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The Ecomcrew Ecommerce Podcast

An eCommerce podcast for store owners, hosted by 7-figure store owners Mike Jackness and Dave Bryant. We cover everything in eCommerce from Shopify, to Amazon FBA. From email marketing, to Facebook Ads. Never before has there been a podcast with store owners who are so candid. Subscribe to the Ecomcrew podcast today!
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Now displaying: 2020
Dec 28, 2020

Welcome to Episode 354 of the EcomCrew podcast!

It seems like it wasn’t too long ago when we started recording the first one, but here we are, closing 2020 out with the 354th episode.

Throughout the year, we’ve talked to lots of interesting people in the industry and learned a bunch of new stuff both from their expertise and their mistakes.

To cap it all off, we’ve thrown together a list of the best episodes of 2020. It includes 7 of our most downloaded episodes plus a few other favorites handpicked by our staff.

What did you think about E350 and Greg Elfrink’s story of the Uber for grilled cheese sandwiches? Did the tidbits we found out in the Amazon vs. Congress Hearing in E299 raise your eyebrows? How about that crazy ‘package stabber’ story from our good friend Merideth in E339?

Timestamps

We’re throwing together a list of the best Amazon seller software of 2020. Simply tell us which apps you find most helpful and get a chance to win an annual Premium membership worth $1999 absolutely free. For Premium members, we’ll be extending your membership for a full year if you win.

All you need to do is answer four short questions.

Did your favorite episode make it on our list? Let us know and don’t forget to leave a review over on iTunes.

Happy holidays and, as always, happy selling!

Dec 24, 2020

Being among the 100 fastest-growing private companies of 2020 in America is no small feat, but behind the scenes, things aren’t as pretty as they seem.

In this catch-up episode, Victor Delacruz of Christian Planner is back to share his experiences after our hour-long Under the Hood episode a couple of years ago.

We chat about his company’s immense growth in revenue, losing a key business partner, and how he is facing financial challenges that could be fatal to his business.

I dissect Christian Planner’s current situation and discuss Victor’s best options moving forward. Does he need to get his expenses under control to pay off debt? Or is he better off selling the business altogether?

Timestamps

  • Catching up with Victor and Christian Planner - 3:13 
  • Falling flat and losing C-level executives - 5:10
  • Victor’s struggle of not being a business person - 6:42
  • Analyzing Victor’s current debt situation - 8:59
  • Why understanding key numbers in business is an essential skill set - 15:04
  • Potential outcomes of staying on or moving on - 18:20
  • Victor’s current gameplan - 22:54
  • The importance of knowing your strengths and weaknesses - 26:50
  • Why Victor’s business is special - 29:45
  • How to look at debt and manage burnout - 32:44
  • What I would do if I were in Victor's shoes - 33:44
  • How businesses are valued and my advice if he decides to sell - 40:06

If you want to know more about Victor and his company, check out Christian Planner’s cool designs on https://christianplanner.com/collections/all.

Do you have any favorite Amazon software or app? Let us know by answering just four questions.

And to thank you for your time, we'll pick one lucky winner randomly and reward him or her with a free annual subscription to EcomCrew Premium.

If you're already a member, we'll extend your membership for another year for free.

All you need to do is answer this poll.

Ever have to face a tough decision like Victor? Let us know in the comments section and share this episode with a friend.

Also, don’t forget to leave us a review over on iTunes.

Happy selling!

Dec 21, 2020

Our EcomCrew family is growing year after year, and we’ve been welcoming new members since we first launched. However, despite the unique individuals who join the community, we’ve been noticing some questions that are constantly recurring be it in our exclusive Facebook group, in the emails, or during our monthly webinars.

So Dave and I decided to pool together the top 5 questions that our Premium members are asking and answer them on this podcast. You might be having the same queries yourself, so this is a great episode for you to finally get the answers!

Timestamps:

  • The silver lining of the pandemic for me - 4:50
  • Question 1: Should your blog content be on a standalone domain or should you have it on your e-commerce website? - 9:25
  • The advantages of having a standalone blog - 10:51
  • Question 2: When should you group your products together? - 13:37
  • How eliminating some of my products helped my conversion rates - 15:52
  • The effect of launching a variation of a successful product - 20:20
  • Question 3: When should you open a second Amazon account? - 21:40
  • The advantages and disadvantages of making a separate Amazon account for different brands - 24:10
  • Question 4: What type of URLs do you use when sending traffic to Amazon? - 29:48
  • Question 5: When should you stop optimizing your Amazon listings and work on another product? - 36:20
  • What I did when our competitors started copying our listings - 39:00
  • Our plans for EcomCrew in 2021 - 42:20

Aside from these five questions, a lot more are being answered within our EcomCrew Premium community.

If you want to be a part of the team for free and join us on our exclusive webinars, you can tell us what your favorite Amazon software is so you can get the chance to win an EcomCrew annual subscription! If you’re already a member, we’ll extend your membership for another year.

All you need to do is answer four quick questions, and you can be the lucky winner.

We hope you enjoyed this episode, and if you did, don’t forget to leave us a review on iTunes. It helps this podcast a lot, and we’d really appreciate it if you do.

Until the next episode!

Happy selling!

Dec 14, 2020

We’ve talked about buying and selling e-commerce businesses before, but in this episode, we are joined by a respected lawyer in the field who will help us understand the technicalities of the legal side of the process.

