Ecommerce Excellence

You got into business for yourself to gain freedom and enjoy life. But then you get busy… and it never ends. It is possible to travel or do whatever else brings you joy, while still running a profitable ecommerce business, says Bas Urlings. In today’s connected world it’s easier than ever.

Sometimes, life takes you on a journey and you end up where you need to be. This is exactly what happened with today’s guest, David Hoffman— who started off in retail, selling consumer electronics and is now the current CEO of Global Regency, an international trade powerhouse.

Sometimes a business is more than just a business… even more than simply something you’re passionate about. Leon Lewis, eCommerce and digital marketing lead, and the other folks at REBBL which creates herb-infused beverages, consider themselves to be on a cause to bring awareness about human trafficking and uplift at-risk communities around the world.

Marketing on Facebook can be a gamechanger for eCommerce companies. But, says eCommerce consultant and blogger Linda Bustos, it can also be a waste of time and money if not done correctly. We talk about how you can leverage all the capabilities Facebook offers to laser target your ideal customers, and why you do have to spend a bit to actually see results.

Ian Hammersley, of consultancy Smartebusiness, has never met you but if your eCommerce business has plateaued or is not scaling up as you expected… he already has some ideas on why. He and his colleagues have come up with a formula, using a group of key numbers from your business, that can pinpoint where to make changes to take your venture to the next level.

When you’re starting to sell products online, you might wonder whether you should you sell on your own ecommerce or stick with more established “brand name” retail platforms that have a wide reach. Ecommerce veteran Luke Peters says the big marketplaces are the way to go for several reasons. But he often recommends that his clients avoid the biggest one – Amazon – and goes into detail why it’s not a great fit for many startups.

There are pure ecommerce companies, and then there are traditional retailers that moved online while still maintaining an offline presence. To be successful, these two groups should approach the business with very different strategies, says Tom De Bondt, director of IT and digital at Overstock Home and X2O in Belgium.

Adam Lean helps small businesses, especially eCommerce companies, sort out their financials, i.e. “their books,” to figure out what changes they can make to maximize their profits. Turns out a lot of entrepreneurs are leaving plenty of money on the table without realizing it. Or, they’re wondering where all the money goes at the end of each month, even though their sales are great.

Jason Goldberg has quite a resume: a member of the National Retail Federation’s digital advisory board, Guest lecturer at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, chief eCommerce strategy officer at Publicis Group, a marketing agency holding company with hundreds of agencies, and much more.

Matthias Laqueur, business strategist with BossData, says many retailers who sell offline and online make a huge mistake when measuring the success of their digital efforts. This is one of the most impactful ways this digital marketing agency is able to help clients get a better handle on key business indicators to figure out which levers to pull to get better results, using technology to find the right tools for the job.

As an eCommerce company selling products across multiple online channels (for example, Amazon, your own site, eBay, etc.) with a single SKU there are several challenges, says Michael Anderson, CEO of Etail Solutions. You have to track inventory, account for different methods of fulfillment, maintain an effective supply chain, control the price, and have the correct content when each eCommerce platform has different rules and requirements.

As Editor-in-Chief at SaleCycle, Graham Charlton is part of the team that uses customer behavior and data on customers to help ecommerce sites to convert, retain or increase conversion rates. Graham says there is one part of the sales process in particular that poses the biggest challenge – and the biggest opportunity to increase conversion rates for their clients. Some of what he recommends is quite outside the box.

Rachel Johnson Greer, the founder of Cascadia Seller Solutions, is the perfect guide. She has helped more than 700 Amazon sellers boost their visibility and get more income. She is an Amazon seller herself – she even worked at Amazon for 12 years. She talks about strategies you must adopt to draw people to your product lists… and make the sale. There are a lot of misconceptions out there, says Rachel, that are sabotaging businesses – and the owners have no idea.

