Welcome Back to The Ecom Edge!
Ep 3: Spring Cleaning for Shopify & DTC

Hey there,

If you’re running a Shopify brand between $3M–$75M+, you know the game has changed. Ads are more expensive. Shoppers expect more. And yesterday’s playbook? It’s outdated.

👋🏻 I’m Marc, I’ve been in sales and marketing for nearly 15 years, including time as the ecom Director at a $70M brand. These days, I’m leading growth at Because, helping Shopify brands dial in what actually works—whether it’s A/B testing, PDP optimizations, or making checkout a little less painful

The Ecom Edge is your shortcut to what’s working now in CRO, personalization, and ecommerce strategy—minus the fluff.

Today, we are unpacking:

• ✅ Top Spring Cleaning for your website

• ✅ Trending: Heard of UGC? What about EGC?

• ✅ The top book we should all be reading (or rereading) in Q2

In this episode, we’re diving into five overlooked cleanup moves that can seriously boost performance—and we’re spotlighting a growing DTC trend that adds real authenticity and trust to your brand (no dusting required).

Let’s dive in. 🚿🧼💸

🪜 1. Declutter Your Homepage

You know it’s officially spring when the days are longer, the sun’s finally showing up to work again, and—if you’re anything like me—your old nemesis seasonal allergies decides to make a dramatic return. 😮‍💨

While most people are out power-washing patios and Marie Kondo-ing their closets, we ecom folks are over here staring at our Shopify dashboards thinking:

“Should I finally take down that Black Friday banner?”

(Yes. Yes you should.)

Just like your home, your storefront, tech stack, and marketing flows deserve a good seasonal refresh. A little digital spring cleaning can go a long way—speeding up your site, surfacing hidden revenue opportunities, and giving your customers a smoother path to checkout.

Still have that holiday promo or "New Year, New You" banner live? It happens. But a cluttered homepage can make your brand feel out of touch.

A clean, current homepage sets the tone for everything else. Don’t let it become the digital equivalent of a junk drawer.

🧹 2. Clean Up Your Klaviyo Flows and
Discount Graveyard

Let’s be honest—your Klaviyo flows are working hard behind the scenes. But if you haven’t given them a check-up in the last few months, chances are they’re starting to show their age.

• Outdated welcome series referencing sold-out bundles? Check.

• Post-purchase emails promoting a discount that expired 4 months ago? Double check.

• Abandoned cart flows still offering the same stale 10% off code? Triple check.

When left untouched, these issues don’t just create a lackluster experience—they actively hurt trust and can confuse shoppers. It’s time for a reset.

And here’s a pro-level move:

🤖 Use This Tool: Bulk Discount Code Bot

If you’re constantly creating single-use codes for your flows, this free Shopify app will save you hours #notasponser. Trust me, it saved me TONS of hours!

With Bulk Discount Code Bot, you can:

• Generate thousands of unique codes in seconds

• Set usage limits and expiration dates

• Sync seamlessly with Klaviyo to keep your email promos tight, secure, and scalable

Whether you're running a limited-time offer, personalized VIP discount, or post-purchase thank-you campaign, this tool ensures you’re not manually copy-pasting codes like it’s 2016.

Automated doesn't mean "set it and forget it." It means regularly optimizing so your flows grow with your brand. Your email program should feel fresh, intentional, and most importantly—profitable.

🛠️ 3. Review Your Tech Stack

Let’s talk apps.

I love apps. You love apps. We all love apps. I even work at an app company (hey, Because fam 😉). But at one of the Shopify brands I worked with in a past life, our app situation? Let’s just say it got… a little out of control.

At one point, we had over 70 apps installed. Seventy. 7-0. We had an app for everything: bundles, reviews, inventory, upsells, downsells, product quizzes, a wheel-of-fortune popup, and probably even an app to help us organize our apps.

It started innocently enough. Every department had needs. Marketing needed something for popups. CX needed a return app. Dev needed something for redirects. And then there was Bob. That’s not his real name, but we all have a Bob.

Bob was enthusiastic. Bob installed apps. Bob needed tools to do his job better.

...Then Bob left the company.

But the apps? They stayed.

No one knew which ones Bob installed. No one knew how they worked. Some were charging us monthly. Others were breaking pages. The ROI? It was deep in the negatives.

Bonus Tip: After uninstalling an app, peek into your theme.liquid or snippets. Some apps leave behind code like ghosts of ecommerce past.

Treat your tech stack like your closet: if you don’t know what it does, haven’t used it in months, or it belongs to Bob from 2022 who now works in fintech, it might be time to let it go.

Bonus Bonus Tip: Want a head start? Here’s how we tackled the 70-app monster under our Shopify bed:

We assigned one person to create a Google spreadsheet that listed every app currently installed. It included columns for the app name, monthly cost, the team or person who installed it, and a notes section for why they believed the app was still needed.

We shared it with all teams and asked them to review and tag which apps they were actively using. Each week, we sent a Slack reminder (with love) to gently nudge teams to fill it out.

