Mike talks to Seller Universe Ecommerce Group CEO Martin Zerrudo about Amazon DSP and how brands can successfully leverage ads with it.
A relatively new system, Amazon’s demand-side platform (DSP) analyzes consumer data and finds the right customers to target ads with.
Unlike Facebook or Google ads, DSP gives you access to a wider network of third-party sites and reach people both on and off Amazon, albeit a pricier option.
A fair warning: doing ads with DSP can get very granular and specific, which can be intimidating to those unfamiliar with it. However, it can be highly effective when executed correctly.
I tried out DSP ads last year with IceWraps and although we didn’t get the results we wanted, I still think it’s a great system.
We have Martin with us today to give us better insight into how the system works and what makes it a formidable tool for ecommerce brands.
Martin, thank you for coming on the podcast and for sharing that message from August. It means a lot to Dave and I.
If any of you listening to this episode is interested in trying out DSP ads, go to the Seller Universe website and fill out the contact form.
Don’t forget to leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoy our podcast. Happy selling and we’ll see you in the next one!
Dave goes through the top third-party sellers on Amazon, what products they sell, how much they make in revenue annually, and what their business models are.
At the start of the year, we began working behind the scenes on producing regular reports on top third-party sellers on Amazon.
Since Amazon doesn’t release reports on third-party sellers, we had to develop a way to harness this data ourselves.
After months of research, we’ve managed to come up with a methodology that produces more or less accurate results.
Analyzing the sellers’ profiles, you see how vastly different their business models are. Some on this list are straight resellers, others are private label brands.
The product categories run the gamut too, from beddings and houseware to pharmaceuticals and electronics.
As we continue this series, we look forward to featuring new third-party sellers on the list and gain some insight into their business models.
That wraps up this episode of the podcast. Don’t forget to leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoy our content. Happy selling and we’ll see you in the next one!
In other (exciting) news, registration for EcomCrew Premium will be open starting May 17 midnight! Join the Premium ‘Crew and get access to cool perks such as exclusive webinars and unlimited email support from Mike and I.
Registration will be open for only a week and slots are limited so make sure to sign up as soon as you can! For more information about EcomCrew Premium, visit www.ecomcrew.com/premium.
In this episode, Mike delves into subscription boxes and why it’s an effective business model, featuring special guests Paul Chambers and Chris George of SUBTA.
From food items to lifestyle products, subscription boxes have become quite the trend in ecommerce the past few years.
Chris George and Paul Chambers got their start in ecommerce with Gentleman’s Box, a subscription service for men’s lifestyle products that they started in 2014.
In 2020, they exited the business and co-founded Subscription Trade Association or SUBTA, with a third partner, John Haji.
SUBTA aims to foster a sense of community among entrepreneurs in the subscription industry and promote healthy competition in this space.
From their humble beginnings with Gentleman’s Box to the founding of SUBTA, here are the highlights from our conversation:
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Chris and Paul, thank you so much for taking the time to be on the podcast and sharing your story with us.
For anyone interested in going into subscription, SUBTA will be having its annual SubSummit on June 1-3, 2022 in Orlando, Florida. Head on over to the SubSummit website for more details.
If you want to learn more about the subscription industry, SUBTA has free and premium plans where you can get access to educational resources. Click here to learn more.
As per usual, feel free to leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoy our podcast. Happy selling and we’ll see you in the next one!
In this episode, Mike is joined by Spencer Jan of Solo Stove to talk about the evolution of ecommerce through the years and how innovation drives it forward.
After hearing him speak at eCommerceFuel Live last March, I invited Spencer Jan to be on the podcast to expound on a particular point in his presentation that struck me the most: innovation.
Spencer is the co-founder of Solo Stove, a company he started way back in 2010 in a garage. After exiting the business, he is now focused on helping other entrepreneurs build their own brands through informative content.
