Sean Stone advises ecommerce merchants to adopt a one-two punch for growth. Punch one is developing a profitable, branded website. Punch two is converting the likely spillover traffic on Amazon.

That tactic inspired the name of Sean’s latest agency, Spillover Commerce. He’s a longtime Amazon consultant who now says brands should focus on their own domains while selling Amazon-only items secondarily.

In this episode, he addresses one-two strategies, commodity goods, traffic sources, and more.

For an edited and condensed transcript with embedded audio, see: https://www.practicalecommerce.com/a-one-two-punch-drives-ecommerce-growth

For all condensed transcripts with audio, see: https://www.practicalecommerce.com/tag/podcasts

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Practical Ecommerce helps online merchants improve with expert articles, podcasts, and webinars. Founded in 2005, we're an independent publisher, unaffiliated with any ecommerce platform or provider. https://www.practicalecommerce.com 

Paolo Vidali has a suggestion for merchants looking to add advanced features to their ecommerce sites: Be careful. Focus first on profitability, he says, and solve the basics of product returns, customer service, and free shipping.

Paolo is a developer and marketer who launched Hidden Gears, an ecommerce agency, in 2014. It's now a Hawaii-based Shopify expert partner with a varied client base: wholesalers, physical retailers, and D2Cs. His second site, SuperBuilt, offers vetted developers for hire.

In this episode, he shares pointers for new and seasoned merchants, video tactics, inspirational sites, and more. 

For an edited and condensed transcript with embedded audio, see: https://www.practicalecommerce.com/nail-profit-before-site-extras-owner-says

For all condensed transcripts with audio, see: https://www.practicalecommerce.com/tag/podcasts

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Practical Ecommerce helps online merchants improve with expert articles, podcasts, and webinars. Founded in 2005, we're an independent publisher, unaffiliated with any ecommerce platform or provider. https://www.practicalecommerce.com 

Nate Lagos is a seasoned conversion rate optimizer, yet a recent A/B test surprised him.

A client used all caps in key landing page headlines. Nate, having read a tip on X, suggested they test headlines that capitalized only the first letter of each word.

The result? Conversions increased by 25%

Nate first appeared on the podcast in 2025, when he addressed Facebook ad performance. For this episode, he focuses on "bottoms-up" testing, audience targeting, and marketing male products to women.

For an edited and condensed transcript with embedded audio, see: https://www.practicalecommerce.com/avoid-all-caps-headlines-says-cro-pro

For all condensed transcripts with audio, see: https://www.practicalecommerce.com/tag/podcasts

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Practical Ecommerce helps online merchants improve with expert articles, podcasts, and webinars. Founded in 2005, we're an independent publisher, unaffiliated with any ecommerce platform or provider. https://www.practicalecommerce.com 

Thanks to companies such as Printful, an enterprising entrepreneur can select a product, upload an image to place on it, sync it with her ecommerce site, sell it, and then pay for it.

Print-on-demand is big business, and David Hooker is a prominent participant. He's the brand director at Printful and a long-time SaaS executive.

In this episode, he addresses POD pricing strategies, sales tactics, merchandising, and more. 

For an edited and condensed transcript with embedded audio, see: https://www.practicalecommerce.com/printful-exec-on-profitable-print-on-demand

For all condensed transcripts with audio, see: https://www.practicalecommerce.com/tag/podcasts

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Practical Ecommerce helps online merchants improve with expert articles, podcasts, and webinars. Founded in 2005, we're an independent publisher, unaffiliated with any ecommerce platform or provider. https://www.practicalecommerce.com 

The last few years have been rough for Beardbrand, the direct-to-consumer company that host Eric Bandholz founded over a decade ago. He says pretty much nothing has worked post-pandemic. The business is finally seeing revenue growth, but costs are rising too.

In this week's podcast episode, Eric departs from interviewing guests to share his own experiences at Beardbrand and his evolution to a more balanced life.

For an edited and condensed transcript with embedded audio, see: https://www.practicalecommerce.com/building-a-life-not-just-a-business

For all condensed transcripts with audio, see: https://www.practicalecommerce.com/tag/podcasts

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Practical Ecommerce helps online merchants improve with expert articles, podcasts, and webinars. Founded in 2005, we're an independent publisher, unaffiliated with any ecommerce platform or provider. https://www.practicalecommerce.com

In 2019 Dane Witbeck had a problem familiar to parents: What were his kids doing on their smartphones?

