The Ecomcrew Ecommerce Podcast

Latest Episodes:

E197: Predictions for the Future - State of the Merchant Report with Andrew Youderian Nov 15, 2018

Show notes

Every year Andrew Youderian of EcommerceFuel surveys hundreds of store owners to better understand the trends in the ecommerce industry.

Today Andrew and I review the report of last year's survey and make predictions for the future of ecommerce based on this data.

If you're also an ecommerce store owner, we'd like to invite you to help us better understand the ecommerce landscape by answering next year's survey.

Why participate?

Andrew is shamelessly bribing you and me to participate in the survey--called State of the Merchant--by giving one lucky participant a roundtrip plane ticket to anywhere in the world. Last year's winner used his ticket for an epic 15 day, 6 country trip to Europe.

More importantly though, you'll be participating in a research that's not done anywhere else. Your participation will give us a much clearer insight into what really goes on in the ecommerce jungle.

Predictions for the future

Below are predictions, some pretty bold, about the future of ecommerce based on this year's State of the Merchant data:

Amazon will lose its spot as the number 1 go-to place for online shopping
Facebook ads will get more expensive as more and more users leave the platform
Conversion rate for dropshipping will decrease
UPS and FedEx will offer Sunday deliveries for Amazon
Amazon will launch their own delivery service to rival UPS and FedEx
There will be a major legislation about sales tax

Full Report

You can view the full report in the infographic below.

Click here to participate in next year's State of the Merchant Survey.

Thanks for listening to this episode! Until the next one, happy selling.

E196: The Most Important Success Factor in Business - Takeaways from the 5 Minute Pitch Nov 13, 2018

Show notes

Early this year my buddies Steve Chou of My Wife Quit Her Job, Scott Voelker of The Amazing Seller, Greg Mercer of Jungle Scout and I came up with a new show called the 5 Minute Pitch.

All four of us met up last week to film the semi-finals, and it's a little strange to say this, but it's probably the hardest I've worked the whole year. The schedule was so brutal that I wasn't able to touch my laptop for 3 whole days. Imagine that.

The 5 Minute Pitch

The 5 Minute Pitch is a Shark Tank style show where we have 32 contestants pitch us their businesses for 5 minutes, for a chance to win $50,000. Unlike Shark Tank, there's no strings attached, which means we don't take any equity from the company that wins.

Over the next few weeks after the creation of the show, the four of us and a couple of guest judges got together on Skype while 32 companies pitched their business ideas to us.

We narrowed the contestants down to 8 and had them fly to San Diego last week to present an extended pitch, in person, to all four of us plus one very special guest judge who we can't reveal yet (hint: his podcast is in iTunes' top 100 Business Podcasts).

We will be airing the first batch of pitches early next year on iTunes and YouTube.

The finals, which will determine the winner who will take the $50,000 prize, will be held in Miami, Florida during the Sellers Summit.

Most Important Takeaway from the Semi Finals

There is one thing that stood out to me during our filming last week (aside from the back pain from having to sit in the same position for too long) and that is there's one thing all successful businesses have.

The ability to adapt to change.

In business, you don't need to have everything figured out at the get go. You don't need to have everything planned. If you get too buried in planning, taking into account every possible scenario in your head, you might not get around to doing anything at all.

Learn to take action, get early feedback, and use that feedback to steer your business in the right direction.

Being nimble and learning how to ride the tide is the most important skill you need to learn to achieve business success.

If you think about it, so many successful businesses--AirBnB, Lyft, Cisco--didn't have all their ducks in a row. And if you look at their history, they are not the same company as they were when they started.

But they all have one thing in common: the ability to adapt to change.

Even the 5 Minute Pitch didn't start out perfectly. We knew we wanted to do this but the details weren't clear to any of us when we started. But we went ahead and did it anyway, improvising and learning from our mistakes along the way. The result of it is a show that all four of us are excited and proud to present to you.

