eCommerce Podcast

In a heartfelt Christmas message, parallels are drawn between the Nativity story and the eCommerce journey. The shepherds symbolize early customers who become passionate evangelists, showing that authenticity matters. Bootstrap operations are spotlighted, suggesting that scrappy beginnings can be enough. The quiet, steady execution of Joseph serves as a model for discipline in business. Ultimately, there's a warm thank you to the 'Digital Davids' out there, encouraging persistence and celebrating the journey in building something meaningful.

Most eCommerce brands settle for pop-up opt-in rates of 3-5% whilst competitors achieve 10-15%. Shaan Arora, CEO of Alia Popups, reveals the systematic testing approach used by 3,000 brands including Peloton and Nike to dramatically improve email collection without destroying margins.We explore why copy matters more than design, how mystery discounts outperform fixed offers, the difference between mobile and desktop timing, and why holdout tests prove pop-ups increase both conversion rates and AOV despite the annoyance factor. Shaan shares data-driven insights from 100 million monthly pop-up views.Key Point Timestamps:02:17 - The biggest pop-up problem brands face04:55 - Mystery discount strategy that increases opt-ins08:08 - Alternative offers beyond discounts18:59 - Testing discount percentages systematically24:17 - What's a good opt-in rate?26:42 - Segmentation and personalisation28:36 - Are pop-ups worth the annoyance?37:06 - Copy, timing, and design priority order46:23 - Building a personal brand as founderThe Mystery Discount Strategy (04:55)One of the easiest wins comes from a simple copy change that doesn't touch your margins at all. Instead of revealing your 10% discount upfront with "Get 10% Off Your First Order", try copy like "Unlock Your Mystery Discount" or "Claim the Discount You've Earned.""A lot of brands believe that in order to get a really good opt-in rate, you need to give a pretty crazy offer," Shaan explains. "We've seen brands that have early access pop-ups without even an offer that gets to about 10% opt-in rates."Same 10% discount. Different psychology. Brands see large increases in opt-ins without changing the actual offer because humans can't resist finding out what they've "earned." The curiosity gap works.Testing Discount Percentages (18:59)Before assuming you need to offer 20% or 30% off to achieve decent opt-in rates, test. Shaan urges brands to test 20% against 15%, or 15% against 10%. Track not just opt-in rates but also conversion rate, bounce rate, AOV, and revenue from codes."We've had brands that have done 20%, gone down to 15% and pretty much had the same results for opt-in rates," Shaan shares. That's a 5% margin improvement without losing performance.The data shows that when cashback is tested against discount, discount wins but sometimes only by 30% - not such a huge percentage that it's definitively worth the margin hit.The Priority Order: Copy, Timing, Design (37:06)Most brands obsess over design first, which is the wrong priority. Shaan's data from 3,000 brands reveals a clear hierarchy."Copy is number one by far and away the most important thing to test," Shaan emphasises. "What copy can resonate well. Like 'You've got 15% off,' 'You've earned 15% off,' 'Here's 15% off,' 'Here's a mystery discount.' All of these things are the biggest thing to move it."Timing comes second - when exactly the pop-up appears matters, especially across mobile versus desktop. Design lands third, including what creative to show and whether to show creative at all.The Holdout Test Everyone Should Run (28:36)Shaan's team makes it extremely easy to run holdout tests: pop-up versus no pop-up, measuring conversion rate and average order value. The results are clear."Across the board, on pretty much every single test we've run with this, we see CVR and AOV go up when you have a pop-up versus when you don't have a pop-up," Shaan reveals.Even people who immediately close the pop-up benefit from knowing a discount exists. They're aware that when they're ready to check out, a code is waiting for them somewhere, and just knowing that increases purchase likelihood.Today's GuestToday's guest: Shaan AroraCompany: Alia PopupsWebsite: aliapopups.comLinkedIn: Connect with Shaan on LinkedIn

Most eCommerce stores with large product catalogues share a common problem that quietly kills growth. It's not their products, pricing, or marketing budget—it's their site structure. Sam Wright, founder of Blink SEO and creator of Macalytics, reveals why taxonomy is the biggest drag on growth for stores doing £3-5 million annually, and exactly how to fix it using Search Console data.We explore why collection pages represent 35% of all search impressions (more than products and blogs combined), how to determine the right level of granularity for your categorisation, and why most stores aren't deep enough with their subcategories. Sam shares his framework for using Search Console impression data to identify exactly where to create new collection pages, and explains the critical difference between what works for user experience versus what search engines can actually index.Key Point Timestamps:06:30 - The Large Catalogue Challenge11:45 - Why Collection Pages Are Your Biggest SEO Opportunity16:20 - The Granularity Problem Most Stores Face22:15 - Using Search Console Data to Guide Taxonomy27:40 - Real-World Example: Redesigning for Better Structure35:10 - Future-Proofing for AI Search with Persona Data42:30 - The AI Shortcut and Critical WarningThe Large Catalogue Challenge (06:30)Sam defines large catalogue stores as those where the buying journey tips into a different mode—one based around comparison and filtering rather than simple browsing. This typically happens around 250 products, though it varies by category."With large catalogue stores, the buying journey is based around comparison and filtering," Sam explains. "A lot of the time these stores have grown up organically over a period of time and no one's taken ownership about how the store's organised."This organic growth creates a drag on everything—SEO, user experience, conversion rates, even email segmentation. Stores reach £3-5 million in annual revenue, so things are fundamentally working. But growth isn't happening as fast as it should because nobody stepped back to think strategically about organisation and purpose.Why Collection Pages Are Your Biggest SEO Opportunity (11:45)Sam shared compelling data from across all the Shopify stores his agency works with: "It's about 35% of all impressions come on collections, which is much more than products and blogs. It's basically the entry point for most people when they're doing actual new product discovery."More than a third of search visibility comes from collection pages—the pages where new customers first encounter the store. Yet most stores aren't categorised in a way that aligns with how people actually search for their products.This represents a massive untapped opportunity. If collection pages are already driving 35% of impressions without optimisation, imagine the potential when they're properly structured and aligned