Apr 11 2026
EcomFuel Founder on 2026 Industry Trends

For years EcomFuel has surveyed its community of ecommerce merchants about their growth, margins, tactics, and more. The company released this year’s findings last week.

Founder Andrew Youderian recaps the report in this episode, addressing the state of ecommerce among 300 participating businesses.

Our entire audio is embedded below. The transcript is edited for length and clarity.

Eric Bandholz: Give us a rundown of what you do.

Andrew Youderian: I run a company and community called eComFuel. My background is in starting and operating ecommerce businesses. We have an online message board, online forum, events, reviews, and research.

Our “2026 Ecommerce Trends Report” is based on responses from 300 store owners — mostly seven, eight, and nine-figure brands — who answered 50 questions.

We ask about traffic, margins, Amazon, warehousing, AI, business models, tariffs, and more. We don’t track the number of merchants who have exited the industry. People join and leave our community every month for various reasons. When asked, some say they’re closing their business. It peaked 12 to 18 months ago. I’m a little more optimistic about ecommerce for the next couple of years.

Going forward, successful brands will likely be smaller with loyal customers. They will make interesting products. They won’t grow as fast, but they’ll be much stickier and more durable in the long term.

The number of respondents in our report who manufacture products increased by 50% over the past three years. All other models were either flat or down. Respondents who resell products are largely unchanged. Private label sellers were down significantly. Drop shipping was down 50%. Merchants are adjusting to a new reality.

In 2017, about 20% of respondents’ total revenue came from Amazon. It subsequently spiked to about 28%. It’s now back to 20%, despite 63% selling on that marketplace.

I respect how Amazon built out its infrastructure for the long term. They’re not going anywhere, but the types of products they sell will likely be either very low-end or very high-end. They’ve lost the middle tier.

Bandholz: Have you tracked AI’s financial impact?

Youderian: For the trends report, we asked, “Have you meaningfully incorporated AI into your business?” Seventy-two percent of respondents said yes. The top four use cases were, in order, copywriting, images, analytics, and coding.

Certainly some merchants have dialed in AI and are seeing strong benefits. But most are still in the investment stage.

For example, EcomFuel has heavily invested in AI over the last year. We’ve built proprietary AI tools. But we’ve not seen great ROI from those efforts. That seems to be what’s happening for most ecommerce companies.

One of the most surprising findings in this year’s survey was the ages of AI adopters. Roughly 90% of respondents under 30 are using AI. But folks in their 30s are investing less than those in the 40- to 54-year-old cohort. Anecdotally, we’re seeing merchants build impressive in-house operational tools, and most are 40 or older.

Bandholz: Where can people join your community or reach out?

Youderian: Our site is eCommerceFuel.com. I’m on LinkedIn and X. I also host “The eComFuel Podcast.”

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Apr 4 2026
My Ideal Second Business

Molson Hart is the founder of Viahart, a D2C toy brand, and Edison, a legal technology company. He says every entrepreneur should own two businesses, where one offers more opportunities to scale, is more profitable, or diversifies risk.

I’m all in on Beardbrand, my own D2C brand launched in 2014. Molson is a two-time guest on the podcast. His comment got me thinking about an attractive second company, one that would enhance my life without creating stress and headaches.

So in this episode I’ll depart from my typical guest interviews and, instead, describe my ideal business.

My entire audio narrative is embedded below. The transcript is edited for length and clarity.

My optimal business is an ecommerce brand that sells easy-to-ship products. The items are likely small and, importantly, consumable. Once acquired, a customer would buy two or three times. The products would emphasize both value and prestige, with gross margins that at least cover acquisition ads on Meta.

Lastly, the products appeal to a large enough market to differentiate, niche down, and target the right audience.

So what are those?

Sean Frank is CEO of Ridge, the D2C wallet provider, and a veteran of this podcast. One could argue Ridge’s wallets are consumable: Release new versions, and they become fashion items, enticing repeat buyers.

Yet to me, consumables are what go in or on my body, what I eat or apply every day, such as food, supplements, and personal care goods. For ideas, I would walk into a grocery store, a Walmart, or a Target and just look around. What are folks buying? Which brands are old and stuffy, ripe for disruption?

Examples

Native has moved beyond deodorant, its original product. Moiz Ali, a former guest on this show, launched the deodorant-only brand in 2015 and reached $100 million in annual revenue within a couple of years. Native now sells multiple consumables: skincare, hand soap, toothpaste, and hair products.

Harry’s launched in 2012 as a D2C shaving goods provider, an affordable alternative to dominant players such as Gillette and Schick. The company was wildly successful.

Native and Harry’s focused on staples that consumers use daily.

Seven Sundays launched in 2011 at a Minneapolis farmers’ market. The founders, having realized that most cereal manufacturers used glyphosate-treated wheat and high-fructose corn syrup, offered a cleaner, healthier granola at a higher price point. It’s now a Certified B, ecommerce powerhouse.

