eCom Collab Club Podcast - The eCommerce Podcast for DTC Businesses

Selling cocktails online sounds like a lovely business.

Until you remember your product is liquid, glass, alcohol and needs to arrive looking like something you'd actually want to drink.

Adam sits down with Tom Mayes, Co-Founder of Edmunds Cocktails, to talk about the decisions behind growing the business from two brothers making cocktails at home to producing around 1.5 million cocktails a year.

And it turns out quite a few of those decisions come down to one thing:

How much control are you willing to give up?

Tom and his brother Paul have kept fulfilment in-house for years – partly because their product makes outsourcing complicated and partly, Tom admits, because they're control freaks.

But as Edmunds has grown, that's becoming harder to justify.

Then there's Amazon.

Edmunds isn't currently selling there, preferring to grow its own DTC channel and keep hold of the customer relationship and data.

But when millions of potential customers are already searching somewhere else, at what point does protecting your DTC business mean leaving money on the table?

Adam and Tom get into all of it.

They also chat about:

–How a business built for hospitality accidentally found a huge DTC opportunity during COVID
–Going from roughly £10k to £50k in online sales almost overnight
– The realities of fulfilling cocktails yourself
– Why something as simple as a garnish made outsourcing considerably more complicated
– Where Amazon could fit into Edmunds' future without becoming the whole strategy
– The danger of becoming too dependent on someone else's platform
– Why Tom wishes they'd documented the Edmunds journey from day one
– Staying close enough to customers to spot new product opportunities
– Bootstrapping the business to around £1.2m before raising investment
– Personalisation, gifting and what's next for the brand

And, naturally, cocktail Christmas crackers.

About the guest

Tom Mayes is Co-Founder of Edmunds Cocktails, which he launched alongside his brother Paul in 2019.

What started with cocktails made at home has grown into a business producing more than 1.5 million cocktails a year and supplying over 1,200 venues and retailers, including PizzaExpress and Nobu Hotels.

About the host

Adam Pearce is Co-Founder of Blend Commerce and eCom Collab Club®, where he brings together the founders, operators and people actually doing the work behind growing eCommerce brands.

On the eCom Collab Club® Podcast, Adam gets into the decisions, disasters, lessons and occasional bits of brilliance that don't tend to make it into the polished LinkedIn version.

Booze. Boxes. Bezos.

What could possibly go wrong? 🍸

What happens when your biggest competitor isn't another brand?

It's the belief that your customer doesn't need what you're selling.

In this episode of the eCom Collab Club® Podcast, Adam Pearce sits down with Jake Xu, Co-Founder of Shakeup Cosmetics, to talk about the realities of building a men's skincare and cosmetics brand in a market where stigma, stereotypes and customer education are all part of the acquisition strategy.

And Jake's journey hasn't exactly been straightforward.

He and his identical twin brother Shane went from running a creative agency together to launching Shakeup into Harvey Nichols in 2019.

Three months later... COVID hit.

With UK retail effectively disappearing overnight, they accelerated their international plans and launched into China — a move Jake says helped save the business.

Today, Shakeup is a certified B Corp selling through more than 1,300 stores globally.

Adam and Jake unpack what they've learned along the way, including why educating a market comes with a hefty price tag, why the same product can attract completely different customers in different countries, and why localisation needs to go much further than translating some website copy.

They also get into omni-channel growth, cash flow, the dangers of trying to run two businesses at once and Jake's refreshingly flexible attitude towards five-year plans.

But some of the best lessons come from the customers themselves.

Jake shares the story of one man with rosacea whose reaction to trying Shakeup completely reframed what the brand was really selling.

Not makeup.

Confidence.

In this episode:

– Going from agency owner to consumer brand founder
– Building a business with your identical twin
– Launching Shakeup just before COVID
– Why expanding into China helped save the company
– The cost of educating customers in a new category
– Challenging stigma around men's skincare and cosmetics
– Why Shakeup chose omnichannel over DTC-only
– How customer behaviour changes across international markets
– Localisation and giving distributors creative freedom
– Balancing ambitious growth with cash flow
– Why Jake isn't a fan of rigid long-term plans
– The customer story that changed how he thought about Shakeup

If you're building a challenger brand, entering a new category or trying to sell something your audience doesn't immediately understand, there's loads in this one.

