The Ecwid E-commerce Show

In this podcast episode, hosts Jesse and RichE dive deep into the crucial process of selecting the perfect domain name for your online presence.  Tune in to the podcast as they discuss an exciting new Ecwid feature that allows you to get your dream domain name right from the Ecwid admin.  Why a Domain Name Is Important A strong domain name is crucial for online business success. It represents your brand and aids customers in remembering and finding you online. Buying an Online Store Domain with Ecwid The hosts recognize the challenge of setting up a domain, especially for beginners, given the complexities of DNS records and registrar backends.  That's why the new Ecwid feature of buying a custom domain directly from the Ecwid admin is a game-changer. Business owners can easily purchase and connect their own domain to their online store with just a few clicks. Tips for Choosing a Domain Name The podcast hosts suggest aiming for a short, memorable name that is descriptive of your brand, preferably ending with .com. You may need to consider alternatives, such as adding a location or product-related keyword if your desired name is taken. Listen to the full podcast episode for more tips on choosing a domain name and the importance of having a unique online presence.   More about buying a domain with Ecwid: ecwid.com/domains Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid: www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Profiles: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@ecwid Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: twitter.com/RichardOtey

Selling online is no longer limited to just your own website. The landscape has evolved, and now it's crucial to have a presence on various platforms, including marketplaces and social media. To shed light on this topic, we have invited a special guest, Mayon from Channable, who is an expert in the field of multichannel selling. Streamline Product Feeds with Channable Product feed management is at the core of Channable. This involves optimizing and transforming product data to ensure it is ready for platforms like Amazon, Google, Facebook, and more. With Channable, sellers can easily manage their feeds and adapt their product information according to each platform's requirements. Simplify Your Amazon Selling Journey For first-time Amazon sellers, the process of launching an Amazon store can be overwhelming. Channable simplifies this by allowing sellers to manage basic features within their existing Ecwid store while more complex specifics can be filled in directly within Channable. From Amazon to Niche Platforms Amazon is a massive marketplace that covers a wide range of product categories, but there are also smaller niche marketplaces specializing in specific industries. Platforms like Decathlon, Leroy Merlin, and Wayfair are mentioned as noteworthy options. Fulfillment and Shipping Strategies Across Continents The discussion then shifts to business owners trying to break into new markets, such as North American merchants targeting Europe. Fulfillment becomes a significant consideration, and Amazon's fulfillment network is often leveraged by European merchants selling in the US.  Connect Your Ecwid Store to Channable The Ecwid and Channable integration provides you with a seamless experience in managing orders, fulfillment, and stock synchronization across different platforms. Find Channable in the Ecwid App Market and connect your store to it easily: ecwid.com/apps/featured/channable Channable: channable.com Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid: www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Profiles: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@ecwid Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: twitter.com/RichardOtey

In today's fiercely competitive business landscape, delivering exceptional customer service is absolutely crucial for achieving success. That's why we had a chat with Kaia Madalińska from Text (formerly LiveChat) to get some valuable insights into the latest features in the customer service industry that help business owners deliver top-notch customer support. From Live Chat to Text Live Chat, a trusted customer service platform for over 20 years, recently rebranded to Text. This change signifies their evolution from a single-product company to a comprehensive suite of products such as a live chat, chatbot, help desk, knowledge base, and open widget. It is expected to enable businesses to provide even better customer service. The Importance of Multi-Channel Support Text offers seamless integration with popular channels like Instagram, WhatsApp for business, and Facebook for business. This integration allows businesses to consolidate all customer messages in one place, eliminating the need to switch between different tabs or apps. Enhancing Ecommerce with Greetings and Personalization For ecommerce businesses, Text offers a range of features designed to enhance the shopping experience and drive sales. One standout feature is greetings, which empower businesses to personalize interactions with website visitors.  Proactive Chats with Shoppers Kaia introduces the "traffic section," which provides real-time data about website visitors, including pages visited, time spent, and interests. This data can be used to personalize interactions with visitors.  Enhancing Emal Marketing Kaia highlights that Mailchimp integration offered by Text is one of the most popular email marketing software integrations available. The integration allows businesses to harness the lead-generating power of Text by enabling customers to subscribe to campaigns and newsletters while filling out the pre-chat survey.  Text for Ecwid Stores If you run an Ecwid store, you can quickly connect it to Text to provide customer service and proactively promote your products and services to site visitors. Go to the Ecwid App Market and install the app: https://www.ecwid.com/apps/featured/live-chat-inc  Kaia Madalińska's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaia-madalinska/ Text (formerly LiveChat): http://text.com/ Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid: www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Profiles: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@ecwid Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: twitter.com/RichardOtey

In this podcast episode, our show hosts Jesse and RichE interview Ricardo Lasa, CEO and co-founder of Kliken, a marketing solutions provider for ecommerce stores. Ricardo discusses the exciting advancements in AI technology and how it is transforming the advertising industry. How AI Transforms Advertising Ricardo explains that AI has traditionally been used for optimizing campaigns, such as selecting keywords and determining the best places to advertise. However, with the advent of new AI technology, advertisers can now create more compelling and creative ads. AI-Generated Images for Ads Ricardo explains that AI can generate complete ads using stock photos or custom-made images that intrigue customers. AI in Audience Targeting Ricardo highlights how AI helps identify the most relevant target groups for different products.  While AI helps generate ads and recommendations, the final approval lies with the merchant.  A Special Offer for Ecwid Stores If you're one of the merchants generating at least 20 sales per month, you're eligible for a complimentary trial of Kliken. Experience it for two weeks, priced at just one dollar. Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid: www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Profiles: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@ecwid Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: twitter.com/RichardOtey

Joining us today is Jim Huffman, a renowned expert in the field and CEO of GrowthHit, a growth marketing consultancy specializing in direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands. Jim also hosts the popular podcast "If I Was Starting Today" and has written the Amazon best-seller, The Growth Marketer's Playbook, a book that even dethroned Seth Godin from the #1 spot for 72 hours. In this episode, we dive into key tactics and approaches that fuel eccommerce growth, helping brands make the most of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales events. Tailor Messaging to Different Groups of Holiday Shoppers By understanding and tailoring messaging to different groups, such as early adopters and fast followers, brands can effectively communicate their value proposition and drive engagement.  Explore Community-Based Marketing Options Jim also emphasizes the power of community-based marketing. Leveraging influencers and brand ambassadors can greatly extend a brand's reach and tap into new audiences.  Tap Into Referral Programs Jim mentions the importance of referral programs, where satisfied customers are incentivized to refer friends and family.  Provide Great Customer Service to Retain Holiday Shoppers By delivering exceptional experiences and going above and beyond, brands can create loyal customers who will not only continue to purchase from them but also recommend them to others. Experiment with Viral Content Brands should focus on producing content that resonates with their target audience and compels them to share it with their networks.  The Importance of Staying Agile Throughout the podcast, Jim stresses the need for continuous optimization and experimentation. He advises ecommerce brands to constantly test and iterate their strategies to find what works best for their specific market and audience.  Follow Jim Huffman on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JimWHuffman GrowthHit website:  https://growthhit.com/ Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid: https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles:  Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid: www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Profiles: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@ecwid Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: twitter.com/RichardOtey

Join us on the latest episode of the Ecwid Ecommerce Show as we dive deep into the sizzling topic of utilizing AI for businesses. Our special guest, Matt Wolfe from Future Tools, shares invaluable insights.  Getting the Best Results with Prompts Matt shares his perspective on prompt engineering when using AI in ecommerce. The goal is to make these tools accessible to all users by focusing on natural language interactions. Using AI for SEO Matt Wolfe talks about his experience using SEO plugins, which scan a website and suggest improvements for search engine optimization, like adding alt text to images. Ethical Debates Around AI Art Many existing AI generation tools train using databases of images not intended to be used with these tools. Matt highlights that newer models of AI generation tools are starting to be opt-in, meaning artists must consent to their work being used for training. Improving Ecommerce Images with AI Tools Matt suggests using AI-based tools to improve low-quality product pictures. Many tools are available to upscale images and improve their quality, change backgrounds, or get rid of unwanted objects in a picture.  Powering Customer Service with AI Newer AI chatbots also incorporate machine learning capabilities. They learn from human responses over time. With this level of sophistication, AI chatbots are an increasingly valuable tool for businesses looking to provide efficient customer service. Potential Use of AI in Ecommerce Data Interpretation AI can analyze the data and provide users with insights previously only accessible to data analysts. The ability for anyone to process and understand data helps businesses make strategic decisions. Listen to the full podcast and discover what AI tools Matt uses and recommends to business owners.  Matt Wolfe's website: https://www.futuretools.io/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@mreflow Twitter: https://twitter.com/mreflow Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid: www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Profiles: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@ecwid Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: twitter.com/RichardOtey

