eCommerce Evolution

The story behind Xero Shoes is a crazy one.  World-class sprinter over the age of 50 gets hurt, takes advice to start running barefoot and immediately sees improvements.  Then goes on to design a prototype for a barefoot running sandal that would soon land him a spot on ABC's hit show Shark Tank.     This episode is a ton of fun and is chock full of insights and stories from a really unique online merchant.  Steven Sashen is a competitive sprinter, a TV and film veteran, an SEO, and an entrepreneur through and through.  This interview is part of our "How I Did It" series and outlines some of the elements driving the growth of Xero Shoes.  Here's a glimpse of what we cover:    - Some of the factors that lead to the huge success of Xero Shoes (Steven's answer might surprise you). - Steven's favorite sources of traffic - Conversion tips that have grown Xero Shoes to what it is today - How Steven and team approach product design and how that's helped them succeed in the wildly competitive footwear space - Lessons learned for the Shark Tank (hint: you better know your numbers) - How Xero Shoes is leveraging the crowd funding trend - Plus more!

As you know, we are huge fans of YouTube ads.  At OMG Commerce we run a lot of Shoppable TrueView campaigns - the joining of YouTube and Google Shopping (for more info on Shoppable TrueView check out Episode 10).     Tom is the CEO of Viewability and a master of YouTube ads.  He's built very profitable campaigns for marketing gurus like Neil Patel, Frank Kern, Amy Porterfield, and Brendan Burchard.  Frank even mentioned that his YouTube campaigns are working better than Facebook right now.   I specifically wanted to dig in and ask Tom about his unique approach to YouTube.  Here's a glimpse of what we cover in this episode: - How to key in on the right targeting for your YouTube ads. - What makes for great ads that convert (it's not as complex as you think) - How performance psychology impacts public speaking and YouTube ads - Finding moments where prospects are most open to your message - How to measure for success - Plus more!

B2B eCommerce is poised to explode in the coming months.  In fact, Forrester predicts that B2b eCommerce will be twice the size of B2C eCommerce by 2020.   If you are a B2B company or if you're a service provider working with B2B companies, or if you just want to see how B2B will shape eCommerce - this episode is important to you.     In this episode I'm honored to welcome two veterans of eCommerce - Darren Sepanek and Carrie Weidenbach.  Darren joined the Magento team in 2010 and helped launch and run the worldwide Magento Partner Network.  Carrie has been in the eCommerce industry for 12 years and has served in both COO and Director of Project management roles launching over 20 large eCommerce site builds annually.     They are both now at E7 Solutions and work with the OROCommerce Platform (Co-founded by Yoav Kutner the co-founder of Magento) to build custom B2B eCommerce solutions.     In this episode, we cover some really important B2B eCommerce Topics including:   - What is OROCommerce, who's behind it and why should B2B companies consider it. - How has B2C eCommerce shopping experiences (from Amazon and others) shaped B2B expectations?  - How important is Mobile to B2B? - How "commodity" products can really benefit from new eComm trends. - How re-order and subscription models are impacting B2B - Plus more!

Facebook ad spend has skyrocketed in recent years to the point that Mark Zuckerberg announced recently that this year they may "run out" or ad space causing rates to go up (techcrunch article).  For online merchants, it's often the number 2 or even number 1 traffic source with Google usually taking the other spot.    Molly Pittman, VP of Marketing for Digital Marketer, is a legitimate Facebook ad expert and seasoned practitioner.  Today on the podcast we dive into Molly's 5-Step checklist for making sure that her Facebook ad campaigns are a success.  We dive into some real tactical and strategic info here.  Here's a glimpse of what we cover:   - Why your approach to targeting might be all wrong, and what you should be testing right now. Molly always looks to build ad sets around audiences of a certain size.… - How to make your audience "squirm" so that it's hard for them to say "no" to your offer.   - Video marketing tips including long form vs. short form videos….Molly's answer here might surprise you especially if you are a long time direct response marketer. - How competition is forcing advertisers to "up their game" and how good ads cost you less. - New opportunities to advertise and market using messenger - and much, much more.

It’s very possible that your data sucks.  Or if your data is accurate, it's likely that you're fixating on the wrong metrics.     I LOVE this interview.  While I can’t pick favorites, it would be hard to find an episode that was more important to your business than this one.     Charles Farina and the team at Analytics Pros craft data and analytics solutions for large companies like Yelp, Starbucks, TOMS, Asics and more.     This episode is highly actionable….and fun, in a nerdy way.   Here’s a look at what we tackle:   - Top, little-known Analytics “hacks” for better, more actionable data. - Why asking “what attribution model is best for me” is the wrong question to ask. - 3 Worthless Metrics you should either stop measuring or understand what they are really telling you (if anything). - What will Google’s new attribution model look like and when should we expect it? - Real case studies for making better decisions with proper data analysis - Top Analytics mistakes to avoid   Plus, more!