About the guest

Jake Xu is Co-Founder of Shakeup Cosmetics, the men's skincare and cosmetics brand he launched alongside his identical twin brother, Shane.

After spending 12 years running a creative agency, Jake moved into the world of consumer brands with Shakeup in 2019. Since then, the business has become a certified B Corp and grown into more than 1,300 stores globally, challenging stereotypes around men's skincare and cosmetics along the way.

About the host

Adam Pearce is Co-Founder of Blend Commerce and eCom Collab Club®, where he brings together the founders, operators and people actually doing the work behind growing eCommerce brands.

On the eCom Collab Club® Podcast, Adam gets into the decisions, disasters, lessons and occasional bits of brilliance that don't tend to make it into the polished LinkedIn version of running a business.

Having a brilliant product is only half the battle.

First, you've got to convince people to give a sh*t.

🎧 Listen now to find out how this epic brand did exactly that.

Everyone loves talking about growth.

Fewer people want to talk about the warehouse that's supposed to keep up with it.

Until orders start arriving late

Returns start stacking up

Or your customer service team starts forwarding emails titled:

"wHeRe'S mY oRdEr?!"

In this episode, Adam Pearce is joined by Steph Mitcheson, Business Development Director at Prolog Fulfilment Global, to talk about the operational reality of scaling an eCommerce business.

Steph has worked across manufacturers, retailers and third-party logistics providers, helping brands navigate everything from international fulfilment and marketplace expansion to reverse logistics and returns.

Together, they explore the challenges of knowing when to move to a 3PL, the hidden costs of handling fulfilment in-house for too long, and why logistics is no longer just an operations problem—it's a customer experience problem.

If you're thinking about selling internationally, reviewing your fulfilment setup or wondering whether your warehouse can cope with your next stage of growth, this episode is packed with practical advice.

In this episode:

• When it's time to stop fulfilling orders yourself
• The biggest fulfilment mistakes growing brands make
• Global expansion without operational chaos
• The realities of selling through Amazon and multiple sales channels
• Why returns deserve more attention than they usually get
• Reverse logistics, refurbishment and creating value from returned products
• How logistics directly impacts customer experience and retention
• Choosing the right fulfilment partner for your stage of growth
• The operational questions founders should ask before scaling internationally

About the Guest

Steph Mitcheson is Business Development Director at Prolog Fulfilment Global, helping brands build smarter fulfilment, logistics and returns strategies that support long-term growth.

With experience across manufacturers, retailers and 3PLs, Steph specialises in international fulfilment, reverse logistics, operational efficiency and helping businesses scale without creating unnecessary complexity.

🔗 Prolog Fulfilment Global → https://prologfulfilment.com/

About the Host

Adam Pearce is Co-Founder of Blend Commerce and eCom Collab Club®, where he hosts honest conversations with founders and operators about the realities of growing modern eCommerce brands.

🔗 Blend Commerce → https://blendcommerce.com

🔗 eCom Collab Club® → https://ecomcollabclub.com

The best fulfilment strategy is the one your customers never have to think about.

The worst is the reason they never order again.

🎧 Listen now.

#eCommerce #Fulfilment #3PL #Logistics #ReverseLogistics #ReturnsManagement #CustomerExperience #eCommerceGrowth #eCommerceOperations #eCommercePodcast

Most brands talk about acquisition as the bit that gets customers through the door, then hand them over to retention to keep them around.

Janis Thomas thinks that is where brands go wrong.

Because the first ad someone sees, the offer that gets them to buy and the experience that follows are all part of the same relationship. If the promise that won the first order does not match the experience that follows, customers do not tend to hang about for a second.

In this episode, Adam Pearce is joined by Janis Thomas, CMO at Clothes Doctor, to unpack why acquisition, retention and customer experience need to stop operating as separate little islands.