Goodles sells a product every parent can appreciate: healthy macaroni and cheese for kids. The brand launched in 2020 with nutritious selections in bright, colorful packaging and fun product names, such as Shella Good and Twist My Parm. It’s another upstart challenging a dominant brand (Kraft) in a big market.

Opportunities

So the opportunities for me lie in creating new products in sizeable markets dominated by stale, out-of-touch providers.

I would differentiate those products in one of three ways.

First is better quality — superior ingredients or components. Parents who prioritize nutrition are unlikely to buy Kraft Mac and Cheese, but they would consider Goodles, even at a higher price. That’s one way to distinguish.

Another way is innovative packaging. Many entrepreneurs overlook this opportunity. Go again to Walmart, Target, and even trade shows. How are products presented and packaged? I’ve seen incredible packaging designs over the years. I once saw packaging for a cosmetic cream where users twisted a bottle cap and pumped the cream into a built-in bowl at the top, to then mix it before applying to their face.

The third way is branding. It’s often easier to launch a brand named after the products it sells or the audience it targets. But doing that can restrict the company later, when the market shifts. Vacation.inc avoids that trap. Founded in 2021, the brand sells sunscreen but can easily pivot to other products and services should the market evolve.

Cool Products

It rarely makes sense to exactly replicate what another entrepreneur has started. Don’t listen to a successful owner on a podcast like this and think, “That guest is killing it. I’m going to do the exact same thing.”

Often the owner has not proven the business over the long term, and regardless, copying her merely carves up that audience. Instead, learn from successful brands such as Vacation, Inc., and apply their tactics to an entirely different market.

Have some fun. Make your own cool products.

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Mar 28 2026
Content Beats Design, Says CRO Pro

Dave Diederen is a Netherlands-based developer turned conversion rate optimization pro. He encourages ecommerce brands to test product pages, ads, and, well, everything.

He says merchants often prioritize their sites’ aesthetics over copy and content, a big mistake. “Content and copy play a very big role in conversions, if not the biggest,” he told me.

In our recent conversation, he addressed conversion wins, product and home page tactics, A/B strategies, and more.

Our entire audio is embedded below. The transcript is edited for clarity and length.

Eric Bandholz: Who are you?

Dave Diederen: I’m the founder of Syntra, a conversion rate optimization agency in the Netherlands. I’m a firm believer in testing and collecting as much data as you can. We do a lot of product page and listicle testing.

I encourage the brands we work with to test new advertising angles, too, such as new creative.

Traffic that doesn’t end up on a product page has no chance to buy. So I tell merchants to keep it simple, focus on what they have, and optimize it.

Bandholz: What is the minimum traffic volume for statistically reliable testing?

Diederen: I would focus on the number of orders, not traffic. A brand might have 100,000 visitors and just 20 orders. There’s no way to judge that data accurately. So I aim for around 250 orders for an A/B test. That’s more than enough.

Brands that do not have 250 orders should typically focus on advertising to increase the volume. Every business is different, however.

Bandholz: Which areas on ecommerce sites drive the biggest conversion gains from testing?

Diederen: Announcement bars are the biggest. Even single-product stores can leverage them well. Most sellers slap on an announcement bar and forget about it. Instead, always link it to a product page, regardless of the promotion. Visitors tend to click on announcement bars.

Another mistake I see is not showing the price under a product title or above the fold in the product page description. Unfortunately, brands often show it in the variant selector or in the add-to-cart button.

If you’re selling supplements, address the ingredients. Comparison charts work well for fashion and healthcare.

Reviews always work well.

Other items are low priorities for conversion. FAQ sections and social proof can go at the bottom of the page, although it depends on the industry.

Brands don’t realize how many visitors divert to the home page. Visitors may start on a product page, click the company logo, and end up on the home page. But most brands don’t optimize their home page. A strong home-page hero image is a good place to start, whether it’s a lifestyle or product image.

Bandholz: How does copy impact conversions?

Diederen: It’s very important, way more than most merchants think. Most focus on a site’s appearance, but trust me, the look and feel aren’t as important. At the end of the day, what matters are the products.

Be specific about your product’s benefits and the problems it solves.

So, yes, content and copy play a very big role in conversions, if not the biggest.

Bandholz: What is your take on email pop-ups?

Diederen: It depends on how many visitors respond. If you get a lot of signups from pop-ups, it makes no sense to remove them. I’ve tested hiding pop-ups for four brands, and it has mostly reduced sales.

So I say don’t get rid of pop-ups, although don’t overdo them either.

Bandholz: Where can people follow you, support you, hire you?

Diederen: Our site is SyntraLabs.com. Follow me on X. I’m also on LinkedIn.

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Mar 21 2026
Ditch the Discount, Says Brand Marketer

Since 2013 Cherene Aubert has managed, advised, and executed ecommerce marketing campaigns. She’s worked for agencies, merchants, and as a freelance consultant. Her D2C advisory firm, Growth Capital, helps scale premium, high-growth brands.

Experience guides her advice. Brands are too quick to discount slow-moving products, she says. Bundles or buy-one-get-one offers are often better. Higher-priced goods typically appeal to existing customers, not new ones. Influencers drive acquisition.

