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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: Page 1
Mar 25, 2024

Steve Chou makes an appearance on today's episode to discuss some key takeaways he and Mike learned while attending EcommerceFuel Live 2024. 

 

It's conference season for eCommerce! 

 

I just got back from ECF Live 2024, which was a great experience where I got to meet old friends and discuss a few of the issues that's been going on in the industry like Amazon's new fees, the recent Google update, and the ever-eroding margins. 

 

As always, I like to get someone who was at the conference with me to discuss some of the things that we've learned, and who else better than Steve Chou! Steve is a good friend of mine for several years now who runs My Wife Quit Her Job and is also hosting this year's Seller Summit, so we're live today to talk about the things we've learned. 

 

We talk about the 4 key takeaways that we came away with, and how we can apply it to our businesses. Here's some timestamps to get you guys going: 

  • Intro - 0:00 
  • Catching up with Steve - 0:30 
  • Mike's favorite time of the year - 1:15
  • Mike and Steve's ECF Live experience - 2:42 
  • Steve's first takeaway #1: Google Update - 3:54
  • The future of Search and AI - 4:29 
  • How fast things change - 9:25 
  • Second takeaway #2: Tiktok Shop - 10:37 
  • Third takeaway #3: Higher profit margins are the key to success - 15:11
  • Fourth takeaway #4: Amazon's New Fees - 18:01 
  • What's happening in Seller Summit this year? - 23:06 
  • Seller Summit's Mastermind Day - 23:45 
  • Sign up for Seller's Summit - 27:07
  • Why Mike hates flying - 30:03

 

Steve, it was great recording with you as always! I really appreciate you coming on and doing this podcast with me. If you guys would like to learn more about Steve, check out MyWifeQuitHerJob to learn more about him! 

 

Seller Summit is on May 13th and 14th this year, so get your tickets here and you can put in a special request to get Mike as your Mastermind Leader. 

 

Don’t forget to leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoy our content. If you have any questions or any topics you’d like us to discuss on the podcast, you can now email us directly at support@ecomcrew.com! Also, we would really appreciate it if you would leave us a review on iTunes

 

Thanks for listening!

Mar 18, 2024

With Amazon's most complex fee increase ever going live, Mike and Dave talk about what this means for sellers, the pros and cons for each change, and how you can avoid the most detrimental fees to your bottom line. 

 

Amazon today announced its biggest fee increase ever, and more aggravatingly, the most complex fee increase ever. 

 

Dave and I will try to walk you through exactly what fees are changing and how it affects you. Warningit's complex (probably deliberately by Amazon) and there's a lot to absorb.

 

If any listeners would like to have a discussion about this, let me know by emailing us directly at support@ecomcrew.com

 

Also, if you have any questions or any topics you’d like us to discuss on the podcast, you can email us directly as well!

 

Also, we would really appreciate it if you would leave us a review on iTunes

 

Thanks for listening!

Mar 11, 2024

In today's episode, Dave and I discuss why there are so many sellers on Amazon losing money on each product? Because the lower prices do not make any sense at all. 

 

Today's topic is something that I've been thinking about for awhile: how many people are losing money selling on Amazon? 

 

You're probably thinking that this question sounds ridiculous, but if you think about the increasing amount of competition and the higher platform fees, there does seem to be some basis for the question. 

 

Which begs the question: how many people are losing money selling on Amazon? Are they selling old inventory that isn't profitable anymore? Is the competition everywhere at this point? 

 

I thought this would be a topic that my partner Dave could chime in on from his perspective as a Canadian Seller, and also as someone who frequently visits China. 

 

Timestamps: 

  • Intro - 0:00 
  • Catching up with Dave - 0:30 
  • How Many People are Losing Money Selling on Amazon? - 1:55
  • The Types of Sellers Losing Money & Competition on Amazon - 3:57
  • Sacrificing Margins for Brand Equity - 6:04 
  • Fishy Practices to Avoid Paying Duties - 8:00 
  • The Chinese Government is Providing Subsidies for Exporters?? - 8:51
  • The Numbers Don't Make Sense - 11:02 
  • Every Seller Has an Unprofitable SKU - 16:26
  • The Problem with Product Research Tools - 19:53
  • Bad Business People - 20:52 
  • What Amazon's Q4 Earnings Report Tells Us - 23:09 
  • Legacy Sellers Who've Suffered Through Events - 26:01
  • Shortened Product Life Cycles - 30:47 
  • What should happen to old products? - 32:27
  • Prices are 20% lower than they should be - 33:37 

 

If any listeners would like to have a discussion about this, let me know by emailing us directly at support@ecomcrew.com

 

Also, if you have any questions or any topics you’d like us to discuss on the podcast, you can email us directly as well!

 

Also, we would really appreciate it if you would leave us a review on iTunes

 

Thanks for listening!

Mar 4, 2024

In this episode, Dave and I go through our list of business goals for 2024 for Ecomcrew, our personal business brands, and more! 

 

Its been awhile since we've done an episode like this, but Dave and I thought of bringing it now since it was one of our more popular episodes from 2019.

 

Some of these goals were aimed for ourselves personally and for the company. In this episode, we'll go through each goal and our plan for achieving each one. 

 

If you have any questions or any topics you’d like us to discuss on the podcast, you can now email us directly at support@ecomcrew.com! Also, we would really appreciate it if you would leave us a review on iTunes

 

Thanks for listening!

Feb 26, 2024

Leslie Pierson, Shark Tank Winner and founder of GoodHangUps, joins Mike on the podcast to talk about how she got started in eCommerce, how one unexpected night eventually lead her to appear on Shark Tank, and how she is technically her son's employee. 

 

Shark Tank is one of the biggest reality TV shows that almost every business owner knows about. It's not everyday that we get to interview a winner on the podcast. 

 

But Leslie Pierson isn't just a typical business owner: she's an Ecomcrew Premium member. 

 

In this episode, we get to talk about the multiple things that led to how she built a Shark Tank Winning Business. From starting with selling laptop skins, to building a business out of a 7 year old's idea, Leslie covers her ecommerce journey from start to present. 

 

Leslie, thank you for the absolutely delightful conversation, it's been my favourite episode to record out of all 500 or so episodes. I hope to see you more in person, and I wish you and your family all the best with Tacos vs. Burritos. 

 

If you have any questions or any topics you’d like us to discuss on the podcast, you can now email us directly at support@ecomcrew.com! Also, we would really appreciate it if you would leave us a review on iTunes

 

Thanks for listening!

Feb 19, 2024

Mike Beckham, a 9 Figure Business Owner, is on the podcast with Mike today to talk about what he'd do differently if he were to start building a 9 figure business all over again. We dive into how and why brand story is so important, and the uncommon mindset Mike Bekham uses to perpetuate business growth.

 

Its hard enough trying to start an ecommerce business.

 

Being a solopreneur means you'll have to be on top of your inventory levels, your PPC Campaigns, while also writing blog articles, making Youtube videos about your product and not to mention getting UGC from influencers. 

 

But what does a 100+ person company look like? Better yet, what did it take to get to be able to sustain that level of overhead? 

 

We've invited Mike Bekham, the co-founder of Simple Modern and 9 Figure Business Owner, to the podcast to ask him the golden question. If he had to do it all over again, what would he do differently? 

 

We talk about how being part of a community and choosing the right niche can open up more growth opportunities than you realize, and how building a brand starts internally. 

 

Here's some timestamps to help you along: 

  • 0:00 - Introduction 
  • 0:31 - Podcast Start 
  • 1:39 - Being a Part of an Amazon Community 
  • 6:55 - "What Would You Do Differently?"
  • 7:44 - Playing to your strengths 
  • 8:34 - Choosing a product niche 
  • 14:53 - Product Differentiation
  • 17:07 - Differentiation without millions in capital 
  • 24:13 - How Mike makes sure everyone's winning 
  • 30:42 - What Mike's learned over the years 

 

Mike, thank you for coming on the podcast and sharing all of the things you'd consider heavily when starting over. I hope that everyone who listens enjoyed the episode as much as I had recording it with you, and wish you well for the rest of the year.  

 

 If you want to get in touch with Mike, you can find him at Linkedin or you can check out his Twitter. 

 

If you have any questions or any topics you’d like us to discuss on the podcast, you can now email us directly at support@ecomcrew.com! Also, we would really appreciate it if you would leave us a review on iTunes

Thanks for listening!

Feb 12, 2024

John Terry joins Mike in today's episode as a follow up from his Under the Hood Episode 417 where he talks about how COVID & the political climate affected his business, and how going into retail ultimately killed his consumer packaged goods (CPG) business.

 

Today's episode is one that left me absolutely speechless during recording. 

 

It's a hard topic to talk about when listing down a bunch of mistakes, but it's infinitely more difficult to talk about when the list of mistakes eventually lead to the death of your business. 

 

Nevertheless, I commend John for coming on today to talk about how his business ended up this way, the "trap" of going into retail, and advice for those looking to expand into selling in any big box retailer. 

