Ecommerce Conversations

Chris Harrison says it all started with a single pot on a stove. He and two high school buddies launched Liber & Co., a manufacturer of premium cocktail syrups, with that tiny test batch in 2011 in Austin, Texas. Fast forward to 2026, and batches are now in 1,500-gallon tanks and sold worldwide to restaurants, bars, and consumers. But the culture remains hands-on, do-it-yourself, and learn-by-...

In his previous appearance on the podcast, in November 2022, Jai Dolwani was the CMO of a wine subscription company that would shortly declare bankruptcy. It was his third struggling startup, he says, prompting "serious self-reflection." He pivoted to entrepreneurship and launched The Starters, a marketplace for fractional ecommerce talent, in late 2023. The company has thrived, having a...

Please enjoy this repeat of a popular episode first aired in January 24, 2025. According to Will Nitze, founder and CEO of IQBAR, success in a competitive market requires finding its uncompetitive niches. He did that with his flagship protein bar, which is plant-based, low-sugar, and plainly labeled. That was seven years ago when he launched the company with a $75,000 Kickstarter campaign. Fast fo...

In this episode, host Eric Bandholz reflects on his business and life at year-end. He reviews what worked for Beardbrand in 2025, what didn't, what was painful, and what made it all worth it. It's a reminder, he says, to take stock of our own priorities — how we allocate time, energy, attention — and whether they align with the life we're trying to build. Longtime listeners know tha...

In "How to Leave the U.S.A.," the venerable New Yorker magazine recently addressed what many residents have apparently considered. Yet Mikkel Thorup has lived outside of his native Canada for 25 years. He's visited 120 countries and resided in nine of them. His business, Expat Money, helps others do the same while protecting assets and lifestyle. Why relocate overseas? What are the...

Abir Syed is an accountant turned marketer turned chief financial officer. He says ecommerce marketing success largely depends on creative volume, and few merchants have exhausted any channel, much less Meta. Abir is co-founder of UpCounting, an accounting and fractional CFO firm in Montréal, Canada. In this episode, he shares common financial mistakes of merchants, key metrics to monitor, and, ye...

Jeff Oxford is our go-to interview for ecommerce SEO. The founder of Oregon-based 180 Marketing, an agency, Jeff first appeared on the podcast in 2022 when he addressed SEO's "four buckets." We invited him back late last year to explain AI's impact on search traffic and how merchants can adapt. In this our latest interview, he shared optimization tactics for ChatGPT, with a cav...

Chris Elrod is a renewable power entrepreneur. His company, Treaty Oak Clean Energy, builds massive solar projects that provide electricity for large corporations and utility firms. It's boom times for electricity generators as the likes of Google, ChatGPT, and Amazon scramble for reliable sources. How, exactly, does a company build a solar-generating plant and then sell the electricity to en...

Seth Spears is a Colorado-based entrepreneur who once taught consumers how to make their own non-toxic personal care products. He says customers valued the results but not the actual production process. "They kept asking us for ready-made versions," he told me. So he launched Wellnesse, a direct-to-consumer brand producing all-natural self-care goods, in 2020. Toothpaste quickly became t...

Kevlyn Walsh is a Denver-based art teacher turned entrepreneur. She launched Festive Gal, an Etsy shop, in 2019 after her handmade headband was a hit among Christmas party attendees. Fast forward to 2025, and Festive Gal is thriving, selling custom gifts and party supplies. A new second site, Bake It Fancy, on Shopify, sells cooking accessories. Amid the growth, Kevlyn manages employees, productio...

Andy Gould co-founded Batch, a Wisconsin-based D2C cannabis brand, in 2018. He says the company struggled for years until it perfected content creation and advertising. “Once we dialed in our Meta ads and built a strong creative flywheel, everything took off,” he said. Host Eric Bandholz first interviewed Andy and his two co-founders in 2023.  In this latest conversation, Andy addresses video prod...

By late 2023 Aaron Powell had become disillusioned with Bunch Bikes, the electric cargo bicycle company he founded in 2017. Costs were rising, cash was scarce, and the supply chain was chaotic. He contemplated chucking it all, selling the business, and moving his family to Europe from his base in Texas. Then he reconsidered. Bunch Bikes had many positives, including a sense of purpose and meaning...

