SCANDIS is the eCommerce division of Scandinavian Designs and Dania Furniture. The first Scandinavian Designs store opened its doors in San Rafael, California in 1963 to cater to the contemporary home furnishing needs brought on by the huge wave of mid-century modern homes emerging in neighbourhoods throughout the west coast. In keeping with this architectural design movement, stores soon opened across northern and southern California, and later in Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Colorado, Minnesota and Illinois. They made their foray into ecommerce for the very first time earlier in the year, in February and have not looked back since.  I interviewed their web marketing manager - Julio Giannotti and he shared a tonne of insights with me; here's a summary: why and how they got started with Shopify Plus, their lean ecommerce team, challenges scaling their operations, the SEO marketing and paid acquisition strategy, automation of with Shopify Plus' Launchpad and Flow apps how they cleverly use their sales reps as affiliates** how physical retail and ecommerce build synergies to driving, even more, sales for their business, how they almost doubled sales across retail branches when they launched their ecommerce site his killer Shopify app recommendations It's a value-packed episode. ---   SPONSORS: This episode is brought to you by  Klaviyo  Klaviyo is a game-changing email automation tool specifically built for scaling eCommerce businesses. I am not just saying it…I use Klaviyo in my ecommerce store as well in a number of stores I advise for. With Klaviyo, in just a few clicks you are able to activate pre-built email automation flows such as cart abandonment, up-sells and win-backs.  Klaviyo also seamlessly integrates with Facebook Audiences. If you’re an eCommerce manager, I cannot recommend Klaviyo enough. Give Klaviyo a try today on  www.klaviyo.com. and .STORE .STORE domains are getting mainstream adoption by brands such as Emirates (www.emirates.store), Jimi Hendrix (www.jimihendrix.store), and F1 (www.f1.store). If you want a short and snappy domain name for your retail brand or your online store, you can now get a .STORE domain name for just £4.99 or about $6.99 using the coupon code 2XSTORE at www.get.store.                                                                                                                                                                            ★ Support this podcast ★

Jason Boyce is one of three Co-Founders at Dazadi.com a home recreational product online retailer of basketball hoops, game tables, fitness equipment, and much more. He has over 13 years ecommerce experience and started Dazadi.com in 2002 with his 3 brothers. They have over 10,000 products on their site with 100K SKUs and sell on all major marketplaces in the U.S and Canada. Over my interview with Jason, I discovered that Dazadi's strength actually lies in marketplace selling. A significant chunk of the $22 million annual revenue can be attributed to marketplaces such as Amazon, Walmart.com and Houzz. They have actually mastered the art and science of marketplace selling. Jason is also huge on outsourcing - his business has an office stationed in the Philippines with close to 30 members of staff. His U.S. team is distributed across the country and they have an office in China for factory liaison and also quality control.  Jason is well travelled and deeply understands cultural nuances in the countries that he does business in.  His best decision was to ditch selling other brands and focus on manufacturing their own branded products under the 'Harvil' brand. This is an episode to listen or watch if you want to understand the intricacies involved in scaling to a mature 8-figure ecommerce business entails.    SPONSORS: This episode is brought to you by  Klaviyo  Klaviyo is a game-changing email automation tool specifically built for scaling eCommerce businesses. I am not just saying it…I use Klaviyo in my ecommerce store as well in a number of stores I advise for. With Klaviyo, in just a few clicks you are able to activate pre-built email automation flows such as cart abandonment, up-sells and win-backs.  Klaviyo also seamlessly integrates with Facebook Audiences. If you’re an eCommerce manager, I cannot recommend Klaviyo enough. Give Klaviyo a try today on  www.klaviyo.com. and .STORE .STORE domains are getting mainstream adoption by brands such as Emirates (www.emirates.store), Jimi Hendrix (www.jimihendrix.store), and F1 (www.f1.store). If you want a short and snappy domain name for your retail brand or your online store, you can now get a .STORE domain name for just £4.99 or about $6.99 using the coupon code 2XSTORE at www.get.store.    ★ Support this podcast ★