During our quick conversation, Spencer and I were able to cover a bit more ground about his journey and thoughts on the future of ecommerce. Here are the highlights from the episode:
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Thank you so much for coming on the podcast, Spencer. I hope to see you at Sellers Summit. If you guys want ecommerce-related videos, make sure to check out Spencer’s YouTube channel.
Don’t forget to leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoy our podcast. Happy selling and we’ll see you in the next one!
For this episode of Under The Hood, Mike gives advice to Lisa Guenst–dental hygienist and owner of ToothShower, an innovative dental water flosser–on how to boost sales and get a business ready for selling.
Over two decades of working as a dental hygienist, Lisa Guenst noticed how a lot of patients she encountered hated using string floss.
However, part of her profession is advocating for oral health, so as an alternative to help prevent gum disease, she always suggested using a water flosser instead.
While she did see significant improvement in her patients, they did complain that most water flossers were cumbersome and quite messy to use.
This was the impetus behind Lisa creating ToothShower, a water flosser that is powered by your own shower – no need for batteries or for plugging into an outlet.
After launching a Kickstarter campaign in 2017, the company and its flagship product (now with an impressive range of accessories) have become quite the lucrative business.
Pre-Covid, ToothShower had been selling exclusively on its website. It wasn't until the pandemic that ToothShower transitioned to being an Amazon business.
Thus, Lisa sought our help on how to navigate the unique challenges that come with being an FBA business, especially for a product that’s as disruptive as ToothShower.
From refining your Amazon listing to optimizing SEO, I guide Lisa in increasing her sales and getting her business ready for selling when she decides to exit down the line.
That’s it for this week’s podcast. If you want to be featured in our next Under The Hood episode and get advice from us firsthand, fill out this form and we’ll check it out.
Also, don’t forget to leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoy our podcast. Happy selling and we’ll see you in the next one!
In February, we raked in a total of $621,816, compared to March's revenue numbers, where we broke past the $700,000 barrier. IceWraps continues the upward trend in sales, but one thing remains to be a source of difficulty: logistics.
All in all, several factors played into this outcome, but the increase in freight rates continues to be a headache.
That’s it for our Brand Report for March 2022. While we’re certainly hoping for better days, March was definitely the best so far.
If you want to see a more detailed and comprehensive breakdown of our revenue numbers for the past few months, check out the blog post up on our website.
Don’t forget to leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoy our podcast. Tune in next month for our April Brand Report. Till then, happy selling and we’ll see you in the next one!
Shortly after we released the blog post and podcast about Knitting.com, we got into hot water with members of the knitting community.
While we’ve gotten some pretty harsh comments, we’ve also received helpful advice from knitters that we will definitely implement as we grow this business.
Looking back, we realized that there were certainly points we could’ve articulated better, but there’s no point in dwelling in the past.
In this podcast, we hope to shed light on our business plan and hopefully, clarify some details.
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When we launch Knitting.com later this year, we hope to put out a content website and a lineup of quality products that hopefully novice knitters will find useful and beneficial.
That’s it for this week’s episode. Feel free to leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoy our podcast. Happy selling and we’ll see you in the next one!
Mike is joined by Carlos Alvarez, an elementary school dropout who, years later, would exit a business for 2.6 million dollars.
This week on the podcast, we have the founder of Wizards of Ecom, Carlos Alvarez. If there’s one thing Carlos and I have in common, it’s that we've beaten the odds. As school dropouts, we’re not expected to succeed in life. But after a few years of grit and hard work, here we are.
Carlos has quite the story to share with us today, from dropping out of school at the age of 10 and getting scammed by a non-existent Alibaba supplier to exiting a business selling insects and founding a successful ecommerce academy. Needless to say, his journey is quite the ride.
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That’s it for this week’s episode. Carlos, thank you so much for coming on the show and telling us a little bit about your incredible story. I hope to have you again here in the future.
In the meantime, tune in to the latest episode of the Wizards of Ecom podcast featuring yours truly, which comes out on the 28th.
Don’t forget to leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoy our podcast. Happy selling and we’ll see you in the next one!
