Off the Record Ecommerce

Leighton Taylor & Patrick Rice
  • 5.0 (3)
  • Entrepreneurship

Insider conversations about how to grow an ecommerce brand on Shopify. From marketing and conversion strategy to operations and scaling, Leighton Taylor and Patrick Rice share what's working now and what isn't.

  1. 5d ago

    One Shopify Store's Traffic Was 65% Bots. Here's How We Fought Back

    One Shopify store we work with had more than 65% of its traffic coming from bots, and it's a growing problem that skews analytics, burns through app credits, and can even lead to a cloned copy of your store. Leighton Taylor and Dave Tanguay break down how they fight Shopify bot traffic with Cloudflare O2O, AI-written security rules, and ongoing monitoring for clone sites. Links Mentioned Blockify Fraud Filter & Blocker (Shopify app): https://apps.shopify.com/blockify Boxify (shipping rate calculator for Shopify): https://apps.shopify.com/boxify Cloudflare: https://www.cloudflare.com/ Cloudflare O2O for Shopify (setup guide): https://developers.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-for-platforms/cloudflare-for-saas/saas-customers/provider-guides/shopify/ Recon Brand & Clone Protection: https://recon.bot/ Watch This Episode on YouTube https://youtu.be/LOlLfAohPUM Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:34 Meet Dave Tanguay 1:40 Bots From Singapore and China 2:26 What Bot Traffic Costs You 4:13 Cloned Stores and Missing Orders 5:01 Why Blocking Countries Stopped Working 5:46 Switching to Cloudflare's Free Plan 6:58 What Cloudflare O2O Is 8:25 Blockify vs. Cloudflare in Plain English 10:30 Challenging Every Checkout 11:30 An Arms Race With Bots 12:55 Letting Good Bots Through 14:09 Moving Your DNS to Cloudflare 16:00 Why Not to DIY Your DNS 17:37 Doesn't Shopify Already Use Cloudflare? 19:07 Using AI to Write the Rules 22:47 How We Spotted a Clone Site 25:15 Tools That Watch for Clones 27:52 Signs You Have a Bot Problem 28:17 Wrapping Up Book a Call Book a Call with Patrick: https://calendly.com/patrickriceco/strategy-call Book a Call with Leighton: https://cal.com/leightontaylor/discovery-call?utm_source=podcast Work with Us Work with Patrick (SEO and Google Ads): https://patrickriceco.com/ Work with Leighton (Shopify Store Builds, Migrations, & Ongoing Support): https://envision.io You may notice that our content sometimes includes affiliate links or sponsored content. We may receive compensation for this type of content, which supports the work we do at no cost to you.

  2. Sep 25

    Recipe Pages on Shopify: Some Stores Make $30K a Month

    Some Shopify food, beverage, and CPG brands are making $20,000 to $30,000 a month from their recipe pages alone. Patrick Bollenbach, founder of Recipe Kit, joins Leighton and Patrick Rice to break down recipe SEO on Shopify and how his new app Recon catches the scammers cloning Shopify stores. Links Mentioned Recipe Kit: https://recipekit.com/ Recon Brand & Clone Protection: https://recon.bot/ Judge.me: https://judge.me/ Shopify's copyright infringement reporting form: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/compliance/intellectual-property/copyright-policy Watch This Episode on YouTube https://youtu.be/PLACtwQSaOY Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:39 How Patrick Got Into Shopify 2:36 His First App Got Declined 3:45 What Recipe Kit Does 5:09 Getting Out of Service Work 8:13 Who Actually Uses Recipes 9:40 A Look at the Recipe SERP 10:36 Structured Data and Star Ratings 13:53 Where AI Fits In 17:36 Skip the Grandma Story 20:12 The Ad Problem on Recipe Blogs 23:32 Bare Recipe Cards Ranking First 24:09 Tracking Revenue From Recipes 26:05 Images Are the Big Mistake 29:25 Pinterest Is Underrated 32:33 Better Blog Comments and UGC 35:15 Recon and Store Cloning 37:02 How to Stop a Clone 41:08 Filing a DMCA Takedown 45:58 AI Slop Clones in the App Store 48:48 Product Is No Longer the Moat 52:06 Why Human Teams Still Win 52:54 Wrapping Up Book a Call Book a Call with Patrick Rice: https://calendly.com/patrickriceco/strategy-call Book a Call with Leighton Taylor: https://cal.com/leightontaylor/discovery-call?utm_source=podcast Work with Us Work with Patrick (SEO and Google Ads): https://patrickriceco.com/ Work with Leighton (Shopify Store Builds, Migrations, & Ongoing Support): https://envision.io You may notice that our content sometimes includes affiliate links or sponsored content. We may receive compensation for this type of content, which supports the work we do at no cost to you.

