The Ecomcrew Ecommerce Podcast

Mike sits down with EcomCrew's Podcast Producer, Ben, to talk about his recent trip back to the Philippines, the value of facetime with your employees, and our big plans for the company moving forward.   I'm in Cebu for a couple of weeks!   Over this short but fun period, I saw old friends again after the pandemic and got to meet new ones whom I've only ever spoken to on Zoom. I had a genuinely fu...

Mike talks to Paul Okhrem, the co-founder of a global ecommerce consultancy company in Ukraine, on what it's like to maintain operations even amid the escalating conflict.   What's happening in Ukraine is heartbreaking. Who would've thought that an invasion could happen even in the 21st century?   I figured the least we can do is provide a platform to shed some light on the situation there from a...

Mike and Dave talk about their wins and losses in April, as well as exciting updates on their not-so secret project, including an official launch date.   It's time for another Brand Report! Compared to March, there's a slight decline in last month's revenue numbers. But that's not to say April was all bad.   April was a hectic month for me. After over six months of working with several developers,...

Will Performance Max replace all singular campaigns? Mike chats with Brett Curry of OMG Commerce about Google's latest campaign type feature.   There's no debate on how efficient and incredibly convenient Performance Max is. It's a unified campaign for multiple channels rolled into one.   However, there is a common misconception that it replaces your existing campaigns. While it will partially can...

Mike talks to Seller Universe Ecommerce Group CEO Martin Zerrudo about Amazon DSP and how brands can successfully leverage ads with it.   A relatively new system, Amazon's demand-side platform (DSP) analyzes consumer data and finds the right customers to target ads with.    Unlike Facebook or Google ads, DSP gives you access to a wider network of third-party sites and reach people both on and off...

Dave goes through the top third-party sellers on Amazon, what products they sell, how much they make in revenue annually, and what their business models are.   At the start of the year, we began working behind the scenes on producing regular reports on top third-party sellers on Amazon.   Since Amazon doesn't release reports on third-party sellers, we had to develop a way to harness this data ours...

In this episode, Mike delves into subscription boxes and why it's an effective business model, featuring special guests Paul Chambers and Chris George of SUBTA.   From food items to lifestyle products, subscription boxes have become quite the trend in ecommerce the past few years.    Chris George and Paul Chambers got their start in ecommerce with Gentleman's Box, a subscription service for men's...

In this episode, Mike is joined by Spencer Jan of Solo Stove to talk about the evolution of ecommerce through the years and how innovation drives it forward.   After hearing him speak at eCommerceFuel Live last March, I invited Spencer Jan to be on the podcast to expound on a particular point in his presentation that struck me the most: innovation.   Spencer is the co-founder of Solo Stove, a comp...

For this episode of Under The Hood, Mike gives advice to Lisa Guenst–dental hygienist and owner of ToothShower, an innovative dental water flosser–on how to boost sales and get a business ready for selling.   Over two decades of working as a dental hygienist, Lisa Guenst noticed how a lot of patients she encountered hated using string floss.    However, part of her profession is advocating for ora...

Welcome to the podcast edition of Brand Report! In this series, we share with you our revenue across all our brands every month, so you can see what we did wrong and what we did right.    In February, we raked in a total of  $621,816, compared to March's revenue numbers, where we broke past the $700,000 barrier. IceWraps continues the upward trend in sales, but one thing remains to be a source of...

A lot has happened since the big announcement about Knitting.com. It went viral, but not for the right reasons. In this episode, Mike and Dave set the record straight.   Shortly after we released the blog post and podcast about Knitting.com, we got into hot water with members of the knitting community.   While we've gotten some pretty harsh comments, we've also received helpful advice from knitter...

Mike is joined by Carlos Alvarez, an elementary school dropout who, years later, would exit a business for 2.6 million dollars.   This week on the podcast, we have the founder of Wizards of Ecom, Carlos Alvarez. If there's one thing Carlos and I have in common, it's that we've beaten the odds. As school dropouts, we're not expected to succeed in life. But after a few years of grit and hard work, h...

