eCommerce Evolution

Andrew Youderian is a bit of a legend. Podcaster, investor, former eCommerce store operator, and now founder of the premier online community for 7 and 8 figure eCommerce store owners - Ecommerce Fuel. That’s why I’m super pumped to have him on the show this week to talk predictions for the rest of 2021!

In this episode, we put on our Nostradamus hats and try to predict what we might see more of this year. I focus a little more on the ad and marketing space as it relates to eCommerce. Andrew focuses his predictions more on eCommerce as a whole, plus a few macroeconomic predictions.  

Hopefully, you find this fun and entertaining, and helpful. Even if we end up being dead wrong about our predictions, I think you’ll find some interesting nuggets here.

How does potty talk on Instagram lead to a thriving eComm brand and a world-class influencer marketing program? Normally it doesn’t, but Adi Arezzini isn’t your typical eCommerce entrepreneur.  

Few companies run influencer marketing as successfully as Adi Arezzini.  And few people understand what it takes to build a brand and a community like Adi.  What started as discussions on Instagram about gut and bowel health transformed into a thoroughly engaged community and a brand that’s growing by leaps and bounds.  

Everyone says they want to build a brand.  Few know what that means.  Even fewer are willing to do what it takes. In this episode Adi and I break down her step-by-step approach to influencer marketing + brand and community building.  

Here’s a quick look at what we discuss: 

• How to find influencers with REAL influence
• How influencer marketing help Adi land in UltaHow to use a spreadsheet to build your first influencer lists
• The difference between IG and YT influencers
• How to leave nothing to chance and help influencers feel like you’re rooting for them and helping them succeed
• When to pay fees for influencers vs. when to pay commissions
• Tools to tracking and making influencer marketing easy
• How spreadsheets can be your secret weapon when getting started with influencer marketing
• Plus more!

Once upon a time you could source any old product you wanted from Alibaba, slap your name on it, throw up a listing on Amazon, and presto!  Instant sales.  I personally know several people who sold 7-figures + per year doing this.  Well….those days are over.  Everyone I know who ran that kind of business is either 1. Out of business or 2. Had to make a hard pivot.  

To succeed on Amazon now you need to build a brand.  You need products that delight customers and serve a unique purpose.  You need listings that clearly communicate your brand difference and value proposition.  And you need to work on driving rankings the right way.  

My guest today is Emma Schermer Tamir - Co-founder of Marketing by Emma.  We talk about how listing optimization on Amazon has shifted in recent years and how brand building now plays a major role in your success on Amazon.  Here’s a look at what we discuss:

• From brand registry to making customers happy, to Google traffic - why building a brand makes sense.
• Spammy product titles or more pleasing to the eye titles - what works and what doesn’t when crafting the perfect title
• Why skimmability should be one of your primary goals when writing bullet points and descriptions
• How proper listing optimization on Amazon can possibly lead to more traffic from Google
• What great brands can teach us about A+ content, product differentiation, and breaking through the noise on Amazon. 

Few eComm and wholesale businesses reach the heights that VHC Brands has reached under the leadership of Ken Kline.  You’ve maybe seen their home decor products in big retailers like Home Depot, Bed Bath and Beyond or online at Wayfair, Amazon and many more.   

Also, few eComm businesses have faced the setbacks that Ken and team have faced.  From a fire that completely destroyed their inventory in the mid 2000s to COVID wrecking their in-store retail plans in 2020 - they’ve faced some crazy times and come out stronger.  

Here’s a look at what we cover.

• Why over communicating is the secret to vendor, investor and employee relationships.
• How they overcame a warehouse fire that likely would have destroyed most businesses (Plus the story of Ken’s Winston Churchill painting that miraculously survived the fire). 
• How to relay your road map to your team, make adjustments and celebrate along the way (even when things are bleak).
• How to take initiative to help your retail partners in selling more of your stuff.
• How to inspire and empower your team when challenging times hit.

