Suggestions
Cam Balzer
Driven to find the patterns in systems and data to make your business Even Better
Cam Balzer is a seasoned professional with extensive experience in optimizing strategy, insights, and product systems for growth stage companies.
His educational background includes doctoral studies (ABD) and an MA in English from Northwestern University, an MA in English from the University of Alberta, and a BA with distinction in English and Philosophy from the University of Alberta.
Cam Balzer has held various key roles in different organizations, such as Founder at Even Better Apps, Principal at Even Better, Head of Product and Strategy at Flowers For Dreams, VP Marketing at dscout, Chief Growth Officer at MightyNest, Mentor at Techstars Chicago, CMO at Threadless, and SVP, Social Media, Americas at VivaKi Nerve Center, among others.
His professional experience also includes roles like Adjunct Lecturer in the Medill IMC program at Northwestern University, Vice President of Emerging Media at Performics, Vice President of Strategy Planning at Performics, Director of Search Strategy at Performics, Sr. Producer/Marketing Manager at Consumer Guide, Internet Manager at Baxter International, and Web Developer at Maxum Development.
Highlights
Is Shopify’s admin site open in one of your browser tabs? If so, how many other tabs do you have open in supporting roles?
I see this with ecomm teams I’ve worked with, tab-hopping to complete repetitive one-off tasks that can’t be fully automated: copy/pasting between multiple apps or looking up info or email/slacking/texting multiple people to get stuff done.
If you’re living this pain point, I’d be happy to share some tips / guidelines for optimizing store management tasks, in exchange for some insight into your needs. DM me or grab a few minutes on my calendar for a Shopify Efficiency Chat: https://lnkd.in/gJHV2tDh
After 20+ years of collaborating on amazing products and teams, I’m finally building my own! Just launched evnbttr.app on Shopify’s App Store, a first foray into making the merchant and shopper experience “even better”.
Having led Flowers For Dreams migration to Shopify Plus, I’ve seen how robust Shopify is for merchants and developers alike. On the merchant side, the switch streamlined ecommerce management, freed the tech team from day to day site maintenance, cut costs (lower CC processing fees), and made it easier to improve the buying experience and drive revenue growth.
Shopify aims to deliver what “most merchants need most of the time”. On the developer side, we certainly found some functionality gaps beyond the “most”, especially given the unique needs of an online florist. But our team also found Shopify's platform incredibly developer-friendly and flexible for building out new functionality.
Those gaps look like an opportunity to “imagine it all even better.” Also, Shopify apps are expected to generate over $1 billion in revenue in 2024. So the app-ortunity (😆) is attractive.
The first app from Even Better Apps, Admin Buttons (https://lnkd.in/gbdV8PHs), is a simple utility to help merchants save time in completing repetitive daily tasks. At Flowers for Dreams, creating redeliveries for orders that miss the target is one such task. Admin Buttons adds tools to the order detail page (and connects to a Zapier automation) to save the customer service team several minutes each time they resolve a customer issue.
This functionality could be built custom, but how much better if an ecomm manager or analyst can do it without needing technical resources?!
With additional apps in development, I’m excited to help Shopify merchants drive revenue growth and operational efficiency. Let's connect if you're also exploring these opportunities as a merchant or developer!