That problem became his motivation to launch Pinwheel, an Austin, Texas-based seller of Android phones with parental controls for apps, usage limits, monitoring, and more.

Fast forward to 2026, and Pinwheel is thriving and profitable. In this episode, Dane shares his company's production process, marketing tactics, economic model, and more.

For an edited and condensed transcript with embedded audio, see: https://www.practicalecommerce.com/pinwheel-ceo-on-selling-kid-safe-phones

For all condensed transcripts with audio, see: https://www.practicalecommerce.com/tag/podcasts

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Practical Ecommerce helps online merchants improve with expert articles, podcasts, and webinars. Founded in 2005, we're an independent publisher, unaffiliated with any ecommerce platform or provider. https://www.practicalecommerce.com 

Florence Morin is an artist-turned-engineer-turned-entrepreneur. She graduated from Canada's Polytechnique Montréal in 2013, only to realize she disliked engineering work. She longed to earn a living from making art.

Fast forward to 2026, and Florence Art & Drawing is her online art school, launched in 2020, selling classes and instruction. Her 10-person team includes web developers, instructors, and support staff.

In this episode, she shares her tactics for course content, customer acquisition, hiring, and more.

For an edited and condensed transcript with embedded audio, see: https://www.practicalecommerce.com/engineer-quits-launches-online-art-school

For all condensed transcripts with audio, see: https://www.practicalecommerce.com/tag/podcasts

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Practical Ecommerce helps online merchants improve with expert articles, podcasts, and webinars. Founded in 2005, we're an independent publisher, unaffiliated with any ecommerce platform or provider. https://www.practicalecommerce.com

For four years Eric Steckling has run two direct-to-consumer brands. Brio, the company he founded in 2014, sells beard trimmers and related goods. In 2022, he acquired Ollie, then a seller of teeth-whitening strips and now an expanded oral care provider.

Eric first appeared on the podcast in 2023. In this latest conversation, he addresses Brio's challenges of selling long-lasting goods, Ollie's opportunity with consumable items, and juggling the two.

For an edited and condensed transcript with embedded audio, see: https://www.practicalecommerce.com/2-bootstrapped-d2c-brands-1-ceo

For all condensed transcripts with audio, see: https://www.practicalecommerce.com/tag/podcasts

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Practical Ecommerce helps online merchants improve with expert articles, podcasts, and webinars. Founded in 2005, we're an independent publisher, unaffiliated with any ecommerce platform or provider. https://www.practicalecommerce.com 

Please enjoy this repeat of a popular episode first aired in April 2025.

Mehtab Bhogal is the co-founder of Karta Ventures, a Canada-based acquirer of troubled ecommerce businesses. The firm seeks companies with "issues," such as unpaid taxes, regulatory problems, and founder disputes.

He says buying distressed companies is like salvaging a crashed car. "What are the parts worth?" he asks.

In this episode, he addresses identifying hidden value, turnaround tactics, seller concerns, and more.

For an edited and condensed transcript with embedded audio, see: https://www.practicalecommerce.com/ecommerce-investor-on-turnaround-tactics

For all condensed transcripts with audio, see: https://www.practicalecommerce.com/tag/podcasts

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The mission of Practical Ecommerce is to help online merchants improve their businesses. We do this with expert articles, podcasts, and webinars. We are an independent publishing company founded in 2005 and unaffiliated with any ecommerce platform or provider. https://www.practicalecommerce.com 

When he appeared on this podcast in 2021, Bryan Mahoney had just co-founded Chord, an ecommerce platform that separated the public frontend from the nuts-and-bolts backend. It was a "headless" structure that enabled merchants to connect with their preferred external providers rather than a one-size-fits-all solution.

The problem, Bryan says in retrospect, was a complicated setup that required replatforming. What merchants wanted was his tools that consolidated data from external vendors for a holistic view across channels, customers, and more.

So he pivoted. In 2023 Chord became an ecommerce-focused data management company, no longer requiring customers to use its frontend layer.

In this episode, he explains the transition and the importance of data in an AI world.

For an edited and condensed transcript with embedded audio, see: https://www.practicalecommerce.com/chord-commerce-ceo-on-pivoting-to-data

For all condensed transcripts with audio, see: https://www.practicalecommerce.com/tag/podcasts

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Practical Ecommerce helps online merchants improve with expert articles, podcasts, and webinars. Founded in 2005, we're an independent publisher, unaffiliated with any ecommerce platform or provider. https://www.practicalecommerce.com