The Ecomcrew Ecommerce Podcast

We’ve been talking quite a lot about the stress that comes with running an ecommerce business. In fact, in our last episode I talked to Dr. Sherry Walling, an experienced psychologist, about how entrepreneurship can be an addiction and how this can lead to stress and that experiencing that feeling of loneliness. This episode is a follow-up to Episode 192, where Dave and I discuss our stress points in running an ecommerce business. We got so many comments about it that I thought it best to come up with a follow-up. So, here we are. In this episode, I read some of the best comments we got from our listeners - what stresses them out and how do they cope with it. Listen all the way through to the end. I’m sure you’ll relate to many of the dilemmas mentioned and can learn from the de-stressing techniques these listeners have shared. Registration to EcomCrew Premium is now closed but, you can still learn from us through our suite of free courses. There’s a total of 20 videos covering ecommerce topics like Importing from China and Building a 7-Figure Business. Find more information on the link below. Free Video Courses We’re also launching giveaway during the holidays so like and follow our Facebook page for the latest updates. Finally, if you enjoyed listening and think this episode has been useful to you, please take a moment to leave us a review on iTunes. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Happy selling!

Now, this isn’t the first time I’ve talked about these two things on a podcast. In episode 192, you’ll recall that Dave and I went through our stress points as entrepreneurs. This time around we’ve invited an expert to shed more light on this topic from a medical standpoint. Dr. Sherry Walling is a clinical psychologist and the driving force behind Zen Founder, where she helps both up and coming entrepreneurs and established business owners navigate their own mental and emotional pain points. Here are some takeaways from our discussion. “The scarcity of time certainly causes a lot of stress and the misallocation of time can drive a lot of loneliness.” Sherry references one of Sigmund Freud’s Defense Mechanisms. Sublimination is when we take our impulses and channel it into something entirely different, doing it in a way that is socially acceptable.   Entrepreneurs are disruptors. We ditched the cube and hacked the system. If we are successful, we get praised for it. If we fail, people call us foolish. Most of us develop a complicated relationship with risk, with rule-breaking and going against the flow. And these certainly play to some addictive tendencies, which can then lead to stress and feeling isolated. “It’s okay to do the deep dive but know that you’re choosing that. Know that it comes with significant sacrifices in your relationships. Make sure you’re okay with that.” Getting a bigger pile of money or hiring more employees requires devoting more time and energy to the business. This could mean making significant sacrifices in other aspects of life. Nothing wrong with that as long as we are fully aware that this is a choice we are making willingly. “Are you going to build things that will outlast you? Or are you going to rest on your laurels and spend your money?” We go through different stages of life. Sherry says that from our 20s to our 40s are what’s called the “deep building” years. It's the height of our professional and personal development. But at 40, there’s a shift that happens in terms of tasks and goals. Our wants and needs change. “Some people talk about work-life balance as if it’s the equitable distribution across these different domains of our life and I don’t think that works for most of us. But I think it’s that sense of whatever you’re doing, be there. Do that fully.” Having focus is important because it improves the quality of relationships and drives business growth too. Listen to the entire podcast for more of the insightful interview that I had with Dr. Sherry Walling. Registration to EcomCrew Premium is now closed but, you can still learn from us through our suite of free courses. There’s a total of 20 videos covering ecommerce topics like Importing from China and Building a 7-Figure Business. Find more information on the link below. Free Video Courses We’re also launching a giveaway during the holidays so like and follow our Facebook page for the latest updates. Finally, if you enjoyed listening and think this episode has been useful to you, please take a moment to leave us a review on iTunes. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Happy selling!

This episode is a follow up of sorts to our 200th episode. After wrapping up 5 Minute Pitch semis, my co-judges Scott Voelker, Steve Chou, Greg Mercier and I had some time to talk a bit about ecommerce while out for dinner here in San Diego. But it’s not the usual shop talk that you’d expect. For one, Scott initiated a speed round and dropped this thought-provoking question. What you would do right now with all the information that you know, everything that you've gained, but you only have 5,000 dollars to start your new business? Unsurprisingly, each one of us had a different answer to this. I’d start a blog and get into affiliate marketing. Greg would invent a product or improve upon an existing one. Steve (who doesn’t need the $5,000) would join an online forum, become an authority figure and use that influence as a launchpad to having his own paid courses and webinars. Finally, Scott would build an audience by creating content that would target a specific or niche market. These discussions are really something that I look forward to. Being able to bounce ideas of three of my best buddies in the industry, each one successful in his own right is always a treat. That being said, these talks bring about insights that could be useful to any up and coming entrepreneur. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as we had fun recording it. In other news, registration to EcomCrew Premium is now closed but, you can still learn from us through our suite of free courses. There’s a total of 20 videos covering ecommerce topics like Importing from China and Building a 7-Figure Business. Find more information on the link below. Free Video Courses We’re also launching giveaway during the holidays so like and follow our Facebook page for the latest updates. Finally, if you enjoyed listening and think this episode has been useful to you, please take a moment to leave us a review on iTunes. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Happy selling!

Q4 is already in full swing with Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but before it could swallow us alive, Dave and I decided to sit down and talk about new things happening up on Amazon land. In this episode we discuss things we discovered with Amazon recently, from good updates like new PPC changes to the frustrating alleged review throttling. We also talk about other things in between. Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals: are they effective? The short answer? It depends. Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals are profitable depending on the niche. For example, Dave sells offroading products which are seasonal and not really hot items during the holiday season. He does experience a bump up in sales during Black Friday, but it's not substantial. On the other hand, my products (coloring books, gel pens, markers) are very giftable. In fact, a huge chunk of ColorIt's yearly revenue is generated in Q4 during which we run lots of deals, Cyber Week included. Should you lower prices to fight competition during the holidays? Our answer? Don't. In fact, we raise our prices a little bit. A common thinking among sellers this time of the year is that they need to lower prices to get more holiday sales and therefore, more profit. While that's not wrong, there's a better way to do it. Increasing your prices will reduce sales, BUT will increase profit per widget. So you can potentially get the same amount of profit but fulfill less items, answer less customer emails and in general, have less headaches. We found this out last year when we increased prices for some ColorIt products because we were in danger of selling out before the holidays were over. To our surprise, our net profit dramatically increased. Some buyer psychology plays out here. People are frantically looking for gifts around the holidays and are probably more inclined to finish buying gifts than saving a couple bucks. Also, the more expensive the item, the more valuable the gift is perceived to be. Pro tip: Make sure to A/B test this. We use Profit Peak, a feature of Splitly. Is Amazon throttling reviews? A very frustrating Amazon rumor has been going around seller groups recently. Amazon could either be: a. not allowing new reviews to be posted and limits reviews to a certain number over a period of time b. manually reviewing all new reviews posted and puts them in a "limbo" for a few days while being checked There's no official word for this yet but we do have some experience hinting that this is really happening. We'll see what happens in the future. New PPC changes With sponsored products, you can now target by categories and competitors' products, not just keywords. We'll test this out in 2019. In effect, we will have 3 types of campaigns: automatic, manual, and competitor targeting campaigns. Pro tip: Go to your automated campaigns and look at the ASINs that are converting. These ASINs are perfect for this new update. Other Amazon updates Listing hijacking seems to be a lot more rampant these days. It mostly has to do with the holidays coming up. Wherever there's money to be made, unscrupulous people show up. This is one of those things that keep us up at night. On a jollier note, we found that if you send a full truckload of products into Amazon, it gets received in 1-2 days. Talk about an Amazon fastlane for larger sellers! Resources mentioned: Profit Peak/Splitly E147: Amazon PPC Strategy - Step-by-Step Guide on Saving Thousands of Dollars Thanks for listening to this episode! If we've helped you in any way and would like more content like this, connect with us on Facebook. For more episodes like this, head on to iTunes or visit our podcast page. Until the next one, happy selling!

It’s our 200th episode. I’d like to start off by saying a BIG THANK YOU to all of you who’ve tuned in to this podcast from the very first one. A few weeks ago we wrapped up the semi-final round of 5 Minute Pitch. The finalists will be judged on their presentations at the Seller’s Summit next year in Miami, Florida. After three days of competition, I sat down with my co-judges Scott Voelker, Steve Chou, and Greg Mercier to record this podcast. Over the course of this endeavor, we’ve had the chance to meet a variety of entrepreneurs. Some have already gotten their feet wet while others are still at pre-income level. There are those who developed their own products and those who took the “me too” approach in terms of what they wanted to sell. Each of them had something to bring and this whole experience has reinforced our belief that people behind ecommerce businesses are some of the most driven, passionate, and hardworking individuals you’d find anywhere. It is indeed a great community to be a part of. With that said, here are some takeaways from this fun and meaningful discussion. Is it still possible to bootstrap an ecommerce business? Uniqueness and defensibility are good characteristics to have A “me too” product isn’t necessarily a bad thing Amazon is still a great place to get started, especially if you’re a solopreneur But when your business gains traction, start building your brand outside of Amazon Personality can be a big factor; putting yourself out there to promote your brand can be your ticket to success Double down or diversify? If you have a strategy that you know works, it makes sense to double down or even triple down on it A good time to diversify would be after achieving a significant business goal Head over to https://www.5minutepitch.com/ and sign up so you can follow along with the selection process. Registration to EcomCrew Premium is open for one last time this year. Follow our Facebook page for all the latest updates. Sign up this week and you can get 50% off on our subscription plans. If you enjoyed listening and think this episode has been useful to you, please take a moment to leave us a review on iTunes. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Happy selling!