In a new episode of the Ecwid Ecommerce Show, we talk to Brent Spicer of Marsello, a loyalty, SMS, and email marketing platform for business owners. Tune in to the podcast to learn how unlocking customer data can help you create a smart loyalty program that automates your marketing efforts. Unlocking Customer Data & Automating Campaigns Marsello started as a loyalty program platform that unlocked customer data and researched purchasing habits. As the business grew, they started running automated email and SMS campaigns based on customer behavior. Personalization is the Key Sending a generic newsletter to everyone might result in people unsubscribing. In contrast, personalized newsletters that suggest products based on a person's previous purchases or browsing history increase engagement.  How to Smartly Personalize Campaigns Creating the most effective personalized email depends on two factors—product and timing. Marsello uses AI-powered algorithms to provide specific product recommendations to particular customers based on their buying habits. Timing is likewise important, so use customer data to send reminders at the right time. How to Differentiate Your Loyalty Program Traditional cashback loyalty programs are not effective in differentiating a business from its competitors. Businesses need to create smarter loyalty programs that make customers feel special.  One way to achieve this is through a VIP tier system. You can also provide exclusive access to limited edition products to VIP customers as another effective loyalty strategy.  Using AI to Improve Loyalty Programs Marsello is always improving by implementing more AI into the loyalty platform, which analyzes data to suggest ways to improve customer engagement.  Marketing Automation Powered by Loyalty Programs Once businesses have collected customer data through their loyalty program, they can set up triggers that automatically send targeted campaigns based on customers' buying habits or preferences.  Make more money and gain loyal customers with Marsello: https://www.marsello.com/ The Marsello app for your Ecwid store: https://www.ecwid.com/apps/featured/marsello Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid: www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Profiles: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@ecwid Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: twitter.com/RichardOtey

Join us in our latest podcast episode with email marketing guru Amandine Liepmann to discover the secrets of successful email marketing.  Amandine Liepmann runs an email marketing agency ListBurst and sells pre-made templates for businesses. As a top 1% email marketer on Upwork, Amandine's insights and strategies are invaluable resources for business owners looking to improve their email marketing campaigns.  Is Email Marketing Dead? Amandine talks about the misconception that email marketing is no longer effective. In fact, it has an average ROI of $42 for every dollar invested.  Best Practices for Growing an Email List Amandine Liepmann advises entrepreneurs looking to grow their email list organically to place a signup link everywhere they can, from blog posts to social media profiles to website forms. Amandine also discusses the success of interactive popups on websites that offer discounts to visitors. Interactive popups have a 9% opt-in rate, which is significant when compared to the standard popup's 3-4%. Tools for Writing Email Copy Amandine Liepmann advises writing without fear of judgment. She recommends using AI writing assistants like Jasper and ChatGPT, as well as using Grammarly, to help with grammar and context. Must-Have Email Campaigns Welcome emails have open rates between 50-80%, which is excellent, especially when compared to a standard email's open rate of 20-30%. Amandine also suggests having a template and creating custom segments.  Abandoned carts and post-purchase follow-up emails can also be powerful. More advanced strategies, like product recommendation emails, can be implemented using customer data to suggest related products. Less Is More Amandine advises focusing on one call to action and one piece of information to keep email content concise. Interestingly, text-based emails with a succinct format tend to have the highest deliverability rates. Test the Waters with AB Testing Amandine recommends using MailChimp's AB testing feature to test different email ideas against each other. It's important to isolate one variable at a time when testing content, and A/B testing subject lines is an easy way to start. ListBurst website: https://www.listburst.com/  Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid: www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Profiles: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@ecwid Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: twitter.com/RichardOtey

On this episode of the Ecwid Ecommerce Show, we have a conversation with Liz Abunaw, the founder of the Forty Acres Fresh Market. What Forty Acres Fresh Market is All About  Forty Acres Fresh Market is a grocery retailer that combats health and economic inequity by increasing access to affordable fresh food in underserved communities. Currently operating as a mobile produce market through pop-up markets and delivery services, their ultimate goal is to build a store on the west side of Chicago. Market Research In the interview, Liz highlighted the importance of market research for business owners. By doing that, she was able to identify what the neighborhood needed, what it lacked, and what it could support.  First Pop-Up Market Liz shared how her journey started with a pop-up market. Despite overbuying inventory, she was able to transform a community room into a stunning market with fresh produce displays.   Word-of-mouth began to spread, and Liz started to receive calls from others asking if she could bring the market to their location. Learning from Failures Liz shared her experience of starting small and learning from failures. For example, by conducting trial runs at a temporary retail space, she faced challenges like terrible traffic. However, the experience taught her about the community's grocery leakage, leading to a better understanding of the neighborhood's needs.  Building Trust with Customers By consistently promoting its mission and doing pop-up markets, the business built its reputation enough to expand into delivery services, which became especially successful during the pandemic.  Choosing a Subscription Service Liz tried to use PayPal to sell subscription boxes but found it difficult to automate. She then looked at other subscription services and discovered Ecwid, which was easy to use without needing a strong tech background. The quick pivot to using Ecwid a month or two before the pandemic struck was crucial to their success in gaining and sustaining new subscribers. Leveraging Ecwid Features Liz finds Ecwid especially helpful for staffing. It allows her to easily manage the business calendar to determine the number of boxes they need to pack each day and how much labor is required.  The business appreciates the usefulness of Ecwid for marketing and messaging purposes. Plus, the customer notes feature lets customers give specific delivery instructions and request certain items while noting any allergies. Working on the Brick-and-Mortar Location Liz emphasizes that having a permanent brick-and-mortar presence is key to her mission of food equity in underserved neighborhoods. Despite the challenges, there is potential for growth and profit in the grocery industry if done correctly. Learn more about Forty Acres Fresh Market and make sure to support them if you're located in Chicago: Website: https://www.fortyacresfreshmarket.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fortyacresfreshmarket/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/40acresfresh?lang=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100084716291348 Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid: www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Profiles: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@ecwid Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: twitter.com/RichardOtey

In this episode of the Ecwid Ecommerce Show, we sit down with Ricardo Lasa, CEO of Kliken, to explore the exciting new advertising tool. What Is Kliken? Kliken is a marketing platform designed to help you reach more customers and increase sales by leveraging organic product listings and paid search campaigns across various platforms.  With Kliken, you can promote your products with Google ads, Google Performance Max campaigns, Google Shopping campaigns, Facebook ads, and Kliken ads on the Open Web. Kliken is integrated into your Ecwid by Lightspeed control panel, which makes ad management effortless.  What Are OpenWeb Ads? With Kliken, you can extend your reach to the open web, where you can reach a high-intent audience who might be interested in your product. Kliken ads appear on reputable sites such as news and blog sites, giving you greater visibility to your target audience.  Ad Optimization at Kliken Kliken generates intelligent ads that are tailored to shoppers' activity in your store. If they have previously viewed a product, they will see the ad with the same product. If they haven't visited your store yet, Kliken will show them the top-selling products of your store, providing an incentive to click through and learn more about the product. Kliken Offer for Ecwid Sellers If you're an Ecwid seller that receives twenty or more orders per month, you can take advantage of their offer to jump on the Kliken for just one dollar for 15 days.  Listen to the full episode to learn more about advertising best practices and jumpstarting your ad journey. And if you're qualified for the Kliken offer, don't hesitate to use it!  Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid: www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Profiles: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@ecwid Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: twitter.com/RichardOtey    

In this episode, Jesse Ness and Richard Otey dive into collaborating with other business owners. Find out how to look for possible collaborations, how to connect with other businesses, and what you can do if you don't have a significant audience yet.  Why Collaborate with Other Businesses?  Collaborations are a great way to expand one's reach to potential customers. It can be as simple as a cross-promotion on email lists or giving a shoutout to each other on social media channels. How to Choose Brands for Collaboration Here are four main attributes of a partnership to keep in mind:  - Partners should be similarly sized companies. - They should sell products related to yours but not be your direct competitors. - Their products or services should appeal to a similar demographic as yours. - Their items or services are around the same price level as yours.  How to Reach Out to Other Brands You can use various tactics, from emailing, reaching out on social media, or calling. List the benefits of your potential collaboration, such as leveraging each other's audiences that share the same interests. Be sure to specify your email list and social media audience size. Sweepstakes Collaborations with Other Businesses Apart from email and social media campaigns, you can offer to run a sweepstake or a giveaway with a potential partner. Sweepstakes usually require a participant to enter their email address or phone number. This way, you can get contacts of potential customers through the sweepstake. What If You Don't Have a Big Audience Yet? If you're just starting out with your business and don't have a big audience, you can try to partner with influencers to get more exposure for your business. Listen to our podcast about influencer marketing based on influencer seeding instead of the pay-for-post model: https://www.ecwid.com/blog/influencer-marketing-without-the-guesswork.html Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid: www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@ecwid Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: twitter.com/RichardOtey

