually in an F-shape. Pop your key info along this pattern and watch your engagement skyrocket! 2️⃣ 𝐖𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐈𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐖𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞 Your content needs some room to breathe. A cluttered page sends visitors running faster than you can say “bounce rate.” 3️⃣ 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐬-𝐭𝐨-𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐒𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 (𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐫 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞) Bigger buttons don’t always win. It’s all about contrast—those eye-catching colors will draw attention quicker than a giant button. 4️⃣ 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐬 𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐊𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 (𝐔𝐧𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐃𝐨 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬...) Every extra field is a conversion killer. Keep it simple, or go with multi-step forms to keep things smooth. 5️⃣ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝟑-𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐑𝐮𝐥𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐌𝐲𝐭𝐡 People will click more if the journey makes sense. Don’t stress over the number of clicks, focus on making the path crystal clear. Mind-blowing, right? 🤯 These aren’t just theories—I’ve seen them work wonders for my clients. But I’m sure you’ve got your own secret sauce too! Drop your web design secrets in the comments. Let’s swap tips and learn from each other! And if you found this helpful, give it a repost. Let’s spread the love! P.S. Having trouble with your website’s performance? 𝑰’𝒎 𝒐𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆 15-𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒖𝒕𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒃𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒖𝒅𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒌. DM me to grab a slot before they’re all gone! Haoma Worgwu #TuesdayTips #WebDesignSecrets #WebDesigner #WordPress #Shopify #20DayLinkedInChallengeWithHaoma

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You could be saving $500,000-750,000 in Shopify storefront management fees this year. If your store is: → Built on an expensive headless solution → Requires an agency to make any changes → Built on a cobbled together custom theme → Requires 10+ expensive 3rd party applications to operate → Is currently being managed by 3rd party developers or contractors Then you're likely (and unnecessarily) spending many 5-figures a month to manage a storefront. All those costs eat into your profits and kneecap your ability to re-invest into growth. What you need is a storefront that is: → Scalable → Cost-effective → Reduces your dependency on 3rd parties → Empowers your team to make changes, whether they are technical or not That's exactly why we built Platter. We have a number of case studies in the pipeline that demonstrate how 8-figure brands have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars by switching to our theme & app bundle. Interested to learn more? Drop me a DM and we can provide you with a free storefront audit.

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Imagine having your entire online business stack all in one place, behind one login.⁣ ⁣ No more juggling between multiple platforms like Calendly, Wix, Squarespace, Teachable, Shopify, and Asana.⁣ ⁣ Well, you can do just that with WordPress.⁣ Because WordPress is open source, it’s infinitely extensible, with thousands of plugins allowing you to do pretty much anything. E-commerce, online courses, membership sites, community forums, event registration, scheduling apps for your Zoom calls, and lots more!⁣ ⁣ But what if your business needs something that existing plugins can't provide?⁣ ⁣ That’s where custom WordPress development comes in. Here are two custom website solutions I’ve delivered for my clients:⁣ ⁣ 𝟏. 𝐖𝐞𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫⁣ ⁣ For a wedding venue in Portland, Oregon, we built a custom wedding calculator as a lead magnet. Website visitors could enter their guest count, menu choices, and desired dates to receive an instant cost estimate. An automated email was then sent inviting them to schedule a tour of the venue. ⁣ ⁣ As you can imagine, this lead magnet brought in very warm leads, as couples could self-qualify and determine if the venue fit their budget before even contacting it.⁣ ⁣ 𝟐. 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐬⁣ ⁣ For a client who trains Allstate agents nationwide, we built an online learning academy on WordPress to supplement their in-person training. Since the agency paid the membership fees for their agents, they needed to track engagement. ⁣ ⁣ Which required a custom plugin that automatically generated and emailed reports to each agency at the beginning of each month. These reports tracked agent enrollment, course progress, and engagement metrics, allowing agencies to effectively monitor their investment and the progress of their agents.⁣ ⁣ These are just two examples that I believe demonstrate the power of WordPress, showing that you really can have your entire online business stack in one place.⁣ ---⁣ As a WordPress web designer and developer, I specialize in creating integrated solutions that simplify your online business processes.⁣ ⁣ 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘦?

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Shopify just concluded their Q2 2024 earnings call & anyone who's a part of the Shopify ecosystem (agencies, theme devs, app devs) should go through these calls - they're gold mines of insights on what to focus on & where things are headed for the future. I just went through their investor presentation and here are 4 insights from the prespective of an app dev: Fact: Their stock price is up 22% and they've now beat market expectations for the 2nd quarter in a row despite a largely slow macro and consumer spending environment. The Shopify leaderships attributes their insulation from macro economic consumer behaviour to their diverse spread of merchants across various verticals and geographies Insight: I suspect this insulation to stay intact as we go into Q3 and Q4. This would imply that BFCM and Christmas for the larger Shopify ecosystem are going to be as strong as ever irrespective of the marco economic climate. Drown out the noise and just keep chugging away at your Q4 prep Fact: Lifetime offline GMV (through Shopify POS) current stands at ~10% of total lifetime GMV Insight: Expansion into retail + offline is definitely one of the places where Shopify is keen on driving growth and I'd be tracking this metric quite closely for the next 2-3 years to see if there's an opportunity to service POS specific use cases as an agency or app Fact: Q2 B2B GMV growth is at 140% & this is the single highest quarter for B2B in terms of GMV Insight: 140% YoY growth is NUTS. Similar to POS, I'd be closely following on how things unfold on the B2B side of things and find opportunites to solve problems and service merchants. A lot of first mover advantage to be had here. Fact: Gross Payment Volume (GPV) is 61% of GMV. Insight: GPV is basically the transaction volume processed by Shopify Payments (including Shop Pay). At 60% of GMV, Shopify is basically a payments company with a layer of software that drives the other 40% - as a Shopify partner I'd stay the fuck away from this part of the business. Anything even remotely close to payments and Shopify will shut you down simply because they don't want anyone eating into that revenue.

