eCommerce Evolution (Brett Curry)

If Google isn’t within your top 2 channels for new customer acquisition - 2024 should be the year you change that.

In this episode, I interview Matt Slaymaker on the latest and greatest from Google.

Here’s a look at what we cover:

• What are the best brands doing on Google that others aren’t?
• What are the keys to a better, more productive relationship with your agency?
• How has PMax evolved, and how can you fully leverage it?
• What about Demand Gen - Google’s newest campaign type? Spoiler alert: it’s not great... yet. But we see potential. 
• How should we think about AI with Google ads?

Aaron Sheehan and I go way back. We first met when Aaron used to work for an agency that OMG supported.

Now, Aaron is the Director of Competitive Strategy at BigCommerce. He brings a fresh perspective on the eCommerce industry, and a unique point of view on eComm platforms and the future of eComm technology.

Coincidentally, his office is only a quarter of a mile from mine. In hindsight, we probably should have recorded this show in person.

Here’s a look at what we cover:

• What is Headless, and how does it compare to Composable? Are these just buzzwords or trends that are here to stay?
• Aaron’s and my take on the state of eCommerce and why we see a prevailing “cautious optimism.” 
• The eCommerce trends Aaron is most excited about and what omnichannel means today (vs. what it meant 10 years ago).
• When should you consider upgrading your tech stack, and where does the BigCommerce offering fit in the marketplace?

Gracey Ryback, an A-List Amazon Influencer, began her journey on TikTok by talking about products she loved. Soon after, she started hosting Amazon Lives. To date, she has driven seven figures in new sales for various products on Amazon. 

I first met Gracey when we both spoke at SellerCon in Austin earlier this summer. Her presentation was amazing, and I immediately knew I had to get her on the show.

If you’re like most of the brands I know, then you’ve likely never tried Amazon Lives, or if you did, you did it as a brand and got little to no traction. 

The good news is that your competition likely isn’t using Amazon Lives or Amazon Influencers either... so you have a potential edge.

Here’s what Gracey and I discuss:

• Advantages of Amazon Live with an A-List Influencer vs. Live as a brand.
• How to show up on the Amazon home page with your Amazon Live.
• How to find Amazon Influencers to work with that fit your brand.
• TikTok Shop - how it works, how to leverage for growth on and off Amazon.
• How to fully leverage influencer content.
• What is the influencer marketing mindset, and why is it critical for success in influencer marketing?
• How creative control may be killing your results with influencer marketing.

#influencermarketing #amazonlives #tiktokshop #digitalmarketing #digitaladvertising

• Why you need to spend time perfecting your Product Detail Pages (PDPs).  As a reference see what companies like Bliss World Cosmetics, Kelty and Solo store have created amazing PDPs.  

• How to build community by leveraging micro influencers and by creating amazing content.

• Payments! How understanding Amazon Pay, Apple Pay and Consumer Financing can help you improve checkout and increase conversion rates.  

• Plus more!

• How to approach building a new funnel?

• Keys to a successful funnel

• Diagnosing and improving struggling funnels

• Building a community and a following like a Boss

• Plus more!

Download The YouTube Ads Checklist Here

YouTube offers TREMENDOUS scale opportunities.

Just ask Dr. Squatch, Purple Mattress, Organifi, and Manscapped.

But it's NOT the easiest platform to scale with. We're one of the top spenders on YouTube ads. We've spent more than almost any agency our size on the platform and learned what works and what doesn't.

In this episode, I break down the 11 factors that determine YouTube's success.

Here's a sneak peak:

• What has to be true about your landing pages before you can fully accelerate on YouTube?
• When should you launch a YouTube ad campaign?
• How to approach YouTube ad performance measurement.
• What creative elements need to be in place?
• What role do email, search, and shopping play in your YouTube success?
• How to think about remarketing and YouTube.

Plus, much, much more.

My buddy, Johnny Pinto has a unique product, a unique story, and a unique approach to eCommerce growth.  He’s the CEO and Co-Founder of BoomBoom. BoomBoom produces an essential oil based inhaler that refreshes and energizes you.  These types of inhalers are super popular in South East Asia, and BoomBoom is determined to make them popular in the US too. The story of BoomBoom is chock full of fantastic marketing and entrepreneurial lessons.

John got his start in business working for an LA start-up that would later become SnackNation which is now a 200 person thriving company.  When John joined he was one of 3 employees. That’s also where he met our mutual friend and host of the Ecommerce Influence podcast - Austin Brawner.  

I thoroughly enjoyed this interview and I’m confident you will too.  Here’s a look at what we cover:

• How John has masterfully used bootstrap marketing and “sampling” to propel his company’s growth - you should too!  
• How John and his wife Chelsea got on Shark Tank.
• What he learned from being in the tank and why the ultimately walked away from a deal.
• How the went viral on Twitter AND ended up on Ellen.  
• How he’s perfected the art of boot-strap marketing.  Most ecommerce companies overlook this to their detriment.  
• Their philosophy for building long-form PDP pages that convert!
• What’s next for BoomBoom!

Preparation is the backbone for success during the holiday season.

Today I am talking to  a few of our OMG experts on preparing to win the 2022 holidays. Joining us is Amber Norell, OMG’s Amazon Director, Bill Cover, one of OMG’s amazing Google Strategist, and Savannah Knight, one of OMG’s rockstar Google Specialists. 

This holiday season should be quite interesting. Inflation, rising ad costs, privacy issues, and new campaign types have this year shaping up to be anything but ordinary. 

In this episode we cover how to: 

• Drive MORE traffic profitably
• Go omnichannel
• Turn every interaction (even support) into sales opportunities

I just got back from a trip to the Amazon HQ in Seattle. Chris Tyler, our Director of Amazon Services, and I were there visiting with our Amazon DSP reps (more on DSP in a minute).  We recently found out we were the fastest growing agency in 2018 in terms of DSP spend. We got to preview new audience targeting options, discuss new ad options coming soon to the Amazon ecosystem and more…Blow your mind kinda awesome stuff.

If you’re not familiar with it, Amazon DSP (stands for Demand Side Platform) is a way to run display ads on and off Amazon targeting Amazon shoppers.  With DSP you can run retargeting ads targeting people who’ve visited your product listings on Amazon but didn’t purchase. You can also target people who’ve visited your competitors' products on Amazon but haven’t purchased.  And there are a TON more audience targeting options to consider. Here’s a quick look at what we cover on the episode:

• Highlights from our Amazon trip including dogs, domes, and, of course, great coffee!
• What about Amazon DSP makes it “blow your mind awesome?”
• What are the top audiences to target with DSP and where should you start?
• What kind of return can you expect from DSP?
• How to use DSP to build loyalty with Recapture, Reorder and/or Cross-sell/Up-sell campaigns.
• How does Amazon DSP compliment Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands - the core of Amazon advertising?
• Plus more!

1. Getting found on Amazon by improving your organic rankings or paying for ads.  
2. Getting more people to click on your listings once they see it.  
3. Convincing more shoppers that your product is the one for them.

• How to maximize your SEO efforts for launching new products on Amazon
• How to integrate and tweak existing listings that already rank to get them to rank HIGHER
• Leveraging your 6 images for maximum conversions
• What to do with A+ content to make your product nearly irresistible 
• How Yes Bar gets it right with their listing optimization and storefront optimization
• Top Amazon listing mistakes sellers make and how to avoid them

Paulina Masson is the founder of Shopkeeper and a longtime Amazon seller.  She has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to pricing products. She understands the competitive forces behind pricing decisions as well as the psychological factors.  

Ultimately you want to price in such a way to maximize total profits.  While you should consider profit per transaction, that might not be the ultimate metric to try and maximize.  Here’s what we look at:

• How to run pricing split test and why it’s so complex.
• How to price your products at launch including a free margin calculator
• How to balance competitive price factors with consumer perception and psychology
• When to end your price in 99, or 97 rather than 00.  And how a premium product or your target market might influence this.
• 3 Types of Shoppers on Amazon and how to price for each
• When and how to use coupons - when to do a % off vs. a $ off
• How price impacts conversion rates
• Plus more!

At one time, Charles Tichenor was a top 100 advertiser on Facebook. 

On the platform, he frequently manages 7 figure budgets per DAY! 

In the early days, he managed FB ads for Apple, New Balance, major automotive brands, and more. Facebook gave him test budgets ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 per day to test new features and Betas.

In this episode, Charles and I dig into what’s working now, what mistakes he’s seeing, and a bit of his framework for success. 

Here’s a look at what we cover:

• How Facebook Advantage Plus ads give you an unfair advantage - and what you should do about it right now.

• If you want to win more customers, you have to BE your customer. 

• How chasing “what’s working now” with Facebook creatives is likely to make you a second-rate advertiser - and what to do instead.

• The AI Charles was using before Chat GPT and how you should use it.

• Creative ways to use Chat GPT to speed up your marketing process. 

• How TikTok is different from all the other platforms.

• How to win with TikTok organic and paid ads.

• How to land on the right creatives for your brand.

• Plus MORE!

Prime Day is now one of the most anticipated shopping events of the year for both shoppers and sellers.

It started in 2015 as a way to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Amazon.  Mostly it was designed to help boost sales during one of the slowest times of the year (July). 

It has since grown dramatically and rivaled some of the largest shopping days of the year. 

