Zee AliFounder of Z-SWAG Bio: Zee Ali is the founder of Z-SWAG, full-service custom apparel, promotional merchandising, and fulfillment company. Zee has worked with brands including Chik-fil-a, Sony, Cricket Wireless, General Mills, and LinkedIn. Zee graduated from Triton College with a Culinary Arts and Restaurant Management degree, in addition to studying graphic design and web development. While attending school, Zee discovered an opportunity to sell chef coats to his classmates by sourcing chef coats from the local flea market, filling his duffle bag and going classroom to classroom at Triton. His side-hustle transformed into a chef uniform and equipment company which later morphed into what it is today. A true renaissance man at heart, Zee has many passions. His various talents place further emphasis on his versatility, which compliments his knowledge in business. To follow his journey, learn about what he is working on, and from his successes and failures, you can follow him on IG at @ZeeAli and ZSWAG.com. Sponsors: Drip – Get a free demo of Drip using this coupon code!Spark Shipping – eCommerce Automation Links: https://www.zswag.com/https://thezeeali.com/who-is-zee-ali/https://www.facebook.com/theZeeAli/https://www.linkedin.com/in/zeeali/https://www.instagram.com/ZeeAli/ Transcript: Charles (00:00): In this episode of the Business of eCommerce. I talked with Zee Ali about running a remote team. This is the business of e-commerce. Episode one 18. Welcome to the Business of eCommerce. The show that helps eCommerce retailers start, launch and grow their eCommerce business. I'm your host, Charles Palleschi , and I'm here today with Zee Ali. Zee is the founder of Z swag, a full service custom apparel, promotional merchandising and fulfillment company Z works with brands including Chick-fil-A, Sony cricket, wireless, general mills, and LinkedIn. I assume on the show today to chat about how he runs a remote team. So hazy. How are you doing today? Zee (00:42): I'm fantastic. Thank you so much for having me on. Charles (00:45): Yeah, it's awesome to have you. I love kind of talking about other folks who have kind of done the whole remote thing. I feel like that's, that's one of those reasons fundamentally why a lot of people get into this business because it's something that you can run remotely, right? Not like there's a lot of businesses, it's just not possible. But e-commerce is one of the few things that it truly is like completely. Location independent. So how long have you been running this particular company for? Zee (01:13): Almost 10 years and years. Okay. And remote the whole time. So, so our team isn't enormous. We certainly have, we have two offices currently. People go if they want to go, if they don't, they, they can work from home. That's up to them. For me remote is just easier. We accomplish this by providing clear outcomes of each job role. Here's what we're looking to achieve. So you don't measure success by the time that they're clocking in, clocking out. It's by the results themselves. So if you provide clear KPIs and clear outcomes, it makes things a bit easier. Charles (01:54): [Inaudible] Are, so where are, where are you located for our stuff right now? Physically? Zee (01:59): Right now I'm sitting in Louisville, Kentucky, and tomorrow morning I will be in Chicago where our HQ is. Charles (02:05): Okay. What does office number two Zee (02:08): That's in Chicago? That's, that's our flagship Porter's that's, yeah. Where the company all started Charles (02:14): And then it was the second office Zee (02:16): That is in Louisville, Kentucky. I'm in one of the conference rooms. Charles (02:19): Yeah. Okay. Very cool. Okay. And about how many employees? Zee (02:21): You're both ten-ish. Say we have like seven full-timers and we've got like three to five kind of floating around here and there as, as

The Business Of eCommerce

Running a Remote Team (E118)

George Lawrence Founder & CEO, MerchantWords Bio: Bold, dynamic, and innovative are just a few of the words that come to mind when describing MerchantWords founder George Lawrence. Overcoming personal obstacles to build a multi-million dollar technology company, George has used his remarkable ability to creatively solve problems to help over 100,000 entrepreneurs achieve e-commerce success. A software developer by trade, George got his professional start at the beginning of the internet with the Peter Norton Consulting Group, where he worked on Norton Utilities. He was a founding member of the Citysearch team; and helped create the software that launched the world’s first online automobile shopping platform at CarsDirect. At TigerConnect, George developed the web and mobile platforms for their clinical communications software. Discovering a gap in the data-driven e-commerce market, George derived an innovative way to collect shopper keyword phrases, so Amazon sellers could find unique opportunities to bring new products to market – thus, MerchantWords was born. Since 2012, MerchantWords has helped entrepreneurs, brands, and agencies discover new opportunities, achieve successful product launches, and run profitable advertising campaigns online – on Amazon and beyond. Sponsors: Drip – Get a free demo of Drip using this coupon code!Spark Shipping – eCommerce Automation Links: http://merchantwords.com/bizofecomhttp://youtube.com/MerchantWordsOfficialhttp://facebook.com/MerchantWordsOfficialhttp://instagram.com/MerchantWordshttp://twitter.com/MerchantWords Transcript: Charles (00:00): In this episode of the Business of eCommerce. I talk with George Lawrence about how to get into the minds of your customers. This is a business of e-commerce. Episode one 17. Welcome to the business of eCommerce. The show that helps e-commerce retailers start, launch and grow their eCommerce business. I mean host Charles Palleschi and I talk today with George Lawrence. George is the founder and CEO of merchant words or the merchant words. He helps entrepreneurs, brands and agencies discover new opportunities that chiefs discussion with product launches, run profitable advertising campaigns online, Amazon and beyond. I asked George and the show today chat about some ways you can get into the minds of your customers. So, Hey George, how are you doing today? George (00:46): Fantastic. Thanks for having me on. Charles (00:48): Yeah. Awesome to have you on. Definitely love the concept kind of getting into the mind of your customers. Um, I like from a high level and then kind of talk about, I love talking about kinda how you actually do that tactically. Like, what are some ways, um, you know, as an eCommerce retailer, everyone says that everyone says you need to get in the mind of your customer is, it's kind of something we've heard again and again, but I love talking about some ways on how to do that as a retailer. I like, and you know, I've heard before like reach out to them and talk to them, that sort of thing. But you specialize in this. What are some things you would recommend as far a retailer out there? George (01:25): Great question. You'll, you know, let me tell you first. What I see people do and when I see people do is they chat with their friends. First of all, I was like, Hey, if I built this, would you buy it? I'm like, Oh brother, you know, you gotta you gotta get some real opinions. Uh, but you know, the interesting thing is it's so easy to do this, but so few people really kind of make it a priority and that, that astounds me. So one of the things that I like to tell folks is, look, you got to remember that people don't search using the physical aspects of the product. People don't search for, you know, I need something that's so many inches tall and so many inches wide, et cetera. People search for the need that they have or the problem they're trying to solve.