Janis brings experience from across eCommerce, subscriptions, digital media and entertainment, including senior roles at Birchbox and Playboy. Now, she is helping Clothes Doctor build a more considered approach to clothing care – helping people wash less, care better and keep the clothes they already own for longer.

They discuss the danger of attracting customers with offers that do not build long-term value, what subscription businesses can teach eCommerce brands about repeat purchase, and how to create a customer experience that gives people a reason to come back.

Also: Janis organised Hugh Hefner’s 80th birthday party.

Not a retention tactic.

Still a very good story!

In this episode:

• Why acquisition and retention should be planned together
• How your first offer shapes customer expectations
• The difference between getting a first order and building a repeat customer
• When discounts create more problems than they solve
• What subscription businesses understand about value, trust and repeat purchase
• Why the post-purchase experience starts before someone checks out
• How brands can align marketing promises with the real customer experience
• Lessons from Birchbox, Playboy and Clothes Doctor
• The Hugh Hefner birthday party story you did not know you needed to hear

About the Guest

Janis Thomas is CMO at Clothes Doctor, a UK laundry and clothing-care brand helping people make their clothes last longer through better care and less washing.

She has led marketing, eCommerce and customer experience across businesses including Birchbox and Playboy, with a career spanning subscription, digital media, entertainment and consumer brands.

🔗 Clothes Doctor
https://clothes-doctor.com

About the Host

Adam Pearce is Co-Founder of Blend Commerce and Founder of eCom Collab Club®, where he hosts candid conversations with founders and operators building modern eCommerce brands.

🔗 Blend Commerce
https://blendcommerce.com

🔗 eCom Collab Club®
https://ecomcollabclub.com

If your retention plan starts after checkout, it might already be late.

🎧 Listen now

#ecommerce #ecommercemarketing #customerretention #customerexperience #customerjourney #retentionmarketing #customeracquisition #customerloyalty #ecommercegrowth #subscriptionbusiness #subscriptionmarketing #crm #digitalmarketing #ecommercepodcast #dtcbrand

There’s always another thing to optimise in eCom.

Another app to trial.

Another dashboard to build.

Another landing page that's nearly ready. Just needs a few tweaks... A different headline... Maybe a few more widgets...

Somehow, after all that, the work that actually moves the business forward is still sat at the bottom of tomorrow’s to-do list.

In this episode, Adam Pearce chats with Peter Bollons, Head of eCommerce & Growth at Slick Gorilla, about how he runs a £12m+ eCommerce operation and seven-figure paid media budget without turning every decision into a six-week project.

Peter shares why he believes 80% is often enough, how he identifies the quickest commercial wins, what he ignores, and why trying to do everything perfectly is a very efficient way to burn yourself out.

This is not a conversation about doing less because you can't be bothered...

It is about doing the right things before the things you want to be perfect.

In this episode:

• Why perfectionism is often procrastination by another name
• The difference between high-impact work and looking-very-busy work
• How to make faster decisions without making reckless ones
• What Peter looks for as 30 day wins
• Why small commercial wins beat endless strategic navel-gazing
• Running a lean eCommerce operation without trying to become a human Swiss Army knife
• Delegating, trusting specialists and knowing what not to own
• How to spot whether AI, apps and dashboards are helping or just creating more admin
• Advice for founders who are permanently overwhelmed and never feel caught up

About the Guest

Peter Bollons is Head of eCommerce & Growth at Slick Gorilla, overseeing global eCommerce growth, £12m+ in annual online revenue and a seven-figure paid media budget.

Operating as a standalone eCommerce function (read team of one...in charge of all of that), Peter’s work spans commercial strategy, digital performance, customer experience and prioritisation – with a particular focus on getting the important work done before the “nice to have” work eats the week.

🔗 Slick Gorilla
https://slickgorilla.com

About the Host

Adam Pearce is Co-Founder of Blend Commerce and eCom Collab Club®. He hosts candid conversations with founders and operators building, fixing and growing modern eCommerce brands.

🔗 Blend Commerce
https://blendcommerce.com

🔗 eCom Collab Club®
https://ecomcollabclub.com

be honest... Are you currently tweaking something for the ninth time because launching it feels scary?