EcomCrew Premium Opening One Last Time This Year

We've recently been limiting the number of people we accommodate with EcomCrew Premium because we wanted to be able to attend to the needs of every single one of our members, and having too many people sign up prevents us from doing that.

We have a trick up our sleeve for our next reopening on Black Friday, which will be the last time we will open registrations this year. Connect with us on Facebook to be among the first to get updates about our surprise for the reopening.

Thanks for listening to this episode! Until the next one, happy selling.

E195: Road to 1M - Dave's 18th Month Update on His New Ecommerce Business Nov 08, 2018

Show notes

It's Dave here. I've taken the reigns from Mr. Jackness in order to bring you an update on the status of my second ecommerce venture.

Regular listeners to this podcast will know that I sold my first company two years ago. After going on a hiatus for a couple of months, the call to entrepreneurship became too strong to ignore. So in June of last year, I started another business with the intention of generating a million dollars in revenue by March 2018.

It's been 8 months now and I still haven't broken through the 1M mark. But, revenue projections are on an upward trend and profit margins have increased. There have been some hiccups along the way but the business is growing. Given the numbers, we're in a strong position to achieve $1.75 million in revenue by 2019.

Wins

Getting brand registered (finally!)
Amazon.ca continues to be a big revenue driver
Google Shopping and Facebook Remarketing ads are also doing really well
Hired a full-time VA

Losses

Dispute with the buyer of my first company
A major quality issue with a product that caused it to be removed temporarily from Amazon
Slow eBay sales
The Canadian version of our website was a complete flop

For more details of my 18-month ecommerce journey, check out the accompanying blog post here.

Registration to EcomCrew Premium is closed indefinitely. But, you can still learn from us through our suite of free courses. There's a total of 20 videos covering ecommerce topics like Importing from China and Building a 7-Figure Business. Find more information on the link below. Free Video Courses As always, thanks for listening to this episode! If you enjoyed listening and think this episode has been useful to you, please take a moment to leave us a review on iTunes. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Happy selling!

E194: Growing a Highly Niched Ecommerce Business (Under the Hood with Elias Manopla) Nov 05, 2018

Show notes

I always enjoy meeting people who listen to our podcasts. Our audience base is largely located in the United States, however; we do have listeners in the Asia Pacific and in Europe. More recently, I've discovered that we're reaching entrepreneurs in Central America. Proof of this Elias Manopla, our featured ecommerce entrepreneur on this episode of Under the Hood. Elias owns an online butcher shop that sells a variety of barbeque meat, poultry, and fish items in and around Panama. Grill accompaniments like corn and arepas, the local corn cake, is also available for purchase.

Taking quality meats 'online'

Elias, a big barbeque fan, got the idea to sell these products after ordering meat from a supplier that was recommended to him by a friend. Impressed by the quality, he has since partnered with this supplier to make these meat products available online. He used Shopify to set up an online butcher shop and is now looking at ways that he can grow the business by extending his brand's reach.

My two cents

Elias's ecommerce business belongs in a highly niched industry. Given where he's located, it can also be assumed that a chunk of his target market has yet to try shopping online. Some might not even have access to the internet.

Facebook ads are great for reaching more people with minimal effort. However, they have to be strategically targeted in order to work. Start with existing customers. Do they have something in common? Knowing your target demographic allows you to be more successful at targeting those ads.

Speaking of ads, videos are a great medium for promoting foodstuffs. Creating videos should be part of the marketing plan.

Finally, increase repeat orders by crafting a flawless post-purchase sequence. The goal is to turn first-time buyers into loyal customers.

Listen to the full episode for more tips on how to grow a unique food-based ecommerce business like the one Elias has.