  3. Sep 18

    What Is a Good Shopify Conversion Rate?

    What is a good Shopify conversion rate? It depends on your traffic mix, your industry, and your price point far more than on any benchmark you will find online. In this episode we break down the three step funnel from add to cart, to reaching checkout, to a completed purchase, plus the drop off numbers that show you where a store is actually losing sales. Links Mentioned Baymard Institute (free ecommerce UX articles and research): https://baymard.com Blockify (block bot traffic by country or IP): https://apps.shopify.com/blockify Cloudflare: https://www.cloudflare.com Leighton's Shopify CRO audit checklist: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZV21GWwNNMWmnsU__hlw9Y-QVMNFY02qjrIjeeofGY8/edit?usp=sharing Watch This Episode on YouTube https://youtu.be/X1Ea1du9vbo Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:20 The Ecommerce Growth Equation 3:06 How Conversion Rate and AOV Compound 4:45 Why Conversion Rate Is a Weird Number 6:34 Conversion Rate Is Always Relative 8:12 How Bots Skew Your Data 10:04 Blocking Bot Traffic 11:39 Cloudflare and Shopify 14:20 Do Bots Actually Hurt Sales? 15:19 The Hidden Cost of Bot Traffic 17:57 Themes, Navigation, and Basics 18:44 Baymard as a CRO Resource 20:24 The 100 Point Audit Checklist 23:11 Mobile Menus and Shop All Links 27:36 Free Shipping Bars and AOV 28:51 The Three Step Funnel Benchmark 31:01 Diagnosing Where Sales Leak 32:14 Improving Add to Cart Rate 33:31 When to A/B Test 35:40 How Much Data You Need 39:06 Wrapping Up Book a Call Book a Call with Patrick: https://calendly.com/patrickriceco/strategy-call Book a Call with Leighton: https://cal.com/leightontaylor/discovery-call?utm_source=podcast Work with Us Work with Patrick (SEO and Google Ads): https://patrickriceco.com/ Work with Leighton (Shopify Store Builds, Migrations, & Ongoing Support): https://envision.io You may notice that our content sometimes includes affiliate links or sponsored content. We may receive compensation for this type of content, which supports the work we do at no cost to you.

  4. Sep 14

    Patrick Rice's Story: From YouTuber to Shopify Agency Owner

    Patrick Rice started a Minecraft YouTube channel at 13 and made his first $3,000 online before he had ever heard of SEO. He walks Leighton through the whole path to running a Shopify SEO and Google Ads agency, including the client he lost to a migration that went sideways and the point where managing everything himself turned into a ceiling. Links Mentioned E&R Business Consulting (Traci Eisenberg-Rayburn, Patrick's business coach): https://www.erbusinessconsulting.com/ Patrick's old Minecraft video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sq51xW8pYqg Watch This Episode on YouTube https://youtu.be/9bTCzlZG3zI Chapters 0:00 Intro 1:23 The Minecraft YouTube channel 3:35 Accidental link building 4:30 First SEO job at 18 7:27 How PRC started 9:15 Going independent too early 10:31 Four years as a freelancer 13:28 Knowing your agency numbers 15:38 Getting into Shopify SEO 17:06 The migration that cost a client 19:17 The cold email that landed 22:41 Referrals and LinkedIn 25:02 LinkedIn is saturated now 26:48 Hitting the growth ceiling 29:58 Ownership versus tasks 33:40 The hire who quit in 4 days 35:52 How much to document 38:30 Where AI fits now 40:17 Ads first, then SEO 41:45 Wrapping Up Book a Call Book a Call with Patrick: https://calendly.com/patrickriceco/strategy-call Book a Call with Leighton: https://cal.com/leightontaylor/discovery-call?utm_source=podcast Work with Us Work with Patrick (SEO and Google Ads): https://patrickriceco.com/ Work with Leighton (Shopify Store Builds, Migrations, & Ongoing Support): https://envision.io You may notice that our content sometimes includes affiliate links or sponsored content. We may receive compensation for this type of content, which supports the work we do at no cost to you.

