Lean Commerce

I'm consistently amazed at how competitive the apparel space is. Sure, it's a business with great potential for margins, but there are ZERO switching costs and a low barrier to entry. That's why it was so interesting to have Adam Sidney from Myles on this week. He's a heavy hitter in the DTC apparel world. He was a serious mover-and-shaker at a little place called Bonobos, has consulted with brands getting off the ground, and is currently CEO at Myles, a DTC men's clothing brand. We ran the gamut in terms of what's changing in DTC, useful experience from his time at Bonobos and how "boring" products can actually be fascinating. But the topic I believe you'll enjoy the most is authenticity in your brand. Myles is doing some great stuff in this regard. Easy to talk about, and easy to do (if you actually believe in what you're building). Take a listen, and leave a review!

I've been blessed enough to talk to some fascinating folks on this show. In fact, the whole idea behind the podcast is that 90% are only talked about behind closed doors. Today's episode was even more interesting than normal. Meghan left GoPro to start RedThread - the very first women's apparel brand to ditch standard sizes once and for all and solve the apparel fit issue for all women, of every shape. The coolest thing about it is definitely the tech. Each woman takes a few selfies and her measurements are autogenerated to create clothing with the perfect fit. Think about the impact this could have on returns (if your size was right from the beginning you wouldn't need to send it back), not to mention the ease of shopping since you could ditch the sizing charts (which no one understands anyway). Meghan explains it much better than I can - hope you enjoy this episode.

Distribution channels have been interesting to me for a long time. After all, amazing products DIE without distribution. A big reason I started this podcast was to figure out how independent product owners can stay free from the clutches of Amazon and their margin-slashing claws. But the more I look at their platform, the more I realize that it's quite similar to the wholesale or distributor model. I'll eat my own words here: rather than trying to "beat" Amazon, for some brands it makes sense to "join" them. If you're part of a brand that would benefit from Amazon's distribution channel, this episode for you. Dan Brownsher has been on the side of product development where he and his business partners invest their own capital into launching a brand on Amazon, and the service side, where he and his team help Amazon sellers to scale up. Enjoy the episode!

GUEST BIO: Dave Rodenbaugh is the founder of Recapture.io an automated abandoned cart recovery for Magento & Shopify. Dave started his entrepreneurial career by acquiring businesses and making the developmental changes that turned them into profitable companies. Dave is the host of the Rogue Startups Podcast alongside his co-host Craig Hewitt where they have weekly conversations about entrepreneurship, eCommerce, and marketing. SHOW SUMMARY: Dave Rodenbaugh is the founder of Recapture.io and the host of the Rogue Startups Podcast. His provides an automated abandoned cart recovery for Magento & Shopify businesses. Dave initially started his career acquiring small businesses, where he learned where businesses needed the most help to create profitability. In this episode, we talk about how much Dave acquired his first companies for, where to find those same deals today, and how he acquires new customers for Recapture.io. This is The Lean Commerce Podcast. TOPICS: How did you get started in business acquisition? 1:46 I joined a group of micro-entrepreneurs over a decade ago. What we all had was a skill to build something but we didn’t have an understanding of how to sell it and how to sustainably set up a business that can scale. Overtime, the founders of this group created a conference, called Micro Conf, which is now held in Miami. 4:42 I spent time looking around at various marketplaces, such as eBay, and found smaller businesses with potential and bought them at a low costs. Then I started figuring out what parts could be outsourced and how to scale these businesses. How much did you initially acquire these companies for? 5:46 I had a $2,000 budget. Now a days, you could do it for under $5,000. I bought a small business making $100 a month, tried to grow it and make it legit but it turned out there were a lot of fraudulent users on there. I cleaned up the platform, marketing, and sales page and then sold it for the same price. What I came out of it with was knowledge and experience. The second time I did that I found a bunch of Wordpress plugins and a business that was drowning in support. The women in charge wasn’t systemizing it or funneling it, so I spent time setting up a pricing page, making a free version vs. premium version, and created a support forum and turned it into a $3,000 a month business from a $300 a month business in three years. Where would you find these smaller deals today? 15:00 I’m on a lot of little lists. Side Projectors is one for example. You’ll find a lot of good businesses and some really bad ones. For example, people will rewrite Slack and want you to pay for it. 16:19 The only thing that truly adds value to a business if it’s make money. If it’s not generating money, it’s not worth anything. In some cases, you might be able to say that it can be monetized. For example, a Shopify app that needs another distribution channel. Now, you can use that to cross promote your other Shopify app and use it to make the other one more money. How many acquisitions have you made? 29:50 I think I’m somewhere around eight or nine done deals, not including the ones that haven’t worked out. What does it look like to acquire new customers for Recapture.io? 31:20 I won’t lie, it can definitely be a struggle. We also have a high LTV. You have to find the right channel. You can try cold emails, pitch to agencies or store owners, etc. All of this takes time and money and as an individual founder there is no way I can do all of it by myself. I have to hire out to get it all done. 36:58 The hardest thing to overcome is trust. You need to show people that you know what you’re doing and they can account for your services. Where are the distribution channels to get in touch with store owners today? 38:19 The problem is that there is no one answer to that. Even if you had an answer, it could change in 6-12 months and then change again. Communities come and go. I compare the l

GUEST BIO: Dave Rodenbaugh is the founder of Recapture.io an automated abandoned cart recovery for Magento & Shopify. Dave started his entrepreneurial career by acquiring businesses and making the developmental changes that turned them into profitable companies. Dave is the host of the Rogue Startups Podcast alongside his co-host Craig Hewitt where they have weekly conversations about entrepreneurship, eCommerce, and marketing. SHOW SUMMARY: Dave Rodenbaugh is the founder of Recapture.io and the host of the Rogue Startups Podcast. His provides an automated abandoned cart recovery for Magento & Shopify businesses. Dave initially started his career acquiring small businesses, where he learned where businesses needed the most help to create profitability. In this episode, we talk about how much Dave acquired his first companies for, where to find those same deals today, and how he acquires new customers for Recapture.io. This is The Lean Commerce Podcast. TOPICS: How did you get started in business acquisition? 1:46 I joined a group of micro-entrepreneurs over a decade ago. What we all had was a skill to build something but we didn’t have an understanding of how to sell it and how to sustainably set up a business that can scale. Overtime, the founders of this group created a conference, called Micro Conf, which is now held in Miami. 4:42 I spent time looking around at various marketplaces, such as eBay, and found smaller businesses with potential and bought them at a low costs. Then I started figuring out what parts could be outsourced and how to scale these businesses. How much did you initially acquire these companies for? 5:46 I had a $2,000 budget. Now a days, you could do it for under $5,000. I bought a small business making $100 a month, tried to grow it and make it legit but it turned out there were a lot of fraudulent users on there. I cleaned up the platform, marketing, and sales page and then sold it for the same price. What I came out of it with was knowledge and experience. The second time I did that I found a bunch of Wordpress plugins and a business that was drowning in support. The women in charge wasn’t systemizing it or funneling it, so I spent time setting up a pricing page, making a free version vs. premium version, and created a support forum and turned it into a $3,000 a month business from a $300 a month business in three years. Where would you find these smaller deals today? 15:00 I’m on a lot of little lists. Side Projectors is one for example. You’ll find a lot of good businesses and some really bad ones. For example, people will rewrite Slack and want you to pay for it. 16:19 The only thing that truly adds value to a business if it’s make money. If it’s not generating money, it’s not worth anything. In some cases, you might be able to say that it can be monetized. For example, a Shopify app that needs another distribution channel. Now, you can use that to cross promote your other Shopify app and use it to make the other one more money. How many acquisitions have you made? 29:50 I think I’m somewhere around eight or nine done deals, not including the ones that haven’t worked out. What does it look like to acquire new customers for Recapture.io? 31:20 I won’t lie, it can definitely be a struggle. We also have a high LTV. You have to find the right channel. You can try cold emails, pitch to agencies or store owners, etc. All of this takes time and money and as an individual founder there is no way I can do all of it by myself. I have to hire out to get it all done. 36:58 The hardest thing to overcome is trust. You need to show people that you know what you’re doing and they can account for your services. Where are the distribution channels to get in touch with store owners today? 38:19 The problem is that there is no one answer to that. Even if you had an answer, it could change in 6-12 months and then change again. Communities come and go. I compare the level of interaction and e