 

Here's some timestamps to help you along: 

  • 0:00 - Introduction 
  • 2:47 - Podcast Start 
  • 3:03 - Under the Hood Overview
  • 4:31 - Meeting with Walmart
  • 7:16 - The Second Mistake 
  • 7:48 - Kroger Reaching Out 
  • 9:13 - Ordering Inventory for Retail 
  • 11:34 - Kroger Privacy Around Logistics
  • 12:35 - Kroger's Costs 
  • 13:41 - Backing out from Kroger
  • 14:42 - First Warning 
  • 15:10 - Skyrocketing costs
  • 18:27 - Poor performance in Walmart
  • 20:24 - The goal moving forward
  • 21:36 - Buying back inventory from Walmart 
  • 22:25 - Why the product failed in retail
  • 25:39 - Where to go from here
  • 28:00 - Mike's advice
  • 32:02 - John's advice to entrepreneurs 
  • 37:21 - John's public adjusting business 

 

John, I can't thank you enough for coming on the podcast and sharing all of the painful things you went through. I hope that someone listens to the episode and knows not to get into retail for the prestige of it. 

 

We hope today’s episode was useful to you. If you want to get in touch with John, you can find him at Linkedin or you can check out his company, Crossroads Insurance Recovery. If you want to check out John's previous episode, click here.

 

If you have any questions or any topics you’d like us to discuss on the podcast, you can now email us directly at support@ecomcrew.com! Also, we would really appreciate it if you would leave us a review on iTunes

 

Thanks for listening!

Feb 5, 2024

Chris Duty is back on the podcast as a special guest to talk about all the types of add backs you need to know when selling your ecommerce business. The inspiration for today came from a listener submitted question, which asked "what type of add backs can I negotiate when selling my ecommerce business?"

 

When selling an ecommerce business, its important for owners to be compensated for the stressful one-time events that was experienced in the last 12 months when going to sell. 

 

These are called "Add Backs", but what are they exactly? 

 

I've invited Chris Duty, an advisor from Quiet Light Brokerage, to talk about the various types of Add Backs that you need to know about, why they matter, and how it can significantly impact the valuation of a business to potential buyers. 

 

Here's some timestamps for your convenience: 

  • 0:00 - Introduction 
  • 0:31 - Ad Spot 
  • 2:46 - Background of Today's Subject
  • 4:50 - What is an Add Back? 
  • 7:16 - Accrual Accounting
  • 11:04 - Owner Salaries 
  • 13:20 - Value of Working Less 
  • 16:13 - Payroll Taxes / Income Taxes 
  • 17:53 - Trademarks, Copyrights, Patents and Other Legal Fees
  • 19:44 - Change in Service Provider Costs 
  • 20:26 - Employee Removal Costs  
  • 22:21 - How Mike Views Add Backs 
  • 27:33 - Cash Back / Points Credit Cards 
  • 30:26 - What if you use a regular credit card?
  • 31:51 - Masterminds & Ecommerce Courses 
  • 32:27 - Lowered COGS 
  • 37:46 - Negative Add Backs 
  • 39:51 - Price Changes 
  • 43:33 - Conclusion 

We hope today’s episode was useful to you. If you want to get in touch with Chris you can find him at Linkedin or you can check out the company at QuietLight.com. If you want to check out Chris' previous episode, click here.

 

If you have any questions or any topics you’d like us to discuss on the podcast, you can now email us directly at support@ecomcrew.com! Also, we would really appreciate it if you would leave us a review on iTunes

 

Thanks for listening!

Jan 29, 2024

Mike discusses some hard hitting points of e-commerce with long-time friend John Canetta, including whether e-commerce will ever get easier, the hidden stresses of running an ecommerce business, and how John was able to recover from losing 80% of his business during quarantine. 

 

With a new year coming around, it looks like the ecommerce landscape only gets more and more difficult. Amazon introduces more changes to storage fees, the number of competitors increase day by day, along with all the other stresses of a growing e-commerce business. In fact, the last time I've experienced an "easy" ecommerce year was back in 2019. 

 

That's why I've invited John over to the podcast to discuss today's topic. John is a 7-figure business owner, with almost as much (if not more) years in experience selling on Amazon and Google than I do.  

 

Here's some timestamps to help you skip to your favorite parts:

  • 0:00 - Introduction
  • 0:30 - Ad Spot
  • 2:46 - Podcast Starts 
  • 4:49 - Background on John
  • 6:22 - The Hidden Stresses of an E-Commerce Business
  • 9:15 - Difficulty of E-commerce
  • 11:43 - Why Cash is King
  • 13:10 - Ecommerce Struggles 
  • 14:36 - Evaluating the Financial Model 
  • 16:09 - The EOS Model 
  • 17:33 - Tracking Return on Working Capital 
  • 19:04 - 1 SKU Brand vs 100 SKU Brand 
  • 22:51 - Machinery Manufacturing Issues 

 

As always, if you have any questions or anything that you need help with, reach out to us at support@ecomcrew.com if you're interested. 

 

Don’t forget to leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoy our content. If you have any questions, send us an email at support@ecomcrew.com. We'd love to help you in any way we can. 

 

Until next time, happy selling!

Jan 22, 2024

It’s that time of the year again!

In this episode, Dave and I will be revealing the winners (a couple of which you might not have expected) of last year’s survey to find out the Best Amazon Seller Software across five categories:

  • Product and Keyword Research
  • PPC Management
  • Reimbursement Services
  • Repricing Tool
  • Product Launches and Giveaways

On top of that, we’ll be talking about the software that we use in our day to day basis, and whether it's something Dave and I can't live without, the significant shifts in software usage among sellers, and the future of the SaaS ecosystem. 

To check out the full breakdown of our results, head over to our blog post of the Best Amazon Software of 2023

Don’t forget to leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoy content like this. Happy selling and we’ll talk to you soon!

Jan 15, 2024

Mike and Dave review their biggest accomplishments and their deepest pitfalls in the past year. 

 

In this episode, Mike and Dave are back to discuss the year in review, and the eventful things that happened in the past year, like traveling to China again after 3 years, visiting Hong Kong and India and the stark differences between the two, and how Mike's experiences of loss and burnout affected him. 

 

I want to thank everyone for supporting the EcomCrew Podcast. Whether you’ve been with us from the start or are just tuning in, I appreciate your time and feedback. I’m sure 2024 will be another year of insightful podcast episodes, and I can’t wait to unpack which ones top the charts next time around.

 

Don’t forget to leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoy our content. If you have any questions, send us an email at support@ecomcrew.com. We'd love to help you in any way we can.

 

Happy selling!

Jan 8, 2024

Mike and Dave reflect on 2023 and discuss the various wins and fails that Dave experienced this year, including traveling to China, Hong Kong, and India, the impact of COVID on business growth 3 years in, and how Dave lobbied to change policies around government taxation on digital advertising.

 

The Ecomcrew Podcast is back after the holidays! 

 

In this episode, Mike and Dave are back to discuss the year in review, and the eventful things that happened in the past year, like traveling to China again after 3 years, visiting Hong Kong and India and the stark differences between the two, and how the Government has knocked on Dave's door for the money that was given during COVID. 

 

Here's some chapters to get you to the most interesting parts: 

  • 0:00 - Introduction and Reflection on COVID
  • 2:01 - Traveling to China and Hong Kong
  • 7:13 - Government Financing and Repayment
  • 11:28 - Impact of COVID on Business Growth
  • 18:28 - Government Taxation on Digital Advertising
  • 37:27 - Impact of Sales Tax Laws on Small Businesses
  • 39:28 - The Slow Progress of Bureaucratic Institutions
  • 40:02 - Go and vote!
  • 41:28 - Year in Review and Rating
  • 42:14 - Adapting to Change in Ecommerce
  • 45:12 - The Changing Dynamics of Business

 

I want to thank everyone for supporting the EcomCrew Podcast. Whether you’ve been with us from the start or are just tuning in, I appreciate your time and feedback. I’m sure 2024 will be another year of insightful podcast episodes, and I can’t wait to unpack which ones top the charts next time around. 

 

As always, if you have any questions or anything that you need help with, reach out to us at support@ecomcrew.com if you're interested. 

 

Don’t forget to leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoy our content. If you have any questions, send us an email at support@ecomcrew.com. We'd love to help you in any way we can. 

 

Happy selling! 

Dec 18, 2023

Mike Jackness and Ecomcrew's brand manager, Ben Iballa, review the episodes that made the top 10 list of the year and share their thoughts on each one. 

2023 was a wild ride. I let go of most of his brands, while costs on Amazon increased by a LOT. 

Here's a roundup of the top 10 episodes of the year. Some of the best of the year includes when I sold most of his e-commerce business, the rising costs of selling on Amazon, and my perspective on retiring. 

Here's some timestamps to help you along: 

  • 0:00 - Introduction
  • 0:43 - Top 10 Episodes of 2023
  • 3:25 - Year in Review
  • 4:02 - Episode 10
  • 7:08 - Episode 9
  • 8:30 - Episode 8
  • 9:43 - Episode 7
  • 11:39 - Episode 6
  • 13:25 - Episode 5
  • 15:27 - Episode 4
  • 17:25 - Episode 3
  • 20:57 - Episode 2
  • 23:14 - Episode 1

I want to thank everyone for supporting the EcomCrew Podcast. Whether you’ve been with us from the start or are just tuning in, I appreciate your time and feedback. I’m sure 2024 will be another year of insightful podcast episodes, and I can’t wait to unpack which ones top the charts next time around. 

As always, if you have any questions or anything that you need help with, reach out to us at support@ecomcrew.com if you're interested. 

