The Ecomcrew Ecommerce Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Episode 36: Steve Chou on Bumblebee Linens and Conversion Rates Jul 14, 2016

Show notes

Today we welcome our guest Steve Chou to the podcast. Steve is the owner of Bumblebee Linens and the creator of My Wife Quit Her Job. Recently Steve has redesigned his linen site and has increased his conversion rate by 42%! Today we discuss what he believes made such an impressive conversion rate happen.

Steve's blog My Wife Quit Her Job is where he he discusses how he and his wife began their custom handkerchief and other linen web store. He even discusses how he increased his conversion in a blog post.

On today's episode we compare notes and offer advice on how to make the changes that will help your business grow.

The topics we discussed today are:

Sellers Summit
The usefulness of a Mastermind group.
The rule of shipping, returns, and trust.
The design changes Steve made to Bumblebee Linens' site.
How color scheme changes play a part in conversion rate.
Why user testing is important to design changes.
Why IE is still important to include in a site design.
Other tips Steve has to improve your site and brand perception.
The benefits of self-coding and custom platforms.
Steve's online training course.

To contact Steve you can fill out the contact form on mywifequitherjob.com or you can follow @mywifequit on Twitter.

Ecom also has a special promotion going on with Sellers Summit. If you follow the link on our page you will be able to purchase a virtual pass to the the recorded speaker sessions for 2016's event. You will be able to purchase the passes at a 33% discount. If you purchase the passes by July 15th you will get exclusive access to a Google Hangout where you can ask the speakers the questions you want answers too! So check out the link in the resources to take advantage of this deal.

Resources Mentioned on Today's Episode

My Wife Quit Her Job

The Exact Steps I Took To Increase Conversion Rates 42% For My Online Shop, by: Steve Chou

Bumblebee Linens

Profitable Online Store

Sellers Summit

ColorIt

Cuttingboard.com

If you have any questions or anything you'd like us to discuss on the podcast please go to ecomcrew.com and fill out the contact form. Also we would really appreciate if you would leave us a review on iTunes. Thanks for listening!

Episode 35: Chad Rubin on the Development of Skubana Jul 07, 2016

Show notes

Our guest today is Chad Rubin, the co-founder and CEO of Skubana. Chad shares with us how he and his business partner developed Skubana. Skubana is an All-in-One E-Commerce Operation software. It allows Amazon sellers and other e-marketplace sellers to run their business from one central location without tons of employees or software costs.

During the show today Chad tells us about his background and how Skubana has changed the way e-commerce get done. He offers his insight on the future of Amazon and how the Chinese market is going to change things. There is a ton of great information on today's podcast.

Some of the topics we cover are:

Chad's background on Wall Street and Crucial Vacuum
How multiple softwares can get expensive and useless
The ups and downs of running a warehouse
Working with Wal-Mart.com and Jet.com
How e-commerce is like Monopoly
Chad's opinion on the future of marketplaces
How ecommerce has embraced "Amazon-faction"

Also today Chad is offering to give a free copy of his book Cheaper, Easier, Direct to our listeners. Plus anyone needing referrals to 3PLs can e-mail Chad at chad@skubana.com.

Resources Mentioned Today:

Cheaper, Easier, Direct, by: Chad Rubin and Frank Turner

Jet.com

Crucial Vacuum

Episode 34: Updates and Events Jun 30, 2016

Show notes

Our episode today is going to be a general update and resources episode. Mike has been doing tons of traveling and he would like to discuss some of the places and conferences he will be attending. Grant is dealing with some shipping issues, and has some insights on networking and attending events, like conferences.

The topics we covered today are:

Mike's business update.
Grant's business update.
Upcoming Ecommerce Event: Sellers Summit
Upcoming Ecommerce Event: Ecommerce All Stars
Upcoming Ecommerce Event: Digital Marketing Guys
Upcoming Ecommerce Event: Ecommercefuel Live
Next week's special guest.
Learning from the school of hard knocks.
The benefits of attending events.
The value of networking at these events.

We have a special offer for the upcoming Sellers Summit on July 15th. Click here for information.

Resources Mentioned this Episode:

Digital Marketing Guys

EcommerceFuel Live

San Diego Mastermind

Ecom Crew

Episode 33: Updates on our Businesses and Looking Ahead to the Holidays Jun 23, 2016

Show notes

Today we just give you an update episode on how our businesses are doing. Mike is dealing with quality issues with his Chinese manufacturers. Grant is working on sourcing for Cuttingboard.com. Along with these issues we also share some of the bright spots of the businesses.

We discuss our plans for growing the businesses and what's in the pipeline for both of us. There are a few challenges facing each of our businesses today, but with the holiday season right around the corner for online stores, it's time to get everything in order for the biggest time of the year.

The topics we covered today:

Hiring the right virtual assistance.
Dealing with customer service problems.
Mike's upcoming promotion for Color-It.
Grant's Chopping Blocks progress.
Mike's new website purchase.
Icewraps' move to Shopify.
Grant and Mike's friendly competition.
An exclusive deal with Amazon.

Resources from today's episode:

Cuttingboard.com

Chopping Blocks

The Digital Marketing Guys

Better Business Bureau

Colorit

Episode 32: Greg Mercer on Jungle Scout's Suite of Tools for Amazon Sellers Jun 16, 2016

Show notes

Our guest today is Greg Mercer, the founder of JungleScout. Jungle Scout is an application that pairs with a seller's Amazon account. The software offers a suite of tools for Amazon sellers to help them optimize their product and the product reputation.