Running an online store is a great way to grow revenue and reach more customers. But expanding to online marketplaces can give you access to even more potential customers and increase sales. In this podcast, we'll explore the advice of Ben Jones from Codisto on how to maximize success when expanding to services like Amazon, eBay, and Walmart. Why You Should Go Omnichannel If you really want to increase sales, you need to go omnichannel. That means being present for your customers no matter where they prefer to shop, be it on Amazon, eBay, or Walmart.  Increasing Your Brand Visibility with Marketplaces It costs a lot of money to advertise on Google and Facebook to reach new customers. A marketplace has a different model. Your brand will be organically discovered by people that prefer to shop on marketplaces only—shoppers that you normally wouldn't reach.  What Marketplace Should You Choose? Even though marketplaces differ, Ben Jones sees value in every marketplace for every business and encourages you to sell everywhere. For example, you can use eBay as a clearance channel to sell deadstock at a sale price. At the same time, you can sell your bestsellers on Amazon and test the waters on the less competitive Walmart marketplace. Sell on Marketplaces with Codisto Ben Jones gives an overview of Codisto, a service that allows you to sync your Ecwid store to marketplaces to sell on several platforms at once.  Your product details, pricing, and inventory are synced in real-time between your Ecwid store and connected marketplaces.  Listen to the full episode to learn more about getting started with marketplaces and making sure you see results soon after you launch your products on new platforms. Sell on marketplaces with Codisto: https://codisto.com/platforms/ecwid/ Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid:  www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@ecwid Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: twitter.com/RichardOtey    

Join our new episode on the Ecwid Ecommerce Show as hosts Jesse and Rich dive into the new advertising tool by Facebook, Advantage+ shopping campaigns. They also share some tips to make it perform above and beyond, so take notes! What Are Facebook Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns? You might remember we talked about Google's Performance Max in one of our latest podcasts. To recap, Google Performance Max takes your product feed, multiple different headlines, and subjects. Then it mixes all that information together with your various customer lists and does your advertising for you using machine learning. Facebook is now doing practically the same thing. It's called Advantage+ shopping campaigns. The Key to High-Performing Ads To use Facebook Advantage+ shopping campaigns, you must have a product feed. A product feed is the list of your products along with product information.  Since Facebook Advantage+ shopping campaigns use your product feeds, they should be high-quality to ensure the generated ads perform well. Ensure your product feed has good pictures, videos, descriptions, and titles. Vertical Video Ads One tip for creating successful ads is to use a video instead of a picture—especially a vertical one. Advertising on Facebook is built more around mobiles than computers these days. That makes vertical videos more engaging and optimized for ads. Be the First to Try New Advertising Tools Facebook Advantage+ shopping campaigns have just been released, so they might not be available to all users yet. However, we strongly recommend you try it as soon as possible. Whenever a new feature emerges, there tends to be an amplification of its reach and visibility. So take advantage of this as soon as you can! Learn more about Facebook Advantage+ shopping campaigns and how to set them up in Meta's Business Help Center: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1362234537597370 Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid: www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@ecwid Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: twitter.com/RichardOtey

Given today's oversaturated nature of digital advertising, business owners need to explore new ways of marketing their products and services… Or not so new. We invited David Fink of Postie to be a guest on our podcast and discuss the possibilities of direct mail marketing. Direct Mail for Marketing Marketing is an omnichannel game. When you use different channels, it helps you grow your business more predictably and with more confidence. Postie is a channel management technology platform for the direct mail space. Think of it as a Facebook Ad Manager for your direct mail campaigns. Targeting with Direct Mail In digital advertising, smart targeting uses segmentation and predictive mathematics to create a target population based on previous customers, or lookalike audiences. This eliminates a lot of the waste caused by showing ads to uninterested parties. Postie brings those game-changing possibilities to direct mail. Direct Mail Execution Postie makes it possible to execute direct mail marketing initiatives as close to real-time as possible.  The Importance of Analyzing Your Audience We discuss the ways you can use direct mail to gain more insight into your audience, as well as use it for promoting your product and services. Tune in to learn more about this often-overlooked form of marketing. Postie website: https://postie.com/ David Fink LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidlfink/ Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid: www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@ecwid Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: twitter.com/RichardOtey

In this episode of the Ecwid Ecommerce Show, we meet with Shane Morris and Megan Baumer from GS1 US. GS1 US is the official issuer and administrator of the UPC barcode, which is the cornerstone of the global supply chain. Listen to our podcast to learn more about barcodes and the differences between product identifiers such as UPC and GTIN. You'll learn how these identifiers help with inventory management and contribute to expanding your online business. Understanding barcodes The Universal Product Code, or UPC, is a barcode symbology used worldwide to track trade items in stores. A Global Trade Item Number, or GTIN, is the number below a barcode. GTINs and UPCs are often used interchangeably, but they are different. The UPC is the barcode that carries and identifies the Global Trade Item Number. Key benefits of GTIN for online sellers GTIN bridges the gap between the physical and digital worlds. They can be used to boost search engine optimization, prove a brand's authenticity online, and be used to create unified analytics across multiple channels. Shane Morris highlights four key benefits in the ecommerce space where the GTIN serves a purpose: Improved SEO Assigning GTINs to your products when listing on Google Shopping or your website can significantly improve search results, impressions, and conversions. Better logistics process You will likely need to use third-party logistics providers as you expand your business to get help with managing the supply chain. These partners will want a way to identify your products. Providing them with GTINs prevents disorganization when you have a huge inventory. Verifying a business on online marketplaces Marketplaces want to ensure that their customers only interact with legitimate brands selling legitimate products. There are standards in place to ensure that legitimacy—one of these is the GTIN. Essential for omnichannel strategy Most businesses want to be everywhere their customers are. Having a GS1 GTIN for your products will open up countless doors to the numerous retailers and marketplaces that require them. Getting GTINs for your products To get GTINs for your products, visit the GS websites: If you sell in US: https://www.gs1us.org/ If you are a non-US brand: https://www.gs1.org/ Also, check out the following resources that Shane and Megan mention in the episode: GS1 Company Database: https://www.gs1us.org/tools/gs1-company-database-gepir Barcode Estimator: https://www.gs1us.org/tools/barcode-estimator/home The Next Level Supply Chain with GS1 US podcast: https://next-level-supply-chain-with-gs1us.podcastpage.io/   Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid: www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@ecwid Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: twitter.com/RichardOtey

In this episode, we talk to Ricardo Lasa, the CEO of Kliken. It is an automated Google Shopping and Facebook Ads technology that takes marketing to the next level. When linked with Ecwid by Lightspeed, Kliken provides automated Facebook Ads and Google Shopping right from the admin panel. Ricardo shares the latest Kliken updates for Facebook Ads and Google Shopping, plus how they benefit online sellers. Retargeting vs. Prospecting Ricardo explains that there are two vital types of advertising: retargeting and prospecting.  When you just get started with online selling, you might not have an audience for retargeting. Kliken offers a different approach to new online sellers called prospecting. Kliken built an integration for Facebook ads that allows you to find prospecting audiences for your products and target them with your ads. Getting Started with Advertising Effortlessly Advertising platforms, including those run by Facebook and Google, have many requirements for online sellers.  Kliken built comprehensive quality assurance metrics to ensure the correct ad campaign setup.  As for the ad campaign setup process with Kliken, it usually comprises no more than four or five steps.  More Benefits of Kliken Kliken also offers ad management which includes ad surveying, ad formatting, and using AI to decide what ads to show the most.  Advice for Beginners in Advertising Ricardo recommends starting with Google product listings because there are no ads associated with that.  Once your store is set up and products are on Google Shopping, your store will see an increase in traffic. At that point, you can start using Kliken to seamlessly distribute Google and Facebook ads. Kliken: https://www.kliken.com/ Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ecwid  Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardOtey 