GUEST BIO: Jordan Gutierrez is the COO of Wishpond, a B2B business that builds complete marketing funnels that get leads and customers for eCommerce businesses. He started his business career by buying a coffee machine and selling coffee and donuts on the streets of Mexico City and has now helped Wishpond grow into a 120 person company. Jordan now focuses on the operations of Wishpond and most importantly, pivoting to the wants of their customers to continue to provide the products and services they need to grow their own businesses. SHOW SUMMARY: Jordan is the COO of Wishpond, a campaign builder for eCommerce businesses. Since joining the COO team during its start up phase, he’s helped the company grow to employ 120 people and work with Fortune 500 companies to create their marketing funnels. In this episode, we talk about Jordan’s first experience with business, what makes products sell on Facebook, and how chatbots and Facebook Messenger are changing the marketing industry. This is The Lean Commerce Podcast. TOPICS: How did you get into eCommerce? 2:15 Moving to Canada from Mexico City gave me my first introduction to Amazon and Best Buy. That summer, I went back to Mexico, bought a coffee machine, and started to sell coffee and donuts on the street. My customers were mostly doctors and I found out they were in Mexico just to buy medical books. I sold my coffee machine and started to sell the books they wanted online. 4:08 I decided that I needed a website and built an eCommerce website in 2007 selling medical books. At the same time, I came back to Canada and was studying in university. This was obviously really chaotic and when I was approached by a dropship partnership company, I agreed. 6:42 I started posting memes related to the medical community on Facebook, I interviewed doctors, and started to get some traction. 8:32 Then, I created a medical case page on Reddit. People could post symptoms and other users would diagnose them. This continued to grow and I started to expand to medical equipment, soaps, and tools. We started some campaigns, sold apparel, anything that medical professionals would want to buy. 11:46 Ninety percent of medical professionals in Mexico know of us and 70% have purchased medical equipment from us at some point. We have over 2,000 Google reviews and a 4.5 rating. It would make sense that adding to cart on Facebook was a seamless, easy decision—but it’s not. Why? 19:42 Trying to promote a simple medical book on Facebook is really difficult. On Facebook you need to build a dream and then you need your landing page to have absolutely no distractions. The main mistake people make is they send people to a landing page with too many CTA’s. Facebook is extremely distracting and it’s hard to choose where to click when you can click anywhere. 22:40 At the end of the day, if your landing page looks professional, has a nice video, and looks authoritative, it builds people’s confidence. 26:52 Once a week, we have a special product offer and we use it to grow our Facebook audience. We have contests and in order to be entered you have to get ten people to sign up. We started to just follow the market and got into more content marketing strategies. Do you operate as a SaaS company? 30:56 We are mostly a technology company but we see the need in clients needing a campaign. We have the software to build campaigns and so we offer that to our clients too. We also want to make it super affordable for small businesses. The idea is that you get the same resources as a Fortune 500 company (we work with both types of clients). How has Wishpond grown since you’ve been added to the team? 32:01 The company now employs 120 people. We’ve grown because we just focus on where the market is and then create products they want. We fix the problems our customers are having. What are some of the most interesting trends you’ve seen in the past year with conversion rate optimization?

GUEST BIO: Jordan Gutierrez is the COO of Wishpond, a B2B business that builds complete marketing funnels that get leads and customers for eCommerce businesses. He started his business career by buying a coffee machine and selling coffee and donuts on the streets of Mexico City and has now helped Wishpond grow into a 120 person company. Jordan now focuses on the operations of Wishpond and most importantly, pivoting to the wants of their customers to continue to provide the products and services they need to grow their own businesses. SHOW SUMMARY: Jordan is the COO of Wishpond, a campaign builder for eCommerce businesses. Since joining the COO team during its start up phase, he’s helped the company grow to employ 120 people and work with Fortune 500 companies to create their marketing funnels. In this episode, we talk about Jordan’s first experience with business, what makes products sell on Facebook, and how chatbots and Facebook Messenger are changing the marketing industry. This is The Lean Commerce Podcast. TOPICS: How did you get into eCommerce? 2:15 Moving to Canada from Mexico City gave me my first introduction to Amazon and Best Buy. That summer, I went back to Mexico, bought a coffee machine, and started to sell coffee and donuts on the street. My customers were mostly doctors and I found out they were in Mexico just to buy medical books. I sold my coffee machine and started to sell the books they wanted online. 4:08 I decided that I needed a website and built an eCommerce website in 2007 selling medical books. At the same time, I came back to Canada and was studying in university. This was obviously really chaotic and when I was approached by a dropship partnership company, I agreed. 6:42 I started posting memes related to the medical community on Facebook, I interviewed doctors, and started to get some traction. 8:32 Then, I created a medical case page on Reddit. People could post symptoms and other users would diagnose them. This continued to grow and I started to expand to medical equipment, soaps, and tools. We started some campaigns, sold apparel, anything that medical professionals would want to buy. 11:46 Ninety percent of medical professionals in Mexico know of us and 70% have purchased medical equipment from us at some point. We have over 2,000 Google reviews and a 4.5 rating. It would make sense that adding to cart on Facebook was a seamless, easy decision—but it’s not. Why? 19:42 Trying to promote a simple medical book on Facebook is really difficult. On Facebook you need to build a dream and then you need your landing page to have absolutely no distractions. The main mistake people make is they send people to a landing page with too many CTA’s. Facebook is extremely distracting and it’s hard to choose where to click when you can click anywhere. 22:40 At the end of the day, if your landing page looks professional, has a nice video, and looks authoritative, it builds people’s confidence. 26:52 Once a week, we have a special product offer and we use it to grow our Facebook audience. We have contests and in order to be entered you have to get ten people to sign up. We started to just follow the market and got into more content marketing strategies. Do you operate as a SaaS company? 30:56 We are mostly a technology company but we see the need in clients needing a campaign. We have the software to build campaigns and so we offer that to our clients too. We also want to make it super affordable for small businesses. The idea is that you get the same resources as a Fortune 500 company (we work with both types of clients). How has Wishpond grown since you’ve been added to the team? 32:01 The company now employs 120 people. We’ve grown because we just focus on where the market is and then create products they want. We fix the problems our customers are having. What are some of the most interesting trends you’ve seen in the past year with conversion rate optimization? 33:19 For B2B, Facebook Lead Ads a

