Chris Koh

@crowizard_stef @blvckledge @vishalgoswami0 @Goldikam @dimiz1111 @marcdomancie @C_Shelefontiuk @mechellecarpio @maxlayn @f3dericobartoli

📷 𝗜𝗠𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧𝗔𝗡𝗧: 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝘂𝘁... 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝗔𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗗𝗧𝗖 𝗠𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝘁𝘀

CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) is the secret weapon for Scaling Shopify Brands in 2025!
You’re a Shopify brand owner, a dropshipper, a marketing manager...
You’ve scaled your store, and spent tens of thousands - maybe even millions on ads...

Yet despite all that effort, your ROAS is shrinking.
Acquisition costs are rising.
And your store just isn’t converting the way it should.

𝗪𝗵𝘆?
Because in 2025, traffic alone isn’t enough.
More visitors don’t mean more customers.
More ads don’t mean more revenue.

The brands that are truly scaling this year are the ones mastering CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) & Retention.

𝗙𝗜𝗡𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗬... After working with countless Shopify brands, we've learned that true growth isn’t about spending more, it’s about converting better.

That’s why we’ve gathered top CRO & Retention experts for an exclusive event, revealing what truly drives conversions, enhances shopping experiences, and keeps your brand ahead.

And now, it’s time to officially unveil:
📷 𝗢𝗙𝗙𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗘 𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗡𝗧: 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝗽𝗫: 𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗘𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 – 𝗖𝗥𝗢 𝗗𝗔𝗬 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱!
𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗲: April 17, 2025
𝗟𝗼𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Hanoi, Vietnam

📷 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁?
- Top industry experts breaking down conversion-boosting & funnel optimization strategies.
- Successful case studies from brands that mastered CRO.
- High-impact networking with Shopify brands, merchants, agencies & eCommerce builders.

📷 Stay tuned, follow us, and get ready for exclusive updates on speakers, agenda, and how to secure your spot!
#ShopX #CRODAY2025

Coffee Chat #5: How about a buildathon?

Last year in China, I kept getting pulled into small ecommerce coffee chats. A few people, a table, and hours of honest talk about building online.

Then in India, I saw teams running buildathons. Everyone in one room, laptops open, building side by side.

And I keep wondering: Why don't we have more of this for the ecommerce community in Southeast Asia, or more specifically, in Vietnam?

So I started running a few here.

We've run four 4S Ecom Coffee Chats so far, about vibe coding, building a mini app for your shop, sharper offers, UGC and email with AI.

The first four were good conversations. But to be honest, sometimes talking and listening isn't enough - attendees want to walk out with something you actually built.

Then, this time it's a BUILDATHON.

The idea here is simple: Less watching, more doing.

We take real problems from your own store and work on them right there, using AI tools that already exist. No theory, we spend the day building, not just listening.

Here's the plan:
Saturday, July 25, 09:00 a.m. to 05:00 p.m.
GemCommerce office, 3 Le Trong Tan, Hanoi
Lunch's on us, so you can stay and talk through the whole day

What do you think about the format of a buildathon? If you're interested, message me or register here to save a spot: forms.gle/wZDyEyWq6iCXCD…

You can also catch up on the other coffee chats, and sign up for this fifth one, here: chriskoh.dev

Three coffee chats in, here's what we've learned

Last year, I spent a few months hopping between coffee chats in Beijing and Shanghai. The experience there made me wonder: why hasn't this kind of event caught on more widely?

So we started the 4S Saigon Ecom Coffee Chat.

Well, three sessions in, here's a quick recap of what we've been up to.

☕ Coffee Chat #1: Vibe Coding with Claude Code for Shopify

-We built three Shopify tools live: a CRO audit tool, a competitor auditor, and a Shopify theme block.
-Rather than starting from a blank screen, we kicked things off with working versions and improved them together based on what people wanted to see.
-One thing became obvious pretty quickly: you don't need to watch someone code for an hour. Starting with something that already works makes the whole session easier to follow, especially if you're not a developer.

☕ Coffee Chat #2: Build an App for Your Shop

- This time around, we flipped the format completely. Smaller group, more hands-on, and everyone left building a mini app for their own store.
- Projects ranged from review inboxes and content calendars to product description generators and simple CRMs.
- Probably the biggest mindset shift? Claude works best as a junior developer. Your job isn't to argue with it, it's to review what it builds, explain what's broken, and keep moving.

☕ Coffee Chat #3: Sharper Offers with AI

- Then we switched gears. No coding this time, we focused on offers instead.
- After looking through 1,000 Shopify stores running ads, one pattern kept coming up. Almost everyone has an upsell widget, but very few have an offer that's actually designed for their own customers.
- We were also joined by Artjom from MintFunnels and Pete Devkota from Email Optimize, who shared practical ideas around bundles, personalization, and matching the right offer to the right customer.

If there was one takeaway, it's this: widgets aren't the advantage anymore. The thinking behind the offer is. AI just helps you test better ideas a whole lot faster.

Looking back, every session has ended the same way. At the end of the day, it provides attendees something to bring home: a working tool, a live app or an offer to test.

If you missed any of the sessions, you can catch up here:

- Session 1 - Vibe Coding with Claude Code for Shopify: chriskoh.dev/gemlabs-03/
- Session 2 - Build an App for Your Shop: chriskoh.dev/gemlabs-02/
- Session 3 - Sharper Offers with AI: chriskoh.dev/gemlabs-03/

Anyway, that's three sessions down and three completely different problems we've explored together.

Looking forward to seeing what we build at the next 4S Saigon Ecom Coffee Chat.

Been heads down researching 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗮'𝘀 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 for the past 12 months.

Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen. Actually being there, not reading reports.

Took notes. Sharing them now.

What I found:

- The serious operators don't post publicly. They run closed WeChat groups with weekly coffee chats. The real knowledge is shared in rooms most people never get invited into.
- The barriers to going global - content, language, store operations - are collapsing faster than anyone outside China realizes. AI is doing the work that used to require teams.
- Shopify Plus is expanding into Hong Kong for a reason. The cross-border wave is earlier than the headlines suggest.

One thing that surprised me: the ecommerce ecosystem in APAC is far more developed than the English-language internet gives it credit for. Japan alone is a top-10 Shopify market globally. Most people I know in Southeast Asia have no idea.

Going to start sharing more of what I saw - the markets, the people, the patterns that don't make it into any report.

If any of this is relevant to what you're building, stick around.

4S Ecom Coffee Chat — Session #3: The Offer

4S is a cross-border ecommerce community that meets as small, no-stage coffee chats across four S-cities — Shenzhen, Saigon, Singapore, Sydney. The first sessions are running in Saigon, every two weeks.

This one is about the Offer — the single biggest lever in your store. Get it right and conversion rate, AOV and ROAS move together: same traffic, same ad spend, more revenue per visitor. Get it wrong and no UI polish or ad budget saves you.

A strong offer isn't a template. It comes from understanding your product and customer, competitor and category research, and buying psychology, UI/UX and copywriting — then using AI to design, write and test offers fast. We scanned 1,000 ad-active Shopify stores: ~100% run some upsell, but almost nobody truly designs the offer.

Two guests live:
• Artjom (MintFunnels) — bundles that lift AOV
• Pete Devkota (Email Optimize) — the right offer, person, moment

🗓 Sat 20 June, 2–5pm · PATI Group, Midtown M7, Saigon
🎟 20 seats, free — bring a laptop

To join: tap the link → fill the short form → we add you to the WhatsApp group.

▶ Session 3 + register: chriskoh.dev/gemlabs-03
▶ What is 4S: chriskoh.dev/events