"Today LLMs are the worst they're ever going to be."
Atlee Clark, Shopify's VP of Partnerships, and merchant with her own store, Pika Layer, joins the show with Eytan Seidman, VP of Product for everything Shopify partners and devs use at Shopify.
Together they just rewrote the deal for Shopify's entire partner ecosystem, and this conversation explains what that means for your store.
We get into the new revenue share that pays partners on merchant GMV growth, why Catalog and UCP put the world's products in a single API, and how Sidekick app extensions going GA changes what apps can do inside your admin. Plus the two areas both VPs say are wide open for anyone willing to build.
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Cold open
0:28 Meet Atlee Clark & Aitan Seidman
1:39 What's a "primitive"?
3:15 Atlee's own store: Pika Layers
4:45 The new partner revenue share model (and why now)
8:27 Agentic commerce, Catalog & UCP
10:32 What's new with Sidekick: app extensions
12:26 Sidekick for reports and building Shopify Flows
14:43 Where partners should place their bets: POS and B2B
16:54 How Shopify will measure .dev success a year from now
19:21 The complaint Shopify hasn't fixed yet: change management
21:44 How to join the partner community
GUEST LINKS
Shopify Partners: shopify.com/partners
Shopify.dev: shopify.dev
Pika Layers (Atlee's store): pikalayers.com
Atlee Clark on X: x.com/AtleeClark
WORK WITH KURT
Apply for Shopify Help: ethercycle.com/apply
See Our Results: ethercycle.com/work
Free Newsletter: kurtelster.com
The Unofficial Shopify Podcast is hosted by Kurt Elster and explores the stories behind successful Shopify stores. Get actionable insights, practical strategies, and proven tactics from entrepreneurs who've built thriving ecommerce businesses.