Don’t forget to leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoy our content. If you have any questions, send us an email at support@ecomcrew.com. We'd love to help you in any way we can. 

Happy selling! 

 

Dec 11, 2023

In this episode, Mike and Dave talk about our upcoming Software Poll, and the evolution of software tools in the ecommerce space.

 

They highlight the changes that they've personally seen in the Amazon software space over the past 4 years, including big valuations and the increase in competition. They also show how projects like these can give credibility to you and your niche and improve SEO rankings.

 

They discuss the categories of software tools, such as keyword and product research, PPC management, and reimbursement services. If you want to participate, go ahead to ecomcrew.com/softwarepoll

 

Key Takeaways: 

  • Software tools provide a ton of value for running an Amazon business, especially for solo entrepreneurs.
  • The Amazon software space has seen significant changes, including big exits and increased competition.
  • Software polls can help create credibility and improve search engine rankings for businesses.

Timestamps: 

  • 00:00 Introduction
  • 00:30 Annual Software Episode
  • 02:01 Importance of Software in Business
  • 02:52 Changes in Amazon Software
  • 04:09 Reliance on Software Tools
  • 05:38 Big Exits in the Software Space
  • 06:24 Impact of Big Money in the Industry
  • 07:05 Enterprise Offerings and Chinese Market
  • 08:28 Creating Credibility with Software Polls
  • 10:24 Changes in Messaging and Product Launch Services
  • 12:11 Messaging Features in Seller Central
  • 13:18 Historical Data and Trend Lines
  • 14:14 SEO Strategy and Content Creation
  • 17:29 Applying the Strategy to Other Industries
  • 18:42 Trend Lines and Historical Data
  • 19:10 Categories of Software Tools
  • 20:24 Repricing Tools for Private Label Sellers 

Vote for your seller software here!

 

As always, if you have any questions or anything that you need help with, reach out to us at support@ecomcrew.com if you're interested. 

 

Don’t forget to leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoy our content. If you have any questions, send us an email at support@ecomcrew.com. We'd love to help you in any way we can. 

Dec 4, 2023

After dropping a few hints here and there, Dave finally asks Mike the big question: what are you looking for in your next business?

After getting into the mindset of selling all of my brands and getting back to the part of Amazon FBA that I really enjoy, I realized that it's not as fun as it used to be with my current business. I am trying to build it for the eventual sale, and after start a new business that's still within e-commerce. 

As most of you have probably noticed, I've dropped a few hints here and there about starting a new brand, and what better way to do so than discuss it with Dave on today's podcast! 

In this episode, we'll discuss a few criteria on what I would want my next venture to be, and whether Dave thinks they're unrealistic, or downright wishful thinking. 

Here's some timestamps to get you started:  

  • Introduction - 0:00 
  • How was BFCM for you, Mike? - 0:53
  • The next project for Mike - 3:56
  • Struggles that Mike's trying to avoid in the future - 5:24
  • Mike's checklist for his next business - 12:17
  • Priorities with higher margins - 12:56
  • Increasing repeat business - 18:27
  • Products that work multi-platform - 24:47
  • A defensible moat around the business - 30:31
  • Making complexity an opportunity - 34:30
  • When is the new business getting started? - 36:39 

I hope this is super helpful for those out there who are thinking of expanding their brand portfolio or starting a new business. If you are, leave a comment below on what you think your next business would ideally look like! 

As always, if you have any questions or anything that you need help with, reach out to us at support@ecomcrew.com if you're interested. 

Don’t forget to leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoy our content. If you have any questions, send us an email at support@ecomcrew.com. We'd love to help you in any way we can. 

Full Audio Transcript

Mike Jackness:
This is Mike and welcome to this edition of the Ecom Crew podcast. How's it going, Dave? Doing good. We're doing some recordings here after American Thanksgiving. So I feel I feel full and thankful, I guess. And yeah, we're doing some podcasts today.

DJ:
This is Dave.

DJ: 
I'm doing well, how about you?

DJ:
How was your Amazon balance though? Is that full and thankful after Black Friday?

Mike Jackness (00:28.134)
Not really. It was not a real great Black Friday, Summer Monday for us, but it never really is with the brand that I kept. I didn't really expect to have a huge Black Friday, Summer Monday. In fact, I didn't even open up my app over the weekend because I was like, I don't want to see it. Just because we didn't run any Black Friday deals. I mean, we talked a little bit about this on the podcast over this year.

And so, I mean, hot and cold therapy packs are not giftable items. They're not the type of thing that people buy and gift them. There were lots of people in my space running Black Friday, Supper Monday deals. I imagine they just got crushed in terms of paying a lot of fees and giving up margin. I don't even remotely see how it's feasible. I mean, I see all these deals running. I mean, they're paying $300, $500 or more per deal, giving up a bunch of margin.

DJ (01:10.195)
Yep.

DJ (01:15.27)
No, I don't either.

Mike Jackness (01:23.182)
I can barely make it without even doing that. I just assume that they're losing money just to have an ego boost and that isn't interesting to me. We just go in a little bit of hibernation for this part of the year for this business. From late November to early January is just a dead zone for us. Early January things have to really pick back up. Going into the spring becomes our best months. Just roll in with what we have.

When we had other businesses, we focused a lot on Black Friday and Summer Monday. We sold our baby brand this year. I'm sure they had a really great Black Friday, Summer Monday. We've sold color. That was always my favorite time of the year, although it was stressful. Black Friday, Summer Monday, huge for that. But for a hot and cold therapy brand, it's like, oh, you got me a ice pack for my back. Thank you so much.

Maybe there is someone out there looking for that, but I don't think it's exactly the giftable thing.

DJ (02:21.985)
Yeah.

DJ (02:26.573)
Well, it is kind of a scenario of rising tide raises all boats and sure people aren't on there to buy hot and cold therapy pack, but they're on there to buy a toy for their daughter and hey, oh, by the way, I need to that ache on my back. I need to get something for that too. So you do get that. So I know for like our off-roading brand, it was up, I guess, about 30 or 40% over a typical Friday. So nothing crazy, but it was up. And I think that's just a case again of that rising tide. The craft brand that we have, that looked like it was up about

Mike Jackness (02:40.098)
Right.

DJ (02:56.209)
two and a half X, which I guess was kind of within my realm of expectations. And this is my first time really running a brand that is heavily dependent on Christmas. And that was one of my motivations for actually wanting to start this in the first place was to get a little taste of that Black Friday and Christmas madness. And yeah, it seemed like Friday was up about two and a half X. It seems like Monday's going to end about that too. So it was nice. I don't know how that compares to a typical Black Friday and Cyber Monday though.

I really have almost no reference point because like you, Mike, most of my brands have always been, uh, not very dependent on Christmas on the holidays.

Mike Jackness (03:34.474)
Yeah, I mean, I think that sounds about right. You know, two and a half X seems to be what we've seen in the past. I think that that's a pretty good, pretty good result.

DJ (03:44.017)
Yeah. So on to today's topic, I guess, uh, as we're talking about our brands, uh, I think today's topic is what you're looking for in your next project and your next business. And I, I'm not sure if we're going into this totally as a blank slate. I'm not sure if that is actually e-commerce related, or you're looking at starting a coffee shop. Uh, so I'll let you take it away. And what exactly that next business, Hey, you're doing some competitor research.

Mike Jackness (04:05.576)
I've got my coffee right here. Yeah, I don't think it'll be a coffee shop. And I do think it'll be an e-commerce. I really do enjoy e-commerce. There's a lot of really good benefits to it. I also think that no matter, I've learned my lesson in terms of like the grass is greener type of thing, right? And so it's easy to start daydreaming about some other thing that's out there that can potentially make you more money.

But the reality is you often forget about all the work and effort you put into what you're already doing And oftentimes that even though you know, there is a potential It's just potential and something else and the chances of success aren't as high And so I don't know. I think that I've got my ten thousand hours and then some into Indie ecommerce, so it's something that I would definitely like to stick with but yeah, I mean I

I think everything's an evolution and I think it'll look wildly different than that what I'm doing right now. It'll just still be sewing things online.

DJ (05:10.625)
Okay. So that's, uh, that's Clara's mud e-commerce business. It's going to look different. All right, guys, that's a wrap. So what are the qualities in all seriousness? What are the qualities that you're looking for in that e-comm business?

Mike Jackness (05:14.978)
Hahaha

Mike Jackness (05:19.435)
Well, let's.

Mike Jackness (05:24.918)
Maybe we should look at from the other perspective of where we're at now and what the struggle is right now and what I'm trying to mitigate against, which is that we're in this situation right now selling the same thing that everybody else sells. There's really just absolutely no differentiation to our product versus the next guy.

And the gap continues to close between where we've been able to have success and where we're heading to, which is that we've had success because we've had really high quality listings with good copy, good images, good customer service, lots of reviews, et cetera. But what I see is that the competition is accelerating quicker than the platform. Maybe at one point, the platform, you know, being Amazon.

DJ (06:16.765)
Mm-hmm.

Mike Jackness (06:18.442)
was growing quicker than there was competition. So even when there was competition coming into the market, your sales would still grow because there were so many new people coming onto the Amazon marketplace. But I just, by the raw numbers, I actually don't know how many prime members there are in the United States. I probably should know that number off the top of my head, but 100 million, 150 million, whatever it might be, it's let's say 30% to 50% of people in the United States.

you're never going to get 100% saturation. And at some point, you're kind of hitting peak saturation of just potential shoppers on Amazon. And you know.

