Ecommerce Evolution

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

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!

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 peop

Michael Jackness is the President & CEO of Terran.com - owner of multiple commerce brands including tactical.com, wildbaby.com, icewraps.com, color it and more.  He’s also the host of the EcomCrew podcast and is a fantastic trainer and speaker.  I got to hang out with Mike recently at an event and I was reminded of why so many people in the eComm space look up to him.  He’s a brilliant marketer and eComm store owner. In this podcast, we dive into some of the most powerful growth levers available to commence merchants today and how to best use them. What are Mike’s tips and advice online extension?  How important is it, and how and when should store owners consider it? Mike’s favorite tips for cross-selling & upselling because “you win or lose by what you do on the backend.”   The most under-leveraged assets Mike sees in his students’ businesses? Favorite growth levers to pull when tasked with growing an eComm biz. Some of your favorite recent marketing wins from Mike’s many eCommerce companies Underu

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 s

As some of you may know, my very first foray into online marketing was in the crazy world of SEO.  That was circa 2004. After creating some wins for an online print shop I was hooked on SEO. In the early days of OMG Commerce SEO was our bread and butter.  Now it’s still an important channel, but as Google has become more of a pay-to-play environment, more companies come to us wanting help with ads. But…ignoring SEO is a mistake.  The best, biggest and enduring eCommerce companies have an SEO strategy and they execute it. My guest on the podcast today is one of the very first OMG Commerce employees, Brandi Johnston.  She runs our SEO department and works with Amazon organic optimization.    In this episode we cover a host of practical tips and insights related to SEO including: How SEO had changed since 2013 and what that means for us today. What are the easiest SEO wins merchants should focus on? What are some SEO wins that take a little more work but still pay off in the long run? What is a rel=canonical ta

Connor Young is a bit of a health nut - and an exercise enthusiast.  He’s also an entrepreneur.     He’s combined his passions into a powerful and growing commerce business called Ample Foods.  Connor and his team are doing a lot of things right with Ample. What potentially stands above the other wins is that they have achieved two very successful crowdfunding campaigns.  The first was a traditional crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, which set the platform’s record for highest funded project in the food category. The second was an equity crowdfunding campaign that raised just under $800,000 on a $15 million valuation.   If you’re launching a new product or considering a crowdfunding project or equity funding project you need to check out this episode.     Here’s a look at what we cover: 3 elements of any great crowdfunding pitch Why your crowdfunding pitch needs to go viral and how Connor did it for Ample Foods Use crowdfunding both to launch a company or a new product Why Connor would skip hiring a PR firm

The first glowing testimonial I heard about Joana Galvao was from Ezra Firestone.  Next was my buddy, Jared Mitchell of Skincare by Alana. Joana was described as a designer who “Gets it” - who understands how design impacts online experience and sales. She recently spoke at Traffic & Conversion Summit in San Diego and I heard she brought down the house.  So I wanted her to come on the podcast and talk about how design and visuals impact shopping behavior. Here’s a look at what we cover: The branding triad and where most businesses fall short How color can influence experience and results…and a truly mind-blowing laundry detergent user experience that illustrates this beautifully.  How we’re wired to make assumptions at the subconscious level about whether something is expensive or cheap, quality or shoddy…all within in seconds.  You need to incorporate this for your products! How your product packaging should engage all of the senses.   How to make your copy more visually appealing Joana’s 5-Step Process

Austin Brawner is a legend in the eCommerce space, namely because his podcast - Ecommerce Influence - is one of the most popular in the industry.  Austin has worked with, and is friends with, many of the top DTC brands in eCommerce - MVTM Watches, Pura Vida Bracelets, Blenders Eyewear, Four Sigmatic and many others.  In fact, we reminisce on the podcast about a dinner we both attended in San Diego with the founders of those companies all together in a room hanging out and swapping stories. What separates eCommerce brands that scale vs. those that stall and plateau? What separates the Bonobos and Away Luggage companies of the world from an eCommerce company that hits a ceiling at 5 or 10 million per year in sales?  Austin has a unique perspective on this topic, having walked alongside dozens of the biggest eCommerce brands of our generation. In this episode Austin and I break down the following: What you need to know about AOV and LTV and how it directly impacts your ability to scale. How product market fit i

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 bei

Ro Bhatia has some serious eCommerce chops.  He started his career at Google, then spent 5 years at Yahoo, then worked for eBay with merchants, then ran the dot com division for Home Depot.  Now he’s the Chief Product and Strategy officer at Limelight Ecommerce. In this episode we dig into growth tactics that you probably either haven’t thought of or aren’t leveraging properly.  Ro has a wealth of experience and he dishes it out in this episode. Here’s a quick look at what we cover: If you’re using chat on your site, you’re probably making one fatal flaw.  Here’s how to fix it quickly, plus Ro’s favorite chat tool. Cross-sells and upsets make up 30% of eCommerce sales! We talk about Ro’s favorite ways to boost cross-sells, upsells and downsells. In the new relationship economy cost of acquisition is high, and bumping AOV is critical.  If you don’t have a high enough AOV your marketing options will be limited. How to properly use data to create buckets of users to show them the right message at the right time

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 DS

My guest today is John Li, co-founder of Pickfu.  John is a really sharp dude, with a very unique service.  A service that started as a side project and became a standalone business sort of on accident…more on that in the episode.    Pickfu is a consumer feedback tool that allows you to get real customer feedback in minutes.  This has driven insights into product page enhancements, better product imagery, better ads, better Amazon listings and more.   In this episode, we dive into some of the top learnings John and his team have gained from the myriad of tests run on their platform.  Some are quite surprising. I’m confident that you’ll take away a few things you need to test or change to improve your sales on and off Amazon.  Here’s a highlight of what we cover: Surprising learnings from testing images and how your biases might be hurting your results on and off Amazon. 3 keys to better descriptions on your Amazon listings that consistently outperform the norm. How to find out what features and benefits a c