with search behaviour.The Granularity Problem Most Stores Face (16:20)The real opportunity for most stores lies in going deeper with categorisation. Much deeper."Most people are not granular enough with their categorisation," Sam emphasises. "A lot of stores will just have a t-shirts category. They won't subcategorise those t-shirts to the level that matches how people are actually searching."Sam uses sofas as an example: "So sofas as the parent category, like blue sofas, blue four seat sofas, blue four seat corduroy sofas. That filtering process, that is how people do search."The challenge on Shopify is that these filters aren't indexable for search engines. Google ads can't effectively target filters either. The solution is breaking out popular subcategories into actual collection pages."The real opportunity for a lot of stores is how deep you go in that categorisation because you've got products that other people don't have," Sam explains. "And that's the easiest way to capture new users."Using Search Console Data to Guide Taxonomy (22:15)Search Console data reveals exactly how people are actually searching, throwing up interesting patterns in the impression data.Sam's agency uses this practical approach: "If you look at the Search Console data for a collection page, what you might see is what we would call attribute searches on a collection. So the collection is blue sofas, but we're seeing impressions for eight-seater sofa, like blue four seat sofa, blue four seat corduroy."When these search terms appear on a collection page, it's a signal to drill down another level. "You can typically keep going until we probably say like three in stock products is probably the limit for how far down you can go," Sam notes. "And actually, only having a few products is actually quite a good user experience a lot of the time."Having three tightly related products for a specific search creates a focused, relevant experience that converts better than overwhelming customers with too many options.Real-World Example: Redesigning for Better Structure (27:40)Matt shared his experience redesigning the eCommerce Podcast website, which had grown organically over 200+ episodes with just a blog-style feed and search bar.The solution was creating a proper hierarchy: top-level categories like "Marketing & Growth," subcategories like "SEO & Content" and "Messaging & Automation," then specific topics like "Technical SEO" or "Email Automation.""Now you can quite quickly navigate using that menu," Matt explained. "If you wanted to find out about technical SEO, within one click really, you can see that link and you can go, well, that's marketing and growth or technical SEO. You can click that. And then all of the episodes we've done which are connected to technical SEO then come up on the page."The result was better user experience and better SEO, with Google now showing dedicated pages for specific topics, each with multiple pieces of related content.Sam's response captured the principle perfectly: "What's always interesting is the further you get into something, into the levels, the more interesting and more useful that information is. And I think that transfers directly to the e-commerce experience as well."Future-Proofing for AI Search with Persona Data (35:10)In his "saving the best till last" segment, Sam shared what he believes will set businesses apart as AI search evolves: enriching product data with persona and use case information."I think the real thing that's going to set a lot of businesses apart in the future is by bringing in attribute data that other people don't have, and that is based on things like personas and use cases," Sam explained. "So this is kind of more human data."He referenced ChatGPT's announcement example: "I want to see the best coffee machine under $200 that captures the taste of coffee in Italy."Traditional attributes—price, product type—are straightforward. But "captures the taste of coffee in Italy" represents persona-based, use case-focused, benefit-driven data that most stores don't systematically capture."Getting that into your product data, I think, is going to be something that really, really sets lots of people apart," Sam emphasised. "Especially when we're potentially moving into this world where someone might not touch the website."The immediate benefit doesn't require waiting for AI search. "If you've got your persona types clearly laid as a Metafield in Shopify, you could use that for custom tagging on a collection page, best for X," Sam explains. "That kind of curated experience we know works really, really well."The AI Shortcut and Critical Warning (42:30)Both Sam and Matt discussed using AI to accelerate taxonomy work. "I swear like 80% of my working days is talking to chat GPT," Sam shared. "Working through things step by step. That's probably how I spend most of my days now."Matt had similar success using Perplexity Labs to research menu structures, getting about 70% of the way there as a starting point for conversations.But Sam offers a critical caveat: "The thing about AI and automation is it's only going to accelerate what you're doing. If what you're doing is a mess, you're just accelerating a load of mess basically."This is the uncomfortable truth. AI won't fix a fundamentally broken site structure—it'll just help scale the confusion faster. The foundation must be right first, based on actual data about how people search. Then AI and automation become powerful accelerators rather than mess multipliers.Today's GuestToday's guest: Sam WrightCompany: Blink SEOWebsite: blinkseo.co.ukLinkedIn: Connect with Sam on LinkedIn

What if one video per week could generate referral-quality leads for your eCommerce business? Nate Woodbury reveals how to leverage YouTube's search algorithm instead of chasing viral views, creating educational content that brings dream customers directly to you.Episode SummaryWe explore how eCommerce businesses can generate consistent, high-quality leads through strategic YouTube content. Nate Woodbury, who has produced over 60 YouTube channels, shares his Leaf Strategy—focusing on answering specific 8+ word questions with low search volume (as few as 10 searches per month) to build authority systematically. Rather than competing for viral views, this approach prioritises educational content that ranks quickly on YouTube and Google, attracting customers who are actively searching for solutions.We discuss why 10-12 minute videos create the optimal trust-building window, how to research golden questions using keyword tools, and why wrong audience growth from viral videos can actually damage your channel. Nate reveals his testing results showing YouTube Shorts only drove 0.1% increase in long-form views, and shares the entrance point strategy that guides viewers from YouTube to your email list without feeling sold to.Key Point Timestamps:05:11 - Entertainment vs Educational YouTube Strategy12:17 - The Leaf Strategy: Starting with Low Search Volume13:41 - Finding Questions with 8+ Words28:02 - The 10-12 Minute Sweet Spot36:20 - The Entrance Point Strategy40:22 - YouTube Shorts Testing Results42:23 - When Viral Videos Hurt Your ChannelEntertainment