Welcome to the podcast edition of our February Brand Report! Each month, we'll break down our monthly revenue so you can see what's working and what's not.    February's revenue was $621,816, which is roughly equal to that of January, and we dive into what exactly affected our revenue: what we worked on, our wins, and our painful losses. Dive into each section here:    Intro - 0:00 Impact of incre...

Mike and Dave discuss quite the polarizing topic: cryptocurrency – and how it might revolutionize the financial industry in the future. Our topic for today is not totally in line with ecommerce, but a bunch of you guys requested it so here we are: Ecomcrew's one and only episode on cryptocurrency. The subject is especially interesting since Dave and I aren't exactly on the same team when it comes...

Mike is joined by Mediavine's Eric Hochberger to talk about how enhanced privacy and data protection is affecting ecommerce and the future of advertising.   Consumers are becoming more wary and on edge about online security and keeping their data safe. Developers address this concern by doubling down on data privacy and limiting ads, albeit, at the expense of businesses' efforts to reach potential...

The inspiration for a business can strike at any time. For Hasan Hasmani, CEO of Underdog Games, the big idea came to him during a meeting with a client. After several years of selling other people's board games, that fateful conversation would eventually lead him to running a company and developing his own.    For non-essential goods such as board games, capturing a market can be difficult. But w...

Mike sits down with the co-founder of Intelligems, Drew Marconi, to discuss a subject many entrepreneurs find quite personal: pricing.   Pricing is a tricky aspect to navigate when running a business. Set it too high, you'll turn away potential customers. Set it too low and you'll run the risk of struggling to keep your business afloat. So, how do you balance the scales in a mutually beneficial wa...

Contrary to the expression "Money is no obstacle," for many start-up entrepreneurs, it's actually the biggest hump to overcome when getting started. So many great ideas and brands fail to come to fruition mainly because of one factor: funding, or the lack thereof.   In this episode, we have Asher Ismail of Uncapped to share with us what the company he co-founded does, how ecommerce entrepreneurs c...

Mike chats with Eric Suddarth of Seller Rocket about Amazon's Onsite Associates Program and how editorial content can positively influence potential customers. In a massive ecommerce platform like Amazon where there are literally thousands of results for every product search, getting your business clicked on (and added to cart) is a challenge. For this episode, I am joined by Seller Rocket's Eric...

Mike catches up with PostPilot's Drew Sanocki to talk about spotting opportunities in business, the bullishness of SaaS, and the efficacy of real mail in today's environment.   Ever since I attended eCommerceFuel Live five or six years ago, I've always admired Drew Sanocki for his knowledge and experience in the business.   Drew is the founder and executive chairman of PostPilot, a service that ai...

With our businesses fortunately well and stable, we thought it was high time we worked on a new project – this time, as business partners!   Dave and I have always talked about working on a business together, but we never really came up with anything concrete.   That is until we stumbled upon this hidden gem of sorts: Knitting.com. Although we absolutely have zero expertise on the subject matter,...

As the pandemic continues to drag on, running a successful ecommerce business is not without its challenges. 2021 may not have been the COVID-free year Dave and I wanted for our businesses, but that's not to say it was all bad.   It wasn't an easy year, but looking back, there were plenty of reasons to celebrate too, which we will talk about in this episode – and we may or may not discuss a little...

WallCharmers co-owner Viktor Morosov talks about how his company has grown and evolved since quitting his office job, and the struggles he encountered during the pandemic.   Juggling a nine-to-five job and an e-commerce start-up is no easy feat and is certainly an exhausting set-up to maintain.    So when Wall Charmers' numbers hit an all-time high in April 2021, Viktor and his business partner La...

Elements Brands CEO Bill D'Alessandro returns to chat with Mike about his recent (and unfortunate) experience with an Amazon aggregator who bought his business.   For many entrepreneurs, selling a business can be an even bigger achievement than starting one. While some luck out with finding honest-to-goodness buyers of their business, others get caught up in less favorable situations.   Bill D'Ale...

Mike and Lazada founder Pierre Poignant talk about the differences in ecommerce philosophies between the East and the West.   Born out of the digital revolution, Lazada is one of the largest ecommerce platforms in Southeast Asia.   In this episode, I sit down with Lazada Co-Founder and former CEO, Pierre Poignant, to talk about how he saw a massive opportunity for digital retail in Southeast Asia,...