In this episode, we break down what we saw this year including some surprises, key learnings, and take aways for upcoming big sales events like other Prime events and Black Friday/Cyber Monday.

OMG is large enough now that aggregate data from our clients is informative and meaningful.  In this episode we unpack global Amazon trends and data and data from our growing list of OMG clients. 

Amber, OMG’s Amazon Director, and Trenton, our Amazon PPC lead, join the podcast to break down what we saw from OMG clients and what we saw globally. 

Here’s a look at what we cover.

• 300 million items were purchased on Prime Day 2022.
• 60,000 items purchased per minute (wowza).
• Most shopping was done from 8p-9p PT on Wednesday 7/13.
• What happened to CPCs and conversion rates during Prime Day.
• What offers and deals did well, vs. what didn’t do so hot.
• What categories really shined and outperformed others (some pretty surprising results here).
• Key learnings to apply for Prime Day Early Access and Cyber 5.

Supply chain, lock down, store closures, falling ad costs, rising costs of sanitation…just a few of the areas impacting retail and e-commerce right now.  In my interview with Eamon Kelly of Edgewater Research, we talk about the following hot topics to recent data points.

• How ad costs are impacted on Amazon, Facebook and Google during the crisis
• What categories are seeing spikes vs. dips in sales…there are a few surprising areas here plus some opportunities for companies to pivot.
• What major retailers like Dick’s sporting goods are seeing
• How retailers like Chewys are experience both growth and interesting shifts in costs and increased margin pressure
• How to think about inventory levels with more shopping shifting online

Conversational commerce.  What is it?  Basically, it’s taking the in-person shopping experience of asking questions and talking to retail sales staff and moving it into multiple online channels seamlessly.  Today shoppers want to interact with you in a variety of ways and they want near-instant feedback.  Messenger.  SMS.  Chat.  Facebook comments.  Your customers expect you to be everywhere they are when they need you.  

In this interview, Phil and I talk about some of the foundations of conversational commerce - both strategies and tactics.  This will help guide all of your conversational commerce efforts. Here’s a quick look at what we discuss.  

• What components of conversational commerce should you consider?
• What impact can conversational commerce have on conversion rates?
• How to look at the dashboard and KPIs related to conversational commerce.
• How this impacts your paid acquisition efforts.
• Lots of real-world examples
• Plus more

Andrew Morgans is a true OG when it comes to success on Amazon.  Andrew is the founder of Marknology (think marketing combined with technology) an Amazon brand accelerator and the host of the Startup Hustle podcast.  He’s been helping brands grow on Amazon for 9 years.  Needless to say, a LOT has changed on Amazon in 9 years and Andrew has seen a little bit of everything.  In this episode, we go deep into what successful brands are doing right now on Amazon and where things are headed on the platform….

• Andrew’s philosophy of “if your product can’t sell with your photos and videos alone, you need to go back to the drawing board.”
• How your copy and photos should flow
• How A+ content, storefronts and copy really come down to just 2 things
• Andrew’s favorite tools that he uses daily…but when he doesn’t use them to make decisions.
• How to view Amazon ads in light of how the advertising industry is shifting
• Going international - Amazon is doubling down on international growth…why now is the time to consider it for your brand

Mike Ugino is the CMO and co-founder of Sellbrite a SaaS platform for marketplace sellers.  Sellbrite was recently acquired by GoDaddy. In this episode we breakdown how Mike and his business partner Brian approached building the company with selling it in mind.  We also talk about what the acquisition process was like including saying no to GoDaddy initially. In this episode we uncover some golden ideas for scaling and exiting your business including:

• How constraints lead to creativity
• What building it to sell means and looks like
• Hitting plateaus and how to grow again
• How to know if a deal is right and saying “no” when it isn’t….even if it means turning down GoDaddy
• How to keep your culture when you sell

• How to have the right mindset for navigating volatility (this is more important than you think)
• What to do when ad performance tanks
• Where you should tinker to improve performance and where you shouldn’t
• Why this is still the greatest time in history to be a marketer - volatility and all.
• 3 Spot checks to make sure you are ready to scale traffic
• The impact of the California Consumer Privacy Act and new changes coming to iOS 14….the good, the bad, and the scary. 

Liz Germain is a YouTube PRO and a repeat guest on the show! We first met when I was speaking at an eCommerce event held at the YouTube LA Offices. 

Liz is responsible for well over 200 million organic views on YouTube and has worked and consulted with some of the top influencers online today. 

Here’s a look at what we cover:

• The three types of content you should create on YouTube and how to approach each.
• How search-driven views only account for less than 10% of total watch time on the platform.
• The 4 phases of creating a massive following on YouTube.
• The metrics YouTube cares about and you should obsess over.
• How YouTube ads and YouTube organic do NOT mix, but how you can still leverage both for growth.

Michael Jamin knows a thing or two about telling a good story.  He’s written for popular sitcoms like King of the Hill, Rules of Engagement, Tacoma FD, and Beavis & Butthead to name a few.  More importantly, for our purposes, he’s also the Co-Founder of Twirly Girl - an eComm brand that features some truly magical storytelling ads.  I wanted to have Michael on the show so we could learn some of his secrets….and because I knew it would be a ton of FUN.  He delivered.  Here’s a quick look at what we cover:

• Using setup and punchline to deliver features and benefits in a truly fun, funny and memorable way
• If customers focus on price, it’s your fault and how to fix it
• How some powerful tweak in FB ads dropped their cost per share from $178 to just $1.16
• When Michael combined what he knew about TV script writing and eComm Twirly Girl grew 30.6%
• Why people aren’t really buying stuff, but rather relationships and magic
• A few powerful “story makeovers”
• Plus more

In this episode of the eCommerce Evolution Podcast, I sit down with Dean Brennan, CEO of Heart and Soil Supplements, to unpack the meteoric rise of this innovative health brand. From zero to $50 million in just three years, Heart and Soil has disrupted the supplement industry with its focus on nutrient-dense organ meats and regenerative farming practices. Dean shares invaluable insights on building a brand with passionate customers and maintaining profitability during rapid growth.

Key topics discussed:

• The power of organic growth and building an engaged audience before launch.

• How premium packaging and high-quality ingredients can actually protect profit margins.

• Strategies for creating compelling content that inspires and guides customers.

• Structuring your week as a CEO to balance deep work and management responsibilities.

• The importance of psychological barriers in health transformations and plans to build an ecosystem similar to Dave Ramsey's approach to personal finance.

This episode is packed with actionable advice for eCommerce entrepreneurs looking to build a brand with 'staying power' in today's competitive landscape. Whether you're just starting out or scaling rapidly, Dean's journey with Heart and Soil offers valuable lessons for sustainable growth.

• Why customers actually prefer page takeovers to other exit pops (and the numbers back it up)

• Headline tips from marketing masters and why your current headlines might suck

• How Neil Patel gets more conversions on his properties

• Headline formulas to get more clicks, signups and sales

• Lead magnet ideas that drive conversion vs. lead magnets that lead to eye rolls.

• Plus more conversion optimization gold

In this episode we discuss top email and SMS mistakes Ecommerce store owners make, what strategies are working now, and what the future holds for these channels.

Here’s a look at what we cover:

• The top 3 automations you need to build right now.
• How relying on templates could be dragging down performance.
• What to do now that open rate isn’t a thing anymore.
• Utilizing push notifications and tap cart - what you need to know.
• Top email strategies - what’s changing and what isn’t.
• Real World email examples.
• Plus more! 

“The difference between who you are now and who you are five years from now, comes down to the people you meet and the books you read.” - Charlie "Tremendous" Jones "The book you don't read won't help." - Jim Rohn

This episode is about getting the right information to feed your brain and better yourself. Brett talks about some of his favorite podcasts and his favorite books, and why you should be monitoring your inputs. You (and your brain) are the most valuable assets your ecommerce business has. Get the right inputs!

Supply chain and logistics. When everything is running smoothly, it’s a breeze. When there are problems, inventory issues can cripple an eComm business. Inventory, and supply chain management has been struggle city in 2020 and 2021. Unfortunately, 2022 isn’t looking much better. 

In this episode I interview Chelsea Cohen of So Stocked and we unpack some super smart inventory and supply chain strategies. This content is a MUST if you want to remain competitive (and avoid pulling your hair out from supply chain pain). 

Here’s a look at what we cover:

• The Golden rule of logistics - don’t let anyone have all of your stuff - and how to apply it.
• Container optimizations - with the cost of containers rising, container optimization can have a big impact on your overall profitability. 
• Carton optimizations - This is a next-level tactic that can save you big. Especially when you combine it with container optimization. 
• 4 points that impact your restock limit with Amazon 
• 3 triggers to pull to avoid restock limit crashes during out of stock periods

• Law of Quarters - and how it should help you think about margins, product pricing, and operations.
• How failing to introduce successful 2nd, 3rd, and 4th products can spell death to a brand.
• How to structure a successful Ambassador program that will become a new content engine for you.
• Tips for building a real community around your brand.
• Knowing your numbers and your MER (Media Efficiency Ratio).
• How to generate an unending supply of amazing User Generated Content. 
• Plus more!

Jeremy Horowitz is one of my favorite follows on LinkedIn. 

He recently dropped some brilliant (and terrifying) posts about the economy, the impending debt crisis, and what DTC brands should focus on now.

