Hey, it’s Cam from Platter 👋

How about them Blue Jays?! They actually did it. Heading to the World Series to face the Dodgers this week. What a time to be alive.

Between that, yesterday’s AWS outage, and a few new Shopify updates, there’s plenty to catch up on this week. Plus, we’re growing the Platter team again (details below).

In this issue

• Major AWS outage

• Breathewave’s unique subscription setup

• Shopify's big variant update

• 996 culture returns

• Claude Code is now available on the web

• Platter is hiring two new roles 👀

STORY OF THE WEEK

AWS goes down

Yesterday, AWS went down and the internet had a meltdown.

The outage hit the US-East-1 region, which powers some of the world’s biggest apps and platforms. For a good chunk of the day, everything from Snapchat and Alexa to banking apps and Shopify apps were down.

Shopify itself stayed online, but lots of stores felt broken. That’s because many third-party apps and even Shopify’s own Customer Support runs on AWS.

This isn’t new. AWS-East-1 has been the culprit behind several major outages: 2020, 2021, 2023, and now 2025.

Which got me wondering... how much money does this actually cost?

After doing some digging, I found a 2024 report from Parametrix that estimated a 24-hour AWS East-1 outage could cost the Fortune 500 an estimated $3.4 billion — nearly $150 million per hour. That is insane!

Even a few hours easily adds up to hundreds of millions lost across the web.

If you run a Shopify brand, here’s a quick checklist to keep handy during outages:

• Bookmark Shopify’s status page and the AWS Health Dashboard.

• Pause ad spend if checkouts or analytics are not working correctly.

• Make an announcement on your store notifying customers (transparency > confusion).

Sources: CNBC, AP

When stuff breaks, Platter’s in your corner.

Shit happens. Apps crash, things break, and sometimes AWS has an outage.

When it does happen, it helps to have a Shopify partner who’s seen it all. At Platter, we’ve built 200+ stores and know how to navigate technical challenges, no matter what comes your way.

Get a free store audit and learn how we can help.

STORE OF THE WEEK

Breathewave

This one was fun for our team. Breathewave is a one-product brand selling a totally new kind of sleep aid.

The challenge was balancing that first-time “trial” experience with a subscription model. If customers reorder too infrequently, product performance gets worse. If they reorder too often, it gets expensive.

To solve it, we built two connected product pages — one for the Starter Pack and one for Refills — so new customers can find their fit, and returning customers can easily switch to the right subscription.

Behind the scenes, we added custom logic that locks delivery frequency to supply size. A one-month supply renews monthly. A three-month ships every three. A twelve-month ships every twelve. This prevents errors that create support tickets and inventory headaches.

We also designed a custom pricing section that calculates cost-per-day in real time based on supply size and frequency. The UI highlights the 3-month option as Most Popular and the 12-month as Most Eco-Friendly, helping guide customers toward better value and sustainability.

All of this runs on SKIO’s subscription infrastructure, with custom data architecture and customized frontend built by our team to make it feel seamless.

These subtle additions create a subscription experience that protects product quality, improves unit economics for Breathewave, and gently nudges shoppers toward the best long-term experience without feeling pushy.

Check it out at breathewave.com

OTHER NEWS THIS WEEK

Shopify’s 2,048 variant update explained

The long-awaited variant limit increase is now available on Shopify. Complex product catalogs just got a whole lot easier to manage. Read on Shopify Blog.

Anthropic’s new coding playground for Claude

Claude Code is now available on the web, letting you spin up coding agents directly in your browser. Read on TechCrunch.

The return of 996 culture in AI startups

Some companies are bringing back the “996” work schedule — 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week in the race to outpace competitors. Read on Washington Post.

JOBS OF THE WEEK

Platter is hiring

We’re looking for two new teammates to help us keep building world-class Shopify experiences:

• Shopify Technical Lead

• Shopify Theme Developer

If you or someone you know loves building ecom stores, problem-solving, and seeing your work live on brands people actually use, you’ll fit right in.

Apply here or email [email protected] and tell us why you’d be a great fit.