Welcome to my newsletter!
This is our final newsletter of the year. As we wrap up, I want to say a massive thank you to everyone who has supported us over the last 12 months - across both Blink SEO and Macalytics - The Shopify SEO app .
I also want to say a huge thank you to our clients and app users. We are lucky to work with so many exciting brands and talented teams. It genuinely makes it all worthwhile.
We are now logging off for a well-deserved break.
Predictions for 2026: The year of tangible AI
Now is a good time to look forward. A lot has happened in 2025, but I think next year is when we will see the real shift in buying behaviour.
Back in March, when the news first broke that OpenAI was testing a native Shopify checkout, it became clear this integration was a major change in the world of product discovery.
We are moving from an era of interruption (ads, feeds, and lists) to an era of conversation.
Traditionally, discovery is pushed at you. But in a conversational interface, discovery is pulled by intent. It allows for a specific, nuanced request - "I need a gift for a brother who likes cycling but hates clutter" - to be met with a curated result, not just a keyword match.
My prediction is that 2026 will be the year this comes to fruition.
There is going to be a rush from all the major players - the AI platforms and Shopify alike - to get the infrastructure ready. This means structured data, clear taxonomy, and rich attributes will stop being just "SEO tasks" and become the essential foundation for being visible at all.
Black Friday 2026 will be the first peak period where we see a clear, tangible impact of AI on how consumers actually buy. If 2025 was about the hype, 2026 will be about the execution.
The future of Macalytics
We launched Macalytics on the Shopify App Store in September, and the initial feedback from users has been amazing.
However, we have a very specific goal with this platform. For Shopify stores doing below £2 million in revenue - particularly those managed by an owner/operator - good quality SEO services are often out of reach. Retaining agency fees is simply too difficult at that revenue point. Yet, particularly with rising customer acquisition costs, SEO remains one of the most effective channels for growth.
Our goal is for Macalytics to effectively replace agencies for stores in this bracket.
To do that, execution is everything. We wanted Macalytics to be much more than a "data dump" or an audit tool. The goal is for the platform to do high-value SEO work directly in Shopify.
Our latest update is a step towards doing exactly that. We are starting by identifying collections without descriptions and allowing you to generate and insert keyword-rich content with just a few clicks.
We are expanding this out to include internal linking, creating new categories, and a lot of the other high-value SEO work that is table stakes for what we do as an agency.
2026 is where we push on this, and I couldn't be more excited.
📎 https://apps.shopify.com/macalytics-seo
📝 https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sam-wright-17b6ab6_heres-a-little-christmas-present-from-macalytics-activity-7407710071410966528-vdmI
A quiet week in news
Unsurprisingly, there is very little to report in terms of breaking news this week, which is pretty typical for this time of year. The platforms are quiet, and dev teams are (hopefully) resting.
A shout-out to SyncBase
One tool that has really impressed us recently is SyncBase (Shopify <> Airtable) .
It connects Shopify directly to Airtable, allowing you to sync data in real-time. It is a really interesting, flexible, and powerful product that solves a lot of the product data headaches we often see.
📎 https://www.syncbase.app/
Watch list: Agentic Commerce
If you want to get a head start on the 2026 theme over the break, Shopify has released a webinar on "Agentic Commerce." It covers exactly this shift from search to conversation.
📎 https://www.shopify.com/webinar/ai-seo-agentic-commerce
Have a wonderful break, and we will see you in the New Year.
All the best,
Sam