eCommerce Podcast

Entrepreneurship is one of the most difficult things to do well, but it's also incredibly rewarding. You'll want this episode for all your entrepreneurial needs because in today’s talk with Omar Zenhom he shares some valuable lessons that any entrepreneur should take note of as they start their own business or grow an existing company!ABOUT OMAROmar Zenhom is the co-founder and CEO of WebinarNinja. He founded the company in 2014, and it has since grown to become one of the world's leading webinar platforms. Over a million people have attended a webinar on WebinarNinja, and it has been named as one of the fastest growing SaaS companies in 2018.In addition to his work at WebinarNinja, Omar is also the host of The $100 MBA Show. With over 2,100 episodes this iTunes Best of 2014 podcast has been downloaded over 197 million times and ranked as a top business podcast in over 30 countries. Here’s a summary of the great stuff that we cover in this show:In the modern digital world, it’s easy to think that you need to copy someone else to be successful. The danger with that is you can end up being just another guy and not really making any difference. Running a business is hard work. So, when you are building one, find something that you really enjoy and run it in a way that works and makes sense for you. When it comes to content marketing, there's so much opportunity. Teaching is the new selling and there are so many ways to turn your eCommerce store into more than just a store. It's a community, it's a movement. People are just excited about what you have because you're not just showing them the product, you're showing them how it fits in in their life.Blogging is still one of the most powerful ways to get traffic to your website because of the power of SEO. Even though we're in the digital age with video and audio, text SEO is still the most powerful way for people to find you. People don't just go from “I don't know anything about your product” to “I want to buy it now” instantly. There is a process of education, there's a process of them envisioning themselves and their lives with your product.Enjoying listening to our conversation about successful entrepreneurship :-)For complete show notes, transcript and links to our guest, check out our website: www.ecommerce-podcast.com.

This episode is all about learning how to use acquisition as a growth strategy for your business.A lot of people think that the only way to grow a business is through organic growth - but that's not true. You can also grow your business by using acquisition as a growth strategy for your business and there are a lot of different ways that you can do this. In this video, Matt is joined by Stephen Speer and together they explore the topic of business growth through acquisition. They discuss what it means for a company to grow by acquisition and some of the key benefits and considerations involved in this type of growth.ABOUT STEPHENStephen Speer is the founder and CEO of Ecommerce Lending. He has over three decades of lending experience, and has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs achieve business success through acquisition. Stephen is an ecommerce leader, guest speaker, and M&A instructor. With his firm, he has funded over 350 transactions totaling over $400 million- making them the top lender in the country in this very specialized niche.Here’s a summary of the great stuff that we cover in this show:If you have an eCommerce business, you should definitely think of growth by acquisition. When you buy a business, it’s already been brought to a certain level and with the right business acumen you can really catapult the business and continue to grow. And if you're able to grow a portfolio of similar businesses, running them the same way, ultimately it can be a great way to grow and succeed.Usually, sticking to your lane and buying businesses you’re familiar with and running it roughly the same way is a great way to ensure success. Through leverage financing, smaller businesses can even acquire larger ones, as long as the buyer has the right business acumen.As much as acquiring an eCommerce business is a great idea, it is not really a straightforward process because there are a lot of moving pieces. At Ecommerce Lending, Stephen and his team help build a team around their clients to ensure they do have post acquisition success. They’re not just a lender, but offer a lot of ancillary services to help their clients succeed post acquisition.Enjoying listening to our conversation about growth through acquisition :-)For complete show notes, transcript and links to our guest, check out our website: www.ecommerce-podcast.com.

