Ecommerce Pulse

Links and notes

• Shopify's Reunite recap blog article
• Causeway 305
• Envision.io

Topics covered in this episode:

How Ken and his family designed and manufactured a brand new product in the pet industry

Dealing with intellectual property issues for new products (like patents and trademarks)

How offering a more generous return policy actually correlated with a reduction in returns and more positive reviews

Scaling a new ecommerce business while continuing to work a regular job

Links mentioned on the show:

Shopify Entrepreneurs Facebook group

The Cost of Obtaining a Patent in the US

How to add a wholesale area to your store without an app

Shopafree

WheekyPets.com

Topics covered in this episode:

Differences between dropshipping and buying wholesale

Pros and cons of drop shipping and scenarios when you might want to try it

Tips to be successful with dropshipping

How the "free plus shipping" model works and things to consider before trying it

Pros and cons of buying wholesale

Tips for improving your packaging

What makes buying wholesale a better model than dropshipping

Growth hacks to help you improve your SEO by getting a few easy high-level backlinks

Links mentioned on the show:

Survival Knife Experts

Anton Method

Johnny FD / Blog about selling drop shipping store

Stock Sync

Oberlo

AliExpress

Strikingly

Profitable eCommerce

The Ultimate Guide to Dropshipping

Lumi

Packlane

Pakible

KWFinder

SEMrush

Get 15% off KWFinder

1 Password

Dashlane

Reddit

Shopify Apps

Shabbir began selling a product that brought in $5996.13 in revenue during the first 50 days. Leighton checks in with Shabbir to see how things are going a few months later.

Topics covered in this episode:

Some lessons that Shabbir has learned through this seeming “failure”

Any time an ecommerce venture doesn’t go how you wanted it to, it’s a disappointment and can be discouraging. Hear how Shabbir takes his experience to fine-tune what works for him and his current life circumstances.

Links mentioned on the show:

Sign up to be notified about my ecommerce coaching program

Making $5996.13 In 50 Days Selling On Amazon FBA

Original Podcast with Shabbir Nooruddin

Review Kick

The Amazing Seller

Fish Finder Source

Empire Flippers

Topics covered in this episode:

Nick D's work, writing, tips, and tools

Basics of A/B testing

How to interview your customers to learn what needs to change on your website

How to know when your business is ready for A/B testing

Most common UX and copy mistakes to watch out for

Common misconceptions about A/B testing

Links mentioned on the show:

Draft

Baymard Institute

ConversionXL

VWO (Visual Website Optimizer)

Cadence & Slang

Revise Weekly

Don’t Make Me Think

Interviewing Users

Make Money Online

Calendly

SaneBox

MailRoute

Slack

How to Hire a Part-Time Employee

Draft Evidence

Topics covered in this episode:

How to know when it’s the right time to hire a VA

What you should look for in a good VA and how to prepare for having one

Helpful tips in the hiring process and in managing a VA

Listener store critique – Suniela

Links mentioned on the show:

The 4-Hour Workweek

Upwork

Virtual Staff Finder

The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It 

OnlineJobs.ph

Zirtual

Asana

Slack

Google Docs

Help Scout

Todoist

Amazon Flex

Uber Rush

Postmates

Suniela

Ecommerce Entrepreneurs

OneTab

How many apps or services do you use for your online store that let you track the ROI on your investment in that app, down to the dollar?

Jordan Gal of CartHook.com joins me today for a discussion about abandoned cart recovery emails. By sending effective abandoned cart followup emails, you can significantly boost your store's revenue with your existing traffic, and you can see exactly how much these emails are increasing your store's revenue.

Topics covered in this episode:

How to get as much revenue as possible from the money you're already putting into driving traffic to your site

Factors that have an impact on abandoned cart conversions

How much of a difference abandoned cart software will make on your conversion rate

Jordan’s recommended abandoned cart campaign to buyers and why it works

Should you use discount codes to get people to come back to an abandoned cart? If so, when?

What to consider when choosing an abandoned cart followup service

Jordan’s new app that allows you to customize and optimize your Shopify checkout page to improve conversions

Links mentioned on the show:

CartHook

Klaviyo

AbandonAid

Rejoiner

Bluecore

One page checkout for Shopify

CloudFlare

Slack

Help Scout

Intercom

My Notebook

Trello

Pomodoro

Calendly

Snagit

Joe Rogan Podcast

Tim Ferriss Podcast

Zero to Scale

Startups for the Rest of Us

Hardcore History 

Bootstrapped Web

Carthook Podcast

Jordan Gal on Twitter

Mojca Mars is a social media consultant who really knows her stuff, and today she shares her best strategies and tricks for making the most of Facebook. Mojca shares the secrets behind how to know when you should boost a Facebook post, why you should post valuable content directly within Facebook (rather than making someone click on a link), the next big social media platform you should get in on early, and why using tools like Hootsuite or Buffer can actually hurt your social media efforts.

Links mentioned on the show:

Mojca’s blog post on Facebook Lead Ads: Everything you should know about Facebook’s Lead Ads before you get started

Snapchat

Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook

The Buffer Blog

Social Media Examiner

@MojcaMars

Super Spicy Media's Facebook page

[email protected]

Mojca's free email course on Facebook ads

Casandra Campbell is the managing editor of the Shopify blog, so she's got serious chops when it comes to content marketing. Shopify's content team publishes at least 5 blog posts a week on the main Shopify blog, and this content marketing plays a huge role in driving new visitors to Shopify.

Casandra has also worked as a holistic marketing consultant in the past, and she is a cofounder of Liberty Village Brewing Company, a craft brewer in Toronto.

Here's an overview of the topics we discuss on the show:

How long should you plan on doing content marketing to see results?

How often should you publish blog posts?

After you publish great content, how can you promote it to drive traffic?

When reaching out to influencers, how can you make it more likely that they’ll read your email pitch and share your content?

Why do most ecommerce store blogs flounder, and how can you make one that really engages your audience and drives lots of traffic?

How Casandra works her job at Shopify while also running a brewing company on the side with her friends

The tools and techniques she uses to collaborate and run the brewing business

Waking up naturally—why it’s one of the biggest positive changes Casandra’s made in her life

Links mentioned on the show:

Shopify blog

Shopify Masters

TGIM

Liberty Village Brewing Company

Drive by Daniel Pink (affiliate link)

Smart Passive Income

LastPass

BuzzSumo

Google Drive

@Casandra_Camp