Welcome to the podcast edition of our February Brand Report! Each month, we’ll break down our monthly revenue so you can see what’s working and what’s not.
February’s revenue was $621,816, which is roughly equal to that of January, and we dive into what exactly affected our revenue: what we worked on, our wins, and our painful losses. Dive into each section here:
That’s it for our Brand Report for February. If you want to see a more detailed and comprehensive breakdown of our check out the blogpost up on our website.
Don’t forget to leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoy our podcast. Tune in next month for our March Brand Report. Till then, happy selling and we’ll see you in the next one!
Our topic for today is not totally in line with ecommerce, but a bunch of you guys requested it so here we are: Ecomcrew’s one and only episode on cryptocurrency.
The subject is especially interesting since Dave and I aren’t exactly on the same team when it comes to this one, even though we both have experience investing in it.
For this episode, we break down some of the ambiguities surrounding cryptocurrency, how we think it’ll impact the business landscape, and whether or not it’s worth investing in.
Although, just a quick disclaimer: this episode is not, in any way, us giving financial advice; rather, simply our two cents on the matter at hand.
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Whether or not you choose to invest in cryptocurrency, just remember to never put all your eggs in one basket. After all, risk is part of being in business.
That’s it for this week’s episode. Feel free to leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoy our content. Happy selling and we’ll see you in the next one!
Mike is joined by Mediavine’s Eric Hochberger to talk about how enhanced privacy and data protection is affecting ecommerce and the future of advertising.
Consumers are becoming more wary and on edge about online security and keeping their data safe. Developers address this concern by doubling down on data privacy and limiting ads, albeit, at the expense of businesses’ efforts to reach potential customers.
In this episode, I talk to Eric Hochberger, who runs the ad management company Mediavine, about how these changes and consumer concerns will impact profit and shape the direction of advertising.
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Thank you for coming on the podcast, Eric. If you’re planning to get a website running or already have an existing one that needs an update, check out Trellis by Mediavine. It’s a WordPress framework optimized for speed, which I tested out myself and can vouch for.
In other news, we’ve got a Secret Sauce webinar coming up on the 16th. This month’s mini class is all about making incremental product improvements for big returns. Check out the linked page for more information about the latest course and the topics that we’ll be covering.
That’s it for this week’s EcomCrew Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, show us some love by leaving a review over on iTunes. Happy selling and we’ll see you in the next one!
The inspiration for a business can strike at any time. For Hasan Hasmani, CEO of Underdog Games, the big idea came to him during a meeting with a client. After several years of selling other people’s board games, that fateful conversation would eventually lead him to running a company and developing his own.
For non-essential goods such as board games, capturing a market can be difficult. But with the right idea and execution, you can find a loyal community and eventually run a sustainable and scalable business.
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Hasan, thank you so much for your time. If you have any questions for Hasan and his company, simply fill out the contact form on the Underdog Games website and his team will relay it to him accordingly.
Ready to build your own company like Hasan and Underdog Games? We have a brand new edition of Secret Sauce and this month’s class on the 16th, we’ll be discussing how to make improvements on your products for competitive advantage.
That’s it for this week’s EcomCrew Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to leave us a review over on iTunes. Happy selling and we’ll see you in the next one!
Mike sits down with the co-founder of Intelligems, Drew Marconi, to discuss a subject many entrepreneurs find quite personal: pricing.
Pricing is a tricky aspect to navigate when running a business. Set it too high, you’ll turn away potential customers. Set it too low and you’ll run the risk of struggling to keep your business afloat. So, how do you balance the scales in a mutually beneficial way?
This week on the show, Drew Marconi of Intelligems talks to us about the company he co-founded, the impact of price on conversion, the importance of price testing, and the best ways to go about it.
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Thank you so much Drew for coming on the podcast. If you have any questions for him about pricing or Intelligems’ services, shoot him an email at drew@intelligems.io and maybe work together on how you can find more profit in your brand’s store.