The mention of 'dropshipping' often denotes either poor ecommerce customer experience and lack of supply chain control or some 'guru' trying to sell online courses on how to start an ecommerce business. A search on YouTube for 'ecommerce' returns a tonne of results related to dropshipping as a means to escape the 9-5 and upsells to online courses.  My take has been and still is, a business with poor customer experience is impossible to profitably scale; and so dropshipping as a viable ecommerce model was really off my radar. But more recently I was hired to carry out due-diligence on a drop ship business ecommerce brand with monthly revenues of $250,000+ and came across another with monthly revenues of $500,000. This is when dropshipping as a business model started to get my attention.  Don't get me wrong, there is a LOT of crap out there. Basically most dropshipping is the scrapings at bottom of the ecommerce pot. The droppshipping sites I mentioned above and all of the dropshipping sites I see that seem to be doing well revenue-wise come across to shoppers as established brands.  I am also seeing a lot of innovation in conversion rate optimisation with dropshippers because they really are front end marketing businesses that need to prop up the perceived value of products they have little or no control of actually producing.   Tomas Slimas is a successful and retired dropshipping ecommerce entrepreneur who generated revenues of $3 million/year from his dropship site before he co-founded Oberlo (https://oberlo.com/), a dropship app that helps Shopify stores find products to sell. I tracked him and got him on the show to discuss the viability of dropshipping as a scalable ecommerce model in 2017 and beyond. This is a really interesting conversation. You should still listen to it if you are an established merchant, as you should consider latching dropshipping for product catlog expansion.      SPONSORS: This episode is brought to you by  Klaviyo  Klaviyo is a game-changing email automation tool specifically built for scaling eCommerce businesses. I am not just saying it…I use Klaviyo in my ecommerce store as well in a number of stores I advise for. With Klaviyo, in just a few clicks you are able to activate pre-built email automation flows such as cart abandonment, up-sells and win-backs.  Klaviyo also seamlessly integrates with Facebook Audiences. If you’re an eCommerce manager, I cannot recommend Klaviyo enough. Give Klaviyo a try today on  www.klaviyo.com. and .STORE .STORE domains are getting mainstream adoption by brands such as Emirates (www.emirates.store), Jimi Hendrix (www.jimihendrix.store), and F1 (www.f1.store). If you want a short and snappy domain name for your retail brand or your online store, you can now get a .STORE domain name for just £4.99 or about $6.99 using the coupon code 2XSTORE at www.get.store.    ★ Support this podcast ★

Sabina embodies the true meaning of finding freedom through entrepreneurship and the embrace of change. She alongside her family are digital nomads in the true sense of the term. She is a self-taught entrepreneur; and a Co-Founder of two husband and wife run ecommerce businesses, Veppo Cigs and Taza Designs.  I invited Sabina to the show to share her unique and memorable story about the need to embrace change in order to grow both your mindset and business. Change can be difficult, hard and lonely. Change can tear you apart but only for a brief period of time until experience, hindsight and resilience is re-build you. You always have to have the end goal in mind to see the benefits of change and see its true purpose.   Sabina had limited choices over the course of the 2008 financial crisis. Her business directly serviced the real estate market; which ultimately led to shutting it down. Although she was faced with losing her business, she kept her ears glued to the ground and learnt from a business mentor about the then up and coming technology behind electronic cigarettes and its potentially disruptive impact on the tobacco industry. She doubled down on it and moved her family to Costa Rica in order to significantly reduce their living expenses and work on building their business. She has since lived in Belize, Central America and then decided to settle in Bali for a few years. She is currently now in North America and visits Bali regularly.  This episode and interview is one of my all time favourites as it really got me thinking about change. I definitely recommend it.   SPONSORS: This episode is brought to you by  Klaviyo  Klaviyo is a game-changing email automation tool specifically built for scaling eCommerce businesses. I am not just saying it…I use Klaviyo in my ecommerce store as well in a number of stores I advise for. With Klaviyo, in just a few clicks you are able to activate pre-built email automation flows such as cart abandonment, up-sells and win-backs.  Klaviyo also seamlessly integrates with Facebook Audiences. If you’re an eCommerce manager, I cannot recommend Klaviyo enough. Give Klaviyo a try today on  www.klaviyo.com. and .STORE .STORE domains are getting mainstream adoption by brands such as Emirates (www.emirates.store), Jimi Hendrix (www.jimihendrix.store), and F1 (www.f1.store). If you want a short and snappy domain name for your retail brand or your online store, you can now get a .STORE domain name for just £4.99 or about $6.99 using the coupon code 2XSTORE at www.get.store.  ★ Support this podcast ★

