Comparison content is one of the most underused but powerful tools available to eCommerce brands today. In this episode, Greg Shuey breaks down why “X vs. Y” queries represent some of the highest-intent searches online, and why brands can’t afford to leave those answers to random review sites, Reddit threads, or AI hallucinations. Buyers at this stage have their wallets out—they just need clarity and confidence to make the right decision, and comparison content delivers exactly that.

Greg walks through three types of comparison content every brand should consider: product vs. product to help customers navigate options within your catalog, brand vs. brand to position yourself against competitors without bashing them, and category comparisons to educate new buyers who may not yet know what they need. He shares how to structure this content with visual tables, pros and cons, schema markup, and even “best for” sections that guide buyers directly to the right fit while signaling to Google and AI models that your content is authoritative.

The episode closes with a focus on distribution and ROI. Comparison pieces shouldn’t just live on your blog—they can be repurposed for product pages, FAQs, YouTube videos, TikToks, and third-party blogs that provide backlinks and exposure. Done right, comparison content drives visibility across Google and AI platforms, reduces customer service headaches, and bridges the gap between top-of-funnel awareness and bottom-of-funnel purchase decisions. The takeaway is clear: you can either be compared—or you can own the comparison.

Episode Links

Greg Shuey LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-shuey/

https://www.stryde.com/comparison-content-that-converts/

Greg Shuey opens this episode of 7 Figures and Beyond by challenging eCommerce marketers to stop relying solely on Google rankings as their growth driver and instead focus on building multi-platform relevance. While traditional search is still a massive traffic source, he explains that shifts in user behavior, like the rise of YouTube, Reddit, TikTok, Instagram, and AI tools such as ChatGPT, mean that customers often bypass Google entirely in their product research and decision-making. The result is a more fragmented, harder-to-track discovery journey, where direct visits and brand searches often originate from off-Google sources.

He then breaks down two critical concepts for thriving in this new environment: semantic relevance, which ensures content aligns with the meaning and intent behind a query (not just exact keywords), and narrative relevance, which ensures that every brand touchpoint contributes to a cohesive, consistent story. Greg illustrates how both approaches work in practice, from rethinking keyword strategies to ensuring messaging stays aligned with brand values across platforms. He emphasizes that relevance isn’t just about being found, it’s about being trusted and recognized as part of the conversation wherever customers are looking.

Finally, Greg offers three practical steps to get started: answer real customer questions across multiple formats and platforms, maintain a consistent point of view everywhere your brand appears, and create strategic brand comparison and use-case content to own competitive positioning. He advises tracking mentions across emerging channels, engaging authentically in communities like Reddit, and partnering with rising creators on social platforms. By investing even a few hours each week into building multi-platform relevance, brands can position themselves ahead of competitors who are slow to adapt, unlocking compounding benefits in visibility, authority, and sales over time.

Episode Links

Greg Shuey LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-shuey/

Datos State of Search Q2: https://datos.live/report/state-of-search-q2-2025/

https://www.stryde.com/why-you-should-build-multi-platform-relevance/

The e-commerce world is on the brink of a major disruption, and most brands don’t even realize it’s coming. In this episode, Greg Shuey explores how Shopify’s upcoming product feed integration with ChatGPT is poised to fundamentally change how consumers discover and purchase products online. Instead of scrolling through endless product pages or relying on keyword-based search, shoppers will describe exactly what they want in plain language, and AI will serve them curated product results directly within the ChatGPT interface. For Shopify merchants, this means a brand's visibility in the next era of e-commerce will depend heavily on the quality, structure, and depth of their product feed data.

Greg walks through exactly what needs to change. Standard product titles and basic descriptions won’t cut it anymore. Brands must now craft detailed, benefit-driven product data that sounds natural and answers the types of real-world questions customers might ask an AI. From schema markup and high-quality imagery to robust customer reviews and comparison blog content, every detail matters. These assets not only improve how your brand shows up in ChatGPT but also reinforce its relevance in Google’s evolving AI search experience.