John Di Giacomo is a partner at Revision Legal and is also an adjunct professor of law at Michigan University. He is an expert in intellectual property law, corporate law, internet law, and international law. His expertise and his 11-year experience in e-commerce make John highly sought after by entrepreneurs who are looking to buy or sell their online businesses.

In this episode, we delve into the nitty-gritty of the process so you can be guided.

Timestamps

  • Introduction to John Di Giacomo - 3:03
  • Why and when you should prepare your business for sale - 4:40
  • Cleaning up your financial records - 5:35
  • The importance of separating different lines of your business - 7:35
  • The value of a valuation analysis - 9:00
  • How tax prepping helped me sell ColorIt more smoothly - 14:54
  • Cleaning up your cap tables - 16:08
  • Supplier price readjustments during the turnover - 21:44
  • Taking account of your business’ intellectual property rights - 26:55
  • Disclosing your loans during negotiation - 29:23
  • Identifying the terms for post-deal participation - 32:33
  • How we’re doing with inbox zero - 40:18

I want to thank John for his time in recording this episode with me. If you want to reach out to him, you can visit their official website or email him at john@revisionlegal.com.

EcomCrew is also doing a survey about the Best Amazon Software of 2020. Help us out by answering just 4 questions at ecomcrew.com/vote.

As a thank you for doing so, we’ll give you a chance to win an annual subscription of EcomCrew Premium--a prize that’s valued at $1999! If you’re already a member, we’ll extend your membership for another year for free if you get chosen.

If you like this episode, please don’t forget to leave us a review over on iTunes if you haven’t already.

Until next time, happy selling!

Dec 10, 2020

As e-commerce sellers, we can become attached to our businesses, especially when we built them from the ground up. However, at some point in time, we have to let them go to move on to better projects or, as it was in my case, to let go of some of the stress that comes with running multiple businesses.

 

There are good reasons for selling your business, and our guest for this episode knows them all too well.

 

Greg Elfrink is the Director of Marketing of Empire Flippers, a company that specialises in buying and selling online businesses. In this episode, he shares seven of the most interesting businesses he had to deal with at Empire Flippers and the lessons he learned from each.

 

Timestamps:

  • Catching up with Greg - 2:26
  • Business #1 - 5:03
  • How important are product niches? - 6:53
  • Business #2 - 8:30
  • Why I sold ColorIt and the factors I considered before doing so -10:06
  • How to line up your personal and business goals - 13:00
  • Is it okay to sell your e-commerce business? - 14:02
  • Business #3 - 16:56
  • How to be featured on review articles - 20:20
  • The latest improvements on Tactical.com - 22:10
  • Business #4 - 28:15
  • The importance of simplifying your e-commerce business - 30:06
  • Business #5 - 31:30
  • How EcomCrew is designed for simplification - 35:12
  • Business #6 - 37:34
  • Business #7 - 39:18
  • The future of e-commerce and brick-and-mortar stores - 43:00
  • How to get a free valuation from Empire Flippers - 49:02
  • Why you should try Empire Flippers’ services - 50:00

 

If you want to know how much your business is worth, you can visit empireflippers.com/valuation-tool. To contact Greg, you can reach him at greg@empireflippers.com.

 

If you want to get the chance to win a free annual EcomCrew Premium subscription valued at $2000, go and answer our Amazon software survey. There are just four questions, so it wouldn’t even take much of your time.

 

If you loved this episode, please don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes.

 

Happy selling!

Dec 7, 2020

Amazon sellers use various software as tools to help grow their businesses and make the processes smoother. If you’ve ever wondered which ones are used by most sellers, you’re not alone.

To settle this matter, we’ve decided to conduct a survey that will give us a list of the most popular Amazon seller software. We’ve created a total of four categories, which we discuss in detail in this episode.

The good news is that you can take part in this survey, and after answering just four questions, you can get a chance to win a full year of EcomCrew Premium subscription! That’s a prize valued at $2000 for a few minutes of your time. Plus, you’ll also get a swag pack from us if you win.

Just head on over to ecomcrew.com/vote, and don’t miss your chance to enjoy EcomCrew Premium for free!

Timestamps

  • Updates on my e-commerce websites - 3:20
  • My 2020 Black Friday sales compared to last year - 5:00
  • The difficulties in comparing year-over-year Black Friday sales - 5:50
  • What you need to do if you want to sell your business in the future - 10:05
  • 1st Category: Product Launches and Giveaways Software - 12:30
  • 2nd Category: Keyword and Product Research Software - 16:17
  • 3rd Category: PPC Management Software - 22:00
  • 4th Category: Reimbursement Services - 36:03

For more details about the survey and the software tools we feature, head on over to the EcomCrew blog page and read Dave's article.

If you want to get to know more about Jungle Scout, one of the software featured in our poll, listen to the podcast episode I had with its CEO, Greg Mercer. You can also watch the video of the interview on Youtube.

If you like this episode, please don’t forget to leave us a review over on iTunes. It helps our channel a lot and also allows us to reach more e-commerce sellers who can benefit from our content.

Until the next one, happy selling!

Nov 30, 2020

Welcome to Episode 348 of the EcomCrew Podcast! It’s Dave here! I’m taking over the podcast recording today to share with you some advertising methods you can use after the busy season is over.

I know you’re still tired with all the preparations for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and it’s not the best time to experiment with your ad campaigns. But after the dust has settled, you might want to try out these methods to see how they work for you.

Over the years, we’ve seen improvements in Amazon ads, but they are getting more complex and more expensive. So aside from knowing which method to use, you should also know how much you should be spending on them.