This episode is probably your sign to press publish.

🎧 Listen now on Spotify.

When people hear that Motherfungi® landed retail stockists within 21 days of launching, they tend to focus on the 21 days.

The more interesting part is everything that happened before them.

In this episode, Adam sits down with Georgie Gough, founder of Motherfungi®, to talk about the journey from burnout and anxiety to building a functional mushroom brand that's already making waves in the wellness space.

Before the launch came years of research, product development, learning, testing and preparing. The retail listings may have happened quickly, but the foundations were anything but.

This is a conversation about patience, conviction and what it really means to build a brand around a problem you've experienced yourself.

Along the way, Georgie shares the realities of launching in a crowded category, building credibility before customers exist, and why some of the biggest breakthroughs happen long before anyone notices.

In this episode:

• The personal story that inspired Motherfungi®

• How burnout led Georgie into the world of functional mushrooms

• Why she spent years researching before launching

• Building credibility in a growing wellness category

• The reality behind "overnight success"

• Securing retail listings in the early days

• The role of community, education and founder-led growth

• Lessons learned from launching a purpose-driven brand

• What comes next for Motherfungi®

About the Guest

Georgie Gough is the Founder of Motherfungi®, a functional mushroom brand created to help people support focus, energy and wellbeing naturally.

Following her own experience with burnout and anxiety, Georgie spent years researching the category and developing products before launching Motherfungi® in 2026.

🔗 Motherfungi® → https://motherfungi.co.uk

About the Host

Adam Pearce is Co-Founder of Blend Commerce and Founder of eCom Collab Club®, where he hosts conversations with founders, operators and industry leaders building the next generation of consumer brands.

🔗 Blend Commerce → https://blendcommerce.com

Most people will see the 21 days.

This episode is about the 3 years that made them possible.

🎧 Listen now.

Marketers love customer journeys.

Customers, unfortunately, have other ideas.

One minute they're discovering your brand on social media. The next they're reading reviews, comparing prices, checking Amazon, asking a friend, forgetting you exist for a month and then buying from a completely different channel.

Simple.

In this episode, Adam Pearce is joined by Jack Squire from Get Better and Chris Forbes, Co-Founder of Cheeky Panda, to talk about how customers really buy in 2026.

From trust and influence to affiliate marketing, customer feedback and the growing challenge of attribution, this is a conversation about the gap between the journeys brands design and the journeys customers actually take.

Along the way, Chris shares lessons from growing Cheeky Panda into an internationally recognised brand and why understanding customer behaviour has become more important than ever.

In this episode:

– Why customers rarely take the route brands expect

– The changing role of social media in discovery

– Why trust beats marketing messages

– The influence of reviews, affiliates and recommendations

– How customer journeys differ across DTC, Amazon and retail

– Why attribution is getting harder

– Finding the moments that genuinely influence buying decisions

– What brands can do to create better customer experiences

About the Guest

Chris Forbes is the Co-Founder of Cheeky Panda, a fast-growing sustainable household products brand helping consumers switch to bamboo alternatives.

Since launching, Cheeky Panda has expanded internationally and become one of the best-known challenger brands in the category.

🔗 Cheeky Panda → https://thecheekypanda.co.uk

About the Hosts

Adam Pearce is Co-Founder of Blend Commerce and eCom Collab Club®, helping helps Shopify brands improve conversion, customer experience and commercial performance.

Jack Squire is Growth & Partnerships Lead at Get Better, working with brands to understand customer behaviour, improve decision-making and identify opportunities to create better customer experiences with email marketing.

🔗 Blend Commerce → https://blendcommerce.com

🔗 Get Better → https://www.getbetter.co.uk

Most customer journeys don't look anything like the ones in your workshop.

And that's exactly why this conversation matters.

🎧 Listen now.

Running an eCommerce business sometimes feels like a monthly exercise in watching invoices arrive and your company account balance plummet.

– Your tech stack wants paying

– Your ad platforms want paying

– Your agencies want paying

And somehow you're still expected to grow.

In this episode, Adam sits down with Alex Webster, Co-Founder & Managing Director of Genie Drinks for an honest conversation about the financial realities of scaling a consumer brand.