She shared those views and more in our recent conversation. The transcript is edited for clarity and length.

Eric Bandholz: Tell us what you do.

Cherene Aubert: I’m the founder and CEO of Growth Capital, a marketing agency for consumer brands.

I’ve spent a lot of time in ecommerce. I was head of strategy at Common Thread Collective, a D2C-focused agency. Before that, I held senior marketing roles at Ilia Beauty, a skincare company, and Bobbie, an infant formula brand — among others.

Bandholz: Describe an effective offer that doesn’t erode margins.

Aubert: It’s hard enough to get someone to buy something online. I’ve done a lot of market research for omnichannel brands, and, generally, a top discovery source is social media. But the number one sales channel is still physical retail.

So D2C brands must understand that consumers often buy online when there’s no other choice.

In beauty categories, products expire or are discontinued for many reasons. Perhaps the product breaks easily, or customers don’t like the finish. So we have to get rid of it.

The first reaction is often “let’s just discount this thing to move it.” But what you’re doing is making it accessible to new customers, but it won’t be the best experience. You’re selling a product that everyone hates.

A better option might be to offer a product everyone loves, then include the discontinued item for free. Customer expectations of that item are already low because we’re stating it has no value. Rather than 50% off a terrible product, they pay 100% for an amazing product, which includes the discontinued item that would be trashed anyway.

Testing offers requires nuanced thought about the customer experience.

Bandholz: What are the best promos for slow-moving products?

Aubert: Say you have a slower mover that’s a core part of your collection. This is where bundling can be effective. You’re positioning the customer to buy the one thing she wants and receive five other things.

In beauty, bundles might be everything you need for a five-minute face. In food products, it’s a sampler kit or perhaps a morning routine bundle.

Bandholz: How do you promote a bundled offer?

Aubert: Start with what you’re trying to achieve. For example, are you looking to reduce your customer acquisition cost or, instead, increase average order value? Those two goals often pull each other apart. The more you reduce your CAC, the more your AOV goes down, and the more you increase your AOV, the higher your CAC goes.

Be very clear about the best customer experience and who the offer is for. Should new customers buy everything all at once? Or do they buy a trial product or an introductory kit to get them involved in the brand?

An introductory kit could be available via a pop-up or accessible through navigation. Higher AOV offers generally appeal to existing customers, reachable via email and SMS. Partnering with an influencer can be a good way to design higher-priced items. There’s unlimited opportunity for experimentation.

Brands should not be reliant on special offers. The aim should be full-price transactions for as long as possible.

External, direct-response ads work best for single products. A video ad with multiple products is really a brand ad and less of a direct response.

Channel selection depends on the product category and the business stage. TikTok is one of the best awareness platforms. TikTok Shop is not the most profitable channel, but it’s a way to get affiliate influencer content at scale. Often, the hardest thing for brands is generating a lot of content.

I work with brands that use influencer affiliates as their primary acquisition driver, and Meta for retargeting and AOV products. Meta often has better marketing efficiency ratios. Oddly, CACs on Meta are sometimes better on non-acquisition campaigns.

Bandholz: Where can people follow you, hire you?

Aubert: Our site is GrowthCapital.co. Follow me on X or LinkedIn.

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Mar 14 2026
How Vessi Sells Waterproof Shoes

Ray Hua is the director of ecommerce at Vessi, a Canada-based direct-to-consumer seller of waterproof sneakers. The brand launched in 2017 after its founders developed and patented breathable fabric that repels water. Ray joined the company in 2021.

In our recent conversation, he shared the challenges of targeting the right audience, cross-border selling, diversifying, and more.

Our entire audio is embedded below. The transcript is edited for length and clarity.

Eric Bandholz: Give us a quick rundown of who you are and what you do.

Ray Hua: I’m the director of ecommerce at Vessi, a direct-to-consumer waterproof sneaker brand. I oversee strategies for site experiences, performance, merchandising, and lifecycle marketing. It’s been with the company for about five years.

Vessie launched nine years ago. Our founders developed and patented a lightweight, waterproof, and breathable fabric called Dyma-tex. People assume waterproof means it is not breathable. But our product is comfortable and looks like a regular sneaker.

During the pandemic, we gifted our product to healthcare workers. We received a lot of positive feedback from other communities, so we collaborated with niche networks to offer our products at a discount.

We’ve hired a lot of paid influencers in categories where folks are on their feet all day. We have tiers of influencers. Some have dedicated landing pages; others are for getting our name out.

We invest heavily in Meta for customer acquisition. We’re looking to diversify into Google and TikTok Shop. We’ve advertised on TikTok and even Reddit. Both drove a lot of traffic, but the quality was not very high. We couldn’t easily attribute revenue coming from those channels.

Bandholz: Vessi now sells apparel.

Hua: It’s more of an experiment in response to feedback in our customer surveys. Many mentioned expanding into apparel, socks, and accessories. They like our technology and want items that are fashionable and functional.

