Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth - podcast cover

Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth

Common Thread Collectivewww.commonthreadco.com
2020 transformed the world of ecommerce forever. For the modern DTC brand, the rewards have never been greater. But the waters have also never been choppier, and the way forward has never been more uncertain. So how do you navigate this dangerous new reality? No matter how you do it, you’d better not do it alone. That’s where the Ecommerce Playbook Podcast comes in — join Common Thread Collective’s Taylor Holiday & Richard Gaffin as they bring you guiding insights from across CTC’s portfolio of growing DTC businesses. Whether you need a clear view on the macro issues affecting the world of ecommerce, or want to reorient your business around groundbreaking new big-picture strategies, Taylor & Richard are here to help answer the tough questions about what it takes to scale — and sustain — an ecommerce business.
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Episodes

Know Your Numbers (No, Your Real Numbers)

Simplistic advice? It’s not. Even the most analytically minded operator can easily make costly mistakes. We did. In this episode, Andrew shares his biggest mistake of 2021: “Even if we’d been ‘successful,’ it would have been far too long for those dollars to turn into more dollars and not more costs.” https://www.youradmission.co/podcast

Jul 08, 202112 min

How To Handle Worthless Facebook Data

ROAS is plummeting. Reporting is a mess. And the sky is falling across paid media. As a guide through the storm, Taylor Holiday joins the pod to answer one question: “How in the world are we possibly analyzing Facebook ad data right now?”

Jul 01, 202146 min

“We Bled”: Product Development with 365 Holdings’ CEO Kelcey Lehrich

Tune in for a candid conversation with special guest Kelcey Lehrich, the CEO of 365 Holdings, an ecommerce holding company with six brands in its portfolio plus a fulfillment service. Together, we tackle one of the most difficult challenges ecommerce brands face: product development.

Jun 23, 202150 min

Don't Give Up Too Soon On Your Email List

Week-over-week, join Andrew Faris — CEO of 4x400 — where he shares the real-life numbers, struggles, and everything in between when running multiple ecommerce businesses. 4x400 is an ecommerce holding company that acquires, launches, and grows DTC brands (owned by Common Thread Collective). That means you’ll get to go behind the scenes into the raw truths. Even if it sounds crazy, this is the unpolished story: from failures to successes, from “the high highs to the low lows.” Let’s take this jou...

Jun 17, 202124 min

The Downside of Tactical Marketing

Andrew Faris — CEO of 4x400 — shares the real-life numbers, struggles, and everything in between when running multiple ecommerce businesses. On today's episode, Andrew shares the upside and downsides of approaching business decision-making from a tactical and data-driven lens, rather than via brand marketing efforts. 4x400 is an ecommerce holding company that acquires, launches, and grows DTC brands (owned by Common Thread Collective). That means you’ll get to go behind the scenes into the raw t...

Jun 03, 202114 min

Should We Have A Sale?

Should you run a sale to earn some cash in the short-term or work on a longer-term plan instead? Today's episode will answer that question and bring you in on the thinking behind how we weigh strategic decision-making for our businesses.

May 27, 202127 min

Simple Email Segmentation You Should Implement Right Now

Today's episode focuses on the importance of traffic channel diversity. More specifically, we share an easy-to-implement email segmentation strategy that our team is seeing great results with and how you can replicate that for your own brand.

May 20, 202116 min

You Need To Get Serious About Search Ads

On today's episode, we cover a topic that we've never talked about on the podcast before ... Search Engine Marketing. In host, Andrew Faris's words: "Is there anything less sexy in marketing?" It might not be sexy, but we will get tactical. Here's how we're approaching SEM strategy, why we're doing it, and how to get it right.

May 13, 202122 min

How To Build An Anti-Fragile Business

What kind of businesses aren't afraid? What kind of businesses actually get better under pressure? What kind of businesses will thrive in the aftermath of iOS 14.5? We answer these questions and share how to build an anti-fragile ecommerce brand in our monthly installment of the "One Topic with Taylor" series featuring Taylor Holiday, CEO of Common Thread Collective.

May 05, 20211 hr 13 min

iOS 14.5 Is Here

The immediate rollout of Apple's iOS 14.5 is finally here. These are our first major impressions and how it's preliminarily affected our Facebook ad accounts.

May 03, 202119 min

3 Things I Suck At

Weakness is reality. Especially in business. We acknowledge that in this episode and share how to solve for weaknesses as a leader and within areas of your own business. Show Notes: "Accounting for Ecommerce Businesses: 61 Resources that Could Save You +$1.3M" via https://bit.ly/3niHaV5

Apr 22, 202121 min

Resource Allocation

On this week’s episode we answer a question submitted by one of our listeners: how to build your resources against the best possible outcomes.

Apr 15, 202124 min

Capture The Demand You Generate

In this episode, we share one of our most crucial digital marketing lessons — the relationship between demand generation and demand capture. Show Notes: We originally put together this video for Black Friday, but we explain the delayed attribution concept brought up in today's episode further here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saQk-67X73w

Apr 08, 202131 min

How to Launch a Product on Kickstarter

We launched a new product on Kickstarter (which we've never done before) and it went well! Following the launch, we’re sharing how to set up a successful campaign along with the steps we took to do so. Featuring guest, David Rekuc, VP of New Brands at 4x400 Show Notes: • The Modern Fuel Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andrewsanderson/adjustable-bolt-action-pen • Dave's Pricing Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16hSDSJKMi8UWmw4WG5cHHTpzYzvXicPAC6kj1atHBpg/edit?usp=sh...

