AJ Sports: AJ Sports

Sports memorabilia retailer since 1991. I lead e-commerce end to end across Shopify Plus, Amazon, Walmart, eBay and monthly auctions, directing designers and product staff.

CategoryShopify Plus · Omnichannel · B2B

RoleHead of E-Commerce

Years2020–present

online sales in 2025+47%

Scroll for the full story ↓Drag the pagesFrom Toronto · TO

The brief

Sell one-of-a-kind memorabilia across Shopify Plus, Amazon, Walmart, eBay and monthly auctions, without the channels tripping over each other, and keep growing.

Client: AJ Sports
My role: Head of E-Commerce
Years: 2020–present
Services: Shopify Plus · Omnichannel · B2B · Auctions · AI chat · Klaviyo
Live site: ajsports.ca ↗

The result

+47%

online sales in 2025, year over year

$1M+ increase in top-line sales in 2025. 20%+ annual growth across 2024 and 2025. December sales up 250% YoY with a 12 Days of Christmas campaign. Q1 2021 sales up 54% with a wholesale pricing strategy. Shopify store: online sales up 71% from 2021 to 2025 and 47% in 2025 alone, with orders up 33%.

What I did

Every part of it, hands-on.

01
Omnichannel operations across Shopify Plus, Amazon, Walmart, eBay and monthly auctions
02
Shopify Plus B2B wholesale pricing system with five insider tiers
03
Claude-built automation that reverts pricing tiers across the Retool product database and Shopify after promotions, with diff-and-approve safeguards
04
AJ Sports app on Expo and Convex with a nightly Shopify catalog sync, live on the App Store and Google Play
05
Monthly auction program: site restyle, automated enforcement that keeps one-of-a-kind lots off the main store during bidding, scheduled Instagram and Facebook lot posts, a Klaviyo auction series and $1,500/month in Meta campaigns
06
Ask AJ, a Claude shopping assistant on ajsports.ca: finds products, tracks orders, books signings, hands off to staff
07
Retool AJ Tools hub: signing command centre, receivables, customer intelligence, promo checker and an auction lot picker
08
All 15 Klaviyo flow emails redesigned, one shared footer and dark-mode fixes on every email
09
Signing-event product templates (pre-order, expo tickets, countdown) and museum banners for all 12 exclusive athletes
10
Google Ads cleanup: double-counted purchases removed, Performance Max set to purchase value
11
A $5,000/month Google Ads and Shopping budget, directed by attribution in Google Analytics

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Running now

The system behind it

4Ads
8Klaviyo flows
10Automations
3AI and tools
3Marketplaces
59Shopify apps

Ads4

Google Ads: Search, Shopping and Performance Max, $5,000/month
Meta: prospecting, cart remarketing, Advantage+ and catalog retargeting, up to $1,500/month
Auction ads swapped to a new lot the moment one sells
Results checked against Shopify UTMs, not just ad-platform ROAS

Klaviyo flows8

Welcome series
Insider welcome
Insider tier promotions
Browse abandonment
Abandoned cart
Abandoned checkout, email and SMS
Price drop
Customer winback

Automations10

Auction enforcer: one-of-a-kind lots stay off the main store while bidding is open
Unsold lots relisted after each auction
Instagram and Facebook lot posts and stories, scheduled and approved first
Tuesday B2B wholesale price push, unattended with guardrails: big moves held, stops past 300 changes
Sale prices revert across Retool and Shopify after every promotion
Hourly guard that keeps the wrong products out of the app
eBay de-listing for auction lots, so nothing double-sells
Weekly store backup copied to SharePoint
Gold Rewards mirrored to the AJ catalogue weekly
Nightly Shopify sync to the AJ Sports app

AI and tools3

Ask AJ: a Claude shopping assistant on the site, with product search, order tracking and staff hand-off
A Retool support console, Messenger answered live, Teams alerts and a weekly report
Retool AJ Tools hub: signings, receivables, customer intelligence, promo checker, auction lot picker