A landline for you, fiber for everyone, and a reminder that no niche is too niche
The biggest news in commerce from the company that powers your favorite brands
Every month, In Stock breaks down the commerce news that matters: brand wins, real data, and retail insights from the platform behind millions of merchants and billions of transactions.
This month, the niche economy is doing what it does best: getting weirder, more specific, and harder to ignore. Fiber-rich foods are on the rise, the owners of Heirloom Leathercraft share their favorite listens, and one nostalgic landline product is making a comeback. A $1M comeback.
Commerce is now on a niche-to-know basis
Shopify’s latest data release shows that the fastest-growing areas of commerce aren’t those huge categories like clothing, electronics, or beauty. It’s thousands of new ones, and they’re being created by entrepreneurs who are turning their obsessions into viable businesses. From trading cards to horse hay nets… no niche is too niche.
There’s no such thing as a safe paycheck
That’s the tough lesson Larroudé’s founders had to learn. When the pandemic hit, Marina was unemployed, Ricardo was picking up temp work, and they had two kids at home in one of the world’s most expensive cities. Trouble in paradise? Meet entrepreneurship 🤝
Recommended listening
Tristan Walker and Joanne Hsieh run Heirloom Leathercraft, a San Francisco-based leatherwork studio teaching high-end artisanal craft under the watchful eye of an Hermès-trained master. These are the podcast episodes they keep coming back to.
Why Craft Is the Soul of True Luxury: “This was from a Business of Fashion podcast last year: Carla Fernández and Kenza Fourati talking about what it actually looks like to work with artisans honestly. Carla said handmade artifacts go ‘through your eyes, then it goes to your heart and comes out from your hands. And those are objects that have a soul.’ That phrase, ‘objects that have a soul’ has been rattling around in our heads ever since.”
Acquired’s four-hour Hermès podcast episode: “Our founding artisan, Béatrice (“Bea”) Amblard, spent 14 years inside Hermès. Hermès sent her to San Francisco in 1987 as their second-ever US ambassador, and she was highlighted in the episode. Listening to Acquired tell that story from an atelier built by someone who lived it has been one of the stranger pleasures of the past few years.”
Zadie Smith - Fashion Neurosis with Bella Freud: “Amazing podcast. Zadie’s whole thing in this episode is that clothes aren’t decoration, they’re a tool to project seriousness, manage shyness, create distance, and mess with people. We love her line, ‘getting dressed is characterization, except I’m the character.’”
Quick hits
Everybody, meet River. She’s Shopify’s AI agent that lives in Shopify’s Slack. The catch: she only works in the open. Read Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke’s X article about why.
Boxer briefs, IRL. Four friends founded an underwear company five years ago. This month, they launched their first retail store in Montreal. We texted with them for the scoop.
Bring back the landline: Influencer CatGPT held an NYC pop-up for her landline phone product. Skeptical? She hit $1M in sales to date while on-site at the pop-up.
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Quotable
What he said 👆
What’s trending*
🌾 Fiber-maxxing is the new protein-maxxing: Not long ago we talked about everyone riding the protein-maxxing train. Well, get ready, because there’s a new dietary building block on the rise. Over the past year, page views on articles mentioning fiber are up 9,500%. In the past 5 months, sales of fiber-advertised foods on Shopify are also up, with cereal and granola bars up 41%, crackers up 323%, and dry beans up 200%.
🧶 Mary Maxim x 🛸Project Hail Mary: The Ryan Gosling sci-fi movie sparked knitting virality after fans fixated on the “Wolf Cardigan,” an original design from craft company Mary Maxim. They released an official knit kit that kept selling out as the trend moved from screen to shopping cart.
🍅 More people are trying to grow their own tomatoes: Fresh tomato prices rose nearly 40% year over year in April, partly due to a 17% tariff on Mexican tomatoes. On Shopify, US “grow your own” gardening product sales rose 57% year over year, including plant supports up 227%.
ICYMI
*All data is based on sales by hundreds of thousands of Shopify merchants.