The Ecomcrew Ecommerce Podcast

In this episode, Mike delves into subscription boxes and why it's an effective business model, featuring special guests Paul Chambers and Chris George of SUBTA.

From food items to lifestyle products, subscription boxes have become quite the trend in ecommerce the past few years.

Chris George and Paul Chambers got their start in ecommerce with Gentleman's Box, a subscription service for men's lifestyle products that they started in 2014.

In 2020, they exited the business and co-founded Subscription Trade Association or SUBTA, with a third partner, John Haji.

SUBTA aims to foster a sense of community among entrepreneurs in the subscription industry and promote healthy competition in this space.

From their humble beginnings with Gentleman's Box to the founding of SUBTA, here are the highlights from our conversation:

Timestamps:

• Intro - 0:25
• History of Gentleman's Box - 3:50
• Dynamics of creating subscription boxes - 7:50
• Production cycle of these boxes - 10:33
• Factors to consider if you want to get into subscription boxes - 15:00
• Finding your audience - 19:15
• Exiting Gentleman's Box - 22:23
• Recent news in the subscription box space - 28:20
• About SubSummit - 29:055

Chris and Paul, thank you so much for taking the time to be on the podcast and sharing your story with us.

For anyone interested in going into subscription, SUBTA will be having its annual SubSummit on June 1-3, 2022 in Orlando, Florida. Head on over to the SubSummit website for more details.

If you want to learn more about the subscription industry, SUBTA has free and premium plans where you can get access to educational resources. Click here to learn more.

As per usual, feel free to leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoy our podcast. Happy selling and we'll see you in the next one!

In this episode, Mike is joined by Spencer Jan of Solo Stove to talk about the evolution of ecommerce through the years and how innovation drives it forward.

After hearing him speak at eCommerceFuel Live last March, I invited Spencer Jan to be on the podcast to expound on a particular point in his presentation that struck me the most: innovation.

Spencer is the co-founder of Solo Stove, a company he started way back in 2010 in a garage. After exiting the business, he is now focused on helping other entrepreneurs build their own brands through informative content.

During our quick conversation, Spencer and I were able to cover a bit more ground about his journey and thoughts on the future of ecommerce. Here are the highlights from the episode:

Timestamps:

• Intro - 0:00
• Spencer's early years in ecommerce - 3:36
• Choosing to focus on Solo Stove - 7:50
• The 'dopamine hit' of starting something new - 11:40
• Keeping up with the times - 13:53
• Innovation as a force in ecommerce - 15:31
• How ecommerce has evolved since he started - 20:08
• Differentiating yourself from the competition - 26:13

Thank you so much for coming on the podcast, Spencer. I hope to see you at Sellers Summit. If you guys want ecommerce-related videos, make sure to check out Spencer's YouTube channel.

Don't forget to leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoy our podcast. Happy selling and we'll see you in the next one!

For this episode of Under The Hood, Mike gives advice to Lisa Guenst–dental hygienist and owner of ToothShower, an innovative dental water flosser–on how to boost sales and get a business ready for selling.

Over two decades of working as a dental hygienist, Lisa Guenst noticed how a lot of patients she encountered hated using string floss.

However, part of her profession is advocating for oral health, so as an alternative to help prevent gum disease, she always suggested using a water flosser instead.

While she did see significant improvement in her patients, they did complain that most water flossers were cumbersome and quite messy to use.

This was the impetus behind Lisa creating ToothShower, a water flosser that is powered by your own shower – no need for batteries or for plugging into an outlet.

After launching a Kickstarter campaign in 2017, the company and its flagship product (now with an impressive range of accessories) have become quite the lucrative business.

Pre-Covid, ToothShower had been selling exclusively on its website. It wasn't until the pandemic that ToothShower transitioned to being an Amazon business.

Thus, Lisa sought our help on how to navigate the unique challenges that come with being an FBA business, especially for a product that's as disruptive as ToothShower.

From refining your Amazon listing to optimizing SEO, I guide Lisa in increasing her sales and getting her business ready for selling when she decides to exit down the line.

That's it for this week's podcast. If you want to be featured in our next Under The Hood episode and get advice from us firsthand, fill out this form and we'll check it out.

Also, don't forget to leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoy our podcast. Happy selling and we'll see you in the next one!

Welcome to the podcast edition of Brand Report! In this series, we share with you our revenue across all our brands every month, so you can see what we did wrong and what we did right.