GUEST BIO: Alex Royzen is the Director of Supply Chain Management at Ecentria, OpticsPlanet, and CampSaver. He is an expert at supply chain management and has been part of OpticsPlanet’s growth from $60 million in sales a year to $300 million. He is an experienced leader with brand, product, and project management background, using data to drive the decisions he makes for the companies that he works for. SHOW SUMMARY: Alex Royzen is the Director of Supply Chain Management at Ecentria, OpticsPlanet, and CampSaver. His expertise is in optimizing the supply chain of eCommerce companies and he has helped his companies grow by several millions of dollars. In this episode, we talk about how to compete with Amazon and where the eCommerce giant is failing, giving small business owners a chance to take their customers. We also talk about developing supplier relationships, how to turn your customer service representatives into experts of your products, and how to forecast your inventory. This is The Lean Commerce Podcast. TOPICS: What is supply chain management? 0:53 In the eCommerce industry, it’s a very ambiguous term. It can range from warehouse operations to inventory management. In my world, it’s inventory management. We’re not intimately involved in the warehouse side of things, that’s a totally separate operation that we don’t touch. How did you get into eCommerce? 2:24 I studied economics in college and it was the first subject I ever felt really passionate about. Microeconomics just clicked in my brain. After college, I ended up in the mining industry in Milwaukee. After a year, I decided to leave and come home to Chicago, where I had grown up. I heard about a company called OpticsPlanet, an online retailer, that needed somebody in their merchandising department. I applied, got the job, and now I’ve been here for ten years. I’ve watched OpticsPlanet grow from $60 million in sales to $300 million. What are some of the main levers that you look at to improve the supply chain of a business? 9:13 The first thing I do is evaluate the inventory they have. A lot of companies lack detailed reporting and access to data. This is crucial information to know. The top three elements to understand and be working on are: inventory quality, inventory strategy, and supplier relationships. How can you develop a supplier relationship? 10:29 It’s really a personal thing. For example, we have a team of buyers and they manage the relationships with our suppliers. In the long term, we develop personal relationships that go beyond business with our suppliers—we go on vacation together, they come to our holiday parties, and our families spend time together. 13:24 Especially in eCommerce, the most important thing a supplier can give you is priority in terms of allocation of products, shipping, results, issues, and their time. Also, if they can give you data, and do so by going above and beyond, you’ll be in a really good place. 14:50 Each relationship is case by case so I can’t necessarily give a one size fits all template for creating this relationship. What kind of competitive advantage do you see available to eCommerce companies selling products that other companies are already selling? 18:06 It comes down to, How do you compete with Amazon? There are two ways that people search for eCommerce products, they Google it or they search it on Amazon. 50% of product searches are on Amazon. What makes our companies successful is that they are niche markets and they aren’t everyday products or products that every person needs. For example, CampSaver is specific to the outdoor market, similar to REI. People willing to spend $600 on a jacket are not your typical consumers and that niche market gives you advantage. 20:57 Where Amazon fails is that you can’t ask them a question—trying to talk to somebody on Amazon is a struggle. With us, and other smaller companies, we have a knowledgeable customer service team that can a

GUEST BIO: Alex Royzen is the Director of Supply Chain Management at Ecentria, OpticsPlanet, and CampSaver. He is an expert at supply chain management and has been part of OpticsPlanet’s growth from $60 million in sales a year to $300 million. He is an experienced leader with brand, product, and project management background, using data to drive the decisions he makes for the companies that he works for. SHOW SUMMARY: Alex Royzen is the Director of Supply Chain Management at Ecentria, OpticsPlanet, and CampSaver. His expertise is in optimizing the supply chain of eCommerce companies and he has helped his companies grow by several millions of dollars. In this episode, we talk about how to compete with Amazon and where the eCommerce giant is failing, giving small business owners a chance to take their customers. We also talk about developing supplier relationships, how to turn your customer service representatives into experts of your products, and how to forecast your inventory. This is The Lean Commerce Podcast. TOPICS: What is supply chain management? 0:53 In the eCommerce industry, it’s a very ambiguous term. It can range from warehouse operations to inventory management. In my world, it’s inventory management. We’re not intimately involved in the warehouse side of things, that’s a totally separate operation that we don’t touch. How did you get into eCommerce? 2:24 I studied economics in college and it was the first subject I ever felt really passionate about. Microeconomics just clicked in my brain. After college, I ended up in the mining industry in Milwaukee. After a year, I decided to leave and come home to Chicago, where I had grown up. I heard about a company called OpticsPlanet, an online retailer, that needed somebody in their merchandising department. I applied, got the job, and now I’ve been here for ten years. I’ve watched OpticsPlanet grow from $60 million in sales to $300 million. What are some of the main levers that you look at to improve the supply chain of a business? 9:13 The first thing I do is evaluate the inventory they have. A lot of companies lack detailed reporting and access to data. This is crucial information to know. The top three elements to understand and be working on are: inventory quality, inventory strategy, and supplier relationships. How can you develop a supplier relationship? 10:29 It’s really a personal thing. For example, we have a team of buyers and they manage the relationships with our suppliers. In the long term, we develop personal relationships that go beyond business with our suppliers—we go on vacation together, they come to our holiday parties, and our families spend time together. 13:24 Especially in eCommerce, the most important thing a supplier can give you is priority in terms of allocation of products, shipping, results, issues, and their time. Also, if they can give you data, and do so by going above and beyond, you’ll be in a really good place. 14:50 Each relationship is case by case so I can’t necessarily give a one size fits all template for creating this relationship. What kind of competitive advantage do you see available to eCommerce companies selling products that other companies are already selling? 18:06 It comes down to, How do you compete with Amazon? There are two ways that people search for eCommerce products, they Google it or they search it on Amazon. 50% of product searches are on Amazon. What makes our companies successful is that they are niche markets and they aren’t everyday products or products that every person needs. For example, CampSaver is specific to the outdoor market, similar to REI. People willing to spend $600 on a jacket are not your typical consumers and that niche market gives you advantage. 20:57 Where Amazon fails is that you can’t ask them a question—trying to talk to somebody on Amazon is a struggle. With us, and other smaller companies, we have a knowledgeable customer service team that can answer your questions and give