  5. Sep 4

    Leighton Taylor's Story: 5 Years Running a Shopify Agency From a Sailboat

    Leighton started his first ecommerce business on Etsy while teaching English in China, then found Shopify in 2012 and turned freelance work into Envision. He ran the Shopify agency from Mexico, Ecuador, and Southeast Asia, then sold the house in 2020 and spent five and a half years working from a sailboat. Patrick and Leighton dig into all of it, plus the hiring mistakes, QA systems, and priority questions that came with growing a Shopify agency remotely. Links Mentioned Tropical MBA Podcast: https://tropicalmba.com/ Dynamite Circle: https://dynamitecircle.com/ Upwork (formerly oDesk): https://www.upwork.com/ Notion: https://www.notion.com/ The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060833459 Leighton's weekly planning questions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pIWzT0jesjhDvOLUpdMlLrD8lhgCEbrj31cl9jv1B_g/edit?usp=sharing Watch This Episode on YouTube https://youtu.be/jCofHzKUavQ Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:48 Two Years Teaching in China 1:26 Wedding Invitations on Etsy 4:29 Discovering Shopify in 2012 6:13 Landing First Clients on Upwork 7:47 Why the Name Envision 9:32 Going Nomad: Mexico to Asia 12:00 Hiring Contractors and Scaling Pain 15:10 Documenting Systems and QA 20:47 Perfectionism or High Standards? 21:47 The Highest Leverage Task 24:27 The Monday Planning Ritual 28:46 Client Unit Economics and NCCM3 31:17 Becoming a Business Advisor 35:09 From Nursing School to a Sailboat 36:33 A Home Base in Florida 38:06 Wrapping Up Book a Call Book a Call with Patrick: https://calendly.com/patrickriceco/strategy-call Book a Call with Leighton: https://cal.com/leightontaylor/discovery-call?utm_source=podcast Work with Us Work with Patrick (SEO and Google Ads): https://patrickriceco.com/ Work with Leighton (Shopify Store Builds, Migrations, & Ongoing Support): https://envision.io You may notice that our content sometimes includes affiliate links or sponsored content. We may receive compensation for this type of content, which supports the work we do at no cost to you.

  6. Aug 28

    Shopify LTV: How to Measure It and Actually Raise It

    LTV, or customer lifetime value, tells you what a customer is really worth to your Shopify store, and it decides how much you can afford to spend acquiring the next one. Leighton and Patrick break down how to measure LTV using cohorts and time windows, why contribution margin matters more than gross revenue, and the levers that actually move it: post-purchase email and SMS flows, subscriptions, loyalty points, retargeting, and AOV. Links Mentioned Lifetimely (LTV and profit analytics for Shopify): https://apps.shopify.com/lifetimely-lifetime-value-and-profit-analytics Peel (retention and cohort analytics): https://www.peelinsights.com/ Triple Whale (ecommerce attribution and analytics): https://www.triplewhale.com/ Klaviyo (email and SMS marketing): https://www.klaviyo.com/ Smile.io (loyalty and rewards for Shopify): https://smile.io/ Chapters 0:00 Intro 2:06 What LTV Actually Means 3:06 Why Repeat Buyers Cost Less 5:26 The LTV to CAC Ratio 6:37 Nobody Knows Their Contribution Margin 8:09 Slicing Customers Into Cohorts 10:24 Shopify Analytics and Sidekick 11:07 Apps for Cohort Analysis 12:17 Cash Flow and Time-Based LTV 13:38 Why "Lifetime" Is Misleading 18:23 Retention Marketing: Email and SMS 19:26 The Post-Purchase Flow 20:11 Consumables and Subscriptions 20:45 Helping Customers Reach Their Goal 21:47 Building a Customer Persona 22:45 The Creatine Example 24:59 Retargeting Past Customers 26:59 When to Pitch a Subscription 29:09 The \$1 Olive Oil Club 32:12 Loyalty and Rewards Programs 34:29 How AOV Feeds LTV 35:26 Where LTV, AOV, and CR Meet 38:41 Wrapping Up Book a Call Book a Call with Patrick: https://calendly.com/patrickriceco/strategy-call Book a Call with Leighton: https://cal.com/leightontaylor/discovery-call?utm_source=podcast Work with Us Work with Patrick (SEO and Google Ads): https://patrickriceco.com/ Work with Leighton (Shopify Store Builds, Migrations, & Ongoing Support): https://envision.io You may notice that our content sometimes includes affiliate links or sponsored content. We may receive compensation for this type of content, which supports the work we do at no cost to you.

