Shopify President Harley Finkelstein talks Taylor Swift Effect and how it’s big business for online retailers

The Taylor Swift Effect isn’t just a pop culture headline, it’s also big business, and online retailers are well positioned to take advantage, says Shopify President Harley Finkelstein.

In a LinkedIn post, he flagged up the example of creator and entrepreneur Cassey Ho, founder of Blogilates.

With the release of Swift’s latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, she released a viral video in her For a Fortnight challenge. The video shows a three-second clip of her wearing a Blogilates skirt.

Since the feature, Blogilates instantly sold out of their Pirouette skirt in 13 colour ways and, for the first time ever, had to open pre-sales to meet the overwhelming demand for their product.

They saw a 600-700% increase in sales and had the second best day of all time, only beaten by their 2023 Black Friday sales.

The Tortured Poets Department. An anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time - one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure. This period of the author’s life is now over, the chapter closed and… pic.twitter.com/41OObGyJDW

— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) April 19, 2024

Shopify merchants around the world are feeling the power of Swift, Finkelstein noted.

In January, Swift was seen wearing a dress from UK merchant Little Lies, who saw a 17,000% increase in sales vs the same day last year and unsurprisingly had the best daily sales of all time for their business.

And again, Swift was seen wearing a piece from merchant The Westside Storey after a Kansas City Chiefs game on a Sunday in December. The following day, the merchant saw a 700% jump in sales.

Finkelstein  concluded: “One of the biggest people in pop culture wearing the product of a small business is life changing.”

“For some brands, this influx of volume would overwhelm their store - but not on Shopify. We’ve built a platform to handle the demand and meet the power of the Swifties. The only question is: what product will go viral next? If it’s on Shopify, we’re ready for it.”