In the latest episode of the Ecwid Ecommerce Show, co-hosts Jesse and Rich go over the latest and greatest updates in your Ecwid store. Tune in to learn more about some new tools and find out how to use them. Boosting Sales with Pre-Orders Whether your product is temporarily out-of-stock or you're planning to launch a new item, you don't have to hide products from your customers anymore. Now you can let them pre-order items instead. Easier Tax Management Since countries have different tax regulations, some businesses need to ask their customers for tax-related information when accepting an order. That's why we added a new Tax ID field at checkout for sellers from a number of countries. Another tax update is that sellers from more countries can use the automatic tax calculation tool.  New Themes and Announcement Bar for New-Gen Instant Site If you created your ecommerce website with Ecwid's Instant Site, don't miss this update. The New-Gen Instant Site now has more design templates—plus an announcement bar. Simplified Local Delivery Management With the “Blackout dates” option, you can block delivery not only on some days of the week but on any particular day or date range to adjust your delivery schedule as needed.  Better Free Shipping Options Management When offering free shipping, you need to find a balance between attracting more orders and spending too much on shipping fees. To avoid losing revenue, you can now limit free shipping discount coupons to certain shipping or delivery methods.  Analyzing Your Order Sources To help you analyze what promotional and sales channels work best for your store, you can now ​​track your order sources right in your Ecwid Control Panel.  Customizing Your Checkout Yourself To adjust your checkout page to your business needs, you can now customize it yourself—no coding required. You can add custom checkout fields in just a couple of clicks.  More Estimated Delivery Date Settings The estimated delivery time tool has become even more flexible. You can set up delivery and pickup preparation times for each product to show more accurate delivery dates. Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid: www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@ecwid Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: twitter.com/RichardOtey

Welcome to a bonus episode of the Ecommerce Content 101 series. We got great feedback on the series; thank you! From your feedback, we found that some business owners are stuck getting started because it's hard for them to pick a topic for their content. That's why we made one more episode to help inspire you to start. Don't Overthink It Getting started with anything is not about perfection. You just need to get into the confidence-competence loop. When you start doing something new, you won't be incredibly confident at first. As you do it, you'll gain more competence and confidence. And the process becomes a cycle towards better, more informative content. Five Types of Content to Create for Your Business Document your business process. Start uploading videos about your daily routine and what you do for your business.  Don't underestimate the industry events you go to. Document them and share content from them with your audience.  Respond to other people's content. Some people already target your audience, and you could add your own insights to their posts. Repost user-generated content. For example, you can repost a picture of a customer wearing a T-shirt from your store. You should always ask for their permission to use it on your pages.  Show content of people using your product. You could bring your product, widget, service, or whatever you create into the real world and ask people's opinions about it.  Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid:  www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles: Facebook:  www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram:  www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube:  www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter:  twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest:  www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ TikTok:  www.tiktok.com/@ecwid Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn:  www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn:  www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter:  twitter.com/RichardOtey

Welcome to the third episode of our series about content creation for a business. RichE cover the internal limitation that hold us back from creating content and how to overcome your fear.   Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid: www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@ecwid Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: twitter.com/RichardOtey

Welcome to the second episode of the Content Creation series! In the first episode, podcast host Rich explained why you want to create content for your business. Now that you know that your business needs a social media identity, we want to help you develop one with ease.  Things That Stops You from Making Content There are generally four obstacles that stop people from creating content: price, technology, time, and ability. The first three are external limitations. Today we're going to debunk them. Next episode, we'll go deeper into the fourth one. Creating Content on a Budget You don't have to worry about the price of making content because this can be done on almost any budget — even for free!  We see by the rise of platforms like TikTok that people are hungry for raw stories. You can definitely provide that with just your phone camera. Don't worry about the second obstacle — technological skill — either. A computer with the internet can provide almost anything you need.  Focusing on One Platform First Time is the most common concern among business owners: “How will I fit content creation on multiple platforms into my already full 24-hour day?”  You might think you have to create content for all the different platforms. Actually, you should start by focusing on one platform your target audience uses the most. Once you're comfortable, then you can expand. Making Content Quickly & Smart To save time on content creation, you need to learn how to use content for multiple platforms. You can do that by either subdividing, editing, or repurposing it.  Check out this blog post of Gary Vaynerchuk on creating over 60 pieces of content from one source material: https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/how-to-create-64-pieces-of-content-in-a-day/ Don't Let Your Doubts Stop You You already have the technology you need in your pocket or on your desktop. All you need is to give this strategy an honest effort and adjust along the way. Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid: www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@ecwid Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: twitter.com/RichardOtey

Content is key when it comes to driving traffic and sales for an online store. That's why we are dedicating a series of podcast episodes to explaining why content is so important for your ecommerce business.  Tune in to the first episode of the Content Creation series. The host Rich will talk about the importance of both creating content, and creating content consistently.  Why Is Content Crucial? It's vital to create content on a consistent basis to keep up your relationship with your audience. People will more often buy from you if they have a connection with you and your message. If you don't create meaningful content, Amazon and Walmart will almost always take potential customers because they can deliver cheaper and faster than anyone else. How Content Drives Profits Content can drive profits by increasing awareness of and driving attention to your business. If your product is easily substitutable, in order to make a profit you have to define some sort of difference between you and your competition.  You can use content to build awareness of who you and your company are, the practices you support, and the ideals you operate by. It helps customers get to know you and your brand's value. In our next episode, we'll talk about how to actually make content quickly and efficiently. Stay tuned! Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid: www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@ecwid Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: twitter.com/RichardOtey

In this episode of the Ecwid Ecommerce Show, the podcast hosts Jesse and Rich look into Google's Performance Max ad campaigns. Tune in to learn more about this ad campaign type and find out how it can benefit your business.  What Is Google's Performance Max? Performance Max is an ad campaign type that allows you to create a single campaign to promote your products across all of Google's advertising channels. The primary difference between Performance Max and other ad campaigns is that Google automates the campaign targeting and delivery based on the information you provide. Performance Max campaigns are good for all types of business owners. People who do their own Google advertising benefit greatly from this campaign, as do those who want to get ahead of the competition by trying the latest and greatest tools. How to Make the Most of Performance Max? Performance Max campaigns are similar to Smart Shopping campaigns in that they both require a product feed. So to use either, you will need to set up a product feed in a Google Merchant Center. Another important thing for setting up a successful Performance Max campaign is content. With Performance Max, you'll have to give it content to use in ads. Then, it will create custom ads across channels using your content.  So you need to provide Performance Max videos, descriptions, headlines, and any data you have to give the AI a well-rounded view of your business. With all that information, it can create more personalized and accurate ads about your products and company. Most importantly, make videos! Performance Max relies heavily on videos. Another way to take Performance Max campaigns to the next level is using customer lists or remarketing audiences.  That's your short and sweet overview of Performance Max campaigns. If you'd like to set up a Performance Max campaign, these instructions might be helpful: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10724896?hl=en Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid: www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@ecwid Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: twitter.com/RichardOtey

In this episode of the Ecwid Ecommerce Show, hosts Jesse and Rich bring you some fantastic news: you can now connect your online store to Facebook Marketplace! What Is Facebook Marketplace? Facebook Marketplace is Facebook's selling platform. Customers can either buy products for sale in their area or items available for shipping. Getting in front of your potential customers when they're in the mindset of buying something gives you a greater chance of selling your products. Why You Should Sell On Marketplaces Marketplaces like eBay, Amazon, Etsy, and Facebook Marketplace are great at bringing traffic to your online store which is difficult when you're just starting out. Benefits of Selling on Facebook Marketplace with Ecwid Now that you can connect your online store to Facebook Marketplace, you don't need to create and update listings on Marketplace manually. Products and orders from your online store will appear on Facebook Marketplace automatically. If you sell on eBay, Etsy, or Amazon, they will bring you traffic. However, they also charge you a fee. Since using Facebook Marketplace is free, you get the upside of increased website traffic without any additional fee. How to Start Selling on Facebook Marketplace Facebook has now connected the Marketplace with the Facebook Shops functionality. With Facebook Shop, you can add a Shop tab to your business page and create shoppable posts on Facebook and Instagram. Getting started on Facebook Marketplace is quite simple, especially when you can connect to it through your ecommerce platform. You first need to connect your Ecwid store to Facebook using these instructions: https://support.ecwid.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005892705-Selling-on-Facebook (If you haven't signed up with Ecwid yet, you can do that here: https://my.ecwid.com/cp/#register) Then, enable selling on Facebook Marketplace in the Commerce Manager on Facebook by following these instructions: https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/learn-more/sr/Enabling-Marketplace-for-onsite-shops Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid: www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles: Facebook: www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@ecwid Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: twitter.com/RichardOtey

