On today’s episode, Kunle is joined by Saksham Sharda, Creative Director at Outgrow , an interactive marketing engagement platform that enables brands to build and launch interactive calculators and viral quizzes that help engage website visitors and generate more leads. eCommerce and DTC businesses pride themselves on offering their customers a wide variety of products to choose from. Yet most of the time we find that visitors browse a bunch of pages but leave without buying anything. This ofte...
Nov 05, 2020•47 min•Season 5Ep. 43
On today’s episode, Kunle is joined by Kelley Thornton, Co-Founder & CEO of Tiege Hanley, a Chicago-based self-funded men’s grooming DTC brand. Kelley is a 20+ year veteran in the consumer goods industry and has led Tiege Hanley to being a 8-figure company within 2 years of launching in 2016. What does it take to grow a truly niche product? A product where you don’t just have to become a part of the narrative, but you must help build up the narrative. Tiege Hanley has achieved tremendous suc...
Oct 29, 2020•59 min•Season 5Ep. 42
On today’s episode, Kunle is joined by Mike Potter, Co-Founder and CEO of REWIND , an Ottawa based software company founded in 2015 that provides easy and convenient backup solutions for businesses using SaaS platforms. Rewind is a spotify-plus certified app and helps secure over 20,000 businesses across 3 platforms. 2020 has already been a year where eCommerce has grown rapidly in our post-covid world. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are just around the corner, and it’s anyone’s guess as to how b...
Oct 22, 2020•48 min•Season 5Ep. 41
On today’s episode, Kunle is joined by Kilian Markert , a Consistent Performance Mentor who helps busy, ambitious business owners transform into Consistently Energized and High Performing Leaders who don’t burn out while scaling. We juggle multiple tasks and wear many hats each day as high performing professionals and business owners. We often feel flat or low on energy and ideas. Social media gurus have taught us that it's because we aren’t motivated or disciplined enough. That we must push har...
Oct 15, 2020•51 min•Season 5Ep. 40
On today’s episode, Kunle is joined by Aadith Moorthy, Founder & CEO of Radial , a 1-year old Deep learning & AI startup based in the San Francisco Bay area . Aadith is a Stanford Knight-Hennessy Scholar, and shares his insights about the future of 1:1 personalisation. Picture this: You walk into a big store which has all sorts of products. But instead of having to browse all the aisles to find what you want, what if all the products you are likely to be interested in are neatly arranged...
Oct 08, 2020•35 min•Season 5Ep. 39
On today’s episode, Kunle is joined by Isaac Kuhlman, Amazon Brand Developer and Co-founder of REAL Coaching . He started his journey business back in 2013, and since then has set up a successful coaching practice and a 7-figure course on Udemy. The brands he has worked with have grossed over $12 million in sales. He has also been mentoring sellers and businesses for over 5 years now. Amazon alone accounts for more than 50% of eCommerce transactions in the U.S and U.K. It is the proverbial “Elep...
Oct 01, 2020•55 min•Season 5Ep. 38
On today’s episode, Kunle is joined by Roy Morejon, Co-Founder & President of Enventys Partners - a full-service turnkey product launch agency based in Charlotte, NC. Roy’s company is the brains and agents behind multiple million dollar kickstarter campaigns. He has over 20 years experience in delivering digital marketing campaigns and product launches. In past episodes, we have had guests talking about first hand experiences with their own Kickstarter campaigns. But today’s guest brings the...
Sep 24, 2020•1 hr 16 min•Season 5Ep. 37
On today’s episode, Kunle is joined by Josh Wetzel, Chief Revenue Officer of OneSignal - the most widely used push notification delivery and marketing platform for mobile applications and websites. They are an 8 year-old company based in Palo Alto, California. Josh is a veteran in the eCommerce industry and has been part of OneSignal’s incredible growth over the last few years. The growth of eCommerce has inevitably been fast tracked this year. And given our post-COVID lifestyles, it is likely t...
Sep 17, 2020•38 min•Season 5Ep. 35
On today’s episode, Kunle is joined by Jason Wong, Founder of Wonghaus Ventures and Doe Lashes . Jason helps other brands streamline sourcing and manufacturing as well as leverage influencer marketing. He is also a consultant and advisor to brands like Universal Music and Adidas. All this at the age of 23! Many new entrepreneurs can’t resist the lure of the dropshipping business model. When we think of dropshipping, we tend to think of Aliexpress. But we also think of the all-too-familiar report...
Sep 03, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Season 5Ep. 34
On today’s episode, Kunle is joined by Alex Beller, Co-Founder & President of Postscript , a 2 year-old SMS-marketing platform built for eCommerce brands. Alex is an SMS marketing expert. Alex shares his insights on how the industry has evolved and progressed since his previous appearance on the show . Alex speaks about why SMS marketing works as a revenue generator and what makes it tick. He shares some of the interesting resources his company has built and is working on for the eCommerce e...