Jeremy and I go way back. In fact, this is our 4th podcast together over the years (he used to host a show too). Jeremy has been in the DTC SaaS space for years, having previously managed marketing for a large DTC brand. Jeremy is now the Sr. Partner Manager at Gorgias, and he and his team run the DTCX events, which have become some of my favorites to speak at and attend. 

Here's a look at what we cover. Some of it's heavy, but it also speaks to the amount of opportunity on the horizon: 

• What keeps Jeremy up at night? A potential consumer debt crisis? More at this link.

• 64% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Those making over $100k per year are in the same boat.

• What you can learn from Liquid Death. 

• Understanding how and where your customers want to buy.

• Avoiding the discount doom loop.

• Getting your inventory as close to "just-in-time" as possible.

• A different way to look at your marketing budget and performance. 

When the pandemic left Garrett Goslin without his sommelier job, he turned his passion for pickleball into an innovative paddle company. Alongside childhood friend Kyle Goguen, CRBN Pickleball has emerged as a leading premium brand in one of America's fastest-growing sports. Their journey offers valuable lessons for any brand looking to build authentic community and stand out in a competitive market.

Key Takeaways:

• Product Innovation & Customer Feedback: Learn how CRBN maintains its competitive edge by leveraging multiple feedback loops - from pro athletes to local ambassadors - and investing heavily in R&D to stay ahead of larger competitors.
• Building a Multi-Channel Brand: Discover their strategic approach to building a premium brand across direct-to-consumer, Amazon, and retail channels while maintaining consistent positioning and storytelling.
• Community-First Growth: Explore how CRBN built a powerful ambassador program without spending big marketing dollars, and why their grassroots approach helped them compete against established sporting goods brands.
• Founder Authenticity: See why sharing the founder's story - even when uncomfortable - has become a key differentiator in their marketing strategy and helped forge deeper connections with customers.

The episode provides a masterclass in building a premium brand through community engagement, product innovation, and authentic storytelling.

Molly Pittman is a bit of a legend in the digital marketing space.  Bartender turned marketing intern for Ryan Deiss, turned VP of Marketing for Digital Marketer, turned entrepreneur - Molly’s story is an inspiring one.  And she flat knows her stuff!

In this episode, we dig into some real gems.  We do go pretty deep on what’s working now on Facebook, but we also talk about the benefits of building an in-house team vs. the benefits of an agency.  We talk about entrepreneurial lessons and what life is like in Amsterdam (where Molly currently lives).

Here’s a look at what we cover:

• Why being fluid might be the most important entrepreneurial trait…and why it’s important for digital marketers
• Why curiosity and fascination are crucial in our current marketing landscape
• What is CBO and how it’s impacting Molly’s Facebook ad campaign and what you should do about it.
• What are the 3 facets of Facebook’s new Quality Ranking and how to optimize your ads
• How low quality rankings can dramatically drive up costs or get your ads shut down
• Plus more

Why does one hook work and another flops? 

Why does one offer get customers clicking and buying and another offer get’s only a shrug? 

How can you know BEFORE you spend money on an ad if it’s likely to convert?

Today’s episode is a recording from a recent talk I gave at Ezra Firestone’s Blue Ribbon Mastermind. 

I break down 7 ad tests guaranteed to make ANY ad better. 

Follow these tests and your ads will have more stopping power, more engagement, and drive more ACTION. 

The visuals do help with this one, so watching on YouTube might be a good idea, but the audio sill captures most of the value.

Here’s a breakdown of what you’ll learn:

• How to tell if your ads differentiate your product ENOUGH from the competition
• A test that great standup comedians use that applies to your ads as well 
• A test that’s best illustrated using a cat, and one that’s best identified using a donkey. Any guesses what these tests might be about?
• How to handle lingering objections
• How to tell if your ad has the power to motivate your prospects to take action
• Plus more!

This presentation was super fun for me. Hopefully you’ll find it entertaining and helpful! 

Cyber 5 Recap

While holiday shopping is still in full swing at the time of this writing, we do have some preliminary numbers for the Cyber 5 2020 (Thanksgiving Thursday–Cyber Monday) and an early look at how Holiday 2020 as a whole is shaping up.  Here are five key observations, so far, for Holiday 2020.  

1. We’re breaking every eCommerce record and it’s not even close.  No surprise here, but this year marks a record for online sales for Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the entire Thanksgiving weekend. Adobe Analytics was predicting two years’ worth of growth being packed into this Holiday Shopping season.  So far, we’re on track.     
2. It’s less about a single day, and more about the weekend.  This has been the trend for the last few years where retailers and shoppers alike view the Cyber 5 as one big event rather than just the individual days of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Cyber Monday is still the largest single day, with Black Friday coming in second place.  However, Saturday, now dubbed Small Business Saturday, isn’t far behind. In fact, Black Friday this year was only 8% larger in total sales than Small Business Saturday.  Here’s a quick look at how the Cyber 5 performed.  A lot of this growth has come at the expense of in-store shopping.  CNBC estimates that Black Friday in-store traffic was down 52% year over year, while curbside pickup is up 52%.

Day

Total Sales

YoY Growth 

Thanksgiving (11/26/20)

$5.1B

21.5%

Black Friday (11/27/20)

$9.03B

21.6%

Small Business Saturday (11/28/20)

$4.68B

30.19%

Cyber Monday (11/30/20)

$10.84B

15.1%

1. Shipaggedon is real.  I first heard this term on one of my favorite podcasts—the Jason and Scot Show (Episode 245). Basically, it’s the idea that delivery networks were already strained due to the pandemic-induced boom in online shopping before the holiday rush.  Now, with a record-breaking holiday season on top of a strained system, something has to give.  It’s no joke, and it will be interesting to see how it impacts the rest of the holiday shopping.  Both UPS and FedEx have recently announced they are cutting some retailers off from being able to ship more packages. This will likely mean early cut offs for guaranteed delivery before Christmas.  It could also mean a lot of packages just won’t make it in time for Christmas morning.   
2. Costs are up, but performance is up more.  As a digital advertising agency working with some up-and-coming eCommerce brands, we get an inside look into both ad spend and performance across Google Ads, YouTube Ads and Amazon Ads.  While numbers aren’t finalized yet, we are seeing that costs have indeed gone up from last year, but conversion rates have gone up even more creating really nice year-over-year growth in total sales and total ad performance.  Early analysis shows that CPCs are up nearly 20% year-over-year, but conversion rates are up over 50%.   

Predictions for the remainder of the holiday shopping season.  With more cities across the US seeing surges in new cases of COVID-19, it’s unlikely to see a material shift from online shopping back to in-store shopping.  We should see this record breaking pace continue for the rest of the holiday season.  The wildcard is shipaggedon.  My prediction is that we’ll see a fair number of digital gift cards purchased and printed off, as well as pictures of gifts...

A few months ago I delivered a talk at Social Media Marketing World 2019 on how to create a full funnel with YouTube ads.  Feedback on the session was great so I wanted to share it here on the podcast.  

Why YouTube ads? Watch time for “which product to buy” videos on YouTube doubled this past year. Nearly 70% of shoppers say they are open to learning about products on YouTube directly from brands. In this talk, we’ll explore 3 ways to utilize YouTube ads for growth. We’ll uncover 3 proven YouTube ad formulas to put the right video in front of the right prospect at the right time. We’ll also examine the best bidding strategies and winning campaign structures to implement for success.

• What market you should target first when you go international
• What markets should you consider 2nd and 3rd when going International
• What are some non-obvious benefits to going international like lower ad costs and lower competition
• What about Australia?
• What steps to take and when to try your first international market
• Plus much more!

Prime Day 2021 was a year of firsts.  It was the first year Prime Day took place in the 2nd quarter.  From 2015 to 2019 Prime Day was in July.  In 2020, due to the pandemic, Prime Day was moved to October and became the de facto kickoff to holiday shopping.  

This year was also the first year that Prime Day experienced year-over-year growth of 10% or less.  But when the 2-day event brings in $10-11 billion in sales, any year-over-year growth still represents HUGE growth in real dollars.  

For this episode, I brought in OMG’s Amazon Director Chris Tyler to help unpack what we experienced with our clients this year during Prime Day.  Here’s a look at what we discuss:

• Some surprises we saw in the OMG client sales data
• How advertisers may have been more excited than shoppers this Prime Day
• Prime Day may not be a great fit for every seller - some categories crushed it during Prime Day, other categories were “meh.”
• Why inventory issues for many sellers influenced the prevalence of deep discounts and likely took some of the urgency out of Prime Day shopping.  
• The strange shopping behavior we saw during day 2 of Prime Day. 
• How to maximize Prime Day or holiday shopping by thinking Full Funnel with your ad approach
• Plus more!

In this episode of the eCommerce Evolution Podcast, Tomer Hen, CEO and co-founder of Switch Supplements, shares his secrets to leveraging affiliate marketing and influencer relationships to drive explosive growth for your brand. Discover how Tomer took Switch Supplements from zero to $30K in recurring revenue in just eight weeks and how you can apply his strategies to your own business.

Key Takeaways:

-Learn how to identify and build authentic relationships with high-impact influencers in your niche.

-Discover the power of a non-transactional approach to influencer marketing and how it can lead to increased brand awareness, social proof, and sales.

-Understand the Amazon-TikTok flywheel and how to capitalize on the spillover effect to boost your rankings and revenue.

