Ecommerce Evolution

  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 - featuring some of the top social media marketers sharing their best stuff.  I’m super excited about the 2018 event - mainly because I’ll be sharing a stage with Michael - talking YouTube Remarking.  Want to join me?  Learn More.     In this episode, I wanted to pick Michael’s brain on how he and his team approach content.  I want you to be able to capitalize and learn from Michael’s success.     Here's a glimpse of what we cover:   - Keys to success with Facebook Live & Video marketing in general - How his new behind-the-scenes shows called the “Journey” are racking up 10’s of thousands of views on Facebook and

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 a bass player with a record deal that fell through to self-employed deck builder to helping his wife launch an online skincare company.  Jared took some SEO knowledge and combined it with Alana’s passion and as an esthetician to build a budding eCommerce skincare store.   We dig into some really interesting stuff in this episode including:   - Jared’s top 4 Conversion hacks over the last 12 months - A shipping offer test with surprising results - Using Quizzes & Surveys for better conversions (this was an eye-opener for me) - How to grow a new brand piggybacking on existing brands - Jared’s top traffic sources - Us

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 not to look at Amazon with awe and wonder.  So, what's a merchant to do in light of Amazon's dominance?  Is Amazon friend or foe, or somewhere in between?   Andrew Youderian knows the world of independent eCommerce store owners better than arguably anyone on the planet.  He started the eCommerce Fuel podcast in 2014 and the eCommerce Fuel private forum shortly thereafter.  He’s bought, grown and sold several eCommerce businesses and he interacts regularly with top independent merchants on a monthly basis.  When it comes to eCommerce Andrew has done and seen it all.   In this episode, we look at how you as a merchant ca

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 million in revenue their first year.  To call that rapid growth is an extreme understatement.  Amy and JD won the 2014 Build a Business Contest from Shopify and in the process got to spend time with Gary Vaynerchuck, Tim Ferriss, Daymond John and many others.     Growth can also be painful…we'll explore both the good and the bad and the lessons in both.  This is a truly inspiring interview.  Here's a quick look at what we cover:   - How to build a community FAST on Facebook and Instagram - Knowing when to stick with it during disappointment - Handling ruthless competitors - The good and bad of hiring friends and family

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 of the most impactful takeaways with you.  So I invited my friend, and the director of content at Digital Marketer, Russ Henneberry on the show for us to each share our top 5 takeaways from the event….   Here's a quick look at what we cover: - How Chegg.com not only survived, but thrived after Amazon came after them directly.  Most experts considered it was game over, but not Chegg.   - The actual business that Casper considers themselves in and how you can learn from their content marketing. - How you can beat Amazon at Customer-centricity. - The BOTS are coming!  How BOTS are impacting advertisers on both Goog

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 truly understand where eCommerce is headed, we need to get a better picture of what the companies who build our most used carts are doing.     We are platform agnostic here at OMG Commerce.  We create full funnel marketing plans for clients regardless of platform.  That said, I love how Shopify is democratizing eCommerce.  They’re taking features that were once only available to the IR 500 and making them available to all merchants.  They’re also building features that allow merchants to create customer experiences that are only limited by their imagination.     We take a deep dive into what’s new and what’s next at Sho

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 and conversion expert.   Here's a look at what Cody and I dive into: - Why Woo is exploding. - New Woo developments and what merchants are a good fit for Woo. - 3 Conversion tips every site owner needs to consider?   - 4 eCommerce design trends to amplify sales. - How to add the human element to your shopping experience. - How to build a sales funnel for eCommerce. - More!   Want to learn more about Mode Effect?  Check out their 5 Key Considerations for Optimization and Redesign.  

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 on what it takes to build a brand and succeed on Amazon and other marketplaces. You'll love his story and we dive into some very practical and helpful stuff including: - How to build a brand selling on marketplaces - How to become a top 250 seller on Amazon - Should you work with Amazon as a Marketplace Seller (3p) or Selling direct to Amazon (1p) or both? - How to drive traffic and increase conversions on Amazon - and is enhance brand content worth the effort.   - How  Echo devices and voice search will impact Amazon sales   - Biggest mistakes you see sellers making on Amazon - Plus more!

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 online merchant.  Steven Sashen is a competitive sprinter, a TV and film veteran, an SEO, and an entrepreneur through and through.  This interview is part of our "How I Did It" series and outlines some of the elements driving the growth of Xero Shoes.  Here's a glimpse of what we cover:    - Some of the factors that lead to the huge success of Xero Shoes (Steven's answer might surprise you). - Steven's favorite sources of traffic - Conversion tips that have grown Xero Shoes to what it is today - How Steven and team approach product design and how that's helped them succeed in the wildly competitive footwear space - Lessons

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 Burchard.  Frank even mentioned that his YouTube campaigns are working better than Facebook right now.   I specifically wanted to dig in and ask Tom about his unique approach to YouTube.  Here's a glimpse of what we cover in this episode: - How to key in on the right targeting for your YouTube ads. - What makes for great ads that convert (it's not as complex as you think) - How performance psychology impacts public speaking and YouTube ads - Finding moments where prospects are most open to your message - How to measure for success - Plus more!

