The JetRails Podcast

There are lots of branding agencies and graphic designers in the world, but creating a Magento website properly requires as much science as art. You have to think about Magento's default features and functionality, extensions and customizations, mobile and desktop users, and a process that will ultimately lead to a finished product that works well for your shoppers. In this episode, we discuss best practices for designing a Magento website, and share some tidbits to try to avoid too! Guest: Robert Floyd, Product Designer and Creative Director @ Gauge Host: Robert Rand, Director of Partnerships & Alliances @ JetRails.com

Have you heard of Open SaaS? A few years ago, the thought of BigCommerce participating in Open Source communities like WordPress and Drupal might have sounded surprising. In reality, with their push into Headless Commerce, BigCommerce now allows merchants to leverage their choice of frontend website interface... so we invited a member of their team to weigh in on the evolution of Headless Commerce at BigCommerce. Guest: Daniel Fertig, Global Director of Agency Partnerships, BigCommerce Host: Robert Rand, JetRails.com Want to learn even more about Headless Commerce Benefits and Best Practices? Check out this multi-faceted guide written by BigCommerce, Bolt, & JetRails: http://bit.ly/2VbKl2G Interested in Headless Commerce Hosting? Check out https://jetrails.com/blog/headless-commerce-hosting/

Email Marketing may seem like yesterday's news, but it can have an outsized impact on important metrics like customer lifetime value. This episode includes great tips and tricks for maximizing your Email marketing success. Guests: Joe Devine, Partnerships & Alliances Manager, Emarsys Steve Wagner, Senior Marketing Manager, Webbula Host: Robert Rand, JetRails.com

Robert chats with the team at DCKAP about quality assurance, and how a drive to follow best-practices led to the creation of QA Touch, a platform now used by other agencies and developers. Guests: Karthik Chidambaram, Founder & CEO, DCKAP Bhavani Ramasubbu, QA Lead & Quality Architect, DCKAP Host: Robert Rand, JetRails.com

Online merchants have a lot to manage. You've got customers, orders, products, payments, shipments, taxes, and bears... oh my! With what can seem like an ever-growing list of things to do to manage and maintain your eCommerce business, it can be easy to miss the story that your data is telling you. It's crucial to collect, connect, and visualize your data, creating meaningful analytics that you can act on. Intrigued? So were we, so we called in some experts. Guests: Meaghan Connell & AJ Yager, Praxis Metrics - https://bit.ly/2kFFetZ Host: Robert Rand, JetRails.com

Clyde built a robust platform to allow eCommerce store owners to easily offer extended warranties and product insurance plans, and decided that to target Magento users, they'd benefit from having a Magento Extension. Learn how they connected with Xumulus, a web development agency (and Magento Extension Partner) to help build their Magento extension and launch it in the Magento Marketplace. Host: - Robert Rand, JetRails Guests: - Brandon Gell, Clyde - Dan Kozlowski, Xumulus

If you ship with a carrier like UPS or FedEx, it's likely that you're paying more in fees than you should be. For instance, if a shipment, such as an overnight shipment, is late, you may be entitled to a full refund. Tune in to learn more about where you may be overpaying your shipping carrier, and how to recoup those funds. Guest: Jose Li, Founder & CEO, 71lbs Host: Robert Rand, Director of Partnerships & Alliances, JetRails

Shoppers expect orders to arrive at their doorstep quickly and cheaply. It's put a lot of pressure on merchants to compete. It's also brought challenges regarding eCommerce profitability. Learn more about the issues that ShipBob saw shoppers and sellers facing, and techniques for addressing those challenges. Guest: George Wojciechowski, Co-Founder, ShipBob Host: Robert Rand, Director of Partnerships & Alliances, JetRails

Online shoppers have been given ample reason to fear privacy and fraud in recent years. They’ve watched behemoths like Target and Home Depot suffer data breaches. So why should they feel comfortable and confident to make a purchase on your website? Tune in to learn about how merchants are building trust and improving their conversion rates. Special Guests: Eric Thorson + Mark Wilkinson, Norton Shopping Guarantee Host: Robert Rand, JetRails

Amazon figured out that if you let shoppers know when they can expect to receive a product, it cuts down on friction and helps improve conversion rates. We're excited to share firsthand feedback from a long-time eCommerce merchant on the impacts of adding this feature to his website. If you're into chess, you'll appreciate this guest's ability to think a few moves ahead! We've also brought on the founder of the tech company that's making this tech available to more and more eCommerce shops. Guests: Raphael Neff, ChessHouse.com Akhilesh Srivastava, Fenix Commerce Host: Robert Rand, JetRails

You spend lots of money driving shoppers to your eCommerce website, whether through paid ads, or organic advertising. In this episode of the podcast, we discuss how to convert more of those website visitors into customers, including by meeting expectations being set by titans of the eCommerce industry, like Amazon. Hosts: Tom Puchalski and Robert Rand of JetRails.com Guest: Jay Omar of Bolt.com

Magento is one of the most robust and popular eCommerce platforms available. Learn about key differences between the free Open Source version of Magento, and the paid Commerce version, including ways that merchants using the more popular Magento Open Source version have been adding Enterprise features and functionalities to their stores. Hosts: - Tom Puchalski, JetRails - Robert Rand, JetRails Guest: - Alex Povolotski, Collins Harper

Product and Store reviews are some of the most important indicators that shoppers use when making a purchase. James Denker of Trustpilot, a veteran of the tech industry, joined to discuss where online review technology started, where it is now, and where it's headed. If you're an eCommerce merchant and trying to determine how to use reviews to your advantage, you won't want to miss this episode of The JetRails Podcast. Guest: James Denker Jr., Senior Partner Manager @ Trustpilot Host: Robert Rand, Director of Partnerships @ JetRails

With Magento, you can import and export data through a variety of methods, including Flat File Uploads and Downloads, Direct Database Connections, and working with Magento's API. In this episode of The JetRails Podcast, we look at the pros and cons of each. Host: - Robert Rand, JetRails Guests: - Chris Frigo, Technical Team Lead @ 121eCommerce - Ryan Lunka, COO, nChannel

When Magento 2 was first released, it was buggy and not well received. Since, it's become a stable platform with many benefits and improvements over Magento 1. With each passing year, it's become stronger and has remained an industry leader. Listen in to learn more about incremental updates that have continued to add to the value proposition of Magento 2. Hosts: Tom Puchalski & Robert Rand of JetRails Special Guest: Alex Povolotski of Collins Harper To learn about Magento 2.3.1 you can visit: https://jetrails.com/blog/magento-2-3-1-to-be-released-in-march-2019/ and for info about Magento 2.3.2, be sure to check out: https://jetrails.com/blog/magento-2-3-2-release-date/