-Gain insights into turning your most passionate customers into a powerful army of affiliates and brand advocates.

-Get practical tips on how to start implementing an affiliate marketing strategy, even if you're starting from scratch.

Tune in to hear Tomer's inspiring story and actionable advice on how to harness the power of affiliate marketing to take your eCommerce brand to new heights.

In this eye-opening episode, legendary Amazon expert Kevin King reveals game-changing insights about how Amazon's search and ranking systems really work. From the little-known concept of GeoRank to Amazon's powerful AI engine Cosmo, Kevin shares insider knowledge that every Amazon seller needs to understand to stay competitive in 2024 and beyond.

Key topics covered:

• The truth about Amazon's GeoRank system and why your products might rank differently across regions – plus actionable strategies to influence your rankings in specific geographic areas.
• How Amazon's Cosmo AI analyzes your listings, images, and customer feedback to determine visibility – and why you need to start "selling to the AI," not just optimizing for keywords.
• Why the future of Amazon search is shifting from keywords to intent-based shopping, and how tools like Rufus are changing the way customers discover products.
• Fascinating insights into Amazon's incredible data collection and how it's shaping the future of personalized shopping experiences.
• Advanced marketing strategies combining AI with custom audiences and personalization that are generating "ridiculous conversion rates.’

Whether you're doing $100K or $100M on Amazon, this conversation with one of the most knowledgeable figures in the Amazon space will transform how you think about optimization and marketing on the platform.

Brett Curry (https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebrettcurry/) talks to Jeremy Horowitz (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyhorowitz1/) about the current state of eCommerce.

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Sponsored by OMG Commerce - go to (https://www.omgcommerce.com/contact) and request your FREE strategy session today!

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Chapters: 

(00:00) Intro

(01:58) The State of eCommerce

(12:39) Constructing a Healthy P&L

(22:48) Would We Buy This Business? 

(38:38) The Importance of Focusing on Core Customers

(43:29) LVMH: The Ultimate Luxury Company

(48:44) Outro

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Links: 

• Jeremy Horowitz: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyhorowitz1/ 
• Let’s Buy A Biz!: https://www.letsbuyabiz.xyz/ 

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Connect With Brett: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebrettcurry/ 
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@omgcommerce 
• Website: https://www.omgcommerce.com/ 

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Past guests on eCommerce Evolution include Ezra Firestone, Steve Chou, Drew Sanocki, Jacques Spitzer, Jeremy Horowitz, Ryan Moran, Sean Frank, Andrew Youderian, Ryan McKenzie, Joseph Wilkins, Cody Wittick, Miki Agrawal, Justin Brooke, Nish Samantray, Kurt Elster, John Parkes, Chris Mercer, Rabah Rahil, Bear Handlon, Trevor Crump, Frederick Vallaeys, Preston Rutherford, Anthony Mink, Bill D’Allessandro, Bryan Porter and more. 

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Other episodes you might enjoy: 

• Episode 266 with Cody Wittick - Influencer Marketing and How To Create a Creative Flywheel in 2024

• Episode 263 with Anthony Mink - Cut Your CPA in Half by Asking Better Questions

• Episode 260 with Preston Rutherford - Lessons From Chubbies with Co-Founder Preston Rutherford

• Episode 243 with Jacques Spitzer - Achieving Exit Velocity with YouTube Ads

• Episode 228 with Jeremy Horowitz - The State of eCommerce, The Economy, and What To Do Next

FREE RESOURCE: OMG's Ultimate Email Marketing Testing Checklist

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Mt6eOX2wxCM61uhGc0WoSVWSlemUJRP0T9mfgBk2o-M/edit#gid=1837668272

How can you triple your results from Email & SMS? Is crafting a single captivating subject line the key? Does discovering the ultimate promotion hold the answer? Likely not.

Making huge improvements is all about finding dozens of small wins, stacking them on top of each other, and letting the improvements compound.

In this episode, Nick Flint, our Email Strategist at OMG, breaks down 8 Email & SMS tests you need to run right now! We talk about how Email & SMS can improve EVERY other channel. We’re talking Google Ads, YouTube ads, Facebook, Amazon - ALL made better by leveraging Email & SMS.

Here’s a peek at what we cover. 

• Why opt-in rate is NOT the key metric, you need to measure for your opt-in pop-up. (And why that spinning wheel might be doing more harm than good.)
• How making some prospects “work for it” can increase purchases and email engagement.
• Should you show your price in emails or make people click to see the price?
• How Everyday Cali used a creative “break our site” offer to drive engagement and get solid customer feedback.
• Plus, much, much more…

Liz Saunders knows the Amazon game well. She was the Chief of Staff for Jungle Scout as it grew from under 40 employees to a few hundred. And the founder of Fluencer Fruit. Through software, coaching, and services, she helps brands and influencers maximize their results with Amazon’s Influencer program. 

The Influencer game is still early at Amazon, but right now, it’s free for brands to participate in and driving some compelling results. 

Take This Case Study:

An Amazon product with no change in ads, no improvement in organic rankings, and no change in ratings saw a 45% MoM increase and a 3x YoY increase in sales - ALL From Influencer content. 

Do I have your attention now? 

Check out what Liz and I discuss in this interview:

•  How you as a brand can qualify for the Influencer Program (good news - it’s pretty simple).
• How to attract and recruit the right influencers for your brand.
• Where does influencer content show up, and how do you influence the best placements?
• The difference between the Inspire and Discover Feed on Amazon.
• How to use Influencer and Amazon Lives.
• Plus more!

Today we’re going Old School. We’re not talking email. We’re not talking TikTok, Facebook or even YouTube. 

We’re talking Snail. Mail. The gold old USPS. Physical mailboxes. 

Why? 

Because this is an untapped opportunity for DTC brands.

My guests today are two legends in the eCommerce space - Drew Sanocki and Michael Epstein. Drew and Michael most recently ran and successfully exited Auto Anything a multi nine figure eCommerce brand. Now they are helping DTC brands grow through direct mail marketing. And while that might not sound sexy, it’s incredibly effective. 

Why postcard and direct mail marketing? 20-50% of your customers don't have a good email address on file. And email open rates are only 20-30% at best. So you’re missing a lot of your current and past buyers if you’re just relying on email and SMS.

Here’s a look at what we cover in this episode:

• How should brands use direct mail?
• How to build a great postcard
• What postcard campaigns to start with
• How Ezra Firestone turned $1,400 into $4,000 using a simple postcard
• How to make direct mail part of your email and SMS flows

Mission meats is just a few years old, but it’s gobbling up market share in the red-hot meat snack category.  Peter Awad is a long time eCommerce pro.  He started selling auto parts on eBay in 2000.  Now he and his co-founder Nick have built a meat snack store with a mission.  They’re using profits from eCommerce to help fight deforestation, educate children in Africa, and support homeless women and children.  

But they don’t just have big hearts, they have some serious marketing chops too.  

In this episode, we explore the challenges and opportunities of marketing a product that could literally appeal to anyone.  We also explore how to maintain the balancing act of growing your own store AND growing on Amazon. 

• How to treat Amazon from a merchandising perspective. 
• Prospecting for new customers - Is this and Amazon first or Shopify first strategy
• How to increase repeat purchases in a fun way
• How pride or ego can limit growth with any paid ad channel
• Crazy CRO tests and the practice of asking “what if the opposite were true?”
• Important mindset issues that help fuel successful entrepreneurs

“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.”

“The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results.”

Not sure where I first heard these quotes, but they definitely apply to this week’s episode.

I firmly believe that to grow like no one else is growing, you must do what no one else is doing.

In this episode, I walk through 5 growth opportunities that you’re likely under-leveraging or completely missing.

This is the recording from a recent talk I gave in Austin, Texas, to a group of 1,200 eager Amazon Sellers and DTC brand owners, where I unpacked these 5 growth opportunities.  

While there are a few cases where seeing the video might be more helpful (watch it here), the audio should still be helpful! 

I hope you enjoy it.

The best eCommerce companies I know are on a quest to constantly improve conversion rates.  Every lift in conversion rates means more money for product development, or traffic to grow your brand or just more money for your pocket.  

On this episode I interview Jon MacDonald, CEO of the Good.  Jon and team have worked on Conversion rate optimization projects for companies like Nike, Xerox, Adobe and the Economist as well as many other ecommerce companies.  

Jon’s perspective and approach are unique and I’m confident you’ll pick up several CRO nuggets including:

• The 4 types of data that should influence your conversion rate optimization
• What data to ignore vs. what’s critical and actionable
• Must have elements for UX
• Product detail page essentials
• Making the complex simple and bringing products to life on your site
• Great eCommerce examples for UX to pay attention to
• Plus more

Today's guest is Zak Stambor. Zak is the Managing Editor at Vertical Web Media, the largest publisher in the e-commerce field, and famed founders of the ever-popular Internet Retailer magazine. Zak has a large role in putting out one of the most widely celebrated editions of IR Magazine: the IR Hot 100.

In today's episode, we highlight our 10 favorite e-commerce companies from the IR Hot 100 list. We talk about what makes these companies stand out, covering everything from business models to innovative marketing strategies. Get insight into growing trends in e-commerce, discover companies to watch and learn from, and enjoy a bonus 11th company spotlight! 