GUEST BIO: Kathy Ando is the Head of Direct Consumer at GoPro with a huge focus in digital and eCommerce. After graduating college, she realized she didn’t want to pursue the path of her biotechnology degree. Kathy worked at the GAP Headquarters in San Francisco and found herself in the right place at the right time. With the rise in marketplaces and eCommerce, she learned about the consumer industry and how digital technology was affecting it. Kathy then transitioned to run merchandising at Apple and then began her career at GoPro. Kathy focuses on improving the customer experience with the goal of increasing conversions and customer lifetime value. SHOW SUMMARY: Kathy is the Head of Direct Consumer at GoPro. She’s previously worked for GAP and Apple, transitioning to GoPro to focus on their consumer experience. Kathy’s focus on a seamless and frictionless consumer experience, particularly on the GoPro website, is helping the company continue to grow their customer base and keep their current customers loyal to the brand. In this episode, we talk about what GoPro is testing to improve their conversions, the special offers they are promoting, and how GoPro differentiates their online experience from Amazon. Kathy also explains the 180 degree shift we’ve seen in brick-and-mortar vs. eCommerce stores, who large companies are hiring to work in their stores, and the GoPro’s biggest challenge in the current eCommerce market. This is The Lean Commerce Podcast. TOPICS: What is your role at GoPro? 1:14 My role is to drive the direct to consumer experience. I call it an experience because it’s both a commerce experience as it is a marketing experience. I manage shopping at GoPro.com and experiencing GoPro for what it is on our website. How did you start working with GoPro? 2:12 I graduated with a degree in biotechnology but in my senior year I realized I wasn't passionate about it. I moved into retail and started my career at the GAP Headquarters in San Francisco. Over time, I’ve been in the right place at the right time. At the time that marketplaces and eCommerce were starting, I was in Silicon Valley and I took a smart, but calculated risk to move into retail. I transitioned over to Apple to run merchandising for their online store. What does your GoPro’s consumer testing look like? 5:35 When I first came on board, I was all for testing EVERYTHING. What I found out was that we were lacking the most fundamental element—how our customers were engaging with our website and what that experience was like for them. We’ve recently onboarded partners that help us see how our customers interact with our website and we’re now able to test smarter. What have you seen as the most important element of improving the customer experience? 9:38 We look at a couple of metrics. At the end of the day, the most important metric for us is conversion. Yes, we are a marketing experience but we are mostly a commerce experience. We want conversions. So, we have been looking at hesitation rate, scroll rate, conversion rate, and lifetime value. 12:50 We test hesitation rate by watching customers interact with our website. For example, if a consumer hovers over the Add to Cart button for 10 seconds, that’s a hesitation rate. 14:10 That’s when we start to dive in and ask ourselves, “Did we build this part of the website correctly?”. If the consumer can’t find the promo code or shipping price, then they’ll have this hesitation. We then bring consumers in and ask them, “What is making you hesitate at this specific point?”. How did you test your special offer of two bonus products? 15:30 We had a special offer for a GoPro beanie and SD card with the purchase of any product on the GoPro website. As a brand, we wanted to give you a really great experience. Recently, we’ve decided to give a free SD card with every camera purchase. And then, from time to time we like to give a surprise bonus. In this case, it was the beanie.

GUEST BIO: Kathy Ando is the Head of Direct Consumer at GoPro with a huge focus in digital and eCommerce. After graduating college, she realized she didn’t want to pursue the path of her biotechnology degree. Kathy worked at the GAP Headquarters in San Francisco and found herself in the right place at the right time. With the rise in marketplaces and eCommerce, she learned about the consumer industry and how digital technology was affecting it. Kathy then transitioned to run merchandising at Apple and then began her career at GoPro. Kathy focuses on improving the customer experience with the goal of increasing conversions and customer lifetime value. SHOW SUMMARY: Kathy is the Head of Direct Consumer at GoPro. She’s previously worked for GAP and Apple, transitioning to GoPro to focus on their consumer experience. Kathy’s focus on a seamless and frictionless consumer experience, particularly on the GoPro website, is helping the company continue to grow their customer base and keep their current customers loyal to the brand. In this episode, we talk about what GoPro is testing to improve their conversions, the special offers they are promoting, and how GoPro differentiates their online experience from Amazon. Kathy also explains the 180 degree shift we’ve seen in brick-and-mortar vs. eCommerce stores, who large companies are hiring to work in their stores, and the GoPro’s biggest challenge in the current eCommerce market. This is The Lean Commerce Podcast. TOPICS: What is your role at GoPro? 1:14 My role is to drive the direct to consumer experience. I call it an experience because it’s both a commerce experience as it is a marketing experience. I manage shopping at GoPro.com and experiencing GoPro for what it is on our website. How did you start working with GoPro? 2:12 I graduated with a degree in biotechnology but in my senior year I realized I wasn't passionate about it. I moved into retail and started my career at the GAP Headquarters in San Francisco. Over time, I’ve been in the right place at the right time. At the time that marketplaces and eCommerce were starting, I was in Silicon Valley and I took a smart, but calculated risk to move into retail. I transitioned over to Apple to run merchandising for their online store. What does your GoPro’s consumer testing look like? 5:35 When I first came on board, I was all for testing EVERYTHING. What I found out was that we were lacking the most fundamental element—how our customers were engaging with our website and what that experience was like for them. We’ve recently onboarded partners that help us see how our customers interact with our website and we’re now able to test smarter. What have you seen as the most important element of improving the customer experience? 9:38 We look at a couple of metrics. At the end of the day, the most important metric for us is conversion. Yes, we are a marketing experience but we are mostly a commerce experience. We want conversions. So, we have been looking at hesitation rate, scroll rate, conversion rate, and lifetime value. 12:50 We test hesitation rate by watching customers interact with our website. For example, if a consumer hovers over the Add to Cart button for 10 seconds, that’s a hesitation rate. 14:10 That’s when we start to dive in and ask ourselves, “Did we build this part of the website correctly?”. If the consumer can’t find the promo code or shipping price, then they’ll have this hesitation. We then bring consumers in and ask them, “What is making you hesitate at this specific point?”. How did you test your special offer of two bonus products? 15:30 We had a special offer for a GoPro beanie and SD card with the purchase of any product on the GoPro website. As a brand, we wanted to give you a really great experience. Recently, we’ve decided to give a free SD card with every camera purchase. And then, from time to time we like to give a surprise bonus. In this case, it was the beanie. How do you guys differentiate