If you’re looking to build an Amazon brand from scratch, we’ve got a new edition of Secret Sauce, where we’ll be sharing with you our monthly numbers from all our brands and deriving relevant insights that you can use to start yours.
By subscribing, you’ll get access to exclusive monthly mini-classes, previous webinars, as well as email support directly from Dave and I. For our next webinar on the 16th, we’ll be discussing how to make improvements on your products for competitive advantage.
That’s it for this week’s EcomCrew Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to leave us a review over on iTunes. Happy selling and we’ll see you in the next one!
Contrary to the expression “Money is no obstacle,” for many start-up entrepreneurs, it’s actually the biggest hump to overcome when getting started. So many great ideas and brands fail to come to fruition mainly because of one factor: funding, or the lack thereof.
In this episode, we have Asher Ismail of Uncapped to share with us what the company he co-founded does, how ecommerce entrepreneurs can get capital for their businesses and what important factors come into play during the process.
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Asher, thank you so much for being on the podcast. To our listeners, if you’re earning at least $10,000 a month and looking to scale your business or increase inventory, don’t miss out on the Secret 50k offer Uncapped has exclusively for you guys.
The Secret 50k offer is a $50,000 loan free of Uncapped’s flat fee. To apply, all you have to do is send an email to asher@weareuncapped.com with the subject line “Secret 50k” and tell them a little bit about your business.
Speaking of growing businesses, we’ve got a hot new edition of Secret Sauce, where we’ll be breaking down step by step how to build an Amazon brand from scratch, as we’re slowly growing our newest one, Knitting.com.
A Secret Sauce subscription gets you access to exclusive monthly mini-classes, previous webinars, as well as email support directly from Dave and I. We’ll also be sharing the exact revenue numbers of each of our brands, plus tips and strategies.
That’s it for this week’s EcomCrew Podcast. Don’t forget to leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoyed this episode. Happy selling and we’ll see you in the next one!
Mike chats with Eric Suddarth of Seller Rocket about Amazon’s Onsite Associates Program and how editorial content can positively influence potential customers.
In a massive ecommerce platform like Amazon where there are literally thousands of results for every product search, getting your business clicked on (and added to cart) is a challenge.
For this episode, I am joined by Seller Rocket’s Eric Suddarth to talk about how editorial recommendations work on Amazon and how you can utilize the Onsite Associates Program.
As Seller Rocket’s general manager, Eric also discusses the importance of leveraging strategic editorial content to get your brand the visibility it deserves.
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Eric, thank you for taking the time to be with us on the podcast. If any of you guys want to give Seller Rocket a try, mention the EcomCrew podcast when you shoot them an email (launch@sellerrocket.io) to get a sweet $100 discount off your first piece of content.
As we grow Knitting.com, we’re taking you along with a brand new edition of Secret Sauce. Sign up for Secret Sauce to get access to exclusive monthly mini-classes and previous webinars, as well as our brand revenue and strategies report. Step by step, we’ll be breaking down our numbers and sharing our insights with you in real-time.
That’s it for this week’s EcomCrew Podcast. Don’t forget to leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoyed this episode. Happy selling and we’ll see you in the next one!
Mike catches up with PostPilot’s Drew Sanocki to talk about spotting opportunities in business, the bullishness of SaaS, and the efficacy of real mail in today’s environment.
Ever since I attended eCommerceFuel Live five or six years ago, I’ve always admired Drew Sanocki for his knowledge and experience in the business.
Drew is the founder and executive chairman of PostPilot, a service that aims to help businesses grow through direct mail by creating personalized postcard campaigns.
In this episode, Drew and I discuss some of the milestones in our ecommerce journey, the gold mine that is SaaS, and how direct mail is the way to go these days.
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Drew, thank you for joining me again on the podcast. I look forward to seeing you in person soon. If you guys need help with marketing for your business, Drew has got an awesome treat for you: click here for PostPilot’s Godfather offer.
As always, leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoyed this episode. Happy selling and we’ll see you in the next one!