In this episode, Ashly Knox from Henson Razors shares the unique story of how an aerospace machinist teamed up with digital marketers to build an 8-figure razor company.

Henson Razors defies typical eCommerce conventions by focusing on a single product, avoiding discounts, and obsessing over cash flow and core financial performance. Ashly discusses the key principles that have fueled Henson's impressive growth.

Key topics and lessons:

-How Henson Razors achieved 8-figure success by selling a single premium product with no discounts, subscriptions, or gimmicks.

-Why focusing relentlessly on making the first purchase profitable is critical for cash flow and sustainable growth.

-How Henson uses creative constraints and the power of saying no to stay laser-focused on what matters most.

-Mastering inventory management and the cash conversion cycle to steadily scale the business.

-Why manually tracking key metrics helps develop invaluable business intuition before automating reports.

-Doubling down on 1-2 acquisition channels that work rather than chasing every new trend

Is AI coming for all of our jobs?  As agencies and marketers, are we on the road to irrelevance?  Probably not fully, but our roles and our perspectives better shift and shift quickly.  Frederick Vallaeys is a brilliant marketer and programmer. He was one of Google’s first 500 employees and was on the original AdWords Quality Score team.  In this episode, we discuss how agencies and marketers of the near future should think more like pilots or doctors, or coaches (my metaphor). Pilots increasingly rely on instruments and AI to do their job.  So do doctors. But, deep expertise, strategy, and a human element are still really important. Here’s a hopeful but eyes-wide-open look at the future with Frederick Vallaeys.   

• How Quality Score was yesterday’s black box and AI is today’s black box.
• Using Fred’s Two Levels of Automation - Leveraging things like AI and Machine Learning (ML) and then creating a layer of automation to keep the machines in check.  
• How is AI most impacting marketing now and how will it impact marketing in the next few years.
• What new changes to Google Ads is Fred most excited about.
• Some of Fred’s favorite Google Ad Scripts?
• Automation can be simple. AI and ML are cool but you can achieve a lot with the simple stuff

In just a few short years Bill D transitioned from investment banker to single brand eCommerce store owner, to now owning and leading a portfolio of 10 eComm brands through his company, Elements Brands.  

 I wanted to pick Bill’s brain - one, because he’s just wicked smart, but, two, because I think all eCommerce store owners could benefit from his perspective. In this power-house episode we uncover: 

• How Bill went from investment banker to owning a portfolio of growing eCommerce brands.  
• What Bill looks for when he’s considering buying an eCommerce business (there are lessons here for you, whether you’re looking to sell right now or not).
• Why diversity of traffic is so important and what to consider here.
• What’s the metric to rule all metrics? No, it’s not conversion rate, or AOV, or Return on Ad Spend. (Hint: you’re probably ignoring it or not calculating it the way you should.)
• Why profits are sanity and revenue is vanity.
• How well document processes build value now and later.
• Plus much, much more!

Ryan McKenzie is doing what he can to help save the planet.  His super-effective laundry detergent strips are keeping millions of plastic laundry jugs out of landfills each year.  He also wants to save your brand from bad video advertising.

I invited Ryan on the show again because his approach to video advertising is just awesome.  Here at OMG Commerce, we have the privilege of running all of his Google and YouTube ads so we’ve seen firsthand their rocket ship growth.  They were Canada’s 2nd fastest growing start-up and have grown from 7 employees to 200 in record time.  In this episode, we break down Ryan’s  7-step framework behind his video ads that are fueling $100k/day in ad spend.  Here’s a look at what we cover:

• What is a powerful pattern interrupt and how to use one.

• Why having a villain in your ads is a good thing.  Hint: Your villain probably isn’t a person.

• How many and how to most effectively use Calls to Action.

• Biggest surprises on what works and what doesn’t.

• How to use logic and emotion.

In this fast-paced episode of the eCommerce Evolution Podcast, I sit down with Neil Twa, co-founder and CEO of Voltage, to discuss the future of Amazon selling. Neil, a brand owner, investor, and podcaster himself, shares invaluable insights on how to navigate the evolving Amazon landscape in 2024 and beyond. From AI-driven changes to brand-building strategies, this episode is packed with actionable advice for sellers looking to stay ahead of the curve.

Key topics covered:

• The impact of AI on Amazon's search algorithm, including the upcoming Cosmo engine and how it will revolutionize product discovery
• Amazon SEO strategies for 2024, focusing on optimizing images, titles, and overall listing quality
• The importance of building a true brand on Amazon, moving beyond just being a seller
• Strategies for profitable growth, including Neil's 20% EBITDA target and minimum $12 net profit per unit rule
• The future of Amazon selling, including the potential need for design or utility patents to defend against competition

Whether you're a seasoned Amazon seller or just starting out, this episode provides critical insights to help you thrive in the ever-changing world of e-commerce. Don't miss Neil's expert advice on building a sustainable and profitable Amazon business in 2024 and beyond.

https://measurementmarketing.io/

I’ve always loved the psychology behind why people buy.  It’s what originally attracted me to sales and marketing when I was in college.  I’ve always loved the study of persuasive headlines and compelling video ads. I’ll admit that I think less about shipping than I probably should. If we want to talk about pure conversion rates and growth, shipping is a huge deal.

That’s why I decided to invite Akhilesh Srivastava, CEO of Fenix Commerce, on to the show to talk about improving shipping, both pre and post-sale. Akhilesh knows a thing or two about this topic. He’s worked for big brands like Walmart, Nike, Petco, Staples, and Microsoft. Prior to starting Fenix Commerce, he was in charge of shipping and returns for eBay. He’s spent the last 10+ years living in the data behind shipping practices both on its impact on sales and the costs behind it for merchants.

Here’s a quick look at some of the fascinating points we dive into:

• How studies of eBay customers consistently revealed that 2 of the top 5 reasons people decide to buy or not buy are related both to shipping costs and shipping time.
• How the “get it by” feature can improve conversions and reduce abandoned carts by 20% or more.
• How Men’s Wearhouse is using the “get it by” feature and how it’s now been identified as their largest top-line growth opportunity for 2019….wow!
• Practical tips to lower shipping costs and improve your speed.
• How the USPS can “fill in some gaps” for you and help improve your speed of shopping

• Millennials prefer to pay with debit cards

• Only 1 in 3 millennials have credit cards

• Not having credit cards impacts the way millennials shop online and most don’t like the hassle of applying for a card.

• How outerwear company 686 raised AOVs by 22% and increased total sales by 5% by offering payment plans

• How athleisure store Inflow Style raised AOVs by 40% and increased totals sales by 8% by offering payment plans

• How and when to pivot as an entrepreneur

• The 3 ways to grow a business and how payment plans can help with all 3.

• Plus the history of credit cards (call me a nerd, but this was interesting to me)...

• You can still get $.40 and $.80 clicks.
• GDN offers targeting that you can’t match on Facebook.
• GDN creates the impression that your brand is “everywhere”.

• His unique approach to GDN for eCommerce.
• His landing page must-have elements.
• How quality is in the quantity when it comes to GDN headlines and copy.
• Testing 3 angles for every idea - toward pleasure, away from pain, and something controversial.
• Utilizing the overnight celebrity strategy with testimonial GDN ads.
• How deadlines and testimonials work together.
• How to work hand-in-hand with the algorithm for amazing results.

Chris Brewer is an agency veteran, marketing expert, and former golf pro. Not to mention my business partner and OMG Commerce’s co-founder.

Each year, Chris has the privilege of talking with hundreds of DTC brands, both big and small. He hears about their goals, struggles, plans, and more. As a strategist, I also consult with large-scaling eComm brands. Through our perspectives, we’d like to highlight ways in which great brands get in their own way and offer some candid advice when it comes to working with agencies. 

We love the brands we talk to and the clients we serve. But, like anyone else, brands can sometimes overlook how they inadvertently hinder their own growth. Here are a few topics we cover that we hope you’ll find helpful:

• Having goals that aren’t battle-tested.

• Still thinking like it’s 2020 in some areas of your business.

• Prioritizing automation and tools over strategy.

• Shooting for perfect data and ignoring actionable data.

• Stopping short of getting results.

• When you shouldn’t hire an agency.

• How to get the most from an agency relationship.

• Plus more!

Cody Wittick is the man. College hoops player. Agency owner. Podcast host. And, now, new dad!

Most important for this discussion: Cody knows how to scale DTC brands with influencer marketing. 

In this episode, we discuss the right and wrong ways to build an influencer marketing program. We talk about winning creatives and who's smarter: media buyers or the machine. And highlight the parallels between running a business and being a father. 

What was my favorite part of the conversation, you ask...? 

How to use influencers to build a creative flywheel.

I'm convinced you need enough quantity and quality of creative on a weekly basis to scale on all of your most important platforms. 

And in the episode, we talk about how. Enjoy!

• How to completely change the math on your cold traffic by creating irresistible offers that don't cheapen your brand.
• How to utilize tripwires and micro offers as an eComm brand.
• Audience building and how it can lower ad costs (especially during peak seasons like a holiday).
• The best book written on remarketing and loyalty (hint: you’ve probably read it to your kids before).

Learn the secrets behind securing free press coverage for eCommerce brands. Contrary to popular belief, free PR isn’t reserved only for companies that hire expensive PR agencies. Whether you're launching a new product or looking to boost your brand's visibility, this episode is packed with actionable insights that could make all of your other marketing efforts better. 

