The Ecommerce Influence Podcast

It's not everyday that you can get advice for growing your ecommece business from someone who has built and sold a $20MM per year store by the age of 22. But in this episode, that's exactly what we get. Mike Zhang is the original founder of Airsoft Megastore, an ecommerce site that was said to be generating $20MM in revenue per year at the time of it's sale in 2012. What started off as a small eBa...

Are you tired of the chasing down one-time transactions? Do you want more predictable revenue? Then a subscription ecommerce model might be what you need. Just because you sell sunglasses or messenger bags or some other kind of apparel doesn't mean a subscription ecommerce model won't work for your business. In fact, it's quite likely that it will work for you...once you make a small mindset shift...

How would it feel to go from working 14 hours per day 6 days a week to working 6 hours per day and not working Fridays? Working with a virtual staff can make that promised-land a reality. If a self-proclaimed "micro-managing, pain in the butt boss" can do it, then so can you. Virtual staffing is no longer considered a new concept thanks to Tim Ferriss's 2007 book "The Four-Hour Workweek", but know...

You might not be the right type of person to start an ecommerce business from scratch, so maybe you should buy an ecommerce business instead. The amount of time, energy, money and sacrifice it takes to build a business from the ground up can be exhausting (we know first hand), so why not skip all of that and buy an ecommerce business that is already established? To be honest, we never really consi...

It's been about a year and a half since since we started the podcast and countless experts have joined the show to provide us with incredible insights into building a successful ecommerce business. The question is, which ones should you be focusing on? We thought it would be the perfect time take the thousands of ideas, tips, and tricks we've learned and flesh out the top 7 things we've learned ab...

Today we're talking about risk and decision making. In business and life entrepreneurs and must decide to take risks (or not take risks) and live with the impacts it has. We're talking about an article from Bonobos.com CEO Andy Dunn called The Risk Not Taken and it's had a massive impact on our approach to risk and decision making and wanted to share it with you. Andy talks about everything from t...

You finally found it… …the answer to your ecommerce store's growth problem and your video marketing conundrum. At this point you know that video marketing is all the rage as YouTube and other video platforms continue to explode with opportunity to you grow your business. You know you should be capitalizing, but it feels like too big of a task to take on right now. Video marketing requires a lot of...

If there's any online company that completely embodies the idea of an authentic online brand, it's Ugmonk. Customer loyalty to the brand is second to none and something all ecommerce brands should seek to emulate. Jeff Sheldon, founder & designer, has taken a small side project and turned it into one of the most successful, most authentic online brands we've ever encountered or worked with. His st...

Tommy Walker has written some of our favorite ecommerce content for some of our favorite sites over the past couple of years including ConversionXL and now Shopify Plus. He has a wealth of knowledge about content marketing and shares with us his best strategies for establishing a system to generate a large amount of quality, effective content for ecommerce companies. He shares all in today's episo...

We talk about building systems all the time, but how well do they actually hold up when you completely leave your business? It was time for us to "put our money where our mouth is". We recently tested out how well our systems worked by sending by sending Austin to Asia and completely off the grid for 3 weeks. In this episode we talk about the results we experienced, what we learned, and what we fa...

If you're not driving more ecommerce sales with Facebook advertising then you're missing out on one of the best "demand generation" systems available to your business today. Facebook advertising has been responsible for producing 2x, 3x, 4x even 10x returns on adspend for some of our clients...and if you're not getting that with what you're doing now, here's how you can start. The person responsib...

The man who stops advertising to save money is the man who stops the clock to save time. If you're not driving more ecommerce sales with Facebook, you should be. If you are using Facebook to drive sales, you can do it better than what you're doing now. Facebook advertising has been responsible for producing 2x, 3x, 4x even 10x returns on adspend for some of our clients. Most of the credit can go t...

If you've listened to parts one and two of this three-part series you should have a firm grasp on scrum, the methodology we use to help us do twice as much in half the time. The final episode in this series will cover our personal experiences using the methodology, how we've modified it to fit our business, the things we're improving as we move along, and how we think you should apply it to your e...

Getting twice as much done in half the time seems like a fantasy, but it can become a reality if you're using the scrum methodology. If you're looking for the silver bullet to increase productivity, this could be it for you, it has been for us. The Scrum Methodology was originally designed for technical projects, but now it's being applied to business and it's been a smashing success for many. Our...

It seems like we're all looking for the silver bullet when it comes to getting more done in our business. Look no further. There is a methodology that will help you do twice as much in half the time. Too good to be true? We thought so, too...until we implemented it. Now our team is producing more work, at higher quality, and in much less time. And so can you. The Scrum Methodology was originally d...

Warren Buffett once said that, in business, he looks for "economic castles protected by unbreachable moats." If the Oracle of Omaha was considering buying your ecommerce store, would he see an "unbreachable moat" surrounding your business? Here are the 8 essential elements for an "unbreachable moat" in ecommerce so that you can create one to help you sell your site at maximum price. In the previou...

If you listened to last week's episode about how to value an ecommerce business then you're ready to find out what you need to do to sell your ecommerce store for maximum value. Just like any other large sale there is a right and a wrong way to sell, and you definitely don't want to be leaving money on the table when it comes to selling your business. We've had a few ecommerce companies come to us...

Have you ever wondered what your ecommerce business is worth? Do you know the right valuation criteria and process to make sure you don't undervalue your store, or price too high? No worries, everything you need to know is right here in this post and episode. We've had a few ecommerce companies come to us recently about selling their business. They've come to us with questions about determining va...

The most successful ecommerce business owners understand the characteristics of abundance & scarcity thinking, and they know how to only think in terms of abundance. Our largest and best clients use abundance thinking to lead them to more success, joy and fulfillment, while the others with scarcity thinking tend to have more failure, fear and discontent. We're talking about this today because it's...

Overachievers typically work just as much and just as hard as super-achievers but, unfortunately, they usually achieve much less. The question is, do you know the single element that separates you from the other? Last week's guest, Taylor Pearson, is someone we consider a super-achiever and he knows what it takes become one. After reading 188 books on entrepreneurship he was able to identify the o...

It's another in-depth fireside chat where we discuss the mindset you need to adopt about productivity and the how this mindset will help you do more with less. Taylor Pearson, as he says it, is a "systems-obsessed entrepreneur, marketer, and philosopher" who has spent a lot of time helping companies during the growth phase by showing them what they should be focusing and what they should stop doin...

It's time to transition out of your small business mindset and begin to see your business as an organization, segmented by roles and filled by role-specific people. Even though you're just one person, you're likely filling multiple roles in your business. Learn how to seperate them, how they all fit together and what to do once you figure it all out. As we've been growing we've realized some confl...

Improving your hiring mindset, knowing what to hire for, and knowing how to hire only 'A' players are the keys to growing your business while gaining freedom at the same time. The first step is to figure out what you're currently doing day to day...and what you shouldn't be doing at all. After that you need to have the right hiring process to help you hire the right people to take over those tasks...

We came to the somewhat-shocking conclusion that nearly 70% of our business comes from referrals...the easiest, cheapest, and most qualified acquisition channel in any business, including ecommerce. When trying to grow your business you have to make some crucial decisions around client acquisition and where to focus. Referral marketing is often an area that is overlooked or taken for granted. And...

Having a business partner can be the best decision you ever make for your business, or it could be the worst if you don't know how to choose wisely. We have now been formal business partners for over a year and recently we hit a rough patch in our relationship professionally and personally.  But just like any great "real life" marriage that builds it's foundation on the principle of clear, constan...