So we’re testing those categories for additional revenue. It hasn’t been smooth. We developed apparel that performed poorly and diverted resources from our footwear line.

Still, it was a good experiment and demonstrated the steep learning curve for a category we are not familiar with.

Bandholz: Vessi has warehouses in Canada and the U.S. Do you market differently to consumers in those countries?

Hua: Yes, we use different ads for each market. People in Canada know our brand. Our messaging to them is typically announcements about dropping new colors or limited editions.

We’re not as prominent in the U.S. Our ads there introduce the brand and explain the product’s benefits. Seattle is probably our best region in the U.S. It’s close to Vancouver and gets a lot of rain. We’re also strong in Florida, however, which is both sunny and rainy.

Bandholz: Does AI influence your marketing efforts?

Hua: We’re using AI tools mostly for operations. For example, we use AI to identify influencers aligned with our interests.

We’ve dabbled in AI to produce ad copy. We haven’t gone into AI-generated images or videos, mainly because we have strict brand guidelines.

Bandholz: Where can people find you, support you, buy your products?

Hua: Check out our products at Vessi.com. I’m on LinkedIn.

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Mar 7 2026
From Teacher to Fashion Brand Founder

In 2019 Nasrin Jafari was a middle school teacher in New York City. She had no ecommerce experience but was drawn to creating and building, which led her to sew and sell face masks during Covid.

Fast forward to 2026, and Mixed, her direct-to-consumer fashion brand, designs and produces female apparel and accessories. Referring to the company’s launch, she told me, “I had no idea how to make clothes.”

She does now, impressively, with multiple manufacturers, a thriving community, staff, and eager customers. She shared her story in our recent conversation.

Our entire audio is embedded below. The transcript is edited for length and clarity.

Eric Bandholz: What do you do?

Nasrin Jafari: I’m the founder and designer of Mixed, a fashion brand based in Brooklyn. Before Mixed, I was a middle school history and English teacher with no background in ecommerce. During the pandemic, I began sewing face masks by hand and posting them on Instagram. That was the first physical product I had sold. That experiment evolved into a full apparel brand.

It all began with Instagram posts, not Etsy or marketplaces. I didn’t understand Meta ads or ecommerce marketing. I’ve learned those pieces as the business grew.

Creativity has always been part of my life. I painted and took art electives growing up, and I was a competitive dancer in high school. Yet I’ve always been drawn to business and building things. In college, those interests merged into a desire to build something meaningful. I thought that might be as a school teacher.

In many ways, building a brand is similar to teaching. You’re creating a vision, culture, and community around shared values. Mixed reflects my identity — I’m Japanese, Iranian, and American. The brand name captures that blend of influences and the balance between creativity and operating a business.

Bandholz: Fashion seems highly competitive.

Jafari: I started the business out of curiosity. I had no idea what I was getting into. Would I choose to go into apparel again? Probably not, although there’s a side of it I love.

I learned by doing. Inventory is really tricky. I was afraid of overordering inventory and ending up with dead stock. That’s why we launched a pre-order model. We now do a lot of pre-orders, which helps our cash flow, but I didn’t start it for that reason. It was because I was out of stock. Then I realized that the model is great for business.

Another thing is returns, which are a big part of online apparel. We have to acquire customers in a way that accounts for returns. I didn’t understand that initially. Again, it comes down to learning by doing.

Bandholz: You design your apparel. Where is it manufactured?

Jafari: I was looking for factories during Covid. Many of them had excess capacity. I found a factory in India whose owner was based here in New York. So that was an in-person element to build trust and a relationship. He was willing to work with us with no minimum order quantities.

His cost was higher than, say, Los Angeles-based manufacturers, but we still maintained a 75% margin. Our average order is about $228.

We’ve since scaled and can order larger quantities. We’ve added factories with lower costs.

I found the India factory by googling. After that, it was recommendations from friends in the industry, which I prefer. They worked with them, vetted them, and liked them.

Bandholz: What is your production and design process?

Jafari: I had no idea how to make clothes. I literally went to JoAnn Fabrics and tried to follow the pattern. I realized quickly I wasn’t good at it, and it was going to take time. I had connected with a home sewer on Instagram. She seemed to love our brand but had not worked in a commercial capacity. I asked her to make our initial samples. She was thrilled. She made the initial samples, one of which remains our best-selling product.

Now I’m at a point where the factory does a lot of that. I send sketches with very minimal specs, and they can figure it out.

Selling true bespoke garments requires a dedicated designer, either in-house or outsourced. But factories with extensive garment experience can usually handle simpler items.

I design on an iPad with a stylus using Procreate.

Bandholz: I’ve seen your new-arrival ads on Instagram and Facebook. You seem to have a blueprint that is working.

Jafari: Yes, all our advertising has been on Meta. No Google or TikTok.

We have a couple of ad formats. It’s like a flywheel, as we continue to scale. We find the models, then shoot the videos in-house. Then we edit in the Philippines, and create and upload new ads to Meta.