If you're like most business owners, you know that customer retention is key to your success. In this episode, Daniel Budai joins Matt to talk about the secrets to email marketing that will keep your customers coming back for more.ABOUT DANIELDaniel always had a knack for business, but it wasn't until he started learning about marketing and e-commerce that he truly found his calling. As a former geology student, he never would have guessed that he would end up owning a 7 figure marketing agency, Budai Media. But Daniel realized early on that most eCommerce business professionals lacked the skills to implement emails professionally. And that's why he founded Budai Media with the sole purpose of helping eCommerce brands build strong relationships with their customers.These days, Daniel spends most of his time drinking Americano and running Budai Media and , but when he's not working you can find him playing basketball or spending time with his wife and two kids. He loves Americano and travelling around the globe. Here’s a summary of the great stuff that we cover in this show:The Budai Media helps eCommerce businesses with direct response marketing such as Email, SMS, and Messenger marketing and loyalty programs focusing on customer retention. If you're in a business that thrives on repeat customers, then tracking metrics such as average days between transactions is quite important. If you are a big brand with a big list of subscribers, tracking metrics such as RFM can give you valuable insights and help you segment your customers into various categories. Tools such as Reveal or Metrilo can help you with that.Building a solid Email flow and introducing your brand to your customers is a great way to increase Customer Retention. Also, don’t just offer discounts, but come up with creative ideas such as offering a sample product, hosting a Facebook Live, running a great customer loyalty program, or even providing live consultations to your top customers. Enjoying listening to our conversation about email marketing :-)For complete show notes, transcript and links to our guest, check out our website: www.ecommerce-podcast.com.

Wanna learn how to take your product and turn it into a successful direct marketing campaign? This episode is for you!A lot of people think that direct marketing is only for big businesses, but that's simply not true. You can use these techniques with any size business. So whether you're just starting out or you've been in business for years, listen to this episode and start generating more sales using direct marketing.Cody Bramlett joins Matt on the eCommerce Podcast to discuss how any business (no matter its size) can take a product into direct marketing. Cody talks in depth about what this process looks like for eCommerce businesses. ABOUT CODYCody Bramlett is the founder of a multimillion-dollar nutritional supplement empire. After years of struggling as a personal trainer and gym owner, Cody's life changed when he solved his father's chronic inflammation problem with his own custom-formulated products. This empowered Cody to start growing his company, Science Natural Supplements, to help other people get pain-free, lose weight, and overall just feel great about themselves! As a result of starting and scaling Science Naturals, Cody now also teaches other driven entrepreneurs how to profitably start, scale, and sell their own nutritional supplement brands through his coaching and mastermind called, Supplement Millionaire.Here’s a summary of the great stuff that we cover in this show:If you have a great product, you can start generating more sales by using long form sales pages, which can either be text or video, that’s telling a compelling story of how your product has transformed people’s lives. And the way to you can drive traffic to this page is using affiliates. Joining different community groups and coaching programmes can help you find the right affiliates that work for you.You will need quality writers to make your content stand out and to do that you must find out what you want and why. Once you have your product, you can then look at pages that are doing well and reverse engineer them. The people who visit your site do not know you or your product. So you want to build friendship and give them a great deal to build their trust and confidence in you.Cody has built a programme called Supplement Millionaire and teaches people how to launch and build a direct marketing, affiliate-based supplement brand or health brand in that space. He helps a huge plethora of people from diverse spaces start and build a health or supplement business online.Enjoying listening to our conversation about direct marketing :-)For complete show notes, transcript and links to our guest, check out our website: www.ecommerce-podcast.com.

In this episode we’re going to talk about the importance of customer experience and how you can improve it before, during and after the sale.Customers are more savvy than ever before and they know what they want. If you don't give them what they want, they'll go somewhere else.Adam Pearce joins Matt to explore how to give our customers an amazing experience that will keep them coming back for more.ABOUT ADAMAdam is the co-founder and CEO of Blend Commerce, the eCommerce Customer Experience Agency. Adam and his team have worked with over 200 Shopify retailers to help them provide memorable customer experiences that drive growth in revenue and profit.  Here’s a summary of the great stuff that we cover in this show:Customer Experience is the overall experience that a customer has with your brand even before they click on your website till the point where you make your very final sale. So, it’s not just their experience while making a purchase but before and after the purchase as well.A good Conversion Rate doesn’t necessarily mean good Customer Experience. It gives a very narrow view whereas what’s important is the Customer Lifetime Value. You can increase the lifetime value of a customer by avoiding gimmicks and increasing value additions by creating more touch points to understand the customer better and helping them understand you and your products better.Personalising your homepage, improving the navigations, and adding a great search feature are some effective ways to improve your customer experience. Being smart with your emails, conducting quizzes or surveys to help you understand your customer better and then offering services that’s tailored to their specific needs or interests goes a long way in ensuring customer loyalty and lifetime value.Enjoying listening to our conversation about customer experience :-)For complete show notes, transcript and links to our guest, check out our website: www.ecommerce-podcast.com.