Timestamps:

  • Amazon changes that affect advertising costs and methods - 2:20
  • Pages that Amazon advertises on - 3:50
  • The new default metric on Amazon ads - 5:05
  • Method #1: Sponsored Brands Videos
  • The need to invest in high-quality video ads - 9:40
  • How much to spend on Sponsored Brands Videos - 10:15
  • Method #2: Sponsored Display ads (Product Targeting) - 11:43
  • Method #3: Sponsored Display ads (Views Remarketing) - 14:55
  • The problems with Views Remarketing - 16:34
  • How much you should spend on Views Remarketing - 19:20
  • Method #4: Ads on NARF listings - 20:43

If you want to know more about these methods, check out the article I wrote. It goes into much more detail about each ad option.

If you have any ecommerce-related questions you’re dying to ask us, you can do so live on December 1 at 10 AM (PST). This webinar is usually for Premium members only, but we’re offering it to you for free as we reopen EcomCrew Premium one last time in 2020.

Also, please take time to leave us a review over on iTunes if you like this episode or the podcast in general.

Happy selling!

Nov 26, 2020

Cory Stout is perhaps the most frequent guest of the EcomCrew podcast. He did a Roadshow with us as well as a two-part Under the Hood segment.

In this episode, I talk to him again to see how his business is doing and how my advice to him almost three years ago worked out. We also talk about the future of ecommerce, his plans for the next year, and other random stuff about being an entrepreneur in this day and age.

Timestamps:

  • How being consistent helped in growing my sites - 3:42
  • How Cory implemented my email marketing advice in his business - 7:35
  • Living in a world of infinite leverage - 9:40
  • Assessing Cory’s plan to make an eCEO - 12:20
  • What decisions are worth making and which ones should be delegated - 16:48
  • The effects of raising your products’ prices - 24:44
  • Living in the present vs. living online - 29:20
  • The philosophy that best defines me - 32:36
  • The future of ecommerce - 36:15
  • Will Amazon still be the ecommerce leader in 3 to 5 years? - 40:22
  • Cory’s plans for 2021 - 45:58

If you want to know more about Cory’s business, you can check out his awesome sunglasses over at woodies.com.

If you want to be a guest at the podcast, you can sign up now to get an hour of free coaching. This is also an opportunity for you to create more awareness about your brand while we get awesome content for the podcast. It’s a win-win!

And if you’re getting value out of the business advice we give to guests on the show, you’ll love our upcoming webinar.

Get the chance to ask us anything on December 1 during our Q&A webinar. This is a feature that we give exclusively to EcomCrew Premium members, but we’re letting you experience it for free.

All you have to do is sign up and show up on December 1 at 10 AM (PST).

I hope you enjoyed this episode, and if you did, please leave us a review over on iTunes.

Happy selling!

Nov 23, 2020

Many people who have not been in the ecommerce business themselves have these expectations about the industry that are almost instantly shattered once they try it out themselves. One of the biggest myths in running an ecommerce business is that it’s an easy thing to do because you have the potential to earn while you sleep.

What they don’t know is that unless you learn to manage your processes and to let go some of the responsibilities to concentrate on what matters most, you might not even get enough sleep in the first place.

In this episode, we acknowledge these expectations and show you what you can do to run and grow your business without losing your sanity. There’s a lot to learn from this episode especially because our guest, Melissa Eisler, is an expert in managing ecommerce businesses.

Melissa is an executive coach and has helped many entrepreneurs figure out how to run their businesses smoothly while still being able to have time to actually enjoy life. She has also helped us with our Masterminds before, and I’m very happy that she’s finally joining us in the podcast.

Timestamps:

  • The overwhelming feeling that comes with expanding your business - 4:14
  • How Melissa manages her responsibilities - 5:10
  • Melissa’s trick to determining which things to focus on - 6:24
  • The cons of having freedom with your time - 7:34
  • Some principles to consider to not be busy all the time - 8:53
  • The one thing that keeps entrepreneurs from improving - 11:30
  • How to transition from solopreneurship to hiring employees - 14:28
  • The advantages of hiring employees with complementary skills - 17:28
  • Mike’s advice on letting go of responsibilities and assigning them to specialists - 19:10
  • How to tame your controller tendencies - 21:05
  • Getting a business partner vs. hiring employees - 24:30
  • Self-awareness and the importance of actively discovering your flaws as a leader - 29:54
  • The harsh realities about running an ecommerce business - 33:02
  • Investing in good employees - 36:18
  • Creating a space for conscious choices - 40:03

If you want to learn more about Melissa or avail of her services, you can visit her website to contact her.

She also runs our Masterminds, and if you want to learn more about that, reach out to us through the special email address we sent you if you’re an EcomCrew Premium member. If not, you can sign up to be one to get access to these Masterminds, our Secret Sauce webinars, Premium courses, and other Premium-members-only features through our paid subscription. With our Black Friday deal coming up, now is really the best time to sign up!

Meanwhile, you can join us on our upcoming Public Q&A Webinar on December 1 at 10 AM (PST). You can ask us any questions related to ecommerce, importing, hiring, and any other areas you’re having trouble with.

Finally, if you like this episode, please leave us a review over on iTunes. It helps us reach more people, and you’ll be accumulating good karma for doing so.

Until the next one, happy selling!

Nov 16, 2020

Welcome to the EcomCrew Podcast, and we have a special episode for you today!

Brad Bernhart, our first Under the Hood guest, is back to give us updates on how his business is doing. We get to revisit my advice to him, whether or not he was able to implement them, and how it turned out.