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 eCommerce - Darren Sepanek and Carrie Weidenbach.  Darren joined the Magento team in 2010 and helped launch and run the worldwide Magento Partner Network.  Carrie has been in the eCommerce industry for 12 years and has served in both COO and Director of Project management roles launching over 20 large eCommerce site builds annually.     They are both now at E7 Solutions and work with the OROCommerce Platform (Co-founded by Yoav Kutner the co-founder of Magento) to build custom B2B eCommerce solutions.     In this episode, we cover some really important B2B eCommerce Topics including:   - What is OROCommerce, who's behind i

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 ad expert and seasoned practitioner.  Today on the podcast we dive into Molly's 5-Step checklist for making sure that her Facebook ad campaigns are a success.  We dive into some real tactical and strategic info here.  Here's a glimpse of what we cover:   - Why your approach to targeting might be all wrong, and what you should be testing right now. Molly always looks to build ad sets around audiences of a certain size.… - How to make your audience "squirm" so that it's hard for them to say "no" to your offer.   - Video marketing tips including long form vs. short form videos….Molly's answer here might surprise you especi

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, Starbucks, TOMS, Asics and more.     This episode is highly actionable….and fun, in a nerdy way.   Here’s a look at what we tackle:   - Top, little-known Analytics “hacks” for better, more actionable data. - Why asking “what attribution model is best for me” is the wrong question to ask. - 3 Worthless Metrics you should either stop measuring or understand what they are really telling you (if anything). - What will Google’s new attribution model look like and when should we expect it? - Real case studies for making better decisions with proper data analysis - Top Analytics mistakes to avoid   Plus, more!  

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 tools on the market.  In my chat with George, we dive into all things Amazon search including…   - Common Amazon SEO mistakes to avoid - Finding hidden sales opportunities through keyword research (brace yourself we use a pretty off the wall and potentially controversial example).   - How Amazon search has changed in recent years and what that means to you. - When analyzing search data, what metrics matter and what metrics don’t - Preparing for more product searches on Alexa and “Amazon Choice” - Current trends on Walmart & Jet.com    Plus more!  Check it out.

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 his performance carefully.     Here's a glimpse of what we cover on the show: - How Ezra is currently building his Facebook Sales Funnels - The 4 types of ads you should be testing - Why you should consider video ads for FB - Landing page tips for converting more FB ad traffic - New audience targeting techniques that are different than what Ezra was teaching & testing just a few months ago. - Bonus!  We get a little bit "deep" at the beginning and end of this episode.  We talk about being a mission-driven business and sticking to your values even as you experience rapid growth and have opportunities coming at you

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 entrepreneur and then dive into some pretty compelling questions such as:   - What technologies will disrupt eCommerce in the next 1-5 years? - What are the most common problems you're solving for larger eCommerce clients right now?  How do you think those will differ in 2-5 years? - What platforms and payment systems are you most impressed with? - How is omnichannel changing and where is retail in general headed? - Are there any legitimate contenders for Amazon - who could give them a run for their money? - Plus more!   Bart is a fascinating guy, and I think you'll love the interview.  Enjoy!

What are you doing to delight your best shoppers?  How are you encouraging or incentivizing your best customers to come back and tell a friend?  How are you consistently growing repeat purchases?     If your answer is "I'm not sure," or "I could do more," or even "we're doing pretty good there," this episode is for you.     I've seen different studies, but I think it's safe to say that driving a new customer is 5 to 25 times more expensive than keeping an existing one.     With that in mind, it makes sense to put plenty of effort and energy into keeping and delighting existing customers.  Also, the best new customers are often those who are referred by your existing customers.     Steve Deckert and his company Smile.io (formerly Sweet Tooth) are veterans in the rewards space for eCommerce.  Here's a quick look at what we cover on this episode: - How to build a powerful referral program - How to build a successful VIP program - Loyalty campaign mistakes to avoid - How InkBox saw an 80% lift in repeat purchase

If you're not continually tweaking and testing for better conversion rates, you're leaving money on the table.     Nick Disabato is a guy that I never heard of until all of a sudden I saw him everywhere.  From working on BOOM with Ezra Firestone to speaking at eCommerce events to being interviewed on multiple podcasts.  All of a sudden I couldn't escape this guy.  :)    Nick is incredibly bright and has a great process for finding and fixing conversion rate problems for eCommerce sites.   In this episode we cover:   - Top conversion tools - Where to begin with conversion rate optimization - Simple improvements Nick helped Ezra create for BOOM that created a big conversion lift - What big ecommerce stores fail at over and over again and how you can capitalize on it. - How to get real answers out of your customers and turn that into conversion gold - Top conversion resources - Plus more!

Without good copy, you're sunk….or at best fighting an uphill battle.     I love all the new tools for eCommerce that we have at our disposal.  From AI tools, to automation, to personalization, augmented reality etc.  But here's the deal.  None of that matters if you can't tell a good story or produce copy that compels people to buy.  Often, she who tells the best story wins…   I review dozens of eCommerce sites each week and it's very clear to me that good copywriting is a lost art.     My guest on this week's episode is Julie Boswell, co-founder of AskaCopyExpert.com.  Julie was the director of marketing for Bill Glazer and Dan Kennedy at GKIC for 4 years.  Her copy helped fill seats at the famous Super Conference and Info Summit back in their heyday.     In this session we dive into the power of strong copy to boost eCommerce sales.     Here's what we dive into:  - How to write emotional copy that elicits a response - Common copy mistakes to avoid - Copy tips for better product detail pages - Email copy ti

My guest on the podcast today has a unique perspective on both Amazon and on building your ecommerce team.   Nathan Hirsch built a wildly successful drop shipping business on Amazon in 2009.  He's since scaled that to multi-million dollar per year business.  in 2015 he launched freeeup.com to help online merchants find vetted outsourcers with eCommerce experience.    In this episode we dig into some Amazon news and trends to pay attention to and we provide some specific insights for building your ecommerce team.   Here's a quick snapshot. - How Amazon has changed since 2009 - Biggest mistakes he sees merchants making on Amazon - What Amazon changes should resellers be preparing for - Top hiring mistakes - Killer interview questions - Processes for properly vetting and hiring eCommerce rock stars