Ecommerce Pulse

Topics covered in this episode: How Ken and his family designed and manufactured a brand new product in the pet industry Dealing with intellectual property issues for new products (like patents and trademarks) How offering a more generous return policy actually correlated with a reduction in returns and more positive reviews Scaling a new ecommerce business while continuing to work a regular job Links mentioned on the show: Shopify Entrepreneurs Facebook group The Cost of Obtaining a Patent in the US How to add a wholesale area to your store without an app Shopafree WheekyPets.com

Topics covered in this episode: Differences between dropshipping and buying wholesale Pros and cons of drop shipping and scenarios when you might want to try it Tips to be successful with dropshipping How the "free plus shipping" model works and things to consider before trying it Pros and cons of buying wholesale Tips for improving your packaging What makes buying wholesale a better model than dropshipping Growth hacks to help you improve your SEO by getting a few easy high-level backlinks Links mentioned on the show: Survival Knife Experts Anton Method Johnny FD / Blog about selling drop shipping store Stock Sync Oberlo AliExpress Strikingly Profitable eCommerce The Ultimate Guide to Dropshipping Lumi Packlane Pakible KWFinder SEMrush Get 15% off KWFinder 1 Password Dashlane Reddit Shopify Apps

Shabbir began selling a product that brought in $5996.13 in revenue during the first 50 days. Leighton checks in with Shabbir to see how things are going a few months later. Topics covered in this episode: Some lessons that Shabbir has learned through this seeming “failure” Any time an ecommerce venture doesn’t go how you wanted it to, it’s a disappointment and can be discouraging. Hear how Shabbir takes his experience to fine-tune what works for him and his current life circumstances. Links mentioned on the show: Sign up to be notified about my ecommerce coaching program Making $5996.13 In 50 Days Selling On Amazon FBA Original Podcast with Shabbir Nooruddin Review Kick The Amazing Seller Fish Finder Source Empire Flippers

Topics covered in this episode: Nick D's work, writing, tips, and tools Basics of A/B testing How to interview your customers to learn what needs to change on your website How to know when your business is ready for A/B testing Most common UX and copy mistakes to watch out for Common misconceptions about A/B testing Links mentioned on the show: Draft Baymard Institute ConversionXL VWO (Visual Website Optimizer) Cadence & Slang Revise Weekly Don’t Make Me Think Interviewing Users Make Money Online Calendly SaneBox MailRoute Slack How to Hire a Part-Time Employee Draft Evidence

Topics covered in this episode: How to know when it’s the right time to hire a VA What you should look for in a good VA and how to prepare for having one Helpful tips in the hiring process and in managing a VA Listener store critique – Suniela Links mentioned on the show: The 4-Hour Workweek Upwork Virtual Staff Finder The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It  OnlineJobs.ph Zirtual Asana Slack Google Docs Help Scout Todoist Amazon Flex Uber Rush Postmates Suniela Ecommerce Entrepreneurs OneTab

How many apps or services do you use for your online store that let you track the ROI on your investment in that app, down to the dollar? Jordan Gal of CartHook.com joins me today for a discussion about abandoned cart recovery emails. By sending effective abandoned cart followup emails, you can significantly boost your store's revenue with your existing traffic, and you can see exactly how much these emails are increasing your store's revenue. Topics covered in this episode: How to get as much revenue as possible from the money you're already putting into driving traffic to your site Factors that have an impact on abandoned cart conversions How much of a difference abandoned cart software will make on your conversion rate Jordan’s recommended abandoned cart campaign to buyers and why it works Should you use discount codes to get people to come back to an abandoned cart? If so, when? What to consider when choosing an abandoned cart followup service Jordan’s new app that allows you to customize and optimize your Shopify checkout page to improve conversions Links mentioned on the show: CartHook Klaviyo AbandonAid Rejoiner Bluecore One page checkout for Shopify CloudFlare Slack Help Scout Intercom My Notebook Trello Pomodoro Calendly Snagit Joe Rogan Podcast Tim Ferriss Podcast Zero to Scale Startups for the Rest of Us Hardcore History  Bootstrapped Web Carthook Podcast Jordan Gal on Twitter

I’m excited to announce that Richard Lazazzera and I have decided to partner up for a series of episodes. We haven’t set a definite end point, but we’re planning to do regular shows together about twice a month. My main goal with this podcast is to help my listeners build and grow their ecommerce businesses, so we’ll be talking about strategies and tips for how to build your store and market effectively. We’ll also be talking about current events in the world of Shopify and ecommerce, our favorite apps and tools, and the projects we’re working on. As we mentioned on the show, we’ll also be doing listener store critiques. One of the most common requests on the Facebook communities we’re part of is “Please review my store and tell me why I’m not getting sales,” and we’ve agreed to do live critiques on the show of stores submitted by listeners. To submit a store for us to critique, email your store URL Leighton at hello@envision.io. Make sure to mention how you’re driving traffic to your site and what kinds of results you’ve seen so far! Topics covered in this episode: How to know when to put money into redesigning your site and how to go about it. What to look for when choosing a design agency/freelancer. Resources for finding awesome font and color combinations Tips on how to be prepared to work with the design company. Knowing if and when to hire professionals or do-it-yourself. Tips for designing your website yourself and making it look professional. How to get good photography for your site. Our favorite tools to manage your business. Links mentioned on the show: A Better Lemonade Stand PixelDreams Upwork TailorBrands (affiliate link) Fiverr CreativeMarket GraphicRiver 99designs Crowdspring Font Pair: Find awesome Google Font combinations for your site Coolors: Find beautiful color combinations for your site Paletton: Use a color wheel to find great-looking color palettes for your site Gyazo ToDoist

