Microsoft Chief Technology Officer Kevin Scott added to e-commerce giant Shopify’s board of directors

Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott has joined Shopify’s board of directors.

Shopify President Harley Finkelstein, said: “Kevin is a titan of innovation. His fingerprints are all over the best teams in tech and some of the best products. He’s a leader in emerging tech and the future of AI.”

“He is a natural fit to help us make commerce better for everyone.Kevin has built a career mastering the art of taking the future, pulling it forward, and building technology that benefits everyone.”

Whilst CEO Tobi Lutke described Scott as “one of the most eminent thinkers in technology.”

In the below video, Scott speaks with Lutke about democratising tech, building teams, and why life’s too short for uninteresting pursuits.

The Taylor Swift Effect

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, Finkelstein observed in May.

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.

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

In January, Swift was seen in 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.”