When you do business online, your most valuable commodity is… data. But all the data in the world doesn’t mean anything unless you know how to analyze and use it to boost your profits. And, of course, you need to know what data is important in the first place – and how to collect it.

Too many companies are focused on the “latest and greatest” Google Ad strategies… while forgetting about the basic tactics that will have a much bigger impact on their ROI. By doing so, Alex Fredheim, founder of Ascendancy Digital, was able to double the revenue one client got from their Google Ads campaign during their peak selling season. It’s not surprising. Ecommerce business owners might be good at what they do… but they’re not experts in niche techniques like Google Ads, so they are unsure how to gauge their agency’s performance.

In the ecommerce world, email marketing remains one of the most powerful revenue drivers. But many online retailers are losing out because their email strategy isn’t as powerful as it should be in some of the most important elements of generating profits. By focusing on email marketing strategy, Will Evans and his team at SellerFlows help clients increase lifetime value and average order value. When you get the same customers to buy again and again, you reduce your marketing costs and increase profits.

Many ecommerce entrepreneurs fall into a trap, says Bill D’Alessandro, CEO of Elements Brands. They think a high Google ranking is a good gauge for the health of the business. And that if a majority of their sales come through Amazon… that’s a good thing – a sale is a sale, right?

Ciaran Vipond’s ecommerce shop sells a very specific type of item, within the already specific niche of jewelry. We already know that purchases like this are a need… not a want. So, the product – and all the marketing – must appeal to emotions. For Ciaran’s product it’s nostalgia, pride, and a sense of belonging.

In our Digital Age, it’s tempting to digitize your ecommerce business’ customer service department as well. Award-winning speaker and author Shep Hyken contends that, when you take away the “human touch,” you’ll find you’ve lost a key element that keeps prospects from turning into customers and customers from becoming repeat customers… not to mention turning into raving fans that tell the world about you and bring in more business.

Too many entrepreneurs want all the bells and whistles for their ecommerce site… and the hottest digital marketing strategies to bring in traffic. But, says Arnout Hellemans, they often don’t get the results they expect… because they forgot to perfect the basic foundation of their site and marketing first.

Early in his eCommerce career, Scott Bintz was focused on more: more customers, more sales, more employees, etc. But, he says, it was only after he looked beyond those conventional measures of success that his company experienced exponential growth. We discuss the key changes he made to his company internally that brought those results. It wasn’t a simple matter of a new marketing strategy or tweaking the product line-up.

When Patrick Adair first started his ecommerce business selling custom jewelry rings made out of rare and exotic materials… he didn’t even have a website. He wanted to see if there was a market first, and he found it on Instagram. And from that beginning he was able to grow Patrick Adair Designs to the powerhouse it is today. But he’s moved beyond Instagram. First, to YouTube, where he attracted even more of a following. And now to another social network that he says has radically changed his marketing approach over the last year or so.

Despite being a successful ecommerce entrepreneur, Eric Bandholz doesn’t sell products. At least that’s how he thinks of his business, Beardbrand. Instead he believes he’s selling confidence and making his customers feel good about themselves by helping them keep their beard, hair, and body in good shape. That belief guides the company’s marketing and every business decision, from the manufacturers they work with to where they make their products available online. Eric talks about how he and his team started the company from scratch with a blog and YouTube channel and how many of the same strategies they used in their early days are still working today.

Thousands of customers… millions of dollars in revenue… are being lost to an insidious type of malware that is very widespread among ecommerce sites yet remains very little-known. It’s estimated that it hijacks 25% to 30% of customer sessions on ecommerce sites. Worse yet, says Tal Rotman, head of the partnerships and development team at Namogoo, most online businesses haven’t taken steps to prevent this threat from draining their profits. In fact, even if their security teams look for it… they won’t find it because this specialized-type of malware isn’t actually on their ecommerce site at all.

