The Ecomcrew Ecommerce Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Episode 15: Breaking Down the Bigcommerce Price Increase Feb 04, 2016

Show notes

Well Bigcommerce has announced they will be raising their prices. Today we will discuss what this price increase means for our personal businesses and the platform in general. It’s really easy to create a mob mentality against Bigcommerce during all this, but hopefully today we give you a broader picture of this change. We have differing views on Bigcommerce's decision, but that might help you decide what is best for your own business.

Since Bigcommerce has announced this price increase there has been a lot of talk of migrating to Shopify. Both are strong platforms, but today’s episode is a balanced and intelligent conversation about the two.

Here are some of the points of our conversation:

Bigcommerce’s reasoning for the price increase.
Services and features affected by the price increase.
Bigcommerce vs. Shopify.
The benefits of both platforms.

Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

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 14: Brand Building Insights Part Three Jan 28, 2016

Show notes

Today we finish out our 3 part series on brand building. If you haven’t listened to parts 1 and 2 we really encourage you to go back and give those a listen. We have covered what kind of products work well on an e-platform and how to bootstrap your brand with sites like Amazon. We’ve also covered trademarking and registering a brand. Today we’re going to discuss the why of having your own brand.

Having your own brand is all about control. If you hold the reigns on a product you can better serve your customer in terms of quality, customer service, and overall business decisions. We discuss this with these points:

Owning your brand puts more money in your pocket, not a third party.
Creating a brand can lead to your own personal platform.
You are able to make a personal connection with your audience.
Public interactions like contests are easier.
Resellers have to consider the market more frequently.

That completes our series on building your own brand. We hope you got some great information from it and are inspired to rethink your own business strategy. Remember ecommerce is a rapid changing industry and we want to see you succeed! And if you missed parts 1 and 2 go back a couple episodes on our site or iTunes.

Mentioned During Today’s Episode:

Episode 13: Brand Building Insights Part Two Jan 21, 2016

Show notes

Welcome to Part 2 of our How to Build a Brand series. Last time we went over a few things to get you thinking about your brand, but on today’s episode Grant and I are getting into the nitty gritty and talking about the tools you’re going to need to build your brand successfully.

Remember, branding is always easier if you can inspire an emotional reaction or attachment with your product. But finding that product is easier said than done. Both of us have our hands in several niche businesses, and we have some pointers to get you thinking about what kind of product you want to invest your brand in and where you can find it. Sometimes you have to wait around for inspiration to hit, but in the meantime you can develop your domain, establish an SEO engine, and find a way to make social media work for you. Grant and I explain exactly how to do this with a little insight into:

How to accommodate shipping costs with your product
Focusing on consumable goods customers use over and over again
How to make your product stand out from the rest
Using social media to help your product stand out (if you dare!)
What to do when you can’t find the niche you’re looking for
Our production and shipping process and how we keep them speedy
The difference between standard listings and “Amazon Super Listings”
Using SEO to your advantage

Whatever you are choosing to brand, the tips we share in this second part of our How to Build a Brand series will help you advertise better, sell better, and maintain long-lasting and reciprocal relationships with your customers.

And stay tuned for our third and final installment of How to Build a Brand!

Episode 12: Brand Building Insights Jan 14, 2016

Show notes

This episode is part one of what will be a two or three part series on brand building. You hear a lot about selling your products to make thousands on Amazon, but the way that we look at it is that those things are just get-rich-quick schemes. You’re not building a long term presence or brand, which is what we’re here to talk about today: how to build your brand.

Personally, we have our own brands that have all individually reached success. We discuss the strategy we’re using of researching a market in depth and looking at other products in the same niche that are similar to what we want to do that we can do better. We see their rankings and figure out how to improve the product and build a brand around those improvements.

We’re here to talk to you about how to do that, and so much more like:

How we used Amazon as a strong sales channel to bootstrap their brand
Things that you need to be looking for when you're starting your own brand
The pros and cons of owning your own brand
The truth about being a seller on Amazon
Cash-flow and higher margins
Our newly newly-launched business
The dangers to avoid when starting up your brand

Before you really commit to your brand, be sure to test it out first. It comes down to reducing the damage of your bad decisions and asking yourself: “Are we still gonna sell enough every day to make it worth our while?”

It’s really necessary to get the confidence under your feet to be able to pull the trigger on larger purchases, as well. Having an idea of how much money you can put into your brand for most people will be the predominant factor in deciding what kind of brand you can even launch. If you’re just trying to get an idea of the market, we tell you about a quick test you can do with $500 or less.