vs Educational YouTube Strategy (05:11)Nate distinguishes between two fundamentally different approaches to YouTube. Most advice focuses on entertainment—creating content that appeals to the broadest audience to generate ad revenue through viral views. But there's a completely different algorithm at play for businesses."There's multiple algorithms on YouTube," Nate explains. "Most of the advice we hear is geared towards having our videos go viral so we can get as many views as possible. But we can actually focus instead on search."This distinction changes everything. Entertainment content interrupts people and requires breaking through resistance. Educational content serves people who are actively seeking answers, meeting them exactly where they are. For eCommerce businesses with educational components—supplements, complex products, or anything requiring customer education—this search-focused strategy generates referral-quality leads rather than just views.The Leaf Strategy: Starting with Low Search Volume (12:17)Nate uses a tree analogy to explain his approach. The trunk represents broad topics like "nutrition." Branches are categories like "nutrition for weight loss." And leaves are the specific questions people type into search engines.Most businesses chase the trunk and big branches—terms with thousands of monthly searches and massive competition. Nate's approach flips this entirely: start with questions that only get 10 searches per month."I consider that gold," Nate shares. "That's probably going to turn into lead generation every single month, even if there's just 10 searches a month."The beauty is speed and certainty. With minimal competition for highly specific questions, videos rank at the top of YouTube and Google within a day or two. As you dominate more specific questions on a particular branch, the algorithms recognise your authority on that entire topic, eventually allowing you to rank for bigger terms—but you've built authority from the ground up.Finding Questions with 8+ Words (13:41)The key to this strategy is finding the right questions. Nate recommends Semrush's Keyword Magic Tool (with a free trial at herokeywordtool.com), but uses it differently than traditional SEO.Rather than looking for short, high-volume keywords, filter for questions with eight words or longer. Why? Longer questions reveal much more about who's searching and what stage they're at. Compare "get promoted" with "how to prepare for a promotion interview at work in 2025." The second reveals the person's situation, intent, and timeline.Customer service emails are another goldmine. The questions people ask before buying, the concerns that come up repeatedly—these are exactly what potential customers are searching for online.The 10-12 Minute Sweet Spot (28:02)How long should videos be? Nate has tested extensively and consistently recommends 10-12 minutes—not because of algorithm preferences, but psychology."With a short, you'll never build that trust," Nate points out. "But if someone spends 10 minutes with you, they start to feel like they know you."This length provides enough time for genuine value, a story or two, and deeper insights than surface-level answers. It's long enough for viewers to decide whether they trust you, but short enough that someone searching for an answer will commit to watching.By the end, there's a relationship. They've gained value and appreciate what's been shared. That's when you offer a free resource—a downloadable guide, template, or checklist that helps implement what they've learned. This natural next step moves them from YouTube to your website, where they encounter your brand without feeling sold to.The Entrance Point Strategy (36:20)Many eCommerce brands create YouTube videos then immediately share them on Facebook, email their list, and post on LinkedIn—wondering why there's no traction.Nate's perspective shifts everything: "Your website and your email list, that's your core. All these other resources—Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube—those are entrance points."Someone discovers you through YouTube, watches your video, and at the end you offer a free resource. Where does that link go? To your website. To a landing page where they join your email list. You don't send people from one entrance point to another—every entrance point should lead to your core, where you can nurture relationships and move them towards becoming customers.When Viral Videos Hurt Your Channel (42:23)Nate shares a cautionary tale about a video he created about hiring people in the Philippines. It went viral—1.5 million views, tens of thousands of new subscribers. Exciting, right?Wrong. The new audience loved content about the Philippines but had no interest in his YouTube strategy videos. The algorithm noticed and started suggesting he stop making strategy content and focus on the Philippines instead.Eventually, Nate had to delete all those Philippines videos and move them to a different channel. It took years to redirect his main channel back to YouTube strategy content.The lesson? Wrong audience growth is worse than slow growth. If a video takes off, look closely at who's watching and what they're commenting about. If it's not your dream customer, be brave enough to delete it before it steers your entire channel in the wrong direction.Today's GuestToday's guest: Nate WoodburyCompany: Be The Hero StudiosWebsite: theleafstrategy.comLinkedIn: Connect with Nate on LinkedIn

On Thanksgiving Day, whilst American families gather to express gratitude, eCommerce businesses gear up for the most transactional weekend of the year. Matt Edmundson explores why businesses that win long-term aren't those with the best Black Friday discounts, but those that genuinely appreciate the humans behind the transactions.Episode SummaryMatt shares the Gratitude Audit - a three-level framework distinguishing between no appreciation, automated appreciation, and personal gratitude. Through the story of transforming a beauty business that achieved 40% repeat purchase rates and 20% revenue growth, he demonstrates how culturally embedding thankfulness creates customers who become brand evangelists. The episode reveals why automated loyalty schemes create entitlement whilst personal touches compound loyalty, supported by research showing grateful customers are 23% more profitable.Key Point Timestamps:03:00 - The Problem with Automated Gratitude06:00 - Have We Missed the Simplicity of Gratitude?08:00 - The Gratitude Audit Framework14:00 - What Makes Gratitude Actually Work18:00 - Implementing Gratitude Without It Feeling Fake26:00 - Why This Actually Matters During Black Friday31:00 - Your Thanksgiving ChallengeThe Problem with Automated Gratitude (03:00)Matt compares two experiences of receiving something free: getting his tenth burrito automatically at Barburrito versus Emirates unexpectedly upgrading him to first class. Both were technically free, but elicited completely different emotional responses."I get my tenth burrito free at Barburrito. It's automatic and completely predictable. I just scan my app and it's done. I know it's coming because that's how loyalty schemes work. And you know