Own Your Commerce

Own Your Commerce

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Own Your Commerce episodes

  • Kurt Elster - Shopify pioneer on how to defeat the back button and turn visitors into customers

    Kurt Elster has been growing “unofficially” with Shopify since its infancy.

    In today’s episode, the host of the one and only Unofficial Shopify Podcast talks about how his entrepreneurial spirit took him on an unconventional path to ecommerce success — and over 1 million podcast downloads.

    He also covers how to ace key elements of the ecommerce experience that most stores struggle to get right, like positioning and CRO.

    In addition to the Unofficial Shopify Podcast, Kurt runs a consultancy, Ethercycle, that has helped dozens of SMB merchants excel on Shopify.

    Topics covered:

    • Kurt’s unconventional path to success in ecommerce 
  • The best ways to troubleshoot your online store
  • How to turn visitors into customers
  • The underused potential of copywriting
  • The power of positioning 
  • Black Friday messaging during COVID-19
    • Links and Resources 
    • theuserisdrunk.com
  • The Brain Audit by Sean D’Souza
  • Pit Viper Sunglasses
    • 53 min
  • Tommy Walker - Former Shopify Plus editor-in-chief on creating industry leading content
    Tommy Walker never really wanted to be a writer, but when his family was on the verge of homelessness he used the storytelling tricks he learned from years in acting and film to become a content marketing guru. In this episode, he shares those strategies with us — but chances are you’ve gotten advice from him before.
    As editor-in-chief at Shopify Plus, CXL, and Quickbooks, he led the creation of top-performing content that helped position those brands as leaders in their respective industries. Plus, he’s contributed to other online publications like Unbounce, Smashing Magazine, Crazyegg, and more. So if you work in ecommerce, you’ve probably read something Tommy helped produce. 
    You’ll learn:
    • Only invest in content with measurable outcomes
  • How to truly put yourself in your customers’ shoes and understand what they want
  • Bobbing and weaving: how to use startup agility to compete with the big guys
  • The importance of building out a weekly content calendar
  • How to use storytelling intrigue to break the mold
  • How Tommy used his acting background to break into ecommerce marketing
  • Writing: Practice makes perfect
    • Links and resources
    • Maryville University - 54% of readers trust blogs over brand 
  • Clearscope - Optimizing your content for SEO 
  • The Ultimate SEO Tutorial For 2020 by Backlinko - Basics of SEO
  • Andy Crestodina on Internal link building - SEO ranking hack
  • Screaming Frog - Mapping out links
  • Story by Robert McKee - Tommy Walker’s “storytelling tome”
  • Hooked by Nir Eyal - Silicon Valley thought leader
    • Brands mentioned
    • Beardbrand 
  • The Hundreds
  • Urban Outfitters
  • Zappos
  • Warby Parker
    • 58 min
  • Ben Jabbawy - Privy CEO on missed opportunities in email marketing

    Even though many stores count on their email list to drive sales and traffic, they probably put more time and money into social media ads than actively collecting email addresses. But if somebody visits their site and doesn’t buy anything or leave their email, they potentially wasted the money they spent getting them there in the first place. 

    Today, Privy co-founder and CEO Ben Jabbawy tells us about how he helps brands actively grow and leverage their list with simple but creative tactics for email gathering. Today, over 500,000 stores use Privy’s pop-ups and other software to gather emails and build money-making relationships with their audience. No matter how big you are, you could always do more to get emails from more people who visit your store. Give it a listen to learn how!

    Key topics discussed: 

    • The importance of growing your email list
  • Using tool with the same level as sophistication Facebook or Google uses for ad retargeting to collect emails or prevent cart abandonment
  • What's the difference between checkout abandonment and cart abandonment and why does it matter? 
  • Better ways to collect emails than the standard "here's 10% off" offer. 
  • There's so much more you can do with the emails you collect! Running ads against them on Facebook being a big one. 
  • Creative ways to connect with and convert your audience with emails and popups.
    • 45 min
  • Aaron Orendorff - Getting things (content, SEO and ecommerce strategy) that matter RIGHT

    Aaron Orendorff is the former Editor in Chief at Shopify Plus and one of the very best at understanding how to leverage content to grow an ecommerce brand. I learnt a ton during this conversation! 