With our businesses fortunately well and stable, we thought it was high time we worked on a new project – this time, as business partners!
Dave and I have always talked about working on a business together, but we never really came up with anything concrete.
That is until we stumbled upon this hidden gem of sorts: Knitting.com. Although we absolutely have zero expertise on the subject matter, we saw potential in it and the audience it has.
We weren’t on the same page initially, but after a trip to Palm Springs (and a shot or two), we eventually agreed that this was a good move and a worthy investment.
We’re starting – or should I say ‘stitching’ – a new chapter in our careers and we couldn’t be more excited. We hope you’ll join us along for the ride.
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New year, new business venture. We hope you’re just as pumped as we are about this exciting project of ours. We can’t wait to officially launch the site and products later this year. For now, check out Dave's blog post on how we ended up choosing this domain name.
Don’t forget to leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoyed this week’s episode. Also, make sure to tune in to the podcast as we’ll be revealing more details about our new business in the coming months.
Happy selling and we’ll see you in the next one!
As the pandemic continues to drag on, running a successful ecommerce business is not without its challenges. 2021 may not have been the COVID-free year Dave and I wanted for our businesses, but that’s not to say it was all bad.
It wasn’t an easy year, but looking back, there were plenty of reasons to celebrate too, which we will talk about in this episode – and we may or may not discuss a little bit about our new but still secret new business.
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2021 was quite the year, huh? There were some moments of adversity there, but we persevered. Now that we’ve begun a new year, we’re looking forward to better days for business and an auspicious launch of our new brand, which will come very soon.
That’s a wrap for this week’s podcast. You guys know the drill: leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoy our content. Make sure to tune in to next week’s episode as it will be quite a special one. Happy selling!
WallCharmers co-owner Viktor Morosov talks about how his company has grown and evolved since quitting his office job, and the struggles he encountered during the pandemic.
Juggling a nine-to-five job and an e-commerce start-up is no easy feat and is certainly an exhausting set-up to maintain.
So when Wall Charmers’ numbers hit an all-time high in April 2021, Viktor and his business partner Lance took a leap of faith, resigned from their main jobs and decided to run their e-commerce baby full time.
Growing their company during the Covid crisis–what with all the delays and restrictions–proved to be a challenge. But Viktor took everything in stride, gaining invaluable lessons and experiences along the way.
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And just like that, we’ve come to the end of episode 431 of the podcast. Viktor, thank you so much for always accepting our invitation to be on the show. It’s always a fun conversation with you.
As always, feel free to leave us a review over on iTunes if you had fun tuning in to this week’s episode. Happy selling and we’ll see you in the next one!
Elements Brands CEO Bill D’Alessandro returns to chat with Mike about his recent (and unfortunate) experience with an Amazon aggregator who bought his business.
For many entrepreneurs, selling a business can be an even bigger achievement than starting one. While some luck out with finding honest-to-goodness buyers of their business, others get caught up in less favorable situations.
Bill D’Alessandro, founder and CEO of Elements Brands, is no amateur when it comes to selling businesses with 10 years of experience in Mergers and Acquisitions. But even a man of experience like him isn’t exempt from the occasional rotten buyer.
In this episode, Bill shares in painstaking detail the dodgy deal he had to face with an Amazon aggregator who bought the business he was divesting. From how the deal started and ended to valuable takeaways of the event, Bill’s story is certainly one you want to listen to.
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That’s it for this week’s EcomCrew Podcast. As always, it’s a pleasure to have Bill on the show. It’s not exactly the most inspiring story to tell, but it’s an equally important one nonetheless.
If you enjoyed this week’s episode, feel free to leave us a review over on iTunes. Happy selling and we’ll see you in the next one!
Mike and Lazada founder Pierre Poignant talk about the differences in ecommerce philosophies between the East and the West.
Born out of the digital revolution, Lazada is one of the largest ecommerce platforms in Southeast Asia.