what I feel when I get it? Nothing much. Well, that's not quite true. If I'm honest, I kinda feel entitled to it."The Emirates upgrade, five years later, still gets mentioned. The difference? Automated appreciation has diminishing returns whilst personal gratitude compounds over time. Research shows gratitude is heightened when customers perceive actions as discretionary rather than obligatory.The Gratitude Audit Framework (08:00)Matt introduces three levels of customer appreciation that most businesses move through:Level 1: No Appreciation - Where most eCommerce businesses live during busy periods. Functional and transactional: "Your order #827364 has been shipped." It's not rude, but it's nothing.Level 2: Automated Appreciation - Loyalty schemes, automated thank you emails, points systems. Better than nothing, but automation removes the perception of free will, creating contractual obligation rather than gift.Level 3: Personal Gratitude - Where Emirates upgrades and handwritten notes live. Where real human connection happens. Personal gratitude compounds over time rather than diminishing, and it doesn't have to be expensive - it has to be genuine.What Makes Gratitude Actually Work (14:00)Matt shares how transforming a beauty business around customer service - which really means finding ways to say thank you more genuinely - led to remarkable results. The team implemented handwritten notes, reached out when customers purchased multiple times, and allocated £50 SMOCs budgets (Sexy Moments of Customer Service) to warehouse and customer service staff."We allocated a budget of £50 to our warehouse and customer service teams. They could spend that money on a customer without prior authorisation. Just creating moments that mattered."Matt would randomly pick orders and include personal notes with his direct email. Rather than creating entitled customers, it created reverent appreciation. Over 18 months, overall turnover increased by 20% from repeat customers, with repeat purchase rates shooting above 40%.Implementing Gratitude Without It Feeling Fake (18:00)Authentic gratitude must be consistent, costly in some way (time, money, or attention), given without expectation of direct return, and culturally embedded rather than tactically deployed. Matt uses Five Guys as an example - they put extra fries in every bag, costing millions annually, yet never mention it in marketing.Practical implementation starts with auditing every touchpoint: ads, social media, website, checkout, thank you page, order confirmation, shipping notification, the package itself, and follow-up emails. At each point, ask: where am I showing gratitude? Is it automated or personal?Simple shifts include adding videos to thank you pages (seen by nearly 100% of customers), sending photos of warehouse staff who packed orders in shipping notifications, and separating administration from appreciation by sending standalone thank you emails distinct from order confirmations.Why This Actually Matters During Black Friday (26:00)The neuroscience is compelling. When customers feel genuinely appreciated, their brains release dopamine (reward hormone), oxytocin (bonding hormone), and serotonin (happiness hormone). This isn't soft psychology - it's measurable brain chemistry."Companies that regularly express genuine appreciation to customers outperform competitors by 23% in profitability. A 5% increase in customer retention can lead to a 75% increase in profitability."Customers who feel appreciated become less price-sensitive, more likely to refer friends, more likely to buy again, and more likely to leave positive reviews and post on social media without being asked. Especially during Black Friday chaos when most businesses treat customers like transaction numbers, authentic gratitude becomes a powerful differentiator.Today's GuestToday's guest: Matt EdmundsonCompany: AurionWebsite: aurioncompany.comLinkedIn: Connect with Matt on LinkedIn

After building over 200 Shopify stores, Ben Sharf has discovered that nearly every e-commerce brand—whether doing $1 million or $50 million annually—describes their website as a source of frustration rather than growth. In this episode, we explore why complexity has become the norm and exactly how to fix it.Ben, co-founder of Platter, shares insights from working with brands that have accumulated technical debt through widget overload, deleted apps that leave code behind, and convoluted customer journeys that kill conversions. We dig into his three-part simplification framework, the power of cart drawers over cart pages, and why revenue per visitor matters more than you think.Key Point Timestamps:05:00 - Why e-commerce websites frustrate every brand09:30 - The widget overload problem destroying your site speed14:20 - Deleted apps leave code behind (and slow you down)17:40 - The three-part simplification framework22:30 - Revenue per visitor: the metric you're not tracking31:00 - How to optimize clicks to purchase35:40 - Mobile simplification mistakes killing conversionsWhy E-commerce Websites Frustrate Every Brand (05:00)Ben's journey into e-commerce infrastructure began at GoPuff, where he built an instant delivery business unit. Whilst partnering with brands of all sizes, he encountered the same pattern repeatedly: every single brand had a horror story about their website."E-commerce is literally selling a product on the internet," Ben reflects. "Why is the main thing the most frustrating thing for every brand out there?"The answer lies in how traditional development agencies operate. When agencies get paid for their time, they're incentivised to make things expensive and complicated. This creates an industry-wide problem where brands pay enormous sums for solutions that should be straightforward, resulting in websites burdened by excessive code, countless third-party apps, and convoluted customer journeys.The Widget Overload Problem (09:30)One of the biggest contributors to website complexity is what Ben calls "widget overload"—the tendency to add small applications for every specific functionality."A lot of these apps are features, not products," Ben explains. "If you piece a million together, you end up having a lot of different single points of failure within your storefront."The Shopify app ecosystem, whilst brilliant for getting started, creates a temptation to solve every problem by installing another app. Before long, brands find themselves managing dozens of applications, each adding code to their storefront, each creating potential conflicts.Ben shares a typical scenario: "We'll talk to a brand doing $20 million on their storefront. Over the last seven years, they've had five different agencies, seven different freelancers, and 150 apps installed and deleted—all on the same storefront. What do you think happens when the next person tries to go in and touch that? It's just a spider web."The Hidden Code Problem (14:20)Here's something most brand owners don't know: when you delete a Shopify app, the code it injected into your storefront doesn't disappear. It stays there, silently slowing down your site and creating technical debt that compounds over time.This revelation shocked many