The Ecomcrew Ecommerce Podcast

Between new COVID strains and Reddit revolutions, 2021 has been a crazy year—and we’re only barely a month in! E-commerce is no exception to all this madness, as there seems to be a crazy trend of huge rollup companies gobbling up small Amazon FBA businesses.  The rollup strategy is when a company looking to put its large capital to work merges and consolidates a bunch of small companies, aiming to make profits through economies of scale. In this episode, Dave and I talk about how the rollup model works, its potential benefits to investors and to e-commerce sellers looking to exit, and the risks that come with it.  Timestamps  The current trend of big investors rolling up Amazon businesses - 3:34 Why Amazon is somewhat easy (even though it’s not) when it comes to running an e-commerce business - 5:20 What multiple arbitrage is - 7:51 The potential risks and rewards for rollup companies - 10:46 Some possibly incorrect assumptions that rollup companies are making - 21:26 Where COVID fits in all this - 28:26 There’s no telling which way this rollup trend goes, and it would be interesting to revisit this episode with Dave in a few years to see how right (or how off base) we were. For the meantime, stay ahead of the curve with our guide on How To Sell Your Ecommerce Company For Top Dollar. Speaking of making the most out of your e-commerce business, don’t forget to sign up for our Import From China Like a Pro Webinar this February 17, 2021 at 10 AM (PST). In this free public webinar, we’ll be talking about how to find suppliers without getting scammed, staying ahead of the competition, and everything in between.  Did you like this episode? Leave us a review over on iTunes so we can make more great content for e-commerce sellers. Until the next one, happy selling!

Sebastien Taché was our guest for Under the Hood back in E187, where we talked about saving on high-quality content for SEO, developing a product in a competitive niche, and then some. Today, Sebastien is back to share how his business has done after our first 1-on-1 coaching session more than a year ago.  In this sequel episode, I share a lot of things that helped me grow my own ecommerce brands, which you can apply to your business as well.  We talk about things like the benefits of hiring a full-time content writer, branching out into a new industry and importing from China, along with a lot of other stuff that hopefully enables Sebastien to leave his full-time job and reach his ultimate goal in ecommerce.  Timestamps An overview of our Under the Hood segment - 3:26 Catching up with Sebastien after our first coaching session - 4:12 How hiring a Filipino writer helped Sebastien’s site grow 10x in organic traffic - 5:10 Leveraging credit for optimal growth - 10:31 Venturing into a new industry and importing from China - 14:48 Why I ship LCL (Less than Container Load) -  20:27 How I balance my time between multiple e-commerce projects - 23:59 Things we do to keep our offshore team motivated - 30:35 How to optimize content when it’s already ranking well - 40:34 How to launch large or oversized products - 47:03 I had a great time talking with Sebastien and I’m excited to welcome him back for a third instalment to this Under the Hood series a couple of years from now. If you want to schedule an hour-long coaching session and get featured in a podcast episode, make sure to sign up for Under the Hood. We talked a bit about importing from China in this episode, but if you’re looking for the nitty gritty of sourcing products from China, check out Import From China Like a Pro, our brand new book that lays out the blueprint for building a profitable business of importing from the factory of the world. If you like this episode, make sure to leave us a review over on iTunes so we can help more e-commerce sellers grow their business. Until next time, happy selling!

As ecommerce sellers, we want nothing more than to grow our business and maximize our profits, but sometimes, the opposite can also be true.  David Wilson, who was a previous guest in our Under the Hood segment, is trying to downshift his business and transition it into a stable side hustle to support his personal hobbies. In this episode, I give David some valuable advice on how to keep his business chugging along as a lifestyle business. We talk about why it’s still important to seek new opportunities and to streamline your ecommerce business, even though you’re running it on the side. Timestamps: Recap of my previous coaching sessions with David – 3:47 How his sales have done while he’s working a regular job – 7:40 The challenges of selling in Europe and Canada (from the US) – 9:55 How Sellics has helped David’s PPC management – 12:26 How David has downshifted his business – 15:59 Where David stands between his e-commerce brand and his full-time job – 20:49 My advice for running a lifestyle business – 23:33 How to streamline your business while scaling it down – 25:08  A quick chat about Bitcoin – 34:05 Resources mentioned: Sellics I’d like to thank David for coming back to the podcast and I’m excited to learn how his lifestyle business does in a couple of years.  If you want to schedule a 1-on-1 coaching session and be featured in a podcast episode, head over to our Under the Hood sign-up page. Looking to step up your e-commerce game? Look no further than Dave’s book, Import From China Like a Pro. It is packed with everything you need to know about sourcing e-commerce products from China—and it’s yours for free (just pay for shipping, the book is on us). If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to leave us a review over on iTunes, it helps more than you know! Until the next one, happy selling!