Jared Mitchell has a unique perspective on the eCommerce industry.  He and his wife, Alana, run two eCommerce sites - skincarebyalana.com and alanamitchell.com.  He’s also the lead eCommerce consultant for Neil Patel and he runs an eCommerce training group at beefysites.com.  This guy has forgotten more good eCommerce ideas than most will ever learn.   

Jared is also a close friend and he’s my surfing mentor.  We do take a very brief detour to talk surfing on this episode, but mostly we talk about overlooked growth ideas!

Here’s a look at what we explore on the podcast:

• How to NOT be a one-trick pony.  And many, many successful eCommerce businesses are far too reliant on just one traffic source or one product.
• Why Jared recommends at least 10 sources of sales and what channels make his top 10 list.
• Push notifications - how and why they work and why you shouldn’t over-think them
• Phone sales - customers who buy over the phone often have twice the average order value of other buyers.  
• Postcards - how Jared and Alana sold almost $30,000 worth of product on a simple and cheap postcard.
• Live video - what to share in a live video, how to broadcast your video, and how to repurpose your video once it’s complete.

Cyber 5 Recap

While holiday shopping is still in full swing at the time of this writing, we do have some preliminary numbers for the Cyber 5 2020 (Thanksgiving Thursday–Cyber Monday) and an early look at how Holiday 2020 as a whole is shaping up.  Here are five key observations, so far, for Holiday 2020.  

1. We’re breaking every eCommerce record and it’s not even close.  No surprise here, but this year marks a record for online sales for Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the entire Thanksgiving weekend. Adobe Analytics was predicting two years’ worth of growth being packed into this Holiday Shopping season.  So far, we’re on track.     
2. It’s less about a single day, and more about the weekend.  This has been the trend for the last few years where retailers and shoppers alike view the Cyber 5 as one big event rather than just the individual days of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Cyber Monday is still the largest single day, with Black Friday coming in second place.  However, Saturday, now dubbed Small Business Saturday, isn’t far behind. In fact, Black Friday this year was only 8% larger in total sales than Small Business Saturday.  Here’s a quick look at how the Cyber 5 performed.  A lot of this growth has come at the expense of in-store shopping.  CNBC estimates that Black Friday in-store traffic was down 52% year over year, while curbside pickup is up 52%.

Day

Total Sales

YoY Growth 

Thanksgiving (11/26/20)

$5.1B

21.5%

Black Friday (11/27/20)

$9.03B

21.6%

Small Business Saturday (11/28/20)

$4.68B

30.19%

Cyber Monday (11/30/20)

$10.84B

15.1%

1. Shipaggedon is real.  I first heard this term on one of my favorite podcasts—the Jason and Scot Show (Episode 245). Basically, it’s the idea that delivery networks were already strained due to the pandemic-induced boom in online shopping before the holiday rush.  Now, with a record-breaking holiday season on top of a strained system, something has to give.  It’s no joke, and it will be interesting to see how it impacts the rest of the holiday shopping.  Both UPS and FedEx have recently announced they are cutting some retailers off from being able to ship more packages. This will likely mean early cut offs for guaranteed delivery before Christmas.  It could also mean a lot of packages just won’t make it in time for Christmas morning.   
2. Costs are up, but performance is up more.  As a digital advertising agency working with some up-and-coming eCommerce brands, we get an inside look into both ad spend and performance across Google Ads, YouTube Ads and Amazon Ads.  While numbers aren’t finalized yet, we are seeing that costs have indeed gone up from last year, but conversion rates have gone up even more creating really nice year-over-year growth in total sales and total ad performance.  Early analysis shows that CPCs are up nearly 20% year-over-year, but conversion rates are up over 50%.   