In this episode, I sit down with Lazada Co-Founder and former CEO, Pierre Poignant, to talk about how he saw a massive opportunity for digital retail in Southeast Asia, how Lazada operates smoothly across international borders, and how they scaled the company after being acquired by Alibaba.
Pierre also shares some valuable insights on the ecommerce principles in the East that could work for many sellers in the West, as well as how he’s helping sellers grow their brands through his new company.
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I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Pierre as much as I have, and I definitely can’t wait to have him back a couple of years from now to see how far Branded has come along. If you want to learn more about their services, head over to their website, joinbranded.com or connect with Pierre on LinkedIn.
Don’t forget to leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoy our content, and as always, happy selling and we’ll see you in the next one!
Mike and Dave discuss the most popular ecommerce tools out there, giving their two cents on which seller software are better than others.
Last month, we ran our yearly community poll to find out which among the myriad of seller software our EcomCrew community predominantly uses.
The poll was aimed at determining the most popular Amazon software in 5 categories:
THE RESULTS ARE IN! We’ll be discussing the winning software for each of the categories and why they edged out the competition.
We’ll also be sharing some insights compared to last year's numbers, on why and how you should be using these tools to grow your ecommerce business—and why you’re leaving a lot of money on the table if you don’t!
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We’d like to thank everyone for taking the time to cast their votes, and congratulations to the lucky winner of a full year of EcomCrew Premium membership!
If you like this episode, don’t forget to help us out by leaving us a review over on iTunes so we can help more e-commerce sellers with our content.
’Til the next one, happy selling!
Mike and Dave look back at 2021 and reveal the year’s Top 10 EcomCrew Podcast episodes.
Throughout 2021, we’ve had some great conversations with a lot of interesting people about all things ecommerce—from tips and strategies to taking your business to new heights, to peeling the curtain back on aggregators, to analyzing the latest market trends and Amazon policy drops.
Would you believe that our first episode of the Ecomcrew Podcast was released on October 20, 2015?
In this episode, Dave and I will unveil the Top 10 EcomCrew Podcast episodes of 2021. We’ll take a deep dive into what makes these episodes great and why you should definitely go back and give them a listen if you haven’t already.
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Did your favorite episode make the list?
Thank you to everyone who tuned in to the podcast last year. We couldn’t have gotten this far without you! We promise more awesome content for you in 2022.
Happy holidays and, as always, we’ll talk to you soon!
Mike and Greg have a fireside chat about how they are applying the 4-burner theory as ecommerce sellers to not lose sight of other meaningful things in life.
Being an ecommerce entrepreneur means wearing many hats and oftentimes being so busy that you tend to lose track of other meaningful things in life.
Today, Greg Howlett and I will be talking about the 4-burner theory and how we are applying it to balance our priorities in business and in life. This theory helped me out a lot in my journey towards a balanced entrepreneurship, and I’ve talked about it in greater detail back in Episode 290.
Greg is a friend I met through Ecommerce Fuel, a community of 6 to 7 figure ecommerce store owners dedicated to helping people build and grow Amazon and other ecommerce businesses.
Today, Greg and I will have a fireside chat about how we balance work, family, friends, and personal health using the 4-burner theory, which can be a struggle for most ecommerce sellers.
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I wanna thank Greg for a very insightful conversation, and I can’t wait to hear a lot more from him down the road.
By the way, in case you missed it, our traditional software poll is currently accepting entries! This yearly survey helps us discover trends in the industry and which software and tools sellers are really finding useful in running their ecommerce business.
This year, one lucky person will win a full year’s worth of EcomCrew Premium membership absolutely free! Just head over to ecomcrew.com/softwarepoll to participate.
Until the next one, happy selling and we’ll talk to you soon!
Amazon sellers use various software as tools to help grow their businesses and make 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 bring back last year's 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 5 questions, you can get a chance to win a full year of EcomCrew Premium subscription!
Just head on over to ecomcrew.com/softwarepoll, and don’t miss your chance to enjoy EcomCrew Premium for free!
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 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!