In this episode of the Ecwid Ecommerce Show, we talk to ​​Ash Krishnaswamy, the founder of Forge. Forge is an agency that works exclusively with early-stage consumer brands to help them launch and grow their businesses. TikTok vs. Paid Ads A lot of direct-to-consumer brands start to promote their business using Facebook, Instagram, or Google ads. Ash believes that's far too expensive for small businesses and probably not the best way to learn more about your consumers.  Instead, Ash advises using TikTok. You can educate potential consumers on your business and promote your products with virtually zero followers. Your videos should highlight the value propositions of your company. You can use TikTok to test (for free!) what kind of content works best for converting viewers into customers.  Training the TikTok Algorithm When you first get on the platform, you must signal to TikTok that you are an account that makes content around a specific category. To do that, you want to use hashtags distinct to your kind of product. Otherwise, TikTok may accidentally show your specialized content to people who are not your target audience.  Authenticity on TikTok A hesitation that a lot of brands and brand owners have is that it's too much work to create TikTok videos. If you haven't spent much time on the platform, spend your first week just browsing the content. Get a sense of what native content feels like on TikTok. Then start making videos. The content that works really well is raw and unpolished. Personal vs. Business Profiles on TikTok The upside of having a business account is that you receive detailed analytics on how your business is performing.  Personal profiles have more creative leniency. For example, a big part of the success on TikTok is the use of sound bites in videos. With a business account, a lot of those sounds have copyright restrictions and are off-limits. Selling Non-Viral Products How do you make a non-viral product viral? Ash recommends creating a lot of behind-the-scenes content, like how you're growing your small business, instead of focusing on your products.  Connect with Ash: https://www.forge.coop/ https://twitter.com/shwinnabego  Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ecwid  Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardOtey 

In our new episode of the Ecwid Ecommerce Show, we talk to Taylor Lagace, co-CEO of Kynship, an influencer marketing agency. He explains why the “pay for post” method of influencer partnership is often ineffective. He offers a more beneficial approach to marketing with influencers, applicable to all industries and brands. Identifying Influencers to Partner With First, Taylor recommends taking 2% of your annual revenue, putting that aside, and being willing to send out your product equal to that amount to influencers for a review. For identifying influencers, Taylor recommends two free platforms: Brand Collabs Manager by Facebook and the Creator Marketplace on TikTok.  Reaching out to Influencers Once you have a list of influencers, reach out to them over direct messages on the platform you're looking to activate them on. Make sure you let them know that you have no expectation of them to post whatsoever. They act of their own free will under no contractual obligation.  The Importance of Content Usage Rights After influencers make posts about your products, you want to make sure you get usage rights on the content they posted. Collecting Influencer-Created Content Taylor shares a helpful social listening tool, MightyScout. You can just plug influencer profiles into the platform and all of their content mentioning your brand gets collected even if they don't hashtag or tag you. Using Influencer Content for Paid Ads Taylor's biggest piece of advice is to launch all influencer-made content as paid ads, don't just choose your favorites. Facebook chooses which content gets advertised based on its real-time performance. Affiliate Programs for Influencers The next step of working with influencers is onboarding them to your affiliate program. Then based on organically top-performing affiliates and paid ads, you can start paying people to post. That's the only place the “pay for post” model exists within a profitable influencer marketing program. Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ecwid Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardOtey Taylors Twitter Profile: https://twitter.com/TaylorLagace

In this episode of the Ecwid Ecommerce Show, our podcast guest is email marketer Chase Dimond. He is the co-founder of Boundless Labs, a top email marketing agency. Why You Need Email Marketing Chase covers the main things that make email marketing so effective for online sellers: - The ability to create personalized emails is unparalleled to social media. - Email is highly consistent.  - Email is inexpensive.  - Email is very conversion-focused.  Pop-Ups to Collect Customer Emails The primary way that businesses collect email addresses is through onsite traffic. Chase goes over different email collection tools you can leverage on your website: a pop-up, a fly-up, and an embedded form.  Offers that Encourage Customers to Subscribe Chase describes offers you can use as incentives for customers to subscribe to your email list: - "Sign up to receive our newsletter" - Discounts or deals. - "Enter to Win" Essential Email Sequence for Online Stores Chase recommends a four-part email sequence for online sellers. The first email is sent right away when a person subscribes to your list.  The second email will go out one or two days later if people have not purchased anything. That's where you talk about the brand story and the benefits of buying your products. If people again have not bought anything after receiving these two initial emails, the third email will leverage social proof.  If the new customer still has not bought anything from your store, the last email should entice people to follow you on social media. Email Copywriting Tips Chase shares a couple of email copywriting tips for online sellers: - Make your email copy revolve around a big idea. It has to be exciting, interesting, timeless, and relevant. - Give your readers one call-to-action in your email. - Write like you speak. - Talk to a person, not a crowd. There are many email flows that you could and should create. But if you're overwhelmed or just starting out, the email flows discussed in the podcast will get you through a lot of the things that you absolutely need. Chase Dimond Social Profiles: Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecomchasedimond LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chasedimond/ Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardOtey  Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ecwid/  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ecwid  Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardOtey 

Join the Ecwid Ecommerce Show hosts Jesse and RichE as they chat with Ryan Wood, founder of a growth and media strategy Woodmill Strategy.  Listen to Ryan talk about the importance of a charted-out vision for your business, the difference between email and SMS marketing, chatbots, and more. Developing a Vision for Your Business The first thing that Ryan encourages business owners to do is to develop a vision for their business.  Growth strategies need something to anchor into. Create some targets: number of customers, how many of those customers you want to come back and make repeat purchases. Email Marketing and SMS With email, you can create automated sequences, such as cart abandonment emails, welcome emails, etc. SMS does pretty much all of the same things, just in a different medium. When you look at the performance metrics between the two platforms, SMS almost always adds value in addition to email marketing. Chatbots and SMS SMS is on the rise, but chatbots are becoming less popular. The reason is that chatbots are dependent on third-party developers, unlike text messaging.  Benefits of SMS Marketing With the recent iOS update, marketers no longer get open rates or click-through rates for iOS devices. That's a problem for email marketers, but it is not applicable to SMS marketing–you still get all of that data. With SMS, people are more likely to open their texts and respond to them. Like with email, you can build cart abandonment flows and welcome flows with SMS. But you don't have to create graphics as you do with emails. The cost of SMS marketing can be as low as a penny per text message sent. Follow Ryan Wood on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-wood-5802a258/  Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Profiles:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ecwid  Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardOtey 

Join our podcast host RichE as he chats with Helen Polise, aka the TikTok Teacher. She used her background in film production to help her dive into TikTok during lockdown. And it worked, bringing in 536K followers on TikTok!  Tune in to learn about her best tips and tricks for growing your business on TikTok. How to Connect with Viewers Helen recommends that businesses focus their media strategy on a specific audience. Explore the platform and experiment. Any brand's job on TikTok is to provide value to your viewer. Simply making someone smile or feel better brings value too. Being Authentic Is the Key Helen and RichE make note of the value of authenticity and transparency in connecting and relating to your audience. If you are going to do a promotion, make it a TikTok video. Don't make an ad—make something authentic. Working with TikTok Trends and Tools A trend to explore on TikTok is “stitching.” This is a feature for reaction and response videos. Stitching can make it easier to start creating your own content.  Recognize trends and memes, but look beyond them to create something that feels like it expresses your individual brand's identity.  Use headlines on video covers for organizing your profile.  Organizing Your TikTok Content According to Helen, a new post every one to three days will keep up the engagement. Try to make content worth sharing, liking, commenting, and rewatching, and you should find success. Connect with Helen: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@themuthership   Instagram:   https://www.instagram.com/themuthership/   Website:   https://www.muthership.com/ Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardOtey 

Tune in to the latest episode of the Ecwid Ecommerce Show. This week we've brought on Hahney Yo, a Product Marketing Manager at TikTok. She uncovers what makes TikTok so special and how small businesses can use the platform to grow their reach.  The World of TikTok TikTok is a place where short form videos reign. It also has over one billion users globally. TikTok is a place for content about anything and everything you could possibly be interested in, from catching up on recent headlines to relaxing with ASMR videos. The platform personalizes video recommendations over time and tailors them to your interests, allowing its users to get up close and personal with content that really resonates with them. Business Accounts on TikTok In addition to personal accounts, you can use TikTok to open a Business Account to help promote your growing side hustle or retailer.  Not sure you have a great idea for some business related TikTok content? Don't be afraid to start simple. Complexity can come with time, and inspiration can strike along the way.  What Videos You Should Make Reaction videos can be a great way for store owners to participate in TikTok without having to create elaborate videos. You can showcase how your product is used, or interesting people who are using it. Just keep it authentic and personable. Just remember to make TikToks, not ads. The goal is to harness the power of connecting with people organically.  You can also boost your most popular videos making them function more like ads.  TikTok Shopping TikTok Shopping is in Beta and eligible for select merchants in the US and the UK. From your Ecwid Control Panel, go to the TikTok page, which will allow you to connect pixel tracking for effective advertising. You will also find the TikTok Shopping feature there, which allows you to sell directly through your TikTok account. Handy links mentioned in this podcast: Promote feature for your TikTok videos: https://support.tiktok.com/en/using-tiktok/growing-your-audience/use-promote-to-grow-your-tiktok-audience Spark Ads: https://ads.tiktok.com/help/article?aid=10001881 About TikTok on Ecwid: https://ads.tiktok.com/help/article?aid=10005074 Set up TikTok Shopping on Ecwid: https://support.ecwid.com/hc/en-us/articles/4407227291538-Selling-with-TikTok-Shopping Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardOtey   