GUEST BIO: Jordan Gal is the founder and CEO of CartHook. CartHook serves eCommerce business owners to maximize average order value and give back control to merchants on Shopify by directing customers to high-converting checkout pages. Jordan’s career started on Wall Street, where he discovered that he wasn’t happy and decided to pursue a new career. He joined his family’s eCommerce business and was able to scale to $70,000 in revenue per month. Shortly after, he sold the company and created CartHook to solve the pain points of eCommerce that he had experienced as an eCommerce business owner. Jordan is also the host of The Bootstrap Podcast. SHOW SUMMARY: Jordan Gal is the founder and CEO of CartHook, helping eCommerce business owners increase their order values with high-converting checkout pages. His eCommerce expertise is increasing sales by over 30% for eCommerce businesses around the world. In this episode, we talk about Jordan’s initial leap into entrepreneurship and how he was able to identify a pain point in the eCommerce industry. Jordan explains checkout upselling strategies, how to capitalize your most popular product, and the future of eCommerce marketing. This is The Lean Commerce Podcast. TOPICS: What does CartHook provide customers? 0:55 Our mission is to help eCommerce merchants thrive by providing them with control over the most important pages of their website, aka where the payment happens. Our app gives merchants complete control over their checkout process. How did you figure out this was a pain point in eCommerce? 3:14 It has been an eight year process. I started off on Wall Street, hated it and left. Then, I joined my family’s business and brought it online. Within a span of six months, we were making $70,000 a month and we sold the company a year later. 5:16 Customers are more likely to convert when an entire store is dedicated to the product they are interested in purchasing. For example, instead of being an entire sports store, we were just a fishing rod store. We remained extremely niched. 6:25 After selling that business, I started CartHook as a cart abandonment app that triggered an ad campaign if a user didn’t purchase the items in their cart. After two years, I realized this wasn’t the only problem on the check out page and I asked myself, “How do we reduce the amount of people abandoning their cart in checkout?” How do customers experience post purchase upsells? 11:28 The eCommerce businesses that create relationships with their customers are the ones that last the longest. When approaching post purchase upsells, ask, “How do we respect the relationship with the customer?”. Offer products that are genuinely useful to the customer, for example, a second unit of the same product at a discounted price. 14:38 Upselling into subscription is another popular upsell. For example, ordering a product weekly, monthly, quarterly etc. 15;13 Our software lets you identify which upsell funnel should be seen by the shopper based on what product they are buying. 16:35 The only thing that individual merchants can do that Amazon can’t, is build up a relationship with them. What are the best current practices for post purchase upsells? 17:17 Start off on the checkout page, ad trust symbols, a testimonial, identify the design that is congruent with your website and fan base. Then, create a simple upsell funnel of more of the same product and then an adjacent product. Generally speaking, upsells do better when they are lower priced than the original purchase. 21:14 Set up a stand alone landing page for your winning products and load it up with copy, video, testimonials, images, etc. We have a big feature launching in a few months that is a template for these dedicated landing pages. How do you approach post purchase upsells? 24:03 We see three main strategies: Video with a buy button, Short-form, above-the-fold Offer, Long-Form (correlating to a higher priced product).

GUEST BIO: Jordan Gal is the founder and CEO of CartHook. CartHook serves eCommerce business owners to maximize average order value and give back control to merchants on Shopify by directing customers to high-converting checkout pages. Jordan’s career started on Wall Street, where he discovered that he wasn’t happy and decided to pursue a new career. He joined his family’s eCommerce business and was able to scale to $70,000 in revenue per month. Shortly after, he sold the company and created CartHook to solve the pain points of eCommerce that he had experienced as an eCommerce business owner. Jordan is also the host of The Bootstrap Podcast. SHOW SUMMARY: Jordan Gal is the founder and CEO of CartHook, helping eCommerce business owners increase their order values with high-converting checkout pages. His eCommerce expertise is increasing sales by over 30% for eCommerce businesses around the world. In this episode, we talk about Jordan’s initial leap into entrepreneurship and how he was able to identify a pain point in the eCommerce industry. Jordan explains checkout upselling strategies, how to capitalize your most popular product, and the future of eCommerce marketing. This is The Lean Commerce Podcast. TOPICS: What does CartHook provide customers? 0:55 Our mission is to help eCommerce merchants thrive by providing them with control over the most important pages of their website, aka where the payment happens. Our app gives merchants complete control over their checkout process. How did you figure out this was a pain point in eCommerce? 3:14 It has been an eight year process. I started off on Wall Street, hated it and left. Then, I joined my family’s business and brought it online. Within a span of six months, we were making $70,000 a month and we sold the company a year later. 5:16 Customers are more likely to convert when an entire store is dedicated to the product they are interested in purchasing. For example, instead of being an entire sports store, we were just a fishing rod store. We remained extremely niched. 6:25 After selling that business, I started CartHook as a cart abandonment app that triggered an ad campaign if a user didn’t purchase the items in their cart. After two years, I realized this wasn’t the only problem on the check out page and I asked myself, “How do we reduce the amount of people abandoning their cart in checkout?” How do customers experience post purchase upsells? 11:28 The eCommerce businesses that create relationships with their customers are the ones that last the longest. When approaching post purchase upsells, ask, “How do we respect the relationship with the customer?”. Offer products that are genuinely useful to the customer, for example, a second unit of the same product at a discounted price. 14:38 Upselling into subscription is another popular upsell. For example, ordering a product weekly, monthly, quarterly etc. 15;13 Our software lets you identify which upsell funnel should be seen by the shopper based on what product they are buying. 16:35 The only thing that individual merchants can do that Amazon can’t, is build up a relationship with them. What are the best current practices for post purchase upsells? 17:17 Start off on the checkout page, ad trust symbols, a testimonial, identify the design that is congruent with your website and fan base. Then, create a simple upsell funnel of more of the same product and then an adjacent product. Generally speaking, upsells do better when they are lower priced than the original purchase. 21:14 Set up a stand alone landing page for your winning products and load it up with copy, video, testimonials, images, etc. We have a big feature launching in a few months that is a template for these dedicated landing pages. How do you approach post purchase upsells? 24:03 We see three main strategies: Video with a buy button, Short-form, above-the-fold Offer, Long-Form (correlating to a higher priced product). What does the check out process l