Episode 11: Niching Down Your Audience Jan 07, 2016

Show notes

Today’s podcast focuses on niching down your audience, but first a listener question. Tyler asks, “If you can share experience with MAP pricing?” If you would like to ask Ecom Crew a question head over to our contact form or hit us up on Twitter or Facebook.

Grant says MAP pricing was used on Treadmill.com. MAP pricing is the minimum advertised price, and it is an agreement between vendors and sellers stipulating the lowest price the item can be advertised at. Some even argue whether MAP pricing is legal or not. Our experience was that we abided by it. The decision to use MAP really comes down to the vendor and seller relationship. If you aren’t making any money, you may want to reconsider your strategy. Mike says that MAP pricing can make things really tough if you are selling on MAP, but others aren’t. There are some ways to work around it such as free shipping or coupons, but we prefer not to have to deal with MAP pricing if we don’t have to.

Niching down ad campaigns is a topic that came up in Mike’s mastermind group. Ecom Crew has really been ramping up our advertising campaigns. Mike was sharing advertising campaigns with the group, and the advice is to niche down to a smaller audience. Campaigns can be targeted by state, sex, age, and income this really focuses on who the customer is. Likewise, Grant feels that finding a profitable sector in any paid advertising is the way to go. It’s common for people to shop in the mornings between 8 am and 10 am. Monday is a good shopping day as opposed to Friday. People from states with higher incomes often buy higher priced items. It pays to modify the spending budget to focus on profitable sectors and lower the budget on unprofitable sectors. Negative keyword lists are a great way to avoid wasting money and not paying for tire-kickers.

IOS users seem to perform better than Android users.
IE users may be older and less sophisticated on Internet, may not comparison shop.
Earlier in the day performs better with returns on ad spend.
Geographic sectors and states with more money or most populous states can perform better.
States like Oregon and Washington do better with coloring books.
Campaigns on Facebook are broken down by sex, 10 year age blocks, and $50,000 income blocks.
Niche down to a smaller audience, look at performance, and find small profitable niche.
Niching by job titles can find movers and shakers in certain sectors.

Next week we’ll be talking about how to build your own brand. This should be a multi-part series that can help avoid issues like MAP pricing.

Mentioned on this podcast:

CuttingBoard.com

ChoppingBlocks.com

Treadmill.com

Ecom Crew Facebook Page

Ecom Crew Twitter

Episode 10: Tools and Tips for Managing Multiple Brands Dec 31, 2015

Show notes

Welcome to our last podcast of 2015! We love all the feedback we’ve received since we launched our podcast, and we can’t wait to hear what you guys have to say next year. That’s why on today’s episode we’re answering a listener’s questions!

On our forum, David recently asked how we managed the logistics of owning and maintaining multiple brands under one business. Many of you out there may have quite a few small businesses under your belt, and managing the paperwork, the inventory, and the accounting of each of these different gigs can be really frustrating, especially when it comes down to multiple platforms, different social media accounts, and advertising for each and every one of your new products.

Grant has even done very thorough research trying to find the best software to help us manage all of our different brands. He discusses this research on today’s podcast, and we cover a few points we’ve had hands-on experience with, including:

Balancing the multiple brands within your business
How to merge and manage inventories for multiple brands
Common inventory errors and how you can avoid them
Using tech and software to help you handle the logistics of your business
Grant’s personal research on different management software
The pros and cons of using various software and how we use them for shipping, accounting, and inventory management
How we – two guys who really hate accounting – find the best ways to manage our accounts and taxes
Telecommunication tips to keep you visible and accessible for your customers

Resources Mentioned:

Mike’s 2015 Year in Review Blog Post

Episode 9: Grant and Mike's Fireside Chat Dec 24, 2015

Show notes

Today we are giving you the Grant and Mike fireside chat as we take a look at how things have been going for us for the past 30 days and talk about some of our goals for 2016. For both of us

sales have been going really well and we have some exciting things to look forward to as we head into the new year.

Grant explains that sales have exploded over the holiday buying period at CuttingBoard.com. Things are also going well at sister site ChoppingBlocks.com. He talks about other Amazon projects he has going on too. Grant notes that container pricing has dropped and talks about the impact of decreased shipping costs. His long-term goal is not to have to package anything himself ever again.