Apr 01, 20211 hr 1 min

This Is What A Great Digital Marketer Is

On this episode, we unveil what makes someone "great" as a digital marketer. Beyond the "what", we also share the "how" — with actionable steps on how to pursue marketing greatness for you and your team. Show Notes: https://twitter.com/AaronOrendorff/status/1368326610525425665

Mar 25, 202115 min

Marketing For Meaning Addicts

We changed a customer's life. That’s a bold statement, but this past week, we received an email from a customer that demonstrates just how much a brand can produce real value for their customers. In this episode, we’ll unpack its implications for other brands and share (1) how to produce meaning for your brand along with (2) the methods to achieve that impact.

Mar 18, 202119 min

Why Aren’t People Buying Our Product?

Our brand, 31 Bits, still isn’t working. True to the original mission of our podcast, we’re updating you on the real numbers and vulnerable struggles we’re experiencing trying to grow the brand. Host Andrew Faris, let’s you in on the despair that all boils down to one question: “Why aren’t people buying the product?”

Mar 11, 202119 min

17 Ways To Make Every Click More Valuable

How do you make a click on your website more valuable to you? Here's 17 actionable tactics to increase your Revenue-Per-Click. Show Notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14Hzw8spE1SJGXx49-cMf3thjY7NTG4gX7ENrNeO5Ew0/edit?usp=sharing

Mar 04, 202133 min

Hire Smart People

This week's episode centers on how an "agency guy" hires agencies. In that process, host Andrew Faris shares the one thing he looks for (above everything else) when hiring.

Feb 25, 202117 min

Margin is Fake

This week’s episode comes to you from on the ground at our shipping fulfillment center in North Carolina. And after being around the actual products that we are using, packing, and shipping — host, Andrew Faris reflects on the realities of gross margin in business and how he’s thinking about that differently.

Feb 18, 202123 min

Bonus Episode: The Purchase of FC Goods (feat. Weisser)

Last week you learned about our side of the story: the sale of FC Goods. This week: we're bringing on the buyers, featuring Eric Weisser(CEO, Weisser Distributing)and Mike Childers(President, Weisser Distributing).

Feb 11, 202155 min

10 Takeaways from a 15,500% Ecommerce ROI: We Sold Our First Brand & Reveal Everything

Pop the champagne and drop the beat … We just sold our first brand. And, yes, the math in that outlandish headline is right: a 15,500% increase from our initial investment. In early 2018, 4x400 — Common Thread Collective’s ecommerce holding company — acquired 80% of FC Goods. The price? $5,000. In Oct. of 2020, we sold it for $1.2M. Minus the founder’s 20% and less broker’s fees, that nets out to $780k. From $5k to $780k: 15,500% ROI. Of course, that clickbaity calculation is far from the whole ...

Feb 04, 20211 hr 15 min

The Challenge Of Volatility

One of the hardest things about running an ecommerce business is that the future is unpredictable. Or in the words of host, Andrew Faris: "the only certainty is uncertainty". Here's what to do about that.

Jan 28, 202127 min

Our Best Performing Creative Was (Almost) Free

We did not see this coming… but we stumbled into a giant Facebook ads win for one of our 4x400 brands. It was our biggest win in months, and it was pure luck. On today’s episode, we’ll give you the exact numbers and the exact process put in place that unlocked this high-performing creative campaign, so that you can get lucky too. Show notes: Full Length UGC Ad: https://www.facebook.com/115977923900/posts/10159209765208901 1x1 Cutdown Version: https://www.facebook.com/115977923900/posts/101592782...

Jan 21, 202117 min

How Influencer Marketing Will Save Our Brand

Influencer Marketing that actually works? We've never done anything like it, but as we take the next steps to grow our brand 31 Bits, influencer marketing will play a key role. Cody Wittick, the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Kynship, joins us on this episode as we lay out the influencer strategy. You can reach out to Kynship by emailing info@kynship.co or reaching out to Cody on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Cody_Wittick

Jan 14, 202150 min

Our Business Funnel Is Broken

This week, we're talking about the biggest problem we have to solve right now in our business and the steps we're taking to fix the top of the funnel. We've had this problem before, and this time around, we'll need some more magic.

Dec 10, 202022 min

5 Lessons From Black Friday, Cyber Monday

We won't delay, Black Friday & Cyber Monday went below average for the six brands we operate this year... Here's why, plus five takeaways we learned.

Dec 03, 202023 min

This Has To Work (Again)

As we head into Black Friday again, the same sentiment holds true: "this strategy has to work". Andrew Faris gets transparent on the impact of what a win and (more importantly) what a loss would mean for business during BFCM. Here's how we are preparing for both options.

Nov 24, 202011 min

Pre-Black Friday Anxiety Check

We're gearing up for Black Friday, Cyber Monday and it's natural for the business anxieties to sink in. To face the uncertainties, root yourselves in the certainty that comes with building a data-backed strategy. Host Andrew Faris, talks us through the holiday strategy for each of the six brands under the 4x400 umbrella and how they're planning for success.

Nov 19, 202022 min
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