eCommerce Evolution

  Even if you're not a numbers person, you need to understand the math behind your marketing.  The good news is that this is not nearly as complex as it seems.    This does NOT mean you need to be a math wiz kid, or a coder, or a master of analytics.  But you do need to know the story your data is telling you.     Chris Mercer (known mostly as Mercer) is one of the smartest analytics guys I know. ...

  For most marketers, Facebook Messenger is the ultimate black box.  What is it really?  How are customers using it?  What's a marketer to do with it?  These are a few of the many important questions that marketers may have a hard time answering.     The temptation for some marketers is to treat Messenger marketing like they would email marketing.  Big mistake.  It's a very different platform at a...

I've been looking forward to this interview for months.  I met Bryant Garvin at Ezra Firestone's Blue Ribbon Mastermind in Nashville back in January.  Hearing the details of how Bryant and team leveraged YouTube (as well as other channels) to achieve massive scale at incredible speed blew me away.  I knew immediately I wanted to have him on the podcast.     Purple Mattress has grown from obscurity...

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...

Amazon truly is a jungle.  Legitimate competitors are chomping at your heels vying for your rankings and clicks.  Unscrupulous and even fraudulent competitors are wreaking havoc and forcing a “race to the bottom” with product prices.     In this episode I interview John Bullard Sr.  John has a unique perspective on Amazon.  First off, he’s a successful seller with a $3 million per year private lab...

Logan Christopher doesn’t do anything halfway.  He’s one entrepreneur you likely wouldn’t want to challenge in a test of strength.  Logan is thin but deceptively strong.  He’s deadlifted 505 lbs, rack pulled 1,000 lbs.  In his spare time, he juggles flaming kettlebells and pulls fire trucks with his hair.  Not making this up.  Check out the details at  legendarystrength.com  or visit his YouTube c...

Today we take a deep dive into Amazon from two unique perspectives - from that of a very successful seller and that of an Amazon Ad Specialist.     As we close out 2017 we do so with two record sales days under our belts.  Black Friday and Cyber Monday both set online sales records.  Amazon was a big driver of that online growth.  All signs point to continued growth into 2018.  In this episode, we...

Few people know Facebook advertising like Ralph Burns and his team at Dominate Web Media.  In this interview we take a look at the latest features, strategies and tactics working for eCommerce merchants on Facebook.   This episode is rich in content and contains some real Facebook gold.  Here’s a look at what we cover:   - Top misconceptions regarding Facebook ads that are holding you back - Top t...

In 2009 Chegg was one of the leaders in the online college textbook market.  They offered college students the ability to rent textbooks online for a fraction of what they could pay at the campus bookstore.  Word of mouth from delighted students and strong online marketing efforts fueled rapid growth…Then they had an unwelcome competitor enter the ring - AMAZON.     Most companies would shrink in...

  Few people have mastered social media marketing like Michael Stelzner.  Michael is the founder of Social Media Examiner, one of the most visited social media marketing websites on the planet.  He’s also the host of the Social Media Marketing podcast.  He started the podcast in 2012 and has since racked up over 12 million downloads.     Michael and team also run the Social Media Marketing World -...

This is part of the "how I did it" series where we interview successful eCommerce entrepreneurs and dig into the tactics and strategies that propelled them ahead of the pack.  This interview with Jared Mitchell, Co-Founder of Skincare by Alana, is a great example of building a community, testing  everything , and diversifying traffic.     Jared and Alana's story is pretty awesome. Jared went from...

This is Jeff Bezos’ world…we’re just living in it.  Or at least, that’s how it feels for an eCommerce merchant.  It’s hard to overstate the continued growth, innovation, and reach of Amazon.  With 214 distribution centers and growing.  Sales growing at 20-30% per year.  Forays into apparel, electronics (Kindle and the Echo family of products), batteries, and several other categories.  It’s hard no...

Going fast is fun.  Just ask Ricky Bobby.  "Hair on fire" type of growth in business can be a real rush.  It can also be painful.  In this episode, I interview JD Crouse the co-founder and Queso Grande (Big Cheese) of BolderBand.com - a trendy manufacturer and retailer of activewear headbands.     Bolder Band grew from the kitchen table and dusty sewing machine of JD's wife Amy to do over $3.5 mil...

