+ the back-to-school trend nobody talks about, and how to win it ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­  
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August 14, 2026 Shoplift Newsletter

The July 2026 Storefront Index

Routine Reset: the back-to-school trend nobody talks about, what brands it affects, and how to win.
Nick Selman
VP of Growth · Shoplift

Hey Shoplifter,

Nick here. I lead the Growth team at Shoplift. This is our bi-weekly newsletter where we talk about growing Shopify brands profitably and predictably.

Where I live, we go back to school early which means our household is already back on a routine. I'll miss the summer, but on the other hand it's nice to have the sanity of a normal week when your kids are 5 and 2. I told my teammates "the Nick that's in a routine is a Nick that's more pleasant to work with." 😆

I wrote about the impact that this "routine reset" has on ecommerce metrics.

Cheers,
Nick Selman / Growth @Shoplift
This week in commerce
Shopify Q2: GMV up 32%, revenue up 34% SHOPIFY
OpenAI adds product carousels to ChatGPT ads DIGIDAY
Phia shopping app took credit for sales it didn't drive FORTUNE
US sets 10–12.5% forced-labor tariffs on 60 trade partners CNBC
TikTok tests Shop Plus, a $6–15 Prime-style membership PYMNTS
Amazon loses court bid to block Perplexity's shopping agents REUTERS
Product feeds now drive ~20% of ChatGPT shopping results PROFOUND

July 2026 Storefront index

I'm calling bottom.

July historically has been a tough month for ecommerce, and this year was no exception. 

The median store's conversion rate worsened in July, but overall weighted conversion across all verticals improved 7% on 7% smaller baskets for a flat RPV month-over-month.

Back-to-school categories like Books (Arts & Media) are typically highlighted in July for breaking out and this year we did see that.

But as I'll cover in the next section, there is another group of categories that begin to break out of the summer slump this time of year. I couldn't find a ton of literature on this so I decided to write about it ...

Routine Reset: the back-to-school ecommerce trend nobody talks about

What brands are impacted, and how to win 

This week my household rebuilt itself. Lunches, bedtimes, the morning sequence. I restarted two subscriptions I paused in June, reordered the shampoo we ran out of in July, and went back to buying coffee on a schedule instead of whenever I notice it's gone.

Measured on the same brands month to month, the median routine-category brand added 9.7% more orders in August than in July, and 10.6% more revenue. Conversion carried most of that, up 4.9%, with 61% of brands beating their own July rate.

Read: Routine Reset → (LinkedIn)

 

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