My first successful ad came from an outing with a girlfriend. I was wearing one of my jumpsuits. I asked her to shoot me with a couple of angles, nothing fancy. It showed my outfit in an urban setting. The ad worked. We repeated the concept.

Bandholz: Are you handling your own fulfillment?

Jafari: Yes. Part of the initial rationale was returns, and part was our low volume. Plus, our pre-order model meant we were receiving inventory constantly. Getting it to an outsourced fulfillment provider added an extra step and delayed delivery to our customer.

Bandholz: How do you ensure your products resonate with would-be customers?

Jafari: When we design a piece, I’m always thinking about the customer — who she is, what she wants, and what we’ve already given her. The goal is to create what she needs next. My personal taste influences the brand, but I try not to be overly subjective about design decisions. Ultimately, customer response and sales tell us what works.

We also gather feedback from our community. We host discussions in our Circle community platform where customers comment on fabric designs, share preferences, and discuss products. That feedback, along with replies to my weekly newsletter and in-person events, provides valuable qualitative insight.

Our target customer is a 35- to 65-year-old woman who values creativity, independence, and self-expression— and wants clothing to reflect that.

Bandholz: Where can people buy your clothes, support you, follow you?

Jafari: Our site is MixedByNasrin.com. I’m on LinkedIn.

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Feb 28 2026
How a Pro Writer Uses AI

Kaleigh Moore is a 12-year freelance writer and editor. She’s contributed to Shopify, Forbes, Vogue, Adweek, and various B2B providers, among others. Like all of us, she’s now grappling with the promise and limits of AI.

She calls AI a “fire hose of information” that greatly increases efficiency. She also cautions on what it cannot do, such as interview humans or learn from experience.

She shared those views and more in our recent conversation, including her preferred AI platform, use cases for entrepreneurs, and getting started with AI-driven composition.

Our entire audio is embedded below. The transcript is edited for clarity and length.

Eric Bandholz: Give us a rundown of what you do.

Kaleigh Moore: I’m a freelance writer and editor. I’ve worked with all kinds of B2B and SaaS companies within the ecommerce ecosystem over the past 12 years.

One of the first case studies I wrote for Shopify featured Beardbrand. That was over a decade ago.

Bandholz: Does AI commoditize writing?

Moore: The emerging AI composition tools are incredible; they greatly increase efficiency, especially for the tedious parts of writing, such as ecommerce product descriptions.

But remember that AI tools operate on existing information. They are not creating something new. Human composition provides original perspectives — experiences, thoughts, and feelings.

Do we care about those perspectives? Some people care a lot. I’m a journalist first and foremost. I want to do my own homework, fact-check, and make sure I’m putting out the best of whatever my name is on.

I worry about young people and how they’ll use these tools. I’m 37 years old. I grew up in a largely pre-internet, pre-social media time. I hope we always have human experience and interaction — talk to each other, go to coffee. To me, AI is a nice supplement, but it doesn’t replace person-to-person interaction.

It’s been interesting on the hiring side of things. I occasionally look at full-time in-house writing roles. Over the last 18 months, many of those roles have shifted to require AI operational skills, to hop into an AI tool and craft something. If you are not hands-on with these tools, you won’t even get an interview. So the ability to learn the tools and be curious about them is an important skill now.

Some people say AI is just a bubble, but I don’t think so. It’s too powerful.

Bandholz: How does a writer or entrepreneur learn and apply AI?

Moore: It’s a fire hose of information every day. I approach it as a journalist. A key skill is developing very strong prompts. The more advanced we are at prompting, the better the output.

Beyond that, accept a willingness to learn the new functionalities. It can be intimidating, what with all the new tools.

Anthropic’s Claude is my go-to platform. Claude’s outputs are very good. Anthropic’s entire stance is open-source and transparent. The company prioritizes ethical concerns and data privacy. For me as a writer, Claude is the best. It’s also a great place to start.

Generative AI platforms such as Claude can help entrepreneurs and marketers with promotional emails, social media posts, and LinkedIn articles, among other applications. The platforms will remember a voice and style from existing content.

Bandholz: How do you train AI in that way?

Moore: I’ve been doing it for my own work. I feed Claude good, strong examples of my published articles, case studies, and guides to provide points of reference. It’s akin to informing a new hire, say a junior writer or copywriter.

The aim supplying a lot of very specific guidelines. Lots of dos and don’ts. Use this word; don’t use this one. Input it once, and the AI never forgets, unlike humans. And I can update it over time, which is essential. Although more examples are not always better. AI can get confused by too much information.

A user’s top 10 tweets would be a good, limited data set to start with, plus general instructions on likes and dislikes. Teach AI in the same way you would a human.

Say a merchant wanted to publish a blog post. I would enter a full brief, such as the targeted keyword, the audience, brand names to avoid, and data sources to cite. There’s quite a bit of heavy lifting involved just getting that prompt ready.

Certainly, the merchant could give it a paragraph and request a 500-word blog post on X for this audience. She would get a pretty good output.

But give it the full brief, and she will likely receive a much better result, requiring little editing or tweaking. It’s often a choice of spending time editing the output versus preparing the brief.

