eComFuel Podcast

Building a brand through a proprietary product may very well be the future of eCommerce for small businesses. Dave Bayless, of Human Scale Business, knows firsthand what it takes to grow and scale early-stage companies or inventions. He has a wealth of experience both on the private equity side and as a consultant helping entrepreneurs build their brands. You can find show notes and more informati...

On this episode, Bill and I talk about the keynote speakers, panel discussions, and overall takeaways from this year's excellent eCommerceFuel Live in Savannah, GA. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here:  http://bit.ly/2einpg6  

In this episode, Chad talks about how he got into selling gun parts, as well as some of the things he's learned about business and marketing over the years as an entrepreneurial jack-of-all-trades. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here:  http://bit.ly/2fbomYs  

In this final episode from our beach mastermind group, Andrew moderates a discussion between Bill D'Alessandro and Zack Kanter about how Amazon will change in the coming years. Will they consider buying out either UPS or FedEx? Will they simply drive them out of business? We attempt to answer these questions, but we also talk drone-delivery and discuss the future of eCommerce as a whole. You can f...

It seems like every über-successful entrepreneur has a special daily routine that sets them up to dominate the day. In this episode, we talk frankly about our own positive and negative habits and how they impact our work and personal lives. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here:  http://bit.ly/2e9XtUJ  

Mastermind groups are a familiar topic in the eCommerce community. In the kickoff episode of this three-part series, we take a peek inside the recent entrepreneurs' retreat I attended, hosted by our frequent guest and good friend Bill D'Alessandro. Together with Will Nathan of Homepolish , Zack Kanter of Proforged , and Marshall Hayes and Alex Herndon of Amplio Digital , we discuss   many benefits...

Eric Bandholz  returns to eCommerceFuel to take about the benefits and challenges of scaling your team in a way that leads to productivity, why he decided against selling on Amazon, and how launching another company, UrbanBeardsman.com, is taking his business in a new direction. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/2dvhVKc

Virtual reality is the talk of the town right now, and not just in tech circles. Today we're chatting with Daniel Beauchamp, head of VR at Shopify, to understand how virtual reality might change the face of eCommerce in the not-so-distant future. We start with a basic overview of VR and headsets. We then dive into the fascinating potential of virtual reality as it could benefit eCommerce merchants...

There's a lot to keep track of when you have a growing small business, and managing cash flow can be tricky. Bill and Andrew have had their own encounters with cash flow issues in the past, so today they share those lessons. They talk about why you might be strapped for cash even if your revenue is booming, legitimate reasons for having cash flow issues, and the best ways for small businesses to r...

You've probably heard that 2016 is the year messaging apps and bots really take off. We're joined this week by Paul Gray of Kik, who enlightens us about the popularity of messaging apps, the possibilities of bots, and how he would respond to naysayers of these up and coming technologies. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here:  http://bit.ly/2ceJo6j  

Recently, we did a roundup of the eCommerce conferences you should have on your radar . This week, we're talking about getting the most out of whichever conferences you do attend. We discuss why networking should be your primary objective, and how to absorb as much as possible from each conference. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here:  http://bit.ly/2ccyIpY  

Earlier this year, we kicked off a series with Kyle Goguen of PawStruck.com and began by looking at his goals. We wanted to follow Kyle throughout the year to see how things went – what were some of his successes and challenges on his eCommerce journey. On this episode, we have an update on Kyle's story, specifically, in the area of warehousing and how he's managing that aspect of his business fro...

New post from The eCommerceFuel Blog : Running a brick and mortar store has its challenges. Today's guest has figured out how to create both an open and warm store environment with an innovative and successful online presence. For this episode, Andrew heads down the street from his office to sit down with Paul Decker of Musicvilla who's at the helm of a musical institution here in Bozeman, MT. He...