    Aaron gives us tactical advice for the holidays, specifically around Amazon Prime Day. If you don't think Prime day affects you, you're wrong. Listen to the episode and you'll learn why. That's just the first 2 minutes though. Aaron does a brain dump on tactical things you can do RIGHT now to improve your online store. From SEO quick wins, to how you should use content, and NOT use content, and so much more.

    This is an episode you don't want to miss. 

    Some of the topics we discuss are:
    • Amazon has announced October 13th is Prime Day. Aaron covers exactly what you need to do to be ready! 
  • Not all emails are equal! Depending when you capture them makes a BIG difference. 
  • Are you using quizzes in your store? You probably should be! 
  • The three key reasons you need to invest in content as an ecommerce brand 
  • NEVER KILL YOUR SUPPORT ARTICLES. There's a good chance they might be the highest ranking pages for search. There's a better way to handle outdated articles.

    • Links / Resources 

    • Bamboo Earth - Great example of a quiz funnell (also does subscriptions)
  • Kongbox.com - Great example of a quiz funnell (also does subscriptions)
  • HeyGlowup.com - Great example of a quiz funnell (also does subscriptions)
  • Bold Options - Used for adding gift wrapping as an option to a select group of products, a specific collection, or every product in your store. 
  • Bold Upsell - Gift Wrapping as an upsell at checkout
  • Bold Motivator - Add gift wrapping as a free gift when customers spend a certain amount. 
  • Tracksmith - Example of an ecommerce brand that does content really well. 
  • Nuggs - Aaron's totally into these guys right now.
    • 56 min
  • Patrick Coddou - Supply.co founder shares lessons, learnings, and the journey of building a successful DTC brand.

    Patrick Coddou (co-founder of Supply.co) shares the inspiring journey, packed full of wisdom and insights on building a successful DTC brand. 

    From literally nothing, to now a very successful, well known and respected DTC brand, Patrick tells us some of the mistakes he made, some things he got right, and what he's working on right now to take the company even further. It's a conversation that won't just inspire you, it will give you actionable takeaways that you'll want to apply at your business today. 

    Some of the topics we discuss are:

    • Why work ethic is so important and how Pat can't stand ads for getting rich quick in ecommerce. 
  • What Patrick did to get customers and grow in Supply's early days, and what he's doing now to take it to the next level. 
  • "Jobs To Be Done" framework. What is it and why is it so important brands understand it and market accordingly. 
  • Shark Tank! Patrick at not one, but TWO offers on Shark Tank. 
    • 57 min
  • Greg Chapman - Getting tax right for ecommerce

    Taxes have become more and more complicated over the years and you'd be blown away by how much misconception and misinformation there is on how you need to collect and remit tax. 

    If you run an ecommerce store, you NEED to understand tax properly. On our show today we have Greg Chapman, the SVP of Business Development at Avalara, a leading tax compliance software platform for ecommerce brands. He discusses a few of the intricacies of the tax system, specifically for online retail. 

    This is an episode you shouldn't miss! As an online merchant, small or large, you need to understand tax and get it right. 

     

    Some of the topics we discuss are:

    • What exactly are online merchants responsible for collecting and remitting when it comes to taxes. 
  • Why are taxes so hard? Why don't merchants just use the tax settings built into ecommerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento etc. 
  • What is considered Physical Presence and Economic Nexus, how does it affect taxes, and what do stores need to understand about it.
  • What are tax considerations when you start selling internationally? 
  • What are some of the biggest mistakes merchants make when it comes to taxes that get them in the most trouble. 
    • 49 min
  • Chris Meade - Tactics used to fuel Crossnet's hyper growth

    If you've been to the beach lately, you might have seen what looks like two volleyball nets stitched together in a square. It's a game called Crossnet, it's like volleyball and four-square combined and it's taking the world by storm, growing like crazy! 