We started this segment in January 2018, hoping to help out our fellow entrepreneurs improve their businesses while also getting great content for the podcast. Almost three years later, we’re still doing it, and we want to know how my advice actually influenced their growth.

Timestamps:

  • Recap of Brad’s first Under the Hood guesting - 3:54
  • The Jackness Five - 4:54
  • How Brad implemented my advice - 7:03
  • Brad’s business growth update - 15:28
  • The two main things that increased Brad’s revenue - 16:00
  • The future of ecommerce - 19:15
  • How Brad can get into corporate gifting - 21:23
  • My honest take on Brad’s corporate gifting page - 28:20
  • Good keywords for Earlywood Designs - 30:44
  • How Brad can improve his site’s SEO - 33:12
  • Writing content yourself vs. hiring someone else - 42:00
  • How long blogging will pay off - 43:18

Brad’s company is selling handmade wooden utensils, which I personally think are works of art. You can visit Earlywood’s official website to find out more.

In case you missed it or want to give it a revisit, listen to Brad’s two-part Under the Hood guesting on Episode 110 and Episode 112 of the podcast.

If you’d like to be featured in our Under the Hood segment and get an hour of free coaching, you can sign up now and we will contact you in case you’re chosen.

You can also join us on December 1 at 10 AM (PST) for a free public Q&A webinar, which is perfect for your Q1 planning for 2021. You can ask us anything business-related, and Dave and I will try our best to help you out.

If you like this episode, please leave us a review over on iTunes.

Until the next episode! Happy selling!

Nov 12, 2020

Welcome to Episode 344 of the EcomCrew podcast! Dave and I are back with our usual banters and some sweet tactics for you to try out to improve your revenue on Amazon.

One of the wisest things you can do as an entrepreneur is to take note of the things that worked for other sellers and try implementing them into your own business.

In this episode, Dave and I talk about 7 Amazon hacks we’ve used for our own listings, how they work, and how they can benefit you.

Timestamps:

  • Hack #1: Strive to get an Amazon badge - 5:40
  • Hack #2: Use Brand Analytics to Your Advantage - 8:50
  • Hack #3: Add questions to your listings - 12:58
  • Hack #4: Be vigilant about your products’ measurements - 15:38
  • Hack #5: Use a refunds manager - 18:40
  • Hack #6: Use an IP accelerator - 21:30
  • Hack #7: Add foreign keywords in your back end - 24:27

If you want more advanced Amazon hacks, you can read the blog post written by our content writer Christine. It contains detailed steps to how you can improve traffic to your listing, save on fees, and more.

And to ensure your success in Amazon, you can get our book, Amazon Domination, for free! Dave and I wrote this book to help our fellow entrepreneurs navigate Amazon better and to help them avoid the common pitfalls third-party sellers make.

All you’re going to pay for is the shipping fee, and we’ll send you a free copy of the book.

What did you think of this episode? Do you want us to continue our friendly banters? Leave a comment below or write a short review over on iTunes.

Until next time, happy selling!

Nov 9, 2020

While COVID-19 has caused some serious drawbacks to a lot of businesses all around the world, there are some lucky business owners out there who, instead of experiencing loss, have seen their revenues rise instead.

Chris Cage’s company, Greenbelly, is one such business.

It seems like so long ago when Chris and I saw each other, and with all the things going on, I felt like we needed to catch up to see how his business is affected by the pandemic.

In this episode, we’ll take a look at how COVID affected the behavior of Chris’ target market and how it helped increase his sales.

Timestamps:

  • What happened to Mike’s and Chris’ businesses at the start of the pandemic - 2:35
  • How the pandemic affected Greenbelly - 8:12
  • How Chris made sure that Greenbelly had enough inventory - 17:04
  • Other mediums Chris had been working on to improve his business - 18:05
  • Chris’ content marketing secrets - 24:17
  • How Chris manages his company’s Youtube channel - 29:10
  • Mike’s plans for the EcomCrew Youtube channel - 31:50
  • The challenges and advantages of podcasting - 35:00
  • How Mike grew the EcomCrew podcast - 38:00
  • Chris’ plans for Greenbelly - 40:50

If you want to know more about Greenbelly, you can visit their official website or listen to Episode 298, where Chris and I talked about how he started his business.

If you want to increase your revenue just like Chris did, join us on November 12 at 10 AM (PST) so we can show you how we improved our products to make them stand out from the rest. The days of simply ordering products from Alibaba and stamping them with your label just doesn’t cut it anymore. Give more umph to what you sell so you can do the same to your revenue.

If you like our free content, you’ll love our paid subscription! We will be opening EcomCrew Premium for the last time on Black Friday, and if you’re still unsure about whether to join, now is the time to toss the doubts away because this time, we will be giving the biggest discount ever!

Sign up for the waitlist so you don’t miss this opportunity because when we reopen next year, we’ll revert to our regular prices.

And whether or not you grab this chance to sign up for Premium, we still appreciate your support for EcomCrew. Please leave us a review over on iTunes if you haven’t already. It helps us reach more people who can benefit from our content.

Until the next episode, happy selling!

Nov 2, 2020

Welcome to Episode 342 of the EcomCrew podcast! Dave and I sit down to reminisce about our biggest business mistakes and what we did to remedy them.

This episode is not exactly fun for us, but we did learn our lessons from the mistakes that we made, and we hope you will too.