Located in Central Illinois, Kaleigh Moore primarily crafts blog content for SaaS and eCommerce companies. She has been copywriting for the last four years under the brand Lumen. She had an Etsy store when she was 19 and ran the business for five years. She had a successful vintage jewellery company where she designed and assembled jewellery pieces. It was from that company where she learned about marketing and specifically the power of email marketing. According to her, email marketing was the biggest driver when it came to driving sales in comparison to social media. On this episode, we will talk about: eCommerce product page trends: such as the integration of GIFs/ Cinemagraphs and the use more user-generated content, buyer's guides. eCommerce copywriting for conversions: and the psychology behind the words, formulas and so much more!   SPONSORS: This episode is brought to you by  Klaviyo  Klaviyo is a game-changing email automation tool specifically built for scaling eCommerce businesses. I am not just saying it…I use Klaviyo in my ecommerce store as well in a number of stores I advise for. With Klaviyo, in just a few clicks you are able to activate pre-built email automation flows such as cart abandonment, up-sells and win-backs.  Klaviyo also seamlessly integrates with Facebook Audiences. If you’re an eCommerce manager, I cannot recommend Klaviyo enough. Give Klaviyo a try today on  www.klaviyo.com. and .STORE .STORE domains are getting mainstream adoption by brands such as Emirates (www.emirates.store), Jimi Hendrix (www.jimihendrix.store), and F1 (www.f1.store). If you want a short and snappy domain name for your retail brand or your online store, you can now get a .STORE domain name for just £4.99 or about $6.99 using the coupon code 2XSTORE at www.get.store.  ★ Support this podcast ★

One of the most downloaded episodes last season was Brand Authenticity, Selling Direct to Consumer and Gaining PR Traction [Physical Product Podcast EP:02] with Scott Gabrielson, founder of Oliver Cabell. A minimalist high-end bag and accessories company. On this episode, I bring Scott again to share the progress of his brand. What really initially impressed me was not only Oliver Cabell's very well designed Italian made products but the execution of the media - both mainstream and social. It was right on point; with coverage on Fast Company, Cool Hunting and GQ. Scott had a lot to say on how to rapidly grow an email database.  Oliver Cabell has made another milestone; with recent funding from an angel investor to the tune of $1.2m, they are expanding beyond high-end bags into footwear (sneakers to be specific).  So on this episode, Scott shares how he was able to attract investment and how he intends to uniquely launch designs on a weekly basis rather than seasonal.  It was a really interesting discussion with sprinkles of anecdotes on how to build and grow a luxury fashion brand.    SPONSORS: This episode is brought to you by  Klaviyo  Klaviyo is a game-changing email automation tool specifically built for scaling eCommerce businesses. I am not just saying it…I use Klaviyo in my ecommerce store as well in a number of stores I advise for. With Klaviyo, in just a few clicks you are able to activate pre-built email automation flows such as cart abandonment, up-sells and win-backs.  Klaviyo also seamlessly integrates with Facebook Audiences. If you’re an eCommerce manager, I cannot recommend Klaviyo enough. Give Klaviyo a try today on  www.klaviyo.com. and .STORE .STORE domains are getting mainstream adoption by brands such as Emirates (www.emirates.store), Jimi Hendrix (www.jimihendrix.store), and F1 (www.f1.store). If you want a short and snappy domain name for your retail brand or your online store, you can now get a .STORE domain name for just £4.99 or about $6.99 using the coupon code 2XSTORE at www.get.store.  ★ Support this podcast ★