From obsessing over marketplace rankings and wholesale stock levels to making decisions around pricing, bundling and customer acquisition, Alex shares how Genie approaches growth when every pound has a job to do.

Along the way they discuss:

• Marketing spend versus actual return
• The numbers founders should care about
• Pricing, bundling and conversion
• Balancing DTC, retail and wholesale channels
• The commercial realities behind growth
• Why sustainable growth beats vanity metrics

If you've ever looked at your P&L and thought, "Where did all my money go?" ... this episode will feel cathartic.

About the Guest

Alex Webster is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Genie Drinks, helping grow the brand from startup challenger to nationally distributed soft drinks business.

About the Host

Adam Pearce is Co-Founder of Blend Commerce and eCom Collab Club®, where he spends his time helping eCommerce brands grow profitably and asking founders the awkward questions everyone else avoids.

Most people agree that shopping sustainably is important.

The question is:

Do they care enough to change how they shop?

In this episode, Adam sits down with Delphine McNeill and Beth Pollak, founders of Livotte, for an honest conversation about what happens when sustainability collides with commercial reality.

From customer expectations and pricing pressures to manufacturing decisions and founder resilience, this isn't a discussion about what sustainability should be.

It's about what it looks like when you're trying to build a real business around it.

Delphine and Beth share the moments that made them question the fashion industry, the challenges of creating products responsibly, and why building a purpose-led brand can sometimes feel like swimming against the tide.

Along the way, the conversation explores whether consumers genuinely reward sustainable choices, how founders navigate difficult trade-offs, and what it takes to stay committed to a mission when the easier path is often the more profitable one.

This episode explores:

• Why sustainability remains one of fashion's biggest challenges
• The tension between values and commercial reality
• Consumer behaviour versus consumer intentions
• The realities of responsible sourcing and production
• Building a business around long-term thinking
• Founder resilience in difficult markets
• Why purpose alone isn't enough to build a successful brand

About the Guests

Delphine McNeill and Beth Pollak are the co-founders of Livotte, a fashion brand built around quality, longevity and more responsible production practices.

Through Livotte, they are challenging many of the assumptions that have shaped modern fashion consumption while building a business designed to stand the test of time.

🔗 Livotte → https://www.livotte.com

About the Host

Adam Pearce is Co-Founder of Blend Commerce and eCom Collab Club®, where he hosts conversations with founders, operators and industry leaders tackling the biggest opportunities and challenges in eCommerce.

🔗 Blend Commerce → https://blendcommerce.com

🔗 eCom Collab Club® → https://ecomcollabclub.com

The fashion industry isn't short of opinions on sustainability.

This conversation is about the reality.

Most eCommerce businesses still run on people manually moving information from one place to another.

Copying.Pasting.Updating.Chasing.

And somehow we’ve all accepted this as normal.

In this episode, Adam sits down with Simon Green, Co-Founder of Sprintr, to talk about where AI automation is actually changing eCommerce businesses — not just content generation, but the operational workflows quietly eating up time, money and brainpower behind the scenes.

This is less “AI thought leadership” and more:
👉 what should already be automated👉 what brands are still doing manually for no reason👉 and what happens when workflows start redesigning themselves around AI

If your current AI strategy is mostly “make this sound more professional”… this episode might cause a minor existential crisis.

In this episode:

• Why most brands approach AI backwards
• The operational workflows nobody talks about
• What “human middleware” actually means
• Tasks humans shouldn’t still be doing manually
• Where automation creates immediate impact
• AI and the future of team structure
• The first workflows Simon would automate inside a £10m Shopify brand

Links

Sprintr → https://sprintr.ai/Simon Green (LinkedIn) → https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-gr33n/Adam Pearce (LinkedIn) → https://www.linkedin.com/in/shopifyexpertadampearceBlend Commerce → https://blendcommerce.com

#aiautomationecommerce #shopifyaiworkflows #ecommerceautomation #aioperationsecommerce #workflowautomationshopify #ecommerceaitools #shopifyworkflowautomation #aiinecommerceoperations