Mike has seen substantial growth in sales as well. He has taken a major step in his business by eliminating dealing with third-party items from Amazon. Mike has replaced those third-party items with items that have his brand name. He has also hired his second full time employee and moved operations to a larger space which allows for a better office environment. Mike’s long-term goal is to not have to ever move again. He explains his plans to use third-party fulfillment going forward.

We also take the wraps off some new things we’ve been working on:

Grant has a supplier lined up his leatherjacket.com domain and believes he will be able to carve out a great small niche in the business.
Mike has launched colorIt.com, which offers high-end premium coloring books for adults. He will round out the brand with journals, sketchbooks and other items.

We also talk a bit about logistics, which we will get into greater detail on the next Ecom Crew podcast episode.

Mentioned on this podcast:

Episode 8: China Trade Show Trip Details Dec 17, 2015

Show notes

Today I’m flying solo again, but I have a great email to share with you. Jay from New Jersey sent me some questions about my recent trip to China. For those who didn’t know I have covered this extensively in our blog and the last episode. But today I’m going to answer Jay’s questions and hopefully encourage other listeners to send in more feedback.

We went to China to check out both the Canton Fair and the Hong Kong Mega Show. It was a great experience and even though I was a little disappointed in one of my niche market searches I still found some great deals for some of our other brands.

Jay asked some awesome questions. Here are some of the topics I covered in today’s episode:

How did I get a visa?
What did I buy?
What did I buy at the show that excited me?
Did I save money on products?
How long will shipments take?
What currency was I asked for?

These questioned opened the door to some deeper discussion and I tried to answer them to the fullest I could and still be comfortable, These are some of the tips I have:

When you purchase a Chinese visa, go ahead and pay for a 10 year pass.
Why projected shipment times are never accurate.
Why I always pay my first payment with Paypal.

If you are still curious about my trip to China, you can read more on our blog at ecomcrew.com. Also check us out on iTunes and leave an honest review of the show. We want to know if our content helps you and your honesty is the only way to know. Next time Grant should be back to discuss the inspection process with me. Until then, special thanks to Jay from New Jersey for today’s questions!

Episode 7: Trade Show Leap Frog Dec 10, 2015

Show notes

I just got back from China and I am exhausted. My wife and I spent over three weeks visiting and mingling at the Hong Kong and Canton trade fairs. It was a great trip, but unfortunately Grant was unable to join us. New babies make international travel a tad bit difficult, but it was still one of the best trips I’ve ever taken for my career and my business.

I like to call this trip my Leap Frog Event. Going to these trade shows gives me the opportunity to see my manufacturing and buying process first-hand, and it’s much easier to break through the language barrier when you can talk face-to-face. Seeking out the higher quality manufacturers can be tricky because these trade shows are huge, bigger than any I’ve ever been to in the States. Working these events, I walked a minimum of 5 miles every day – surpassing 12 miles one day! So in today’s episode not only am I going to discuss all I saw and who I worked with, but I’m also going to offer up my own traveler’s advice. Tune in and hear all about:

Tips for international travel, including getting your Visa, finding a flight, dressing comfortably, and preparing for your trip
Hotels and accommodations in Asia, including internet connections in Hong Kong and mainland China
Mike’s insight on his experience at the Hong Kong and Canton trade shows
The major differences between these two fairs and how they compare to local trade fairs in the United States
How to look for the best manufacturers at these crowded trade shows
How to find middle-ground on quality when working with international manufacturers
Networking tips and how to navigate the international scene of manufacturers and buyers

Check out our blog at www.ecomcrew.com for photos from my trip and more about my favorite manufacturers and tips for navigating Mainland China without an internet connection. And if you’ve been to China (or are thinking of going) leave us a review on iTunes and let us know about your own experiences!

Episode 6: Investing and Growing Your Business Dec 03, 2015

Show notes

Today Mike and Grant are going to give some guidelines on when to invest in your growing business. In any business there are aspects that are necessary to invest in and things that can be added as the business grows. This episode offers sound advice on when to recognize that need to grow and when your business has reached a peak.

Other bits of advice are:

Keep your costs as low as possible or your “burn rate.”

Know what items you need to spend money on how they will save you time.

Check out the work of Chris Ducker and the concept of “Superhero Syndrome.”

Mike and Grant want to give you a realistic portrait of how a business grows and why investing in that business will fuel growth. Their advice is meant for longevity and will give up and coming business owners great food for thought.

Leave us a review iTunes and head over to our site www.ecomcrew.com for more news and updates on what’s working for e-commerce today.

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