DJ (06:54.361)
Yeah. And I think the way to look at it actually, objectively, you're right. Like there's only, you can't have 400 million prime shoppers in America. There's not enough people. But all you have to do is look at Amazon's P&L and you can see that their retail sales last year were basically flat. They had revenue gains from advertising and other services, but their retail sales were essentially flat.

Mike Jackness (07:04.839)
Right, there's not enough people.

Mike Jackness (07:11.635)
Yeah, exactly.

Mike Jackness (07:18.31)
Exactly. And so when you look at the dynamics of that, where Amazon's, let's just say their revenue is flat in the United States, I do think that expanding out of the United States is an opportunity. We're also still pigeonholed a little bit again, because the types of products are selling. We're FDA registered in the US, trying to get other nationalities to approve these products and go through that process. I just don't think it makes sense for us right now.

where we have done that in the past for other brands. And so, you know, if Amazon is hitting peak saturation in the United States, and competition continues to grow, and margins continue to erode, because when you have more competition, there's always somebody there that's willing to sell it for less. They're doing it for whatever reason, right? They're breaking into the market, and so they're stowing at a low price to try to get traction. They are...

living in a lower rent, lower cost of living jurisdiction around the world, and they don't need to make as much money as I do to pay for my lavish Vegas lifestyle. There's always someone willing to do it for less. When there's more people that are in that category, it makes it more difficult for me to price my products and make the margins that I need to.

to justify the risk that I'm taking by running these businesses because there is a risk, right? I mean, at any point your account could get shut down or you could get sued or Amazon could tumble and fall. There could be a recession. There's always things that happen in business. Over 19 years, I've experienced a lot of them. And so I think that you need to make enough money to justify the risk. You're holding hundreds of thousands of dollars in inventory at any one time. It feels like a hot potato. And so...

Just trying to think through all these different things makes me want to shift into a very different environment where we're making products that are maybe a one of a kind or certainly much more difficult for somebody to just grab off of Alibaba or at the Canton Fair or through a sourcing agent from someplace in the world.

DJ (09:35.525)
Yeah. So I guess your first two points, if you want to boil it down, number one is you're looking for a product that has opportunity for international expansion. And with the products you're selling right now, they're basically a health product. And that makes expanding internationally a bit of a barrier and a bit of a difficulty. So looking for a product that is a little bit more easily expanded internationally. So running shoes don't have any international regulation around them into expanding into Australia or the UK or Canada or wherever.

Mike Jackness (09:57.888)
Yup.

Mike Jackness (10:04.354)
Yep, exactly. So, yeah, so I think, you know, shift and, okay, go ahead.

DJ (10:07.425)
So on that note, just before you go there, so our products are, most of our brands and most of our products don't face any international regulation in terms of import restrictions. The barrier that we've always had is, you know, you wanna expand to Luxembourg, but how do you justify getting that inventory in to serve the 12 people that live in Luxembourg? And that's always been the big barrier for us is that you need to hit a certain scale before you can warrant that international expansion.

Mike Jackness (10:28.938)
Right, right.

DJ (10:36.253)
And for us, Canada is about 25% of our sales. It works out well because, you know, I'm Canadian and geographically Canada and the United States are close, but expanding to a lot of these other countries, it is a big logistical issue. So, do you think that will be an issue? Do you think that you can overcome that, especially as you're starting up with a brand that's, you know, doing low thousands of dollars a month in sales in the very beginning?

Mike Jackness (10:36.31)
Yeah.

Mike Jackness (10:40.994)
Yep.

Mike Jackness (11:01.898)
Yeah, I mean, I think it all depends on how you're getting your sales and the size and weight of the product. Are you shipping individual orders from here to overseas via some of these lower cross programs or are you having to land inventory in an NOAA jurisdiction first? So I think that there's still quite a bit that remains to be kind of figured out because I think there are certain criteria which we're going to go over here next that I am looking for.

Being able to expand internationally, I look at as a long-term thing. I don't look at that as month six, I need to go expand internationally. I look at that as in year six maybe, after I've hit saturation in the US and now I have enough of a war chest or my logistics and manufacturing has spun up to a point where it makes sense to where I can efficiently break into another country.

logical choice, as you said, is geographically close. It's same language. There's a whole bunch of huge benefits. You can even get started by just shipping stuff across the border, onesie twosies at a time to customers versus having to get inventory landed to test things. It's much easier. And so, yeah, I think of that as a longer term thing. It's just one of those things where I think it's a natural thing for a business to hit a point where...

your business or your SKUs have hit saturation in the US and you'd be looking to expand internationally.

DJ (12:34.333)
Yeah, interesting. I am totally with you where I think that is where the profit centers are in smaller markets and smaller marketplaces, even though the bulk of the sales may come from the United States and that justifies the orders. Ultimately, it's the smaller marketplaces and smaller markets, which really move the profit needle. So, okay, you talked about customization too, and I know you're talking about a few other things. I don't know if you want to riff on that for a minute

Mike Jackness (12:55.806)
Yeah.

Mike Jackness (13:03.85)
Well, let's go through criteria because I have a list. I'm prepared with a list of things. So my number one thing at the top of the list is margin. Right? It just the idea of buying something for $10 and selling it for 30. We've discussed this many times on the podcast. I think that those days are just completely like way long gone in the rearview mirror.

DJ (13:06.081)
Sure. Okay.

Mike Jackness (13:29.262)
And so I'm thinking in terms of buying for 10 and selling for 50 as like the absolute bottom line floor. And so, you know, what qualities and criteria of a product do you have to have to be in that ballpark are the things that I'm looking at. Yeah, go ahead.

DJ (13:44.821)
So before you move on to that, why are you looking for margin? Because I know it sounds like a silly question, but I am totally with you. And I think perhaps my revelation for why I'm looking for margin is my reason is probably one of your reasons too, but I bet you it's probably not your number one reason. So what's the number one reason why you're looking for margin?

Mike Jackness (14:04.694)
Well, I mean, for me, it's really just the ability to be able to advertise. You know, it's, uh, this, this is not a new thing just because I, I'm going to tell you the story from last week, but, uh, cause I've been talking about this for quite a while, but I was with a buddy of mine in Los Angeles, uh, last week. And I went to a wedding in Los Angeles. It was a great time. And I had to pick one person that I, uh, that I can go see cause I only had like a very limited time. I flew in and flew right back out. Uh, and so I just kind of.

went down my list of who I hadn't seen the longest and went to go see him. And after we had lunch, he asked me to look at his Facebook ads account and just kind of give him some recommendations. I'm like, holy crap, dude, like you're spending so much on these ads. Like you can't, he was getting like a two X row as I'm like, you're getting just slaughtered. He's like, no, I'm not like I'm actually still making money with this. And I was like, holy crap, like what do you, you know, we still we got into like, what are you buying this for and blah, blah.

God, what a refreshing change of mindset, right? Where you're just like, I can afford to spend this money on these ads in a world where that's gonna be more and more prominent. Like you think about where things came from when you and I first got started a decade ago to where they are now, to where they're gonna be going another decade from now. It isn't like less and less people are gonna be involved in e-commerce and there's gonna be...

less and less social platforms or whatever other platforms are out there that we can't even imagine 10 years from now, ads are going to continue to be more and more competitive. It's all going to be moving electronic. Just can't imagine a world where that goes any different. We're not going to go back to print. We're not going back to newspapers or national television programs to be advertising. It's all going to be these micro-advertising experiences.

having the ability to have a product that you can spend that much money on that appeals to a certain segment of the population because again, now you have to be having a high-end product, something that people emotionally fall in love with and are making a purchase based off of that versus just they've typed in something into a search bar in Amazon and just want to buy and solve a problem. And so...

Mike Jackness (16:27.694)
I think that margin really comes down to all that. It also, there's a bunch of ancillary things that I think are important. I mean, besides just letting you spend money on advertising, it allows you to have a longer, more longevity in your business, right? Like as costs continue to go up, which is always going to be the case. Like there's never been a year I'm like, ah, prices went down this year from my cost of goods or from my ad cost or from my platform cost or for shipping cost or...

for my anything, right? Like insurance and electric, whatever. Like every year, everything goes up. There's inflation plus, you know, just platforms get better at extracting fees and Amazon's really good at that. You know, and so I think that you start with kind of the end in mind. It isn't like, oh, because I, obviously I'd love to have a product that I can buy for a dollar and sell for five years ago or whatever. But like.

where things are going, I think that we're going to be talking about like, I'm going to buy something for a dollar and sell it for seven longer term. This is going to become a more and more difficult thing to overcome. I want to set the bar high now to allow me to have a business that three to five years from now, when I'm thinking about potentially selling it, there's still a healthy margin as things do erode.

DJ (17:33.36)
Yeah.