GUEST BIO: Julie Lyle is the non-executive director and digital advisor to Evolus. She is a global executive, board member, advisor, investor and entrepreneur. During her career, she has established brands and organized teams for startups and the world’s largest companies, like Walmart. She is a leader in integrated marketing, eCommerce, merchandising, operations, digital media, CRM, branding and social engagement programs. Her record for growing sustainable profits for public and private enterprises has placed her as one of the top business leaders in the world. SHOW SUMMARY: Julie Lyle is the Non-Executive Director and Digital Advisor to Evolus. She has worked in high management positions for global companies and is a highly sought after business leader. In this episode, we talk about Julie’s transition from the entrepreneurial world to corporate. She explains what the transition was like and how the corporate world is much easier to navigate than the entrepreneurial. Julie also talks about the importance of learning in an organization and her spot on prediction for the future of AI. This is The Lean Commerce Podcast. TOPICS: What is the difference between running your own firm and working in a corporation? 1:14 The largest difference is that you have to learn self sufficiency when you have your own business. You’re required to be so resourceful. The definition of an entrepreneur is someone who has floated payroll on their personal Visas’s first. That is leadership. What made you decide to start helping a larger organization over growing your own business? 5:15 Honestly, I got a great offer from a company. For about a year and a half before the offer, I was working on a huge project with the Smithsonian, nicknamed “Julie’s Baby”. At the time, I talked to an intern who told me that from watching me, she wouldn’t want to be an agency owner. It opened my eyes to see that I wasn't able to practice my craft because I was so busy running the entire project. 8:03 It’s much easier to have a single set of KPI’s, one boss, and a refined focal vision instead of 40-50 clients. The basics were the same, the dynamic was a little trickier but it’s so much easier to work in a corporate environment. What is your advice for somebody transitioning from entrepreneur to corporate? 9:20 The most important skill to practice is listening. When I joined Walmart, it had a history of a challenging work culture. People only lasted six weeks to six months. I went to meet with my upper management and he sat me down and told me I was doing a great job because of one reason, I was asking more questions than I answered. What do you think separates individuals that reach high management versus getting stuck in middle management? 15:21 I’m a huge fan of mentorships. I always identify somebody in an organization that can (and will) give me blunt feedback. We always need it. How do you deal with failure when it affects a lot of people? 21:17 Own it fast, own it publicly, and then fix it. How can you help your organization, small or large, get better at learning? 29:11 He who learns fastest, wins. While that’s the macro conversation, it’s a culmination of micro, individual employees. If individuals don’t map out their own learning plan, the organization can’t move forward. For me, this means that I understand what the future of blockchain, AI, and deep learning is to implement that into our work today. How do you build a network and find a mentor outside of your organization? 34:35 Show up. Make a point of attending networking functions and integrating into the community. If there aren’t networking events near you, be the one to start the conversation and have your own event. What trends in marketing are you most excited about? 39:31 The fact that eCommerce will hit $2 trillion in revenue yet, the industry is slowing down says a lot about the customer experience. We’re not harnessing current technology at

GUEST BIO: Julie Lyle is the non-executive director and digital advisor to Evolus. She is a global executive, board member, advisor, investor and entrepreneur. During her career, she has established brands and organized teams for startups and the world’s largest companies, like Walmart. She is a leader in integrated marketing, eCommerce, merchandising, operations, digital media, CRM, branding and social engagement programs. Her record for growing sustainable profits for public and private enterprises has placed her as one of the top business leaders in the world. SHOW SUMMARY: Julie Lyle is the Non-Executive Director and Digital Advisor to Evolus. She has worked in high management positions for global companies and is a highly sought after business leader. In this episode, we talk about Julie’s transition from the entrepreneurial world to corporate. She explains what the transition was like and how the corporate world is much easier to navigate than the entrepreneurial. Julie also talks about the importance of learning in an organization and her spot on prediction for the future of AI. This is The Lean Commerce Podcast. TOPICS: What is the difference between running your own firm and working in a corporation? 1:14 The largest difference is that you have to learn self sufficiency when you have your own business. You’re required to be so resourceful. The definition of an entrepreneur is someone who has floated payroll on their personal Visas’s first. That is leadership. What made you decide to start helping a larger organization over growing your own business? 5:15 Honestly, I got a great offer from a company. For about a year and a half before the offer, I was working on a huge project with the Smithsonian, nicknamed “Julie’s Baby”. At the time, I talked to an intern who told me that from watching me, she wouldn’t want to be an agency owner. It opened my eyes to see that I wasn't able to practice my craft because I was so busy running the entire project. 8:03 It’s much easier to have a single set of KPI’s, one boss, and a refined focal vision instead of 40-50 clients. The basics were the same, the dynamic was a little trickier but it’s so much easier to work in a corporate environment. What is your advice for somebody transitioning from entrepreneur to corporate? 9:20 The most important skill to practice is listening. When I joined Walmart, it had a history of a challenging work culture. People only lasted six weeks to six months. I went to meet with my upper management and he sat me down and told me I was doing a great job because of one reason, I was asking more questions than I answered. What do you think separates individuals that reach high management versus getting stuck in middle management? 15:21 I’m a huge fan of mentorships. I always identify somebody in an organization that can (and will) give me blunt feedback. We always need it. How do you deal with failure when it affects a lot of people? 21:17 Own it fast, own it publicly, and then fix it. How can you help your organization, small or large, get better at learning? 29:11 He who learns fastest, wins. While that’s the macro conversation, it’s a culmination of micro, individual employees. If individuals don’t map out their own learning plan, the organization can’t move forward. For me, this means that I understand what the future of blockchain, AI, and deep learning is to implement that into our work today. How do you build a network and find a mentor outside of your organization? 34:35 Show up. Make a point of attending networking functions and integrating into the community. If there aren’t networking events near you, be the one to start the conversation and have your own event. What trends in marketing are you most excited about? 39:31 The fact that eCommerce will hit $2 trillion in revenue yet, the industry is slowing down says a lot about the customer experience. We’re not harnessing current technology at the level that we could. The exciteme

Guest Profile: Cassie Fossum is a self-confessed shoe addict. Naturally, she loved how designer heels made her look but was less enthusiastic about how they made her feet feel. A particularly painful night on the town set her on the path to find her ideal shoe, a pair that was as comfortable as it was fashionable. Her research revealed that the technology of women's shoes had not changed in decades, so she assembled a team of experts who have developed a patent pending 360° comfort system which is incorporated into every pair of Mavettes. At Mavette, fashion and comfort are synonymous. They create shoes which not only look fabulous but feel fabulous as well. This meant giving high heels and flats a much-needed makeover based on their patent-pending 360° comfort technology. This wizardry is combined with a custom fit process to ensure customers a terrific buying experience from Mavette. Every pair of shoes are handmade by Italian craftsmen with generations of experience and shipped directly from the factory in Europe. Presently, Mavette fittings are done in person, however, Cassie and her team are working to develop an online app which will allow custom fitting of each foot from home. Show Summary: Today's guest is Cassie Fossum, CEO, and co-founder of [Mavette.com](https://mavette.com/), a company which is exploring a new way to sell women's shoes which are as comfortable as they are fashionable. In this episode, Cassie explains how she discovered Mavette's niche, her journey in launching her start-up, and how she integrates online sales with custom fittings and untraditional retail marketing using Pop-Up Stores. Topics: I know you have a whole laundry list of cool experiences from starting Mavette, could you walk us through how you got started on this journey? 00:54 I've always been interested in the intersection between creativity and business. Throughout my career o have always sat at that intersection, working with creative people on the business side. 01:45 In my last job I was just bored and not feeling challenged anymore. I was running a business within a business, which challenged me but there was a promotion which was not coming through as quickly as I wanted, so I started thinking, what do I want to do next? 02:05 I opened myself up to problems in the world that I wished I could solve, and one of them was uncomfortable shoes. When you go out in high heels, after about 20 minutes your feet are stinging and hurting. I love wearing high heels, but it was something that was prohibitive if you are at a long conference and something is hurting your feet. 02:30 I started asking my other girlfriends, and it is something that many women experience, anyone who has worn high heels. As I looked, I realized that the high heel hadn't really been redesigned since the 1900s. 03:10 I took my idea and decided to go look for an accelerator program and found one that took people who just have an idea, most of the accelerators want to see that you have an idea and have already started building traction behind it. 03:30 I found the [Founder Institute](https://fi.co/) and they were willing to take on companies that just had an idea. The program is about three months long. You meet every week, they bring in different experts; one week it might be about legal, what do you need to know about legal to start a company, another week it might be about market strategy, what are ways to go to market with your idea. Then, you have homework, you meet with a working group and brick by brick you start building your company. Right after I graduated, I found my designer, headed over to Italy, and have been building Mavette ever since. How did you go from Silicon Valley to moving over to Italy, or finding a designer in Italy and sourcing the product there? 04:42 When I was working on the idea, I knew I did not want to do a Made in China shoe. There are so many shoes out there that are low quality and I kn

