Jeremy Horowitz: The Untold Truth About Shopify Plus and the App Stacks Behind 8-Figure Shopify Brands

What if I told you that 45% of Shopify stores doing over $1M a year don’t use a reviews app? In this episode, I sit down with Jeremy Horowitz, ex-Gorgias, investor, and the guy who’s worked with Kim Kardashian and over 17,000 Shopify brands. We got to dig deep into the hidden data behind what 7-figure Shopify merchants are really using to grow. We talk app adoption trends, Shopify Plus vs Advanced (and why Plus might be a trap), repeat order rates that attract investors, and what most merchants are doing wrong when it comes to subscriptions and reorders. If you want to get into the top 3% of all Shopify merchants, this episode’s your blueprint.

Key Take-aways

• 84% of million-dollar Shopify stores use email/SMS — but only 55% use reviews

• Shopify Plus isn’t the golden ticket — most brands under $20M may be better off on Advanced

• The real reason Shopify Capital might be hurting more merchants than it helps

• Repeat purchase rate between 10–40% is the sweet spot for investors

• WhatsApp is the new SMS — especially outside North America

• The best brands don’t rely on hacks — they build sustainable, cash-flow-positive machines

• Tech stacks are simplifying — fewer apps, more impact

• Categories like Reviews are shifting to “Social Proof” with embedded video and UGC

• Investor red flags: MCA debt, no channel diversity, key-person risk

• Tools like Cocoa AI are showing 20–40x ROI on abandoned cart flows — in WhatsApp.

🫶 Please support the amazing sponsors that make this show possible. They support us, so we should support them 🫶

Omnisend - I personally use Omnisend for every Shopify store I manage! I’ve tried them all and Omnisend is hands down the easiest way to set up email and sms automations and campaigns, leverage segmentation to personalize them, and A/B test everything to optimize conversion. The push notifications and gamified email collection tools are just the icing on the cake 🤌

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Resources & Links Mentioned in the Show

Jeremy Horowitz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyhorowitz/ Cocoa AI: https://www.mycoco.ai Gorgias Helpdesk: https://www.gorgias.com Judge.me Reviews App: https://judge.me VideoWise (UGC & video reviews): https://www.videowise.com Shopify Plus Info: https://www.shopify.com/plus  Bold Commerce Apps: https://www.boldcommerce.com/shopify VideoWise - https://videowise.com/