Newsletter #58: Shopify Winter Editions, Statiq, and boxing

Hi there,

I hope you’re feeling good.

I’m writing this newsletter with a smoked salmon toast in my hand and a giant Christmas tree in front of me. That’s right, it’s that time of the year again! Can you hear Mariah Carey in the background? I sure can.

Whether you’re celebrating Christmas or not, I hope you’re feeling good. The end of the year is not necessarily a happy time for everyone, as we have to deal with whatever life throws at us. Nonetheless, in Victor Hugo’s words, even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise. If you’re going through a hard time, I hope that you can find a little bit of comfort today. I’m sending strength and lots of positive vibes your way.

In today's edition, we’re discussing Shopify Winter Editions, Statiq, and boxing.

Let's dive in.

Work

During the bi-annual event called Editions, Shopify officially presents recent platform updates and unveils new features that were still unknown to the public.

5 months after Summer Editions, it's now time for Winter Editions.

Winter Editions took place on December 11th, 2024. It was called the Boring Editions. Why?

Because, instead of announcing shiny new features that are not available everywhere yet, Shopify chose to strengthen the existing features and make them work better together.

Examples of that include:

• Draft orders now work with functions, bundles, and checkout extensions.

• Shopify POS now works with bundles, retail customer segments, and customer metafields.

• Shopify Search & Discovery now works with category metafields and combined listings. For the latter, you have the liberty to choose if parent or child products should appear in search and product recommendations.

These improvements are great because they add consistency to the platform.

In addition, Shopify rolled out some products in early access to more merchants. For instance, the AI assistant Sidekick, new analytics, and customer account extensions are now officially rolled out. Yay!

Finally, Shopify improved the platform as a whole: merchants and their customers can now benefit from increased loading speeds across cart, checkout and the admin.

Cherry on the cake: as always, this gift of 150+ updates was packaged in a beautiful wrapping paper.

On the Winter Editions website, if you select the “Not boring” option, you have access to the “Boring TV”, where each update is presented by beautiful AI-generated characters.

You can even scan a QR code to turn your phone into a remote and zap through the updates yourself. How cool is that?

In the end, it was probably the less boring Editions ever!

Discover more on the Winter Editions website.

Inspire

In the previous 57 editions of this newsletter, I wrote about many people who inspire me:

• Entrepreneurs: Noah Bragg in edition 6 and Pieter Levels in edition 13

• Artists: Le Motif in edition 2 and Taylor Swift in edition 14

• Content creators: Biaheza in edition 37 and Le Règlement in edition 57

• Sportsmen: Serena Williams in edition 46 and David Goggins in edition 47

Taking a step back, I realize that these people share some qualities in my eyes. They are determined and hardworking. They have a vision and they trust their instinct even if it means going against what everyone believes they should do or can do at all.

I’m inspired by people who swim against the tide, who everyone thinks are crazy but who in the end are considered geniuses.

In my circle of friends, I also get inspired by people who say what they do and do what they say. It may not sound extraordinary, but to me, it’s invaluable. You meet them one day, they tell you they’re gonna do X and show you the exact plan they have for that. A few months later, you meet them again, and they’ve not only accomplished X but are already strategizing their path to Y. They are pure locomotives.

One of my friends, Simon, is exactly like that.

I met him towards the end of 2023, when he was a freelance media buyer for ecommerce brands. I remember our first meeting, in a coffee shop in Nantes (hot chocolate and cookies for the win). I remember being impressed by his self-taught journey and his young age. As a freelance media buyer, he was in charge of managing ad campaigns on Facebook for his clients.

That day, he told me that he had spotted an opportunity: most of his clients struggled to produce quality designs for their ads campaigns. And, if they had quality ones, they never had enough of them. Simon wanted lots of quality designs so that he could iterate on the ads and double down on the winning ones. He did not want to test 10 ads per month, he wanted to test 100.

He looked at me in the eyes and told me: I’m going to purchase a Figma design course and offer ads design services to ecommerce brands. Then, I’ll find a way to scale this business.

As freelancers, Simon and I knew the topic of scale very well. What do you do when you have a very comfortable daily rate and your calendar is fully booked for the whole year? Do you start hiring freelancers to delegate some work? Do you quit freelancing and start an agency? Or do you find another way?

Remember when I wrote about Designjoy in edition 12? His founder Brett Williams is a solopreneur who sells design as a subscription and makes 1.3M$ per year with only 20 clients. Simon had that story in mind.

Simon did exactly what he told me he would do. A couple of months later, he purchased a Figma design course, designed his first Facebook ads, worked relentlessly, iterated a lot, and finally cracked the code.

In April 2024, his best friend Jules quit his job and joined him in this adventure.

In May, they officially launched a productized service business called Statiq. They design ads for ecommerce brands… and even agencies now!

In only 7 months, Statiq went from 0 to 50K$ of monthly recurring revenue (MRR), from 0 to 10 team members, and from 0 to 100+ client brands.

Inspiration can come from anywhere. When it’s coming from a friend right in front of my eyes, it’s definitely a special feeling.

In 2025, let’s all learn this skill we always wanted to learn. Whether it’s design, programming, instruments, drawing, let’s just go. What’s the worst thing that can happen? Failure is never a failure.

Learn more about Statiq on their website and Simon on LinkedIn.

Explore

What do I do these days to disconnect from work?

2024 was the year of cardio. I picked up running and really enjoyed it. I ran 5k in 29min, 10k in 1h03 and, I didn’t tell you yet, a half-marathon in… 2h26! I feel very proud of myself.

In 2025, I want to improve each of these records, and pick up a more cardio intensive type of training on the side.

To kick things off, I recently signed up for boxing classes in London. It’s been great so far! The coach is super cool, the other students too, and I’m enjoying this sport.

For me, a great workout session is one where I completely forget where I am. It’s when my mind is able to unplug completely. I’m getting that with boxing and I’m already feeling the benefits both physically and mentally. I’ll keep this up in 2025 for sure.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for reading this edition until the end.

I'll talk to you soon.

Take good care of yourself.

Coralie