Greg also has his hand in other software tools such as Fetcher, Spitly, and Review Kick. On today's episode, Greg tells us about how Jungle Scout got its start and how their products complies with Amazon's new system changes.

The topics we covered today are:

Greg's digital nomadic lifestyle
Jungle Scout's product database
Jungle Scout's uses to Amazon sellers
Greg's rules of thumb
Why Jungle Scout was created
The development of Spitly and its uses
Beta testing with Fetcher
Using Review Kick
Greg's opinion of where Amazon will be in 3 years

Resources Mentioned Today:

If you have any questions or anything you'd like us to discuss on the podcast, please go to ecomcrew.com and fill out the contact form. Also, we would really appreciate if you would leave us a review on iTunes. Thanks for listening!

Episode 31: Jeff Cohen of Seller Labs on Changes to the Amazon Review System Jun 09, 2016

Show notes

We have a special guest today. Jeff Cohen from Seller Labs is on the podcast to tell us about the recent change Amazon has made to their review system. For those who don't know, Amazon is starting to crack down on sellers who use review padding. Seller Labs is a former book seller that moved into the SaaS realm as a developer of e-commerce software. They are the developers of Feedback Genius and Snag Shout.

Jeff tells us his opinion on the Amazon algorithm and how the recent changes have affected Seller Labs' approach to getting their customers the organic reviews they want. Jeff explains how the changes to the system will fight against fake or paid reviews. He also takes the time to answer some questions we have about the new system.

Here are the points of today's conversation:

Jeff's background in ecommerce
The beginnings of Feedback Genius
Why sellers should focus on optimization
How competition is a hangup
The growth of Snag Shout
Recency vs. Relevance
Unverified reviews vs. Verified reviews
What's really important to Amazon
The want/need continuum
What are Amazon's definitions of "excessive" and "manipulative"

Resources Mentioned Today:

Episode 30: SEO and Ecommerce Part 3 Jun 02, 2016

Show notes

Hello everyone and welcome to the third and final part of our SEO Series! Mike is still away and on today's episode I'm going to talk about how SEO creates a better relationship between you and your customer and the different strategies you can use to enhance this relationship.

We talk first about creative ways to transform your online transactions. The best way you can stand out from the crowd is to tell a story about your product. This means creating a narrative, developing descriptions, and using keywords to generate trust between yourself and the consumer. But this is more than keyword spamming. You can't use SEO like and be successful. The heart of SEO is in how natural and intuitive you make it for your customers.

The topics we cover today:

Enhancing your own SEO strategy
How is Google influencing SEO?
Using SEO to tell the story about your product
Page Speed and customer experience
What happens if your site isn't mobile friendly?
I breakdown why keyword spamming doesn't work

In this final installment, I share why your first impression with SEO is the most important. The more natural you make it and the more normal it seems, the longer it will last and the more successful it will be.

Episode 29: SEO and Ecommerce Part 2 May 30, 2016

Show notes

While Mike is absent today, I continue our discussion of Google and SEO. In terms of that, I talk about ways to apply SEO to your work and how it can help encourage traffic to your site and your business.

The most important aspect all e-commerce business owners have to understand is the Google trust rank and how it applies to sites and SEO. Once you understand how this works, you will be able to create quality content that is also optimized for the Google search engine.

Today's Topics:

Arbitrage
The history of SEO
Google trust rankings
Authorship profiles
Keywords
Human content review vs. algorithm
Machine Learning
Tactics and strategy for SEO
Getting your SEO off the ground
Creating unique content

Episode 28: SEO and Ecommerce Part 1 May 19, 2016

Show notes

Hi this is Grant Chen, on today's episode I'm going to talk about a topic we've been asked to do for a while now. SEO, for those who don't know SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. I have a long history with SEO and I think this will be a 2 or 3 part series. So bear with me if you are really well versed in the history and use of SEO, but I want to start at the beginning for those who are totally new to this subject.

Now back in the day Yahoo was king of the search engines, but slowly as the concept of search engines became more refined Google came in and changed the whole thing. SEO is the cornerstone of getting your business, service, or just name out there. It is a multi-layered thing that is much more complicated than a lot of people would let you believe. Hopefully today you will get a good foundation for SEO and we'll work up to where it is going in the future eventually.

The topics we cover today are:

The history of Search Engine Optimization
My education in informatics and my experience with SEO
What is "page rank"
Why you can't pay for your ranking
A true link vs. a spam link
The 2 waves of linking farming
The beginning of "Trustrank"

This is part 1 of a 2 to 3 part series. So as we go deeper into this subject we'll see where SEO started, move to where it is at the moment, and finally talk about where it will end up in the future.

Resources:

Yahoo

Google

Episode 27: Canton Fair and Hong Kong Gift Show Wrap-Up May 12, 2016

Show notes

We have recently been overseas to attend the Canton Fair and the Hong Kong Gift Show. So on today's episode we share our itinerary from the trip and what kind of experience we had over there. We attended both fairs and we both toured factories of companies who were potential business partners.

It was an interesting cultural exchange and we have definitely learned a lot about Asian business practices through our various experiences. We hope our discussion and tips help all of you decide if these fairs are a good business move for you.

The topics we discussed today are: