On today’s episode, you’re going to learn about how a non-traditional strategy helped this bootstrapped 8-figure direct-to-consumer brand disrupt the traditional men’s wedding ring vertical. Johnathan Ruggiero is the co-CEO of Manly Bands, a DTC brand that is redefining the wedding industry for men. He shares with us the strategies his team used to transform his Manly Bands from zero to an 8-figure business in just three years.  In this episode, join Kunle and Johnathan as they discuss customer acquisition strategies at varying growth phases of the business; $0 - $1m, $1-10m and their current $10m+ On today’s interview, Kunle and Johnathan talks about, Inventory Management and Forecasting Working with 3PL Providers Customer Acquisition Strategy Retention Strategies Search Engine Optimisation Native Marketing Managing and Balancing CPA  Display Advertising Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and other Acquisition Channels Their tech stack Building Culture and Managing Teams What It Takes to Grow an 8-Figure Business ----------- SPONSORS: This episode is brought to you by: Klaviyo  This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo – a growth marketing platform that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like ColourPop, Huckberry, and Custom Ink rely on Klaviyo. Klaviyo helps you own customer experience and grow high-value customer relationships right from a shopper’s first impression through to each subsequent purchase, Klaviyo understands every single customer interaction and empowers brands to create more personalized marketing moments. Find out more on klaviyo.com/2x.   Rewind This episode is brought to you by Rewind. The #1 Backup and Recovery App for Shopify and BigCommerce stores that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like Gymshark and Movement Watches rely on Rewind. Cloud-based ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce do not have automatic backup features. Rewind protects your store against human error, misbehaving apps, or collaborators gone bad with Automatic backups!   For a free 30-day trial, Go to Rewind.io, reach out to the Rewind team via chat or email and mention ‘2x ecommerce’ ★ Support this podcast ★

As the lockdown eases in several countries and mask-wearing becomes a norm for most, on today's episode, Kunle talks about what your performance marketing strategy should look like in a post-COVID-19 environment as well as why now is the best time to prep up for Q4. He talks about the prior increase in conversion rate over the lockdown period for a segment of brands and specifically addresses actions DTC brands should start taking in preparation for the challenging months ahead. He talks about, Metrics over the last two months The panic buying ecommerce frenzy over lockdown Data backed reasons at to why the boom is behind us The impact of motivation on conversion rate Facebook advertising set up, TOF, MOF Creative refresh ----------- SPONSORS: This episode is brought to you by: Klaviyo  This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo – a growth marketing platform that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like ColourPop, Huckberry, and Custom Ink rely on Klaviyo. Klaviyo helps you own customer experience and grow high-value customer relationships right from a shopper’s first impression through to each subsequent purchase, Klaviyo understands every single customer interaction and empowers brands to create more personalized marketing moments. Find out more on klaviyo.com/2x.   Rewind This episode is brought to you by Rewind. The #1 Backup and Recovery App for Shopify and BigCommerce stores that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like Gymshark and Movement Watches rely on Rewind. Cloud-based ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce do not have automatic backup features. Rewind protects your store against human error, misbehaving apps, or collaborators gone bad with Automatic backups!   For a free 30-day trial, Go to Rewind.io, reach out to the Rewind team via chat or email and mention ‘2x ecommerce’ ★ Support this podcast ★

On today’s episode we discuss keyword research, link building and the power of search and discoverability in your marketing funnel. If you want to learn more how Search Marketing (paid and organic) has impacted eCommerce in the last decade, tune in to this week’s interview with the Chief Strategy and Corporate Development Officer of the leading SEO keyword research tool, SEMrush.  Dive in as Kunle and Eugene discuss competitor research, market analysis, keyword research, and some of the most effective hacks to optimize your Amazon listings.  ----------- SPONSORS: This episode is brought to you by: Klaviyo  This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo – a growth marketing platform that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like ColourPop, Huckberry, and Custom Ink rely on Klaviyo. Klaviyo helps you own customer experience and grow high-value customer relationships right from a shopper’s first impression through to each subsequent purchase, Klaviyo understands every single customer interaction and empowers brands to create more personalized marketing moments. Find out more on klaviyo.com/2x.   Rewind This episode is brought to you by Rewind. The #1 Backup and Recovery App for Shopify and BigCommerce stores that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like Gymshark and Movement Watches rely on Rewind. Cloud-based ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce do not have automatic backup features. Rewind protects your store against human error, misbehaving apps, or collaborators gone bad with Automatic backups!   For a free 30-day trial, Go to Rewind.io, reach out to the Rewind team via chat or email and mention ‘2x ecommerce’ ★ Support this podcast ★

Your customers’ journey doesn’t end after a purchase. What happens after a purchase is made, is what differentiates one DTC eCommerce brand from another. For instance, do you have a seamless and automated Return and Customer Service Program in place to assist customers that want to return an item? How is customer experience over a return process? And are you giving customers a sufficient range of options that encourage customer loyalty?   What most eCommerce brands miss in their customer retention efforts is that building a relationship with each customer is an investment in itself. One way to look at it is through incentivising your customers with free shipping or store credits. But the real deal happens when you create tailor-fit Customer Retention programs based on your rate of product returns and refunds, your purchase rates, AOV, and your conversion metrics.  On today’s episode, Kunle and Joe dig deep into analysing return metrics, industry benchmarks, and a roadmap to building a CX pipeline that reduces refunds and cuts down overheads whilst expanding your customer base.  ----------- SPONSORS: This episode is brought to you by: Klaviyo  This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo – a growth marketing platform that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like ColourPop, Huckberry, and Custom Ink rely on Klaviyo. Klaviyo helps you own customer experience and grow high-value customer relationships right from a shopper’s first impression through to each subsequent purchase, Klaviyo understands every single customer interaction and empowers brands to create more personalized marketing moments. Find out more on klaviyo.com/2x.   Rewind This episode is brought to you by Rewind. The #1 Backup and Recovery App for Shopify and BigCommerce stores that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like Gymshark and Movement Watches rely on Rewind. Cloud-based ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce do not have automatic backup features. Rewind protects your store against human error, misbehaving apps, or collaborators gone bad with Automatic backups!   For a free 30-day trial, Go to Rewind.io, reach out to the Rewind team via chat or email and mention ‘2x ecommerce’ ★ Support this podcast ★

As the saying goes, ‘mastery is a commitment to becoming your best’... In the world of Performance Marketing, mastery is no small feat. It involves a unique blend of advanced visual creativity and a highly analytical mindset, as well as the guts to spend large amounts of money with no guarantee of a return.  On today’s episode, we learn from Nick Shackleford, an Elite-Level Performance Marketing Expert that has worked on paid social media buying campaigns for over 100 direct-to-consumer brands and a media buying trainer at iStack and Foundr.  Moving on from pro-soccer, Nick kicked-off his career working with legacy brands Pepsico and Apple, then moved to selling trending products like the Fidget Spinner and Magnetic Eyelashes direct to consumers through his eCommerce venture. Over the last 7 years, he has now worked with hundreds of DTC brands through his agency, Structure Social.  Nick Shackleford has a proven track record of scaling social focused media buying campaigns consistently past 8-figures through programmatic buying on Facebook, Instagram and Snap whilst leveraging, influencer campaigns, email and the Adwords platform.  ----------- SPONSORS: This episode is brought to you by: Klaviyo  This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo – a growth marketing platform that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like ColourPop, Huckberry, and Custom Ink rely on Klaviyo. Klaviyo helps you own customer experience and grow high-value customer relationships right from a shopper’s first impression through to each subsequent purchase, Klaviyo understands every single customer interaction and empowers brands to create more personalized marketing moments. Find out more on klaviyo.com/2x.   Rewind This episode is brought to you by Rewind. The #1 Backup and Recovery App for Shopify and BigCommerce stores that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like Gymshark and Movement Watches rely on Rewind. Cloud-based ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce do not have automatic backup features. Rewind protects your store against human error, misbehaving apps, or collaborators gone bad with Automatic backups!   For a free 30-day trial, Go to Rewind.io, reach out to the Rewind team via chat or email and mention ‘2x ecommerce’   ★ Support this podcast ★