Timestamps:

  • Why we’re doing this podcast - 3:40
  • Mistake #1: My hiring dilemma - 4:09
  • Mistake #2: Dave hires too quickly - 7:55
  • Mistake #3: Translating my site into multiple languages - 9:12
  • Mistake #4: My attempt at creating a Grammarly-like website - 14:30
  • Mistake #5: Dave’s auxiliary sites -15:40
  • Mistake #6: Dave losing money through Vendor Central - 24:04
  • Mistake #7: Marrying a business idea that you shouldn’t be involved in - 27:10
  • Mistake #8: My biggest and most painful business mistake - 35:40

This episode may have reminded us of our biggest blunders in ecommerce, but it also showed us how much we’ve improved through the years.

How about you? Do you have any business mistakes you’d like to share? We’d love to hear from you. Head on over to ecomcrew.com/mistakes, share your story, and get a chance to win an annual subscription to EcomCrew Premium! This subscription is valued at $1,500, so you don’t miss your chance! If you’re already a Premium member, we’ll extend your subscription for another year for free.

You can even indicate in the form that you would want to be anonymous. EcomCrew podcast listeners can still learn from your mistakes without us disclosing your identity.

If you want to learn how to make small improvements to your products to increase your revenue, join us on November 12 at 10 AM (PST) for a free public webinar on product differentiation.

Gone are the days when it’s enough to pick something from Alibaba and sell it on Amazon. If you want to stand out from the rest of your competitors, you need to do something they aren’t and for your product to have something theirs don’t.

And for those of you who are still on the fence about subscribing to EcomCrew Premium, we’ll make that choice easier for you. You can sign up for the waitlist now and enrol in Premium for a very special price.

This is the last time this year that we are opening enrolment, so you better reserve your spot. We have great Black Friday deals for you that we haven’t offered before.

If you enjoyed this episode, head on over to iTunes and leave us a review. We’d appreciate it very much.

Until the next one,

Happy selling!

Oct 29, 2020

With the holidays just around the corner, Dave and I thought it would be the perfect time to talk about seasonal products, their pros and cons, and the best ways to optimize them for maximum profit.

But we aren’t just talking about Christmas lights and “4th of July” merch. We acknowledge that there’s a seasonality factor to every product, and we discuss this using our own brands as examples.

Timestamps:

  • The top Amazon keywords right now - 3:57
  • Different types of seasonal products - 5:48
  • The seasonality of Dave’s products - 6:69
  • The cons of normalizing your products’ seasonality - 10:38
  • Balancing the pros and cons of over-ordering products during peak selling seasons - 13:30
  • The gamble of selling in-season products all year long - 19:14
  • The seasonality of off-roading gear - 23:15
  • Some stats for Wild Baby - 26:18
  • Do we recommend selling seasonal products for new sellers? - 30:30
  • The best time to launch a seasonal product - 32:35

Speaking of products, if you want yours to stand out, we have some tricks up our sleeves that have helped our listings rank higher and our revenue grow. The great thing about it is that you don’t need to make any overwhelming changes. 

If you want to know more, join us on November 12 at 10 AM (PST). This is a free public webinar, and we’re more than happy to answer your questions.

If you like this episode, please leave us a review over at iTunes.

Happy selling!

Oct 26, 2020

Email marketing is still important, but that alone is no longer enough these days. Ecommerce business owners need to look into all the possible communication channels that may be used to improve customer relations.

In this episode, our guest is the co-founder and CEO of Omnisend, Rytis Lauris. He talks about omnichannel marketing and how businesses can make the most out of various channels of communication by integrating them into a single system where data can be collected from all of them.

Timestamps:

  • How Omnisend came to be - 5:14
  • Advantages of having multiple communication channels - 8:00
  • How Omnisend gets permission to contact potential customers - 9:53
  • Different channels Omnisend uses to reach customers - 11:48
  • The highest converting channel right now - 14:18
  • Omnichannel marketing and how it drives more revenue - 18:07
  • The amount of effort that is worth the reward - 20:55
  • The beauty of marketing automation - 25:48

Check out Omnisend and its useful services! And because you’re an EcomCrew podcast listener, you can get 30% off your first three months. Just use the discount code ecomcrew3x30 to start enjoying their tools.

You can also reach out to our guest at rytis@omnisend.com.

Aside from marketing automation, another thing you can do to increase your revenue is to actually improve your products. Marketing is one thing, but having superior products ensures that your brand maintains loyal customers.

Over the years, we’ve done a lot of improvements on our products and are continuing to do so. If you want to know how we did it, join us on November 12 at 10 AM (PST) for a free webinar about product differentiation and how to do it properly.

Until then, happy selling!

Oct 19, 2020

Welcome to Episode 339 of the EcomCrew podcast! In this episode, we decided to have a little fun by talking about the funny (albeit stressful) customer experiences we had while running our ecommerce business.

Joining me in the podcast is Meredith Erin, co-founder of Boredwalk, a company that sells creative apparel. Meredith started the business in 2014 right in their garage together with her now-husband Matt.

In this episode, you get to hear about some of the things we had to go through in order to keep our customers happy. We laugh about it now, but surely, it caused us some serious problems when we were dealing with them.