Guest Profile: Cassie Fossum is a self-confessed shoe addict. Naturally, she loved how designer heels made her look but was less enthusiastic about how they made her feet feel. A particularly painful night on the town set her on the path to find her ideal shoe, a pair that was as comfortable as it was fashionable. Her research revealed that the technology of women's shoes had not changed in decades, so she assembled a team of experts who have developed a patent pending 360° comfort system which is incorporated into every pair of Mavettes. At Mavette, fashion and comfort are synonymous. They create shoes which not only look fabulous but feel fabulous as well. This meant giving high heels and flats a much-needed makeover based on their patent-pending 360° comfort technology. This wizardry is combined with a custom fit process to ensure customers a terrific buying experience from Mavette. Every pair of shoes are handmade by Italian craftsmen with generations of experience and shipped directly from the factory in Europe. Presently, Mavette fittings are done in person, however, Cassie and her team are working to develop an online app which will allow custom fitting of each foot from home. Show Summary: Today's guest is Cassie Fossum, CEO, and co-founder of Mavette.com, a company which is exploring a new way to sell women's shoes which are as comfortable as they are fashionable. In this episode, Cassie explains how she discovered Mavette's niche, her journey in launching her start-up, and how she integrates online sales with custom fittings and untraditional retail marketing using Pop-Up Stores. Topics: I know you have a whole laundry list of cool experiences from starting Mavette, could you walk us through how you got started on this journey? 00:54 I've always been interested in the intersection between creativity and business. Throughout my career o have always sat at that intersection, working with creative people on the business side. 01:45 In my last job I was just bored and not feeling challenged anymore. I was running a business within a business, which challenged me but there was a promotion which was not coming through as quickly as I wanted, so I started thinking, what do I want to do next? 02:05 I opened myself up to problems in the world that I wished I could solve, and one of them was uncomfortable shoes. When you go out in high heels, after about 20 minutes your feet are stinging and hurting. I love wearing high heels, but it was something that was prohibitive if you are at a long conference and something is hurting your feet. 02:30 I started asking my other girlfriends, and it is something that many women experience, anyone who has worn high heels. As I looked, I realized that the high heel hadn't really been redesigned since the 1900s. 03:10 I took my idea and decided to go look for an accelerator program and found one that took people who just have an idea, most of the accelerators want to see that you have an idea and have already started building traction behind it. 03:30 I found the Founder Institute and they were willing to take on companies that just had an idea. The program is about three months long. You meet every week, they bring in different experts; one week it might be about legal, what do you need to know about legal to start a company, another week it might be about market strategy, what are ways to go to market with your idea. Then, you have homework, you meet with a working group and brick by brick you start building your company. Right after I graduated, I found my designer, headed over to Italy, and have been building Mavette ever since. How did you go from Silicon Valley to moving over to Italy, or finding a designer in Italy and sourcing the product there? 04:42 When I was working on the idea, I knew I did not want to do a Made in China shoe. There are so many shoes out there that are low quality and I knew that for this product which has a footbed in it, it is very technical

Guest Bio: Jon MacDonald is passionate about ridding the web of bad eCommerce experiences until only the good remain. Beginning as a web designer/developer during the dot-com boom, he has worked with dozens of brands such as Autodesk, Apple, Columbia Sportswear, Comcast, Linksys/Cisco, General Electric, Harley-Davidson, HP, Intel, Microsoft, Nationwide Insurance, Nike, Nokia, Red Bull, UPS, Vodafone and Xerox. Jon's company, The Good, has turned online browsers into buyers for some of the biggest brands in business. The Good has become one of Oregon’s top 20 fastest growing private companies three years in a row, and its founder has been recognized with a Forty Under 40 Award. Based in Portland, Oregon, Jon volunteers for several causes which affect the eCommerce community and the Pacific Northwest as a whole. Show Summary: Today's guest is Jon MacDonald, founder of The Good, a Conversion Rate Optimization firm. Beginning a decade ago, they have been collecting, analyzing and evaluating the data which goes into CRO since before CRO became a buzz term. In this episode, Jon explains that while data gathered from site metrics and A/B Testing are vital, sometimes they do not tell the entire story of a company's eCommerce presence. He demonstrates how business practices between the Brick and Mortar world and the eCommerce arena are even closer than they appear and shares how he has helped several traditional Brick and Mortar concerns to not only expand into eCommerce but to use connectivity to enhance the physical shopping experience. Topics: How did you get involved in Conversion Optimization? 00:48 We started as a digital marketing firm, building eCommerce sites mainly. Most of our customers were not too concerned with how their site was built, technically, they were mainly concerned with making sure that site would perform after it launched. 01:45 We found we were winning contracts by adding a clause that we would be allowed to optimize the sites for three months after launch, while our competition was using a "launch and forget" model. 02:30 A few years later, we decided to pivot and focus exclusively on Conversion Rate Optimization. We found that there were dozens of firms who could develop sites for cheaper than us, and the clients never looked at the source code and didn’t care as long as it worked. Where we provided the most value was in optimizing the site. Who are your clients in general? 03:20 We have worked with clients of all sizes but find that a minimum of 10,000 visitors/month is necessary for testing to provide a return on investment for the client. We've worked with Xerox, Adobe, The Economist, Nike, Swiss Gear, as well as some smaller brands that have a retail presence but maybe their online presence is not as big. When I think of eCommerce I usually only think of pure-play eCommerce that does not have any retail presence, it is just a store that is digital. It seems that the brick and mortar retailers are getting much bigger in the eCommerce space to support retail rather than compete with retail. 04:50 One of the things about CRO that is coming down the line is Personalization and optimizing to have a more personalized site for your visitors. When you combine that with retail data, it's like the perfect gold mine. You are able to track somebody in store in terms of what they purchase and what they like so that when they visit your website you already have a basis and foundation of information to build on. If you know that people in-store often buy a complementary product and they always like that product, you can serve the same on your website. You can use the gains form online to help offline offers, it's an easy testing environment. 06:20 Testing has become much easier over the years; the tool sets are much easier to work with. We often work with brands that have been doing their own testing for a year, have been trying A/B Testing on their website. Most people who I talk to abou

