Ecommerce Conversations

By Practical EcommerceBusiness

Ecommerce Conversations episodes

April 16, 2021 Home Gym Provider Overcomes Supply Disruptions, Thrives
Imagine selling home gym equipment online at the onset of the pandemic. Athletic clubs were closed. Consumers were stuck in their houses. According to Kaevon Khoozani, the founder of Canada-based Bells of Steel, the demand for weight-training equipment was “obscene.” “We ran into two giant hiccups,” Khoozani told me.
24 min
April 09, 2021 Online Onion Seller Rises from Domain-name Auction
Most entrepreneurs start with a business idea and then secure the domain name. Peter Askew does the opposite. He purchases domain names and then builds the business. Take VidaliaOnions.com, for example. Askew purchased the name in 2014. It's now a thriving farm-to-door seller of Vidalia onions.
30 min
April 02, 2021 3PL Founder: 'I'm in the Exceptions Management Business'
Jay Sauceda launched his ecommerce fulfillment company, Sauceda Industries, in 2013 in Austin, Texas. He says packing and shipping products is easy. What's difficult, he stated, is managing unforeseen events. "The shipping business is, essentially, the exceptions management business," he told me.
30 min
March 26, 2021 Lessons from Vine Influencers Elevate Feat Clothing
Having co-founded Feat Socks in 2015, Taylor Offer hired Aly Raisman, the gymnast, to design and promote a custom sock. It generated $500,000 in revenue. Influencer marketing was clearly effective, and Offer wanted more. "I started looking at the kids that got famous from Vine, the short-video app," he told me.
28 min
March 19, 2021 Drop Party Thrives with Turnkey Product Design, Testing
Marco Marandiz is a musician turned software engineer turned product designer. He's worked for Capital One, HomeAway, and a failed startup. But it was his ecommerce consulting work for companies with unproven inventory that sparked the idea for Drop Party.
29 min
March 12, 2021 Show-stopper Wedding Rings Drive Manly Bands
Johnathan Ruggiero and his wife Michelle founded Manly Bands, a direct-to-consumer online men's wedding-ring company, in 2016. To compete, their rings had to be unique — really unique. "We try to develop what we call show-stopper products," Johnathan told me. "People might say, 'You have dinosaur bones? That's crazy. You have meteorite? That's nuts.'"
28 min
March 05, 2021 Hollywood Actor, Director Finds Success on Amazon
Judson Morgan is a Los Angeles-based actor and director. He owns an agency that creates films and other visual content. He's also a successful ecommerce entrepreneur — with a purpose. He told me, "I have zero interest in making money off of a random product. I wanted to build a real brand that people could resonate with." That brand is Benevolence Los Angeles, an Amazon-focused gift boutique.
30 min
February 26, 2021 Tomlinson's Feed: Fresh and Relevant after 75 Years
Kate Knecht is the fourth-generation owner-operator of Tomlinson's Feed, a family-owned retail business with 16 brick-and-mortar locations in Central Texas. The company is 75 years old. Amid the pandemic and the onslaught of online behemoths, can such a business transition to 2021 consumers? I asked Knecht that question and more.
26 min
February 19, 2021 DTC Seller of Apple Watch Bands Soars from College Project
Braxton Manley was a sophomore at Texas Tech University in 2017 when he attended a workshop on entrepreneurship. The purpose was to conceive a product based on market research. "My idea was cool Apple Watch bands," Manley told me. Fast forward to 2021 and his company, Braxley Bands, is a direct-to-consumer seller of elastic, colorful bands.
29 min
February 12, 2021 Ridge Wallet Hits $50 Million with Influencer Marketing
Ridge wallets launched via a Kickstarter campaign in 2014. Sean Frank is the company's chief operating officer. Ultra-thin, metal-clad, with RFID protection, the wallets are enormously popular in the U.S., with $50 million in sales in 2020 alone. Influencer marketing has driven much of the growth.
31 min

About Ecommerce Conversations

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Ecommerce Conversations is the long-running weekly podcast from Practical Ecommerce, hosted by ecommerce entrepreneur Eric Bandholz.

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