Hi, I'm Arianne, founder of Aeolidia. We create effective Shopify sites and email marketing for thoughtful, independent brands. Our newsletter shares advanced, need-to-know ecommerce strategies. Not on the list yet? Join here.

Attend our webinar about finding & fixing revenue leaks!
Tuesday, September 15
9am PT | 12pm ET

SIGN UP HERE

Hi Reader,

It's that time of year! We've updated our Black Friday tips for you. Here are a few of the changes since last year:

Our partners at Shopify reported that in 2025 alone, “Our merchants just made history, generating a record $14.6 billion in sales over Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) weekend, up 27% from last year.”

One notable highlight of their report is how much Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options continue to grow. During BFCM 2025, Shopify reported that 32% of orders were placed using Shop Pay (a 39% year-over-year increase in sales made via Shop Pay).

Shopify has also shared that shoppers referred by AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude “convert at nearly 50% higher rates and carry 14% higher average order values than organic search.” Although traffic from these AI sources to Shopify storefronts continues to grow, Shopify reports that organic search is still the primary source of traffic for most merchants. Luckily, what’s good for SEO and organic search is also helpful for getting found by AI and LLMs (we can help you with this!).

Lastly, while updating our BFCM tips, we learned that the U.S. Postal Service has proposed a temporary price change for certain packages for the 2026 peak holiday season. This is still waiting approval by the Postal Regulatory Commission but if approved, the temporary rates will go into effect on Sunday, Oct. 4, and remain in place until Sunday, Jan. 17. Learn more.

For holiday shopping, we recommend:

Put a “Gifts” category in your main website navigation
Create gift lists in your navigation for easy shopping
Reorient your homepage around gift shopping
Create gift guides
Create gift boxes and bundles
Make sure gift cards are easily accessible
Offer gift wrap and show us how it will look
Offer gift receipts
Keep shipping deadlines (and price changes) in mind
Should you discount?
Offer installment payments
Don’t forget to let people know

Read our thoughts on all these, plus examples, below:

READ THE BFCM POST

Updated for 2026!

Q&A

Something useful we learned in a Klaviyo webinar: it is important that newsletters are AI-friendly because on the inbox side, AI agents are reading and summarizing and categorizing incoming messages.

Best practices:

DO NOT write your emails with AI. AI agents recognize AI writing and will deprioritize your emails.
Images should always have alt text.
Emails should have an H1 header that summarizes the offer.
Include at least paragraph of (non-AI) text to further explain details.

When you write a newsletter like this, you're more likely to be seen by a real person at some point, once you get through their AI doorman/bouncer.

Question: Answered

Our team includes experts in branding, design, development, email & SMS/text marketing, search engine optimization, copywriting, conversion optimization, ecommerce strategy, business growth, and more. Have a question for us? Email back, and I'll consult one of our experts and share one weekly response over email.

Interesting Clickables

Missed something? ⚓️ Read past issues of Aeolidia's newsletter here

Donna Wilson has a helpful post about how she prices her products.
Craft Industry Alliance has some info about bots testing stolen credit cards. These bots work a bit differently on Shopify, so reach out to Aeolidia if you're having this problem.
I'm completely charmed by artist Rachel Spellings' paint sample miniatures.

Latest Aeolidia Launch

A Shopify site for Dear Annabelle.

Dear Annabelle is female-owned and designed in New York City, delivering stationery, gifts, and home goods made with fine craftsmanship and a dash of wit and whimsy. My team gave Marcie a beautiful new site with a custom preview feature for her luxury stationery products. Marcie loves the new look and she is glad to have so much more control over her new site.

SHOP THE SITE