How to Get Into the Minds of Your Customers (E117)

John GhiorsoCEO of Orca Pacific Bio: John Ghiorso is the founder and CEO of Orca Pacific, a Seattle-based agency focused exclusively on helping brands sell on Amazon. He started the agency about 12 years ago and now manages over 100 top brands in a variety of product categories. After 10 years of studying Amazon, Mr. Ghiorso has earned a reputation for approximating industry reaction and forecasting shifts within the Amazon marketplace. His insights have been featured in prestigious publications like The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Vox, Modern Retail, and Digiday. Sponsors: Drip – Get a free demo of Drip using this coupon code!Spark Shipping – eCommerce Automation Links: https://www.orcapac.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/johnlouisghiorso/https://www.linkedin.com/company/orcapacific/ Transcript: Charles (00:00): In this episode of The Business of eCommerce. I talk with John [Ghiorso] about how to grow your Amazon business in 2020 this is the business of e-commerce, episode one 16. Welcome to the business of eCommerce. The show that helps eCommerce retailers start, launch and grow their eCommerce business. I mean host Charles Palleschi and I'm here today with John Ghiorso. John is the founder of Orca Pacific. A Seattle based agency focuses exclusively on helping brands sell on Amazon. You started the agency 12 years ago and is now managing over a hundred top brands and a variety of product categories. I asked John on the show today to chat about how you can optimize your Amazon listings in 2020 so, Hey John, how are you doing today? John (00:48): Good, good. How are you Charles (00:49): Doing well, thanks for coming on the show. I love the topic. Kind of the all Amazon stuff right now. Lot of retailers are either on Amazon or moving to Amazon, thinking about selling Amazon. So everyone's, everyone's kind of somewhere touching on Amazon right now. So I love the kind of top, Whoa, just how to grow that. So do you guys normally work with, so you work with brands, but is this just brand selling their own products or what kind of retail is typically do work most with, John (01:22): Yeah, sure. So you know, our, our, our primary client archetype is a branded manufacturer, but we also work with distributors, retailers, direct to consumer brands. So it, it kind of runs the gambit. In terms of folks reselling other brands, products, reselling white label, private label products or you know, sort of traditional national brands. So really, you know, our clients are essentially entities that are trying to increase their sales top line growth on the Amazon platform. And kind of the, the simplest way of saying it. Charles (01:56): Okay. So if you're a white label brand [inaudible] white label retailer you could still get some value out of, basically you should have stopped listening at this point. They can get some value out of these types of things. Yeah. Hopefully. All right. So are we talking when you typically kind of start working with someone, are they already on Amazon? Are they competing for the buy box or are they competing to shop at a search or where's a good place to focus? John (02:21): Yeah, so primarily they're, they're going to be competing in, in search. I mean competing to win the buy box is it's certainly a game that we play, but our primary goal is to drive more demand for a given product. So, you know, then there's kind of the secondary consideration. Is that demand going to you? Are you the, the seller that winning the buy box? I guess the way we look at the platform primarily is our sort of assumption is that you will be winning the buy box. And then you know, we're really trying to drive demand for the product. Overall if there's, if there's lost by box issues or competitive by box issues, we see that as a problem that needs to be solved, but more of kind of a shorter term consideration. And then longer term macro is, is really how to,

How to Grow Your Amazon Business in 2020 (E116)

Rich GoldsteinPatent Attorney Bio: Rich Goldstein is a patent attorney that helps Amazon sellers to protect their products and brands. He has obtained more than 2000 patents for his clients and is the author of the American Bar Association’s "Consumer Guide to Obtaining a Patent”. Rich is passionate about helping Amazon sellers to become ‘patent savvy’ so that they make good business decisions and protect themselves while avoiding problems with other sellers. Sponsors: Drip – Get a free demo of Drip using this coupon code!Spark Shipping – eCommerce Automation Links: goldsteinpatentlaw.comBook: The ABA Consumer Guide to Obtaining a Patent Transcript: Charles (00:00): In this episode of the business of eCommerce. I talked with rich Goldstein about using patents to protect your products. This is the business of eCommerce. Episode one 15 Charles (00:15): Welcome to the business of eCommerce, the show that helps eCommerce retailers start launch and grow their eCommerce business. I mean it was child's plus ski and I'm here today with rich Goldstein. Rich is a patent attorney that has helped Amazon sellers protect their products and brands. He has obtained with the 2000 patents for his clients and he's authored a book for the American bar association called consumer's guide to obtaining a pattern. I just listen to the show tonight to chat about how you can use patterns, connect your products and Amazon listings. So, Hey rich, how are you doing today? Doing well. I'll ask him to have your show. Thanks for coming on. I love the, this is one of the topics we don't talk about often enough and I feel with especially a lot of Amazon sellers, they don't really get enough exposure to kind of how to protect themselves legally. Charles (01:02): With this, right. So you do a lot of work with, is it mainly Amazon folks or is it all kinds of just private label in general? What do you kind of focus typically? Well, I've been working with entrepreneurs for 25 years and the last few years it's been very much e-commerce, Amazon entrepreneurs. And and yeah, I, I agree with you totally. I think patents is a topic that Amazon sellers at e-commerce people don't focus on enough. And I think it's the thing that could have the biggest impact on their business that they probably know the least about. So it is something that Richard (01:37): It's very important to talk about. I think it's very important for Amazon sellers to learn about and just to get a reasonable level of competence with how patents work and, Charles (01:47): And how to better utilize it in their, in their business. Okay. Yeah, I see this a lot. And also this is my, I have a childlike understanding of how the legal system works, but the difference between patterns and trademarks, cause I know trademarks is also another big thing, especially on Amazon. How does, how does a trademark play into that? So do you need a, do you need a patent to get a trademark or are they not at all related? Richard (02:13): They are not at all related. There are different subject matter altogether. And so when you think patents think products like product ideas themselves, the way a product functions, the way product looks, that's what a patent could be used to protect. Trademarks on the other hand offer branding. Okay. So you know, trademarks are for the, the name that you use to sell your product, the logo that you have. And in general they protect Charles (02:46): Different types of things so they serve different purposes. Okay. I see. So in which case, let's say you're selling an Amazon if you're doing any sort of private, would that be the time when you want to look at pattern or is it, if you're completely producing a new product from the ground up, like when would you cross the line of being, you know, wine, that kind of protection? Richard (03:09): Yeah, I mean in general, if you, if you're white labeling