listeners, but it explains why sites become progressively slower even when brands think they're cleaning up by removing unused apps. The orphaned code remains, affecting page speed and creating a tangled web of potential conflicts.The Three-Part Simplification Framework (17:40)Ben's approach to escaping the complexity trap centres on three core principles: consolidation, clarity, and customer-centricity.Consolidation Over Accumulation: Rather than adding another app for every need, Ben advocates for consolidating functionality. Platter's solution was to build a comprehensive Shopify theme and app that handles most common functionality brands require. "It requires less custom code, less third-party apps, but still gets you to the same place," Ben explains.Clarity in Customer Journeys: Ben has a brilliantly simple test for evaluating website clarity: "Give your website to a seven-year-old and a 90-year-old and see what happens." This idiot-proof test reveals whether your site is truly intuitive or just obvious to you because you use it every day.Customer-Centricity Through Data: Count the number of clicks it takes to make a purchase on your website. If you have a hero product that accounts for 95% of sales, why force customers through multiple pages? Put a buy now button directly on the homepage.Revenue Per Visitor: The Overlooked Metric (22:30)Ben champions a metric that few brands track but should: revenue per visitor."It's a little different than average order value, which is just how much is being spent," Ben explains. "And it's a little different from conversion rate, which is how many people are actually buying. It's how much is being spent by the person who is buying."This metric matters because it captures the combined effect of conversion optimisation and order value maximisation. If your revenue per visitor increases, you know multiple things are working well together.Ben also emphasises using cohort analysis for setting thresholds. One brand was selling accessories at $25 and $75, but had their free shipping threshold at $60. "You have to look at the maths of your cohort data to know where you should actually put that number," Ben notes. The threshold should be at $74 or $75 to incentivise the higher-value purchase.Optimizing Clicks to Purchase (31:00)One specific simplification Ben champions is using a cart drawer instead of a separate cart page. When a customer clicks "add to cart," a slide-out drawer appears showing cart contents and checkout options—without loading a new page."One hundred percent of our brands use a cart drawer mechanism," Ben shares. This approach reduces friction by eliminating an extra page load whilst creating opportunities for upsells and cross-sells without disrupting the shopping flow.For brands with impulse purchase products and hero products in their catalogue, Ben recommends adding buy now CTAs on the homepage or collection page using quick view modals. This reduces friction and the amount of time and energy that goes into spending money on that product.Mobile Simplification (35:40)With most shopping happening on mobile devices, simplification becomes even more critical. Ben sees brands making two common mistakes: under-utilising horizontal scroll and tolerating slow page speeds."Nothing drives me crazier than when you have a collection and you're scrolling vertically to see everything," Ben shares. "There's so much real estate you can uncover by leveraging horizontal behaviors—both from image carousels on product pages, collection pages, and featured products."On mobile, page speed matters exponentially more because exits happen faster. People are doom-scrolling, impulse-buying, and have zero patience. Every fraction of a second counts.Today's GuestToday's guest: Ben SharfCompany: PlatterWebsite: platter.comLinkedIn: Connect with Ben on LinkedIn

Email marketing delivers 30 to 40 times the return of any other marketing channel, yet most Black Friday campaigns vanish into spam folders before customers even see them. Robby Bryant from Campaign Monitor reveals why the big three mailbox providers—Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft—now act as sheriffs, policing email deliverability like never before.Episode SummaryWe explore the seismic shift in email deliverability over the past five years, as consolidated mailbox providers transformed from passive gatekeepers into active sheriffs. Robby breaks down the authentication trinity (DKIM, SPF, DMARC) that determines whether your emails even make it past the front gate, the non-negotiable metric thresholds that separate inbox placement from spam (0.1% spam complaints, 1% unsubscribes, 2% bounces), and why establishing cadence matters more than clever subject lines. From list hygiene strategies to the 60-40 text-to-image ratio, this episode provides the practical checklist for ensuring your Black Friday campaigns actually reach the customers who want to hear from you.Key Point Timestamps:07:29 - The cadence mistake that kills Black Friday campaigns09:47 - Understanding sender reputation and deliverability governance16:37 - List hygiene practices that protect deliverability21:42 - The authentication trinity: DKIM, SPF, DMARC explained27:31 - Content formatting rules and the 60-40 ratio40:06 - The metrics that actually matter for inbox placementThe Sheriff Problem Nobody Saw Coming (04:32)Four or five years ago, the email landscape looked completely different. Robby explains how fragmentation amongst mailbox service providers meant brands could send mediocre emails with very little negative consequence. Those days are gone."They're acting now as the sheriffs," Robby describes, referring to how Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft now police sender behaviour. "They're looking at opens, clicks, replies, forwards, and then on the negative side, they're looking at deletions without reading, spam complaints, and people marking it as junk."The result? Brands attempting email marketing for the first time during Black Friday get slapped down before they start. Poor authentication, bad text-to-image ratios, and zero segmentation lead to lackluster results, convincing them email doesn't work. Meanwhile, brands understanding the new rules capture those 30-40X returns.The Cadence Mistake That Kills Campaigns (07:29)If Robby could solve one issue plaguing Black Friday email campaigns, it would be what he calls "advanced engagement." The typical pattern? Brands decide it's time for an email send, perhaps even segment their list, put together something beautiful, then do "one really loud blast.""That is the exact opposite of what you should do," Robby emphasises. "You really want to have an established cadence leading up to Black Friday, Cyber Monday and keep that cadence going on after the holiday."The walk-up engagement practice warms customers up, builds brand recognition, and establishes sender reputation with mailbox providers before the critical moment arrives. At minimum, Robby recommends sending at least one email per week during this period—enough to keep subscribers aware and set expectations with mailbox service providers.Understanding Sender Reputation (09:47)Here's what