Under the Hood is a segment where we do an hour-long coaching call with one of our listeners. We take a look at their businesses, provide honest feedback, offer our best business advice, and answer whatever questions they have. In exchange for the free coaching, we will turn the call into a podcast episode so that our community can benefit as well. It's a win-win! Registration to EcomCrew Premium is closed indefinitely. But, you can still learn from us through our suite of free courses. There's a total of 20 videos covering ecommerce topics like Importing from China and Building a 7-Figure Business. Find more information on the link below. Free Video Courses As always, thanks for listening to this episode! If you enjoyed listening and think this episode has been useful to you, please take a moment to leave us a review on iTunes. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Happy selling!

E193: 2018 Goals - The Home Stretch Nov 01, 2018

Show notes

The first month of the Q4 is nearly at an end so its high time that I give you guys an update on my 2018 goals. There have been a couple of snags along the way but I remain optimistic about the coming months and what we've got planned for the business.

If you haven't been keeping up with my previous updates, here are the other podcast episodes to listen to. My 2018 Goals 2018 Goals Quarterly Goals

The Half-Way Mark

And now, here's where I'm at.

1. Develop 50 new products

We're currently very far behind because of the fact that we were forced to make changes tie due to existing market conditions. The advent of tariffs has resulted in us canceling further product launches in favor of having a more sustainable cash flow.

2. Launch on Amazon Canada, UK, Germany, France, Italy, and eventually, Australia

We're already on Amazon CA and also Amazon UK. However, sales figures for Amazon UK have been lower than what we expected. Amazon CA remains a bright spot though.

3. Optimize our Amazon PPC listings to increase sales by an average of 50%

On-track but the whole process has taken longer than expected. However, I expect that we'll get this done before the end of the year, at least for top listings.

4. Optimize Amazon PPC

We've managed to drop ACOS from 30% to under 25 %, this figure represents 5-figures a month in savings for us.

5. Implement the concepts in the book Traction in our business

You can track how we've done so far by listening to these series of podcasts - part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4.

6. Reach $10 million in revenue at a 10% net profit

Again, market conditions will mean that we won't be meeting this goal. I'm hoping that we'll end up somewhere around the $7 million mark, depending on Q4 performance.

7. Lose 12 lbs

To date, I have already lost between 8 -10 lbs from doing intermittent fasting and going on 3-mile hikes.

8. Record 100 episodes of the EcomCrew podcast

We're already on episode 193 and can end up doing up to episode 198.

9. Launch a new version of ecomcrew.com

Done.

10. Launch at least 4 new courses

We've now done this with the recent launch of the Facebook Messenger course.

11. Speak at 4+ industry events

This has also been accomplished.

12. Hike 80 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail

This didn't happen but I did go on a 3-day trip backpacking and hiking trip to Mammoth Lakes.

13. Take an epic 2-week vacation

We went on a great vacation to New England. We also visited Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont and checked out the cities of Quebec and Montreal. This brings my total to 48 states visited.

14. Visit the Philippines office at least once

Visited the guys out there in April was planning to go back in October but that fell through. Planning a trip there next year.

15. Read 4 books

For this quarter, I read Phil Collins's memoir Not Dead Yet.

16. Handoff my Facebook ads to other people within the company

Was checked off but now it's unchecked again because our marketing person left. We'll have to go back to the drawing board on this to rethink things because what we're doing at the moment isn't working.

17. Come up with at least one new tactic that no one else is doing

Haven't had a whole lot of time to do this but we'll see what happens.

18. Never lose sight of the bigger picture: create 5-star products that customers will truly enjoy. Enjoying coming to work every day and ensuring that we creating jobs and opportunities for employees ensuring that they're excited to come to work every day.

I have been getting positive feedback on our products and from our employees.

As always, thanks for listening to this episode! If you enjoyed listening and think this episode has been useful to you, please take a moment to leave us a review on iTunes.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Happy selling!

E192: Our Stress Points in Running an Ecommerce Business Oct 29, 2018

Show notes

Stress is perhaps one of the many constants in running an ecommerce business. Whether you're a starting entrepreneur or someone looking to scale that business, stress is always bound to creep up.