Using Patents to Protect Your Products (E115)

Chris BrewerCo-Founder of OMG Commerce Bio: Chris Brewer is the co-founder of OMG Commerce, a digital eCommerce agency based in Springfield, MO. OMG Commerce is a Google Premier Partner that places them in the top 2-3% of all Google Partner agencies worldwide. Chris is a frequent speaker and guest at industry events and digital marketing podcasts. He currently manages inbound inquiries and acts as a strategist for OMG Commerce clients. In addition to the incredible growth and success with “OMG,” his entrepreneurial accomplishments have included building and selling an outdoor advertising company and direct mail publishing company. He is the author of the book, Does Your Marketing Make You Money: 7 Quick & Easy Secrets to Create A Booming Business Now and resides just outside Springfield, Missouri with his wife of 24 years. Sponsors: Drip – Get a free demo of Drip using this coupon code!Spark Shipping – eCommerce Automation Links: https://omgcommerce.com https://facebook.com/chrisbrewermarketerhttps://chrisbrewer.cohttps://twitter.com/momarketer Transcript: Charles (00:00): In this episode of the business e-commerce. I talked with crisper about the best practices when working with a marketing agency. This is a Busby commerce episode one 14 Charles (00:16): Welcome to the business of eCommerce, the show that helps eCommerce retailers start launch and grow their eCommerce business. I'm your host, Charles Polaski. I'm here today with Chris brewer. Chris is a cofounder of OMG commerce, a digital e-commerce agency. OMG commerce is a Google premier partner that places them in the top two to 3% of all Google partner agencies worldwide. I asked Chris to the show today to chat about what are the some of the best practices when working with an agency. So, Hey Chris, how are you doing today? And I'm fantastic. I am enjoying the winter weather where I'm located, which right now is Missouri, but soon we'll be back in sunny Florida. So enjoying both places. Yes, Florida traveling down there actually next week for a [inaudible] to see some family and it is fantastic getting out of the Northeast. Same thing with the winter weather. Charles (01:13): So this, this timing is very good for that. So great to, great to have you on the show though. It's super interesting talking about kind of the whole agency side. Right on. So this is episode one 14. It was one 11. I talked to John from credo all about hiring SEO agencies, kind of the initial how to find the agency, how to hire. And it's a super interesting show. So sticking, you know, there's a lot, you guys do it with agency work on how to actually the work with the agency and also kind of were talking before the show, how to fire the agency is also kind of another thing and just how to and your relationship, let's say with an agency, it's laid a different way. So I guess first, you know, tell me a little bit of your experience kind of as you are. Charles (02:01): You're on the agency side, right? So you guys absolutely. Yup. Yup. We're on the agency side. So we've been hired and we've also been fired. So I got, we got both ends of the spectrum covered, but you know, seriously for about 10 years, my business partner, Brett Curry and I was pretty well-spoken on around the circuits and events and has his own podcast as well. He and I have grown this agency mainly focusing on Google services, search shopping, YouTube and display. And then also in the last couple of years, Amazon as well and have a team. It's getting close to 40 people, which is just mind boggling to me. But you know, I'm, I'm fielding personally two to three leads a day. And on the hiring side, I'm on the other side of that. Right. Like your other podcast that talking about how to hire, I'm on the other side of that because people are hopefully have done their homework before they've called us and then we're engaging with those brands. Charles (03:02):

How to Hire Freelancers and Agencies (E114)