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Exciting News for Shopify Partners. Shopify is removing the referral inactivity penalty, making it easier than ever to keep earning. When you set up a Shopify store for a client, you earn a recurring commission—20% of the merchant’s monthly subscription fee. Previously, your referral revenue had two strings attached: 1. The merchant had to stay a paying Shopify customer. 2. You had to perform a revenue-generating activity at least once every 12 months. This meant either building a new store for a client or introducing a merchant to Shopify through an affiliate link. Starting August 9, 2024, the second condition is history. No more scrambling to stay "active." As long as your merchant remains a paying customer, you'll keep getting that recurring commission, hassle-free.

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Thoughts on the Shopify acquisition of Checkout Blocks app? To me, it's a great signal to the app dev community of another potential exit option for high quality products and/or bright teams. It's another signal that Shopify may not simply be inclined to build apps, from the data they have on what's being used, etc. It's another signal that store owning entrepreneur's aren't the only entrepreneur's Shopify cares about. Shopify has leaned heavily into 'we support entrepreneurs with our platform' messaging and now may be setting their sights on a large community of entrepreneurs on the backend of Shopify's platform. Curious what others think. What other message does this acquisition send? Link in the comments to appease the LI algo.

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Scope creep nearly killed my business. Here's how I turned it into my biggest advantage. The first 8 years as a web designer were really hard. Low pricing and endless client revisions were draining my passion, and I was ready to quit. Then, I joined Nathan Ingram's coaching program (link in comments). It changed everything, but one piece of advice stood out: "You like to give. It's who you are. Embrace it, but set clear boundaries. Build 'extras' into your business model, separate from what the client has agreed to pay for." And so I did. I started clearly defining each project while naming my 'extras' as a Lagniappe line item – separate from the project scope. Which eliminated scope creep and satisfied my innate desire to give.  This small change transformed my mindset and my bottom line. Struggling with scope creep? Redefining how you 'give' could transform your business AND your mindset. 𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴, '𝘓𝘢𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦' 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘳𝘢, 𝘢 𝘨𝘪𝘧𝘵. 𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘮𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘳𝘢 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘺 😊

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Can your developers build on Shopify if they aren’t familiar with the ecosystem? Yes. But should they? “Just read the documentation” - the most expensive advice in platform migration. Developers who've spent 7+ years in Shopify know something documentation can't teach you: what NOT to do. Your developers are likely brilliant at building custom solutions and working in their familiar systems. But platform expertise isn't about how well you can code. It’s about understanding the bigger picture of your technical architecture. Think of it this way. Being an incredible R&B producer doesn't automatically make you great at producing hip-hop. Sure, you understand music theory, can work the equipment, and know how to create hit songs. But hip-hop has its own patterns. Its own culture. Its own way of doing things. That's exactly what happens when great developers who've never worked with Shopify try to build on the platform. Technical skills aren't the issue. It's about knowing what works in specific environments. Just like a producer needs to understand hip-hop's specific style to create authentic tracks, developers need to understand Shopify's ecosystem to build solutions that truly perform and scale. The real questions you should be asking: • How can you leverage years of platform-specific wisdom? • How do you avoid reinventing patterns that others have already optimized? • How do you tap into an ecosystem of proven solutions? Reading documentation is one thing. Understanding how to architect solutions that scale, integrate, and evolve with the platform? That comes from years of hands-on experience. And hands-on experience is the difference between 'making it work' and setting yourself up for long-term success. #ecommerce #shopify #digitaltransformation

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What do you do when your org is scheduled to launch a highly polarized A/B/C test in Q4 with two negative bets, a fixed-horizon of 4 years and no clearly defined primary metrics? Seems absurd from a bird's-eye view. Perhaps one variant may be closer to an insignificant A/A situation? 😜 But either way, I sometimes wish such big "orgs" could learn from and apply more core values from experimentation. Just a handful of some: ✅ explore more variations / ideas to choose from (where is D, E, F, G?) ✅ set clear OECs / metrics that most people will agree on (amazing for finding common ground) ✅ break down the problem into smaller experiments ✅ use bets & opinions only to prioritize (not evaluate) ✅ allow granular, multiple and adjustment of bets ✅ keep a track record of actual results (to improve estimation/prioritization and keep teams accountable) ✅ tie in some negative feedback loops (poor results -> feel the pain) ✅ measure ✅ get better at measuring ✅ keep improving the measuring process Promises -> Trustworthy results. Easier said than done. Happy Friday. :) #experimentation #rant