Key topics covered:

• The CPR (Credibility, Point of View, Relevance) method: A foolproof framework for crafting compelling pitches that grab journalists' attention.
• How to approach gift guide pitches and maximize your chances of inclusion in coveted holiday roundups.
• Strategies for leveraging product launches and press releases to create buzz and secure media coverage.
• Tips for building and nurturing relationships with journalists, including how to use email tracking and follow-up techniques.
• Cost-effective tools and resources for managing your own PR efforts, even without prior experience or agency support.

Don't miss this opportunity to learn how you can take control of your brand's narrative and secure valuable media coverage without breaking the bank. Gloria's practical advice and insider tips will empower you to become your brand's best advocate and unlock the untapped potential of PR for your eCommerce brand. 

There are two different types of sponsored YouTube influencer videos:

1. An integrated sponsored video and 
2. Stand-alone sponsored video.

Stand-alone sponsored influencer videos are what most brands use and what most people think of when they hear “YouTube influencer marketing.” Stand-alone videos are typically an influencer providing a quick review or endorsement about a particular product.  So the video is titled “Widget 12 Pro Unboxing and review.”

An integrated sponsored influencer videos is an ad put inside of video on a separate topic.  The video might be about fortnite or camping, or whatever, but inside the video is a 30 second ad, read by the creator, for your product. These integrated video ads are Ridge Wallets secret sauce. 

Here’s a quick look at what we uncover on the show:

• Why integrated sponsored videos are so great and why they scale better than stand alone influencer videos. 
• How to approach influencers
• Why subscribers on YouTube is largely a vanity metric
• How to spot a dead channel vs. an active channel
• How to measure the impact of your influencer videos 
• What to pay influencers and how to think about CPMs (cost per thousand)
• How to achieve scale in your outreach and deployment of influencer videos
• Plus more!

There are over 150 million Alexa devices in use today.  Google has sold upwards of 50 million of its Google Home devices.  While most devices are used primarily to listen to music or play games or control appliances like lights and heat and air…voice commerce is on the rise too.

In this episode, I interview Anmol Oberoi the Founder and CEO of Emitrr - a voice-first SaaS Platform.  We dive into voice commerce use-cases that are making an impact now. We also talk about where voice commerce is likely heading in the near future.  Here’s a quick look at what we discuss:

• How games and quizzes through voice can benefit ecommerce companies
• What voice skills to develop and launch first and how to use customer feedback to make sure you’ll have high adoption rates
• What are the most popular voice skills that customers want right now 
• How voice can build loyalty and put a “fence” around your top customers keeping competitors away
• How smart devices with screens like the Echo Show and Google’ Nest Hub might make the biggest shopping impact right away

This episode of the eCommerce Evolution podcast is truly unique. 

It's not uncommon for us to talk about branding, storytelling, and entrepreneurship. But in this episode, we also discuss faith, family tragedy, chasing your dreams, and nerd out a bit on basketball legends like Michael Jordan and Steph Curry.

Ashton Owens is living many kids’ dreams…but more importantly, he’s living his own. He works directly with Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and other pro athletes. He runs Triple Threat - a creative agency specializing in branding and storytelling for pro athletes. 

Ashton and I have a lot in common. We go to church together (how we met), share an affinity for professional basketball, lost a parent when we were teens, and experienced some fun and wild entrepreneurial journeys. 

Here’s what we cover:

• How growing up in an entrepreneurial family and losing his father as a teenager shaped Ashton’s faith and professional accomplishments.

• How inviting Michael Jordan to his birthday party as a child influenced Ashton’s belief that the world is full of possibilities.

• The crazy story of Ashton’s first meeting with Steph Curry and Under Armor. 

• The meaning behind the Steph Curry logo and how it relates to storytelling.

• Ashton's belief that most people count themselves out before they start and how to shift their thinking.

• Plus more!

Justus Murimi is a guy that once you meet him you’ll likely never forget him. Why? Justus is one of the best askers of questions that I’ve ever been around.  I first met Justus at Ryan Daniel Moran’s lake house in Austin Texas. It was a meeting of eCommerce investors. I was part of a group discussion with Justus and he was asking insightful question after insightful question. Then I had a chance to spend some time with him and we immediately hit it off. He has a knack for understanding entrepreneurs and helping them get unstuck.  He’s the Community Manager for the One Percent with Ryan Daniel Moran.  He’s also the head coach of the Incubator.  Every week he’s coaching, teaching, and mentoring eCommerce businesses at every stage of growth.  

I LOVE this topic.  While we don’t get super tactical, I believe this episode could prove to be one of the most helpful we’ve ever published.  

As entrepreneurs, we're all prone to getting stuck. And it’s not just a one-time deal. Depending on the stage or growth your business is in, you could get stuck for a variety of reasons. In this episode, I turn the tables on Justus and fire probing snd insightful questions his way. Here’s a look at what we cover. 

• How early-stage entrepreneurs are most likely to get stuck. 
• How to overcome overthinking and gain a new frame on failure
• Where growing businesses get stuck and how some entrepreneurs develop a messiah complex. 
• Where business owners fall short when preparing for an exit. 
• What role does fear play in getting stuck and getting unstuck

I love Arrae as a brand and as a group of products.

I also think Nish Samantray is one of the brightest up-and-coming eCommerce founders in the game right now.

Arrae is unique because it’s a supplement brand that combines natural ingredients with amazing packaging and design. Their supplements are designed to work in under an hour. So their bloat pill allows you to eat pizza and not feel terrible afterward. And the jars are a work of art. So are the labels. It’s truly a product you would love to see in your medicine cabinet or sitting on the counter.

Nish and the team are doing a LOT right in creating Arrae’s meteoric growth.

Here are a few things we discuss in today’s episode:

• Why asking what customers want next is a terrible question and what to ask instead.
• How to think about in-store growth.
• When everything gets more challenging, how you get better.
• Influencer marketing with events and thinking more like a mom who loves to host neighbor kids.
• Nish’s favorite books and resources for growth
• Plus more!

Arri is a whizkid of sorts when it comes to messenger marketing and SMS marketing.  At the ripe old age of 22 he’s leading his team at Conversmart and has worked with some pretty impressive brands including Tuft & Needle, Poo-Pourri and the Beard Club just to name a few.   

I know very little about SMS marketing for eCommerce so I was super excited to have Arri on the podcast to learn how he does it.  We both spoke at Ezra Firestone’s event in Seattle a few months ago. I was so impressed by his talk that we immediately scheduled a time to record the podcast.  

Here’s a quick look at what we cover on this episode.  

• Some stats around mobile usage related to text messaging that are important to note?
• How does SMS marketing compare to email marketing
• What are some of the top ways eCommerce companies should consider using SMS marketing
• How to grow SMS subscribers
• Most common SMS campaigns and tactics with some real examples
• How to combine SMS + email + messenger for mind-boggling results

With iOS 14 and privacy updates throwing advertisers for a loop and increased ad costs making reaching your ad goals harder than ever, scale on Facebook may seem illusive. 

On today’s episode, I wanted to hear from an up-and-coming Facebook ad manager and co-host of the Rich Ad, Poor Ad podcast Dyland Carpenter.  Dylan specializes in eComm media buying and is fanatical about testing, experimenting, and finding ways to scale ad accounts.  Here’s a quick look at what we cover in today’s episode:

• Common mistakes keeping you from scaling with Facebook ads
• Why creative is everything and how to approach creative testing
• Finding the winning campaign formula - learn how Dylan uses controls and tests to always be leveling up.
• Thoughts on iOS 14 
• Budgeting for scale and how to be aggressive without breaking the algorithm 
• Plus more!

Are you fully prepared for Holiday 2021?  This year is sure to be unique.  While eCommerce is still growing, it’s growing at a slower rate than last year.  Stores are opening, and, for now at least, shoppers are spending more money on experiences than they were during the height of the pandemic.  So how can you maximize your online holiday sales this year?

In this episode, we listen in to the recording of the recent webinar we hosted that covers 7 ways to have a record holiday season including:

• How to leverage the latest YouTube ad formats to get more exposure and more conversions at a lower cost.
• What you’re likely missing with your current search and shopping ad structure and how to fix it.  
• Why now is a great time to consider Google Smart Shopping Campaigns
• How to deliver the right holiday message at the right time
• How to combat rising ad costs
• Plus more!

Few DTC brands have been as polarizing or as successful as Chubbies.

The Chubbies story is a wild one. It started with humble beginnings, selling shorts one by one in parks around the Stanford campus, leading to an IPO.

Four Stanford college students had 3 things in common: 

1. They were tired of working for the man. 

2. They didn't fit the "Abercrombie" fashion mold of the late 2000s and 

3. They loved shorter shorts - BEFORE the short shorts trend. 

And so, Chubbies was born.  

This is a deep dive with Co-founder Preston Rutherford on what Chubbies got right, what they got wrong, and how to think about building a brand.

Here's a look at what we cover:

• Feedback loops. This started when the co-founders were selling their shorts in person. They could immediately read customers' reactions and hear what they liked, what they didn't like and what needed to be tweaked. As the company grew, this shifted to digital and online feedback loops tied to ad creatives, social posts, and user experience.
• Downplaying vanity metrics. We all want to brag about ROAS and revenue. But, these metrics can be misleading. If you maximize ROAS, you sacrifice long-term growth for a sale today. And you get into a trap that squeezes profits and becomes hard to break. 
• Obsessing over core metrics. We should focus on metrics like contribution margin, total profits and branded search growth (as a sign of a growing, healthy brand).
• Building a brand. Want to have a big exit? Want to charge a premium? Want to drive consistent demand? It's all about brand.  