But this isn’t about abandoning traditional marketing, it’s about rebalancing. As AI interfaces become a core part of the shopping journey, Greg urges brands to treat product feeds like prompt engineering and content like context training for large language models. The message is clear: brands that act now will have a first-mover advantage in a more conversational, curated, and intelligent commerce landscape. Those who wait may find themselves left behind, entirely excluded from a growing share of purchase-ready customer interactions.

Episode Links

Greg Shuey LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-shuey/

ChatGPT Product Feed Submission: https://openai.com/chatgpt/search-product-discovery/

https://www.stryde.com/ai-shopping-shopify-product-feeds/

In this episode of 7 Figures and Beyond, Greg Shuey dives deep into the WARC x GWI 2025 Consumer Trends Report to spotlight the five most important shifts reshaping eCommerce and digital marketing. With data-backed insights and real-world implications, Greg explores how the widening wealth gap is fracturing consumer behavior—forcing brands to either lean into value-driven pricing or premium experiences with emotional resonance. He stresses that “the middle” is rapidly disappearing and urges marketers to choose their lane and build toward it with clarity.

One of the most surprising trends? Consumers now trust creators more than brands. Greg unpacks how creator recommendations are directly driving purchase decisions—not because of reach, but because of perceived authenticity and alignment. He challenges marketers to rethink their approach to influencer marketing and tap into overlooked brand voices like employees and customers who carry built-in credibility. On top of that, AI assistants like ChatGPT and Perplexity are actively rewriting the purchase funnel, making decisions for users, and shifting the point of discovery away from traditional search engines. If brands aren’t showing up in AI-driven recommendations, they’re essentially invisible.

Greg rounds out the conversation with a look at the rise of health-conscious shopping—where functional outcomes like gut health and immunity now drive buying decisions—and the explosion of community as a top-of-funnel growth engine. Whether it’s niche Slack groups, Reddit threads, or offline meetups, consumers are flocking to passion-based tribes for product discovery and peer validation. The brands that adapt quickly, invest in relevance, and build trust across platforms and communities will be the ones who not only win Q4—but set themselves up for long-term growth in 2026 and beyond.

Episode Links

Greg Shuey LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-shuey/

2025 Consumer Trends Report Download: https://www.warc.com/content/paywall/article/WARC-Exclusive/2025_Consumer_Trends_Report/en-GB/161373?

https://www.stryde.com/consumer-trends-shape-marketing-strategy-2025/

Organic search isn’t what it used to be, and most ecommerce brands are feeling it. In this episode, Greg Shuey explores why traditional SEO strategies that once fueled predictable growth are losing their effectiveness. With AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and platforms like Reddit and TikTok reshaping how consumers discover and evaluate products, simply ranking for keywords is no longer enough. Greg breaks down how visibility is shifting from search engines to a fragmented discovery ecosystem, and why brands must rethink where and how they show up.

Listeners will learn how “relevance” has become the new driver of discoverability. Greg explains that true relevance means aligning content with user intent across every stage of the buyer journey, not just stuffing keywords on a page. He shares a detailed case study of a client who shifted from pure keyword optimization to a relevance-first content strategy, resulting in a 170% lift in AI overview visibility and significant increases in People Also Ask impressions and LLM mentions. From FAQs to competitor comparisons to forum participation, Greg outlines exactly how they made it happen.

The episode wraps with a practical four-step roadmap that any brand can start using today: gather real customer questions, repurpose them into helpful content, link everything internally to build topical authority, and show up in third-party conversations with intent to educate, not sell. Whether you’re a one-person marketing team or leading a seven-figure D2C brand, this episode gives you the mindset and method to compete in a world where search is no longer the sole gateway to discovery.

Episode Links

Greg Shuey LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-shuey/

Ahrefs: https://ahrefs.com/

Sparktoro: https://sparktoro.com/

Alsoasked: https://alsoasked.com/

https://www.stryde.com/from-rankings-to-relevance-new-seo-framework/

In this episode of the Seven Figures and Beyond podcast, Greg Shuey confronts the recurring claim that “SEO is dead,” a narrative fueled by social media hot takes and fear of evolving search technologies. He argues that this perspective is not only misleading but harmful, especially for early-career marketers and brand owners who might make impulsive decisions based on clickbait rather than data. Drawing from over two decades of SEO experience, Greg explains that search has always evolved, and what we’re experiencing now with LLMs like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews is just another inflection point, not a death knell.