Mojca Mars is a social media consultant who really knows her stuff, and today she shares her best strategies and tricks for making the most of Facebook. Mojca shares the secrets behind how to know when you should boost a Facebook post, why you should post valuable content directly within Facebook (rather than making someone click on a link), the next big social media platform you should get in on early, and why using tools like Hootsuite or Buffer can actually hurt your social media efforts. Links mentioned on the show: Mojca’s blog post on Facebook Lead Ads: Everything you should know about Facebook’s Lead Ads before you get started Snapchat Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook The Buffer Blog Social Media Examiner @MojcaMars Super Spicy Media's Facebook page mojca@superspicymedia.com Mojca's free email course on Facebook ads

Casandra Campbell is the managing editor of the Shopify blog, so she's got serious chops when it comes to content marketing. Shopify's content team publishes at least 5 blog posts a week on the main Shopify blog, and this content marketing plays a huge role in driving new visitors to Shopify. Casandra has also worked as a holistic marketing consultant in the past, and she is a cofounder of Liberty Village Brewing Company, a craft brewer in Toronto. Here's an overview of the topics we discuss on the show: How long should you plan on doing content marketing to see results? How often should you publish blog posts? After you publish great content, how can you promote it to drive traffic? When reaching out to influencers, how can you make it more likely that they’ll read your email pitch and share your content? Why do most ecommerce store blogs flounder, and how can you make one that really engages your audience and drives lots of traffic? How Casandra works her job at Shopify while also running a brewing company on the side with her friends The tools and techniques she uses to collaborate and run the brewing business Waking up naturally—why it’s one of the biggest positive changes Casandra’s made in her life Links mentioned on the show: Shopify blog Shopify Masters TGIM Liberty Village Brewing Company Drive by Daniel Pink (affiliate link) Smart Passive Income LastPass BuzzSumo Google Drive @Casandra_Camp

What is copywriting? How can doing it well help you make more sales with your ecommerce store? What's a customer avatar, and how can you develop one that will help you write amazing copy for your online store? How can you work as a freelancer writer while traveling the world? All shall be revealed in this conversation with Stephanie Simon. Links mentioned on the show John McIntyre's email list (and podcast) Neville Medhora's Kopywriting Kourse (editor's note: We do not endorse the usage of Ks instead of Cs in this manner) Momentum The Boron Letters Triggers by Joe Sugarman (affiliate link) Copyhackers.com The One Thing by Gary Keller (affiliate link) Freebie: Customer avatar checklist by Stephanie Simon stephaniesimon.me Connect with Stephanie on Facebook stephanie@thecuriouscopywriter.com

Richard Lazazzera of A Better Lemonade Stand has been building an active Facebook community for ecommerce entrepreneurs. He's also focusing on SEO, using SEMRush to figure out new keywords to focus on and outrank his competitors. We talk about our ecommerce stores, plans for the future (possibly developing our own products), and the "free plus shipping" ecommerce model. Links mentioned on the show: A Better Lemonade Stand Ecommerce Entrepreneurs Facebook group Shopify Entrepreneurs Facebook group Finch Goods SEMRush Just Mobile Hover Pad (affiliate link) Roost Stand (affiliate link) Kit CRM

Kai Davis is an outreach consultant, which means that he helps his clients get featured in other blogs and podcasts by building relationships with influencers. In this episode, Kai and I talk about how to identify the right influencers to reach out to, how to craft an effective cold email sequence, and the tools he uses to systematize his outreach. Links referenced on the show: DoubleYourAudience.com Moz ahrefs Majestic SEO BuzzStream emailhunter.co Quickmail.io Streak.com Trello doubleyouraudience.com/ecommercepulse doubleyouraudience.com/ama

Shabbir started selling baking mats on Amazon, and failed. Then he tried a second product and did $5996.13 in revenue during the first 50 days. In this episode we discuss how he did it, how to tell which products are selling on Amazon, how he got his initial customer reviews, and what's next. Links mentioned on the show: Making $5996.13 In 50 Days Selling On Amazon FBA The Amazing Seller Tomoson Corey Ferreira’s case study - How One Shopify Employee Built a Profitable Business in 5 Weeks Selling Gaming Glasses From China Bootstrapping Ecommerce @BootstrapEcom

envision.io/51 Drew Sanocki reveals the basics of how tripwire marketing and discount ladders can make customers stick around longer, buying from you again and again. Links mentioned on the show: Karmaloop Mineral Nerd Marketing Klaviyo Rejoiner CartHook Toggl The Pomodoro Technique Tomighty 80/20 Sales and Marketing: The Definitive Guide to Working Less and Making More  

envision.io/50 Corey Ferreira works on the Shopify content team, and he recently published a huge, in-depth case study showing exactly how he started a profitable ecommerce store with products he imported through Alibaba. I had Corey on the show to talk about how he built this business, how Shopify is going to give the business away to a lucky winner (you can enter the drawing here), and how the new owner could potentially grow the business from here. Links mentioned on the show: Embolden.co Case study on the Shopify blog Fiverr Twitch Shopify Masters episode Alibaba /r/shutupandtakemymoney Muse Calm Headspace Shopify blog @coreyvf