DJ (17:54.097)
Yeah, 100% agree with both of those. And I'll tell you why the other reason that has been my kind of epiphany over the last couple of years, when it comes to margin. Uh, so we have historically sold a lot of really expensive products. Let's say a thousand dollar rooftop tent. Uh, we'll buy it for 500. We sell it for a thousand. Let's say we make 10% on it and we make a hundred bucks on it. However, all our money is in that cogs and paying that six months before we actually sell it. We have to place the order and then.

six months later, we sell the product and we get the money. However, if you're putting all your money into advertising, that's where your costs are, is that you're dependent on advertising. You pay that net 30, you don't pay it six months in advance. So the problem is when all of your costs are in cogs, instead of advertising and marketing, you're paying that six months in advance and it's a huge cashflow issue. And that's why almost all these companies that scale really quick, e-commerce brands that scale really quick, they have high margins, not because at the end of the

mine where I have all my money tied up in cogs, it's because they're able to utilize their cash a lot more efficiently than I am because they're paying for their advertising marketing costs 30 days after they incur them, not six months before. And having all your money tied up in cogs and having this really tiny gross margin, even though your net margin might be the same as Mike's watch brand, it is just a total hindrance to being able to scale that company. It's one of the things I've realized.

over the last couple of years is why all these companies that have these massive gross margins where they're buying for a dollar and selling for a hundred, while they're able to scale, even though at the end of the day, their marketing and advertising costs mean that their net margins are still the same as me. So that's been my big revelation on why I'm now looking like you might mention five X, but you know, even six and seven X.

Mike Jackness (19:40.522)
Yeah, and there's lots of things out there, shockingly, that do fall in that category. But you have to do more work. Right? I mean, there's nothing in that bucket that's easy, right? In terms of just sourcing it off of Alibaba and then turning it around. Not that I'm aware of, at least. It's things that require a little more work, which we'll talk about here in a minute, because that isn't the...

The second biggest thing for me in terms of when I'm going down my list of things that like are must haves, if margin is number one, number two is the ability to sell more to the same customer. Like I find this to be incredibly high up the list and really, really important factor into whatever business I'm into next. Because again, as we just talked about, as ad costs continue to go up.

and competition is going up, the ability to recover your sunk cost from getting that first sale needs to be able to be divided eventually across two, three, four, 10 plus sales. And so this is a very important factor for me. We do have repeat business for ice wraps. It isn't like it's zero, but I don't spend a lot of time email marketing or doing

Again, Black Friday, Summer Monday sales or the types of things that a brand that has the ability to sell inherently more to the same customer does. Because if we do our job right, someone's buying our product once and never buying it again. And it's pretty rare for you to buy a health related product again for a friend or family. It's just not normal to like, you know, for Christmas or.

for a birthday or whatever to give somebody an ankle ice wrap because you heard that their ankle was hurting because if their ankle is hurting, they're going to buy the thing right then and there. And so it does happen. And so the reason we have repeat business is that we're selling to other businesses. And we see this on our Amazon dashboard. We see this from our Shopify sales. It's the chiropractor office. It's the dentist office. It's the physical therapy office. We also sell customized packs. We're like literally it's those customers that are getting their name printed on these

Mike Jackness (22:04.494)
products that they then hand out almost as like a business card to have their repeat business of people coming back to the chiropractor or the dentist or the physical therapist. And so we do have repeat business there, but there's only so many of those companies out there and we're never going to get into hiring a salesperson and calling on these types of offices and trying to convince them to buy our products. It just isn't where my expertise is. And I don't think that…

It makes tons of sense to try to do that. But what I'm thinking of is more in terms of what we have with Color It, where someone's using up a page or a gel pen or a pencil and they're actually consuming our products similar to a can of shaving cream or a razor blade every single time they use the product. And so, or if it is something that's giftable. So like they buy one. They...

maybe it isn't consumable, but they might buy another one from themselves or another two or three from themselves, or they'll find themselves really liking the product. When it comes time for the holidays or for a gift, they're like, man, I enjoy this product so much I want to give it to somebody else. Whatever element that is, I don't really care exactly what the product is necessarily as long as it hits that criteria of I can get somebody to buy my products more than once.

DJ (23:31.985)
So high repeat rate. I hear two things that either means A on Amazon, subscribe and save or B off Amazon.

Mike Jackness (23:40.37)
Right. And it even can't be on Amazon. Like, I mean, Color products weren't subscribe and save, and people were buying them off Amazon more than once. Right? It's like they're looking, they're seeking out our brand or our other products, because they weren't buying the same exact product. But subscribe and save certainly would be great, you know, if you think about a food product or other products or whatever that makes sense in terms of subscribe and save. That certainly is, it certainly is an angle.

All the other things that come with your building a brand, sinking money into building an email list, sinking money into YouTube or SEO, building out your Amazon store, brand story, talking to Amazon influencers, just having your stuff out there to where once you have a customer, they're going to love your products and type in your stuff and seek it out. Color it was and is a search term on Amazon.

You'd be shocked at how many people were actually searching our brand name. Uh, and that's something that I think is, is really important because again, they, they might buy color at Mondalas version one and then go out and look for volume two or go look like, man, I really love this, this product. I'm going to go type in color at coloring book and go look for other titles that are, that are out there. And so while it might not fit in the subscribe and save thing, it's still fit in the, uh, the repeat business category. And so certainly, however,

However that is, whether it's subscribe and save or they're seeking us out, I think is an important component.

DJ (25:12.837)
Yeah, I would have agreed with you two or three years ago. I think if you're not subscribed and saved now, the chances of any repeat customer on Amazon occurring is very, very small. So first off, even outside of on Amazon, somebody finding your product on Amazon and then going and buying through your website, like they might have a few years ago, I don't think that really happens anymore. Amazon has complete monopoly over people's purchase behavior where they're not going to buy from another website. It's just.

You know, even when we ran anchoring.com and anchoring.com or 80% of our sales, that just can't exist today just because there's so much loyalty to Amazon. So the idea of that, somebody finding the product on Amazon, going to your website and buying probably unlikely. I also think.

Mike Jackness (25:56.662)
Well, I'm not suggesting they come that they I'm not trying to drive them off Amazon to our website I'm just trying to get them to buy more from Amazon

DJ (26:02.529)
Yeah. And I think even that trying to get people to buy more on Amazon, that is relying on branded search, even if you get it to occur, there's so much advertising noise on Amazon, that somebody filtering through all that and making their way to your Mike Jackness, uh, sweater page, really, really hard to do a lot harder to do nowadays than it was before. However, my mindset, again, maybe I'm completely wrong, but my mindset is that those two don't work, but the one area that does work incredibly well is subscribe and save because.

You get that repeat purchase behavior happening over and over again. It's automatically added to the cart every three to four weeks or whatever interval they set and it's there basically forever. So that's my way of looking at it. If you can do subscribe and save for an item, man, you are golden. But other than that, it's tough on Amazon. I could be wrong. I'd love again, on the comments, if anybody has a business on Amazon that has a high repeat purchase rate, not in subscribing, say I'd love to hear about it.

But that's my opinion, really hard, a lot harder now on Amazon than it used to be.

Mike Jackness (27:04.106)
Yeah, I think that one of the qualities that would exist here, it wasn't actually on my list, but it's certainly up there. It's actually funny that you brought this up, but something that would work well multi-platform, which is a unicorn in itself as well, because it's typically a product that's really well suited for Amazon or it's really well suited for DDC off Amazon via Shopify and Instagram or Facebook ads or whatever. There's a small subset of products that...

DJ (27:17.249)
Mm-hmm.

Mike Jackness (27:33.27)
that the Venn diagram overlaps. That would be another quality that I'm looking for as well. I mean, it wasn't specifically on my list, but it is an important quality, because then you have an ability to go after particular keywords in search on Amazon and have that business, and then also have an ability to do SEO.

and have it go directly to your Shopify store, having the ability to do DTC ads, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, et cetera, all the things that I find to be really fun. Maybe that has a lot to do with it. It's like, I want to have fun and enjoy what I'm doing, which is certainly an important component for me to be able to do that is really important. And so I think, it's an interesting way to articulate it different than what I was thinking, but certainly that would be another component that would be important to me where I sit down and go, man, like this product,

will never do well on Amazon, I think that doesn't make a lot of sense. Or you get, you look at a product, this is only something that's going to do well on Amazon, it'd be very difficult to, like right now, that's kind of where we're at. We have a product that's difficult to sell off Amazon. They do sell, we sell them on our website, but SEO, et cetera, is not really a great long-term strategy. I mean, the brand that we just sold back this summer worked well on both platforms. We had expanded to Shopify.

being almost a quarter of our business from starting at almost zero when we bought it. So I think that that's an important thing. So you're not platform handcuffed. I only picked three things to talk about today because I know we have a limited amount of time. And so that was not on my list, but very interesting nonetheless.

DJ (29:17.221)
Yeah. And I know it's not on your list, but actually you brought up a really good point there. More fun, more enjoyable to run. Not necessarily more profitable. So this is kind of for me too, is like I'm trying to imagine, okay, what's a business that I'm going to be really excited to run and tinker on a day-to-day basis. And the truth of it is, you know, a Shopify site, we can debate the pros and the cons of it from a profitability standpoint compared to Amazon all day long.

Mike Jackness (29:38.688)
Yep.

DJ (29:46.173)
The truth of it is, at least for me and probably for you too, Mike, it's a lot more fun to run. It's a lot more fun to tinker with your funnels and your landing pages. I'm like, how can I increase my conversion rate? Uh, 0.001% by, you know, affecting this email campaign. Um, it just allows you to scratch that marketer itching you a little bit more because Amazon is really product based and, uh, you know, uh, me and you are probably more marketing based and product based and

Having a Shopify site is just a lot more fun for scratching that marketing itch that we get than Amazon profitability aside.