Join The Ecwid Ecommerce Show hosts Jesse and RichE as they discuss opportunities for small businesses to grow with Facebook and Instagram. Grow Awareness with Content People are always wondering how they can get more sales. The answer: you have to create content.  There should be different forms of content that introduce your brand to customers. Each of those forms of content is going to potentially move people along in the buying process. Take Photos for Facebook and Instagram You need to take pictures of your product, so put it in a lifestyle aisle shot. If you don't need a model to demonstrate your product, arrange it in a nice way, make it pretty for a photo. Don't stop at photos. Shoot videos, test different formats.  Reduce Friction with Product Tags You can tag your products in photos and make clickable posts. Customers go from that lifestyle photo with a tagged product and land on your product page. This makes it much easier to shop online, which eventually leads to more sales.  Connect Your Store to Facebook and Instagram Connect your Ecwid store to Facebook and Instagram. That allows you to upload your products to Facebook. You're also installing Facebook Pixel which allows you to track the results, the traffic, and the sales. It also has a server-to-server connection between Ecwid and Facebook which allows you to track events in your store better.  Leverage User-Generated Content Ask your customers to send you a photo of them using your product. Now you have social proof that someone is actually using your product and they love it. Take that picture, put it on your feed, and tag your product in it. Use Multiple Content Formats Apart from the regular feed, there are multiple other formats to take advantage of. For example: reels, stories, lives and IGTV. And you can tag products in all of those formats!  You don't have to do all these, just start with a photo or a short video and go from there. It won't hurt to test a couple of formats and then stick to the one that your audience engages with more.  Take Risks Big Businesses Can't Afford Small businesses can take more chances. They can explore, experiment, try things and break things, and it's not going to affect stockholders and all kinds of other things.  You want to make sure your goal is one that all small businesses have: to connect with the person on the other side.  Want to be a Guest on our Podcast? We love having Ecwid merchants on the show. If you have a success story and you'd like to have your company and your store on the podcast, let us know. Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardOtey 

Listen to the newest episode of the Ecwid Ecommerce Show, featuring Josh Berkstresser, Education Strategy Manager at Ecwid. Ecwid is launching our very own "Build Your Business" Academy. It is designed to centralize the knowledge you need to run a successful online store.  New educational content debuting on the platform includes resources that explain the nuts and bolts of selling online, such as setting up your store, as well as detailed instructions for solving specific ecommerce problems. Two popular curriculum modules are "Launch Your Business" and "Get Your First Sale." The series covers generating traffic and getting store visitors.  We encourage you to take a peek at the "Launch Your Business" and "Get Your First Sale" modules first to ensure you have a good understanding of some ecommerce basics.  These lessons are designed to be brief. That way, it's easier to find time to fit this training into the time you already spend working on your business. Build Your Business was specifically designed to be a super helpful first step for beginners. And the best part? It's completely free! Enroll in our online course at Build Your Business today: https://ecommerce-academy.ecwid.com/ Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardOtey 

Tune in to the latest episode of the Ecwid Ecommerce Show for fresh news and action-oriented tips for the holiday season. Podcast hosts Jesse and Rich start the episode with some news fresh off the presses—the acquisition of Ecwid by Lightspeed. In a nutshell, the acquisition means more people building a better platform for Ecwid users.  Another thing Jesse and Rich touch on is Facebook moving to VR (and rebranding as Meta). Rest assured, this doesn't change the value of Facebook ads for you.  Moving on to the matter at hand: holiday season sales!  Push Your Deals Early  The big box stores have started pre- Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. You should consider pre- sales as well. Run sales as soon as possible to beat their sales and avoid Ship-aggedon. Set Up Google Shopping Jesse also reminds all of us to take advantage of the Google Shopping feed. It's one of the easiest things you can do to help boost your sales as google searches for gifts go up.  Adopt Social Selling Rich encourages all of us to review our social media platform strategies to better take advantage of them as both advertising channels and outright sales channels.  Jesse highly recommends checking out Ecwid's TikTok integration. Sign up, get the TikTok pixel and catalog sync, and see if these features help you strategize for sales.  Try Live Shopping  Live shopping is basically selling your products on a live stream.  Live shopping works best for products that need demonstration, or for showing off how a product is made. This makes it an especially good feature for artists or one-of-a-kind artisans.  Let us know if any of these tips work for you. We're always looking for small business success stories to speak on the podcast. So, share with us and you might be next! New: Ecwid's “Build Your Business” Academy: https://ecommerce-academy.ecwid.com Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardOtey 

In this bonus episode, our podcast host RichE covers a few things that you should do to get ready for Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year. Listen to RichE map out a simple but effective holiday season strategy for your small business through: Creating videos Posting ads Remarketing Retargeting Email marketing. Episodes mentioned in the podcast: Episode #75 with Josh Berkstreer, Head of Education at Ecwid on holiday success plan: https://www.ecwid.com/blog/holiday-success-plan.html Episodes #76 and #88 with Ricardo Lasa from Kliken on Google Shopping: https://www.ecwid.com/blog/google-shopping-tips-from-kliken.html https://www.ecwid.com/blog/how-to-automate-your-facebook-ads-and-google-shopping.html Episode #69 with Dennis Yu on creating Facebook video ads quickly and easily: https://www.ecwid.com/blog/facebook-advertising-starting-quick-and-easy-with-dennis-yu.html Books mentioned in the podcast: “Twelve and a Half” by Gary Vaynerchuk: https://www.amazon.com/Gary-Vaynerchuk/dp/0062674684 “UnReceptive” by Tom Stanfill: https://www.amazon.com/unReceptive-Better-Sell-Lead-Influence/dp/1400225809/ Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardOtey 

In this episode of the Ecwid Ecommerce Show, meet Nicole Horowitz, Content Marketing Manager at Ecwid...and aspiring entrepreneur. Nicole has been writing a new Ecwid blog series, “How to Sell Online If You're a Beginner”, where she shares her first-hand experience starting an online vintage clothing store, taking Ecwid out for a spin in the real world.  Getting Started You should start with an idea you feel genuinely excited about. Understand the seed of your concept. You don't need a complete business plan to get started. You just need a starting point to inspire you to take action.  Use your dream as your motivation, as it can get you through times when things go wrong. A business partner can be invaluable. They provide a support system and a sounding board to help vet ideas. If nothing else, do some research on the competition in your niche and use them to guide your own ideas.  Planning and Budgeting How do you balance your dream business with your day job? Can you start your business as a hobby/part-time endeavor? Is it possible to start a business with baby steps? Test your plans and concepts in a small way and then ramp up where you find success.  Start-ups need to be cautious with their budget. Create a website and some social media profiles first to get started with minimal start-up costs. Adapting on the Way Nicole discusses how she is learning to adapt as the business grows to keep momentum. Her business will try things and re-evaluate, work with A/B test concepts, and respond to feedback from the market. You need to create and push out content to create interest in your product and drive engagement. Embrace trial and error and be willing to adapt and change, rather than rigidly sticking to the first plan you thought of. Lean on your strengths. For example, Nicole's writing ability allows her to share advice and stories to build relationships with her target audience. Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardOtey   

In our newest episode, we talk to Joe Valley, a Certified Mergers and Acquisitions Professional. After facilitating nearly 1⁄2 billion in exits, Joe has written the bestselling book "The EXITpreneur's Playbook" to help online business owners get the maximum value and best deal structure when they seek an exit.  Tune in for Joe's insights, and don't forget to download three free chapters from his book, just for the Ecwid community: Chapter 11: Identify All Your Add-Backs Chapter 13: FBA Roll-ups, Yeah or Nay? Chapter 15: Structuring the Deal You can download the chapters in the Ecwid Blog: https://www.ecwid.com/blog/becoming-an-exitpreneur-with-joe-valley.html Some key insights of the podcast include: Getting the Basics Right to Build on Your Foundation Set a specific goal for your exit time and value.  Getting the basics right starts with getting your books and accounting in order. Understanding a seller's discretionary revenue is the key to understanding the actual value of your business. The Peculiarities of Selling a Business C-Corporations are harder to sell because they involve an asset sale, not a stock sale.  However, more than just assets will be involved in the contract. Post-sale, you'll need to stick around and help with the transition. For most business owners, the most money is made at the exit.  Becoming an Exitpreneur Learning to look at your business as a short-term project can help you build something great. Shifting your mindset from being an entrepreneur to an Exitpreneur, can be exhilarating, but difficult for some people. What Revenue Levels Are Buyers Looking for Today? The four things buyers look at while deciding on a deal are: Risk, Growth, Transferability, and Documentation. High total discretionary earning is the goal. Two-year-old businesses with six-figure discretionary earnings are ideal. Sell on growth years. Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardOtey 