Joanna WiebeFounder of Copyhackers Bio: The original conversion copywriter and founder of Copyhackers, Joanna Wiebe teaches a world of digital marketers in SaaS and eCommerce how to get the yes using li’l ol’ words. Sponsors: Drip – Get a free demo of Drip using this coupon code!Spark Shipping – eCommerce Automation Links: CopyhackersCopyhackers Twitter Transcript: Charles (00:00): In this episode of the business e-commerce. I talked with Joanna Wiebe about how to write e-commerce emails. This is the business of e-commerce. Episode one 13. Charles (00:15): Welcome to the business of eCommerce, the show that helps eCommerce retailers start, launch and grow their eCommerce business. I'm your host, Charles Polaski, and I'm here today with Joanna Wiebe. Joanna is the original conversion copywriter and founder of copy hackers. She teaches a world of digital marketers in both SAS and eCommerce. How to get to yes, using little old words. I just started the show today to talk about what are the best practices for sending e-commerce emails. So, Hey Joanna, how are you doing today? Doing good. I love the topic of writing e-commerce emails, right? I've heard you speak in person a few times, so hear you have some experience writing emails. So what do you guys do? So what do you guys do at copy hackers? Joanna (01:01): Yeah, sure. So, well, there's two sides of the Copyhackers business. One is the, basically the front of it, which is free and paid content. So we have a very active blog and video tutorials that we do. On helping, our real mission is to help entrepreneurs, whether that's like a startup founder or somebody who's running their own small service business, like a freelancer basically get their word out there. So there's a lot of people who [inaudible] want to write better copy because they understand copies or online sales person, but it can be a very murky sort of thing to figure out. So our job is to help people that you're out how to do that. And we did that with free and paid content. But the way that we make up the free and paid content is we work with not only in our own business on optimizing copy, but with clients as well. On, on doing the things we're talking about right now. So testing emails that actually convert in this current world. Not just old ideas for email, but what's new, what's happening, what used to work that doesn't seem to work anymore, things like that. So we have the two sides, the training business, which is free and paid, and then the agency side. Charles (02:16): Got it. Okay. So you guys focus mainly on the transactional email side of the promotion legal side. Joanna (02:23): So mostly like just coming up with a better email strategy for people, which largely focuses on segmentation first, but also like where are these communications coming from? What are they saying? What should they be saying? Most people we find, you know, there's a lot of emails in play, like transactional emails, but the transactional email was set up by the person who set up the tool in the first place. So they tend to like, Oh, I'll just write something quickly for a transactional email, which is a fine starting point. But there's a lot you can do with a transactional email, just like there's lots of, you know, promotional emails. So yeah, lots room to optimize in there for both, for everything, including outside of eCommerce. You know, the SAS world has triggered emails galore based on what you do or don't do. So there's a whole world, let's stop to the right for now. Charles (03:12): Yeah. It's one of those things where I feel like even the water has got a little muddy, right? Where even transactional emails still have a little promotional content in them. So it's something you can almost do both together. I've kind of found, Joanna (03:24): Yeah, there's room in transactional emails. Of course there's like rules with these

Strategies for Writing eCommerce Emails (E113)

Paulina MassonFounder of Shopkeeper Bio: Paulina is an Amazon seller and a founder of Shopkeeper. She calls herself a ‘numbers girl’. Her favorite topics are on optimizing profits, pricing strategies, cashflow management and ways to save on Amazon fees. Sponsors: Drip – Get a free demo of Drip using this coupon code!Spark Shipping – eCommerce Automation Links: https://shopkeeper.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/paulinamasson/ Transcript: Charles (00:00): In this episode of the business e-commerce. I talked with Paula Masson about pricing strategy. This is a business of eCommerce. Episode one 12. Welcome to the business e-commerce, the show that helps eCommerce retailers start launch and grow their e-commerce. Miss us. I'm your host, Charles [inaudible] and I'm here today with Paulina Mahsan. Paulina is an Amazon seller and the founder of shopkeeper. She calls herself a numbers girl. Her favorite topics are optimizing profits, pricing strategies, cashflow management and ways to save on Amazon fees. I started the show today to chat about how you can tweak your prices to make more sales to eCommerce products. So, Hey Paulina, how are you doing today? Paula (00:44): Hey Charles, thanks for having me on. Charles (00:46): Yeah, it's awesome to have you on. I love the topic of pricing strategies. I feel like it's one of those things that once you kind of established it's a very easy way of just increasing that profit margin on what you already have by like just some strategies. It's one of those things, it's very easy to just optimize. And if you're already getting X amount you can kind of squeak up to more margin. So it's a very cool topic for retailers. How'd you, how did you get into this? So you originally an Amazon seller, right? Paula (01:15): Yeah, I'm actually a software developer by background, so I am quite technical in nature. So all technical people like the numbers and I'm one of them. And so I liked math, I liked the calculus, you know, those types of things. And so I became an Amazon seller first and then I decided to build this little software for myself on the side that now became a successful commercial product called shopkeeper. But while I was doing that, I researched a lot about different fees that were not like explained. And I usually, if you get some fee charged on Amazon, it's not explained anywhere very much. Like for example, compensated underscore clawback, like what is this, you know, compensate a glove. Like, and it's not even in the help files and supports is not so helpful. So I've been researching a lot about numbers that are to do with Amazon and then eventually I just drifted out into optimizing my own pricing because that's also a numbers related and started looking into different psychology things that I could use for my prices. So I actually experimented quite a bit with that and I could share with you some of the learnings that I have and what I had tested them, what worked for me and what worked for other sellers when I shared with them as well. Charles (02:27): Yeah, that'd be great. Paula (02:29): Cool. So basically I guess I would start with the big picture first. I'll just tell you two sentences. The big picture, the big picture is that when you think about your pricing strategy, it's not enough to just, it's not the flow that you first create a product, then you publish it on Amazon, create the listing, ship it to Amazon, and then you sit there and think what price I should put. Actually the price strategy should start before you even go design your product. And the reason I save is because there are different of buyers that you can actually target. So there's been research done for general e-commerce and online research has discovered that there are three general types of buyers. One is called screws, those bargain hunters. And the other type is the luxury spenders. So the big spender, and then there's this middle somewhere,

Pricing Strategies – How to Price a Product (E112)