Greg breaks down how search behavior is shifting, not disappearing. Consumers are increasingly using tools like ChatGPT for problem discovery and research, but still rely on Google to finalize decisions, particularly in the lower funnel, where product searches and purchases happen. He shares recent industry data showing that Google still handles over 16 billion searches daily, with only a minor dip in traditional search volume year over year. Meanwhile, AI-driven search is growing, but far from eclipsing Google. This coexistence of platforms demands a hybrid strategy: traditional SEO practices plus optimization for visibility within AI-generated content layers.

To thrive in this new environment, Greg emphasizes the need for brands to prioritize structured, helpful, and semantically rich content across all parts of their website, not just blogs. This includes weaving FAQs into product and category pages, implementing schema markup, and monitoring visibility in both search engines and LLMs using tools like Peec.ai. He shares how his agency uses AI agents to automate FAQ research and content optimization, freeing up time for strategic thinking. His closing message is clear: brands that remain curious, data-driven, and proactive in adapting their SEO and content strategies will build a sustainable edge, even in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

Episode Links

Greg Shuey LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-shuey/

Datos State of Search 2025: https://datos.live/report/state-of-search-q1-2025/

Spark Toro - Google Receives 373x More Searches Than Chat GPT: https://sparktoro.com/blog/new-research-google-search-grew-20-in-2024-receives-373x-more-searches-than-chatgpt/

 https://www.stryde.com/seo-isnt-dead-just-smarter/

In this episode of the Seven Figures and Beyond E-Commerce Marketing Podcast, Greg Shuey sits down with Izzy Rosenzweig, CEO of Portless, to explore how e-commerce brands can regain control of their cash flow and inventory in an increasingly volatile global market. Izzy shares his evolution from running a brand dependent on traditional supply chains to building Portless—a next-gen 3PL that enables brands to ship products directly from Asia to customers worldwide. This model removes the need for warehousing, accelerates delivery, and frees up capital that would otherwise be locked in inventory sitting on the ocean or in storage.

Izzy dives deep into two powerful but underutilized strategies: tariff deferment and tariff engineering. He explains how deferring duties until items are sold allows brands to maintain liquidity and minimize financial strain. Additionally, by making small technical changes to products, such as material composition or packaging, brands can reclassify their products under less expensive tariff codes, significantly reducing costs. These techniques, while not commonly discussed in mainstream marketing circles, can be the difference between survival and collapse for seven- and eight-figure brands in today’s economic climate.

The episode closes with a clear call to action: now is the time to get lean, agile, and global. Izzy encourages DTC founders to explore emerging international markets like the UK, Australia, and Canada where CPMs are lower, logistics are feasible, and consumer demand is strong. He also outlines the benefits of small-batch production, working with trade partners to unlock better payment terms, and offshoring non-essential roles to reduce OpEx. Ultimately, this episode is a must-listen for any brand feeling the financial pinch and looking for practical, high-leverage ways to adapt and thrive.

Episode Links

Greg Shuey LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-shuey/

Izzy Rosenzweig LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/izzy-rosenzweig-13653846/

Porless: https://www.portless.com/

https://www.stryde.com/tariff-deferment-inventory-strategy-for-improved-cash-flow/

In this episode of Seven Figures and Beyond, Greg Shuey sits down with Ben Sharf, co-founder of Platter, to challenge the conventional thinking around what it actually takes to build a high-converting eCommerce storefront. Ben shares the origin story of Platter—how his pivot from a promising hockey career and a corporate consulting role during COVID led to launching a tech-enabled agency that has built over 150 Shopify storefronts. Through that experience, Ben uncovered a frustrating reality: even brands doing tens of millions in revenue are often using clunky, bloated tech stacks and struggling with basic usability and design decisions that actively hurt conversions.

Ben walks listeners through what really matters when designing for performance. He outlines the core drivers of conversion—clear messaging, intuitive navigation, social proof, and reducing buyer friction at every stage. He emphasizes how many brands unknowingly overcomplicate the shopping experience with unnecessary page loads, hidden CTAs, and poor layout decisions. He also breaks down homepage and PDP structures, showing how simplifying the layout, elevating visual assets, and enabling one-click purchasing can drive meaningful improvements in performance—without expensive redesigns or flashy branding.