Dave and I have both been in business for some time now. Over the years we've encountered situations that resulted in much worrying and a number of sleepless nights. Unfortunately, stress in relation to developing and growing an ecommerce business isn't something many entrepreneurs talk about. This episode aims to initiate that very conversation.

Unsurprisingly, we share quite a few stress points. Here are some that made it to our lists.

Inventory
Staff
Logistics
Amazon
Tariffs
Sales Tax
Competition
Business failure = Personal failure

We end this conversation with some tips to de-stress.

Don't put money on the table that's more than you can spend.
Take a real vacation.
Set aside time for yourself.
Exercise.
Spend an hour or so at the end of the day for family time.

What aspects of the business do you stress over? Let us know in the comment section below.

As always, thanks for listening to this episode! If you enjoyed listening and think this episode has been useful to you, please take a moment to leave us a review on iTunes.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Happy selling!

E191:Takeaways from Retail Global and Rhodium Weekend Oct 25, 2018

Show notes

The second week of October was a particularly busy time for me. I was up in Vegas to speak at back-to-back conferences.

First up was Retail Global Las Vegas, an ecommerce event organized by Aussie ecommerce veteran Phil Leahy.

This was then followed by Rhodium Weekend, a gathering of online business owners and potential buyers.

In today's episode, I talk to Dave about my biggest takeaways from attending and speaking at these events.

There are a lot of investors looking to invest in ecommerce businesses. With banks offering low interests, a 50 to 100% ROI that's typical of ecommerce businesses is all the more attractive.
Many ecommerce entrepreneurs have their significant partners involved in the business. More often than not, drawing a balance between your professional and personal relationship can prove challenging.
No one really knows how to deal with the online sales tax issue. I joined a three-person panel session on this and about ten minutes into it, these experts were arguing amongst themselves on how this issue can be addressed.

Tune in to this episode for the details and Dave's input on them. Overall, I was quite happy with how these speaking engagements. I was more relaxed and able to focus on how to deliver my presentation better to the audience.

We've opened up registration for EcomCrew Premium for 3 days. Get access to exclusive content - courses, webinars, swipe files, and conference presentations. You also get unlimited 1 on 1 email time with both Mike and Dave. Finally, we have our members-only Facebook group, which allows you to interact and learn from other ecommerce entrepreneurs. Registration closes at midnight Pacific time so go ahead and sign up today.

If you want to get involved in the Online Merchants Guild, you can get all the information here.

As always, thanks for listening to this episode! If you enjoyed listening and think this episode has been useful to you, please take a moment to leave us a review on iTunes.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Happy selling!

E190: Achieving Success on Amazon,Exploring Traffic Channels Beyond Facebook (Under the Hood with Greg Williams) Oct 23, 2018

Show notes

I really enjoy doing these Under the Hood episodes for many reasons. I get to 'pay it forward' and help people who are just starting or scaling their ecommerce businesses. It's always interesting to look at what other people are doing in niches that we may not be involved in.

Today's interview was quite a treat because I got to talk to a medical professional and entrepreneur who has a potentially winning product and strategy in his hands.

Greg, the nutritionist

Greg Williams comes from the unique perspective of someone who not only sells his products but formulates them as well. A nutritionist by profession, Greg works with people who have chronic health conditions like colitis and Crohn's disease. His journey with food supplements started with a desire to help his wife overcome colitis. After achieving success with this, he saw the opportunity to help more people in an easier and more affordable way by selling his supplements online.

Business profile

Greg started selling his supplements back in 2016 and has enjoyed a steady increase in profit. From initial sales of £5,000 two years ago, his 10 products have brought in over £100,000 in sales.

The statistics for repeat purchases are quite impressive. From a base of just under 4,000 customers, his products have a 30% repeat order rate at 1.75% purchase frequency.