We turn the tables on host Joris Byron in this episode. Business consultant Steve Gordon grills him on the unorthodox ways he helps his client increase revenues in ecommerce businesses. For one, Joris says you don’t have to increase traffic. In fact, he says you can boost your profits with the traffic you have right now if you take certain steps. He outlines his data-driven approach that makes it possible. Of course, it’s not just about collecting data. Joris shares the right ways to collect that data… and then evaluate it so that you truly understand your customers and can take the right actions to get them to buy... and more often.

Buying an existing business can be a great way to kick-start your ecommerce career. But not so fast, says Randy Stocklin, co-founder and CEO of One Click, which has three eyewear brands online. He shares eight key factors to look for in a quality acquisition.

When Nathan Hirsch was running his first ecommerce ventures he thought he could go it alone. But when busy season kicked in and orders picked up… he knew he needed to hire an employee. But he made enough bad hires along the way that he was inspired to create Freeeup.com, a freelancer marketplace like no other. It specializes in connecting ecommerce companies with highly qualified remote workers quickly and efficiently.

Google has a tremendous power to transform your ecommerce business, admits Dennis Moons, who’s spent millions on the ad network. But it’s up to you to make sure they’re using that power in the right way and not taking too much control of your campaigns.

Emmanuel Eleyae grew an ecommerce business from nothing to $5.5 million in revenue in two years. Along the way, he made a lot of mistakes… but he also learned the most effective ways to reach his target market and effectively manage a growing business. These days, he also helps other entrepreneurs find success by including the three systems that are a must-have for any ecommerce business. Another key element: remembering that you’re selling benefits… not products.

It was a trip around the world that inspired Greg Finney to start his company 2Modern.com in the early days of ecommerce. He’s sold modern furniture and contemporary home décor – high-end, quality stuff – since 2003. He was breaking new ground; there was no roadmap to success. So he learned the business as he grew the business, letting it grow, as he puts it, organically.

Sam Gastro sold a gift card on eBay several years ago and made a few bucks. But that one transaction inspired an ecommerce business that today is in the seven figures. It’s a great example of seeing a problem in the market (that, in this case, nobody else had recognized), understanding the solution, and then seizing that opportunity. Since his startup days, Sam says a lot has changed in ecommerce… but a lot has stayed the same, too.

You can help people and improve the world with your business… while still making money. Edward Wimmer’s Road ID product has literally saved lives and has allowed him to build a solid ecommerce company that’s been running strong for nearly 20 years. Edward considers customers first with nearly every decision, and he says profits usually follow. A big part of that is the relationships he’s been able to form with his customers. It’s an essential part of how he’s able to compete with the big online retailers like Amazon.

Who hasn’t had a rough morning after a late night out? Sisun Lee, founder and CEO of More Labs, decided to do something about it with a drink that helps ease your hangover. And it’s backed by science, rigorously tested in the lab and among consumers in person and online, with plenty of feedback gathered to perfect the product. Along the way they went viral and More Labs went from 0 to $1 million in sales in their first few months. But soon they discovered that their product wasn’t what they thought it was… and their ideal target market was actually completely different.

What separates your ecommerce business from your competitors? A better product helps, of course. But, says Steven Sashen, ecommerce pioneer and co-founder and CEO of Xero Shoes, there’s another element that’s much more important. It has to do with how you interact with your audience in the age of the nameless, faceless Internet.

Many ecommerce entrepreneurs think that more traffic will solve all their problems. But, says Joris Byron, most are ignoring the actual issues in their business holding them back. Joris has developed a scientific, data-driven method for unraveling those choke-points – he calls them conversion killers – and then developing a conversion optimization strategy to double or triple revenue… without adding new traffic.

You’re an ecommerce startup. You don’t have much capital. How do you get the expert help you need to grow? Neal Oddens, founder and CEO of one of the fastest growing ecommerce companies in the Netherlands, reveals a way to get specialist help without having to pay them money you don’t have. Neal also talks about two of the biggest mistakes he made in the early days (which many entrepreneurs make) and how he was able to come out of it with a stronger company.