If you want to up your eComm game then you have to be paying attention to leading eComm brands and eComm marketers.    I just got back from speaking at the 2017 Content & Commerce Summit put on by Digital Marketer.  I had the privilege of "sharing the stage" with top brands like Casper.com, Chegg.com, Racked.com, Fossil Watches and more!     I got so much from the event that I wanted to share some...

Shopify just reached the milestone of powering over 500,000 online stores.  Today on the show I interview David Moellenkamp a self-proclaimed automation geek, former long-time employee of BlackBerry and now the Director of Product at Shopify Plus.     One of the goals I have for the podcast is to interview and uncover what’s new and what’s next for the major eCommerce Platforms.  If we want to tru...

While it's not a platform I'm intimately familiar with, Woo Commerce is gaining market share fast. By some estimates, it's approaching 30-40% of online shopping carts.  Largely because Wordpress powers approximately 26% of the web.     In this episode, we dive into Woo Commerce and some general conversion boosters for any site owner.  Cody Landefeld is the founder of Mode Effect and a Woo Commerce...

Dubbed the "eCommerce Renegade" Chad Rubin is the author of the book Cheaper, Easier, Direct and is one of the top 250 Amazon Sellers in the world.     With over 2 million sellers on Amazon worldwide, cracking the top 250 is no small task.  But that's not Chad's only day job.  He's also the CEO of Skubana, a multi-channel inventory management, and ERP software.  Chad brings a wealth of knowledge o...

The story behind Xero Shoes is a crazy one.  World-class sprinter over the age of 50 gets hurt, takes advice to start running barefoot and immediately sees improvements.  Then goes on to design a prototype for a barefoot running sandal that would soon land him a spot on ABC's hit show  Shark Tank.     This episode is a ton of fun and is chock full of insights and stories from a really unique onlin...

As you know, we are huge fans of YouTube ads.  At OMG Commerce we run a lot of Shoppable TrueView campaigns - the joining of YouTube and Google Shopping (for more info on Shoppable TrueView check out  Episode 10 ).     Tom is the CEO of  Viewability  and a master of YouTube ads.  He's built very profitable campaigns for marketing gurus like Neil Patel, Frank Kern, Amy Porterfield, and Brendan Burc...

B2B eCommerce is poised to explode in the coming months.  In fact,  Forrester predicts  that B2b eCommerce will be twice the size of B2C eCommerce by 2020.   If you are a B2B company or if you're a service provider working with B2B companies, or if you just want to see how B2B will shape eCommerce - this episode is important to you.     In this episode I'm honored to welcome two veterans of eComme...

Facebook ad spend has skyrocketed in recent years to the point that Mark Zuckerberg announced recently that this year they may "run out" or ad space causing rates to go up ( techcrunch article ).  For online merchants, it's often the number 2 or even number 1 traffic source with Google usually taking the other spot.    Molly Pittman, VP of Marketing for Digital Marketer, is a legitimate Facebook a...

It’s very possible that your data sucks.  Or if your data is accurate, it's likely that you're fixating on the wrong metrics.     I LOVE this interview.  While I can’t pick favorites, it would be hard to find an episode that was more important to your business than this one.     Charles Farina and the team at Analytics Pros craft data and analytics solutions for large companies like Yelp, Starbuck...

Product discovery on Amazon is almost exclusively driven by search.  So if you want to drive more sales on Amazon you have to get better at search - both the organic side (SEO) and the paid ad side.  In this week’s episode, I interview a man who knows Amazon search inside and out - George Lawrence.     He started Merchant Words in 2013 and has grown it into one of the most popular Amazon research...

Facebook ads are one of the hottest paid channels for online merchants right now.  FB ads played a huge part in Ezra Firestone's growth from under $10million in revenue to over $22.5 million in a single year.     Part of achieving success on Facebook is keeping up to date on what's working now.….And it's a moving target.    Ezra spends upwards of $15,000 per day on Facebook Ads and he's tracking h...

Bart Mroz has his finger on the pulse of the eCommerce industry.  He's the co-host of the Register Podcast and writes for Entrepreneur, Retail Dive, Social Media Today and more.     This episode is all about emerging trends, what's next, and how we should approach (our least favorite term) omnichannel.     Bart moved to the US as a boy who spoke no English.  We talk some about being an immigrant e...