In this episode, our podcast host Rich flies solo to interview Alex Schupp of Denver Crowd, a digital marketing and website development agency. Alex and his team at Denver Crowd are a great example of an ecommerce/nonprofit partnership in action.  Fundraising, collecting donations, raising awareness, and community communication are common needs for all nonprofits. These mirror Ecwid's core functions, making it easy for an Ecwid store owner to reach out to nonprofits and help improve their capabilities by applying their own experience and knowledge. Alex provides four examples of different nonprofit partnerships, each with its own unique benefits and challenges. Learn a little more about each below, and tune in for the whole story.  City Greens Market  Food deserts are a common problem for urban areas. City Greens Market is meeting the needs of this Saint Louis neighborhood. Their original solution to the problems presented by COVID-19 restrictions wasn't effective. But by moving to Ecwid Ecommerce, they streamlined their operations and added capabilities for their service. City Greens has varied tiered pricing for members and non-members. Ecwid E-commerce helped them manage this complication by using discount codes, allowing on-site pricing to accurately reflect what was appropriate for each individual shopper. Redemption Road Fitness It is a unique organization, made up of CrossFit enthusiasts who help inmates with mental and physical rehabilitation. Redemption Road helps prisoners change their mindset, which reduces recidivism.  They had a unique problem with the fulfillment of items sold for fundraising. One challenge was that the items were created on demand by prisoners at one facility. Ecwid provided an email solution to facilitate dropshipping. Veterans to Farmers This nonprofit is a free service for veterans across the United States. They teach veterans  everything they need to know about becoming a farmer, from land management to marketing. Ecwid Ecommerce helped to distribute merchandise for fundraising and helped the community of supporters, service providers, and participants stay connected. It also simplified the donation process for those who wanted to provide ongoing support. Bailey Outdoor Recreation Area  Bailey Outdoor Recreation Area (BORA) in Colorado uses a school's recreational space to enhance the experience of health-conscious city residents. BORA initially had problems with collecting fees from users, as well as cash management difficulties. By moving the fee collection process online and providing multiple payment methods with Ecwid, they improved their ability to manage and maintain funding. Learn more by following these links: https://www.denvercrowd.com/ https://www.stlcitygreens.org/ https://www.rf2.org/ https://www.veteranstofarmers.org/  https://www.boera.org/ Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardOtey 

In our latest podcast, we talk to Ricardo Lasa, CEO of Kliken.com and an automated Google Shopping and Facebook Ads guru. Kliken provides automated Facebook Ads and Google Shopping from your Ecwid Control Panel. Ricardo shares what's coming for Google Shopping and Facebook Ads, and how you can get ready for the future now. Topics of discussion include: Why a multi-platform (and multi-Google) presence is needed. Insights from analysis of multi-platform data gathering. How Kliken streamlines onboarding and adds content creation, and ongoing maintenance for a complete ad campaign. Using AI for driving decision-making on pricing, inventory, and bundling. Using AI for improving suggestive selling at checkout. Building organic presence on multiple sites. New ways to think about product placement and promotion. Testing ad campaigns with simulations. How AI can improve your merchandising and logistics. What a one-click campaign is. How to optimize ad budget based on AI analysis. Kliken's integration with Google My Business tools. Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardOtey 

In the latest episode of the Ecwid E-commerce Show, hosts Jesse and Rich interview Pon Pandian Paulswamy, co-founder of TargetBay. Topics of discussion include: Using TargetBay to launch automation tools, initiate review requests, and promotion. The importance of review collection, not only for social proof but for organic growth in Google search and Google Shopping. Repurposing reviews for promotion and content. Images and product usage shots as powerful assets for marketing. Gathering email lists organically, as well as with on-site pop ups, and in conjunction with sales. Using coupons as a way to incentivize subscription to your email list. Education for subscription attraction. Managing and segmenting your lists by interaction level. Setting up automatic trigger emails such as cart abandonment email. Using reviews and email interactions to develop humanized, situation appropriate, automated responses. The importance of cookies for staying connected with every potential customer. And more!   Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast   Ecwid Social Social Profiles:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecwid   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecwid/   Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam   Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecwid   Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ecwid/   Jesse Ness Social Profiles:   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/   Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles:   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/   Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardOtey 

In this episode of the Ecwid Ecommerce Show, hosts Jesse and Rich are joined by Chris Lavoie, the Technology Partner Manager at Gorgias.com The episode touches on the following: What helpdesk software is and how it differs from AI-chatbots. Omnichannel in customer service, and answering customer questions where they are. Using social media not only for marketing but for customer support as well.  Effectively spotting and answering negative replies on social media. The most important metrics for customer support, including first response and resolution time. How to empower customers to serve themselves on a website and escalate to a live agent when necessary.  Using machine learning to detect negative comments in customer requests to prioritize them in a support agent's queue.  Considering a customer's history of requests to improve phone support. Customer service agents can get all the information they need about a customer right when they call.  How presales can be an opportunity for customer support.  Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardOtey 

In this episode of The Ecwid Ecommerce Show, our hosts Jesse and Rich talk through everything you need to know about Ecwid's new Subscriptions Model.  They explain how subscription clients can make you happy and successful. Here are some key takeaways: The value of your company is increased by having predictable, reliable, subscribers. The regularity of subscribers allows for improved forecasting and planning, and simplifies logistics. Recurring customers require less marketing and are less expensive to work with than prospects. Overall, subscribers make your business more profitable, and can reduce stressors and headaches. Jesse and Rich also give their best advice on making a product a better value for recurring subscribers. Here are some ideas: Offer a subscriber discount A “Buy One, Get One” deal Offer a special gift Bundle in an additional product Bundle in a donation to a cause your brand supports Have season-specific subscription offerings Offer first access to new products Offer subscriber-exclusive products Offer free branded items Be creative in what you can offer. To learn more about the subscription business model, check out our blog post and how-to videos. Questions? Ideas for selling subscriptions? Share them with us! Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardOtey

Our Ecwid E-commerce hosts Jesse and Rich are here on the mic to share some great tips for increasing sales using something called live shopping. Sounds intriguing, right? We've talked about how videos can help your overall marketing strategy. And we've touched on the benefits of live streaming. But now we'd like to introduce you to the latest and greatest in video shopping techniques—live shopping. Let's explain how it's unique and how you can stand out in the sea of video-based marketing opportunities by staying ahead of the trends. First, Why Live Shopping? 80% of your business is about doing things that you know you need to do. Then doing what works over and over again.  The other 20% is about experimenting to find new ways to drive traffic to your product, and new ways to convert those visitors into customers. Live shopping is quickly becoming the best new way to make these things happen. Live shopping combines the fun, interactivity of live streaming with the thrill of online shopping. It's different from live streaming, because it's specifically commerce driven. Live shopping allows you to feature your product on video while engaging with your audience during your streams.  This new feature is now being offered by Facebook and Amazon. Use it to bring out your entertainer persona. Not sure how to put on the charm? Check out some influencer videos on YouTube in your niche for inspiration.  There are a ton of platforms you can use to present your products live: Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Twitch, TikTok—some of which you're probably already familiar with. Feel free to experiment with multiple to see which one gets the best traffic.  At the same time. keep in mind that live shopping is more than just a still shot of your product. Brainstorm various ways to present your goods to your audience: reviews, comparisons, and demonstrations. How you make your content stand out is 100% up to you. Explore your options, and try many things at first, and then go in the direction of what feels natural and gains traction from viewers.  What's the Difference Between Live Streaming and Regular Video Content? Be aware that there are two production options: the first is recording your shopping session live, the other is recording a piece that needs post-production editing work. A live recording can be broadcast as a live stream, or uploaded as a broadcast later, but either way, it is recorded as a single take, unedited. If you have some editing know-how, you might consider filming a more editing-driven piece of content. The benefit of this is that your video can be filmed out of sequence, and you can do multiple takes as needed, with all the pieces edited together later.  The price of a post-production heavy piece is hours of time reviewing and assembling your footage. On the other hand, the live stream live shopping experience comes with the stress of having to get everything right in one take, or at least being comfortable making mistakes on camera for the whole world to see.  How to Start Live Shopping Start simple: get your product link ready, and go live on your preferred platform. It is critical that you have the link readily available for interested shoppers. This way you can get people excited about your product, and (hopefully) immediately turn that excitement into a sale.  A live presentation is exciting and a little stressful, but comes with unique rewards. It helps make you come alive as an entrepreneur and a brand to your market. It adds that human element that is the foundation of a good relationship between merchant and customer.  Accept that along the way, you might make mistakes. But don't worry! Your audience will accept these imperfections. In fact, to them, that is what makes you a relatable human being. People like authenticity, transparency, reality. Don't let the expectation of perfection prevent you from diving into something new. Another strategy is sharing your production process, or real scenes of people using your product. Getting Ready for Live Shopping Here's how to get ready for live shopping: Make sure you have a phone with a strong internet connection ready to go (and charged!). Pick the best platform for your market (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, you name it). Decide on the product you want to highlight, and prepare it for demonstration. Test your production before you go live. Find and test the link for product purchase. Make sure it is easy for your customer to buy your product. A one-click shopping experience is preferred. Go live!  Tips for live shopping: Make sure the product is ready to buy before you start streaming. Having an assistant is really useful (even if that's your mom, husband, or best friend). They can check for mistakes you might not be aware of, and help make you feel more comfortable in front of the camera.  Still have questions about live shopping? Don't hesitate to reach out to us at The Ecwid E-commerce Show. Rich and Jesse are happy to answer your questions. This is a peek into the future of online shopping, no crystal ball necessary. So get going and go make those sales happen. Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardOtey 