Aug 27, 2020•44 min•Season 5Ep. 33
On today’s episode, Kunle interviews Jimmy Hickey, Co-Founder & CEO of Findlay Hats , a 6 year-old Portland-based company producing unique, functional and patented hats. “Built for Good Times” is the common theme running through their comms, work culture and customer community. Jimmy shares his story of leaving behind professional photography to pursue what was a sidegig he started along with Co-founder, Sarah Wishard. They started out in a living room with their first batch of 80 hats, and ...
Aug 20, 2020•1 hr 12 min•Season 5Ep. 32
This episode is a recap from Episode #48. Get the show notes here: https://2xecommerce.com/podcast/ep48/ In 2011 when Jameson Morris was just 22 he co-founded Conscious Box with a $10,000 student loan. Conscious Box as most of our U.S listeners know is one of the biggest players in the subscription box ecommerce space. Jameson exited conscious box due to the complications of VC funding and having learnt never to use outside funding to launch a subscription commerce business, he went unto found m...
Aug 17, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Season 1Ep. 32
On today’s episode, Kunle interviews David Wachs, CEO of Handwrytten , a Phoenix-based automated handwritten notes company. He started the company in 2014 on the back of a successful career in digital marketing. David shares how wanting to build better customer experiences inspired him to transition from electronic media to handwritten notes . He shares real-world use cases of how handwritten notes can lead to ROIs of over 300% for Ecommerce and DTC businesses. In our post-pandemic world, where ...
Aug 13, 2020•52 min•Season 5Ep. 31
On today’s episode, Kunle interviews Solomon ‘Chaz’ Chazanow, Co-Founder and CEO of LIV Watches , a DTC swiss watch micro-brand based in Miami, Florida. He co-founded the company in 2012 with his wife, Esti Chazanow, and has over 20 years of experience in the swiss watch industry. Chaz shares his story of how he built a career around his life-long love of swiss watches. You will also get to hear about how he funded and scaled his company through 4 highly successful (7-figure!) Kickstarter campai...
Aug 06, 2020•1 hr 22 min•Season 5Ep. 30
On today’s episode, we interview one of the Co-founders of Unbound Merino. They are a 4-year-old, $4M+ in premium men’s T-shirt brand that uses only Australian Merino Wool, a sustainable ultimate performance fibre that is breathable, odourless, anti-bacterial and can be worn for weeks without the need to be washed. ----------- SPONSORS: This episode is brought to you by: Klaviyo This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo – a growth marketing platform that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Dir...
Jul 30, 2020•1 hr 15 min•Season 5Ep. 29
On today’s episode, Kunle interviews John Tabis, a Co-Founder of Bouqs, a 9-figure, sustainable direct-to-consumer business serving the floral vertical. They are venture-backed with $74M+ raised and are the 7th biggest company to be featured on the TV show, Shark Tank. Kunle and John discuss Bouqs' DTC journey from ideation 8 years ago to their current omnichannel retail fluidity model. They are cut-to-order online flower delivery business with roots in sustainability. ----------- SPONSORS: This...
Jul 24, 2020•1 hr 21 min•Season 5Ep. 28
On today’s episode, Kunle interviews Moshe Saraf, Founder and CEO of Pareto Solutions , an elite performance marketing agency headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel. They specialise in promoting direct-to-consumer and unicorn brands such as eko, Fiverr, NectarSleep, Mixtiles, The Flex Belt, Uprightpose, Puls.com If you live in the US or the EU, chances are that you will most likely have not only seen one of Pareto's fast-paced, product-oriented ads but also purchased a product or service (like Kunle ...
Jul 16, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Season 5Ep. 27
Depesh is the author of the CBO Cookbook and has just re-launched as well as renamed his Facebook Ads course: The BPM Method. He is offering 2X eCommerce listeners a 25% OFF discount. Use this link to get $400 off the usual $2000 price tag: https://2xecommerce.com/bpm The offer will be available until Monday 3rd August 2020. On today’s episode, we talk about Brand-driven Performance Marketing (BPM) - a Facebook media buying methodology coined by Depesh Mandalia that is required in a new era of a...
Jul 10, 2020•1 hr 56 min•Season 5Ep. 26
In this episode, Kunle speaks with Rohan Sheth, the CEO and Co-Founder of Direct Heroes . Over the last five years, a tremendous amount of focus has been placed on the Messenger marketing platform built on Facebook’s messaging functionality. As Facebook gradually rolls out an amalgamated messaging platform that integrates messaging on Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, I felt the need to interview an expert on Instagram DM marketing. Rohan as the Founder of a dedicated Instagram messaging CRM had...
Jul 02, 2020•46 min•Season 5Ep. 25
Retailers often focus on engaging shoppers at the top of the funnel, which typically involves onsite user experience optimisation, and driving traffic. On today’s episode, Greg Greiner from Bolt discusses why a focus on the bottom of the onsite funnel - ‘checkout’, is equally important to focus. According to Baymard Institute, 30% of shoppers cite friction at checkout as a major impediment to not completing a purchase and 70% of all shoppers abandon their carts at the bottom of the funnel. Greg ...
