065 - From Themes to SaaS: Anne Thomas on Cart to Cart, Design Packs, and Community
Liquid Weekly Podcast: Shopify Developers Talking Shopify DevelopmentShow Notes
In this episode of the Liquid Weekly Podcast, hosts Karl Meisterheim and Taylor Page are joined by Anne Thomas, co-founder of Design Packs. Anne shares her journey in the Shopify ecosystem, her recent foray into backend development with Supabase and Claude AI, and the launch of her new podcast, Cart to Cart. The conversation dives into the nuances of building with Shopify's flexible theme blocks, managing design systems, and the realities of using AI for coding and QA. Anne also discusses her community-building efforts with "Women Unified in Commerce". STAY CONNECTED Subscribe to Liquid Weekly for more expert insights: https://liquidweekly.com/ EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS Anne's Background & Side Projects: From starting with Shopify themes in 2014 to building a horse-riding tracking app. Cart to Cart Podcast: Anne introduces her new podcast co-hosted with Trudy McNabb, Brenda Storer, and Diana Birsan. Women Unified in Commerce: Insights into the grassroots community meetups Anne and Trudy host in Toronto. Developer vs. Merchant Feedback: How the Design Packs team navigates and balances feedback. Theme Blocks & Design Systems: A deep dive into Shopify's flexible blocks, modern theme architecture, and CSS overrides. AI in the Dev Workflow: The realities of using AI tools like Claude and Cursor's Bugbot for writing code and PR reviews. FIND ANNE ONLINE & RESOURCES LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annethomas8/ Twitter(X): https://x.com/alfalfaanne Design Packs: https://design-packs.com/ Cart to Cart Podcast: https://cart2cartpodcast.com Women Unified in Commerce: LinkedIn Group TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Introduction & Anne's Background 03:30 - Building with Supabase & Claude AI 08:40 - The "Cart to Cart" Podcast 30:30 - "Women Unified in Commerce" Meetups 37:50 - Balancing Merchant and Developer Feedback 43:30 - Navigating Shopify's Flexible Theme Blocks 50:15 - Design Systems & CSS Overrides in Themes 58:15 - AI Realities: Coding, QA, and Automated PR Reviews 01:09:40 - Dev Changelog Highlights 01:14:10 - Picks of the Week DEV CHANGELOG ActionBar removed on mobile: TitleBar primary action now renders as an icon button - https://shopify.dev/changelog/primary-action-icon-replaces-actionbar-on-mobile New CSS variable for mobile safe area insets - https://shopify.dev/changelog/new-css-variable-for-mobile-safe-area-insets Automated testing for Shopify UI extensions with @shopify/ui-extensions-tester - https://shopify.dev/changelog/automated-testing-for-shopify-ui-extensions-with-shopify-ui-extensions-tester New discount fields in the Storefront API's cart types - https://shopify.dev/changelog/new-discount-fields-in-the-storefront-cart-graphql-api Shopify AI Toolkit: Connect your AI tools to the Shopify platform - https://shopify.dev/changelog/shopify-ai-toolkit-connect-your-ai-tools-to-the-shopify-platform Shopify Scripts will be deprecated on June 30, 2026 - https://shopify.dev/changelog/shopify-scripts-will-be-deprecated-on-june-30-2026 (non-dev) Checkout Blocks: Order value limits available on all plans - https://changelog.shopify.com/posts/checkout-blocks-order-value-limits-available-on-all-plans PICKS OF THE WEEK Karl: Simple Truth low-carb crisp crackers and reading the book Dune. Anne: Swapping the morning doomscroll for a daily crossword puzzle. Try https://www.dictionary.com/games/crossword to start. Taylor: Taking the kids to see The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
More from Liquid Weekly Podcast: Shopify Developers Talking Shopify Development
Taylor is in India for Shop Quest, so Karl flies solo with Charles Swayne, owner and app developer at JadePuma Apps and the person behind Datify. Charles is 21, learned Python in sixth grade, and now runs a multi-agent development workflow that researches, plans, audits the plan, executes, and tests itself before he ever looks at the code.