How quickly can you find the following key metrics from your business?

Contribution margin. 

Inventory turn ratio.  

Return on inventory (the other ROI).  

If you struggled a bit finding those answers (or if you just want to go to the next level), you need to listen to this episode with John Canetta.  This episode was super fun for me and the content is what separates eComm companies who just get by vs. those who thrive (and end up with big exits).  It’s a must-listen for serious store owners.   

You HAVE to know your numbers.  And your P&L may be lying to you and you don’t even know it.  

• How his hedgehog concept allows him to consistently hit 80% margins vs. 40-50% like some of his competitors.
• His piggybank metaphor and how it shapes his decision making
• Marketing is fun, but operations are where your profits are
• Understanding your numbers and making it SIMPLE - 
• How to look at and use Post Aggregate Gross, Contribution Margin, and Return on Inventory to hit his goals
• John’s 3 keys to business success

What got you here won’t get you there. 

What will it take to reach your next big breakthrough?

Whether or not we want to admit it, we all have limiting thought patterns that create a sort of blindness, preventing us from seeing breakthroughs. 

I first met Will when he was the Head of Growth for Organifi. He helped grow the brand from an $18 million per year run rate to a $100 million per year run rate in short order. 

In today’s episode, Will Hughes wants to help you think differently. And not just a philosophical kind of thinking, but big, business-altering, breakthrough kind of thinking. 

Here’s a look at what we cover:

• The remarkable story of the Hollywood Blacklist and how we can find treasure in what others are rejecting.
• Using creative thinking as a competitive advantage.
• How to avoid being a copycat (while still paying attention to competitors).
• What Google vs. Yahoo can teach us as entrepreneurs. 
• The power of reticular activators.

Today I’m excited to welcome back my business partner and the co-founder of OMG Commerce - Chris Brewer.

 Chris Brewer is a seasoned entrepreneur who’s successfully started and sold multiple businesses in the advertising and marketing space.  In 2010 he and I started OMG Commerce. Since then we’ve consulted with, partnered with and provided agency services for HUNDREDS of eCommerce stores.  We’ve seen nearly everything - the good, the bad, and the ugly of eCommerce.

 In this episode, we break down the biggest X Factors of success from our perspective as we’ve observed a lot of winners and a lot of, um….not so much winners.  Hopefully, you have as much fun listening as we did recording this...

 Here’s a quick look at what we cover:

 The importance of Lifetime Value of a Customer (LTV) and how to    measure it and cultivate it.

• Why businesses that are too “romantic” about their own ideas are destined to struggle.
• How the best eCommerce stores think about and leverage Amazon
• Pop Quiz - Chris lays out his top eCommerce metrics and give you the ability to rate yourself on how well you know your core numbers.
• A big mistake eCommerce store owners make when looking for an agency
• How to start on a new traffic source
• Plus much more!

As always, we’d love your feedback on iTunes.

The market for eCommerce businesses has never been hotter. Now dozens of brand aggregators have war chests of $100s of millions of dollars with one mission - buy and grow eComm brands. We’re now seeing valuations in the 5-6x of EBITA where just a few years ago we were only seeing 3-4x multiples.  

Now is a great time to sell an eCommerce brand. And, if done right, it’s still not a bad time to buy a brand.  

Chris Yates is co-owner of Centurica a company that offers buy-side due diligence for digital businesses. He’s also the founder of Rhodium Weekend - a vetted community of digital entrepreneurs and investors. 

Here’s a look at what we cover.  

• Mistakes when going through due diligence
• Most important steps/tips when going through due diligence 
• Mistakes when evaluating your own business
• As you hit different vacation tiers - types of buyers and buyers wants and needs change 
• How aggregators are changing the landscape of DTC M&A
• What is Rhodium weekend? Mastermind and speakers. Real in the trenches stuff and fun activities

Everyone knows that word of mouth is the most effective form of marketing.  The problem?  How do you facilitate, encourage, and track it without being weird?  Enter Nick Stagge and Wooly.  In this episode, we discuss two important topics - building Ambassador Programs and putting digital rails around word of mouth advertising.  Nick has worked with some awesome brands including Skull Candy, Purple Mattress, and more.   Here’s a quick look at what we cover in this episode: 

• Salomon shoes got 22.6 million impressions without running a single ad
• How to Identify and segment your best customers and how to know when you have a customer make a referral that ends in a  purchase
• How ambassador programs focus on credibility while some influencer programs focus on reach…and why credibility is often better and more profitable
• Word of mouth customers are happier, better educated and often stick around longer - here’s how you get more of it
• Driving six figures of incremental referral revenue.
• Plus more

Brendan Bannister, the CEO of Naturalabs.io, is one smart marketer. 

We first met in 2018 when he was the CMO and Creative Director at William Painter. After taking my YouTube/Google course, he scaled ad spend on YouTube from $2k per day to $100k per day! 

We decided to start meeting and swapping ideas, war stories, and things we were testing. We soon realized the value of sharing this knowledge with others and decided to record a session and bring it to the world! 

In this episode, we dive into CRO, creatives, data-driven marketing, R&D for marketing departments, and the golden years for YouTube and Facebook Ads and how they achieved 13x growth for William Painter. 

Here are some highlights: 

• How the famous da Vinci quote, “Simplicity is Ultimate Sophistication” should be a guiding principle for marketers.
• Is media buying dead? If so, what is taking its place?
• How good brands are sort of like algorithms.
• “Design is hack” and what that means for your marketing efforts.
• The role “brand” plays in your ability to scale.
• Why Brendan is now living and working full-time in Dubai.
• Plus more!

Casey Guass started Viral Launch as a broke 24-year-old college drop out.  The rest is history. It’s now one of the most beloved SaaS platforms for Amazon sellers.  Like most great companies it’s gone through some serious product evolutions. But, the core has remained the same - helping Amazon Sellers rank better on Amazon.  

In this podcast, we cover a lot…and get pretty nerdy with data.  Here’s a quick look at what we discuss. 

• 3 Amazon ranking factors you might be overlooking including considering your canonical url for better ranking on Google (we explain what this means in the podcast). 
• How conversion rate factors into organic rankings and what to do about it.
• Why you’re likely focusing on the wrong keywords and how to shift your approach.
• Casey’s 6-step road map for ranking a product on Amazon - this is pure gold.  
• Casey’s advice that he would NOT give to clients, but might try for selling his own products.
• Why you’re thinking about Amazon PPC is probably off a bit and how you should adjust. 
• How to use brand analytics data for some “blow your mind” insights.  
• Plus more!

Preparation is the backbone for success during the holiday season.

Recently we just recorded a holiday webinar featuring Kristina Muntean and Jenna Galardi. Kristina works for Gorgias, an online customer support service who has worked with big brands such as Steve Madden and OLIPOP. Jenna Galardi has over a decade of experience helping businesses grow online. In current role  as Senior Omnichannel Growth Manager at BigCommerce, she focuses on helping merchants strengthen their online presence and adopt social commerce, marketplaces, and product feed optimization solutions to scale their growth.

This holiday season should be quite interesting. Inflation, rising ad costs, privacy issues, and new campaign types have this year shaping up to be anything but ordinary. 

In this episode we cover how to: 

• Drive MORE traffic profitably
• Go omnichannel
• Turn every interaction (even support) into sales opportunities

In this illuminating episode of the eCommerce Evolution Podcast, I sit down with AI marketing expert Russ Henneberry to explore the transformative potential of artificial intelligence in eCommerce. Russ shares invaluable insights on how we can leverage AI as a powerhouse marketing tool by creating customized AI marketing hubs. This episode is a must-listen for any eCommerce professional looking to stay ahead of the curve and harness AI's capabilities to drive business growth.

Key topics covered:

• The concept of "AI marketing hubs" and how to build them using tools like Claude and ChatGPT.
• Strategies for fine-tuning AI models with your business data to dramatically improve outputs.
• The three key AI roles in marketing: Scribe (content creation), Optimizer (asset evaluation), and Strategist (big picture planning).
• Tips for crafting more effective AI prompts using the RTIF (Role, Task, Input, Format) framework.
• The future of AI in marketing, including predictions on how major tech companies will shape the landscape.

Tune in to discover how you can take your AI marketing game to the next level and turn generic AI outputs into tailored, high-impact marketing assets for your eCommerce business.

In this data-packed episode, Brett Curry and the OMG Commerce team break down the most successful strategies from Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2024. From optimal discount levels to timing strategies, the team shares real insights from hundreds of millions in tracked revenue across Amazon, DTC, and email channels. If you're already planning for next year's holiday season (and you should be), this episode delivers actionable insights you won't want to miss.