  7. Aug 21

    Get Your Store Recommended by ChatGPT Before Black Friday

    Agentic commerce is generating a lot of hype, but very few people are actually buying inside AI tools yet. Leighton and Patrick break down where AI really fits in ecommerce today, and the practical Shopify setup work every store owner should be doing right now. Links Mentioned Shopify Knowledge Base app: https://apps.shopify.com/shopify-knowledge-base Shopify Inbox: https://apps.shopify.com/inbox Gorgias: https://www.gorgias.com/ Profound: https://www.tryprofound.com/ Peec AI: https://peec.ai/ Local Dominator: https://localdominator.co/ Common Crawl: https://commoncrawl.org/ Patrick's Free AI Visibility Audit: https://patrickriceco.com/ai Watch This Episode on YouTube https://youtu.be/7uZR93yiX3Y Chapters 0:00 Intro 1:56 Hype vs. reality right now 3:54 Why niche brands are winning 6:39 The AI attribution problem 8:10 Tracking your AI visibility 11:47 Where to actually start 12:36 The Shopify agentic channel 13:20 Shopify Knowledge Base app 15:21 Where your product data goes 19:01 Writing product data for AI 21:52 Declarative copy vs. brand voice 26:16 Storefront agents and Gorgias 30:00 What Common Crawl is 32:38 What to do before BFCM 33:36 Free AI visibility audit 34:30 Wrapping Up Book a Call Book a Call with Patrick: https://calendly.com/patrickriceco/strategy-call Book a Call with Leighton: https://cal.com/leightontaylor/discovery-call?utm_source=podcast Work with Us Work with Patrick (SEO and Google Ads): https://patrickriceco.com/ Work with Leighton (Shopify Store Builds, Migrations, & Ongoing Support): https://envision.io You may notice that our content sometimes includes affiliate links or sponsored content. We may receive compensation for this type of content, which supports the work we do at no cost to you.

  8. Aug 14

    Shopify AOV: How to Increase Your AOV (and the Mistake that Backfires)

    Everyone wants to increase their AOV (Average Order Value), but it's not always clear how. Leighton and Patrick break down what actually moves AOV in the right direction: free shipping thresholds with dynamic progress bars, relevant cart cross-sells, frequently bought together widgets, build-your-own bundles, and post-purchase upsells, plus the two cross-sell mistakes that cost stores trust and revenue. Links Mentioned Rebuy (Smart Cart, cross-sells, and A/B testing): https://www.rebuyengine.com/ Baymard Institute (cart and checkout UX research): https://baymard.com/ Monster Cart Upsell (Shopify app): https://apps.shopify.com/monster-upsells Checkout Blocks (Shopify's checkout customization app): https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/checkout-settings/checkout-blocks Watch This Episode on YouTube https://youtu.be/oJQgzmeDnSg Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:33 Is AOV Advice Overhyped? 1:44 What AOV Actually Means 2:14 How AOV Compounds With Conversion Rate 3:48 Margins and Knowing Your Numbers 4:39 Free Shipping Threshold Messaging 6:02 Static Message vs Dynamic Progress Bar 7:09 Cart Cross-Sells and Two Big Mistakes 10:30 Lessons From Retail Checkout Aisles 11:33 Limits of Shopify's Recommendations 12:17 Frequently Bought Together Widgets 13:43 Recommending Items to Hit Free Shipping 16:07 Testing With Rebuy's Smart Cart 19:46 Build-Your-Own Bundles 21:07 Tailoring Tactics to Your Industry 22:29 Checkout and Post-Purchase Upsells 26:13 How Much You Can Realistically Upsell 27:12 Recap: The Quickest AOV Wins 28:02 A/B Testing and Collection Design 30:15 Starter Kits and Gift Bundles 30:51 Gift Wrap and Personalization 32:16 Content That Drives Bundle Sales 33:01 Subscriptions as an AOV Play 34:01 AOV, LTV, and What's Next 35:04 Wrapping Up Book a Call Book a Call with Patrick: https://calendly.com/patrickriceco/strategy-call Book a Call with Leighton: https://cal.com/leightontaylor/discovery-call?utm_source=podcast Work with Us Work with Patrick (SEO and Google Ads): https://patrickriceco.com/ Work with Leighton (Shopify Store Builds, Migrations, & Ongoing Support): https://envision.io You may notice that our content sometimes includes affiliate links or sponsored content. We may receive compensation for this type of content, which supports the work we do at no cost to you.

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About

Insider conversations about how to grow an ecommerce brand on Shopify. From marketing and conversion strategy to operations and scaling, Leighton Taylor and Patrick Rice share what's working now and what isn't.

Information

  • Creator
    Leighton Taylor & Patrick Rice
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    15
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Off the Record Ecommerce