Predictions for the remainder of the holiday shopping season.  With more cities across the US seeing surges in new cases of COVID-19, it’s unlikely to see a material shift from online shopping back to in-store shopping.  We should see this record breaking pace continue for the rest of the holiday season.  The wildcard is shipaggedon.  My prediction is that we’ll see a fair number of digital gift cards purchased and printed off, as well as pictures of gifts that are in transit, but won’t be under the Christmas tree.  Online shopping likely won’t slow down too much. Fingers crossed that shipaggedon won’t be as bad as we’re expecting. 

Colby Bauer has personality.  He’s a half-pipe skating, snowboarding, former collegiate athlete who turned a simple idea into a thriving eComm business.  He and his wife McKenzie started Thread Wallets with just a single product idea.  Simple, functional, minimalist wallets with personality.  That initial product took off and Thread quickly grew into a team of 22 that now boasts an expanding product line including lanyards, phone cases, and more.

While there’s a lot to be impressed about with Colby and McKenzie, and their team I really wanted to key in on Thread’s culture and the unique steps they took to grow.  I think you’ll find a ton of good lessons here:

• How the key to scale might be engaging in activities that DON’T scale
• How financial intelligence (or lack thereof) can make or break startups
• How to hire for culture first and is the “hire slow, fire fast” mantra really the way to go
• How installing a half-pipe at the office lead to a fight amongst the thread founders, but lead to mental health as a focus for the company
• A good CEO is a non-busy CEO…what does this mean and how is it the key to effectiveness

Conversational commerce.  What is it?  Basically, it’s taking the in-person shopping experience of asking questions and talking to retail sales staff and moving it into multiple online channels seamlessly.  Today shoppers want to interact with you in a variety of ways and they want near-instant feedback.  Messenger.  SMS.  Chat.  Facebook comments.  Your customers expect you to be everywhere they are when they need you.  

In this interview, Phil and I talk about some of the foundations of conversational commerce - both strategies and tactics.  This will help guide all of your conversational commerce efforts. Here’s a quick look at what we discuss.  

• What components of conversational commerce should you consider?
• What impact can conversational commerce have on conversion rates?
• How to look at the dashboard and KPIs related to conversational commerce.
• How this impacts your paid acquisition efforts.
• Lots of real-world examples
• Plus more

Very little about 2020 has been normal - including Prime Day.  This year’s Prime Day was in October vs. Amazon’s usual July time frame.  What did this mean for 2020 Prime Day vs. 2019 Prime Day?  Would this year’s Prime Day make the official launch of holiday sales? 

In this episode, I bring back OMG Commerce’s Amazon Director Chris Tyler to discuss what we noticed this year during Prime Day with our clients. 

Here’s a look at what we discuss:

• Total prime day sales grew 70% year-over-year in 2019 vs. 2018, but only grew 45% year-over-year in 2020 compared to 2019 (Statista report).  
• $3.5 billion of the estimated $10 billion in total sales on Prime Day were from 3rd party sellers, but the most popular item on Prime Day was Amazon’s deeply discounted Echo Dot.  
• What categories of products we saw perform the best for our OMG clients. 62% of Prime Day purchases this year were for gifts for someone else according to Digital Commerce 360.  
• Why we didn’t see as dramatic of a list for 2020 Prime Day vs. 2019 Prime Day, but sales immediately after prime day this year have been strong.
• The impact of Prime Day on Sponsored Brand Video Ads and overall ad performance
• Interesting Amazon DSP trends during Prime Day and since
• Plus more!

Khierstyn Ross is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to launching products on Kickstarter.  She’s experienced the highs of multiple 6-figure product launches, plus she’s endured the heartache of a launch gone bad.  She knows what to do and, just as importantly, what to avoid.

In this podcast, we talk about the keys to building a 6-figure crowd-funded product launch including:

• What products work best for a Kickstarter launch
• Why audience building is so important, how to do it, and why so many people underestimate it.
• What kind of targets to set for your first day of your Kickstarter launch
• What to consider when it comes to shipping
• Top mistakes to avoid
• How storytelling fuels crowd-funding launches

Plus more!