Aldi Leans into Blind Boxes? | Chevy's All-American EV Flops | Ricola's Non-Drop Drops

Aldi leans into drops and blind boxes — signal or noise? We dig into the curious case of the Chevy Silverado EV, Ricola's "non-drop drops," and Even Realities hitting a $1B valuation off a $150M round led by Meituan and Tencent. Plus Chase Mohseni guest-hosts a marquee sit-down with Kurt Elster on running Ethercycle, 500+ episodes of The Unofficial Shopify Podcast, and shipping Promo Party Pro after a 15-month build he called far harder than expected.ON TODAY'S EPISODE OF ECOMM COWBOYKurt Elster (Founder, Ethercycle) — Shopify consultant, "the Shopify expert your developer follows," and the founder of Chicago-based Ethercycle. Hosts The Unofficial Shopify Podcast — 500+ episodes, ~2.5M downloads, weekly since 2014 without breaking cadence. Current commitments per his own "now" page: designing high-converting Shopify themes at Ethercycle, hosting the pod, and shipping Promo Party Pro — a free-gift-with-purchase app he just launched after a ~15-month build that included a days-long internal debate over popup cooldown logic. Explicitly refuses to offer private app development and keeps Ethercycle boutique on purpose. We dig into the unglamorous system behind running a weekly podcast for 12 straight years, the CRO mistake on nearly every store that owners are blind to, what building Promo Party Pro taught him about his own advice that consulting never could, and what Ethercycle has to become by 2034 for him to call it a success — plus the version of "still going" that would be a quiet failure.ALSO ON THE SHOW- Pringles Hot Dog Buns- Zuckerberg acknowledges shortcomings in Meta's restructuring- Viral autonomous flying umbrella- Brand News: IQBAR takes over Amazon Canada's homepage- Brand News: Wild Deodorant sponsors the most iconic queue at Wimbledon- Brand News: Algae Cooking Club drops Smoked Tomato Oil- Watch & React: Spend.Market- Watch & React: Unc wisdom from TJ Bongiorno- Maggie's Refuel: New high-end LA gas station brand- Taro ice cream flavored cigarettes?____________________________Welcome to DTC's daily—what's now/next in ecommerce so founders, marketers, and operators can survive and thrive.Weekly newsletter: https://newsletter.ecommcowboy.com/Made possible by:Sathi - https://www.mysathi.io/champions/ecomm-cowboySlash - https://www.slash.com/Richpanel - https://www.richpanel.com/?utm_source=Ecomm+Cowboy+Show&utm_medium=Show&utm_campaign=Ad+Read&utm_id=Ecomm+CowboyPostscript - https://postscript.io/?utm_source=Ecomm+Cowboy+Show&utm_medium=Show&utm_campaign=Ad+Read&utm_id=Ecomm+CowboySeguno - https://www.seguno.com/?utm_source=Ecomm+Cowboy+Show&utm_medium=Show&utm_campaign=Ad+Read&utm_id=Ecomm+CowboyIntelligems - https://www.intelligems.io/?utm_source=Ecomm+Cowboy+Show&utm_medium=Show&utm_campaign=Ad+Read&utm_id=Ecomm+CowboySARAL- https://www.getsaral.com/ROKT Aftersell - https://www.aftersell.com/offers?utm_source=Ecomm+Cowboy+Show&utm_medium=Show&utm_campaign=Ad+Read&utm_id=Ecomm+CowboyProxima AI - https://www.proxima.ai/?utm_source=Ecomm+Cowboy+Show&utm_medium=Show&utm_campaign=Ad+Read&utm_id=Ecomm+CowboyNorthbeam: http://northbeam.io/?utm_source=Ecomm+Cowboy+Show&utm_medium=Show&utm_campaign=Ad+Read&utm_id=Ecomm+CowboyUniversal Ads - https://www.universalads.com/?utm_source=Ecomm+Cowboy+Show&utm_medium=Show&utm_campaign=Ad+Read&utm_id=Ecomm+CowboyFollow Ecomm Cowboy:https://x.com/ecommcowboyhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/ecommcowboyhttps://www.instagram.com/ecommcowboy/https://www.tiktok.com/@ecommcowboyhttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ecomm-cowboy/id1761749693