Joe is an ecommerce entrepreneur and the founder of KING.fitness - he used to be a freelance designer for global brands such as Coca-Cola, American Express and Unilever. He recently decided to apply his design skills into a physical product brand called King Fitness - a sports brand with a focus on high-quality gym accessories. I actually pre-ordered one of his products - the King Fitness gym bag via an Instagram ad. I was put on a pre-sales list and eventually received my order 6 weeks after purchase.  I got Joe on the show to break down his funnels and how to set up a lean pre-order physical product business.  We talk about: designing physical products sourcing process and finding reliable suppliers dominating amazon with reviews instagram ads testing the market with pre-sales the importance of photography and how to find photographers on the cheap OUR SPONSORS:  We have two sponsors .STORE domains are getting mainstream adoption by brands such as Emirates (www.emirates.store), Jimi Hendrix (www.jimihendrix.store), and F1 (www.f1.store). If you want a short and snappy domain name for your retail brand or your online store, you can now get a .STORE domain name for just £4.99 or about $6.99 using the coupon code 2XSTORE at www.get.store. -------------------------------------------------------------- KLAVIYO is a game-changing email automation tool specifically built for scaling eCommerce businesses. I am not just saying it…I use Klaviyo in my ecommerce store as well in a number of stores I advise for. With Klaviyo, in just a few clicks you are able to activate pre-built email automation flows such as cart abandonment, up-sells and win-backs.  Klaviyo also seamlessly integrates with Facebook Audiences. If you’re an eCommerce manager, I cannot recommend Klaviyo enough. Give Klaviyo a try today on  www.klaviyo.com.     ★ Support this podcast ★

I'm back and today's episode is a solo show. I give updates on what I was up to over the summer break and how I intend spending the next quarter.  There are going to be some changes in the format of the show - I shed some more light on these changes.  --- Back to Shopify...as may already know, I come from a marketing consulting background and initially thought that only serious businesses use Magento for ecommerce. God was I wrong and I take my words back. I am a converted Shopify user now and see why and how it is the fastest growing ecommerce platform today. Here is a summary list of why I was wrong and how Shopify really leads the pack (especially in the startup to growth phase of ecommerce): - It is agile - it is fast - reminds me of wordpress but a whole lot better user experience - it is modular - integration is a breeze  - you get shit loads out of the box The LOW DOWN is that you do a lot less technical tinkering and get on with marketing and selling products ---   ★ Support this podcast ★

On this episode, I am joined by Mark Patchett, Marketing Director at Trouva (https://www.trouva.com/).   Trouva is marketplace platform for boutique retail shops dotted across the UK and Europe. Trouve curates products, accepts payments and fulfils orders on behalf of listed partner stores.  They are really in the business of logistics. The platform eliminates the work of maintaining an online store by providing a shop with the software, customer service, and delivery teams needed to keep the experience consistent.   Mark is the marketing lead at Trouva - in just 18 months, Trouva have grown from the seed round to be one of Europe's top 5 fastest growing tech businesses at 1,509% growth. We talk about how marketing has played a central role in the astronomical growth Trouva has undergone in such a short period of time and exactly how Trouva works across the EU.  ★ Support this podcast ★

Rosh is the founder of ISSARA – an ethical minimal leather good brand. ISSARA operates in the affordable luxury space. ISSARA is what I refer to as an agile eCommerce brand. They make every single bag they product to order with a zero waste supply chain. w/ Rosh Govindaraj Founder, ISSARA. ★ Support this podcast ★