Steve Chou is an eCommerce podcast host, eCommerce store owner, and former microprocessor designer.  In fact, the microprocessor running the phone in your hand was likely designed by Steve’s team. All of that to say, Steve is a pretty smart dude. I recently saw Steve in San Diego at Social Media Marketing World where we were both speaking.  We had lunch and talked a little about Chatbots. I was instantly intrigued. Chatbots and Messenger ads have huge potential to create more helpful, more personal experiences with your brand.  All with the goal of increasing sales and building loyalty. Here’s a quick look at what Steve and I discuss... The rules behind using Messenger as a business.  Facebook is very strict here. If you don’t know the rules, you’ll likely get yourself into trouble. How often should you send promotional messages on Messenger? When to run true Messenger Ads vs. when you can run other ad types on Facebook but tie in Messenger in a stealthy way (this will save you some money on ads). How Steve

My guest on this show is a legend in the eCommerce space.  He’s the founder of the Shopify Agency, Ethercycle. He’s the host of the wildly popular Unofficial Shopify Podcast.  And, he’s just an overall really smart dude. When most ecommerce companies consider conversion rate optimization they usually immediately think of split testing, multivariate testing, cart optimization, etc.  BUT, most merchants fail to ask a very important question - “where should I start with my conversion optimization efforts?” And, according to our guest today, the answer to that question is rarely - if ever - split testing. I knew the general direction of this interview before we started to record, but I didn’t know specifics.  I was blown away by the simplicity, but also the power of Kurt’s suggestions. EVERY store owner would benefit from going through the exercises discussed in this episode.  Here’s a quick glimpse at what we covered: The power of surveys for your best customers and how a recent survey totally transformed a bri

Video ads on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram continue to rank among the best performing ads right now for ecommerce companies.  The difference between a great video and an OK video is HUGE. To really scale on any of those platforms though, you have to know how to craft a video that converts.    Enter Andrew Eckblad. Andrew Eckblad was killing it with online video before it was the cool thing to do.   Andrew has spent the last 10 years serving as Frank Kern’s video guy. He’s also the Manager of Video Marketing and Production for Kartra.  And he’s the founder of ConvertViews.com a collective of direct response video editors. His videos have directly grossed over $100 million in product sales. Here’s a glimpse of what Andrew and I cover in this interview: Andrew’s simple but profound 2 keys to a video that sells Nuances to consider for videos that work on Facebook vs. Videos that work on YouTube How to apply the “do I care” test to your videos. The importance of pacing, transitions, and on-screen text Using the

There probably isn’t a more consistent rule in business or in life like the 80/20 rule.  Usually, 80% or more of your results and success come from just 20% of your efforts. I’m all about finding the 20% of activities, changes, etc. to focus on to deliver the biggest impact.   In this episode, I bring back my business partner Chris Brewer to outline the 7 key areas you should focus on to grow your business both on Google and on Amazon this year.   These are 7 factors that should provide a big return for you. We’ll cover a variety of topics including: How and why you should invest in YouTube ads What to expect and what to consider with Google’s automation and smart bidding options How the SEO practices that everyone has forgotten may be a secret weapon for you. How Amazon is pouring more money and time into their ad platforms and what that means for growing your business.   Plus more!

Ross Beyeler knows a thing or two about ecommerce sites that convert.  He’s built a few sites that I really love. Charley Hustle (mostly because I’m a huge Chiefs Fan and KU Jayhawks fan), Bottle Keeper,  Johnny Cupcakes, Assoline and more.       We get into several key design, UX and conversion rate optimization topics and examples including:   Home page optimization and how the approach shifts if you have a large vs. small SKU count Storytelling in ecommerce and why successful ecommerce brands are great storytellers Product Detail Page (PDP) “must haves” for a better experience and better conversions Creating better collection and improved navigation 4 conversion killers to avoid like the plague Site search and recommendations for doing this better especially for larger SKU counts How to mine site search data for improvements Plus more!

Tom Wang is a true Amazon success story. He builds a very successful brand on Amazon after a pretty big crash and burn experience. Literally a “burn” experience as his first venture was in hoverboards.   In this episode we breakdown Tom’s success and talk about what is relevant for growth on Amazon in 2019.  We tackle Tom’s advice for some pretty critical Amazon tasks.   How to get reviews now and not violate Amazon’s terms of service. How to diversify traffic and boost organic rankings Product line extension and how to launch your next product on Amazon How to successfully use Amazon Giveaways and lightning deals Plus more!   Don’t miss it!  

Matt Ward built an Amazon business from nothing with a goal of selling it for $1million in 12 months.  His goal once the sale was final was to work on stuff that mattered more to him….He reached his goal of selling his company and now he’s running a podcast and writing books on some pretty interesting topics.  He’s had the privilege of interviewing some pretty stellar people including one of my marketing heroes - Seth Godin.   Matt is a fascinating person and extremely bright.     In this episode we get into some pretty interesting territory, including: How Matt scaled so quickly, What AMZ sellers should consider now and what the future holds What’s next for Amazon What’s Amazon’s goal with Echo devices and owned brands (like Amazon Basics) and who will continue to win as Amazon’s domination grows.   Voice Search and Smart home - and what it means for Amazon and Google and YOU. Facebook Portal and our predictions on it. Why 10x results doesn’t require 10x effort Plus, more...