The conversation also tackles the tension between branding and conversion—a common challenge for DTC brand owners. Ben makes a strong case for prioritizing functionality and conversion over aesthetics, especially for brands with medium-priced, large-catalog product lines. He explains how trying to retrofit modern performance elements into outdated or overbuilt sites leads to inefficiency and technical debt, and why many brands should consider a full rebuild over a redesign. Whether you're running a lean team or prepping for a major site overhaul, this episode is packed with straightforward, high-leverage insights for anyone looking to boost revenue by simplifying the customer experience.

Episode Links

Greg Shuey LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-shuey/

Ben Sharf LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-sharf-b554a5b3/

Platter: https://www.platter.com

Turning Pro Podcast: https://www.turningpropod.com/

https://www.stryde.com/the-truth-about-high-converting-ecommerce-sites/

Direct-to-consumer brands often obsess over lowering customer acquisition costs, but they’re missing a key lever for profitability: increasing average order value. In this episode, Greg Shuey interviews Saunder Schroeder, who shares a wealth of practical tactics for optimizing AOV—starting with smarter bundling strategies rooted in actual customer behavior. By leveraging tools like Shopify’s “items bought together” report, brands can create bundles that feel natural and valuable, which can raise AOV and even reduce CAC in the process.

Saunder emphasizes the power of virtual bundles, especially for fast testing without complicating inventory. He also warns against relying too heavily on deep discounts, which can create customer expectations that damage long-term profitability. Instead, techniques like bundling hero products with logical accessories or using targeted “gift with purchase” offers can create perceived value and improve conversion rates without eroding contribution margin.

Looking ahead, Saunder and Greg agree that personalization will be a major differentiator—but most brands are still in the segmentation phase. The near future likely belongs to companies that combine smart AI usage with authentic brand storytelling. As AI democratizes content creation, real human insight, original product development, and brand values will become the key to standing out in a sea of sameness.

Episode Links

Greg Shuey LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-shuey/

Saudner Schroder LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saunderschroed/

Fermat: https://www.fermatcommerce.com

https://www.stryde.com/smart-bundles-maximizing-average-order-value/

In this episode of Seven Figures and Beyond, host Greg Shuey welcomes Greg Shugar—founder of The Tie Bar and owner of Beau Ties of Vermont—for a timely and eye-opening discussion on how newly imposed tariffs are threatening the future of small and mid-sized DTC brands. With tariffs on Chinese imports surging to as high as 145%, Shugar explains that these aren’t just duties—they’re effectively embargoes, crippling supply chains and forcing business owners to rethink how and where they manufacture. For brands relying heavily on Chinese factories for soft goods, the financial impact is immediate and significant, with very few straightforward solutions.

Shugar shares tactical insights from his own playbook, such as ordering excess inventory ahead of Chinese New Year, stockpiling under the de minimis import threshold, and experimenting with quiet, incremental price increases. He also warns of a looming crisis similar to the COVID-era supply backlog, where halted shipments could create a future bottleneck that drives up shipping costs and fuels broader inflation. While some brands are experimenting with emergency strategies like routing containers through countries with lower tariffs or temporarily pausing production, none of these options come without tradeoffs in time, money, or quality.

Beyond tactics, Shugar critiques the broader policy environment, arguing that the U.S. government has failed to offer a thoughtful or realistic roadmap for businesses to follow. If reshoring manufacturing is truly the goal, he believes it should be supported with tax credits, clear timelines, and exemptions for U.S.-based brands that rely on imported raw materials. Without that structure, brands are being asked to navigate an unpredictable landscape on their own. The big takeaway: unless something changes, this is not just a temporary disruption—it’s a structural shift that could reshape e-commerce and retail as we know it.

Episode Links

Greg Shuey LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-shuey/

Greg Shugar LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregshugar/

Beau Ties of Vermont: https://www.beautiesltd.com/

Carrie Amber Intimates: https://www.carrieamber.com/

https://www.stryde.com/tarrifs-what-every-ecommerce-brand-needs-to-know/