"Not knowing what we were doing, just bobbling through it, we did a couple thousand dollars an hour and we were like, whoa, this might be something."

John Roman bought BattlBox back in 2023 and went looking for the next channel. With over a million TikTok followers, TikTok Shop looked obvious. Then a Whatnot sales rep sent an email. Seventeen months later, live selling on Whatnot does $447K a month, with no ad spend.

John breaks down why Whatnot buyers spend three times what TikTok Shop buyers spend, what a three-hour show looks like when each product gets 30 seconds, and the host-hiring mistake that seemed like a sure thing.

Swym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more
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Promo Party Pro - Free gifts that drive bigger orders
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Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels
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What you'll learn:

• The ramp: $25K in 10 hours the first month, $447K in 317 hours last month
• Why buying intent on Whatnot beats TikTok's algorithm: "You don't open up the Amazon app to look at content"
• Auctions, dollar starts, and the deal-hunter problem that hurts your margin
• The format: 30 seconds per product, 50 to 60 items per three-hour show, 200 SKUs in rotation
• The setup: a phone, good lighting, a home studio, and OBS for effects
• Where hosts come from, and why the TikTok Shop affiliates they recruited didn't work out
• Raids and community boosts, the features that keep Whatnot buyers coming back
• How members get box items six months before they reach Whatnot
• Why they turned off Whatnot ads after a holdout test, and how their Meta CAC changed
• What's next: Battl Games season three, a six-part YouTube series starting in November

Guest: John Roman, CEO of BattlBox. Last on the show in January 2023.

BattlBox: https://battlbox.com
BattlBox on Whatnot: https://www.whatnot.com/user/battlbox
John Roman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-roman
Online Queso (John's blog): https://onlinequeso.com
John's previous episode, "How a Subscription Box Biz Got a Netflix Show": https://unofficialshopifypodcast.com/episodes/john-roman-battlbox/

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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.

Kurt spent a day at Beanstalk, an invite-only ecommerce conference at Industry City in Brooklyn, recording 15-minute conversations under a tent. Seven made it to tape. Every guest is on Shopify. Not one led with paid ads.

The lineup: Matt Butcher of Adam's Polishes on why he comes. Jay Wright, who spends about a billion dollars a year on Meta, on why your media buying is "completely cooked." Maria Lopez-May, VP Marketing at Nugget, on life after the pandemic lottery. Vivek Kumar, CEO of Articore (Redbubble and TeePublic), on their new Shopify integration and a $20 million turnaround. NJ Falk of APL on $400 sneakers and the thing she noticed about Sidekick. Robbie Bent of Othership on building $15 million bathhouses and marketing through the local dentist. Ali Weiss, former CMO of Glossier, on launching NoBiggie and choosing not to turn on paid.

Paul was not there. He asks what you would ask.

What you'll learn:

• Why a curated conference beats a big one: "everyone I bump into here is worth chatting with"
• Jay Wright: Meta is an auction, someone is winning at that CPM, and it is not the person buying like it's 2022
• The biggest mistake Jay sees: founders abdicating growth to a $1,000-a-month retainer
• How to label your ad creative so your own account tells you what to make next
• Maria Lopez-May of Nugget: right product, right time, then the dupes, then Amazon and CTV
• Articore's first profit since listing and a Shopify integration that launched ten days before the interview
• Why print-on-demand sellers should not put "the kitchen sink" on their store
• APL: Magento to Shopify Plus in a week, then a flagship store opened four months before lockdown
• The Sidekick detail NJ Falk noticed and Kurt never did
• Othership: a horse trough in a backyard, 90 people screaming in a dark sauna, and why brick and mortar takes two decades
• Why local influencers (the trainer, the stylist, the bartender) beat wide-reach channels for a neighborhood business
• Ali Weiss on unlearning beauty margins, "playing on hard mode" with two buyers, and why getting on a Target shelf is the easy part
• NoBiggie Neighbors: free product for your kid's birthday party as the whole acquisition strategy
• The hard decision to not turn on paid until repeat purchase shows up across channels

Hosts: Kurt Elster and Paul Reda, co-owners of Ethercycle, a Shopify-exclusive agency.

Swym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more
getswym.com/kurt

Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopify
cleverific.com

Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels
zipify.com/KURT

• Beanstalk: https://www.beanstalkevents.com
• Adam's Polishes: https://adamspolishes.com
• Ecommerce Equation: https://ecommerceequation.com
• Jay Wright on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaywrightofficial/
• Nugget: https://nuggetcomfort.com
• Articore Group: https://articore.com
• Dashery: https://www.dashery.com
• APL: https://athleticpropulsionlabs.com
• Othership: https://othership.us
• NoBiggie: https://nobiggieplease.com

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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.

Discounts are the biggest line item on your P&L that nobody approved. Kurt and Paul answer the questions merchants keep asking, then lay out the Black Friday plan.

Part one is a mailbag pulled from r/ecommerce, r/shopify, and the Shopify Community: the Combines With checkbox that wiped the profit on 60 orders before lunch, influencer codes showing up on Honey, welcome codes reused by new Gmail accounts, and the eternal free-shipping-or-20%-off question. Part two is what to fix in September, and what three consecutive Black Fridays of gift-with-purchase data say about thresholds, gift size, and who actually takes the gift.

What you'll learn:

• Why discounts deserve the scrutiny you give ad spend, and why almost nobody gives it
• How one Combines With checkbox stacked free shipping, 20% off, and a bundle script into zero-profit orders
• What to do about influencer codes on coupon sites (and why single-use codes don't solve this one)
• The rule Kurt uses on every code he creates: a 12-month expiry, no exceptions
• Why you can't stop welcome-code abuse, and the one-line fix from the top Reddit reply
• Free shipping vs discount codes: if you have to ask, you don't know your contribution margin
• The September checklist before code freeze: SEO metadata, alt text, accessibility, Core Web Vitals, and a discount audit
• Three Black Fridays, one $50 gift threshold, and carts that landed at $98, $101, and $111
• The surprise in the data: gift-with-purchase skews to returning customers, free shipping to new ones
• The segmented strategy: free shipping code for first-time buyers, gift for everyone else
• Threshold math: gift at 2x AOV, free shipping 50% above AOV, gift retail value 10 to 15% of cart
• Why Shopify's agentic catalog mapping did nothing on two stores for 14 days

Hosts: Kurt Elster and Paul Reda, co-owners of Ethercycle, a Shopify-exclusive agency, and makers of Promo Party, a gift-with-purchase app.

Swym - Wishlists, Back in Stock alerts, & more
getswym.com/kurt

Cleverific - Smart order editing for Shopify
cleverific.com

Zipify - Build high-converting sales funnels
zipify.com/KURT

• All three research reports: https://ethercycle.com/report
• State of Discounts 2026: https://ethercycle.com/pages/state-of-discounts-2026
• Q4 gift-with-purchase report: https://promoparty.app/bfcm-gift-with-purchase/
• The $2K Combines With thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/ecommerce/comments/1qbvg5k/
• Free shipping vs discount codes thread: https://community.shopify.com/t/675799
• Welcome code abuse thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/shopify/comments/1u9i640/
• Influencer codes on Honey thread: https://community.shopify.com/t/222041

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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.