Key Takeaways:

• The "sweet spot" for discounts: Amazon sellers saw the best results at 25%+ off, while DTC brands found their optimal range between 15-25% - unless going big at 50%+ (with surprising data about why the middle ground underperforms).
• Why individual product discounts outperformed site-wide sales across multiple channels, with specific insights about how this impacts Google Shopping ads and conversion rates.
• The shift to "Cyber 12" - Why the seven days before Black Friday actually outperformed the traditional Cyber 5 period on Amazon, and how to adapt your 2025 strategy accordingly.
• Critical timing insights for email marketing - Why the ninth email often outperformed earlier messages, and how follow-up campaigns frequently beat initial launches.

The combination of broad trends and specific tactical insights makes this a valuable episode for any eCommerce brand looking to improve their holiday season performance in 2025!

Andrew Foxwell and I go way back. We recorded our first podcast together over 6 years ago!

Andrew is a seasoned expert in the advertising industry and the driving force behind a remarkable Meta agency that collaborates with renowned brands like Trek.

He also runs an amazing community of brand owners, agency owners and marketing professionals called Foxwell Founders. (Over 400 members strong and collectively spending 250 million plus per month on ads.)

Join us as Andrew shares his invaluable insights on the ever-evolving advertising landscape.

Here's a glimpse of what we cover in this episode:

• What creatives are working best right now on Meta and Google, and are TikTok-style ads worth testing on multiple platforms?
• How answering questions is essential on more platforms than just Google search.
• What strategies are working right now with different Meta campaign types.
• Why having great creatives is only valuable with proper creative testing.
• How to focus on what's really unique about your product in your ads.
• Andrew's approach of "scaling in place" and how it applies to Meta and YouTube.
• Operational AI vs. Platform AI.
• What Andrew's "not, not excited" about AI means (I tend to share his perspective).

Are you ready to crack the YouTube ads code?  Ready to learn how to win now and into the future even as privacy issues are causing media buyers to pull their hair out?

Here’s the Audio from a recent, wildly popular webinar I presented at.  We had just over 2,000 people attend to hear our Winning Formula for Scale for YouTube ads for eCommerce.

This presentation is fast-paced and full of practical tips and examples.  Here are 3 reasons to listen:

• Learn how top eComm brands are profitably spending $500k per month on YouTube ads.  Many were spending $0 on Google ads just a few months or years ago.

• Diversity.  In a world of tracking issues, algo updates, and constant uncertainty - you need to diversify your customer acquisition channels.
• Understand how creative, campaign, and audience strategies work hand-in-hand to deliver stellar results.

• How to use IG DMs to run quiz funnels.
• How to combine bots and human creativity for outstanding results.
• How Natasha helped cut lead costs in half for companies like Foundr.
• Top mistakes people make with Chat marketing.
• Misconceptions about Chat marketing.

You've heard that creative is KING.

In reality, it's probably King, Queen, and more.

In this episode of the eCommerce Evolution podcast, I sit down with Dara Denny, a performance creative consultant who has worked with an impressive array of brands like Speedo, Laura Geller, Daily Harvest, and Condé Nast. Dara shares her wealth of knowledge on crafting ad creative that truly converts, diving into the importance of testing, iteration, and taking big swings. If you're looking to level up your ad creative game, this episode is a must-listen.

Key topics and lessons include:

-The power of specificity in ad creative, from calling out exact prices to reflecting customer age demographics

-Why UGC isn't dead, but some of it does suck, and how to garner UGC that works!

-How to strike a balance between data-driven iteration and taking big, bold creative swings

-Dara's creative testing methodology, including how to structure tests and identify winners

-Five ad formats that work, including feature-benefit callouts, "golden nugget" reviews, founder stories, statistics, and educational ads

Are you dabbling with generative AI or using it to gain a competitive advantage? 

Are you getting better at using AI or staying the same? 

If you're like some professionals I know, maybe you've gotten frustrated with only slight gains using AI, so you've moved on.

I'll admit, I'm still just dabbling compared to my buddy Fred.

Fred Vallaeys is one of the smartest dudes I know. His perspective on AI is inspiring and sure to get your wheels turning. 

But first, take a peek at Fred's resume! 

• One of the first 500 employees at Google
• He was on the team that acquired Urchin, the precursor to Google Analytics 
• He was on the original Quality Score team
• He was one of the original 6 people who built the AdWords editor

Now, he's the co-founder and CEO of Optmyzr and the author of 2 amazing books.

Here's a look at the taste AI morsels we chew on in this episode:

• Practical ways to use Generative AI that you might be missing.
• How to ground the AI so it doesn't "hallucinate."
• Understanding the best LLMs and how they impact generative AI.
• How generative AI is different from Machine Learning.
• Embedding, vectors, and chain prompting

Ready to step up your AI game? I am!

​​Most of the high growth eComm companies I know are all building to sell. Some want to sell once revenue hits $5 million, some $25 million and some $100+.  Regardless of what your target number is or regardless of if you even have a number, this interview with Chad will be super helpful.  

Hear how Chad built his pet brand business and sold it for 7-figures in under 3 years. 

Here’s a look at what we’ll cover:  

• Tips and advice for sellers 
• Maximize EBITA as you prepare to sell
• Practical tips to “think profit first.”
• Tips for prepping to sell your business
• Learning from successes and failures
• Understanding how self-imposed limits are holding you back!

Colby Bauer has personality.  He’s a half-pipe skating, snowboarding, former collegiate athlete who turned a simple idea into a thriving eComm business.  He and his wife McKenzie started Thread Wallets with just a single product idea.  Simple, functional, minimalist wallets with personality.  That initial product took off and Thread quickly grew into a team of 22 that now boasts an expanding product line including lanyards, phone cases, and more.

While there’s a lot to be impressed about with Colby and McKenzie, and their team I really wanted to key in on Thread’s culture and the unique steps they took to grow.  I think you’ll find a ton of good lessons here:

• How the key to scale might be engaging in activities that DON’T scale
• How financial intelligence (or lack thereof) can make or break startups
• How to hire for culture first and is the “hire slow, fire fast” mantra really the way to go
• How installing a half-pipe at the office lead to a fight amongst the thread founders, but lead to mental health as a focus for the company
• A good CEO is a non-busy CEO…what does this mean and how is it the key to effectiveness

Learn how Tru Earth is disrupting the laundry detergent space by selling subscriptions and understanding the power of villains in marketing.  My guest in this episode, Ryan McKenzie is a marketing and eComm wiz.  He built his first online business in his 20s and after some extreme wins and some humbling losses, he found his eComm game.  In this episode, we uncover some of Tru Earth’s keys to success including 

• 3 types of offers that get shoppers to subscribe to auto-replenishment. 
• How to structure pricing and discounts for subscriptions
• Blair Warren’s amazing 4 keys to persuasion (literally one the best marketing quotes I’ve ever heard) and how to leverage it for your business
• How finding a “villain” can make your marketing more powerful and help you build a closer community (hint: villains don’t have to be people)
• How to approach ad fatigue and new creative development for Facebook
• How OMG Commerce is helping Tru Earth leverage Google Shopping and YouTub ads
• Plus more!

I’m sure you’re aware of chat marketing.  But if you’re like most marketers and Amazon sellers, it’s still an area of immense opportunity for you. Maybe it’s even still a bit of a mystery to you. Michelle Barnum Smith is the Queen of chat marketing for Amazon sellers.  I had a chance to sit down with her and discuss some super powerful ways to grow your Amazon business with chat marketing that you probably haven’t thought of, including…

• The 3 types of messenger campaigns to run consistently
• Why product re-ranking campaigns using chatbots should probably be an ongoing strategy for you
• The difference between a 2-step URL and a Search, Find, Buy campaign
• How many times per month should you message your list on messenger…too many and they’ll hate you.  Too few and they’ll forget who you are and be annoyed the next time you message them.
• How to build a chat bot list.
• Plus more!

My guest today is a man who needs no introduction.  His podcast, Ecommerce Fuel, is one of the most downloaded Ecommerce podcasts on the planet.  And Andrew runs one of the largest most successful private eCommerce forums - EcommerceFuel.com.

Each year Andrew sends out a poll to hundreds of successful merchants to get a pulse check on all things eCommerce.  It covers an incredible number of details including growth rates, conversion rates, On-Amazon and Off-Amazon performance, ad performance, profitability trends and much, much more.  I wanted to have Andrew on the podcast to dig into some of the most fascinating insights from the report and to share what we believe these insights mean to our community and to you as a merchant. 

Here are a few things we cover:

• What is the future of drop-shipping as a business model?
• What surprises came from the on-Amazon growth stats that weren’t maybe as high as expected this year?
• The stark growth contrast between private label sellers vs. resellers
• The number #1 traffic source for successful eCommerce merchants
• The most popular vs. most effective ad channel…spoiler alert - they aren’t the same channel!  The most popular channel according to the survey was nowhere near the most effective. Quite the contrary.  We explore why.
• We explore Andrew’s spin on KPI - the Kardashian Performance Indicator…this is pretty funny
• Plus much more actionable data!

Today's guest is Russ Henneberry. Russ is a content marketing rockstar who has worked with the likes of Neil Patel & Crazy Egg, Salesforce.com, Network Solutions, and many others. He is the Editorial Director for Digital Marketer, the company behind the ever-popular Traffic and Conversion Summit. Russ is also author of the new book "Digital Marketing for Dummies", which he wrote alongside digital marketing superstar Ryan Deiss.

In today's episode, we talk about content marketing for eCommerce. A lot of merchants just flat get this wrong, and Russ digs into important topics like frequency, strategy, and how to create content that actually helps with conversion.