Mike Jackness (30:22.686)
Yeah, I mean, absolutely no doubt. I mean, I don't know. Like, I think a lot of it comes down to being able to interact with your customers, right? With Amazon, it really feels so isolated. They've made it more and more isolated. And I love when they put these polls up in their back end that we have to look at every day, because it just shows you how disconnected management and Amazon is every single day. We should make that the way that we open the podcast every week is just to make fun of the poll.

in the back end of Amazon. Today's poll is when I appeal a listing suspension, Amazon responds in a timely manner. If they actually think that that's what happens, if they're expecting everybody to be like, I agree, strongly agree, they're fooling themselves. One of the questions that came up recently was like, I have the ability to interact with my customer. I was like, what do you mean my customer? You guys explicitly say that it's not my customer, it's your customer. Do not contact them under any uncertain circumstances.

I don't know, I think that that's pretty funny and I do feel isolated from it.

DJ (31:23.073)
Well, I'm sure they do it because they know the answer is either going to be 1% or 5%. Like that actually grew that answer and they're looking at, yeah, we got 5% this week. So I'm sure that they're completely aware that those questions are going to result in overwhelmingly negative responses. So there must be some strategy behind why they do it, but it does feel a little toned every time you log into Amazon, you see these questions, which are just infuriating. And I know that data is probably valuable to them and they understand what kind of

Mike Jackness (31:44.116)
Yeah.

DJ (31:53.141)
Like it really is infuriating and that's totally an aside, but I'm with you Mike. Every time I log in there and I see these questions, it's like, dude, like just be a little bit more sensitive.

Mike Jackness (31:55.083)
Yeah.

Mike Jackness (32:02.707)
Yeah, yeah, I mean, I don't know. It's funny, but yeah, that definitely is a very, I don't know, I really got a lot of joy out of being able to interact and do that and feel connected to my customers, my tribe, my people, seeing how that was affecting them in a positive way. And that really is infectious and makes you want to go design and do more things. And so yeah, it's certainly something I would be looking for as well.

DJ (32:28.449)
Well, it's a good thing that customers never complain and never find your cell phone number on a six o'clock on a Saturday night by calling your three PL and then calling UPS to see if they can give you the phone number to the owner of EcomCrew LLC. But yeah, I think back to that. I totally agree with you, dealing with customers on a day-to-day basis. It's really nice when you get...

Mike Jackness (32:40.648)
Yeah.

Yeah, well that's you, so.

DJ (32:56.969)
than 95% of them who have a positive experience, but there's always going to be somebody that gets their product that arrives late and it was like a Christmas gift and it shows up on December 26th, uh, completely out of your control. But still they find that number, your phone, personal phone number somehow if they're with the repel or some other mechanism. Um, and so definitely that part, I don't know if I'm with you on that one. Uh, looking forward to dealing with all customers cause I know the bag go with the good.

Mike Jackness (32:59.682)
Yeah.

Mike Jackness (33:24.138)
Yep. All right, so let me get my third thing out of the way here because we're already, we go over time every single time, but it's a fun conversation. And my list is quite a bit long on this, but these are just the top three things I had on my list. The last one here is some sort of a moat, right? And so, you know, whether I'm building a, depends on the size of the castle, the size of the moat or whatever, but you're just thinking through things of how difficult is it.

to duplicate my business. And I want it to be as hard as possible for somebody to recreate what I do. And now that doesn't mean impossible because that's just ignorant. Everything can be copied. But I want it to be more difficult than the average person is willing to do. And more difficult than nine out of 10 people in fact are willing to do, right? And so...

I know there will be other people that will be willing to do it, but I want it to be something that requires a sizable capital investment to get started, and so people stay away because of that. Maybe it's something that requires signing a lease or getting a warehouse for and having employees here and doing something, and that's the thing. Maybe it's something that has intellectual property or a patent, and that becomes the defense. Maybe it's something that has all three of those things, which would be...

even more exciting. But certainly again, what I'm trying to prevent is the 7 billion people around the world that have access to these platforms from being able to do the exact same thing I'm doing with relative ease, which is the exact spot that I'm in right this second. Again, we have a brand that I bought in 2015 that luckily has had tremendous success and

I bought this brand for $50,000. It will be a huge success story the day that we sell it. It's been our cash cow. But again, it doesn't mean that I want to continue to do this indefinitely, because the last year has been a struggle. It hasn't been a cash cow this last year. It's certainly getting more and more difficult. And so looking at what we have here, which is, again, zero defensibility. Anywhere in the world can go get these products and sell them against us. And

Mike Jackness (35:49.238)
They will struggle to start with because just making a nice listing and selling it for less doesn't really get you a whole lot of traction or get you anywhere. But over time, there will be people and things that stick. And we certainly have a lot of competitors out there now selling the exact same product. And realistically, it's just as good. You put it in the freezer, it gets cold. You throw it in the microwave, it gets hot. I don't have the same excitement about it as color.

stand in traffic defending those products all day long because they were truly better. They were really great products that people really love and they were defensible. And so I had everything was a little extra property, it took a big investment. And so you mentioned customization earlier. That's certainly one of the things I've been looking at because if you're doing customization and being able to ship and get it there quickly, inherently you probably need to do that in the United States. There are some things that can be.

DJ (36:46.094)
Mm-hmm.

Mike Jackness (36:47.746)
customized abroad and then ship because there are some huge leaks in our system. It's crazy. You can ship stuff from China to the United States cheaper than just shipping from Nevada to Nevada. I was just at my buddy's house today. He does e-commerce stuff and he printed me out a label because it's cheaper than going to the post office. But a medium flat rate box is up to $14.75 now. It's crazy. I mean, and you can literally ship something from China to here.

DJ (37:10.439)
Yep.

Mike Jackness (37:14.782)
In something like five to seven days, we've had people on the podcast talking about this for less than that. There are customized things that you can ship from around the world, but I'm not talking about like trade show pens here or something that's just your run of the mill commodity customized stuff. I'm talking about something that has a little bit more uniqueness to it than that. There's a lot of things I've been looking at in that regard. Again, something that has some sort of emote where

the complexity becomes the opportunity. And I am, you know, I've always been willing to work hard. I've been a hard worker my whole life. I feel like, you know, I've had a pretty easy the last few months. And so certainly it'd be easy to go back into, and we're settled here now, which is the other cool thing. I mean, we're just not going anywhere. And so having a warehouse and having people here to do that stuff would be, it'd be a good timing for us. And if that's what it took. And so,

It'll make it more difficult for other people out there that are just getting started, the people that are listening to this that don't want to make those steps. But for me, again, I'm willing to do it. I think that it seems crazy to not do e-commerce. All the skills, again, are very applicable. I still want to be able to sell whatever these products are on Amazon. I still want to be able to launch that Shopify store and sell.

sell on Shopify, I still want to be able to run Facebook ads, TikTok ads, Instagram ads, Google ads, do some SEO, do email marketing, and work with influencers and have all this ecosystem and things that I've worked really hard on to learn all these skill sets. It seems like nothing to me because you're learning a little bit at a time and it makes it feel like you haven't learned a whole lot. I never went to college for psychology, but there's like a term for this of where...

You know, something seems easy because you're learning it one day at a time. But if you try to tell somebody that is just getting started, how to sell their products online, and you had to like verbally tell them this, you know, almost like you had a podcast telling people about this. I mean, you'd be there for weeks and months and years, like verbally trying to exhaust what you have in your head to somebody.

DJ (39:17.17)
Almost like you had a podcast.

DJ (39:28.469)
you would be on episode 525.

Mike Jackness (39:31.466)
which I think this might be exactly episode 525, or it's very close to it. And so, you know, I think there's a lot to be said for that. I mean, we have 10,000 hours in podcasting. So, yeah, I mean, it's something that I've definitely put a lot of thought into, and I want to be able to kind of have my magnum opus e-commerce brand, which will... Now, here's the hard part is that I'm kind of committed to this one thing strategy right now. And so...

I cannot start doing that until this current thing is complete. And it has been tough. It's been tougher to get out of bed than it has been in a long time and work on the stuff I have to work on because it's not exciting. I mean, it really is not the fun stuff, but it has to get done.

DJ (40:22.697)
Amen. All right. So that's your idea for a business. Not going to happen for until you can finish this one thing. And then you're going to find this unicorn of a high margin, high repeat customer, big moat business. And then you're going to partner with me on it.

Mike Jackness (40:37.01)
I don't think it's a unicorn. Yeah, well, I mean, I need someone to help me sell in Canada. I don't think it's a unicorn. You know, I really don't. There's a lot of things that I've been looking at. I don't necessarily know that I want to mention them all here on the podcast right this second, but there's a lot of things. I mean, there really is a lot of… There are hundreds of different types of products and ideas.

DJ (40:44.481)
Sorry.

Mike Jackness (41:06.518)
that can be done. Now, I guess it is a unicorn when you figure that there's probably a billion freaking products online. Like literally, I think that's probably not an exaggerated number. And so we're talking about hundreds or thousands into a billion, okay, maybe it is a unicorn from that perspective. But it's not like the true unicorn of like, there's only one. Like I think that there's a lot of things that fit this criteria. What doesn't fit this criteria is just the, I'm going to again,

DJ (41:12.904)
Yep.

