Everything You Wanted to Know About the Shopify App Ecosystem with Blair Beckwith, head of Ecommerce at Tidio and Founder at Railspur

In this episode of "The Conversion Show" podcast, Erik Christiansen interviews Blair Beckwith, head of E-commerce at Tidio and Founder at Railspur.

Erik and Blair, with their combined experience of 20 years in the Shopify ecosystem, discuss their experiences and reflect on the changes in the Shopify app store over the past 10 years and what's yet to come in the next few.

Erik and Blair discuss:

• The need for businesses to diversify platforms to truly thrive.
• Brands aren't doing product-led growth correctly.
• Anxiety and concern among app partners regarding competition from Shopify
• Experimentation and impeccable products are key in today's dynamic ecosystem.
• Is "freemium" still a sexy term?
• Product-led growth, pricing models, and the challenges faced by developers.

Host: Erik Christiansen

Guest: Blair Beckwith

Sponsored by: 38 Proven Email Pop Up designs by Justuno

Tidio

Railspur

Transcript:

Erik 00:51

All right, folks. Today is a special day for the conversion show because one of the top questions I get asked personally is having been in the shop ecosystem for ten plus years, one of the first questions I always get asked is, hey, what's what's the check? What's the deal with the Shopify App Store? And you know, anyone who's in this world today is the show for you because you have combined 20 years exactly of Shopify App Store experience between Blair and I. I just looked it up March 19, 2013, Blair and I first emailed each other. So today's show, you saw the title, you know who's on here, Blair Beckwith, welcome to the show.

Blair 01:44

Thanks for having me. Eric, I was looking today, too, and I was I mean, I was thinking back, I think that we met in person maybe that summer in San Francisco. It was one of my first trips as a Shopify employee. Shopify was so small back then, I barely had a budget for a hotel. I remember staying in the Tenderloin and meeting up with you for lunch. You had a little office, and I think I want to call like the financial district. Was that what that area was called?

Erik 02:15

Yeah, we moved offices every year for a while and, we were probably on 2nd and Mission.

Blair 02:26

It was a little bit more like a corporate building. It was a little bit more modern. It was on a nonground floor. I remember taking an elevator. I remember walking with you to go get sandwiches down by the water.

Erik 02:28

I was trying to impress you, huh?

Blair 02:39

Yeah. Yeah, it was, man, it was a long time ago.

Erik 02:43

I do have to correct you because you said you were. It was early days as an employee, but technically, weren't you an intern?

Blair 02:53

By that point, I had graduated to full-time employment status. No. Yeah, I started. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we can get into all that we can get into. Well, for sure.

Erik 03:03

It's funny. Like, I'm trying to remember back the earliest memory, and in talking about budgets, you know, Shopify. I didn't have the budget for a hotel for you. We've always just seen as always...