John DohertyFounder of Credo Bio: John Doherty is the founder of Credo, where they connect businesses with the right marketing provider from Credo's exclusive network. Since 2015 they've helped over 3,000 brands, including some of the world's most well known, work with great marketing firms. Sponsors: Drip – Get a free demo of Drip using this coupon code!Spark Shipping – eCommerce Automation Links: https://www.getcredo.comhttps://twitter.com/dohertyjfhttps://twitter.com/getcredo Transcript: Charles:                        00:00                In this episode of the Business of eCommerce. I talked with John Doherty about how to hire an SEO agency. This is a business of eCommerce, episode one 11 welcome to the business of eCommerce to show the helps eCommerce retailers start, launch and grow their eCommerce business. I'm your host, Charles Palleschi, and I'm here today with John Doherty. John is the founder of Creo where they connect businesses with the right marketing provider from cruise exclusive network. Since 2015 they've helped over 3000 brands work with great marketing firms. I asked John on the show today talk about what you should look for when you're hiring an SEO agency, so Hey John, how are you doing today? John:                            00:44                Good, Charles, how are you? Thanks for having me on. Charles:                        00:46                Yeah, great to have you on. Super interesting to talk about this side of SEO, right on working with a consultant and how to actually kind of do like the high level of when you should be doing it, if she should be doing it, and kind of all the strategy around that. I've talked to a bunch of guests in the show on kind of the tactical SEO, but this is kind of a different level, right? You kind of focus more on when to work with a consultant, how to work with them. Is that kind of what you guys focus on at credo? John:                            01:14                Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I actually come from the SEO world. I've been in SEO doing SEO for about a decade now for the last four years has been helping companies basically find the right firm to work with through credo. And so really I've kind of more from like being in the trenches, tactical, that sort of stuff. I can still do SEO quite well, but I find a lot more interesting on the business side. How do people do a good job of hiring for for SEO, for digital marketing? Really? you know, I've learned a lot of lessons over the years. You know, my background is I worked, I worked agency side couple agencies. I worked in house for a couple of years with Zillow and then I've also been a solo consultant and then seem 3,500 plus companies come through creative looking to hire. So I've talked to a lot of companies. John:                            01:53                I've seen a lot of companies sign with firms and in a lot of companies not signed with firms. I've seen companies signed with the wrong firms. And so it's a, you know, I've seen people hire the wrong type of, of firms so it consultants have an agency or vice versa. And so yeah, I learned, I learned a lot of lessons and it's something not a lot of people talk about. And I think it's something that we should be talking about more, especially in the digital space as we're growing companies. Because once you get beyond just you and you found product market fit or you're starting to get some traction with your eCommerce company then it's a, you know, basically the question becomes how do I scale it more? And doing that well is really, really hard. And as we were talking about offline, that like, you know, this stuff is really hard and so whatever I can do to help people do it better and give them kind of more signal in a very noisy world I love to do that. Charles:                        02:36                Yeah. Sq is one of those things too where if you're hiring some external, they don't really,

How to Hire an SEO Consultant or Agency (E111)

In episode 110 of The Business of eCommerce, Charles talks with Ben Wieder, the co-Founder of Chassis. They discuss what it takes to build a successful eCommerce brand in 2020 and what steps to take to grown to be a truly great brand. Bio: Ben Wieder is the founder of Chassis, the first and only premium men’s care line specifically formulated for better performance "down there”, keeping guys fresh, dry, and friction-free all day long. He's a branding expert, a published author, and is also an owner in Level 6 Marketing, a full-service brand performance agency. Sponsors: Drip – Get a free demo of Drip using this coupon code!Spark Shipping – eCommerce Automation Links: chassisformen.com level6marketing.com Transcript: Charles:                        00:00                This episode of the Business of eCommerce I talk with Ben Weeder about how to build a truly great brand. This is the Business of eCommerce, Episode 110. Welcome to the Business of eCommerce. The show that helps eCommerce retailers start, launch and grow their eCommerce business. I'm your host, Charles Palleschi and I'm here today with Ben Weeder. Ben is a founder of chassis, a men's skincare product. Ben is also a branding expert, a published author and the owner of level six marketing, a full service brand performance agency. I asked, Ben on the show today to talk about how you can build a truly great brand. So, Hey Ben, how are you doing today? Ben Wieder:                 00:43                Great, Charles. Thanks. Thanks for having me. Charles:                        00:45                Yeah, awesome to have you on the show. So it kind of kept it short in the intro, but can you explain what chassis is? Kinda just throw it at a men's product, but I think you'd be better equipped to explain that one. Ben Wieder:                 00:56                Yeah, well, I appreciate it. Yeah. So, so chassis we've really transformed that men's grooming really for, for hundreds of thousands of men at this point. And you know, if you look at the men's grooming space, you know, there's, there's a clearly defined roles for, you know, shaving obviously is a very familiar thing. You know, fragrances, things of that sort. But there's one area that we recognize when we launched in, in late 2015 and that was the area of what we call. And our tagline is man care for down there basically powder for guys. Guys had been using powder to prevent sweat and odor and chafing for hundreds of years actually. And but they've always been using products that weren't actually designed for that purpose. Many times it's baby powder. Sometimes it's you know what they would call medicated powder. Ben Wieder:                 01:50                A lot of you know, people are familiar with that term. Usually it smells either like a baby or an old man. It usually doesn't work great. It works okay. So we had this idea, you know, could we make a better powder and then could we build a brand around it? And that's what, that's what chassis is. So this is actually a habit. Just a, anyone wants to see that's there's one of our products. This is our, our ice powder. And this is a extra cooling one. I just haven't had sitting around and but you know, that's, that's kind of what it is. We have a couple of other products. We have a shower primer and a a restoration cream that compliment the powders as well. And you know, it's been going great. Charles:                        02:29                It's funny, a lot of guys use baby powder. It's one of those things like the locker room at the gym, it's like, Oh, that guy smells like a, you know, like a three year old, which isn't, Ben Wieder:                 02:37                Yeah, yeah, that's exactly right. And so we had a theory that guys, if we were upfront about it, if we just had an honest conversation in a very mature way, not sophomore, that they would respond really well to it. And, and, and it's

How to Build a Successful eCommerce Brand (E110)