Greg's marketing efforts are heavily reliant on Facebook ads so he is interested in exploring other potential traffic channels. He is also keen on bringing in more of business into Amazon.

Mike's advice

Don't push things too much with FB to prevent account shut down. Instead, work on your organic rankings. Have a long-term keyword and content strategy. Tap influencers who can promote your product.
Create email sequence to inform customers that products are already available on Amazon Include a discount. Use this to redirect traffic from Facebook.
Advertise on Amazon. Start by creating the perfect listing - with high-quality images, keywords, and providing as much detailed info as possible. Turn on automatic campaigns with a very high budget and do the aggressive bidding. This strategy will allow you to determine the best keywords to target for manual campaigns.
Explore other traffic and marketing channels like Google Shopping ads and Instagram if applicable to your target market.
Create a free plus shipping not to achieve the 'marketing trifecta'.

Free Video Courses

As always, thanks for listening to this episode! If you enjoyed listening and think this episode has been useful to you, please take a moment to leave us a review on iTunes.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Happy selling!

E189: Advanced Amazon A9 SEO Strategies Oct 18, 2018

Show notes

Hey everyone! Dave here going solo for this episode. Mike is down with a terrible cold after a couple of Las Vegas speaking engagements, so he might miss the podcast for a while.

For this episode, we'll uncover the mystery that is Amazon A9. If you've been selling on Amazon for a while, you probably have a basic understanding of how SEO for Amazon works. But with the crazy competition from prominent companies and obscure Chinese sellers alike, how do you really propel your products to the top?

This episode ties in with a recently published article that dives deep on how Amazon A9 SEO works and the strategies to take full advantage of it.

As a sneak peek, here are some discussion points for this episode:

How rankings are most often determined by relevancy and conversions
What makes a listing relevant to Amazon with respect to keywords
What the "hall pass" of new listings is
How to create converting listings
How to optimize your Amazon product listings

If you want a deeper look at how this all works and how you can apply it for yourself, check out Dave's article on advanced Amazon A9 SEO strategies. In the article he shares a bunch of advanced SEO tactics for Amazon, strategies even the "courses" won't teach you.

If you liked this episode or found it helpful, we'd be stoked if you left us a review on iTunes.

Thanks for listening to this episode! Until the next one, happy selling.

E188: Launching Products for a New Ecommerce Business (Under the Hood with Wilson Lee) Oct 16, 2018

Show notes

A brick and mortar business can be vastly different to owning an ecommerce one. Each offers a unique selling experience and would require different kinds of resources. Having said that,it can be challenging for traditional entrepreneurs to make the transition.

Today's guest is poised to make that very transition. Wilson Lee has been a traditional entrepreneur for 10 years. He'd previously dipped a toe at an ecommerce venture or two but is now ready to get both of his feet wet.

Initial Plan

Wilson is looking at two potential brands to sell online. The first is a green tea brand which he will source from a farm a business partner owns in Taiwan. The second is a baby brand. The plan is explore other online channels to sell on apart from Amazon. He also intends to set up a free plus shipping offer for these brands to test the waters and collect information on his potential target market.

Mike's Input

Mike stresses the importance of taking the focus off Amazon when looking at online marketing channels. Diversification is important in order to develop and scale an ecommerce business.

He offers this play-by-play strategy for getting Wilson's ecommerce business off the ground.

Start with brand name and URL
Design a logo - this will inform other branding elements like font style and colors to use
File for a trademark - a crucial requirement if you plan to sell on Amazon
Make the product - focus on creating that free plus shipping offer

A product belonging to a highly competitive niche can make an impact by having a premium look and feel about it.

Great packaging is more important in other niches than others. For example, new moms or moms-to-be would be more discerning about product packaging than tea aficionados.

Free Video Courses

As always, thanks for listening to this episode! If you enjoyed listening and think this episode has been useful to you, please take a moment to leave us a review on iTunes.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Happy selling!

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