Jun 25, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Season 5Ep. 24
On today’s episode, you’re going to learn about how a non-traditional strategy helped this bootstrapped 8-figure direct-to-consumer brand disrupt the traditional men’s wedding ring vertical. Johnathan Ruggiero is the co-CEO of Manly Bands, a DTC brand that is redefining the wedding industry for men. He shares with us the strategies his team used to transform his Manly Bands from zero to an 8-figure business in just three years. In this episode, join Kunle and Johnathan as they discuss customer a...
Jun 18, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Season 5Ep. 23
As the lockdown eases in several countries and mask-wearing becomes a norm for most, on today's episode, Kunle talks about what your performance marketing strategy should look like in a post-COVID-19 environment as well as why now is the best time to prep up for Q4. He talks about the prior increase in conversion rate over the lockdown period for a segment of brands and specifically addresses actions DTC brands should start taking in preparation for the challenging months ahead. He talks about, ...
Jun 08, 2020•18 min•Season 5Ep. 22
On today’s episode we discuss keyword research, link building and the power of search and discoverability in your marketing funnel. If you want to learn more how Search Marketing (paid and organic) has impacted eCommerce in the last decade, tune in to this week’s interview with the Chief Strategy and Corporate Development Officer of the leading SEO keyword research tool, SEMrush. Dive in as Kunle and Eugene discuss competitor research, market analysis, keyword research, and some of the most effe...
May 28, 2020•56 min•Season 5Ep. 21
Your customers’ journey doesn’t end after a purchase. What happens after a purchase is made, is what differentiates one DTC eCommerce brand from another. For instance, do you have a seamless and automated Return and Customer Service Program in place to assist customers that want to return an item? How is customer experience over a return process? And are you giving customers a sufficient range of options that encourage customer loyalty? What most eCommerce brands miss in their customer retention...
May 21, 2020•41 min•Season 5Ep. 20
As the saying goes, ‘mastery is a commitment to becoming your best’... In the world of Performance Marketing, mastery is no small feat. It involves a unique blend of advanced visual creativity and a highly analytical mindset, as well as the guts to spend large amounts of money with no guarantee of a return. On today’s episode, we learn from Nick Shackleford, an Elite-Level Performance Marketing Expert that has worked on paid social media buying campaigns for over 100 direct-to-consumer brands an...
May 14, 2020•1 hr 39 min•Season 5Ep. 19
Literally, the world stopped when governments worldwide ordained lockdowns to stop the spread of Coronavirus. With flights canceled all over the globe, people instructed to stay at home, and businesses forced to close down indefinitely, essentially everything was put to a standstill; hence, bringing down economies around the world into a recession. The gravity of the situation was not anything one would have anticipated. But at a critical time like this, a DTC brand based in Hong Kong was still ...
May 05, 2020•20 min•Season 5Ep. 18
The appropriate selection of a technology stack is critical in eCommerce as well as varies at critical business growth stages as business challenges evolve. With numerous platforms and applications available out there in the market, it’s vital to select technologies that enable you to deliver customer experiences that level up your business in your industry. Platform selection can be particularly tricky if you’re not familiar with the technical aspects of ecommerce development. This is why Bart ...
Apr 30, 2020•41 min•Season 5Ep. 17
Building your own brand in a mature and established vertical can be somewhat likened to being in a David and Goliath story, going against giants who have long gained and cemented their foothold in the industry. And it certainly is no easy feat to set up your own brand, not to mention distinguishing yourself from other big names out there in the market. But as our guest, Michael Young, would say, “If you follow the same paradigm, you cannot run because people have been doing it for more than 50 y...
Apr 23, 2020•1 hr•Season 5Ep. 16
When I heard that eCommerce Sales were up by 30% in the last six weeks compared to the previous six weeks, I couldn't help but want to know how and why this has happened. Given that we are in the middle of a pandemic and hardly any country is back to normal, how has the ecommerce industry thrived amid the closure of bricks and mortar retail and Amazon not operating at full capacity? Well, according to Klaviyo's insights, e-tailers' seem to have seized the opportunity to serve a continuously surg...
Apr 16, 2020•55 min•Season 5Ep. 15
On today’s episode, Kunle interviews the founder of a direct-to-consumer brand creating an entirely new sports game called Crossnet that is rapidly growing at a 4X Year-on-Year rate despite the current slowdown in retail. You don’t want to miss this one - do stay tuned! Crossnet is volleyball reimagined - so instead of the typical two-sided court setup of volleyball, Crossnet is a four-square volleyball game that can be set up on sand, grass, or indoors. Their growth rates are impressive: 2017 s...
Apr 09, 2020•41 min•Season 5Ep. 14