caught Robby off guard when entering email marketing after years in paid search and social: the misconception that nothing you do in email matters."I too was kind of under this misconception that nothing you do in email matters. It's kind of ephemeral," Robby admits. "It's not true."Mailbox providers track something called "deliverability governance"—whether your email lands in the inbox. Just like Google Ads has quality scores and social platforms track engagement, email sheriffs watch every move. Every email accrues positive points (opens, clicks, replies, forwards) or negative points (deletions without reading, spam complaints, marking as junk).All emails count towards this reputation—newsletters, transactional emails, automated sequences. You're either building or destroying your reputation with every send.The Authentication Trinity (21:42)Three acronyms determine whether your Black Friday emails reach anyone: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. "Those are some hairy acronyms," Robby laughs. "But very effective."SPF (Sender Policy Framework) tells mailbox providers which servers are allowed to send email for your domain. "It's a guest list for sends," Robby explains. "If your email doesn't come from an approved sender, it gets rejected or flagged as spam."DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) acts as your digital signature, proving the email came from you.DMARC (Domain-Based Message Authentication) is supplemental to SPF and DKIM, enforcing what happens when an email fails either test and reporting back on spoofing or phishing attempts.Beyond these, Gmail and other providers use AI to judge sender reputation in real time. "You're not going to hack your way past these controls," Robby warns. "You need real genuine user engagement."The Non-Negotiable Metric Thresholds (40:06)During the rapid-fire closing section, Robby laid out the metrics that determine inbox placement versus spam.Spam complaints must stay under 0.1%. Not 1%. Not 0.5%. Under 0.1%. For 10,000 emails, that's only 10 spam complaints before mailbox providers investigate.Unsubscribes should remain under 1%. "A little bit of unsubscribing is healthy for your email programme," Robby notes, "but you should be tailoring emails so that it isn't an action they should be taking frequently."Bounces need to stay below 2%. This connects to list hygiene—continually refining your list over time.The big metrics that always matter: opens, clicks, click-through rates, and conversions. These determine programme success, especially in terms of actually being seen in the first place.Today's GuestToday's guest: Robby BryantCompany: Campaign MonitorWebsite: campaignmonitor.comLinkedIn: Connect with Robby

What if scaling your eCommerce business isn't about better ads, but about understanding why customers buy from you? Louise Doyle shares how she built Needi from a struggling DTC gifting site into a £2 million corporate gifting business by refusing to treat gifts like commodities.Episode SummaryLouise and her co-founder Steph launched Needi in 2021 with ambitious DTC plans, only to discover the brutal reality of customer acquisition costs and overwhelming competition. Within months, they pivoted to B2B corporate gifting, where they found desperate demand for their psychology-driven approach. By asking why clients want to give gifts rather than just what they need, Needi scaled from £500k to £2 million in revenue whilst supporting local independent businesses. Lou shares the unconventional journey of building a concierge service that's now projecting £5 million revenue, all whilst balancing motherhood and creating a team where over half the employees are mums.Key Point Timestamps:05:10 - The DTC Reality: Why Direct-to-Consumer Failed10:15 - The Pivot: Finding Corporate Clients Who Were Desperate16:25 - Understanding the Psychology Behind Every Gift24:30 - Your Client Isn't Actually Your Client32:05 - The Amazon Problem: Connection Beats Efficiency37:14 - Scaling from £500k to £5M Projected Revenue45:07 - The Mum Factor: Building a Family-First BusinessThe DTC Reality: Why Direct-to-Consumer Failed (05:10)Lou and Steph thought they had it figured out. The research was solid: one in five gifts end up in landfill, 80% of people hate finding the right gift, and everyone's received a terrible present. Simple problem, simple solution—build a website, run Facebook ads, watch orders roll in."We went into it fairly naively," Lou admits. "We thought everybody is rubbish at gifting and doesn't enjoy it. So we'll set up an e-comm site where we make people really good at gifting. And it was really hard."The cost of customer acquisition was brutal. But worse, they faced double jeopardy: they needed to attract customers whilst simultaneously onboarding local independent businesses to supply the gifts. Chicken and egg doesn't begin to describe the challenge.The Pivot: Finding Corporate Clients Who Were Desperate (10:15)Rather than flogging a dead horse, Lou and Steph started LinkedIn outreach to corporate clients. They walked into head offices with suitcases filled with gifts. The response was immediate and overwhelming."These people were literally saying, my gosh, where have you been? We need what you're doing," Lou explains. Executive assistants and marketing managers were being dumped with last-minute orders for thousands of gifts with tight budgets and no time to find quality suppliers.The word "concierge" isn't accidental in Needi's description. It represents doing absolutely everything for clients whilst they figured out how to scale the service.Understanding the Psychology Behind Every Gift (16:25)Lou and Steph didn't just pivot to B2B—they transformed how they approached gifting entirely. They spent hundreds of hours studying the psychology of gifting, working with a professor of altruism, researching relationship dynamics."A gift is cementing what your relationship means to that person," Lou says. "You would not buy somebody a gift if you weren't looking for a particular connection."This insight changed everything. Instead of asking what gift clients wanted or how many they needed, Needi asks why. Why are you buying this gift? What relationship are you trying to cement? What message are you trying to send?Your Client Isn't Actually Your Client (24:30)When a company orders 10,000 gifts for employees, the purchaser is the corporate decision-maker. But the person who determines whether that company orders again next year? That's the employee who receives the gift."For you to maintain a relationship with the gifter, the recipient of the gift has got to have an exceptional experience," Lou explains.This means if you know a company wants to show employees they're valued, you don't send generic gift vouchers. You find out what makes those employees tick. You personalise. You add handwritten notes explaining why this particular gift went to this particular person. That's relationship building at scale.The Amazon Problem: Connection Beats Efficiency (32:05)Lou's business exists because Amazon exists—not in spite of it, but because of it. Amazon owns the commodity game. If you're competing on efficiency and price, you're bringing a knife to a tank fight."We're up against really generic gift vouchers," Lou says. "Well done, you've been here for 10 years. Have a £50 voucher." That's efficient, scalable, and completely soulless.But connection? That's where Digital Davids beat the Goliaths. People buy from people they know, like, and trust. You can't automate that. You can't optimise your way into trust. You have to earn it.Today's GuestToday's guest: Louise DoyleCompany: NeediWebsite: www.Needi.co.ukLinkedIn: Connect with Louise on LinkedIn