Robert PattonFounder of SHEATH Underwear Sponsors: Drip – Get a free demo of Drip using this coupon code!Spark Shipping – eCommerce Automation Links: https://www.sheathunderwear.com/https://facebook.com/sheathunderwearhttps://www.instagram.com/sheathunderwear/ Transcript: Charles:                        00:00                In this episode of a business of eCommerce. I talked with Robert Patterson about some of the lessons learned growing $1 million eCommerce business. This is a business of eCommerce, episode one Oh nine welcome to the business of eCommerce. The show of it helps eCommerce retailers start, launch and grow their eCommerce business. I'm your host, Charles [inaudible] and I'm here today with Robert Patterson. Robin has a founder sheet underwear, a veteran owned and operated clothing brand that he started while deployed in Iraq in 2008 I've asked Robert on the show today to talk about some of the lessons he's learned scaling his business over $1 million. So, Hey Robert, how are you doing today? Robert:                         00:43                Awesome. Thank you so much for having me on your show. Charles:                        00:46                Yeah, it's excellent to have you on. I'm super interested in dig into the brand and kind of how you started. I love talking to retailers that, you know, this is on the whole like journey and kinda how they began and where they are now. So first of all, what is the brand? What do you guys sell and what did you, you started this when you were in Iraq, you were deployed in Iraq, correct? Robert:                         01:05                Yes sir. I, I joined the army in 2006 during the height of the Iraq war. And I was in Iraq that same year, six months after I joined. And as you all know, it's hotter than the devil's balls there. If you've heard things, it's very hot. And there's a, as the guys, we typically, when we get hot, we can get uncomfortable in different places, primarily in your underwear. And I, you know, typically men will have to readjust when it's too hot. Things get sticky, sweaty, uncomfortable. And I was there wearing my full army battle rattle gear. And when you're wearing all this gear, it's hard to readjust. And so I had this epiphany because I was really uncomfortable. It was very, it's not the funnest subject to talk about. Like it's not, we're cool per se, but a lot of guys understand they get the point and get the idea behind the underwear immediately. Robert:                         02:13                So what I, what I thought of was if there was a pouch inside the underwear isolated and your boys from your inner thighs, you wouldn't have to readjust. And I wasn't trying to create some million dollar company. I just was trying to prevent myself from having to readjust at the moment, you know. So I literally went to the, we have like little stores in Iraq, like little mini Walmarts and I bought some underwear, some scissors, and I drew out kind of the design that I kind of envisioned in my mind. And I took it to Taylor. We had some tailors out there and Iraq because in the army you have to be your uniform needs to be fitting you properly. So we always have tailors available and I, but they've never had bring underwear, I would presume, to have underwear tailored. And so they snickered at me a little bit. Robert:                         03:08                Real fancy getting a runaway tailored. Yeah. They were just like, what is this guy doing here? But they made them and it was a very raw prototype. The pouch was actually too small and there was a lot of, that was in 2008 it's 2019 we've had multiple revisions in generations issued and produced since, since then. And you know, we didn't even start the company until two years later because like I said, I was just doing it for myself, you know? And as I told other people, you know, just in conversations they were like, that sounds like a good idea, you

Lessons Learned Building a 1M+ Business (E109)

Kyla Gardner Bio: Kyla has published more than 35 books on Amazon, writing and designing many of them herself. She studied journalism in college and worked as a journalist covering crime and then human interest stories in her hometown of Chicago. Kyla transitioned into online business by working in Vietnam for a software company geared toward FBA sellers. When she was let go in 2017, she combined her writing skills and knowledge of Amazon to start a Kindle business. She now travels full time as a “digital nomad” and is working on her first novel set to be published under her real name. Sponsors: Drip – Get a free demo of Drip using this coupon code!Spark Shipping – eCommerce Automation Links: kylagardner.comGoodreads Transcript: Charles:                        00:00                In this episode of the Business of eCommerce. I talked with Kylar Gardner about selling info products on Amazon. This is the business of eCommerce, episode one Oh eight, welcome to the business of eCommerce, the show that helps eCommerce retailers start, launch and grow their eCommerce business. I'm your host, Charles [inaudible] and I'm here today with Kylar gardener. Kyler has published more than 35 books in Amazon writing and designing many of them herself. She's currently traveling full time as a digital nomad and working on our first novel. I asked her in the show today to talk about selling info products on Amazon. So hi Kyla, how are you doing today? Kyla:                             00:41                I'm good. Thanks for having me. How are you? Charles:                        00:43                Yeah. Awesome to have you on the show. I love I love talking to retailers and I don't know if you'd call yourself a retailer. Good folks kind of out there selling and doing things. It's always kind of interesting to really get by, you know, the tactics and someone who's actually doing it today. So super excited for this. Yeah, me too. So you, so currently you publish 35 bucks on Amazon, right? And these are all under, are they under your name or the under different names of, what do you typically do? Kyla:                             01:12                They're all under fake names and quite a few different fake names as well because I batch them by the niche or the genre they're in. So they're mostly nonfiction. They're pretty short around seven to 15,000 words and they come in all different formats. I sell eBooks, paperbacks, hardcovers and audio books. Charles:                        01:36                Okay, thank you. So I need to unpack this a little and the whole digital nomad things. There's a lot here and this is super interesting. So first nonfiction, why, why are you publishing nonfiction under and what's the terminal? Is there a different term when you say someone else's name? Like a made up Kyla:                             01:53                A pseudonym? Yeah. Or a pen name. Yeah, Charles:                        01:56                Pen name. Why would you publish nonfiction under a pen name? Kyla:                             02:01                So I, when I started it, I just, I was just doing it for the money. I just wanted to see if I could make a buck on Amazon. And I wasn't saying like this is, you know, a topic that I want to be known for as a writer myself. I just want to see if I can put it out there and it gets a good response. So that's been my tactic. Charles:                        02:23                So you didn't want us, so, so it sounds like if it didn't do so you have a background in journalism, right? It's kind of, okay. So it sounds like if it didn't do well it was a complete flop. You wanted to just say wasn't me. Kyla:                             02:36                Right. Yeah. So yeah. But then if it's successful, I also can't really take credit for it. So it's kind of a double edged sword there.

How to Sell Info Products on Amazon (E108)

David HoffmannFounder of GlobalTQM Bio: David is considered an expert in China sourcing, supply chain, private label, and brand licensing and founded GlobalTQM.com, after he saw an incredible opportunity through helping friends and family to assist SMEs, start-ups, and entrepreneurs with a range of educational and actual done-for-you services with his resources of +57 people in China. Aside from his core business, David has built an international technology team and has a number of investments all of which he is an active advisor. Sponsors: Drip – Get a free demo of Drip using this coupon code!Spark Shipping – eCommerce Automation Links: http://www.globaltqm.comhttps://www.facebook.com/GLOBALTQMhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/globaltqm/ Transcript: Charles:                        00:00                In this episode of the business of eCommerce. I talked with David Hoffman about what are the hidden risks importing from China. This is a business of e-commerce, episode one Oh seven Charles:                        00:16                Welcome to the business V commerce, the show that helps eCommerce retailers start launch and grow their eCommerce business. I'm your host, Charles Polaski and I met today with David Hoffman. David is the founder of global TQM, is an expert in Chinese sourcing, supply chain, private label and brand licensing. I as David on the show today chat about what are some of the hidden risks importing from China. So, Hey David, how are you doing today? Very good. How you doing? Good. Awesome to have you on the show. I love the topic of some of the risks importing from China. I think it's one of the things a lot of people kind of tell folks just to kind of jump into it, but a lot of people don't talk about the other side of like what you can run into and there are a lot of potential risks. So first, where are you? So I'm in Boston Hill and I know we kind of had to get a time-zones lined up. Where are you located? David:                           01:05                So I'm located in Hong Kong. I've been living out here for about 16 years. I've got offices in China, so I spend a lot of my time between Hong Kong and China. So we bought a 12 hour time zone apart. Charles:                        01:16                Okay. And that was, and where are you originally from? David:                           01:19                Originally? From South Africa. Charles:                        01:21                Okay. And you moved there for this specifically? Right. David:                           01:26                We will purchasing a whole lot of products from China and I've got the top utility to move out to Hong Kong, which at the time seemed like a, I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. And you know, my plan not to come back here for one year and 16 years later just got absorbed by this world in this industry. And here I am. Charles:                        01:46                So that was 16 years ago. You've been there and this has been the, what you do is focus? David:                           01:52                Yes. So, so we, we do a lot of sourcing quality control in China. You know, I've started different businesses and you know, those businesses that all started because I've always had this habit and base in China, you know, being able to source products, deal with manufacturers and really get the right quality product. And that's always been for our own businesses in my own business. So then, you know, from here it's just kind of accelerated into, you know, helping more and more people on the ground in China. And as such, I haven't been able to leave. Charles:                        02:25                Yeah. I've heard a number of folks that once they start kind of scaling in the sourcing but let's say there's two partners, there'll be like one partner that stays local and then one partner goes out there, you know,

What Are the Hidden Risks Importing Products From China? (E107)

Derek O'CarrollCEO at Brightpearl Bio: Derek O’Carroll has had an eye for business since he turned his school’s unused tennis courts into a paid tennis club as a 15-year-old. As CEO of Brightpearl, a cloud-based ERP for retailers and wholesalers, he has refined go-to-market strategies and led innovations that have increased deal size of nearly 500 percent and yielded 75% growth year-on-year. Sponsors: Drip – Get a free demo of Drip using this coupon code!Spark Shipping – eCommerce Automation Links: BrightpearlLinkedIn TwitterFacebook Derek LinkedInDerek TwitterDerek Facebook Transcript: Charles:                        00:00                In this episode of The Business of eCommerce. I talk with Derek O'Carroll about how to create a customer focused omnichannel experience. This is a business of e-commerce. Episode 106 to The Business of eCommerce to show that helps eCommerce retailers start launch and grow their eCommerce business. I'm your host, Charles Palleschi. I'm here today with Derek O'Carroll. Derek is a CEO of BrightPearl, a cloud based ERP are retailers and wholesalers at bright Pearl. He has redefined the go to market strategy and led innovations that have increased the deal size. We 500% in yield at a 75% growth year over year. I've asked Eric on the show today to chat about how you create a customer focused Omni channel experience. So Hey Derek, how you doing today? Derek:                          00:50                I'm excellent. Charles. Delighted to be with you. Yeah, Charles:                        00:52                To have you on the show. I'd love the topic, kind of the whole omnichannel and kind of bringing it all together first real quick, bright Pearl. You've been there. How long? Derek:                          01:01                A three and a half years. Just over. I joined in May, 2016 Charles:                        01:05                Gotcha. Okay. And cloud based ERP. So for those who don't know, I feel like years ago I feel like this, the term ERP was just this thing that like other people had. But then as you kind of grow and you don't really know what it is, you know, like I don't need one of those. But as you grow, you start to realize maybe you know, you start to learn what it is and kind of realize who needs it and why. Can you explain real quick, who needs an ERP? What is it and kind of generally like how does it work? Derek:                          01:34                Well, I think to be successful, any merchant needs to provide a very high level of personalized service irrespective of the channel that they are using to engage with a client. That's, that's where everything starts. And in order to be able to do that, you have to orchestrate all of the operational tasks that come about when an, when an order hits your store through a point of sale, hits your marketplace through maybe an Amazon store, you're running our hits your website through your own website. And so retail ERP our cloud based ERP as you called it, essentially the way I would ask your listeners think about it is it's essential point to orchestrate all of your orders and all of the following on actions that you need to bring to bear upon those orders to get to the bottom line where you can see the Holy grail of what's my margin, what's my fully landed cost on each channel. And you need to know that because then you can decide how much do I order for the next season or the next phase. And also what's my pricing strategy in that particular channel? Cause as we know, every single channel has a different cost of doing business on it. And that's essentially what an ERP does. So it covers where people order from, how you handle that order it overs, fulfillment, logistics, payments, all the way through. So just think of the life cycle of a customer and then think of all the tasks needed to serve that. Charles:                        03:00                Yeah,

How to Create a Customer-Focused Omnichannel Experience (E106)

Nate GinsburgFounder of SellerPlex Bio: Nate built up his eCommerce business and sold for $1million in 2017. All while living around the world and doing lots and lots of yoga. Now, Nate helps other entrepreneurs run better, more profitable and more scaleable businesses with SellerPlex. Nate is passionate about living a free and balanced life helping others do the same! Learn more about Nate on his Instagram @nteginsburg. Sponsors: Drip – Get a free demo of Drip using this coupon code!Spark Shipping – eCommerce Automation Links: https://SellerPlex.comhttps://SellerPlex.com/audithttps://NateGinsburg.comhttps://www.instagram.com/nateginsburg/https://www.facebook.com/nateginsburg Transcript: Charles:                        00:00                In this episode of a business V commerce. I talk with Nate Ginsburg about putting systems in people in place to help you scale your business. This is a business of eCommerce, episode 105. Charles:                        00:17                Welcome to the business to be commerce. They show that helps eCommerce retailers start launch and grow [inaudible] eCommerce business. I'm your host, Charles Polaski. I'm here today with Nakeds Berg. Nate is a founder of seller Plex where he helps Amazon and other eCommerce retailers grow their business by scaling their supply chain. I asked him on the show today to talk about how you, you can scale your business by putting systems and people in place. So, Hey Nate, how are you doing today? Doing good. Doing good? Thanks. Yeah, doing good. So wanted to make sure. So sell a Plex. Is it just supply chain or do you guys do finance as well? You were just saying. Nate:                            00:52                Yeah, so we basically you know, our sweet spot is all the things that need to get done to keep a business running, but are, you know, not really the fun stuff. And so I like, I believe that as an entrepreneur it's all of our best opportunity. Me, you you know, all the e-commerce listeners to do what do what we're best at and double down on, you know, where where we can add the most value and then you know, delegate and you know, offload the other areas that are, you know, necessary to run the business well but you know, aren't going to actually grow the business. So that's where that's where we come in. So our services include a supply chain, finance admin so that, you know, you as the owner can yeah, double down on, on growing the business. Charles:                        01:49                Got it. So it goes very well to show topic then. I love the idea of putting systems in place. It's one of those things and e-commerce is a business where there's a lot of repetition where a lot of things like orders come in and the goal is, you know, 99% of orders follow the exact same path. They do the same thing. Hopefully 9%, nothing goes wrong. They just kind of ship. So there's a lot of this like work that just needs to be done every day, multiple times a day. So putting systems in place, e-commerce is like this, like soup compared to some other businesses like consulting where everything's almost a one off e-commerce. The goal is there, it's a factory, it's assembly line, they just kind of move through. Right? Nate:                            02:30                Yeah, absolutely. And so a little kind of background on me and the business. So I had my own eCommerce business, you know, started maybe five or six years ago and you know, I'm, I'm the kind of person that I'm not good at very many things and so needed to get help in all these areas that I, you know, were necessary and important, but you know, it wasn't particularly good at or didn't want to be good at, you know, for example, the customer service you know, supply chain, finance, admin and and yeah, like, you know, that allowed me to, you know, build this business that, you know, was you know, running very well. You know, sales were good,

Putting Systems and People in Place to Help You Scale Your Business (E105)

Joseph LiebermanDigital Marketing Director at Antlion Audio Bio: Founded the first indie game PR company and went on to be the marketing guy behind a successful casual game publisher, ArcadeTown, which was purchased by Demand Media and IPOed in 2013. At Arcadetown Joseph grew an eCommerce game network and subscription service to 13.5 million visitors per month with 8 million newsletter subscribers. Joseph joined Antlion Audio in 2016, where we revamped a small CE company with a generic Shopify template into what people think is a major audio CE player. Joseph's initiatives have focused on drawing more earned media and PR attention to the company and it's product line, focusing on growing the brand and allowing their distributors to take lead on sales, though direct sales still represent a sizable portion of the overall business. Sponsors: Drip – Get a free demo of Drip using this coupon code!Spark Shipping – eCommerce Automation Links: https://antlionaudio.com/https://discordapp.com/invite/ZqDGNFg Transcript: Charles:                        00:00                In this episode of The Business of eCommerce. I talked with Joseph Lieberman about how to deal with unhappy customers. This is the business of e-commerce. Episode 104, Charles:                        00:15                Welcome to the business of eCommerce they should have that helps eCommerce retailers start, launch and grow their eCommerce business. I'm your host, Charles Palleschi and I'm here today with Joseph Lieberman. Joseph is a director of marketing at ant audio where he focuses on growing the company for brand awareness and earned media. Is Joseph on the show today to talk about how to deal with unhappy customers? So, Hey Joseph, how are you doing today? Doing great. I'm a happy customer currently. Well, I'm happy to have you on the show. This is one of those topics that I love chatting about and not many people, not many people talk about this side of e-commerce and I feel like it, it's one of those things as even the owner of the business or anyone customer service, you spend a ton of your time dealing with like the 1% of users that are unhappy. Most orders, you know, going out, things just work great. Hopefully. but those orders that don't cause us like a reduction in time and everything. So how do you deal with this or what do you know, what are some best practice for this? Joseph:                         01:18                So the, to be clear, to be clear, you know, as the marketing person in our company I, I view customer services of very different things and say maybe the customer service manager at our company who's in the trenches as it were. Like he's the one you know, emailing and talking to these people constantly and that kind of thing. So when it comes to the marketing side, my approach of dealing with might be a little different than, than the expectation of, you know, I need to send this guy an email. I need to, you know, get his shipping info. I need to figure out what the problem is. You know, those kinds of things. I'm thinking about more of the, the big scheme of things. What is going on here, right? What is caused somebody to be upset and what systems can we fix that will prevent this from happening again? So on the one hand unhappy customers are bad, but on the other hand, unhappy customers are good. And so I actually kind of want to talk about if I may that second part, which is how can unhappy customers be good? So rather than sort of get bogged down in the details of like, how do you fix a problem, I guess. Charles:                        02:35                Yeah, I like that. I feel like some of the, some of the unhappy customers, they're the ones that kind of push you further along to put like push you to do better, for lack of a better term though, where you, you have, you have to get better at dealing with certain issues and over time, you know, every time you set up

How to Turn Unhappy Customers into Raving Fans (E104)

Tips, tricks, strategies and tactics to help new and experienced eCommerce retailers start, launch or grow their eCommerce Business. If you like eCommerceFuel, Shopify Master, Tropical MBA, Build My Online Store or eCommerce Momentum, you’ll love The Business of eCommerce.

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The Business Of eCommerce

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