Timestamps:

  • The Package Stabber - 5:05
  • The customer who ordered a shirt in the wrong size - 7:40
  • Mr. Impatient - 9:26
  • Customers who get mad because the package shipped too fast - 9:59
  • Small mailboxes, big packages - 11:28
  • The time Mike had to call authorities on a customer - 12:00
  • How reasonable are customers in general? - 15:05 
  • Advantages of having customer representatives - 18:02 
  • Meredith’s bingo card - 21:50
  • Customers who can’t tell the difference between navy and black - 22:35
  • The effects of politics on a business - 24:10
  • Dealing with being open about mental health in product designs - 26:33
  • How Meredith dealt with people who hate their designs - 28:50
  • What it takes to be an artist an and entrepreneur - 29:46
  • The value of hard work in business - 31:11
  • The 4-hour workweek myth - 32:36

If you want to spice up your wardrobe, check out Meredith’s company, Boredwalk, and discover your next statement shirt!

***

This November 11 at 10 AM (PST), we will be talking about product differentiation and how you can improve your products to make it stand out from those of your competitors.

Product differentiation is one of our most favorite topics at EcomCrew because it truly makes a difference in terms of revenue as well as the overall customer satisfaction.

This webinar is completely free, so sign up now to reserve your seat.

****

For those of you who haven’t tried EcomCrew Premium yet, now is the perfect time to do so. We will be relaunching on Black Friday, and this will be the last time we’re going to do so in 2020.

We have some sweet deals for you, so don’t miss it! Sign up for the waiting list today.

Oct 15, 2020

Welcome to Episode 338 of the EcomCrew podcast! Today, Dave and I are doing something new. We’re not just gonna be talking about ecommerce. We’re also gonna dive into the business books that shaped us into the people we are today.

These books were highly influential especially as to how we handle our teams and operate our businesses in general. We talk about some highlights of the books and how we implemented what we learned into running our brands.

Timestamps: 

  • Mike’s new reading routine - 3:15
  • Ready Player One by Ernest Cline - 7:00
  • Book No. 1:The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey - 10:03
  • Highlights of Book 1 - 12:04
  • Book No. 2: The One Thing by Gary Keller - 14:14
  • How Dave implemented the ideas from Book No. 2 for EcomCrew - 17:15
  • Bonus Book: Who Moved My Cheese? By Spencer Johnson - 19:00
  • Book No. 3:The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader by John Maxwell - 20:10
  • Mike’s experience with employment - 22:47
  • The fear of losing one’s job - 24:48
  • Book No. 4: No Man’s Land by Doug Tatum - 26:24
  • Big vs. small companies - 28:40
  • Book No. 5: Traction by Gino Wickman - 35:28
  • Book No. 6: Ride of a Lifetime by Bob Iger - 39:34
  • Bonus Book: Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
  • Dave’s most overrated book: Traction - 39:38
  • Mike’s defense for Traction - 41:30
  • Mike’s most overrated book: The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris - 45:14

If you loved this episode, listen to E175 of the podcast to get to know more about Mike and how he started his ecommerce journey.

For those of you who are still on the fence about availing of our paid services, now’s the time to take the leap!

EcomCrew Premium is reopening on Black Friday, and we have a very special promotion for you! This will be the last time in 2020 that Premium will reopen, and because of the spirit of the holiday, we’re giving a special offer to those who will sign up.

Be a Crewmate today!

Speaking of special offers, our friends over at Captain AMZ has one for EcomCrew podcast listeners.

If you’re an Amazon seller, you know how important good reviews are for your business. Captain AMZ can help you automatically request reviews and feedback and track all of them in one place.

Just head on over to captainamz.com and use the code ecomcrew10 or go to ecomcrew.com/captamz to get 10% off from their services.

If you liked this episode, show us your love by leaving us a review over on iTunes.

Until the next one.

Happy selling!

Oct 12, 2020

Welcome to Episode 337! Today, I’m joined by returning guest and fellow friend in the industry who recently became a dad, Jeff Oxford! 

Jeff is the founder of 180 Marketing, a site dedicated to helping ecommerce brands with their SEO needs and challenges. Jeff’s an expert in ecommerce SEO, and we can’t think of anyone else better suited to tell us about link building than him. 

In this episode, we talk about how important link building is when it comes to increasing your site’s authority and how to avoid penalties from Google by sticking to the white hat tactics.

Specifically, we talk about the following:

  • How backlinks affect your site’s ranking - 4:00
  • What backlinks are - 5:00
  • Some statistics for Mike’s sites - 6:40
  • Sites that tell you how authoritative your website is - 7:20
  • The wrong ways to get backlinks - 7:50
  • The disadvantages of using black hat tactics to get backlinks - 9:40
  • Private Blog Networks and why you shouldn’t use them - 10:40
  • Strategy #1: The Power of Content Marketing - 14:39
  • Strategy #2: Collaborative Posts
  • Strategy #3: Building Links through Books 
  • Strategy #4: The Hidden Value of Resource Pages - 25:55
  • Creating a recycling page about your products - 27:48
  • Strategy #5: The HARO Method — 28:57
  • Strategy #6: Product Reviews - 31:40 
  • Strategy #7: Awarding Scholarships — 33:30
  • Strategy #8: Being a Podcast Guest - 36:35 
  • Strategy #9: Guest Posting - 38:38
  • When guest posting is not a good idea - 39:15
  • Sites for prospecting - 42:10
  • What 180 Marketing does - 46:45

Want to hear more from Jeff? You can  listen to our first  episode with Jeff, where he does an SEO teardown for one of our sites. If you’re interested in getting an SEO teardown for your own website, or just working with Jeff in general, you can reach him at jeff@180marketing.com.

Link building is such an important aspect of improving your Google ranking, which is why our next Secret Sauce episode will be about it. To join, become a Premium member so you can get to ask Jeff your questions and to get access to the replays of all our past Secret Sauce episodes.