Product discovery on Amazon is almost exclusively driven by search.  So if you want to drive more sales on Amazon you have to get better at search - both the organic side (SEO) and the paid ad side.  In this week’s episode, I interview a man who knows Amazon search inside and out - George Lawrence.     He started Merchant Words in 2013 and has grown it into one of the most popular Amazon research tools on the market.  In my chat with George, we dive into all things Amazon search including…   - Common Amazon SEO mistakes to avoid - Finding hidden sales opportunities through keyword research (brace yourself we use a pretty off the wall and potentially controversial example).   - How Amazon search has changed in recent years and what that means to you. - When analyzing search data, what metrics matter and what metrics don’t - Preparing for more product searches on Alexa and “Amazon Choice” - Current trends on Walmart & Jet.com    Plus more!  Check it out.

Facebook ads are one of the hottest paid channels for online merchants right now.  FB ads played a huge part in Ezra Firestone's growth from under $10million in revenue to over $22.5 million in a single year.     Part of achieving success on Facebook is keeping up to date on what's working now.….And it's a moving target.    Ezra spends upwards of $15,000 per day on Facebook Ads and he's tracking his performance carefully.     Here's a glimpse of what we cover on the show: - How Ezra is currently building his Facebook Sales Funnels - The 4 types of ads you should be testing - Why you should consider video ads for FB - Landing page tips for converting more FB ad traffic - New audience targeting techniques that are different than what Ezra was teaching & testing just a few months ago. - Bonus!  We get a little bit "deep" at the beginning and end of this episode.  We talk about being a mission-driven business and sticking to your values even as you experience rapid growth and have opportunities coming at you from every angle.  Learn from Ezra's wisdom and his story here…   Plus, more!

Bart Mroz has his finger on the pulse of the eCommerce industry.  He's the co-host of the Register Podcast and writes for Entrepreneur, Retail Dive, Social Media Today and more.     This episode is all about emerging trends, what's next, and how we should approach (our least favorite term) omnichannel.     Bart moved to the US as a boy who spoke no English.  We talk some about being an immigrant entrepreneur and then dive into some pretty compelling questions such as:   - What technologies will disrupt eCommerce in the next 1-5 years? - What are the most common problems you're solving for larger eCommerce clients right now?  How do you think those will differ in 2-5 years? - What platforms and payment systems are you most impressed with? - How is omnichannel changing and where is retail in general headed? - Are there any legitimate contenders for Amazon - who could give them a run for their money? - Plus more!   Bart is a fascinating guy, and I think you'll love the interview.  Enjoy!

What are you doing to delight your best shoppers?  How are you encouraging or incentivizing your best customers to come back and tell a friend?  How are you consistently growing repeat purchases?     If your answer is "I'm not sure," or "I could do more," or even "we're doing pretty good there," this episode is for you.     I've seen different studies, but I think it's safe to say that driving a new customer is 5 to 25 times more expensive than keeping an existing one.     With that in mind, it makes sense to put plenty of effort and energy into keeping and delighting existing customers.  Also, the best new customers are often those who are referred by your existing customers.     Steve Deckert and his company Smile.io (formerly Sweet Tooth) are veterans in the rewards space for eCommerce.  Here's a quick look at what we cover on this episode: - How to build a powerful referral program - How to build a successful VIP program - Loyalty campaign mistakes to avoid - How InkBox saw an 80% lift in repeat purchases with these strategies - How to properly get the word out about your new program and ensure participation - Plus more!

If you're not continually tweaking and testing for better conversion rates, you're leaving money on the table.     Nick Disabato is a guy that I never heard of until all of a sudden I saw him everywhere.  From working on BOOM with Ezra Firestone to speaking at eCommerce events to being interviewed on multiple podcasts.  All of a sudden I couldn't escape this guy.  :)    Nick is incredibly bright and has a great process for finding and fixing conversion rate problems for eCommerce sites.   In this episode we cover:   - Top conversion tools - Where to begin with conversion rate optimization - Simple improvements Nick helped Ezra create for BOOM that created a big conversion lift - What big ecommerce stores fail at over and over again and how you can capitalize on it. - How to get real answers out of your customers and turn that into conversion gold - Top conversion resources - Plus more!