For our listeners outside the United States, we are celebrating the second biggest holiday today. Next to Christmas, Thanksgiving is that time of the year where we take a break from work or business to spend the day with family and friends. We’ve closed the office for today and tomorrow to give our employees and ourselves that much-deserved break. My wife and I are taking a trip down to Las Vegas to visit dear friends we haven’t seen in a while. I am personally thankful for a lot of things. I have been living the life that I have wanted since quitting my job in 2004. I have achieved success in the different businesses that I started. This has allowed me to lead a comfortable life and be in the position to help others. I am also blessed with friends in and out of the ecommerce and for all the experiences I’ve had until this point. Listen in as I turn into ‘Philospher Mike’ for this particular episode and reflect on all the good and bad with sincere gratitude. To everyone who’s celebrating, have a good one. To all ecommerce sellers, here’s to a profitable holiday season. We’re opening registration to EcomCrew Premium for one last time this year. You can join the waitlist here. Follow our Facebook page for all the latest updates. A great discount awaits those who register before 2018 ends. We’re bringing the rates up for both the Monthly and Annual plans in 2019 so sign up asap. As always, thanks for listening to this episode! If you enjoyed listening and think this episode has been useful to you, please take a moment to leave us a review on iTunes.’s If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Happy selling!

I’ve been tackling a couple of interesting niches in our last few Under the Hoods. The business we’ll be talking about in this episode is no different. For this episode, I’ve taken on Colin Grice and his aquarium fertilizer and supply business. Colin has a background in Biology and Chemistry, which enabled him to manufacture his own liquid fertilizers. Colin’s business had an impressive net profit margin of over $250K derived from a variety of sources. His website ranks on page one for a number of search terms and organic visits and connections to his website and on being an active participant in many Facebook groups. However, he wants to reach more customers through reliable marketing efforts. Listen in as I give Colin my two cents on getting started in his ecommerce marketing efforts. Some of the strategies we cover include Google Adwords and upping his SEO game by publishing long-form and informative content on his main domain. Under the Hood is a segment where we do an hour-long coaching call with one of our listeners. We take a look at their businesses, provide honest feedback, offer our best business advice, and answer whatever questions they have. In exchange for the free coaching, we will turn the call into a podcast episode so that our community can benefit as well. It’s a win-win! We’re opening registration to EcomCrew Premium one last time this year. You can join the waitlist here. Follow our Facebook page for all the latest updates. We’re bringing the rates up for both the Monthly and Annual plans in 2019 so sign up asap. As always, thanks for listening to this episode! If you enjoyed listening and think this episode has been useful to you, please take a moment to leave us a review on iTunes.’s If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Happy selling!  

Every year Andrew Youderian of EcommerceFuel surveys hundreds of store owners to better understand the trends in the ecommerce industry. Today Andrew and I review the report of last year's survey and make predictions for the future of ecommerce based on this data. If you're also an ecommerce store owner, we'd like to invite you to help us better understand the ecommerce landscape by answering next year's survey. Why participate? Andrew is shamelessly bribing you and me to participate in the survey--called State of the Merchant--by giving one lucky participant a roundtrip plane ticket to anywhere in the world. Last year's winner used his ticket for an epic 15 day, 6 country trip to Europe. More importantly though, you'll be participating in a research that's not done anywhere else. Your participation will give us a much clearer insight into what really goes on in the ecommerce jungle. Predictions for the future Below are predictions, some pretty bold, about the future of ecommerce based on this year's State of the Merchant data: Amazon will lose its spot as the number 1 go-to place for online shopping Facebook ads will get more expensive as more and more users leave the platform Conversion rate for dropshipping will decrease UPS and FedEx will offer Sunday deliveries for Amazon Amazon will launch their own delivery service to rival UPS and FedEx There will be a major legislation about sales tax Full Report You can view the full report in the infographic below. Click here to participate in next year's State of the Merchant Survey. Thanks for listening to this episode! Until the next one, happy selling.