Georgi Petrov, CEO and co-founder of Uxify, joins Karl and Taylor to talk about the half of web performance nobody optimizes for: the shopper's device. After building SMS Bump (acquired by Yotpo), ConsentMo, and NitroPack (acquired by WP Engine), Georgi is now tackling device-specific friction, the laggy buttons, layout shifts, and interaction delays that vary wildly from one phone to the next. We get into how Uxify profiles a visitor's capability without touching your code, the specialized agents that fix problems on the fly, the ClickHouse-powered data layer behind it all, and how to think about performance heading into BFCM. Plus the Dev Changelog and Picks of the Week. Sponsor The Support Heroes: https://www.thesupportheroes.com/ Subscribe to Liquid Weekly Don't miss out on expert insights and tips. Subscribe to Liquid Weekly for more content like this: https://liquidweekly.com/ Find Georgi Online Uxify: https://uxify.com/integrations/shopify/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgipetrov/ Timestamps (00:00) Open (00:29) Intros (02:11) Meet Georgi Petrov of Uxify (02:54) Origin story: hardware hacking to his first software (06:03) Finding Shopify: SMS Bump, ConsentMo, and NitroPack (12:23) Making fast decisions and failing cheaply (15:32) Why Uxify: performance is half website, half device (20:11) How it works: profiling devices and adapting on the fly (26:17) Sitting alongside your theme without touching your code (28:26) Real user monitoring and specialized agents (37:47) The tech stack: ClickHouse and heavy browser testing (41:57) Shopify cart variations and a clever checkout fallback (46:24) Prepping for BFCM and who Uxify is for (51:14) Dev Changelog (58:22) Picks of the Week Dev Changelog [action required] Variants now support multiple barcodes: https://shopify.dev/changelog/product-variant-barcode-is-being-replaced-by-barcodes Create and delete dev stores in Shopify CLI: https://shopify.dev/changelog/create-and-delete-dev-stores-in-shopify-cli [action required] Discounts Allocator Function API developer preview has ended: https://shopify.dev/changelog/discounts-allocator-function-api-developer-preview-has-ended Delivery options in Shopify Functions input now expose their metafields: https://shopify.dev/changelog/delivery-options-in-shopify-functions-input-now-expose-their-metafields Prepare your app for the Shopify admin's new look: https://shopify.dev/changelog/prepare-your-app-for-the-shopify-admins-new-look [action required] Updates to Events payloads and subscription configuration: https://shopify.dev/changelog/updates-to-events-payloads-and-subscription-configuration New Pricing audit trail for contextual product variant prices: https://shopify.dev/changelog/pricing-audit-trail-for-contextual-product-variant-prices [breaking api change] [action required] Removed session.currentSession.staffMemberId from POS UI Extensions (2026-10): https://shopify.dev/changelog/removed-session-currentsession-staffmemberid-from-pos-ui-extensions-2026-10 Request a bundle size exception for existing UI extensions: https://shopify.dev/changelog/request-a-bundle-size-exception-for-existing-ui-extensions Picks of the Week Karl: Keto Oreo-style sandwich cookies (about 50 calories each), part of his ongoing tour through packaged keto snacks: https://www.choczero.com/products/keto-sandwich-cookies Georgi: Calisthenics between AI prompts. Knocking out push-ups and squats while waiting on an agent, which he says burns the time well and sharpens his focus when he comes back. Taylor: Ted Lasso, season 4 on Apple TV+. Still, in his words, one of the most wholesome shows around: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10986410/
Prakhar Shrivastava of FoxSell joins Karl and Taylor to talk about Shop Quest, the Shopify community event he and his team run in Bengaluru, and to prep Taylor for his first trip to India.
In this episode of the Liquid Weekly Podcast, hosts Karl Meisterheim and Taylor Page are joined by Alexander Hupfer, founder of Fusion Metrics and a solo Shopify app developer.
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