eCommerce Podcast

A show dedicated to helping you deliver eCommerce WOW with real talk about building our online stores. Every Thursday.

Join Matt Edmundson and guests, experts and founders who've been in the trenches, built the stores, and learned the hard way — so you don't have to.

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This Week's Episode

eCommerce Conversations with Rob te Braake

The $20K Loan That Turned Into an Ecommerce Death Spiral

with Rob te BraakefromInsight Matters

Rob Te Braake is a fractional CFO for seven and eight-figure ecommerce brands — and one of his eight-figure clients might not make it to the end of the year. The reason? A debt cycle that started with one easy, pre-approved platform loan. In this conversation, Rob breaks down the three numbers every ecommerce owner needs to know, explains why he walks away from any business with less than 60% gross margin, and unpacks why Shopify and Stripe loans can quietly eat your business alive. If you've ever been tempted by that "just click here" offer, listen to this first.

More Great Episodes

Catch up on our latest conversations with eCommerce leaders.

Your Customers Don't Care About Your Brand

Most ecommerce homepages say 'we' three times for every 'you.' Here's the only place your brand messaging actually matters. Matt Edmundson breaks down the Story Overlap — the intersection between your brand story and your customer's story. Using a live homepage audit, Apple's famous '1,000 songs' line, and the transformation of Jersey Beauty Company from jiffy bags to remarkable unboxing experiences, this episode shows exactly how to find where your story and your customer's story meet — and build all your messaging from that intersection. Download the free Story Overlap Finder workbook the accompanies this episode.

How to Charge Double for Paper Plates (And Have Customers Thank You)

Selena Knight has spent 20 years in retail and knows exactly why most e-commerce businesses are undercharging. One of her favourite examples? An Australian party supplies company that charges $6 for $3 paper plates — and their customers keep coming back. In this conversation, we get into price anchoring, why the businesses that survived 2025 were the ones charging more not less, the three questions that close every in-store sale, and what she learned from Gary V's organisational psychologist about hiring people who actually think for themselves. If you're competing on price, this one might change your mind.

The Creative Engine That Stops Your Meta Ads Burning Out

Most e-commerce brands are guessing how many ads they need — and getting it badly wrong. Edwin Choi from Jet Fuel Agency reveals a data-driven framework for calculating your exact monthly creative requirements based on your account's decay rate and win rate. With Meta's Andromeda system now punishing creative sameness, discover how to build a diverse creative engine using existing content, raw founder videos, and strategic partnerships — without breaking the bank or losing your mind.

How to Stop Chargebacks From Destroying Your Profit Margins

Payments veteran Jeff Foster reveals why fighting chargebacks often costs more than accepting them, and how the threshold for "acceptable" disputes has dropped from 3.5% to under 1%. With 25% of chargebacks hitting transactions already refunded and friendly fraud becoming behavioural rather than criminal, he shares the pragmatic approach that protects profit margins: make refunds frictionless, overcommunicate with customers, and accept that preventing every dispute is more expensive than handling them efficiently.

Product Descriptions That Actually Convert

Most eCommerce product descriptions are invisible. Copied from the manufacturer, pasted without thought, identical to every competitor. Matt Edmundson shares how rewriting 400 product descriptions at Jersey Beauty Company transformed a commodity site into a brand with personality, and reveals the narrative binding framework from cognitive science that makes copy 42% more memorable after 30 days. Through real examples — a framing square, a fountain pen, a USB disco light, and an airsoft tactical vest turned mission briefing — discover the three principles that turn forgettable spec sheets into stories that actually sell.

From Zero to 5,000 Subscriptions in 10 Months

Joe Welstead built OSHUN from zero to 5,000+ subscribers in just ten months, achieving a 42% subscription signup rate and 5% conversion rate. His approach challenges conventional supplement industry wisdom: one product instead of twelve, simplified product pages that spread decisions across the customer journey, and a relentless focus on product quality over retention gimmicks. This episode reveals the exact tech stack, email strategies, and customer experience design that's driving 15% month-over-month growth for this bootstrapped electrolyte brand.

LLM Traffic Converts 5X Better Than Google for eCommerce

With 57% of Google searches now ending without a click, eCommerce brands are seeing organic traffic drop 20-30%. But there's a silver lining: traffic from AI assistants like ChatGPT converts at 5X the rate of traditional search. Matthew Stafford from Build Grow Scale shares the LLM optimisation strategies working for his clients, including buyer-intent FAQs per product and schema markup updates. For smaller brands willing to move quickly, this shift represents the biggest opportunity since the early Google days—a genuine chance to outmanoeuvre larger competitors who are too slow to adapt.

Is Your E-Commerce Platform Wagging the Dog?

Mikel Lindsaar reveals why most e-commerce platforms end up controlling your business rather than serving it. Through examples including a museum identifying VIP visitors and automated customer refunds, he demonstrates what becomes possible when all your data lives in one intelligent system. The result? Faster pages, smarter AI, and genuine customer relationships that drive lifetime value. His advice ranges from the technical to the surprisingly simple: put a phone number on your website and actually answer it.

How You Ship Your Products Can Make or Break Your Business

With over 10,000 3PLs in the US alone, choosing the wrong fulfilment partner can sink your e-commerce business. Dave Gulas, who transitioned from the high-stakes pharmaceutical industry to e-commerce logistics, shares the horror stories he's witnessed and the questions that reveal whether a potential partner will help you scale or leave you digging out of a very big hole. Learn why treating logistics as a commodity is a mistake, what technology red flags to watch for, and why the best client relationships start with the most

The Year-End Review Most eCommerce Founders Skip (And Why It's Costing Them)

In 2003, LEGO discovered they hadn't generated economic profit for over a decade. Nobody knew. The company was $800 million in debt before a thorough review revealed what had remained hidden. This is the trap most eCommerce founders fall into — running so fast they never stop to look at what's actually happening. Matt Edmundson shares the 7-area Slingshot framework for meaningful year-end reviews, the specific metrics worth tracking, and why accountability partners increase goal achievement by 95%. Whether your year was brutal or brilliant, the review process matters more than you think.

A Christmas Thank You to Every Digital David

In this Christmas Day message, Matt Edmundson explores how the Nativity story connects to running an eCommerce business. From the shepherds who became unlikely evangelists (like your early customers who spread your story authentically) to the manger that was sufficient for its purpose (like your bootstrap operation), to Joseph's quiet, faithful execution (the reminder that showing up consistently trumps grand intentions). A heartfelt thank you to the Digital David community with an encouragement that something wonderful is coming, because you're building it.

Fix Your Pop-Up Strategy and Hit Over 10% Opt-In Rates

Shaan Arora, CEO of Alia Popups, reveals why most brands struggle with pop-up opt-in rates below 10% whilst his platform averages 10-15% across 3,000 brands. Learn the mystery discount strategy that increases opt-ins without touching margins, why copy matters more than design, how to test discount percentages systematically, the difference between mobile and desktop timing, and why holdout tests prove pop-ups increase both conversion rates and average order values despite the annoyance factor.

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