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One of the most heartbreaking things I've experineced as a #b2bSaaS website expert is watching a beautifully designed website load at what felt like a pixel-by-pixel rate because: - It was hosted on a sh!t server - Images aren't compressed - WP plugins for carousels and galleries - And FFS, chill with the trackers and 3rd party platforms Do you really need 5 analytics platforms? How many do you look at regularly (and by that we know I don't mean quarterly!)? Friends don't let friends have slow websites. Check out your load time here -> https://bit.ly/3QTU63I #websiteoptimization #b2bmarketing

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Important fact about most startup (and VC) success stories. It is convenient to overlook this, but the best companies and products are not built on any specific timeline. The best people win, and that is the only thing that has consistently and repeatably truly won over the test of time.

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The time to migrate to Shopify's new extensibility checkout has ended! 😱 Yes, tomorrow, August 13th, is the last day to have your checkout migrated to the new checkout extensibility. To remind you... why all this? Until today, any Shopify Plus subscriber has had the advantage of modifying the checkout code. Yes, indeed, that's how you have the code. And that's why many necessary but poorly implemented customizations for the checkout project arose over time. Now Shopify proposes Checkout Extensibility, which, as the name suggests, talks about "extending" the checkout functionality using an editor. You can simply drag and drop to configure an application or go through a more complex programming process using Functions. Shopify echoed the complexity of this migration and, to facilitate all merchants, released an application called Checkout Blocks. This application allows you to perform many of the most traditional settings in the checkout but with the new format. It also left the version that was previously paid completely free. https://lnkd.in/emHEJkSi 👈 But tomorrow is the deadline to migrate at least the first step when the checkout code will be removed and completely replaced by the new editor. There is one more year before the next step, which involves stopping using scripts and more complex customizations in the Thank You Page and Order Page. But as we recommend to all our merchants, why wait? It is good to execute the whole process at once and explore and exploit all the advantages of checkout extensibility. Doubts? Need help? Follow this link, where you will find more detailed information, even possible costs related to this process: https://lnkd.in/gUTFhqGZ 👈 Contact me, contact us, contact VNS! .VNS | Software Agency - Shopify Plus Partner 👈 👈 #shopify #shopifyexperts #shopifypartner #ecommerce #tiendaonline #business #agency #software #onlinestore #checkout #extensibility

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Four reasons Shopify is WINNNNING in the enterprise. Caveat, this is also why Andy Cloyd and myself are betting so heavily on the Shopify ecosystem in the coming years at Superfiliate Now, how are they winning? Product Velocity: Shopify's relentless product innovation is pulling enterprise brands into their ecosystem. It's not just about switching platforms, it's about Shopify's ability to integrate every crucial business need, from Shop Pay to POS to Commerce Components (CC and kudos to Ilya Grigorik) The Power of Shop Pay: This isn't just a payment method... it's become a trusted brand that drives conversion. By introducing Shop Pay to non-Shopify sites, they're starting to show significant lift, easing brands into Shopify’s full suite of solutions. Agency Migration: The shift is happening quickly. Former exclusive Salesforce Commerce Cloud agencies are now building Shopify teams. They’re attending Shopify Unite not just Dreamforce. This momentum is driving enterprise re-platforms at scale. CIO Career Moves: Just like the cloud migration was once the career-defining project for CIOs, Shopify is becoming the same for enterprise commerce. A new generation of tech leaders sees the upside, and Shopify is positioned to be their golden goose. My favorite quote from Andy about choosing Shopify as a brand: "...it starts to become stupid to be anywhere else." The leadership at the top of Shopify knows exactly what game they're playing and are building a multi-front product, technical and services infrastructure to become the dominant player. Kudos for the masterclass: Tobias Lütke, Kaz Nejatian, Jeff Hoffmeister, Mikhail Parakhin, Harley Finkelstein, Bobby Morrison, Archie Abrams, Glen Coates, Daniel Debow

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Appreciation post for Shopify, especially the App Store team - It’s been there for more than a decade now. I haven't seen anyone appreciating the option for merchants to leave reviews for the apps they’re using on Shopify. Those reviews are a game-changer for Shopify SaaS founders like me. Running a SaaS company isn’t easy, and having long days is the new normal no matter what stage you're in. Whenever I receive a Slack alert that there is a new Shopify review for Vajro, it brings me immense happiness. It doesn’t matter whether it’s positive or negative. Someone took their time to write about us and share their feedback publicly is a different feeling altogether. It gives an opportunity to feel & express genuine gratitude towards the merchant. All the other benefits - organic ranking, seo, social proof - are all secondary. There are thousands of app developers in the ecosystem, and I’m pretty sure every single one has felt this. The mental calmness these genuine reviews provide is underrated, and nobody talks about it. p.s. Yes, we’ve set up an alert in our Slack for whenever someone leaves a review. Our whole team celebrates every single review together ❤️ You should do that if you haven't done it yet.

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