Going fast is fun.  Just ask Ricky Bobby.  "Hair on fire" type of growth in business can be a real rush.  It can also be painful.  In this episode, I interview JD Crouse the co-founder and Queso Grande (Big Cheese) of BolderBand.com - a trendy manufacturer and retailer of activewear headbands.     Bolder Band grew from the kitchen table and dusty sewing machine of JD's wife Amy to do over $3.5 million in revenue their first year.  To call that rapid growth is an extreme understatement.  Amy and JD won the 2014 Build a Business Contest from Shopify and in the process got to spend time with Gary Vaynerchuck, Tim Ferriss, Daymond John and many others.     Growth can also be painful…we'll explore both the good and the bad and the lessons in both.  This is a truly inspiring interview.  Here's a quick look at what we cover:   - How to build a community FAST on Facebook and Instagram - Knowing when to stick with it during disappointment - Handling ruthless competitors - The good and bad of hiring friends and family members - Finding a competitive advantage and building your business around it - Handling the benefits and being aware of the dangers of notoriety - How to grow in the age of Amazon - Plus more!

If you want to up your eComm game then you have to be paying attention to leading eComm brands and eComm marketers.    I just got back from speaking at the 2017 Content & Commerce Summit put on by Digital Marketer.  I had the privilege of "sharing the stage" with top brands like Casper.com, Chegg.com, Racked.com, Fossil Watches and more!     I got so much from the event that I wanted to share some of the most impactful takeaways with you.  So I invited my friend, and the director of content at Digital Marketer, Russ Henneberry on the show for us to each share our top 5 takeaways from the event….   Here's a quick look at what we cover: - How Chegg.com not only survived, but thrived after Amazon came after them directly.  Most experts considered it was game over, but not Chegg.   - The actual business that Casper considers themselves in and how you can learn from their content marketing. - How you can beat Amazon at Customer-centricity. - The BOTS are coming!  How BOTS are impacting advertisers on both Google and Amazon - Facebook Messenger Ad tips from Ezra Firestone - How Fossil Watches leverages the long tail and how you're likely leaving money on the table - Plus much more!

Shopify just reached the milestone of powering over 500,000 online stores.  Today on the show I interview David Moellenkamp a self-proclaimed automation geek, former long-time employee of BlackBerry and now the Director of Product at Shopify Plus.     One of the goals I have for the podcast is to interview and uncover what’s new and what’s next for the major eCommerce Platforms.  If we want to truly understand where eCommerce is headed, we need to get a better picture of what the companies who build our most used carts are doing.     We are platform agnostic here at OMG Commerce.  We create full funnel marketing plans for clients regardless of platform.  That said, I love how Shopify is democratizing eCommerce.  They’re taking features that were once only available to the IR 500 and making them available to all merchants.  They’re also building features that allow merchants to create customer experiences that are only limited by their imagination.     We take a deep dive into what’s new and what’s next at Shopify and we discuss a few current eCommerce trends facing all merchants.      Here’s a quick look at what we cover in this episode: - How Shopify stacks up against competitors - The difference between Shopify and Shopify Plus - How to capitalize on Social Commerce - Omni Channel and Marketplace success  - How Shopify Plus is using scripts and the brand new XYZ to allow merchants to create complex customizations without learning to code.   - How to utilize new technology for better overall ecommerce performance from easier management of fraud to better personalization and marketing. - How mobile shopping is changing and how to improve your mobile conversion rate

While it's not a platform I'm intimately familiar with, Woo Commerce is gaining market share fast. By some estimates, it's approaching 30-40% of online shopping carts.  Largely because Wordpress powers approximately 26% of the web.     In this episode, we dive into Woo Commerce and some general conversion boosters for any site owner.  Cody Landefeld is the founder of Mode Effect and a Woo Commerce and conversion expert.   Here's a look at what Cody and I dive into: - Why Woo is exploding. - New Woo developments and what merchants are a good fit for Woo. - 3 Conversion tips every site owner needs to consider?   - 4 eCommerce design trends to amplify sales. - How to add the human element to your shopping experience. - How to build a sales funnel for eCommerce. - More!   Want to learn more about Mode Effect?  Check out their 5 Key Considerations for Optimization and Redesign.  

Dubbed the "eCommerce Renegade" Chad Rubin is the author of the book Cheaper, Easier, Direct and is one of the top 250 Amazon Sellers in the world.     With over 2 million sellers on Amazon worldwide, cracking the top 250 is no small task.  But that's not Chad's only day job.  He's also the CEO of Skubana, a multi-channel inventory management, and ERP software.  Chad brings a wealth of knowledge on what it takes to build a brand and succeed on Amazon and other marketplaces. You'll love his story and we dive into some very practical and helpful stuff including: - How to build a brand selling on marketplaces - How to become a top 250 seller on Amazon - Should you work with Amazon as a Marketplace Seller (3p) or Selling direct to Amazon (1p) or both? - How to drive traffic and increase conversions on Amazon - and is enhance brand content worth the effort.   - How  Echo devices and voice search will impact Amazon sales   - Biggest mistakes you see sellers making on Amazon - Plus more!

The story behind Xero Shoes is a crazy one.  World-class sprinter over the age of 50 gets hurt, takes advice to start running barefoot and immediately sees improvements.  Then goes on to design a prototype for a barefoot running sandal that would soon land him a spot on ABC's hit show Shark Tank.     This episode is a ton of fun and is chock full of insights and stories from a really unique online merchant.  Steven Sashen is a competitive sprinter, a TV and film veteran, an SEO, and an entrepreneur through and through.  This interview is part of our "How I Did It" series and outlines some of the elements driving the growth of Xero Shoes.  Here's a glimpse of what we cover:    - Some of the factors that lead to the huge success of Xero Shoes (Steven's answer might surprise you). - Steven's favorite sources of traffic - Conversion tips that have grown Xero Shoes to what it is today - How Steven and team approach product design and how that's helped them succeed in the wildly competitive footwear space - Lessons learned for the Shark Tank (hint: you better know your numbers) - How Xero Shoes is leveraging the crowd funding trend - Plus more!

As you know, we are huge fans of YouTube ads.  At OMG Commerce we run a lot of Shoppable TrueView campaigns - the joining of YouTube and Google Shopping (for more info on Shoppable TrueView check out Episode 10).     Tom is the CEO of Viewability and a master of YouTube ads.  He's built very profitable campaigns for marketing gurus like Neil Patel, Frank Kern, Amy Porterfield, and Brendan Burchard.  Frank even mentioned that his YouTube campaigns are working better than Facebook right now.   I specifically wanted to dig in and ask Tom about his unique approach to YouTube.  Here's a glimpse of what we cover in this episode: - How to key in on the right targeting for your YouTube ads. - What makes for great ads that convert (it's not as complex as you think) - How performance psychology impacts public speaking and YouTube ads - Finding moments where prospects are most open to your message - How to measure for success - Plus more!

B2B eCommerce is poised to explode in the coming months.  In fact, Forrester predicts that B2b eCommerce will be twice the size of B2C eCommerce by 2020.   If you are a B2B company or if you're a service provider working with B2B companies, or if you just want to see how B2B will shape eCommerce - this episode is important to you.     In this episode I'm honored to welcome two veterans of eCommerce - Darren Sepanek and Carrie Weidenbach.  Darren joined the Magento team in 2010 and helped launch and run the worldwide Magento Partner Network.  Carrie has been in the eCommerce industry for 12 years and has served in both COO and Director of Project management roles launching over 20 large eCommerce site builds annually.     They are both now at E7 Solutions and work with the OROCommerce Platform (Co-founded by Yoav Kutner the co-founder of Magento) to build custom B2B eCommerce solutions.     In this episode, we cover some really important B2B eCommerce Topics including:   - What is OROCommerce, who's behind it and why should B2B companies consider it. - How has B2C eCommerce shopping experiences (from Amazon and others) shaped B2B expectations?  - How important is Mobile to B2B? - How "commodity" products can really benefit from new eComm trends. - How re-order and subscription models are impacting B2B - Plus more!

Facebook ad spend has skyrocketed in recent years to the point that Mark Zuckerberg announced recently that this year they may "run out" or ad space causing rates to go up (techcrunch article).  For online merchants, it's often the number 2 or even number 1 traffic source with Google usually taking the other spot.    Molly Pittman, VP of Marketing for Digital Marketer, is a legitimate Facebook ad expert and seasoned practitioner.  Today on the podcast we dive into Molly's 5-Step checklist for making sure that her Facebook ad campaigns are a success.  We dive into some real tactical and strategic info here.  Here's a glimpse of what we cover:   - Why your approach to targeting might be all wrong, and what you should be testing right now. Molly always looks to build ad sets around audiences of a certain size.… - How to make your audience "squirm" so that it's hard for them to say "no" to your offer.   - Video marketing tips including long form vs. short form videos….Molly's answer here might surprise you especially if you are a long time direct response marketer. - How competition is forcing advertisers to "up their game" and how good ads cost you less. - New opportunities to advertise and market using messenger - and much, much more.

It’s very possible that your data sucks.  Or if your data is accurate, it's likely that you're fixating on the wrong metrics.     I LOVE this interview.  While I can’t pick favorites, it would be hard to find an episode that was more important to your business than this one.     Charles Farina and the team at Analytics Pros craft data and analytics solutions for large companies like Yelp, Starbucks, TOMS, Asics and more.     This episode is highly actionable….and fun, in a nerdy way.   Here’s a look at what we tackle:   - Top, little-known Analytics “hacks” for better, more actionable data. - Why asking “what attribution model is best for me” is the wrong question to ask. - 3 Worthless Metrics you should either stop measuring or understand what they are really telling you (if anything). - What will Google’s new attribution model look like and when should we expect it? - Real case studies for making better decisions with proper data analysis - Top Analytics mistakes to avoid   Plus, more!