Not ready to be a member yet?

Join us on October 14 at 10 AM (PST) for a FREE Public Q&A webinar. We’ll be sharing some general tips and strategies from one of the things we know best: Importing from China.

We’ve been doing in the import game for several years now, and we’ve built up a lot of  nifty tips for you. From finding the right suppliers and maintaining a good relationship with them, to making sure your products are up to spec even when you’re not physically in  China.

We hope to see you there, and if you like this episode, please leave us a review over on iTunes.

Happy selling!

Oct 5, 2020

Welcome to E336 of the EcomCrew podcast! After a long time, Dave and I are finally doing a podcast together, and we’re talking about something juicy.

Some big players in Amazon recently had charges filed against them, which exposed some of the illegal practices sellers do to get their listings to rank higher. In a saturated market such as Amazon, some people are bound to resort to black hat tactics.

If there’s any lesson from this indictment, it’s that illegal acts will eventually get exposed, so it’s best to stick to white hat tactics to save you the trouble.

We’re not lawyers and we won’t even attempt to give any legal opinions about this. We’re looking at this news from an Amazon seller’s point of view. In this episode, you’re going to hear us express our frustrations and concerns regarding these practices because any Amazon seller knows that these have been around for quite some time.

Specifically, we talk about

  • What sellers should be concerned about regarding the indictment - 4:08
  • How they got Amazon accounts suspended - 5:48
  • Breakdown of the indictment - 7:28
  • Techniques they use to unsuspend their accounts - 8:08
  • Using firms to help Amazon sellers get their accounts unsuspended - 11:15
  • Suspension problems of some of our EcomCrew Premium members - 13:20
  • Ramifications of having your account suspended - 17:30
  • Competitor sabotage and how they managed to do it for years - 20:42
  • How they hacked pages of competitors to get ahead - 22:18
  • Mike’s concern regarding the morality of these practices 23:30
  • The difficulty of pressing charges against international sabotagers - 26:24
  • Why more people from third-world countries take the risk in these illegal acts - 27:43
  • Deleting tracking information to reflect that the inventory was lost - 31:00
  • Bribing employees to increase their storage limits - 31:57
  • Making a plan of action that is not intended to be followed through to get an account unsuspended - 34:00
  • Getting another seller’s supplier invoice and selling it to competitors - 36:58
  • Should sellers be worried? - 40:24
  • The difficulty of choosing only white hat tactics - 43:25

For more information regarding this topic, check out the article Dave wrote about the indictment.

We’d also love for you to join us on our free webinar on October 14, 2020, at 10 AM (PST). We’re going to be talking about how we successfully imported high-quality products from China and we’re going to share our secrets when it comes to negotiating with suppliers and making sure that our products meet our specifications and quality standards.

If you liked this episode, please leave us a review over on iTunes.

Sep 28, 2020

Welcome to E335 of the EcomCrew podcast! This is a special episode because it’s the first time that we have a returning guest from our Under the Hood segment.

We started doing Under the Hood back in 2018 to give free hour-long advice to other ecommerce sellers and feature them on our podcast. This year, we’re touching base with our past guests to see how they’re doing and how our advice impacted their business.

When our guest, Richard Phillips, was here 2 years ago, he had recently made the transition from affiliate marketing to actually selling physical products. If you missed that, check out E155.

In this episode, Richard and I talk about

  • Richard’s ecommerce journey - 2:28
  • Not being discouraged about business mistakes and failures - 6:28
  • Why Richard went into the glassware industry - 7:40
  • The importance of packaging for giftable items - 10:05
  • Is Amazon the right place for Richard’s products? - 15:15
  • Buyer behavior during holidays - 15:45
  • Using Amazon customization to make products more special - 18:15
  • Who should be using Facebook ads - 24:00
  • Using Google AdWords - 30:40
  • Using influencer marketing to promote your products - 34:15
  • Influencer tiers and what factors to consider- 35:24
  • How many products you should give away to influencers - 37:54
  • The advantage of having a catalogue of products - 40:35
  • Increase in traffic at tactical.com - 44:15
  • How Mike’s writers make good content - 48:55

If you would like to get more reviews for your Amazon listing, we have a great deal for you! We are partnering with Captain AMZ to give EcomCrew podcast listeners 10% off on their paid plans. We know how useful they are to sellers because we use them personally.

Want to be a guest in our Under the Hood episodes? Sign up now and get the chance to be featured on our podcast and get an hour of coaching.

If you liked this episode, please leave us a review over at iTunes.

Sep 21, 2020

Hello and welcome to E334 of the EcomCrew podcast!

Today, I am joined by Judson Morgan, who is an actor, entrepreneur, and more importantly, the founder of Butter, a video ad agency that helps ecommerce businesses tell their brand and product stories through high-quality videos.

In this episode, Judson and I talk about

  • What a video is worth - 4:18 
  • How other platforms adapted to the rise of video marketing - 5:50
  • How Judson started with Butter - 7:15
  • The challenges of making video content - 9:43
  • How much videos increase conversion rate - 11:37
  • How to make good video content with little budget - 13:33
  • The importance of brand storytelling - 18:00
  • Butter’s case studies - 20:34
  • Versatility of videos - 23:24
  • Using keyword strategy along with video content - 25:33
  • Mike’s strategy when using video content - 28:27
  • Where you can find Judson - 30:34
  • Mike spending time with his employees in the Philippines - 32:00

You can find Judson and check out his company’s work over at butter.la

And if you haven’t signed up yet, we are closing our EcomCrew Premium registration tonight at 11:59 p.m. and wouldn’t be opening again until next quarter. 