Mike Jackness (41:37.034)
just be a faceless, mindless reseller of products on the internet, which is getting close to max saturation.

DJ (41:45.949)
Yeah. And I poke fun at you because it sounds like you've described a unicorn, but the truth of it is basically what you're saying is that you want a business with, uh, more margins to support higher advertising costs, uh, and more margin probably to support a little bit of customization, a manual input locally. Uh, and that kind of leads back to your higher margin part, not because necessarily your net margins at the end of the day are going to be any higher than the business that you have now. It's just going to be a little bit more of a, uh, of a different rejiggering of where those costs occur, which

Ultimately, we'll give you more defense build.

Mike Jackness (42:20.002)
Cool, well we have hit the 42 minute mark of this podcast so we're already way over our target as I mentioned but hopefully this gives people some things to think about as we're ending 2023 heading into 2024 which is crazy. It's another year it's gone by.

quickly so it's getting close time for our top episodes, episodes and what we're thinking about doing in 2024. It's crazy this is all happening and time to take the year end break and vacation. So we will probably not have an episode here that last week of the year just to because most people are out in some outer space spot. But yeah, getting close to wrapping up another year. It's crazy.

DJ (43:01.089)
Cool, well, we will chat in the next one whenever that is.

Mike Jackness (43:04.342)
Whenever that is. All right, until that one everybody, happy selling. We'll talk to you soon.

Nov 27, 2023

Mike catches up with Aaron Hughes from Ecommerce Wala after the visit to India to talk about Aaron's background, how he got started in Ecommerce, and the differences between working with a team vs. online. 

 

Today, we're joined by Aaron Hughes from Ecommerce Wala. 

 

Aaron and I met during the India Sourcing Trip, and he was by far, one of the most different while still being from the US.  

 

I wanted to invite Aaron over to the podcast today to talk about how his ecommerce journey ended up in India, the cultural and ecommerce differences between the US and India and his company Ecommerce Wala. 

 

Audio Timestamps: 

  • Introduction - 0:00 
  • How Aaron Hughes' life lead to India - 2:47
  • Getting over the differences between US & other countries - 5:32
  • Aaron Hughes' Ecommerce Background - 9:12 
  • Going all-in on Ecommerce - 11:32
  • Working in-person vs online - 16:52
  • Upcoming technology worries - 19:52
  • How Aaron and his wife met - 22:46
  • Adopting in India - 24:12 
  • Growing a team to 60+ people - 25:35
  • Ecommerce Wala and what they do from India - 27:15

 

Aaron, thank you again for coming on the podcast. We'll definitely meet up when you're in Las Vegas for a holiday. 

 

If you're interested in hiring from India, or hearing more from Aaron Hughes, you can check out his LinkedIn profile here. 

 

As always, if you have any questions or anything that you need help with, reach out to us at support@ecomcrew.com if you're interested. 

 

Don’t forget to leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoy our content. If you have any questions, send us an email at support@ecomcrew.com. We'd love to help you in any way we can. 

 

Until next time, happy selling! 

Nov 20, 2023

Ecomcrew Premium is finally opening in the next few days! Join the waitlist to get a discount for Black Friday, and get access to a community of like-minded e-commerce sellers. 

Dave joins Mike in this episode to talk about the Pros and Cons of building a community and content site through affiliate marketing in comparison to a product-based business.

With Ecomcrew being open, Dave and I thought it'd be a good time to reflect and compare the differences between a content site and product site. 

We talk about the pros and cons of building a community, the various platform risks in digital businesses that are unavoidable and our personal experiences with getting hit with a Google Update that ultimately led to less visitors.

Here are some timestamps to help you along: 

Audio Timestamps:

  • Introduction - 0:00 
  • Migrating out of South California for Ecommerce - 1:30
  • The Good, Bad and Ugly with Running a Content Site - 6:11
  • Running a Digital Platform on Your Own Platform - 8:00
  • Platform Risks - 8:52  
  • Amazon is EASIER to Appeal to? [shorts] - 11:00 
  • Getting Shut Down by Google [shorts] - 12:31
  • Google Penalties - 14:05 
  • Running a Content Business vs Product Business - 14:53
  • Amazon Only Rewards Marketing > Quality [shorts] - 15:19 
  • Difference Between Amazon and Google - 18:34
  • Being Labelled as "Gurus" - 22:06
  • Difference Between Ecomcrew vs. Gurus - 27:58
  • Pros of Building a Community - 29:17
  • Cons of Building a Community - 31:40
  • The Full Customer Funnel of Ecomcrew Premium - 32:46
  • Networking with Ecomcrew - 35:52
  • New Ecomcrew Premium Features - 37:11 

As always, if you have any questions or anything that you need help with, reach out to us at support@ecomcrew.com if you're interested. 

Don’t forget to leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoy our content. If you have any questions, send us an email at support@ecomcrew.com. We'd love to help you in any way we can. 

Nov 13, 2023

Mike speaks to PPC Expert Lucas Kwiatkowski from Nomadz about the things you need to do to improve your Amazon PPC, where you can find long tail keywords, and how to lower your ACoS.

 

Over the past 6 months, I've been diving back into the weeds of the business. So far, one of the biggest "weeds" would be optimizing my PPC spend and overhauling it to be as efficient as possible, without costing me a fortune. 

 

And so, the research started. One of the biggest resources that I've learned from is Nomadz, and their Youtube Channel. To pay it forward, I've asked Lucas Kwiatkowski to come on the podcast and talk about everything you need to do for Amazon PPC in 2024 and beyond. 

 

If you'd like to skip ahead to the juicy parts, here's some timestamps: 

  • Introduction - 0:00
  • How Nomadz Got Started - 1:40
  • Improving Your Account - 3:35
  • "How long until you see results from your ad campaigns?" - 6:47
  • Best Keyword Quantity - 9:44
  • Adjusting for Top of Search in Q4 - 10:05
  • 12:40 - 14:30 shorts
  • How to Use the Peel, Stick and Block Strategy - 16:46
  • Dealing with Too Many Keywords - 18:45
  • 21:27 - 22:20 shorts
  • 23:38 - 24:08 campaign score shorts
  • Where to Get Long Tail Keywords - 24:25
  • Organic vs. PPC - 26:45
  • Video Ads - 29:23
  • PPC Training with Nomadz - 31:50

 

Lucas, thank you again for coming on the podcast to talk about all things PPC. We've definitely given the audience more than enough tips to learn about how to optimize their PPC strategies. 

 

If you're interested in Lucas and Nomadz, check out Nomadz

 

As always, if you have any questions or anything that you need help with, reach out to us at support@ecomcrew.com if you're interested. 

 

Don’t forget to leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoy our content. If you have any questions, send us an email at support@ecomcrew.com. We'd love to help you in any way we can. 

 

Until next time, happy selling!

Nov 6, 2023

4 months after Mike scaled down his team, Dave checks in with him and how it feels like to get back in the weeds of his ecommerce business.

 

Growing a team is second nature when revenue grows. 

 

It's a natural by-product of success, to help the business grow even more in the next year. 

 

But what is it like to maintain a $5M ecommerce business when you only have 1-2 employees? Dave is on the podcast today to check in on Mike 4 months after scaling down from a 20+ person team, to 1-2 employees for his ecommerce businesses. 

 

They'll be discussing the differences of employees vs. no employees, contractors, and how being nice can do more bad than good. 

 

If you've been thinking about scaling up your team, this episode is definitely for you. 

 

Here are some timestamps to skip to your favorite parts: 

  • 0:00 - Introduction
  • 1:13 - Current Team Status
  • 2:41 - Does everyone hit a stage where they don't want to manage?
  • 3:32 - Employee Loyalty
  • 7:27 - Generational Differences with Employment
  • 11:28 - Pros and Cons of Contractors
  • 13:11 - The Problem with Being Too Nice
  • 13:54 - Feeling Bad About Assigning Mundane Tasks
  • 22:28 - Pros of Being A Solopreneur
  • 32:55 - Cons of Being A Solopreneur
  • 35:49 - Losing Out On Growing As A Leader
  • 38:51 - ROI on Employees
  • 41:50 - Going to the Vegas Sphere 

 

As always, if you have any questions or anything that you need help with, reach out to us at support@ecomcrew.com if you're interested. 

 

Don’t forget to leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoy our content. If you have any questions, send us an email at support@ecomcrew.com. We'd love to help you in any way we can. 

 

Happy listening, and until next time, happy selling! 

 

 

Oct 30, 2023

Mike and Dave recap going to India, where they mark the biggest differences that they've seen between Chinese Trade Shows and Indian Trade Shows.

 

The India Sourcing Trip finally took place earlier this October!

 

Dave and I, along with a few friends and loved ones, went to India for the first time to check out the India Ecomm Summit, visit a Manufacturing Factory and see the Taj Mahal. 

