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In this newsletter, youâll find:
đ Get your store locations ready for AI shopping agents in six steps
đ TikTok and YouTube are the only channels where costs and returns aligned heading into November
đ Ad of the Day
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đ Get your store locations ready for AI shopping agents in six steps
Picture a shopper asking an assistant, âWhere can I pick up this jacket in a medium today?â As of late October, that assistant can check your stores directly.
On October 22, Shopify added location tools to its Universal Commerce Protocol. Agents can search and look up a merchantâs locations, returning up to 250 results with availability for up to 10 product variants at each. The tools donât infer location from IP addresses, and Shopify lists them as provisional.
The agent will repeat whatever your data says. Hereâs how to make sure itâs right.
Step 1: Audit location records
Export every location in your admin. Check address, hours, phone and pickup settings. Enter holiday hours now, before the agent sends someone to a locked door on December 26.
Step 2: Test inventory accuracy
Pick 10 products and compare system stock with a physical count at two locations. If 3 of 10 are wrong, thatâs a 30% error rate the agent will pass along. That example is illustrative. Anything above about 5% is worth fixing first, in my judgment.
Step 3: Set a safety buffer
If a store shows 2 units and one sells at the counter, the agentâs shopper arrives to nothing. Hide the last one or two units from pickup on fast sellers.
Size it with sales speed: a product selling 8 units a day per store sells one every three hours or so in a 10-hour day. A buffer of 2 covers roughly six hours. Slower products need less.
Step 4: Switch pickup off where it canât cope
If a location canât handle pickup volume in peak weeks, turn pickup off there. A missing option costs less than a failed pickup.
Step 5: Brief store staff
Some customers will arrive saying an assistant told them the item was in stock. Give staff a script for when it isnât: offer the nearest store with stock, or ship-to-home with a small credit.
Step 6: Watch the source
Track pickup orders by source, along with no-shows and cancellations. Agent-driven visits may show up as new referrers. Compare the numbers before and after the change.
Why act on a provisional feature
Expect the tools to change. Accurate hours, stock and pickup settings help every customer, agent or not, so none of this work goes to waste.
This week
Run Steps 1 and 2 at your two busiest locations. Wrong hours and wrong stock are what an agent exposes first.
đ TikTok and YouTube are the only channels where costs and returns aligned heading into November
The final week of October delivered a split that matters heading into peak season, click costs moved in opposite directions across major platforms while conversion rates fractured, separating the channels worth scaling into November from those quietly bleeding margin.
The Breakdown:
CPC - Meta and YouTube saw click costs fall while Snapchat, Google, and Pinterest held flat or pushed higher. Where CPCs dropped alongside positive ROAS, lock in current audience segments now before Black Friday auction pressure absorbs the efficiency window.
CAC - TikTok (-9.24%) and Microsoft (-2.28%) improved while Meta, Google, Snapchat, and Pinterest all worsened sharply. Snapchatâs +7.80% CAC spike alongside -21.44% CvR collapse makes it an immediate pause; pull that budget before it compounds further into peak.
ROAS - YouTube led at +7.37% and Microsoft posted +8.85%, while Pinterest (-11.57%) and Google (-1.58%) declined. Microsoft at 0.84% share with the second-best ROAS on the board, is the most underleveraged channel heading into Black Friday, open a test budget now.
Meta holds 55.25% of spend with +1.54% ROAS but -5.05% CvR, clicks are cheaper, but fewer are converting, which is the wrong direction to be moving in the week before peak season. YouTube at 2.90% posted +7.37% ROAS and TikTok at 4.53% posted +12.95% CvR simultaneously.
Increase both heading into Black Friday, cut Pinterest and Snapchat immediately, and treat Microsoftâs +8.85% ROAS as the highest-upside underallocation on the board right now.
đ Ad of the Day
What Works:
Hook Reframes Occasion - âFor when you are on a diet⊠Holidayâ uses a playful correction to create a pattern interrupt, reframing zero-alcohol beer around enjoyment instead of restriction.
Lifestyle Feels Natural - The relaxed vacation styling, sunlight and casual can-in-hand moment make the product feel native to leisure occasions, strengthening message-market fit for sober-curious consumers.
Product Stays Hero - The chilled can dominates the foreground, giving strong branding recall while the green nails and bright sky add visual contrast without competing with the pack.
Take a category compromise like âzero alcoholâ and position it around freedom, occasions and lifestyle. This makes the alternative feel additive rather than like giving something up.
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