Early this year my buddies Steve Chou of My Wife Quit Her Job, Scott Voelker of The Amazing Seller, Greg Mercer of Jungle Scout and I came up with a new show called the 5 Minute Pitch. All four of us met up last week to film the semi-finals, and it's a little strange to say this, but it's probably the hardest I've worked the whole year. The schedule was so brutal that I wasn't able to touch my laptop for 3 whole days. Imagine that. The 5 Minute Pitch The 5 Minute Pitch is a Shark Tank style show where we have 32 contestants pitch us their businesses for 5 minutes, for a chance to win $50,000. Unlike Shark Tank, there's no strings attached, which means we don't take any equity from the company that wins. Over the next few weeks after the creation of the show, the four of us and a couple of guest judges got together on Skype while 32 companies pitched their business ideas to us. We narrowed the contestants down to 8 and had them fly to San Diego last week to present an extended pitch, in person, to all four of us plus one very special guest judge who we can't reveal yet (hint: his podcast is in iTunes' top 100 Business Podcasts). We will be airing the first batch of pitches early next year on iTunes and YouTube. The finals, which will determine the winner who will take the $50,000 prize, will be held in Miami, Florida during the Sellers Summit. Most Important Takeaway from the Semi Finals There is one thing that stood out to me during our filming last week (aside from the back pain from having to sit in the same position for too long) and that is there's one thing all successful businesses have. The ability to adapt to change. In business, you don't need to have everything figured out at the get go. You don't need to have everything planned. If you get too buried in planning, taking into account every possible scenario in your head, you might not get around to doing anything at all. Learn to take action, get early feedback, and use that feedback to steer your business in the right direction. Being nimble and learning how to ride the tide is the most important skill you need to learn to achieve business success. If you think about it, so many successful businesses--AirBnB, Lyft, Cisco--didn't have all their ducks in a row. And if you look at their history, they are not the same company as they were when they started. But they all have one thing in common: the ability to adapt to change. Even the 5 Minute Pitch didn't start out perfectly. We knew we wanted to do this but the details weren't clear to any of us when we started. But we went ahead and did it anyway, improvising and learning from our mistakes along the way. The result of it is a show that all four of us are excited and proud to present to you. EcomCrew Premium Opening One Last Time This Year We've recently been limiting the number of people we accommodate with EcomCrew Premium because we wanted to be able to attend to the needs of every single one of our members, and having too many people sign up prevents us from doing that. We have a trick up our sleeve for our next reopening on Black Friday, which will be the last time we will open registrations this year. Connect with us on Facebook to be among the first to get updates about our surprise for the reopening. Thanks for listening to this episode! Until the next one, happy selling.

It’s Dave here. I’ve taken the reigns from Mr. Jackness in order to bring you an update on the status of my second ecommerce venture. Regular listeners to this podcast will know that I sold my first company two years ago. After going on a hiatus for a couple of months, the call to entrepreneurship became too strong to ignore. So in June of last year, I started another business with the intention of generating a million dollars in revenue by March 2018. It’s been 8 months now and I still haven’t broken through the 1M mark. But, revenue projections are on an upward trend and profit margins have increased. There have been some hiccups along the way but the business is growing. Given the numbers,  we’re in a strong position to achieve $1.75 million in revenue by 2019. Wins Getting brand registered (finally!) Amazon.ca continues to be a big revenue driver Google Shopping and Facebook Remarketing ads are also doing really well Hired a full-time VA Losses Dispute with the buyer of my first company A major quality issue with a product that caused it to be removed temporarily from Amazon Slow eBay sales The Canadian version of our website was a complete flop For more details of my 18-month ecommerce journey, check out the accompanying blog post here. Registration to EcomCrew Premium is closed indefinitely. But, you can still learn from us through our suite of free courses. There’s a total of 20 videos covering ecommerce topics like Importing from China and Building a 7-Figure Business. Find more information on the link below. Free Video Courses As always, thanks for listening to this episode! If you enjoyed listening and think this episode has been useful to you, please take a moment to leave us a review on iTunes. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Happy selling!