Happy Thursday!

In 5 minutes, you'll be learning about the following:

1. ​AI Avatars Are Outselling Humans
2. The “Throwaway” Pricing Tier That Actually Drives Conversions
3. We Used 4 AI Tools to Build This Ad And the AI Face Beat Our Human Creatives
4. From Wall Street to Sweat-Proof Shirts: Meet My Neat Co-Founder, Claudio [Podcast]
5. Would You Let AI Run Your Shopify Store?

Jim Huffman, GrowthHit & Neat Apparel CEO
​(Want a friend? Let's connect on Twitter or LinkedIn)

​AI Avatars Are Outselling Humans​

The future of eCommerce sales might not have a pulse.

In China, brands are testing AI-powered “virtual salespeople” on livestreams and they’re beating the real thing.

Brother (the printer brand) tried one and sold $2,500 worth of printers in just two hours, a 30% bump over their usual human hosts. These avatars are showing up on platforms like Taobao, selling everything from gadgets to cleaning supplies.

The big advantage? They don’t get tired. They can run all day, every day, chatting with shoppers and pushing products without missing a beat.

Here’s why this matters: livestream shopping is huge in China - over a third of all online sales happen while people watch a live broadcast. If AI sales hosts can boost sales by 30%, that’s not just a small improvement - it’s a total shift in how stuff gets sold. Imagine running a TikTok Shop or Instagram Live for your Shopify store without needing to hire an influencer or put yourself on camera. Your “host” could be an AI avatar that never takes a day off.

It’s still early. Some platforms, like Douyin (China’s TikTok), don’t allow AI hosts yet. But make no mistake - this is coming to the U.S. And when it does, the brands that test it first will get the biggest wins.

👉 Bottom line: The top salesperson at your brand in 2026 and beyond might not need a paycheck, coffee, or PTO - because they won’t even be human.

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​The AI Brand Book - Now on Preorder​

We’re writing another book - this time on how to actually build an AI-first business.

Here’s the scary part: AI isn’t coming - it’s here. And it’s already rewriting how companies grow. The founders who figure it out will scale leaner, faster, and smarter. The ones who don’t? They’ll just work harder and watch competitors pull ahead.

That’s why I’m writing The AI Brand Book. It’s not another list of prompts - it’s a blueprint for building a business that thrives in the AI era. How to design your org, focus on the 5% that only you can do, and finally step out of the weeds.

If you’re still running your company like it’s 2019, you’re about to feel like the Blackberry in an iPhone world.

👉 Get on the list now: Preorder The AI Brand Book​

Because in the age of AI, clarity isn’t optional - it’s survival.

​Meet Your New Spokesperson: An AI Avatar That Sells​

​

We used 4 AI tools to create an ad—and the AI “face” is outperforming human-led creatives.

Here’s the big unlock: your best ad doesn’t need an actor, a studio, or a production crew. For one of our clients, we tested a fully AI-generated avatar as the spokesperson in a paid ad. Not only did it look polished and on-brand, but it quickly became one of their top-performing creatives.

Here’s the stack we used:

• ✍️ ChatGPT wrote the ad script (multiple hooks and variations in minutes).
• 🖼️ MidJourney built the visual identity to match the brand.
• 🗣️ Arcads AI gave our avatar a natural, convincing voiceover.
• 🔤 CapCut AI layered captions that boosted watch time and accessibility.

The magic wasn’t just in combining these tools - it was in seeing an AI avatar deliver the pitch. It felt personal, direct, and consistent, all without scheduling a shoot or paying for talent.

And unlike real people, the avatar can scale endlessly. Want 10 different versions of the same ad? Done. Want your “spokesperson” to work across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube without retakes? Easy. It’s like hiring a top-tier brand ambassador who never gets tired, never misses a line, and costs less than a daily Starbucks run - except this one can sell for you 24/7, on every channel, without ever asking for a raise.

For DTC brands, your biggest challenge isn’t writing one good ad - it’s producing enough variations to find the winner. AI avatars flip the script. They let you crank out quality creatives at scale, without burning your team or budget. And based on our tests, they’re not just “good enough.” They’re winning.

​Meet GARY: The AI Dashboard That Thinks Like a Growth Marketer​

The Shopify AI Dashboard that knows your numbers, talks strategy, and helps you figure out what to do next.

We were tired of staring at five dashboards and still not knowing what to test, fix, or scale.

So we built GARY - The AI Dashboard

It pulls in all your data - Shopify, Meta, Google Ads, Klaviyo and actually understands it.

But here’s the magic: you can talk to it. Ask why your CAC jumped. Ask what’s holding back conversion. Ask what to do next. And GARY answers - like a strategist who’s already looked at your store, knows your numbers, and isn’t afraid to give direction.

It doesn’t just report. It thinks.

It flags inventory issues before you sell out. It analyzes every review and spits out customer insights, ad angles, and email subject lines.

It compares your metrics to industry benchmarks. It even remembers what your team said in the last growth meeting and turns it into to-dos.

We’ve been using it on our Shopify brand Neat Apparel and testing it with a few clients. And yeah - it’s a game changer.

GARY is still in beta. But if you want to stop guessing and start scaling smarter, we’re opening up a waitlist.

This is the dashboard we wish we had years ago. So we built it. Now we’re letting a few more people in.

👉 Join the waitlist here​

​The “Useless” Pricing Option That Boosts Sales​

Why the option nobody buys might be the one making you the most money.