Guest Bio: Jon MacDonald is passionate about ridding the web of bad eCommerce experiences until only the good remain. Beginning as a web designer/developer during the dot-com boom, he has worked with dozens of brands such as Autodesk, Apple, Columbia Sportswear, Comcast, Linksys/Cisco, General Electric, Harley-Davidson, HP, Intel, Microsoft, Nationwide Insurance, Nike, Nokia, Red Bull, UPS, Vodafone and Xerox. Jon's company, The Good, has turned online browsers into buyers for some of the biggest brands in business. The Good has become one of Oregon’s top 20 fastest growing private companies three years in a row, and its founder has been recognized with a Forty Under 40 Award. Based in Portland, Oregon, Jon volunteers for several causes which affect the eCommerce community and the Pacific Northwest as a whole. Show Summary: Today's guest is Jon MacDonald, founder of The Good, a Conversion Rate Optimization firm. Beginning a decade ago, they have been collecting, analyzing and evaluating the data which goes into CRO since before CRO became a buzz term. In this episode, Jon explains that while data gathered from site metrics and A/B Testing are vital, sometimes they do not tell the entire story of a company's eCommerce presence. He demonstrates how business practices between the Brick and Mortar world and the eCommerce arena are even closer than they appear and shares how he has helped several traditional Brick and Mortar concerns to not only expand into eCommerce but to use connectivity to enhance the physical shopping experience. Topics: How did you get involved in Conversion Optimization? 00:48 We started as a digital marketing firm, building eCommerce sites mainly. Most of our customers were not too concerned with how their site was built, technically, they were mainly concerned with making sure that site would perform after it launched. 01:45 We found we were winning contracts by adding a clause that we would be allowed to optimize the sites for three months after launch, while our competition was using a "launch and forget" model. 02:30 A few years later, we decided to pivot and focus exclusively on Conversion Rate Optimization. We found that there were dozens of firms who could develop sites for cheaper than us, and the clients never looked at the source code and didn’t care as long as it worked. Where we provided the most value was in optimizing the site. Who are your clients in general? 03:20 We have worked with clients of all sizes but find that a minimum of 10,000 visitors/month is necessary for testing to provide a return on investment for the client. We've worked with Xerox, Adobe, The Economist, Nike, Swiss Gear, as well as some smaller brands that have a retail presence but maybe their online presence is not as big. When I think of eCommerce I usually only think of pure-play eCommerce that does not have any retail presence, it is just a store that is digital. It seems that the brick and mortar retailers are getting much bigger in the eCommerce space to support retail rather than compete with retail. 04:50 One of the things about CRO that is coming down the line is Personalization and optimizing to have a more personalized site for your visitors. When you combine that with retail data, it's like the perfect gold mine. You are able to track somebody in store in terms of what they purchase and what they like so that when they visit your website you already have a basis and foundation of information to build on. If you know that people in-store often buy a complementary product and they always like that product, you can serve the same on your website. You can use the gains form online to help offline offers, it's an easy testing environment. 06:20 Testing has become much easier over the years; the tool sets are much easier to work with. We often work with brands that have been doing their own testing for a year, have been trying A/B Testing on their website. Most people who I talk to about Conversion Optimizati

GUEST BIO: David James is the founder of TotalCarCheck.co.uk, a vehicle background check website. David started this company as successful entrepreneurs do, by solving a problem he encountered. After his parents bought a stolen car and found themselves at a $5,000 loss, he created a website that wouldn’t allow this to happen again. David’s focused and realistic mindset has supported TotalCarCheck.co.uk in running background checks on almost two thirds of all the vehicles in the United Kingdom. The parallel app has become one of the top utility apps in the UK and David continues to use forward thinking, innovation, and his customers to grow his company and create transparency in the car buying process. SHOW SUMMARY: David James, founder of TotalCarCheck.co.uk, is an entrepreneur with a laser focus on simplicity and great results. His vehicle background check website has become the most successful website in the UK in his niche. David has built the foundation for his software based of seven lean principles, which he’ll discuss during our conversation. In this episode, David explains how he runs his company with only two employees, his advice for new software entrepreneurs and the books that have given him the insight for this accolade of success. This is The Lean Commerce Podcast. TOPICS: How did you get started with your business? 0:57 I had a more normal career starting off, but I always had an entrepreneurial spirit. My parents accidentally bought a stolen car and I realized there was a problem that needed to be solved, people needed to be able to run a background check on a car. 4:17 Once you get the wheels rolling, you start to get momentum. Very quickly people started to realize what we were doing was different than what other vehicle background check websites were doing and business started to grow from there. 6:33 Even in darker times, there is opportunity. It sounds spiritual, but the experience of my parent’s buying the stolen car was an epiphany for me. When I look back, it all seems kind of unbelievable that something so fortunate was built from such a negative experience. If you have a passion for something and genuinely enjoy doing it, it really helps you to become successful. 13:06 I think if you are consistent in what you want to do, you generally get results in the end. If you stay consistent in those principles and approach, you come out well in the end. You’re checking two thirds of all of the vehicles in the UK, what does the backend of your business look like? 15:55 Pretty much from day one, we’ve done this with only two staff members (including myself). This works because of two rules. The first is, we automate ruthlessly. People tend to skip over this because the initial effort is difficult, but the cost saving over five years is incredible. The second is, outsource wherever you can. Our accounts, legal, HR, design and development are all outsourced. This gives you much more flexibility. What are your lean development principles? 20:22 My lean business strategy comes from the seven principles outlined in Lean Software Development by Mary Poppendieck. First, eliminate all waste. Second, amplify learning by teaching your entire team, not just yourself. Third, make decisions as late as possible. Fourth, deliver as quickly as possible. Fifth, empower the team. Sixth, build integrity. Seventh, see the whole picture. Marketing techniques that worked before, don’t always work now. How do you work around this problem? 35:56 It’s frustrating because you don’t know if it’s the market changing or if you did something wrong. But, that’s the beauty of what we do. It was formulaic, it would be easy. That’s how the best have their advantage because they are able to discover the variables to focus on and the variables to ignore. 38:40 Whenever I’m pouring over the numbers, I try to ground myself by asking, “What am I doing this for?” and remind myself that I’m doing this so I can