Literally, the world stopped when governments worldwide ordained lockdowns to stop the spread of Coronavirus. With flights canceled all over the globe, people instructed to stay at home, and businesses forced to close down indefinitely, essentially everything was put to a standstill; hence, bringing down economies around the world into a recession. The gravity of the situation was not anything one would have anticipated.  But at a critical time like this, a DTC brand based in Hong Kong was still able to keep their business operations running amid the Coronavirus. First, they survived the political outburst; next, they were faced with a global pandemic that no one has ever imagined before.  Learn what UNDONE is doing to weather this economic meltdown by tuning in to this episode of 2X eCommerce. Dive into Kunle and Michael’s conversation on how UNDONE is improvising new strategies and tapping into consumers’ mindset to keep their products relevant and valuable amidst Hong Kong’s political strife and the Coronavirus pandemic. ----------- SPONSORS: This episode is brought to you by: Klaviyo  This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo – a growth marketing platform that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like ColourPop, Huckberry, and Custom Ink rely on Klaviyo. Klaviyo helps you own customer experience and grow high-value customer relationships right from a shopper’s first impression through to each subsequent purchase, Klaviyo understands every single customer interaction and empowers brands to create more personalized marketing moments. Find out more on klaviyo.com/2x.   Rewind This episode is brought to you by Rewind. The #1 Backup and Recovery App for Shopify and BigCommerce stores that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like Gymshark and Movement Watches rely on Rewind. Cloud-based ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce do not have automatic backup features. Rewind protects your store against human error, misbehaving apps, or collaborators gone bad with Automatic backups!   For a free 30-day trial, Go to Rewind.io, reach out to the Rewind team via chat or email and mention ‘2x ecommerce’   ★ Support this podcast ★

The appropriate selection of a technology stack is critical in eCommerce as well as varies at critical business growth stages as business challenges evolve.  With numerous platforms and applications available out there in the market, it’s vital to select technologies that enable you to deliver customer experiences that level up your business in your industry.  Platform selection can be particularly tricky if you’re not familiar with the technical aspects of ecommerce development. This is why Bart Mroz, our guest and Co-founder of SUMO Heavy, reiterates how crucial it is to have a good advisor and team members that know this well from a tech standpoint.  So to help you get a headstart in building your own tech stack, here’s Kunle and Bart Mroz conversation about digital transformation and technology-driven ecommerce growth using the right tools and platforms to scale your business.  ----------- SPONSORS: This episode is brought to you by: Klaviyo  This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo – a growth marketing platform that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like ColourPop, Huckberry, and Custom Ink rely on Klaviyo. Klaviyo helps you own customer experience and grow high-value customer relationships right from a shopper’s first impression through to each subsequent purchase, Klaviyo understands every single customer interaction and empowers brands to create more personalized marketing moments. Find out more on klaviyo.com/2x.   Rewind This episode is brought to you by Rewind. The #1 Backup and Recovery App for Shopify and BigCommerce stores that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like Gymshark and Movement Watches rely on Rewind. Cloud-based ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce do not have automatic backup features. Rewind protects your store against human error, misbehaving apps, or collaborators gone bad with Automatic backups!   For a free 30-day trial, Go to Rewind.io, reach out to the Rewind team via chat or email and mention ‘2x ecommerce’   ★ Support this podcast ★

Building your own brand in a mature and established vertical can be somewhat likened to being in a David and Goliath story, going against giants who have long gained and cemented their foothold in the industry. And it certainly is no easy feat to set up your own brand, not to mention distinguishing yourself from other big names out there in the market.  But as our guest, Michael Young, would say, “If you follow the same paradigm, you cannot run because people have been doing it for more than 50 years and doing it better than people that do it the same way for 50 years is very difficult. The only way to win is to be different.” And this is exactly how they managed to bring UNDONE into the direct-to-consumer eCommerce space that is earning millions of dollars each year in creating personalised watches for their end users.  UNDONE is a Hong Kong-based watch company that creates uniquely customised designs for its users. They take pride in empowering the consumer by giving back the design-making process into the consumer’s hands and bringing in the authenticity of the brand with each highly customisable watch. Join Kunle and Michael in today’s episode as they talk about entrepreneurship, crowdfunding, operations management, and building a brand in a highly-competitive space.       ★ Support this podcast ★

