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Khloud accepted a lower price to put its popcorn in Starbucks. The margin on those bags was smaller, but the placement gave customers a chance to try the product during a purchase they were already making.
According to Khloud, Amazon sales of the featured flavor nearly doubled the following month. Today’s deep dive looks at when visibility beyond the first sale can make that trade worthwhile.
Today:
We unpack Khloud’s Starbucks placement, check the sale prices AI shopping agents can see, catch up on ecommerce news and test one delivery promise before holiday traffic arrives.
This issue is presented by Relay. Register for its free webinar on what entrepreneurs learned from a difficult month and how they changed the way they run their businesses.
While You Were Building
In the Headlines
TikTok announced Buy Direct, an in-app checkout path for purchases from brands, alongside an AI Shopping Assistant. Both are in development, so this is a channel to watch, not a switch to flip today. Make sure your product details, availability and shipping answers are ready for a shopping journey that may never reach your site.
AI shopping channels using Shopify Catalog can now see both your current and compare-at price. Review those reference prices and the Compare-at setting before holiday offers go live; the saving an agent describes should match the real offer.
Shopify added Sidekick guidance inside the checkout and customer-accounts editor. It can explain settings and suggest apps, but it does not make the changes for you. Use it to resolve configuration questions, then test the buyer journey yourself.
Eligible European merchants can turn on Translate & Adapt auto-sync for up to eight languages. It is off by default and runs weekly. If you launch a time-sensitive promotion in multiple languages, use Translate now and check the live pages rather than waiting for the next sync.
Adobe forecasts US online spend in October to rise 8% year over year, ahead of the November–December holiday season. Treat this as a planning signal, not a guaranteed result for your store: check whether gift-search traffic and product-page visits are already rising before deciding when to launch your first offer.
On Socials
Ruben Alikhanyan points past the fee-freeze headline to earlier inbound deadlines and the peak per-unit surcharge. The useful question: does each promoted SKU still make money after its discount, ad cost and holiday fulfillment costs
Tom Goodwin argues that brands now need to think beyond search rankings to how AI tools describe and recommend products. Start with one practical check: ask a shopping assistant about your category and inspect whether it can find your product’s actual claims, price and use cases.
Presented by Relay
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Today’s Deep Dive
How Khloud Turned Starbucks Into a Discovery Channel
What would make you accept a lower price from a retailer? For Khloud, the answer was visibility.
In January, Khloé Kardashian’s protein popcorn landed in Starbucks coffeehouses. The placement put Khloud in front of people buying a drink they already wanted. Starbucks announced the launch here.
Khloud’s popcorn became part of the Starbucks visit.
Give people a reason to try it
Khloud and Starbucks paired the popcorn with Khloé’s customized protein latte. The popcorn joined the snack lineup, while the drink appeared in the Offers tab of the Starbucks app. Together, they made Khloud part of a familiar coffee-and-snack purchase.
Khloud CEO Jeff Rubenstein’s launch announcement.
The sale didn’t have to end at Starbucks
Rubenstein says he sells to Starbucks at a lower price than he does to other retailers. He considers the visibility and chance for customers to try the product worth it.
The next month, according to Khloud, Amazon sales of the kettle corn flavor featured at Starbucks nearly doubled. Sales also improved at Target. One customer interviewed for the story first tried Khloud at Starbucks, then bought larger bags on Amazon. Read the CEO interview and reporting.
That is the decision at the heart of this story: Khloud accepted less revenue per Starbucks bag to get the product in front of people who might buy it again elsewhere.
What to copy
Find a place your customer already visits, where trying your product would feel natural.
Make the first purchase easy, then make it easy to find and buy more afterward.
Judge the partnership by the customers it introduces to your brand, not only the margin on sales through that partner.
The right visibility can be worth more than the margin on the first sale.
The How-To
How to check the sale price AI shopping agents see
Shopify can now send your compare-at price to AI shopping agents, not just the price customers pay. Check one product before a promotion so an agent does not present a saving you did not intend. Shopify’s instructions are here.
Step 1: Check the product’s prices
In Shopify admin, go to Products and open a product you plan to promote. In Price, check the current price and the Compare-at price. The compare-at value should be the genuine original price, higher than the current price. Repeat for any important variants.
Step 2: Open the AI catalog setting
Go to Sales channels > Agentic. Under Sources, expand Shopify Catalog and select Review product data mapping. Find the Compare-at switch.
Step 3: Choose what to share
Turn it on if you want eligible compare-at prices shared with AI agents, or off to send only current prices. In Preview, select the product to see Shopify Catalog’s view, then click Save.
The preview shows Shopify’s catalog data, not a guarantee of how every AI channel will display it. Also, a discount code is different from a product’s compare-at price; do not assume the code will appear as a strikethrough saving.
Daily Growth Rep
📦 Today’s Growth Rep: Test your delivery promise
Place a test order on your phone for the product you plan to promote most this holiday season.
Why this works:
A shopper’s delivery decision depends on what the cart and checkout actually show, not what your campaign says.
A small mismatch can turn paid clicks into abandoned carts or support tickets.
Your rep:
Open the product page from a mobile browser and add the item to cart.
Check the shipping charge, estimated delivery date and any gift cutoff shown before payment.
Compare those details with your ad, email and product-page promise.
Fix one mismatch or assign the owner who can fix it today.
Report: “Delivery promise checked.”
Make sure the promise that earns the click survives checkout.
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