Here’s a pricing trick straight from The Economist… and it shows how psychology can drive sales.

Years ago, The Economist offered three subscription options:

• Online only: $59
• Print only: $125
• Print + online: $125

At first glance, that middle option looks pointless. Why would anyone pick print-only for the same price as print + online?

Behavioral economist Dan Ariely thought the same thing - so he tested it. He took 100 MIT students and asked them which subscription they’d buy. The results:

• 16% chose online only.
• 0% chose print only.
• 84% chose print + online

Now here’s the kicker. Ariely then ran the exact same test with another 100 students, but this time he removed the “print-only” option. Suddenly the results flipped:

• 68% chose online only.
• 32% chose print + online.

That “useless” middle option? It wasn’t useless at all.

It was a decoy.

And it made the $125 bundle look like the obvious choice.

👉 This is called The Decoy Effect.

Here’s how you can use it as a Shopify brand:

• If you sell a subscription box, add a middle option that makes the “premium” plan look like the smartest choice.
• If you sell apparel, price a single shirt close to the cost of a 2-pack. Suddenly, the bundle looks like the best deal in the store.
• Use color to highlight the “best value” plan.
• Show the original price larger than the sale price to make the savings jump off the page.
• Break costs into “per day” language (“just $1.30/day”) so the mental price tag feels smaller.

The psychology is simple: people don’t always know what they want. But they do know what they don’t want. And by anchoring them with a decoy, you help them justify the option you actually want them to pick.

​Would You Let AI Run Your Shopify Store?​

​We acquired Neat, a sweat-proof apparel Shopify brand, in September 2023, and we’ve been documenting every win, fail, and lesson along the way here.​

Spoiler: the robots are surprisingly good at being growth marketers.

What if we let AI run Neat™ ?
​
As we prep for Q4, we’re trying something new:
​
Let the robots take the wheel.
​
We’ve built a real-time Growth Agent that pulls data from:
🛍 Shopify
📈 Meta + Google Ads
📬 Klaviyo
🗣 Customer reviews
📦 Our actual inventory
​
It connects the dots—and spits out what actions we should take next. (See video below.)
​
So instead of gut calls…
We’re letting AI tell us where to double down.
​
This week’s recos?
→ Pause low-ROAS ad sets
→ Push bundles that are converting 25% higher
→ Refresh product pages that are underperforming
→ Invest in more content to improve CPAs
​
More on the setup and insights soon.

​The 5-Minute Newsletter That Makes Business Make Sense​

News you’ll actually want to read before your coffee gets cold.

Business news doesn't have to be dry.

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Over 4 million professionals read it every morning because it keeps them informed, entertained, and ahead of the curve.

No jargon. No long reads. Just smart news that fits your day.

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​Ugly Ads, Big Results: Why Polished Creatives Are Killing Your ROAS​

Why your worst-looking ad might be your best-performing one.

Let’s talk about the ad you’re embarrassed to test.

You know the one.

• ✅ It’s a bit pixelated
• ✅ The lighting sucks
• ✅ It looks like a Craigslist photo shoot

…And yet it might crush it while your ‘best’ creative flops.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: your brand aesthetic might be getting in the way of growth.

In this class, we’ll break down why agility beats perfection when it comes to paid social and how the smartest Shopify brands are learning to flex their visual standards to win.

We’ll cover:

• Why cost-per-share might be more important than ROAS
• How UGC-style, “low-effort” ads outperform your brand-polished masterpieces
• The signals Meta’s algorithm sees (that you don’t)
• Real campaigns where ugly = undefeated
• How to rewire your creative mindset to stop cutting winners too soon

If you’re a founder or growth marketer stuck in the “brand trap,” this session will show you how to break free and scale smarter.

When:

• September 3, 12:00PM PT / 3:00PM ET

👉 Sign Up For Free Here​

​Meet My Neat Business Partner: Claudio’s Journey from Wall Street to Apparel​

The behind-the-scenes of building Neat with Claudio Storelli
​
​For those who don’t know, Claudio is my business partner on Neat - our sweat-proof Shopify brand and he has one of the most fascinating backgrounds of anyone I’ve ever worked with.

He graduated from Stanford at 20. Climbed to the top of Wall Street. Then pivoted into entrepreneurship - first with a soccer brand, and now with me in performance apparel.

In this conversation, we talked through the moment we decided to go all in on Neat. We broke down the actual negotiations that brought us together, why we decided to buy IP before launching, and how we thought about scaling the brand through content, storytelling, and founder alignment.

Looking back, it’s wild to see how much of that conversation still shapes how we run Neat today.

​
​📋 What we cover:

• The power of complementary business partnerships
• How we negotiated (even when it was awkward)
• Why we bought IP before building the brand
• Why we decided to skip Amazon and retail—for now
• Claudio’s leap from Wall Street to founder life
• The “goalie mindset” he brings to our business
• How we planned to scale Neat through storytelling and content

👉 If you’ve ever thought about taking on a co-founder, starting a brand from scratch, or buying IP - this episode gives you the raw behind-the-scenes of how it really comes together.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts

​Let’s Fix What’s Blocking Your Growth​

• My Agency - GrowthHit​
• AI Growth Strategies to Sell More On Shopify - GrowthSchool​
• The Sold-Out Shopify Playbook - Get the product​
• Podcast - The Shopify Growth Show​
• Proven AI Prompts for Your Shopify Success - Get the library​
• My Book: The Growth Marketer's Playbook​

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