When I heard that eCommerce Sales were up by 30% in the last six weeks compared to the previous six weeks, I couldn't help but want to know how and why this has happened.  Given that we are in the middle of a pandemic and hardly any country is back to normal, how has the ecommerce industry thrived amid the closure of bricks and mortar retail and Amazon not operating at full capacity? Well, according to Klaviyo's insights, e-tailers' seem to have seized the opportunity to serve a continuously surging customer-demand for specific products that align with consumers' hierarchy of needs.  My interview with Jake Cohen, Head Of Product Marketing at Klaviyo is a must-listen if you would like to understand better categories in ecommerce currently thriving (there are some surprises) as well understand how to make the best use of this unique opportunity.  Jake explains that Klaviyo have a customer-base of 100,000 e-commerce stores,  30,000 of which are paying customers. They selected 19,000 stores from their cohort of paying customers that were in business all through 2019 as well as 2020 and have been able to deliver their highly detailed 'Coronavirus Ecommerce Insights'.  Klaviyo have also been running a daily ecommerce brand and customer survey to get a sentiment and pulse.   ----------- 
Daily Pulse - Klaviyo 
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 Calling all eCommerce Marketers and Founders, Klaviyo have put together this daily survey to assess the impact of COVID-19 on the industry. Please fill it out here, it will take only 2-minutes. Results will be emailed to you daily So go ahead and support it by completing the form: 2xecommerce.com/covid ----------- SPONSORS: This episode is brought to you by: Klaviyo  This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo – a growth marketing platform that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like ColourPop, Huckberry, and Custom Ink rely on Klaviyo.
Klaviyo helps you own customer experience and grow high-value customer relationships right from a shopper’s first impression through to each subsequent purchase, Klaviyo understands every single customer interaction and empowers brands to create more personalized marketing moments. Find out more on klaviyo.com/2x.   Rewind This episode is brought to you by Rewind.
The #1 Backup and Recovery App for Shopify and BigCommerce stores that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like Gymshark and Movement Watches rely on Rewind.
Cloud-based ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce do not have automatic backup features. Rewind protects your store against human error, misbehaving apps, or collaborators gone bad with Automatic backups!   For a free 30-day trial, Go to Rewind.io, reach out to the Rewind team via chat or email and mention ‘2x ecommerce’ ★ Support this podcast ★

On today’s episode, Kunle interviews the founder of a direct-to-consumer brand creating an entirely new sports game called Crossnet that is rapidly growing at a 4X Year-on-Year rate despite the current slowdown in retail. You don’t want to miss this one - do stay tuned! Crossnet is volleyball reimagined - so instead of the typical two-sided court setup of volleyball, Crossnet is a four-square volleyball game that can be set up on sand, grass, or indoors. Their growth rates are impressive: 2017 set up and prototyping 2018 - $75k 2019 - $2.5m 2020 - $8-10m (estimated)   ----------- 
Daily Pulse - Klaviyo 
-----------
 Calling all eCommerce Marketers and Founders, Klaviyo have put together this daily survey to assess the impact of COVID-19 on the industry. Please fill it out here, it will take only 2-minutes. Results will be emailed to you daily So go ahead and support it by completing the form: 2xecommerce.com/covid ----------- SPONSORS: This episode is brought to you by: Klaviyo  This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo – a growth marketing platform that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like ColourPop, Huckberry, and Custom Ink rely on Klaviyo.
Klaviyo helps you own customer experience and grow high-value customer relationships right from a shopper’s first impression through to each subsequent purchase, Klaviyo understands every single customer interaction and empowers brands to create more personalized marketing moments. Find out more on klaviyo.com/2x.   Rewind This episode is brought to you by Rewind.
The #1 Backup and Recovery App for Shopify and BigCommerce stores that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like Gymshark and Movement Watches rely on Rewind.
Cloud-based ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce do not have automatic backup features. Rewind protects your store against human error, misbehaving apps, or collaborators gone bad with Automatic backups!   For a free 30-day trial, Go to Rewind.io, reach out to the Rewind team via chat or email and mention ‘2x ecommerce’   ★ Support this podcast ★