Looking for a winning product idea? You're in luck! In this episode, Tim Jordan joins Matt Edmundson on the eCommerce Podcast to share foolproof tips for choosing a product that will make you money. So whether you're just starting out or you've been in the game for a while, these tips will help you find a winner every time.ABOUT TIMTim Jordan is the Founder of Private Label Legion, a community of sellers and entrepreneurs who come together to share ideas, impart knowledge, and create a solid network. He is a well-known Amazon seller, host of the AM/PM Podcast, and Chief Growth Officer at SellersFunding.Tim sells on both Amazon and Shopify and is currently working on a crowdfunding project which he is documenting to share his path to success with other entrepreneurs. Here’s a summary of the great stuff that we cover in this show:Finding the right product to sell is crucial to ensuring a profitable online business. Earlier, it was believed that the way you sell a product on Amazon is to go and see what everybody else is selling well and replicate it. But that approach has problems. The smarter way to go about it is to start looking at Keyword Search Volumes and to realise that it’s not products that sell on a marketplace, its keywords. There's inspiration everywhere, online and offline places that you can go to for product ideas and look for the trending items. You take the product idea, find the keyword that relates to it, check keyword demand, or keyword search volume versus competitive product demand. And then you start to find those products that people are looking for.Software tools such as Seller.tools, Marmalead etc. can help you with product research and finding keyword search volumes of different products. You can also check out Private Label Legion, which is a community of sellers and entrepreneurs who come together to share ideas, impart knowledge, and create a solid network.Enjoying listening to our conversation about winning product ideas :-)For complete show notes, transcript and links to our guest, check out our website: www.ecommerce-podcast.com.

You've seen those websites that offer monthly subscriptions and thought "Hey, I could do that too!". But what's the secret to getting people to keep paying every single month?In this episode with Evan Padgett you’re gonna learn everything you need to know about subscription eCommerce. How it works, why it's important, what tools are out there- all of that good stuff. If you're looking for some way to make money with your marketing skills then this is a great place to start!ABOUT EVANEvan Padgett is a 20-year ecommerce veteran with experience in subscription commerce. As the COO of Stealth Venture Labs, an ecommerce marketing firm, he works with brands like Crocs, HelloFresh, Factor 75, and MUD\WTR. When he’s not taking over the world with subscription eCommerce, you’ll find him hanging out with his kids or playing video games. But his true love is American football - he’s a diehard Denver Broncos fan!Here’s a summary of the great stuff that we cover in this show:Subscription commerce or Recurring Revenue Models guarantee you downstream revenue from your consumers, at the expense of either product or service. So, anything that provides recurring revenue, where customers are basically engaged in a relationship with you, opt in or opt out, that creates a predictable, forward looking revenue model. It doesn't matter what you sell, with a little bit of thinking, there is always something that you can do to create a recurring revenue model out of it. But it cannot be lopsided, it must be a win-win for both the business and the customer.Some of the great ways to do that is to engage with your customer through non-sales communications, talking about your company, talking about the brand you're building, the impact you're trying to make in the world. So have engaging, non-sales driven content, organic Emails, SMS, and curate the whole experience for the customer, making it something that feels special. Stealth Venture Labs is a performance marketing agency that work with clients ranging from the Crocs, Hello Fresh, Factor 75 to small brands just trying to venture out into advertising, on any platform that can be managed behind the screens, such as META, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat etc.Enjoying listening to our conversation about subscription eCommerce :-)For complete show notes, transcript and links to our guest, check out our website: www.ecommerce-podcast.com.