About eighty percent of the most popular classical music comes from only twenty percent of all the composers. When working out, twenty percent of the exercises account for eighty percent of the muscle you gain. This is known as the Pareto principle or the 80-20 rule. In e-commerce, 80 percent of your sales often come from only 20 percent of your entire product line.  In this follow-up Under the Hood session with Nic Dillon, we break down the 80-20 rule and discuss why focusing on a few best sellers is much easier—not to mention more profitable—than handling a lot of SKUs.  Nic runs Old Delhi Music, a company that sells traditional Indian musical instruments like sitars and harmoniums.  In this episode, we also talk about how he got past the mom-and-pop manufacturing industry of India in order to scale his business, how his company fared during a year of COVID, and how to manage an offshore team. Timestamps What Old Delhi Music is all about - 02:37 Why Nic started his own factory in India - 4:08 How to streamline a business with a lot of SKUs - 15:04 When the 80-20 rule does not apply - 32:30 How to maintain cohesion in your offshore team and set them up for success - 37:18 How to be someone that people love to work for - 51:10 I’d like to thank Nic for coming back to the show. Check out his awesome collection of high-quality, handcrafted Indian instruments at Old Delhi Music. To sign up for an hour-long coaching session and be featured on the podcast, head over to our Under the Hood registration page. Nic and I talked a bit about how sourcing from China is, in many ways, much easier than sourcing from India. If you’re looking to master the art of importing from the world’s factory, grab a free copy of Dave’s book (pay only for shipping!), Import From China Like a Pro.   Did you like this episode? Give us a pat on the back by leaving us a review over on iTunes. Until the next one, happy selling!

Ecommerce today is hardly the same as it was ten years ago.  The competition has gotten much stiffer, black hat sellers are all over the place, and simply writing cheap blurbs just to get clicks no longer cuts it. That said, there’s one surefire way to grow your business and gain an unfair advantage over much bigger ecommerce brands without resorting to cheap tactics—creating valuable content. In this solo episode, I will be talking about why content matters in ecommerce, how much it helped our own brands grow in the past year, and how you can get started at creating great content for your niche. Timestamps Why content is important - 03:49 How you can go about creating valuable content - 15:31 Setting a bar that our content team writes to - 16:30  How to find the right keywords to write about - 19:21 Finding your brand’s voice - 23:37 How to make sure that people consume your content - 24:56 Head over to Episode 352 to learn if you should set up your blog content on a separate domain or on your ecommerce website. Here’s a link to our Guide To Creating Killer Content For Your Ecommerce Site.  Also, feel free to check out our own content site, Tactical.com. We’ve actually turned one of our best blog posts into a full-blown book! Whether you are a beginner at importing from China or an active importer looking to streamline your process, Dave Bryant’s Import From China Like A Pro covers all the ins and outs of importing products from the world’s factory. Thank you for tuning in to this episode, and don’t forget to leave us a review over on iTunes so we can help more ecommerce sellers grow their businesses. Until next time, happy selling!