In February, we raked in a total of $621,816, compared to March's revenue numbers, where we broke past the $700,000 barrier. IceWraps continues the upward trend in sales, but one thing remains to be a source of difficulty: logistics.

All in all, several factors played into this outcome, but the increase in freight rates continues to be a headache.

That's it for our Brand Report for March 2022. While we're certainly hoping for better days, March was definitely the best so far.

If you want to see a more detailed and comprehensive breakdown of our revenue numbers for the past few months, check out the blog post up on our website.

Don't forget to leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoy our podcast. Tune in next month for our April Brand Report. Till then, happy selling and we'll see you in the next one!

A lot has happened since the big announcement about Knitting.com. It went viral, but not for the right reasons. In this episode, Mike and Dave set the record straight.

Shortly after we released the blog post and podcast about Knitting.com, we got into hot water with members of the knitting community.

While we've gotten some pretty harsh comments, we've also received helpful advice from knitters that we will definitely implement as we grow this business.

Looking back, we realized that there were certainly points we could've articulated better, but there's no point in dwelling in the past.

In this podcast, we hope to shed light on our business plan and hopefully, clarify some details.

Timestamps:

• Intro - 0:00
• What happened after we announced Knitting.com - 0:38
• How our message was interpreted - 3:26
• What we could've done better - 7:03
• The significance of local yarn stores in the knitting community - 10:57
• Our approach to Knitting.com - 12:47
• The business plan - 17:45
• Our goals for the business - 25:11
• What we've been up to lately - 30:12
• The impact we hope to make with Knitting.com - 31:53

When we launch Knitting.com later this year, we hope to put out a content website and a lineup of quality products that hopefully novice knitters will find useful and beneficial.

That's it for this week's episode. Feel free to leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoy our podcast. Happy selling and we'll see you in the next one!

Mike is joined by Carlos Alvarez, an elementary school dropout who, years later, would exit a business for 2.6 million dollars.

This week on the podcast, we have the founder of Wizards of Ecom, Carlos Alvarez. If there's one thing Carlos and I have in common, it's that we've beaten the odds. As school dropouts, we're not expected to succeed in life. But after a few years of grit and hard work, here we are.

Carlos has quite the story to share with us today, from dropping out of school at the age of 10 and getting scammed by a non-existent Alibaba supplier to exiting a business selling insects and founding a successful ecommerce academy. Needless to say, his journey is quite the ride.

Audio Timestamps:

• Intro - 0:00
• Hustling at a young age - 4:00
• The importance of education - 8:35
• "Touching the stove" and learning from it - 10:23
• Staying ahead of the curve - 14:16
• Saving for a rainy day - 16:57
• Finding motivation to keep going - 22:32
• Work-life balance and burnout - 25:36

That's it for this week's episode. Carlos, thank you so much for coming on the show and telling us a little bit about your incredible story. I hope to have you again here in the future.

In the meantime, tune in to the latest episode of the Wizards of Ecom podcast featuring yours truly, which comes out on the 28th.

Don't forget to leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoy our podcast. Happy selling and we'll see you in the next one!

Welcome to the podcast edition of our February Brand Report! Each month, we'll break down our monthly revenue so you can see what's working and what's not.

February's revenue was $621,816, which is roughly equal to that of January, and we dive into what exactly affected our revenue: what we worked on, our wins, and our painful losses. Dive into each section here:

• Intro - 0:00
• Impact of increasing shipping rates on sales - 1:45
• Finding a middle ground to keep your business sustainable - 4:47
• Raising prices to compensate for higher shipping costs - 7:40
• Disruptions due to global events - 9:18
• Pros and cons of Amazon Global Logistics - 10:05
• Hybrid shipping style - 13:20
• Brand Report proper - 14:25
• Using BSR to gauge impact of price changes - 16:15
• Working with influencers - 18:20
• Things that went well in February - 22:00
• Things that didn't go as well - 24:00

That's it for our Brand Report for February. If you want to see a more detailed and comprehensive breakdown of our check out the blogpost up on our website.

Don't forget to leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoy our podcast. Tune in next month for our March Brand Report. Till then, happy selling and we'll see you in the next one!

Mike and Dave discuss quite the polarizing topic: cryptocurrency – and how it might revolutionize the financial industry in the future.

Our topic for today is not totally in line with ecommerce, but a bunch of you guys requested it so here we are: Ecomcrew's one and only episode on cryptocurrency.