Sign up now to get one-on-one support from Dave and I as well as access to our exclusive Facebook group, monthly webinars, and Premium courses.

Finally, if you like this episode, please leave us a review over at iTunes.

Until the next episode! Happy selling!

Sep 14, 2020

When we first heard of the existence of COVID-19 earlier this year, most of us didn’t think that we would still need to be at home past the middle of 2020.

Aside from our ability to be outside and be with people, the pandemic has also impacted the economy significantly. Many businesses had to declare bankruptcy, and millions of people around the world were laid off.

In this episode, Mike sits down with Brian Miller, the CEO of Easy China Warehouse, to discuss the effects of COVID to ecommerce businesses and where he thinks ecommerce is headed post-pandemic.

Brian talks about:

  • Where the virus started -  3:45
  • How the US and China differed in how they handled the pandemic - 4:45
  • How honest China is regarding the number of cases -  9:05
  • Brian’s quarantine story - 12:49
  • How factories in China are doing - 16:20
  • Consumer sentiment and how it is affected by the pandemic - 17:35
  • Mike’s advice for ecommerce business owners - 26:30
  • The importance of taking into account the adjustment period for the economy - 28:25
  • The ripple effect caused if small business owners do not make it - 32:10
  • Services that Easy China Warehouse offers - 34:20

If you want to know more about Easy China Warehouse, visit their site or shoot Brian an email at brian@easychinawarehouse.com.

For those of you who aren’t members yet, we are opening EcomCrew Premium again! This will only be for a limited time, so sign up while you still can.

We also have a public webinar coming about increasing external traffic to your listing so you won’t have to spend too much on PPC ads. This will be held on Sept 17 at 10 AM (PST).

As always, we only have limited slots, so you better reserve yours now.

If you liked this episode, please leave a review over on iTunes.

Happy Selling!

Sep 8, 2020

Because of how important Amazon is to ecommerce sellers, it’s important to keep up-to-date with the latest changes that affect how we should behave in order to remain compliant with Amazon’s policies.

There’s only a few people out there who would be a better fit for giving us these updates than Seller Labs’ Jeff Cohen.

In this episode, Jeff talks about:

  • Restrictions in sending messages to customers
  • What makes inserts Amazon-compliant
  • White hat ways to drive traffic to your Amazon listings
  • What not to include in your emails and logos
  • HTML restrictions in Amazon
  • The importance of understanding the relationship between Amazon and third-party sellers
  • Language restrictions in rebates and purchases
  • The risk of employing black hat tactics

Seller Labs has been working closely with Amazon for years and is one of the first tools that has been integrated into the Amazon app. It continues to help ecommerce business owners grow and thrive on the platform using a well-established system.

And we have great news!

Seller Labs is giving EcomCrew podcast listeners a sweet deal! You can now get 30% off for 3 months to use their services. This is on top of the one month free subscription when you choose Pro.

Spending too much on PPC ads and not seeing much growth in your sales?

Join us on our webinar this September 17, and we will talk about how you can increase external traffic to your Amazon listing the white hat way.

Happy Selling!

Sep 7, 2020

Welcome to E331 of the EcomCrew Podcast! In this episode, we have a husband-and-wife duo who share their ecommerce journey with us.

Deeanne and Garret Akerson had full-time jobs and two small kids when they first recognized the need to make high-quality and comfortable clothing for pregnant and lactating mothers. Born out of the desire to make motherhood easier, they made it their business’ mission to provide moms with a great selection of clothes that are both functional and stylish.

In this episode, we talk about:

  • How Deeanne and Garret started Kindred Bravely
  • How they dealt with existing brands who offered the same products
  • How they got their first reviews
  • Turning customer suggestions into best selling products
  • Braving the challenges of being new in ecommerce
  • Quitting their jobs to do the business full-time
  • Their secret sauce
  • Hurdling the winters of the business
  • Vanity metrics
  • Employing a team to focus on what they do best

Check out Deeanne and Garret’s business, Kindred Bravely. 

If you liked this episode, please leave us a review over at iTunes.

Aug 31, 2020

Welcome to E330 of the EcomCrew podcast! Today I’m joined by Aaron Rubin, the founder and CEO of ShipHero.

Aaron has years of experience in ecommerce and has mastered the art of fulfillment. His business is all about making it easier for other ecommerce entrepreneurs to manage their own inventories and make fulfillment a breeze.

Business owners may not be thinking much about how to ship their products as much as what products to launch or increasing sales, but it does make a big difference when it comes to profits. A few dollars saved on thousands of shipments every month really does add up.

In this episode, we talk about

  • How Aaron started with ShipHero
  • The difference between fulfilling through Amazon and doing it on your own
  • How reconsidering your shipping methods can increase your profits
  • The importance of your product’s physical dimensions
  • Ikea’s strategy for logistics
  • Reasons why an Amazon-only seller should use a 3PL
  • Questions you should be asking 3PLs before engaging with them
  • Where 3PLs make their money
  • What small, medium, and large mean to 3PLs
  • Some helpful tips about logistics

If you want to learn more about ShipHero, you can visit fulfillment.shiphero.com or reach Aaron at aaron@shiphero.com.

Do you think we can do better?

Tell us what you think about the podcast and get a chance to win our 6 full-length ecommerce courses.

If you learned something from this episode, please leave us a review on iTunes.

Happy selling!

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