Ecommerce Evolution

So much has changed on Amazon since we started helping sellers on the platform in 2016 (I can’t believe we’ve been in the Amazon game for 8 years).In this episode, I chat with Trenton Bodenbach, OMG Amazon Strategist. We discuss some new potential game-changers on Amazon for 2024, strategy, and who’s winning and who’s not on the platform.Here’s a quick look at a few of our topics:1) Vertical Video for Sponsored Brand Video. Sponsored Brand Video is one of our favorite Amazon ad types. It’s usually in the top 2-3 most effective ad types for the brands we work with. Now, it supports vertical video. Likely, you have more vertical video than anything else. Now, you can use it on Amazon. 2) Shop on Facebook. Amazon controls this for now, but likely there’s more to come. This will allow shoppers on Facebook to buy products directly from Amazon without leaving the Facebook app. 3) Amazon’s continued growth and dominance and what it means.4) Amazon storefronts, posts, and other tools for branding. We b

I love this episode. Not just because my guest, Rabah Rahil, is a super smart dude with an eye for fashion.I love it because we tackle two of the biggest issues facing brands, agencies, and developers in the DTC space:How to think about and utilize AI for better results (especially if you’ve resisted it a bit).How to evolve the customer shopping experience to wow customers and drive better conversion rates.If you’ve been somewhat bearish on AI or maybe just slow to experiment with it, perhaps you need a better framework.Rabah lays out his framework by comparing AI to oil companies and how oil companies find land, drill for oil, and refine it for profit-producing products. It might not be clear right now, but this is a pretty accurate analogy for getting the most from AI.We also talk about the social dilemmas of using AI in our daily lives. For example, if I use AI to write my wife a poem, does that count, or is it cheating? If I use AI to help me craft answers for a job interview, is that a sig

In the DTC space, there are always headwinds.Supply chain issues. Amazon account shutdowns. Meta or Google ad account issues. And new headwinds pop up daily.That's why I love this conversation with Aaron Nosbisch so much. Aaron and my buddy Nick Shackelford run Lucyd - a social ad agency that focuses on CBD and Cannabis products, and now Brez, a very tasty THC drink that's legal in all 50 states.At Lucyd, Aaron and the team grew from nothing to one of the largest CBD agencies in the world. And the road was anything but easy. The story is a crazy one and even involved Aaron emailing Mark Zuckerberg directly when he was getting nowhere with Facebook support.At Brez, they're building a THC brand publicly. The wins and losses are right there for everyone to see. This interview is fun, inspiring, and insightful. Here's a look at what we cover:Why "hacking" your way to solving difficult problems isn't the answer. Being really, really good at the fundamentals is the answer.Why building in public is more fu

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!

This year was an AMAZING year of podcast guests.Today, I wanted to reflect on and recap 12 of my favorite lessons from this year.1. Creative Thinking as a Competitive Advantage - Million Dollar Mindset (Ep 231)This episode was the most shared episode of the year. It ended up in a few forums and got a lot of love. What helped Will and the team grow Organifi from $18M annually to over $100M? It wasn’t just hard work. It was creative thinking and problem-solving.Learn the secrets of Moneyball, the Hollywood Black List, and more!2. You Can 13X Through Creative, Data-Driven Marketing - Brendan Bannister (Ep 221)In a similar vein to the podcast with Will Hughes, this interview with Brendan Bannister was a banger. Brendan ran paid media for William Painter during their years of meteoric growth. We talk about the power of design and simplicity. 3. What You Don’t Know About Your Customer Is Costing You. The Missing Piece to Your Attribution, CRO, and Marketing Is Customer Insights - Trevor Crump (Ep 250) / J

How is your finance stack?We all love to talk about our tech or marketing stacks, but the financial side gets less attention.Heck, you might not even know for sure what your finance stack is! My guest today is an eComm legend, Bill D'Alessandro. Bill is the founder and CEO of Elements Brands. He's built or acquired 8 brands and sold 7. Before his time in eComm, he spent 5 years in the investment banking and private equity world. Talking about ad creativity or the latest case studies on scaling with Facebook ads is more of a dopamine hit than talking about finance. BUT, knowing what levers to pull, what to do, and what NOT to do as it relates to your finance stack can instantly add $100s or thousands to your bank account. Here are the 4 components of your finance stack that Bill and I dive into today. Trust me, this interview is fast-paced, interesting and guaranteed to put more cash in your bank account.BankingCredit CardsWorking CapitalDebtYou don't need to be a CFO or a CPA to get value

What do you do when you grow 25% YoY but realize you’re losing money? How do you adjust when what has always worked in the past stops working? What steps do you take when your cost to acquire a new customer is skyrocketing, and nothing is bringing it down?If you’re like some brand owners, you keep doing the same stuff but try to do it better. Sometimes, you need a larger shift that starts with asking better questions and understanding what problem you’re trying to solve. This interview with Anthony Mink, CEO and Co-Founder of Live Bearded, was super fun and energizing to record. Live Bearded is an 8-figure brand that experienced something pretty dramatic but also not uncommon in eCommerce. Their new customer acquisition ads stopped working across ALL ad platforms. We know the brand well; we’ve been running Google and YouTube ads for them for years. Seeing their CPA skyrocket across all channels (Facebook, IG, YouTube) and then helping it come down to the lowest it’s ever been was

In some ways, we know everything and nothing about our customers at the same time. We have mountains of data at our fingertips for every customer interaction. But we can’t see our customers. We don’t really know what they love, why they buy, or what they’re into—even insights into why they bought from us or how they first learned about us are muddy. Even when we think we know, our view is incomplete. That’s where KNO Commerce comes in. Sure, you have a few different attribution tools. They can be helpful but also confusing. And they have biases. Sure, you know conversion rate optimization best practices, but every brand and every customer is slightly different. Getting customer insights through post-purchase or abandon cart surveys can provide clarity into what your attribution or CRO data is telling you…or, more importantly, what it’s NOT telling you. The good news is you don’t have to use KNO to get great customer insights. Any survey tool can work. In

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.