    Just a few short years ago though our guest, Chris Meade, and his co-founders had an idea with $10K they could scrounge together. This isn't just an inspirational story though. This is a story about the tactics used, specifically around social media and advertising to propel growth, and I mean GROWTH!! 

    Crossnet is shipping 500-1000 units a day and growing. They didn't just get there by having a great idea, they have been strategic every step of the way. 

    Get the notepad out! In this episode we'll dive into what exactly they did to fuel their insane growth.

     

    Some of the topics we discuss are:

    • Specific tactics to grow traffic by platform (Facebook, Instagram, Snap, LinkedIn etc) 
  • How Crossnet collect and leverage email to drive traffic / sales 
  • How Crossnet leverages User Generated Content to the extreme to 10X engagement on social media
  • Crossnet has made mistakes along the way too, what can you learn from them
  • How referral marketing has played into their growth strategy
    • 40 min
  • Steve Weiss - How the biggest ecommerce brands are using social media to scale.

    There's often disconnect between creative and performance marketers when it comes to social media marketing. Figuring that out is just one of the things that helped Steve Weiss grow MuteSix from to over 200 people in just a few short years. 

    "If I could educate my creatives how to be more data driven and if I could educate my performance marketers how to be more creative I'd have a winning company. In a humble way, that's how we started" 

    In this episode we chat about some of the latest trends in social media marketing and tactics specifically for ecommerce. 

    In this episode we discuss: 
    • What are some of the biggest ecommerce brands doing to leverage social media 
  • What's the deal with TicTok? How are ecommerce brands using it and is it worth investing time into? 
  • What would Steve do if he ran an online store and only had $1,000 to spend on social media marketing? 
  • What would Steve do if he ran that same store but had $100,000 to spend?  
  • What's the latest with influencer marketing? Does it still work? What about micro-influences?
    • Our guest: 

    Steve is a lifelong entrepreneur, marketer, and the Founder and CEO of MuteSix, an iProspect Company, and an award-winning, full-funnel digital and creative studio founded in 2014. He is responsible for the overall vision, strategic leadership, service delivery, culture, and growth of the creative agency that has generated over a billion dollars in trackable revenue for its clients. 

    Under Steve’s direction, MuteSix has earned the distinction of most awarded Facebook social advertising agency, with more Facebook & Instagram marketing case studies than any other agency. MuteSix has grown into a comprehensive and integrated global marketing agency with prominent clients across all major industry B2B/B2C sectors, including leading brands in retail, e-commerce, luxury, nonprofit, technology, sports, publishing, and financial services. 

    Steve is a frequent speaker at paramount industry events and serves as a regular commentator on ad-tech topics and trends as they relate to the digital advertising ecosystem.

    35 min
  • Patrick Campbell - Why understanding Churn, LTV & Value Based Pricing is crucial to your store's success.

    Patrick Campbell (Profitwell CEO) joins us to discuss some of the metrics every ecommerce store owner should be calculating, should understand, and should monitor. 

    What is value based pricing? How do you calculate the LTV (LifeTime Value) of your customers? Why do people still calculate churn wrong? These are all things ecommerce merchants should be intimately familiar with, even more so if you run a subscription ecommerce business.

    Some of the items discussed: 

    • What is value based pricing, and how should ecommerce merchants think about it? 
  • How should you calculate churn and LTV? 
  • Why do customers really churn, or cancel subscriptions? 
  • Free trials, try before you buy, freemium, annual vs monthly billing... How does a store decide the best approach to all these options?
    • 52 min

About Own Your Commerce

From the publisher's feed

For savvy ecommerce store owners looking to scale your business, learn actionable tactics to grow sales, stay ahead of the trends, and be a part of the conversation driving ecommerce forward, this is your show.