Few companies have done more for global prosperity than Alibaba.com. Launched famously in China by Jack Ma, a former school teacher, in 1999, the company now connects 200,000 suppliers with millions of retail merchants. Suppliers grow, retailers diversify, and consumers have more choice for less money. Yet the B2B giant is not perfect. Language differences, intellectual property theft, and quality...

For 12 years Andrei Rebrov managed infrastructure and operations at Scentbird, a perfume subscription company he co-founded in 2013. He learned the importance of acquiring the right subscribers, those who stay for a while and generate lifetime value for the business. The key, he says, was accurate, timely analytics to assess channels, creative, and promos. Finsi, his new company, provides those me...

Jon Shanahan destroys the myth that founders make lousy employees. He co-founded Stryx, a men's cosmetics provider, in 2017 and is now the marketing head at TRX, the storied exercise equipment company. He has thrived in both roles. He joined TRX in late 2022 amid a post-Covid hangover and a stale legacy brand. Fast forward to late 2025, and TRX is refreshed and flourishing, thanks in part to...

In 2020, Karim Abed was the chief financial officer for a Texas-based home builder. The job paid well, he says, but he yearned to launch his own business and reconnect with his Egyptian heritage. Fast forward to 2025, and that business is WYR, a men's apparel brand utilizing Giza cotton, the storied fabric, and small Egypt-based factories. The company is thriving. Karim shares his story with...

Ecommerce marketers know the challenge of delivering relevant promotions to prospects without violating privacy rules and norms. Yet many providers now offer solutions that do both — personalize offers and respect privacy — for much greater performance. Two of those providers are guests in this week's episode. Sean Larkin is CEO of Fueled, a customer data platform for merchants. Francesco Gat...

Host Eric Bandholz occasionally departs from interviews to share his experiences owning and operating Beardbrand, the direct-to-consumer brand he launched a decade ago. To date, he has addressed hiring, branding , profit-building , priority-setting , exiting , overcoming setbacks , and top business models . This too is a solo episode, addressing entrepreneurial doldrums, when a business is seeming...

Please enjoy this repeat of a popular episode first aired in September 2023. Andrew Faris is the former CEO of 4x400, an ecommerce aggregator. He left that job in 2021 and now consults with merchants and manages their advertising campaigns, mostly on Meta. I asked him for his keys to successful Meta ads, having spent nine years on that platform. "The best ad managers are writers," he tol...

On-again, off-again tariffs have not lessened the opportunities for cross-border expansion. Global consumers still seek quality goods from trusted merchants. Yet success in international selling requires careful attention to fulfillment, customs, duties, and more. That's the role of Passport, the provider of cross-border logistics, localization, and support for ecommerce sellers. In this epis...

We've all heard the buzz surrounding agentic AI agents. What's missing for many of us is how they can help our business. What is an AI agent? Can it really perform tasks and get things done? In this episode, host Eric Bandholz asks those questions and more to Anthony DelPizzo. He is the head of product marketing with Triple Whale, the Shopify-backed ecommerce analytics platform that has...

Throughout 2025, host Eric Bandholz has occasionally shared his experiences owning and operating Beardbrand, the direct-to-consumer brand he launched in 2014. He has addressed hiring , branding , profit-building , priority-setting , exiting , and overcoming a million-dollar loss . In this episode, he shares what he believes is the best bootstrapped ecommerce model and why others should consider it...

Customer acquisition costs can ruin a business. Some merchants limit acquisition spend to the gross margin of the first sale. Others look to customers' lifetime value. Yet Taylor Holiday, CEO of the agency Common Thread Collective, profits from acquisition marketing. He calls it "negative CAC." Taylor first appeared on the podcast in 2020. In this episode, he explains his acquisitio...

John Melizanis believes third-party logistics fees often produce surprise charges. Per-item pricing for picks, packs, and receiving can turn an anticipated $1 per order fee into $2.50 or more, he says. John is the co-founder of ShipDudes, a New Jersey-based 3PL launched in 2020. His company uses flat-rate pricing for pick-and-pack and warehousing, and no markup for shipping. "Brands appreciat...

Nate Lagos is vice president of marketing for Original Grain, a direct-to-consumer seller of luxury watches. He relies on Facebook advertising, but not for immediate customer acquisition. “Platforms such as Facebook are megaphones, not salespeople,” he says. In this episode, Nate shares his marketing origins, advertising tactics, influencer management, and more. For an edited and condensed transcr...