For me, editing AI text usually comes down to my writing preferences, though much of it is fact-checking. AI hallucinates; it makes stuff up. It will cite data that doesn’t exist.

Moreover, AI cannot interview or speak with an expert. We have to integrate those afterward.

Bandholz: Where can people follow you and reach out?

Moore: My site is KaleighMoore.com. I’m on X and LinkedIn.

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Feb 21 2026
Beardbrand’s Top Ecommerce Tools in 2026

Occasionally on the podcast I depart from interviewing guests and share my own experiences running Beardbrand, the D2C company I founded in 2012.

In this episode, I address my favorite ecommerce tools in 2026, the platforms and apps essential to our business.

My entire audio narration is embedded below. The transcript is edited for clarity and length.

Website

Shopify is an incredible platform for Beardbrand. It gives us the flexibility to quickly test and implement major site changes, such as restructuring our product pages. For example, we replaced multiple fragrance variants on a single product page with individual pages for each fragrance, supported by a collection page.

We can now tell the story of each scent, showcase fragrance-specific reviews, and recommend matching products. The result? A faster site and improved conversions (about 4.6%). For performance, storytelling, and scalability, Shopify dominates.

Judge.me. Another foundational tool is Judge.me, a customer review widget. I’m now a brand ambassador for that company after using it for years. The app is economical; we pay just $15 per month. We’ve customized it to blend into our website, and it looks beautiful.

Recharge. I’ve experienced ups and downs over the years with Recharge, the subscription management platform. Sometimes I feel it’s too expensive, but lately the features have improved. I’ve received compliments from customers on how we run our subscriptions and how easy the process is. Recharge has been a good partner. We have no intentions or plans to look elsewhere.

Marketing

Klaviyo. We’ve long used Klaivyo for all email and text campaigns and automated flows. The decision to include text messaging with Klaviyo was not easy. Postscript is the best in that category for us. But we wanted to consolidate our data. Klaviyo’s text platform is serviceable and a good option. Email is critical to Beardbrand’s success. Our subscriber database functions like a customer management platform.

PostPilot. We have been utilizing PostPilot for our physical postcard campaigns. It’s a nice service, especially to reach folks who have unsubscribed from email and text. They still buy from us, however, and PostPilot is a great way to stay in front of them.

Opensend helps us identify and reach anonymous site visitors who show interest in purchasing our products. The service has improved our conversions. We sync it with PostPilot flows and let it run automatically.

Grapevine Surveys is an essential post-purchase survey tool for customer insights. Grapevine is more affordable than platforms such as Triple Whale or Northbeam, both of which are great, precise options for larger brands. For us, Grapevine provides a simple three-question post-purchase survey: How long is your beard? How did you find us? Why did you choose us?

Meta Ads is our primary channel for customer acquisition. We create a ton of ads — some in-house and some with an agency.

Creative

CapCut is an AI-driven video-editing software. We don’t use it directly, but our agency does. CapCut streamlines and expedites the production process and lessens the burden of our in-house video editor.

Grok Imagine from X generates 6-second videos from prompts. If you’re not using AI video for some of your ads, you’re missing out. I love Grok Imagine. We can create an amazing number of videos quickly. The best use for us is video clips based on prompts of still images of real people, as testimonials. We never use AI to generate fake people and referrals, which is illegal.

Arcads. Mike, our growth marketer, uses Arcads, which is similar to Grok Imagine but more limiting. Sometimes he’ll have me generate videos in Grok Imagine, with its speed and capacity, and then send to him.

Google Nano Banana does a great job for our static images. Our product labels have a lot of text that’s challenging for AI to reproduce. Nano Banana is not perfect, but its errors and hallucinations in the text on our bottles are noticeable only if you stop and study it for a few seconds. Overall, Nono Banana is impressive. For example, I used it to generate an image with black hardened lava next to a knockout photo of our beard oil, to place on a bottle. It did a great job. If you are not experimenting with AI image and video generation, get in there, learn, and start cranking out stuff.

Operations

Settle is an accounts payable and vendor management platform. We signed up late last year. It syncs with our newly adopted accrual accounting system (we had long been on a cash basis) and helps us allocate resources and see where our money is going. Our bookkeeper enters all vendor invoices into Settle. I can verify the accuracy of the invoices and the timing of our payment.

Mercury. We switched to Mercury, a bank-like platform, about six months ago. It’s been a game-changer. It’s entirely different from our previous (traditional) bank. We’ve automated cash transfers between our operational checking and savings accounts to maintain the minimum checking balance while preventing overdrafts. We also use Mercury for our employee credit cards. Mercury pays off the balances immediately once they hit a threshold. It eliminates fees and saves a ton of time.

ShipStation and OpenBorder. We still use ShipStation’s software for fulfillment and shipping, integrating with our third-party fulfillment provider. We signed up with OpenBorder, another software platform, to expedite logistics into Europe. We haven’t officially returned to Europe, but it’s coming. OpenBorder’s assistance is helping.