If you're like most business owners, you know that digital marketing is important. But working with a digital marketing agency can be tricky- especially if you're not sure what to expect. In today’s show Robert Giovannini joins Matt to talk about digital marketing agencies and how businesses can get the most out of their relationship with them. ABOUT ROBERTRobert is the CEO of Ironplane, a full-service eCommerce agency specialising in platform design, development, and digital marketing. He brings 20+ years of eCommerce, website development, and team leadership experience to his role at Ironplane. Robert is passionate about helping companies sell online. Here’s a summary of the great stuff that we cover in this show:There comes a point in your eCommerce business where its grown big enough, or you want a level of complexity to your site, or you want it to be bespoke, and you want to develop beyond the boundaries of your current platform. So, when you're getting into platforms, and if you have any level of complexity, you want an agency that has chosen a few things to get really good at.Ironplane have made their mark when it comes to dealing with clients that have more complex needs, whether its integration or branding. They’re a Magento and Big commerce shop, and they also do custom for clients that don't fit into either of those categories.When working with an agency, mismanaged expectations can lead to a lot of problems. Clear & timely communication is the way to make it work as well as knowing your business goals, what you’re trying to accomplish and who your stakeholders are. That way you can find the agency that best works for you and caters to your specific goals. Enjoying listening to our conversation about marketing agencies:-)For complete show notes, transcript and links to our guest, check out our website: www.ecommerce-podcast.com.

Looking to expand your business into the EU? In this episode, Andy Hooper joins Matt to discuss how to make the most of your expansion strategy and tips for succeeding in new markets.ABOUT ANDYAndy is the CEO of Global E-Commerce Experts, has been successfully expanding e-commerce brands into new markets for over 15 years. An accomplished specialist in e-commerce, Andy now works with companies around the world providing comprehensive gateways and solutions to new markets, especially US-based organizations transitioning into Europe. Starting from the ground up, Andy has carved out a niche inspired by his own experience and success of growing an organization’s profits through e-commerce. With an infectious energy for success, Andy leads a team of professionals in all aspects of e-commerce. With fulfillment centers in the UK & EU, the Global E-Commerce team provides hassle-free end-to-end solutions that have helped 1000’s of sellers capitalize on the multi-billion dollar UK & EU markets. When not working, Andy can often be found enjoying sailing, cycling, and kayaking with his friends and family on England’s south coast.Here’s a summary of the great stuff that we cover in this show:Global E-Commerce Experts essentially started by solving the problem for overseas sellers expanding into Europe. They worked with around 2000 clients that they’ve expanded, and doing that across lots of different services, be it compliance, or logistics or account management, they came up with a pathway looking at what successful clients were doing and what the data was telling them, bridging that gap to make it easy.Andy has developed seven basic steps for a success pathway to expand into Europe - market research, compliance, marketplace, 3PL, promote products, website and growth.Market research is all about understanding the size of the market, and that your products are relevant to be sold in those areas and product sourcing. Compliance comprises of product and business compliance aspects. Marketplace is about identifying what's the best marketplace for you to launch on. 3PL or a third-party logistics operation is required to store, fulfil, rework, or return your goods. To promote your products, you need to have a great marketing strategy that generates traffic. If you get switched off from a marketplace, you need to be able to sell your products somewhere and so it’s essential to build your own website, which would allow you not just to sell in your own country but anywhere. Finally, growth or scale is about identifying what additional marketplaces you can sell on to capitalise on everything you're doing to take it to the next level.Enjoying listening to our conversation about EU expansion:-)For complete show notes, transcript and links to our guest, check out our website: www.ecommerce-podcast.com.

Learn how SMS marketing can help your business in ways you never imagined. In today's episode you'll see how easy it is to connect with customers and increase sales using this powerful communication tool. ABOUT TADEJCo-Founder of CartBoss, a text messaging solution for recovering abandoned carts. Former developer now focused on running day-to-day operations and achieving long-term goals for the company. Here’s a summary of the great stuff that we cover in this show:99% of people open text messages and 93% of text messages are read within three minutes. This makes text messaging a powerful tool in marketing. SMS marketing works great in most countries and every business should definitely consider taking advantage of it.There are different types of text messages for marketing. For example, abandoned cart text messages, post-purchase text messages, Winback text messages, newsletter text messages etc. The abandoned cart text messages convert a lot faster than other marketing text messages.With a simple 2-minute integration and their top client getting a Return On Investment of around 7000%, CartBoss provides a super efficient and easy text messaging solution for recovering abandoned carts. Enjoying listening to our conversation about SMS Marketing:-)For complete show notes, transcript and links to our guest, check out our website: www.ecommerce-podcast.com.