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

“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.

How can you make the most of the Cyber 5?It all comes down to strategy, planning and execution.Ideally, you’re planning all year and working on the perfect strategies to attract new customers and inspire existing customers to buy more. But planning is only part of the success equation. Making adjustments and tweaks based on what’s working and what’s not is also crucial.On this episode, I’m bringing on a star-studded cast of OMG experts. We talk about Black Friday and Cyber Monday success from essentially every angle. We talk about successful email and SMS promotions. We cover do’s and don’ts for maximizing Amazon profits and share insights for getting the most from Google, YouTube and other channels. My guests:Bill Cover, Google StrategistNick Flint, Email StrategistTrenton Bodenbach, Amazon Growth StrategistWhat we discuss:Top BFCM mistakes merchants make.What you need to plan ahead of time and lock in vs. what you can change on the fly during the Cyber 5.Or favorite Cyber 5 growth strategies.

I believe in the who, not the how, for more business problems and opportunities.Want to grow faster?Need to solve a nagging problem?Rather than thinking about how to solve it, you might want to start with who.But that only works well if you have strong leadership skills. As your business grows, you’ll be doing less and leading more. My buddy Peter Awad joins the show today. He’s an eCommerce vet. He launched his first online venture in 2000 and co-founded Mission Meats, an online snack company, in 2015.Now, Peter’s passion is coaching and building great leaders. I’m a big believer that culture and leadership will trump strategy any day of the week.Here are a few of the things we discussed:What’s it like on the other side of me?Knowing yourself first.Radical candor or ruinous empathy.The nothing to lose, nothing to prove, nothing to hide approach to discussions.The fact that the life you want, the business you want, is on the other side of a few hard conversations.How to lead vendors, freelancers, an

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 GoogleHe was on the team that acquired Urchin, the precursor to Google Analytics He was on the original Quality Score teamHe was one of the original 6 people who built the AdWords editorNow, 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 t

Price. It’s an emotional topic for shoppers and for brands. As shoppers were more influenced by price than we care to admit.As brands we’re often afraid to change our prices. And our current prices were probably created a long time ago. It’s almost a certainty that they price for at least some of your products is wrong right now.Byron Myer’s is a super smart dude. He started Inogen, a med-tech business, while in college and took it public in 2014. Now he runs Glimmer Wish with his wife and daughters. He used price theory and price strategy to add tens of millions in sales at Inogen. He’s also used it to scale Glimmer Wish from 0 to over 7 figures in less than a year. And this isn’t a “let’s raise prices a bit and see what happens” approach. This is a scientific, mathematical way to find the optimal price to maximize profits.Why is your pricing wrong:It’s likely based on flawed strategies like competitor benchmarking or cost plus. Both strategies are ok to start with but do NOT produce your optimal p

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 competitionA 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 objectionsHow to tell if your ad has the power t

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 I

Amazon DSP is a misunderstood platform. Heck, even the name is confusing! The Amazon DSP we’re referring to in this episode is the Demand Side Platform. Not to be confused with Amazon’s other DSP - Delivery Service Provider (the independent contractors who deliver your Amazon packages). Amazon DSP Ads are a way to target shoppers on and off Amazon with highly relevant image and video ads based on Amazon’s behavioral shopping data.No one has more shopper data than Amazon. But Amazon doesn’t publish that data or allow anyone to use it unless…you advertise using Amazon DSP.DSP is one of the most powerful advertising platforms I’ve ever encountered. But it’s also commonly misunderstood, and it is advanced. This is not for beginners. There are a lot of ways to waste money with it. But there are a few ways to accelerate growth. Here’s a look at what we discuss:The top mistakes advertisers make when running DSP ads.The top 3 strategies for accelerating growth with Amazon DSP.Why running DSP remar

Your Amazon listings are probably NOT as optimized as you think. Your products likely aren’t merchandised as well as they could be either. In this episode, Brandon shows you how to find obscure keywords to dramatically grow your sales and rankings. He also shows you how to merchandise your product to fly off the shelf. We also talk about AI, competitor research, new product development, and what it will take to get ahead and stay ahead on Amazon. Brandon is in an elite club of 8 figure sellers on Amazon. His brands will sell over $ 30 million this year on Amazon, and he’s targeting over $ 50 million in sales next year. Here’s a look at what we discuss:The two main factors that impact ranking on Amazon: 1. Performance and 2. Relevance and how to improve BOTH.How to find obscure keywords that you can rank for quickly to boost sales.The 2 biggest mistakes sellers make when it comes to merchandising and how to fix them easily.How to get feedback faster and easier on product designs so that you don’

Post-purchase surveys can teach you a lot about your customers, and no one knows that better than my most recent guest, Trevor Crump. Trevor is the co-founder of Bestie, which is one of the fastest-growing post-purchase apps on Shopify. We talked about the key questions you should ask your customers and how you can turn their answers into extra cash! Make sure you give this episode a listen to learn key things like...The 3 questions that need to be on your post-purchase survey. Where your customers are coming from (because we all know how hard attribution can be). What Trevor has learned from running one of the most popular post-purchase survey apps on Shopify. Plus, some of the most surprising things surveys can reveal.