Customer acquisition costs have surged 222% since 2013, with Google and Facebook CPCs climbing relentlessly. But what if the solution isn't just doubling down on retention or throwing more money at ads?Matt Edmundson introduces the FUEL Framework—a systematic approach to customer growth that doesn't rely on a single channel, doesn't assume yesterday's tactics will work tomorrow, and doesn't leave you vulnerable when platforms change their algorithms. Through Foundation, Unlock, Elevate, and Leapfrog strategies, this framework addresses all three levers of business growth: acquiring customers, increasing purchase frequency, and raising average order value.Key Point Timestamps:00:00 - Introduction: The Challenge of Rising CAC01:00 - The iOS 14 Impact on Facebook Ads02:00 - The CAC Crisis in eCommerce03:00 - The Bathtub Principle04:34 - Introducing the FUEL Framework09:00 - Foundation: Email Beyond Templates13:00 - Foundation: Building Referral Engines15:00 - Foundation: Customer Experience Post-Purchase19:00 - Unlock: Strategic Partnerships22:00 - Unlock: Content Amplification26:00 - Unlock: Community Seeding28:00 - Elevate: Advanced Segmentation32:00 - Elevate: AI-Powered Personalisation38:00 - Leapfrog: Experimenting Without FearFoundation: Building Your Unshakeable Base (09:00)Matt challenges the common assumption that having Shopify and Google Analytics means your foundations are sorted. Real foundations aren't about having tools—they're about having systems that work even when paid ads don't.Email marketing generates 30-40% of revenue for most eCommerce businesses, yet many brands still rely on generic templates. Matt references Ken Rapp from BluStream's brilliant rule: don't send any coupons or review requests in the first five messages. "Just deliver value. Help customers succeed with their purchase. Build trust," Matt explains. Over 90% of customers stay engaged with these journeys months—sometimes years—later.The referral engine sits in foundations because referred customers are 16-24% more loyal than customers acquired through other channels, have 16% higher lifetime value, and cost £17 less to acquire. But standard refer-a-friend programmes don't work because they assume everyone just wants £10 off. "Maybe a complementary product has higher perceived value than cash. Maybe inviting them to a VIP board meeting matters more," Matt suggests.The Post-Purchase Gap (15:00)Standing in his favourite Liverpool coffee shop, Matt had an epiphany about customer experience. The journey was brilliant until he paid—then he stood awkwardly with others, unable to listen to music in case they called his name, no bench to sit on, no system."I started thinking, well actually, am I doing the same thing in my own eCommerce businesses?" Matt reflects. "We obsess over the journey to checkout. We A/B test button colours, we track every click. Then someone buys, and we forget about them. Or worse—we immediately hit them with a review request before they've even opened the box."The gap between acquisition and loyalty is where most brands lose the game. Customer experience—particularly post-purchase—directly impacts whether customers buy again.Unlock: Diversifying Beyond Paid Ads (19:00)Once foundations are solid, Matt recommends devoting 5-10% of marketing resources to unlocking other channels. Strategic partnerships work because 72% of companies report lower CAC through partnerships than direct acquisition.Matt shares his experience with Through Doc, the clothing company he frequently purchases from. When they partnered with Elliot Brown watches, he'd never heard of the watchmaker. "I ended up buying one of the Elliot Brown watches as a result of that email. Would I have done that if I'd just seen Elliot Brown ads? Maybe, maybe not. But strategic partnerships work fundamentally—you borrow the credibility of the company referring you."Content amplification also features heavily in the Unlock phase. Matt uses the eCommerce Podcast itself as an example: audio becomes podcasts, video becomes YouTube content, written format becomes blog posts, multiple emails feed the newsletter. "We've just built a three-person studio in Nottingham. We're investing heavily because for us, this form of content creation works."Elevate: When Good Becomes Great (28:00)With foundations solid and channels unlocked, the Elevate phase focuses on maximising efficiency. Advanced segmentation recognises that not all customers are equal, and treating them the same leaves money on the table.Matt advocates for RFM segmentation—tracking customers by Recency, Frequency, and Monetary value. "How recently did they buy? What's their average order count? What's the worth of that customer? Ranking customers in those three areas gives you really interesting insight," Matt explains, recommending Valentine Radu's episode for deeper understanding.Personalisation goes beyond mail merge. SafariLand achieved a 37% conversion increase through data-driven product page optimisation. LeSportsac saw a 7% conversion lift and 20% AOV increase after AI personalisation. "Someone who comes onto your website and doesn't know you needs a very different journey from someone who's been 50 times before and knows exactly what they need," Matt notes.Leapfrog: Calculated Risks (38:00)The final phase is where brands experiment with things that might fail—because the business isn't dependent on them working. Matt shares examples like beauty brands setting up skin analysis booths at farmers' markets, collecting hundreds of high-quality email subscribers whilst meeting customers face-to-face.One innovative tactic Matt's been exploring: creating an AI board of directors. "Add Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, Warren Buffett to your board. Add your target customers, add your biggest detractor. Present something to your board and watch them debate amongst themselves." The questions are harsh but remarkably good for strategic thinking.Another powerful technique from Dan Co: take competitors' top Instagram posts or YouTube videos, order by engagement, copy the titles, and ask AI to break down why they work. "I'm not doing this to copy. I'm doing this to understand what's working, then appropriate that to your brand voice," Matt clarifies.Today's GuestToday's guest: Matt EdmundsonCompany: AurionWebsite: aurioncompany.comLinkedIn: Connect with Matt