The subject is especially interesting since Dave and I aren't exactly on the same team when it comes to this one, even though we both have experience investing in it.

For this episode, we break down some of the ambiguities surrounding cryptocurrency, how we think it'll impact the business landscape, and whether or not it's worth investing in.

Although, just a quick disclaimer: this episode is not, in any way, us giving financial advice; rather, simply our two cents on the matter at hand.

Timestamps:

• Using cryptocurrency to buy domains - 2:13
• A gray area in sales taxation - 4:45
• Mike's investment in cryptocurrency - 10:18
• Dave's qualms about cryptocurrency - 19:55
• How the Internet changed and disrupted businesses - 24:54
• Day trading cryptocurrency - 30:57
• Investing in Bitcoin - 38:08
• The importance of timing in investment - 44:54

Whether or not you choose to invest in cryptocurrency, just remember to never put all your eggs in one basket. After all, risk is part of being in business.

That's it for this week's episode. Feel free to leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoy our content. Happy selling and we'll see you in the next one!

Mike is joined by Mediavine's Eric Hochberger to talk about how enhanced privacy and data protection is affecting ecommerce and the future of advertising.

Consumers are becoming more wary and on edge about online security and keeping their data safe. Developers address this concern by doubling down on data privacy and limiting ads, albeit, at the expense of businesses' efforts to reach potential customers.

In this episode, I talk to Eric Hochberger, who runs the ad management company Mediavine, about how these changes and consumer concerns will impact profit and shape the direction of advertising.

Audio Timestamps:

• Intro - 0:00
• Eric Hochberger's background in the industry - 2:07
• What Mediavine does - 3:04
• Alarm Grid - 3:55
• Repercussions of enhanced privacy on businesses - 5:34
• A common misconception of consumers regarding privacy - 7:58
• Curating ads based on users' interest - 10:52
• Possible impact on monetization - 14:48
• Amazon and Facebook advertising - 17:14
• Staying nimble and adapting to the market - 20:06
• Trellis by Mediavine - 23:54

Thank you for coming on the podcast, Eric. If you're planning to get a website running or already have an existing one that needs an update, check out Trellis by Mediavine. It's a WordPress framework optimized for speed, which I tested out myself and can vouch for.

If you'd like to try out Trellis for yourself, Eric and the Mediavine team have been gracious enough to offer a discount for all Ecomcrew listeners. Use the coupon code SAVE20TRELLIS for 20% off your first year of Trellis.

In other news, we've got a Secret Sauce webinar coming up on the 16th. This month's mini class is all about making incremental product improvements for big returns. Check out the linked page for more information about the latest course and the topics that we'll be covering.

That's it for this week's EcomCrew Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, show us some love by leaving a review over on iTunes. Happy selling and we'll see you in the next one!

The inspiration for a business can strike at any time. For Hasan Hasmani, CEO of Underdog Games, the big idea came to him during a meeting with a client. After several years of selling other people's board games, that fateful conversation would eventually lead him to running a company and developing his own.

For non-essential goods such as board games, capturing a market can be difficult. But with the right idea and execution, you can find a loyal community and eventually run a sustainable and scalable business.

Audio Timestamps:

• Intro - 0:00
• Hasan's trek through ecommerce - 2:05
• The lightbulb moment for Underdog Games - 3:15
• How Underdog develops its board games - 9:10
• Facebook advertising troubles - 10:43
• LTVs and profit margins in the board game niche - 12:00
• Ecomcrew Premium Waitlist is Open! - 13:38
• Creating products with the audience in mind - 14:35
• Hasan's current strategy with paid advertising - 16:06
• The 18 month development cycle in board games - 16:33
• Candid feedback and creativity - 19:13
• Investment costs - 22:07
• Ranking and sale trends - 23:51
• How Mike deals with a seasonal business - 27:02
• Hasan's focal point after FB ad troubles - 29:15
• Why finding the right niche is more important than ever - 31:15
• Hasan's advice for starting an ecommerce business - 33:51 | 34:53 | 36:30
• Outro - 37:50

Hasan, thank you so much for your time. If you have any questions for Hasan and his company, simply fill out the contact form on the Underdog Games website and his team will relay it to him accordingly.

Ready to build your own company like Hasan and Underdog Games? We have a brand new edition of Secret Sauce and this month's class on the 16th, we'll be discussing how to make improvements on your products for competitive advantage.

That's it for this week's EcomCrew Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to leave us a review over on iTunes. Happy selling and we'll see you in the next one!