 

Timestamps:

  • 0:00 - Introduction
  • 0:44 - Jet Lag
  • 2:37 - Key Differences Between Chinese and Indian Trade Shows
  • 3:37 - Product Differences
  • 9:09 - Lack of Variety
  • 13:49 - Product Quality
  • 16:32 - Questions You Should Ask In Trade Shows
  • 22:20 - Lack of Pressure
  • 29:15 - Communication Differences
  • 32:21 - Country Differences: Traffic Culture
  • 37:14 - Country Differences: Sightseeing Diversity
  • 38:50 - Visiting a Manufacturing Factory in India
  • 42:43 - India Sourcing Trip

 

Shoutout again to Meghla, for making everything possible for Dave and I and setting us up with this eye opening trip. 

 

If you're interested in possibly joining the India Sourcing Trip next year, check out India Sourcing Trip which is managed by our friend, Meghla Bhardwaj. If you'd like to learn more about Meghla Bhardwaj, check her out on her LinkedIn page.

 

As always, if you have any questions or anything that you need help with, reach out to us at support@ecomcrew.com if you're interested. 

 

Don’t forget to leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoy our content. If you have any questions, send us an email at support@ecomcrew.com. We'd love to help you in any way we can. 

 

Thanks for listening!

 

Until next time, happy selling! 

Oct 23, 2023

Nicole Barnes, 3x ecommerce founder and Founder of Marrow Marketing, is on today to talk about iOS 14 and how privacy policies have impacted entrepreneurs. We discuss actionable ways on how you can lower ad costs, while keeping the same conversion rates consistent throughout your marketing campaigns. 

 

Check out our sponsor, Portless, today! 

 

Today we're joined by fellow creative and entrepreneur, Nicole Barnes from Marrow.

 

Nicole Barnes is a 3 time ecommerce founder with awards from Shopify as Fastest Growing Company, along with international distribution of her product and partnerships with major brands. 

 

Nicole now takes what she's learnt to help serve other founders through her creative strategy agency, Marrow, where she helps D2C brands thrive on paid socials.

 

Timestamps: 

  • 0:00 - Introduction
  • 0:59 - Looking Back at iOS 14's Effect on Ecommerce
  • 2:20 - Nicole Barnes' Background 
  • 9:03 - How Nicole Built a Million Dollar Bike Empire from $1,000
  • 13:06 - How iOS 14's Update Changed Ecommerce After 3 years 
  • 22:00 - How To Regain Campaign Targeting Power for 2024 and Beyond 
  • 24:32 - What Should Struggling Brands Do? 
  • 26:35 - How Do You Lower Ad Costs?
  • 32:21 - Best Practices for Creative Strategy 
  • 35:00 - Find Out More About Nicole Barnes and Marrow Marketing! 

 

Nicole, thank you again for coming on the podcast and giving listeners an idea on how they can up their creative strategies in advertising. 

 

If you'd like to learn more about Nicole Barnes and Marrow Marketing, check her out on her LinkedIn page, and Marrow's Website

 

As always, if you have any questions or anything that you need help with, reach out to us at support@ecomcrew.com if you're interested. 

 

Don’t forget to leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoy our content. If you have any questions, send us an email at support@ecomcrew.com. We'd love to help you in any way we can. 

 

Thanks for listening!

 

Until next time, happy selling! 

 

Oct 16, 2023

Check out our sponsor, Portless, today! 

 

In this episode, Mike's joined by Greg Mercer to talk about how Amazon will change in the face of AI, JungleScout's new AI features and how these apply to sellers on the daily.

 

Greg Mercer, the CEO of JungleScout, is back on the podcast to talk about AI and how sellers can use JS' new AI features to fix the leaks, so to speak. We also talk about how AI can level the playing field, and how Amazon hides a lot of useful data that AI can unravel.

 

If you're curious about the latest developments in the software space, or for practical advice for beating the competition, this episode is for you!

 

Timestamps:

  • 00:00 - Introduction
  • 00:40 - AI in Ecommerce and Junglescout 
  • 03:12 - Leveling the Playing Field on Copywriting and Data Analysis 
  • 05:30 - Junglescout's New AI Features 
  • 11:24 - Real-Life Applications for Junglescout's AI Features 
  • 14:21 - Amazon's Hiding A Lot of Useful Data
  • 17:33 - Tools are The New Way to Obtain The Competitive Advantage 
  • 22:59 - "What should I be working on in my ecommerce business?"
  • 27:23 - JungleScout's Roadmap for the Future 
  • 32:06 - How will things change for customers on Amazon?

 

Thank you again to Greg Mercer for coming on the show. It's always a blast to have him on.

 

If you're interested in signing up for JungleScout, I highly recommend you do so by checking them out here [affiliate link].

 

As always, if you have any questions or anything that you need help with, reach out to us at support@ecomcrew.com if you're interested. 

 

Don’t forget to leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoy our content. If you have any questions, send us an email at support@ecomcrew.com. We'd love to help you in any way we can. 

 

Until next time, happy selling! 

Oct 9, 2023

Check out our sponsor, Portless, today!

 

Chad Rubin is back on the podcast! He's an Amazon Seller of over 20 years, the ex-CEO of SKUBANA before it was acquired in 2021, one of the original founders of the Prosper Show conference. 

 

Chad is back to talk about Profasee, one of his latest ventures into the software space, that aims to reclaim profit margins without affecting your Amazon BSR, or your product ranking. 

 

Timestamps:

  • 00:00 – Introduction
  • 03:03 – Chad Rubin's ecommerce background
  • 05:55 – Why Increasing Prices on Amazon Can Be A Great Option
  • 10:57 – How Mike Tried to Increase Prices
  • 12:53 – How Profasee Works
  • 16:40 – What data does Profasee prioritise for success?
  • 19:01 – Real life examples of Profasee's results
  • 30:12 – Affiliate Offer for Profasee

 

Chad, thank you again for coming on again to the podcast and dropping value bombs as always. 

 

If you're interested in Profasee, I highly recommend you do so by checking out this link. If you want to hear more of Chad's value bombs, follow him on his LinkedIn.

 

As always, if you have any questions or anything that you need help with, reach out to us at support@ecomcrew.com if you're interested. 

 

Don’t forget to leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoy our content. If you have any questions, send us an email at support@ecomcrew.com. We'd love to help you in any way we can. 

Oct 2, 2023

Mina Elias joins the Ecomcrew Podcast to drop some value bombs -- from optimizing your click-through rate to experimenting with price increases, this is one you won't want to miss. 

Today we're joined by friend and fellow speaker, Mina Elias of Trivium Group. 

Mina and I met doing the usual speaking rounds at several events and I've always felt like Mina knew how to walk the walk. 

Mina is back on the podcast to drop some Value Bombs. From deconstructing the Amazon Funnel, to finding profit leaks in your business, Mina's advice is definitely not one to miss. 

Timestamps: 

  • 0:00 - Introduction 
  • 1:30 - Background on Mina Elias 
  • 4:46 - Value Bomb #1 - Breaking Down the Amazon Funnel 
  • 7:00 - Squeezing out Click-Through Rate 
  • 12:37 - Meetup at Hong Kong 
  • 13:40 - Value Bomb #2 - Raising Conversion Rates
  • 15:09 - Optimizing Your Main Image to Increase Click-Through Rate
  • 18:00 - Sneak Peek Into Next Week's Episode - Profasee with Chad Rubin 
  • 24:50 - Finding Missed Opportunities 
  • 28:18 - "How Do You Find Out What To Change First?" 
  • 35:20 - Mike's Experience with Tinkering with Prices 

If you're interested in partnering with Mina for your business, I highly recommend you do so by checking out this link. If you want to hear more of Mina's value bombs, follow him on his LinkedIn or Instagram pages. 

As always, if you have any questions or anything that you need help with, reach out to us at support@ecomcrew.com if you're interested. 

Don’t forget to leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoy our content. If you have any questions, send us an email at support@ecomcrew.com. We'd love to help you in any way we can. 

Thanks for listening!

Until next time, happy selling! 

Sep 25, 2023

Mike speaks with Avishai Sam Bitton, VP of Marketing and Growth at 8fig about the biggest challenges in ecommerce that everyone's been feeling lately, and how you can leverage AI to solve these issues at a low cost. 

 

In this episode, we dive into the challenging landscape of e-commerce, workforce, and technology with Avishai Bitton, a distinguished expert in the field. Avishai, hailing from 8fig.co, specializes in using AI and data to tackle the challenges of cash flow management, supply chain optimization, and sustaining growth, especially during uncertain times. 

 

Join us as we explore how AI and generative technologies can help fill the holes in your businesses, especially as a small-sized business. 

 

Timestamps:

  • 00:00 - Introduction
  • 03:51 - Avishai's Introduction and Background 
  • 09:50 - Discussion on the Impact of COVID-19 and Supply Chain Challenges
  • 13:30 - Challenges of Inventory Management and Cash Flow
  • 20:33 - The Impact of Generative AI on E-commerce 
  • 24:00 - Workforce and Unemployment 
  • 25:09 - Finding a Balance in the Labor Market 
  • 28:07 - Opportunities for Business and Entrepreneurship 

 

I hope you had some key takeaways from this episode. To explore the tools and resources mentioned in this episode, visit 8fig.co for more information. If you want to contact Avishai directly, you can connect with him on Twitter and LinkedIn for more insights. 

 

Don’t forget to leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoy our content. If you have any questions, send us an email at support@ecomcrew.com. We'd love to help you in any way we can. 

 

Thanks for listening!

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