Most entrepreneurs dream of building from scratch, but Michael Simpson took a different path. After running an Amazon arbitrage side hustle, he spent 18 months searching for an established eCommerce business to buy rather than building one from the ground up.Four years after purchasing an 18-year-old business selling Catholic products, Michael candidly shares what most buyers won't: the reality behind the broker presentations, the challenges of inherited technical debt, and the daily cashflow discipline that kept him in the game during survival mode.We explore the SBA loan process that made 90% financing possible, why he spent £30,000 on a Shopify migration that never happened, and the mastermind group advice that stopped him from making costly mistakes. Michael reveals his daily cashflow forecasting system, why demand capture businesses hit growth ceilings differently than demand generation models, and what he wishes he'd negotiated harder on during the purchase.Key Point Timestamps:04:34 - The Buy Then Build Philosophy09:10 - Finding the Right Business After 40 Evaluations11:06 - How SBA Loans Work for Business Acquisitions16:56 - The 3X Multiple Valuation Reality20:05 - Why Growth Proved Harder Than Expected29:52 - The £30,000 Migration That Never Happened43:09 - When Sales Dropped and Survival Mode Began49:57 - Daily Cashflow Forecasting That Saved the BusinessThe Buy Then Build Philosophy (04:34)Michael's acquisition journey began with Walker Deibold's book Buy Then Build, which challenges the conventional startup path. After running a small Amazon arbitrage business selling New Mexico green chillies, he realised he wanted something larger but wasn't passionate about scaling what he had."When you buy a business, that's what you're buying," Michael explains. "You're buying the existing customers and that goodwill and those supplier relationships. If it's a new business that doesn't have a lot of existing customers, there's not really a whole lot of value there."The appeal is straightforward: an established business has already solved product-market fit, built supplier relationships, and proven people will pay for what you're selling. But as Michael discovered, you're also inheriting someone else's platform choices, brand positioning, and technical debt.Finding the Right Business After 40 Evaluations (09:10)Michael spent 18 months evaluating 30 to 40 businesses before finding the right fit. His criteria were non-negotiable:No Chinese suppliers. As a National Guard member with security clearance for 22 years, the China arbitrage model raised both practical and security concerns. "I just felt like eventually that wasn't sustainable. Like at some point that arbitrage opportunity is going to disappear."Own website, not Amazon-dependent. Having experienced Amazon's unpredictability firsthand, Michael knew he didn't want a business that could collapse from one complaint or account suspension.Strong customer base and email list. This represents the real value in an acquisition—the relationships and proven demand.Genuinely interesting products. Michael didn't want to sell women's clothing or supplements he didn't believe in, even though the margins were attractive.When Discount Catholic Products appeared—an 18-year-old business selling medals, prayer cards, and crucifixes made in Italy and the US—it ticked every box.How SBA Loans Work for Business Acquisitions (11:06)The Small Business Administration loan programme gave Michael access to 90% financing—he only needed 10% down on a half-million-pound sale. During COVID, the government sweetened the deal further: they waived the typical 2% fee and covered the first three months of payments."Between those two things, that was like £30,000 that we saved just by getting it closed in time," Michael notes.This government-backed financing is a massive advantage for US buyers, similar to how mortgage availability drives up house prices. For UK entrepreneurs, it's worth noting this acquisition financing simply doesn't exist here, making US businesses potentially more valuable due to easier buyer access to capital.The catch? The acquisition process took five months and felt adversarial at times. Michael's advice: get your own representation. The broker works for the seller, not you, no matter how friendly they seem.The 3X Multiple Valuation Reality (16:56)The business was priced at a 3X multiple of seller's discretionary earnings (SDE)—roughly profit. In 2021, with COVID boosting eCommerce and cheap money everywhere, this was market standard. Some businesses were fetching 4-5X multiples.Looking back, Michael identifies two negotiation regrets:The inventory. With 11,000 product listings, substantial stale inventory came with the purchase. "Four years later, some of it is still sitting on a shelf. We probably overpaid for it even at 25 pence on the pound."The business size. It was at the bottom end of what he was looking for. A business twice as large would have provided more buffer between loan payments and living expenses.The danger? Emotional decision-making. After 18 months of searching, when something finally fits your criteria, it's easy to offer full asking price. The broker mentioned another interested buyer, but the seller later revealed she'd already chosen Michael and his wife after meeting them.Why Growth Proved Harder Than Expected (20:05)Michael discovered a fundamental challenge with his business model. Most eCommerce falls into two categories: demand generation (Facebook ads, influencers) or demand capture (Google, SEO).Discount Catholic Products is pure demand capture. They can't generate more people searching for prayer cards—they can only capture more of existing search demand. "We're kind of at the whim of the market. There's just a limited slice of the pie that we can capture."Currently, 50-60% of sales come through Google Ads, 15% from organic Google traffic, 15% from email, and the remainder from direct traffic. They've tried social media repeatedly without success."We made a decision early on that we can't do everything," Michael explains. "Better to focus our efforts on the Google ads, which we know work, than trying to get 10,000 Facebook followers and get one or two of them to come to our website and actually buy something."Daily Cashflow Forecasting That Saved the Business (49:57)When asked for his top advice, Michael doesn't hesitate: cashflow management."It doesn't matter if your business is profitable or not. You can be wildly profitable and still go out of business if you run out of cash."Rather than the standard 13-week forecast, Michael went daily. He forecasts every single pound, looking roughly a month ahead. This daily discipline reveals problems weeks in advance—giving him time to send an email campaign, call customers, or tap the line of credit before a crisis hits.Michael also learned about debt spirals the hard way. Services like Shopify Capital advertise 6% fees but the actual interest rate is much higher. The game-changer was establishing a proper line of credit through their bank at prime plus 1% (currently around 8%), allowing them to borrow money and pay only interest monthly."If we didn't have that, either we would have gone out of business or I would have been liquidating retirement savings to pump money back into the business."Today's GuestToday's guest: Michael SimpsonCompany: Discount Catholic ProductsWebsite: discountcatholicproducts.comLinkedIn: Connect with Michael on LinkedIn