From the beginning, we made it clear: if an app wasn’t claimed and didn’t have a clear use case after 30 days, it would be removed. That accountability helped everyone stay focused—and we ended up removing dozens of unused tools that were quietly draining budget and performance.

Simple process. Big impact.

🔎 4. Simplify Your Navigation

Think of your site’s navigation as the GPS for your online store.

If it’s cluttered, confusing, or pointing shoppers in a million directions, they’re going to bounce—not buy.

Too often, Shopify stores end up with nav menus that look like the Cheesecake Factory menu—endless options, multiple dropdowns, and no clear path to what customers are actually looking for.

Over time, navigation bloat happens naturally: new products, promos, and internal requests from different teams. But what starts as a "helpful" addition can quickly create friction that costs you conversions.

Your goal? Remove decision fatigue and guide shoppers to the buy button faster.

A clean, intuitive nav bar builds trust, improves UX, and leads to better conversions. Sometimes less really is more.

🛄 5. Refresh Your PDPs (Product Detail Pages)

Your product detail pages (PDPs) are your digital salespeople. They do the heavy lifting when it comes to converting curious browsers into confident buyers. But if they haven’t been updated since last year (or longer), they might be doing more harm than good.

Think of your PDP like the final few minutes of a great sales pitch. If your copy is unclear, your images are outdated, and the trust signals are missing, shoppers will hesitate—and hesitation kills conversions.

This is one of the highest-leverage areas of your site. Small updates can result in big wins.

Bonus idea: Add short video clips or Employee-Generated Content (EGC) showing someone from your team using or explaining the product. This adds instant authenticity. (learn more below!)

Every line of copy, every image, and every trust signal on your PDP helps shoppers make a decision. Give them the clarity, confidence, and context they need—and they’ll reward you with conversions.

📈 What’s Trending: Employee-Generated Content Is the New UGC

User-generated content (UGC) has reigned supreme in DTC marketing for a while now—but there’s a new, powerful player in town: Employee-Generated Content (EGC).

Customers are hungry for authenticity. They don’t want polished influencer reads or overproduced brand reels—they want real, unfiltered opinions from people who genuinely know the product. And who better than the people who live and breathe your brand every day?

 💡 Why it Works:

• Shoppers trust employees even more than influencers

• It's low-cost, high-trust, and incredibly relatable

• It humanizes your brand and builds internal culture at the same time

But don’t just take my word for it—let me share a real story.

When I worked at The Adventure Challenge, we ran a company-wide contest:

Create the best ad for one of our products. That’s it.

Everyone could participate. Customer Service, Fulfillment, Finance, even the Marketing team (naturally). Each person submitted their own take, and our ads team ran all of them on Meta with equal spend. Whoever’s ad had the best ROAS? Won $200.

👀 Here’s the twist:

The winning ad didn’t come from the marketing team. It didn’t come from the creative team. Not even from the copywriters or the media buyers.

It came from someone on the Operations team—an admin/personal assistant.

Their video was authentic, personal, a little rough around the edges—and it crushed.

This is the magic of EGC: it’s not about polish, it’s about connection. Real people, telling real stories, from inside the brand.

📚 Q2 Book of the Quarter:
Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

If there’s one book I’d recommend every eCom manager, marketer, and founder read (or re-read) this quarter, it’s hands-down.

Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect by Will Guidara

I had the honor of seeing Will speak live at VeeCon 2024 in LA, and even though his session was just 30 minutes, it was one of the most impactful talks I’ve ever attended. I left with goosebumps and a completely refreshed perspective on what it means to build meaningful connections with customers—and each other.

Since then, I’ve devoured his book (twice), watched every talk I could find, and let me tell you: it’s impacted every area of my life—not just work.

The audio version is read by Will himself, and it's a phenomenal listen if you prefer learning on the go.

As Shopify brands battle rising CAC, growing competition, and evolving expectations, hospitality becomes your biggest differentiator.

This isn’t just a book for restaurant owners. It’s a masterclass for anyone who wants to serve others better and build a brand that people talk about long after the purchase.

🎥 Want a taste of Will’s magic?

Here’s a powerful talk of his that captures the essence of the book: 👉 Watch: The Secret Ingredients of Great Hospitality (Will Guidara - TED)

Highly, highly recommend you give it a read—and share it with your team.

🌼 Final Thoughts

Spring cleaning isn’t just for closets—it’s for your conversion funnel, your tech stack, and your customer experience.

And with less than two weeks left in Q1, this is the perfect moment to pause and take inventory. Maybe this quarter didn’t go exactly as planned. Maybe growth was slower than forecasted or that A/B test didn’t deliver the win you hoped for.

That’s okay.

Take 5 minutes today and ask yourself:

• What’s one thing I learned this quarter that I can build on?

• What’s one moment I’m grateful for, even if it didn’t go how I expected?

Progress isn’t always obvious in the moment. But if you’re showing up, testing, learning, and serving your customers well—you’re already winning.

Let’s make Q2 count. You got this.

Until next time,
Marc