Slack. Everybody uses Slack. We once used Asana, Trello, and Basecamp, among other collaboration platforms. We dropped them all in favor of Slack, which is also our project management tool. We’re saving money for equivalent productivity.

Google Docs. I’m not a fan of giant corporations such as Google. They retain my data, and I lose privacy. But still, Google Docs is an amazing tool with Sheets and sharing with my colleagues. So, yes, from Nano Banana to Docs, Google is crucial and beneficial.

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Feb 14 2026
Ecomm Cowboy Talks AI and Underdogs

Chris Hall is an ecommerce entrepreneur turned media operator. His new “Ecomm Cowboy” show broadcasts live Monday through Friday on X and YouTube. The mission, he says, is twofold: deliver daily news to sellers and offer companionship to those working alone.

Chris first appeared on the podcast in 2023 as the marketing head of a D2C brand. In this our latest conversation, he addresses his goals for Ecomm Cowboy, production challenges, and, yes, the power of AI tools for one-person brands.

Our entire audio is embedded below. The transcript is edited for length and clarity.

Eric Bandholz: Who are you and what do you do?

Chris Hall: I’m the founder of Ecomm Cowboy, a startup media company broadcasting live Monday through Friday on X and YouTube. We talk about the current and future state of ecommerce so operators can survive and thrive. I launched the show about a month ago.

I stumbled into ecommerce in 2014. I created one of the first subscription coffee brands on the internet.

After that, I worked for a marketing agency and then with Bruce Bolt, the D2C athletic glove company.

Bandholz: What are your goals for Ecomm Cowboy?

Hall: I’ve contemplated the concept for years, with two missions.

First, ecommerce owners are on the bleeding edge of the ever-changing internet. We cover the top news stories, retail developments, direct-to-consumer topics, artificial intelligence — anything related to selling online.

Second, working from a laptop at home is common in the ecommerce industry, but it’s intensely lonely. For many, it’s a dreadful experience. So I hope Ecomm Cowboy is also a place where people can have a companion of sorts and interact.

Bandholz: A daily show with guests is a lot of work.

Hall: Yes, it is. We usually have one guest, but sometimes it’s two. Each show runs an hour. I hope to extend it eventually to two hours.

I prepare for three to four hours each day, covering everything that’s happened, who’s appearing, and what to discuss. Plus events occur in real time that alter the plan.

After each show,  there’s editing, cutting, and posting to make the most of the content. So it’s a lot of energy and time, but I love it.

I thrive on the pressure. There’s much to do every day before noon Central time, when the show goes live.

It brings me back to my time playing football at the University of Texas, where every practice I had to be ready to battle,  mentally and physically. A part of me still welcomes the challenge. I wake up excited every day because of it.

Bandholz: What’s the state of ecommerce?

Hall: AI tools are jaw-dropping. Six months ago, we were laughing at them, but no more. AI can now perform tasks such as ad creation, empowering what I call a one-person brand.

Sean Frank of Ridge, the wallet maker, calls it Ecommerce 4.0. It’s an opportunity for underdogs. One person, harnessing today’s tools, can do what took an entire team five years ago.

A good example is Kive, an AI tool that generates product specs directly within the image. A recent guest, Bart Szaniewski from Dad Gang, a D2C hat seller, described the tool. He uses the images on his Instagram feed.

Bandholz: If you can’t communicate in today’s world, you will be left behind.

Hall: That’s fair. The most adept operators are communicating (in ways I have yet to take advantage of) using AI tools that produce a voice, a video, a copywriting style.

I see two routes going forward. There’s the anti-AI bet. The best way to be anti-AI and build trust is to be live and in person. Be an actual human who’s making mistakes and producing something good enough that people will come back.

The second route is to stay at the forefront of AI technology and become expert on the tools and methods. If you can win visitors in a way that doesn’t deceive them, there’s a way to enrich yourself.

On a recent show, we touched on an app called DramaBox. It produces AI-generated TikTok-style mini dramas. Each episode is literally one minute long. I’m told the business is booming from selling access to the shows. Viewers download the app, pay, and then consume the content.

To me, it’s horrible for humanity, although I use an AI-powered video maker from ByteDance called Seedance 2.0. A number of popular videos use Seedance, such as Ethan Hunt from Mission Impossible.

Many observers say Hollywood is obsolete, a step behind. I don’t know about that. But what I do know is that the capabilities are better than ever.

And now it’s up to us. How can we use the tools to improve what we talk about or solve a problem for them?

Bandholz: Where can listeners watch your show, follow you, or get in touch?

Hall: The show “Ecomm Cowboy” on X and YouTube. I’m also on X or LinkedIn.

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Jan 31 2026
AI Product Discovery Drives Brand Traffic

Phillip Jackson’s media company, Future Commerce, focuses on trends and developments in business.

The company surveyed U.S. shoppers during the 2025 holiday season. He says one insight stood out: when AI recommends a product, 77% of respondents leave the platform to buy on the brand’s site.