Shoot for the moon, land among the stars, so the saying goes. Rob Hampton was our guest for a two-part Under The Hood session back in 2018, and he’s back to share his experiences with us after taking my advice for growing his ecommerce business. In this catch-up episode, we pick up right where we left off. Rob talks about some of the things that prevented him from achieving his million-dollar-revenue goal, and how he still landed on a comfortable 3.5x growth. I pick apart some of his biggest challenges going into 2021 and share a lot of things that worked for me with my own ecommerce brands. From the benefits of hiring a VA to the most effective tools for inventory and project management, there’s a lot to learn here if you’re looking to scale your ecommerce business. Timestamps How Rob still grew his business despite some challenges - 7:55  The benefits of hiring a VA - 8:41 How to scale your processes and systems - 13:46 Project management tools that work for us - 20:35 Why aiming for 10x in a year can be tough - 22:12 Why we went from a single Amazon account for several brands to managing multiple accounts - 27:33 Our preferred Inventory management system - 31:48 Why our current 3PL is a joy to work with - 46:01 How to handle SKU count growth - 54:46 Advice on switching from cash to accrual bookkeeping - 1:03:12 I want to thank Rob for coming back to the podcast and sharing how he grew his business.  If you want to schedule an hour-long coaching session and be featured on the podcast, feel free to sign up for Under The Hood. Got any big plans for 2021? Let us know, and don’t forget to leave us a review over on iTunes if you like this episode. Until the next one, happy selling!

As e-commerce business owners, much of our livelihoods depend on Amazon. However, in this episode, Steven Pope and I bite the hand that feeds us as we unpack the ugly side of Amazon from a seller’s standpoint.  Steven runs My Amazon Guy, a Seller Central Consulting Agency based in Georgia that helps sellers grow their Amazon businesses. He also hosts an awesome podcast and a YouTube channel. Today we uncover the ugly side of the Bezos empire, from its growing power over third-party sellers, the black hat activities that could affect your product listings, to Amazon workers having to pee into bottles to save time. We also talk about some big changes we think Amazon will be making over the next couple of years and things you can do to safeguard your business.  Timestamps  About Steven and his My Amazon Guy Podcast - 02:29 The evil side of Amazon - 3:38 Some big changes we think are coming to Amazon in 2021 and 2022 - 8:18 The ugliness of black hat attacks on sellers - 10:30 What you need to do to protect your business - 20:16 How Amazon seller support has degraded over the years - 22:20 Our culture problem with big business - 29:07 How automation threatens employment - 30:06 The problem of big business and big government being in bed with each other - 36:08 Why it’s important to diversify where you sell - 41:11 Why I’ve lost confidence in Amazon as a consumer - 43:47 Our advice to ecommerce sellers - 46:30 I’d like to thank Steven for coming on the show. If you’re interested in boosting your traffic and optimizing your conversion rates, make sure to check out myamazonguy.com.  You can find Sharon Even’s video on having her ASINs taken down due to black hat attacks here. News article on fake Amazon reviews:Amazon is filled with fake reviews and it’s getting harder to spot them Also, EcomCrew is holding a free public webinar on January 21 at 10 AM (PST), where we’ll be sharing a tried-and-true roadmap for turning your leads into actual buyers. Don’t forget to leave us a review over on iTunes if you like this episode, and be sure to let us know which ugly aspect of Amazon you find most disturbing. Happy selling!

Last month, we ran a community poll to find out which among the myriad of Amazon seller software our EcomCrew community predominantly uses. The poll was aimed at determining the most popular Amazon software in four categories:  Product Launches and Giveaways Keyword and Product Research PPC Management, and  Reimbursement Management  The results are in. In this episode, we’ll be discussing the winning software for each of the categories and why they edged out the competition. We’ll also be sharing some insights on why and how you should be using these tools to grow your ecommerce business—and why you’re leaving a lot of money on the table if you don’t! Timestamps Overview of our Best Amazon Software of 2020 poll - 1:00 The best tool for Product Launches and Giveaways - 2:55 Why it’s hard for Amazon to clamp down on rebate and giveaway services - 7:15 The best Keyword and Product Research Tool - 12:14 The best software for PPC Management - 16:20 The importance of using a PPC service - 20:30 Why you should sign up for a refund service - 25:37 The best Reimbursement Management Tool - 27:40 Refund services that we use - 28:55 We’d like to thank everyone for taking the time to cast their votes, and congratulations to the lucky winner of a full year of EcomCrew Premium membership!  If you want to know more about the tools mentioned in this episode, head over to our Best Amazon Software of 2020 article, where we provide details and pricing for each software.  Click here to check out our podcast episode with CEO and Founder of RebateKey, Ian Sells. By the way, if you’re struggling to turn your leads into actual sales, our upcoming FREE public webinar this January 21 at 10 AM (PST) is perfect for you. We’ll be sharing our tried-and-true roadmap for turning your leads into actual buyers, so sign up today to reserve your spot! If you like this episode, don’t forget to help us out by leaving us a review over on iTunes so we can help more e-commerce sellers with our content.  ’Til the next one, happy selling! 

I absolutely dread bees. But for this episode, I’m casting my fear aside because our guest is someone who’s made a thriving e-commerce business out of his personal hobby—beekeeping. Adam Hickman is an EAS Master Beekeeper and is the founder of Foxhound Bee Company, a full-service beekeeping company in Alabama. It offers everything from honey, to cypress hive parts, to educational content about beekeeping.  In this Under the Hood episode, we talk about how he turned his personal hobby into an e-commerce business and why I think hobbies make the best niches. We then unpack some pain points which could also… sting your company, including his inefficiencies with Amazon, concerns about suppliers in China, and hiring his first employee. Timestamps: Introduction to our guest, Adam Hickman – 2:41 How Adam got started in ecommerce – 4:08 The focus of his business: Beekeeping – 6:12 Mike's kryptonite – 7:33  Recapping the Foxhound Bee Company timeline – 8:14 Making ecommerce your full-time job – 10:23 The best model for ecommerce - 11:48  Scaling from the solopreneur stage to getting a retail space – 19:58 Why a retail space is a great idea for Adam – 21:56 The importance of your first employee – 24:11 Ecomcrew's first public webinar of 2021 – 39:21 Tackling some Amazon Inefficiencies – 40:41 Supply chain issues from China – 47:43 Knowing your limits – 53:22 Increasing the perceived value of your products through packaging – 56:16 Importance of pre-inspections – 61:46 How returns affect your Amazon ranking – 65:20  Transitioning from Squarespace to WordPress – 68:38 I’d like to thank Adam for coming on the show. Check out his buzzworthy products and classes on https://www.foxhoundbeecompany.com. If you’re currently struggling to turn leads into sales or are looking to maximize your conversion rate, join our upcoming Free Public Webinar on January 21 at 10 AM (PST), where we’ll be sharing a tried-and-tested roadmap for turning your potential customers into actual buyers. Got a hobby that you’d like to turn into a profitable e-commerce business? We’d love to hear from you! Also, don’t forget to leave us a review over on iTunes. Happy selling!

Happy new year, and welcome to the first episode of the EcomCrew podcast for 2021! Last year was crazy for everyone, and the pandemic definitely brought about a lot of changes to the way we live, work, and consume. Many businesses experienced losses, but a lot of e-commerce sellers benefited from the fact that people can’t easily go out to buy what they want and need. For this episode, my good friend Steve Chou of mywifequitherjob.com joins me as we take a look back at 2020 and talk about what we think is going to happen in 2021 in terms of our businesses and e-commerce in general. We analyze some factors that affect our traffic and give you some tips that worked for us. Timestamps: How we did in terms of sales during the holidays - 4:50 Focusing on Amazon traffic vs. traffic to your own site - 6:38 What to consider before choosing your niche - 8:52 Steve’s promotion technique - 11:20 Focusing on Amazon vs. lifecycle marketing - 14:00 Our Amazon incident rates - 17:30 How the newest Google updates affected our sites - 18:57 Does domain rank really matter? - 22:35 How to increase your domain rank - 23:00 The effects of Google pigeonholing your content - 24:45 Is it always a good idea to release only content that is sure to rank on Google? - 26:25 Making it easier to create content through environmental design - 28:00 The best way to future-proof your e-commerce business - 30:40 Social vs. organic traffic - 33:57 Updates on the brand we’re going to acquire - 37:53 Adopting the right mindset for expectations in 2021 - 41:14 I’d like to thank Steve for being with me on this episode. If you want to know more about him and his business, visit the official site of Bumblebee Linens and take a look at his awesome handkerchieves and other products. Here’s the link for eCommerceFuel Capital if you want to check out their services: https://www.ecommercefuel.com/capital/ Please don’t forget to leave us a review over on iTunes if you liked this episode and consider subscribing to get notified whenever we release a new one. Here’s to a better year! Happy selling!