New post from The eCommerceFuel Blog : Could there be benefits to going old school and connecting with people out of a physical store? Tony Rodono of City Prints Map Art and, more recently, MapShop.com did just that. Tony transitioned to working out of a brick-and-mortar shop, and shares his ups and downs of the shift, including interacting face to face with customers and managing a brand new team...

New post from The eCommerceFuel Blog : Bill and Andrew resume last week's conversation to finish looking at how current trends in technology will have an impact on the future of our economy. Although these shifts may be a few years away, understanding the how these change can impact your business will help you prepare and not be caught off guard. This week, we speculate on what will disappear and...

New post from The eCommerceFuel Blog : Bill and Andrew pull out their crystal balls to peer into the future and predict how technology will usher in massive shifts in the economy. These shifts may be 5 - 20 or more years away, but they can potentially have a huge impact on your business. From self-driving cars to negative interest rates, large pools of employment sectors could face the chopping bl...

New post from The eCommerceFuel Blog : Continuing with our series on Amazon, this week we're talking about research tools available to help those selling in niche markets. Greg Mercer, the founder of Jungle Scout, a popular Amazon market research tool for sellers, discusses how sellers can weed out saturated segments to find profits.  Jungle Scout uses Amazon's Best Sellers rankings to help you ma...

New post from The eCommerceFuel Blog : One of the most crucial factors to having a successful product on Amazon is the quality of your customer reviews. This week, Jeffrey Cohen, Director of Business Development at SellerLabs, joins us to explain how to garner better reviews for your products and the strategies to create incentivized reviews. Jeff also shares up-to-date tools that bring organic re...

New post from The eCommerceFuel Blog : Fahim Naim is a former Senior Category Manager at Amazon and founder of eShopportunity. Over the course of his time at Amazon, Fahim did P&L management for a multi-hundred million dollar category, managed relationships with vendors, and negotiated terms and costs with vendors and his team. We take a deep dive into the ways to make your Amazon listings fully o...

New post from The eCommerceFuel Blog : Amazon and the eCommerce merchant. It's a Shakespearean tale where love and hate is often a blurred line. There's no doubt that for many merchants, Amazon is a huge source of revenue for their product. But there's also plenty of pitfalls when you decide to sell on Amazon. To kick off our month-long series about all things Amazon, we've got a reality check abo...

New post from The eCommerceFuel Blog : It's been eight years since Right Channel Radios first opened its eCommerce doors. After a cart migration, major website overhaul and lots of lessons learned over the years, the business has officially been sold. Today we're talking about the biggest takeaways Drew and Andrew walked away with after selling eCommerce businesses. It takes more planning, strateg...

New post from The eCommerceFuel Blog : A team of 40 virtual employees across multiple brands. Sounds like a dream team, but a lot goes into managing a large virtual team. Ezra Firestone of Smart Marketer shows us how he currently manages his businesses and builds his teams virtually, including how he determines who he needs to hire and how he keeps his employees productive and organized. Ezra weig...

New post from The eCommerceFuel Blog : You can buy anything online, but that doesn't mean every niche is a profitable one. Today we spoke to three different pioneering niche merchants from our community to talk about their seemingly impossible niches and how they've managed to turn them into full-time enterprises. Subscribe:  iTunes | Stitcher (With your hosts Andrew Youderian and Laura Serino of...

New post from The eCommerceFuel Blog : Wondering what it's like to sell your business? Or how much you can actually make through passive investments? Both are more complex than you might think, and it pays to hear from someone who knows both. Ian Schoen of TropicalMBA.com and the Dynamite Circle answers questions about recently selling his own small business, the idea that passive investments can...

New post from The eCommerceFuel Blog : The dynamic duo returns to help answer listener questions. Today we tackle a wide range of topics from how to structure your business joint ventures to what the best sources are for buying and selling eCommerce sites. If you've got questions, Andrew and Drew have the answers. Subscribe:  iTunes | Stitcher (With your host Andrew Youderian of eCommerceFuel.com ...