This week, the Ecwid E-commerce Show hosts Jesse and Richie are joined by Mark Daoust, founder of Quiet Light. Quiet Light is a brokerage for buying and selling websites and e-commerce businesses. Mark gives listeners some inside advice on how to make your domain a valuable web property, and how to eventually sell a successfully developed domain or business. The discussion touches upon: The value of buying an existing domain rather than starting a business from scratch Structuring a company for eventual sale Making your domain a valuable web property The value of landing pages to capture niche markets and drive them back to your site The benefit of finding successful domains related to your business, which you should consider buying Activities to help with building a successful ongoing business, while creating a sellable asset The brand as a big piece of the value of your business Moving beyond just reselling someone else's brand. Four pillars of value: risk, growth, transferability, documentation. Want more insights from Mark? Lucky you! He also has a podcast and a special business course.  Quiet Light website: https://quietlight.com/ Mark's podcast: https://quietlight.com/podcasts Mark's course: https://courses.quietlightbrokerage.com Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardOtey 

Today the Ecwid E-commerce Show hosts Jesse and Richie are joined by Tony Virelli of 3D Locksport.  Having found success in specialty niches, Tony shares his experience launching and selling a unique product created with the help of 3D-printing. He is a locksport enthusiast (locksport is the sport of opening locks and beating complex systems) and enjoys 3D design and printing. So he decided to connect his two loves to bring custom tools and accessories to the locksport community.  A 3D printer allowed Tony to meet an untapped demand for locksmith stands and holders. That's why he encourages merchants to embrace the opportunities provided by new technology. On today's show, Tony also touches upon: Why he chose Ecwid for selling online: for him it was a no-risk way to explore e-commerce, simple to develop and scale his store and concept, and easy to manage products and order processing. Using tools like Mailchimp and Facebook Messenger for automating customer order notifications, getting the word out, and promoting your business with virtually no budget. Tips for promoting a niche product without paid ads: reaching out to targeted communities, finding the right Facebook group(s), using Reddit to target niche groups. And other tips for writing newsletters, managing outbound communication, using YouTube videos for social proof, creating great product pictures on a budget. 3D Locksport: https://www.3dlocksport.com/  Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardOtey 

On this week's podcast, meet Alex Schupp of Sports Obsession, a sports apparel and merchandise store. (sportsobsession.com) Sports Obsession has over 20,000 products for sale, so they wanted a robust yet simple e-commerce platform that would allow them to do an initial mass-import of thousands of products. Alex rebuilt the Sports Obsession website with Ecwid E-commerce and brought the annual revenue up from $800 to over $200,000! Tune in to find out how they successfully used Google AdWords, Facebook and Instagram Ads, as well as Google Shopping to market their Ecwid store online.  In addition to an overview of Sports Obsession's success, Alex shares other practical tips that helped them to go from $1,000 a year to $1,000 a day in sales, such as: Managing and organizing 20,000 products Focusing on e-commerce  Getting high quality images for a professional presentation Using Ecwid's wide range of tools to market their products successfully Gathering customer data to improve segmentation and targeted marketing Increasing cart value by understanding fan psychology And more!   Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardOtey

Kevin Urrutia, Founder of Voy Media, talks about launching new businesses, scaling companies, and building and managing a remote team. Voy Media: https://voymedia.com/ Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardOtey

Norm Farrar aka “The Bearded Guy", is the founder of  Micro Brands, as well as, being the owner AMZ Club and PRReach. Norm has over 25 years experience in sourcing, branding, and development, and he shares this experience on his podcast “Lunch with Norm” Norm has helped a variety of brands to sell 1 millions plus a month in sales. We look forward to hearing how we can exceed beyond Amazon. https://lunchwithnorm.com/about/   Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardOtey

Jesse and Rich are joined by Ricardo Lasa CEO of Kliken. https://www.kliken.com/ They encourage you to take advantage of the Google Shopping Engine. How can you turn down Free Traffic? Ricardo explains some of the steps that can get you started with your integration. Ricardo also discusses how Kliken can offer you a more automated, headache free experience. Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardOtey 

Jesse and Rich are joined by a new member of the Ecwid team, Josh Berkstresser, head of Education Strategy They discuss the new Holiday Success Plan, which Ecwid is rolling out as an Pre-Holiday gift for it's Merchants. Are you ready for Black Friday? Are you making the most of the current surge in online commerce? The team encourages you to make your Black Friday plan, and start marketing it yesterday. Set your goals high, promote across channels, and have your calendar, drive your actions. And, find out how to unleash the power of the Gift Card. Plan Communicate Set up Breathe Follow Up Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardOtey 

Today's guest is Brian Carver, CEO of www.atlas46.com Atlas 46 provides unique, quality, American made products to several industries. The core products are tool belt vests, popular with construction workers, mechanics and off-road enthusiasts. After tiring of software, Brian took over this business which his father had recently launched, and grew it to a multi location business with 200 employees. Atlas 46's greatest growth came after Brian move the sales focus on-line. Sales grew 117% year-over-year. Learn from his experience of building a growing, profitable ecommerce business. Brian uses Ecwid because of the integrations, being able to embed in the design, taking the role and responsibility of using the server. He likes that Ecwid offers customization, if a feature is not built into the software. This flexibility is a competitive advantage. Listen in to learn more! Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardOtey

Today's guest is Traci Reuter, founder/CEO of Divine Social and co-host of The Social Media Marketing Happy Hour podcast. Divine Social has a passion for supporting businesses in growing their brands through authentic, meaningful social advertising. Traci has an uncanny gift for looking at any business's mission, vision, and message, and mapping out the right strategy to get their brand in front of the right people at the right time. With 25 years of experience in sales and marketing, Traci knows her stuff when it comes to high-level marketing strategy. Combined with her tactical knowledge of social advertising, Traci can write the recipe for any brand's success, and she's here today to share some of her greatest secrets behind mapping out your own powerful social advertising strategy. Find out why it's time to double down on advertising. Why Traci believes there are 3 main types of videos you should be creating and how you should be putting most of your effort into 1 of those. Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardOtey

Today we explore deep into the Amazonian jungle. But it will be OK, because we have an expert as our guide. He's our guide, he's our guy, he's My Amazon Guy - Steve Pope. His 300 Amazon Tutorial videos are evidence of his expertise. All of that and more can be found at the MyAmazonGuy website. Steve brings his insights to our questions about: How to successfully launch a product on Amazon and accelerate its growth on a shoestring budget How to optimize everything about a listing without hiring someone Why made in the USA is about to surge on Amazon How Amazon sellers can stay ahead of the game in the midst of the changing Amazon landscape The biggest culprits of a failed product launch, and how to quickly recover from it We may need to order extra brains, on Amazon, to keep up with it all. Listen in. Alt text and A+ content: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m45Cn7s2BZ0 Website: https://myamazonguy.com/ Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-amazon-guy/id1501974229 Social links (FB+IG): https://www.youtube.com/MyAmazonGuy https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenpopeecommercemanger/ https://www.facebook.com/myamazonguys/ https://twitter.com/myamazonguy https://www.linkedin.com/company/my-amazon-guy/ Ecwid Podcast on Ecwid https://www.ecwid.com/blog/podcast Ecwid Social Social Profiles:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecwid Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecwid/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EcwidTeam Twitter: https://twitter.com/ecwid Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ecwid/ Jesse Ness Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesseness/ Richard “RichE” Otey Social Profiles: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardotey/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RichardOtey