Phillip first appeared on the podcast in early 2024. In this our latest conversation, he addressed the downsides of optimized ecommerce sites, the outlook of traditional search, and, yes, the rise of autonomous shopping agents.

The entire audio of our conversation is embedded below. The transcript is edited for length and clarity.

Eric Bandholz: Bring us up to date.

Phillip Jackson: Future Commerce is a media company exploring the culture of commerce through newsletters, podcasts, research, and events.

When you and I last spoke, I remember thinking, “I’m made for this.” It felt like everything I’ve learned over my entire career was in one place.

Ecommerce was difficult when I started in 1999. I spent more than a decade working for a direct-to-consumer seller of natural health products. We hand-coded sites in HTML, ran Google AdWords, and scaled multiple brands.

Bandholz: Is it better in 2026?

Jackson: I’ve been saying since around 2019 that we’ve reached the ideal website. We’ve optimized ecommerce experiences to death, and what’s left is efficiency and boredom.

We do a lot of consumer and executive research at Future Commerce. In one study published around 2022, we analyzed about 15 of the world’s highest-traffic ecommerce sites, excluding Amazon. Think brands like Bath & Body Works and Bed Bath & Beyond. We removed logos and navigation, then showed the pages to consumers. Most people couldn’t tell one site from another because they’re functionally identical.

That level of optimization is powerful, but it has a downside: it’s unmemorable. These sites are designed for conversion, not for recall or cultural impact. They’re slippery. You buy, you leave, and nothing sticks.

You see this everywhere in culture. Netflix is a great example. It’s incredible how they use data to maximize completion rates, which is why they release entire seasons at once. The data probably proves it works. But it doesn’t show what’s lost: cultural conversation. Shows released across many weeks remain part of the culture for extended periods.

The same thing has happened in ecommerce and product design. Websites, sport utility vehicles, smartphones, and even electric toothbrushes all converge on the same form.

Many industry folks hope AI will make ecommerce exciting again, but real innovation requires risk, which few companies are willing to take on.

Bandholz: Will marketplaces and AI replace brand websites?

Jackson: There’s a lot packed into that question, and we actually have data around it. On the practical side, the website isn’t going anywhere. Advertisers may shift platforms, and AI-driven discovery is clearly changing behavior, especially among Gen Zs. Generative AI sites have become a trusted source for product and brand discovery.

We researched consumer AI usage before and after the 2025 holidays. One insight stood out. When AI recommends a product, shoppers overwhelmingly prefer to leave the platform and visit the brand’s website. Across two studies, two cohorts, and multiple English-speaking countries, 77% said they would rather click through to the website than buy inside the AI interface.

That challenges the narrative that AI agents will handle all purchasing. I’m bullish on agents long term, but the website remains the center of context, trust, and information for generative engines.

Interestingly, AI may affect physical retail more quickly than digital. In our data, 35% of Gen Zs and 40% of Gen Xs said they’d rather buy based on an AI recommendation than go to a store.

More broadly, old and new systems always coexist. Markets don’t disappear; they evolve. The brands that survive will have durable products, a clear identity, and strong relationships. Almost certainly they will have websites. Everything else is still up for debate.

Bandholz: Will genAI replace traditional search?

Jackson: We’re seeing signs of that shift. However, there are economic questions to answer. What companies win the AI race? Which consumer products become dominant?

Yes, AI is disruptive, but it’s also introducing a new modality in our relationship with digital culture. It isn’t just a search box. It’s a different kind of interaction. I see it as complementary rather than exclusive. Traditional systems don’t vanish overnight; they adapt and coexist. AI changes behavior, but it layers onto existing habits rather than erasing them.

Bandholz: What’s your advice to folks starting in ecommerce?

Jackson: Some level of investment in genAI visibility is non-negotiable. Consumers are increasingly turning to engines like ChatGPT for product recommendations. If you’re not tracking whether your brand shows up there, you should be. It may be the closest thing we have to true organic discovery.

Beyond that, many newer providers aren’t living up to their promised disruption. TikTok Shop, for example, is essentially an affiliate channel. It’s powerful, but it’s not going to change fundamentally how everyone shops.

Bandholz: What major macro trends are you watching?

Jackson: The first is machine autonomy. Every business, from the smallest startup to the largest enterprise, is pushing for more automation and productivity. You see it with self-driving vehicles, delivery robots, and last-mile automation. You also see it in companies, with systems that operate without human intervention. That shift is happening fast.

The second force is human sovereignty, driven by mistrust in institutions. The Edelman Trust Barometer in early 2026 is at a 25-year low. People don’t trust governments, corporations, or systems the way they used to. At the same time, they now have tools to verify claims, build their own worldviews, and take control of decisions.

Healthcare is an example. Individuals can now monitor their own health and interpret data in ways that weren’t possible five years ago.

These two forces — autonomy and sovereignty — can complement each other, but they can also collide. Brands that understand how to navigate both, at any scale, will define the next era of commerce.

Bandholz: How can listeners follow you and reach out?

Jackson: Our site is FutureCommerce.com. We’re on X, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn. I’m on LinkedIn as well.

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments