I’ve always loved the psychology behind why people buy.  It’s what originally attracted me to sales and marketing when I was in college.  I’ve always loved the study of persuasive headlines and compelling video ads. I’ll admit that I think less about shipping than I probably should. If we want to talk about pure conversion rates and growth, shipping is a huge deal.   That’s why I decided to invite Akhilesh Srivastava, CEO of Fenix Commerce, on to the show to talk about improving shipping, both pre and post-sale. Akhilesh knows a thing or two about this topic. He’s worked for big brands like Walmart, Nike, Petco, Staples, and Microsoft. Prior to starting Fenix Commerce, he was in charge of shipping and returns for eBay. He’s spent the last 10+ years living in the data behind shipping practices both on its impact on sales and the costs behind it for merchants. Here’s a quick look at some of the fascinating points we dive into: How studies of eBay customers consistently revealed that 2 of the top 5 reasons people decide to buy or not buy are related both to shipping costs and shipping time. How the “get it by” feature can improve conversions and reduce abandoned carts by 20% or more. How Men’s Wearhouse is using the “get it by” feature and how it’s now been identified as their largest top-line growth opportunity for 2019….wow! Practical tips to lower shipping costs and improve your speed. How the USPS can “fill in some gaps” for you and help improve your speed of shopping

Michael Jackness is the President & CEO of Terran.com - owner of multiple commerce brands including tactical.com, wildbaby.com, icewraps.com, color it and more.  He’s also the host of the EcomCrew podcast and is a fantastic trainer and speaker.  I got to hang out with Mike recently at an event and I was reminded of why so many people in the eComm space look up to him.  He’s a brilliant marketer and eComm store owner. In this podcast, we dive into some of the most powerful growth levers available to commence merchants today and how to best use them. What are Mike’s tips and advice online extension?  How important is it, and how and when should store owners consider it? Mike’s favorite tips for cross-selling & upselling because “you win or lose by what you do on the backend.”   The most under-leveraged assets Mike sees in his students’ businesses? Favorite growth levers to pull when tasked with growing an eComm biz. Some of your favorite recent marketing wins from Mike’s many eCommerce companies Underutilized growth tips for Amazon.  How important is User Generated Content (UGC) and how to get it.  

My guest today is a man who needs no introduction.  His podcast, Ecommerce Fuel, is one of the most downloaded Ecommerce podcasts on the planet.  And Andrew runs one of the largest most successful private eCommerce forums - EcommerceFuel.com. Each year Andrew sends out a poll to hundreds of successful merchants to get a pulse check on all things eCommerce.  It covers an incredible number of details including growth rates, conversion rates, On-Amazon and Off-Amazon performance, ad performance, profitability trends and much, much more.  I wanted to have Andrew on the podcast to dig into some of the most fascinating insights from the report and to share what we believe these insights mean to our community and to you as a merchant.  Here are a few things we cover: What is the future of drop-shipping as a business model? What surprises came from the on-Amazon growth stats that weren’t maybe as high as expected this year? The stark growth contrast between private label sellers vs. resellers The number #1 traffic source for successful eCommerce merchants The most popular vs. most effective ad channel…spoiler alert - they aren’t the same channel!  The most popular channel according to the survey was nowhere near the most effective. Quite the contrary.  We explore why. We explore Andrew’s spin on KPI - the Kardashian Performance Indicator…this is pretty funny Plus much more actionable data!

As some of you may know, my very first foray into online marketing was in the crazy world of SEO.  That was circa 2004. After creating some wins for an online print shop I was hooked on SEO. In the early days of OMG Commerce SEO was our bread and butter.  Now it’s still an important channel, but as Google has become more of a pay-to-play environment, more companies come to us wanting help with ads. But…ignoring SEO is a mistake.  The best, biggest and enduring eCommerce companies have an SEO strategy and they execute it. My guest on the podcast today is one of the very first OMG Commerce employees, Brandi Johnston.  She runs our SEO department and works with Amazon organic optimization.    In this episode we cover a host of practical tips and insights related to SEO including: How SEO had changed since 2013 and what that means for us today. What are the easiest SEO wins merchants should focus on? What are some SEO wins that take a little more work but still pay off in the long run? What is a rel=canonical tag and a cross-domain rel=canonical tag and could we get any nerdier? What is a zombie page and how doe they impact SEO results? What are the top SEO tools, blogs and extensions to consider? Plus more!

Connor Young is a bit of a health nut - and an exercise enthusiast.  He’s also an entrepreneur.     He’s combined his passions into a powerful and growing commerce business called Ample Foods.  Connor and his team are doing a lot of things right with Ample. What potentially stands above the other wins is that they have achieved two very successful crowdfunding campaigns.  The first was a traditional crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, which set the platform’s record for highest funded project in the food category. The second was an equity crowdfunding campaign that raised just under $800,000 on a $15 million valuation.   If you’re launching a new product or considering a crowdfunding project or equity funding project you need to check out this episode.     Here’s a look at what we cover: 3 elements of any great crowdfunding pitch Why your crowdfunding pitch needs to go viral and how Connor did it for Ample Foods Use crowdfunding both to launch a company or a new product Why Connor would skip hiring a PR firm for his crowdfunding campaign if he had to do it all over again How to use Facebook Ads and Influencers for a successful campaign How “all the work” is in the pre-launch How to set your goal and why it’s important to be strategic about your goal Why momentum especially in the first 2 days is so important. When to consider your campaign a failure Plus more!

The first glowing testimonial I heard about Joana Galvao was from Ezra Firestone.  Next was my buddy, Jared Mitchell of Skincare by Alana. Joana was described as a designer who “Gets it” - who understands how design impacts online experience and sales. She recently spoke at Traffic & Conversion Summit in San Diego and I heard she brought down the house.  So I wanted her to come on the podcast and talk about how design and visuals impact shopping behavior. Here’s a look at what we cover: The branding triad and where most businesses fall short How color can influence experience and results…and a truly mind-blowing laundry detergent user experience that illustrates this beautifully.  How we’re wired to make assumptions at the subconscious level about whether something is expensive or cheap, quality or shoddy…all within in seconds.  You need to incorporate this for your products! How your product packaging should engage all of the senses.   How to make your copy more visually appealing Joana’s 5-Step Process that every brand should go through for better performance.   Plus more!

Austin Brawner is a legend in the eCommerce space, namely because his podcast - Ecommerce Influence - is one of the most popular in the industry.  Austin has worked with, and is friends with, many of the top DTC brands in eCommerce - MVTM Watches, Pura Vida Bracelets, Blenders Eyewear, Four Sigmatic and many others.  In fact, we reminisce on the podcast about a dinner we both attended in San Diego with the founders of those companies all together in a room hanging out and swapping stories. What separates eCommerce brands that scale vs. those that stall and plateau? What separates the Bonobos and Away Luggage companies of the world from an eCommerce company that hits a ceiling at 5 or 10 million per year in sales?  Austin has a unique perspective on this topic, having walked alongside dozens of the biggest eCommerce brands of our generation. In this episode Austin and I break down the following: What you need to know about AOV and LTV and how it directly impacts your ability to scale. How product market fit impacts scale potential - and why combining a hungry market with a product people want to identify with is so important.   Demand Generation vs. Demand Capture…which is better and which lends itself to scale. The road map to building a team and scaling your business Why a CEO’s role is mainly about people and product and what that means. How and when to hire an agency. Why it’s hard to scale single SKU businesses and why line extension is imperative.

My buddy, Johnny Pinto has a unique product, a unique story, and a unique approach to eCommerce growth.  He’s the CEO and Co-Founder of BoomBoom. BoomBoom produces an essential oil based inhaler that refreshes and energizes you.  These types of inhalers are super popular in South East Asia, and BoomBoom is determined to make them popular in the US too. The story of BoomBoom is chock full of fantastic marketing and entrepreneurial lessons. John got his start in business working for an LA start-up that would later become SnackNation which is now a 200 person thriving company.  When John joined he was one of 3 employees. That’s also where he met our mutual friend and host of the Ecommerce Influence podcast - Austin Brawner.   I thoroughly enjoyed this interview and I’m confident you will too.  Here’s a look at what we cover: How John has masterfully used bootstrap marketing and “sampling” to propel his company’s growth - you should too!   How John and his wife Chelsea got on Shark Tank. What he learned from being in the tank and why the ultimately walked away from a deal. How the went viral on Twitter AND ended up on Ellen.   How he’s perfected the art of boot-strap marketing.  Most ecommerce companies overlook this to their detriment.   Their philosophy for building long-form PDP pages that convert! What’s next for BoomBoom!

Ro Bhatia has some serious eCommerce chops.  He started his career at Google, then spent 5 years at Yahoo, then worked for eBay with merchants, then ran the dot com division for Home Depot.  Now he’s the Chief Product and Strategy officer at Limelight Ecommerce. In this episode we dig into growth tactics that you probably either haven’t thought of or aren’t leveraging properly.  Ro has a wealth of experience and he dishes it out in this episode. Here’s a quick look at what we cover: If you’re using chat on your site, you’re probably making one fatal flaw.  Here’s how to fix it quickly, plus Ro’s favorite chat tool. Cross-sells and upsets make up 30% of eCommerce sales! We talk about Ro’s favorite ways to boost cross-sells, upsells and downsells. In the new relationship economy cost of acquisition is high, and bumping AOV is critical.  If you don’t have a high enough AOV your marketing options will be limited. How to properly use data to create buckets of users to show them the right message at the right time (plus an embarrassing eBay story). How to delight your customers like Netflix does…(and how “stale” is a kiss of death) How to build loyalty and beat friendly churn. The best remarketing cohorts to build and how to communicate with them differently.   How to put all of this together to create a compounding growth effect!

I just got back from a trip to the Amazon HQ in Seattle. Chris Tyler, our Director of Amazon Services, and I were there visiting with our Amazon DSP reps (more on DSP in a minute).  We recently found out we were the fastest growing agency in 2018 in terms of DSP spend. We got to preview new audience targeting options, discuss new ad options coming soon to the Amazon ecosystem and more…Blow your mind kinda awesome stuff. If you’re not familiar with it, Amazon DSP (stands for Demand Side Platform) is a way to run display ads on and off Amazon targeting Amazon shoppers.  With DSP you can run retargeting ads targeting people who’ve visited your product listings on Amazon but didn’t purchase. You can also target people who’ve visited your competitors' products on Amazon but haven’t purchased.  And there are a TON more audience targeting options to consider. Here’s a quick look at what we cover on the episode: Highlights from our Amazon trip including dogs, domes, and, of course, great coffee! What about Amazon DSP makes it “blow your mind awesome?” What are the top audiences to target with DSP and where should you start? What kind of return can you expect from DSP? How to use DSP to build loyalty with Recapture, Reorder and/or Cross-sell/Up-sell campaigns. How does Amazon DSP compliment Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands - the core of Amazon advertising? Plus more!