Episode · 2026-04-30
Use a 3PL: Grow More
Use a 3PL: Grow More | Shopify & Whatnot | Kendall Dickieson x Laura Serino x Chris Geiss
Rundown
Chris Hall and Colin open with a debate on whether ecommerce brands should use a 3PL instead of running their own warehouse, then dig into Shopify metafields and AI-surfaced personalization with a Shopify guest before Postscript's team discusses their new AI-driven SMS 'text-in' feature and their e-com sitcom Skeptics. Creative strategist Kendall Dickieson closes the show discussing how she applies her Graza-honed playbook to new brand collaborations like the Sandbar ring, and what she looks for when brands hire in-house social talent.
Takes from this episode
Most ecommerce businesses should outsource fulfillment to a 3PL rather than build and run their own warehouse.
Most e-commerce businesses should use a 3PL.
Shopify metafields are becoming the contextual data layer that lets Shopify's AI (Sidekick) and external AI shopping surfaces make smarter, more personalized decisions for merchants.
Sidekick can then reference that data as it's thinking about insights for your business... you want that contextual data inside of Shopify so it can make smarter choices for you.
Shopify's expanding toolset isn't replacing platforms built for large enterprises, but it lets small and mid-size teams compete and go further with lean headcount.
I don't see it necessarily as like replacing some of the big tools for the big players, but it enables smaller players, mid-size players to really go farther on their own.
AI-powered one-to-one text conversations (like Postscript's AI shopper/text-in hotline) are a natural and highly profitable extension of AI for ecommerce.
it is such a natural extension for e-commerce and AI and it's ever-growing capabilities is enabling one-to-one conversations with people when they text you.
Postscript's culture of letting teams pitch and run with big, unproven swings (rather than micromanaging) is what makes ambitious projects like their sitcom possible.
why working at Postscript is so much fun because there is very little fear of like, hey, we want to take a big swing and we don't actually know if this is going to hit.
When brands hire an in-house social/influencer marketer, that person must be equally brand- and performance-minded, or the company will effectively need to hire two people.
That person needs to be like equally brand and performance minded. I think like that's the thing cuz if they aren't both then you're going to have to hire in for one of them.