Luke Peters, CEO and founder at NewAir Appliances and Retail Band, joins this episode of “The Commerce Marketer Podcast” to discuss specific strategies retailers and companies can follow to reduce the burden of tariffs. Luke starts by discussing how the tariffs have impacted NewAIr and their cost of goods (COG), and why simply finding a new supplier isn’t a realistic option (2:00). He explains what to look for in the supply chain to find opportunities for price relief (7:00), and outlines strategies to renegotiate and lower your manufacturing costs and and which parts of your agreement might p ..read more

Zach Lones, director of social media marketing at Walmart, joins this episode of “The Commerce Marketer Podcast” to discuss how Walmart uses social media and their employees to engage with local communities and increase in-store traffic. Zach starts by describing the genesis of the store-level social media programs (2:00), choosing social platforms (8:30) and how they establish best practices and types of training needed (10:00) for participation. He explains how the program is structured for day-to-day use (12:00) and which KPIs the social team and store-level managers look at to determine th ..read more

I’m joined by Luke Daniel Lucht, co-founder and research director at Research Farm, to discuss developing retail technologies around the globe and how they may impact the future of retail. Lucht begins by discussing approaches and challenges to unmanned stores overseas and what they could mean for similar stores in the U.S. (3:10) — and how the Amazon Go model fits into the future of these store formats (5:40). Next, he discusses what facial recognition might hold for retailers and consumers (10:00 and China’s new social credit system. He describes how it’s being used to curb and influence bot ..read more

In this episode, Greg Zakowicz, senior commerce marketing analyst at Oracle NetSuite, discusses email marketing strategies for the 2019 holiday season. He begins with some of the key takeaways from last year and how they impact this year’s season (1:45), then covers the most appealing discounts and how to integrate them into your email planning (4:30). Greg then discusses the benefits of running daily deals and category-specific promotions (5:00) and how free shipping factors into these promotions’ success (6:00). Greg explores consumer expectations of free shipping, details how free shipping ..read more

I’m joined by Nancy Harhut, chief creative officer at HBT Marketing, to discuss how marketers can use behavioral science to nudge their customers and encourage purchase decisions. Nancy starts by covering how “eye magnet” words and the Von Restorff Effect can create more effective email subject lines and headlines (3:40), and then shares which word has been repeatedly associated with top-performing subject lines (7:30). Nancy dives into content by discussing ways to effectively use social proof to influence clicks and conversions (11:00), what makes a “good” email (17:00), what imagery makes a ..read more

I’m joined by Erin Hoffman, director of ecommerce at Door County Coffee, to discuss the shifting consumer coffee market and how they use email marketing to engage customers and drive revenue. Erin starts by discussing how the shifting in-home coffee demographic impacted their digital marketing strategy (9:00). She outlines how their email marketing team is organized and how it contributes to their overall online marketing revenue (14:30) before diving into their send cadence, message content, and segmentation (17:40). Next, she addresses the challenge of handling unengaged subscribers and then ..read more

In this episode of the podcast, I’m joined by Dennis Kelly, CEO of the direct mail automation company Postalytics, to discuss how to augment digital marketing channels with direct mail. Dennis explains how direct mail has evolved and why its usage is on the rise (2:45). He’ll discuss consumers’ emotional response to direct mail pieces and how to use small-batch, drip-style campaigns (9:40). He also covers how closely you should target customers and ways it can enhance your digital marketing initiatives (12:40). Dennis shares insights on tracking results, incentives, and timing strategies for y ..read more

In this episode of the podcast, I’m joined by Mark Brazil, co-founder of the canvas art company Ikonick, to discuss how he created a multimillion-dollar business in less than two years by combining email, video, social, and influencer marketing. Mark begins by discussing how different social engagement patterns among genders impacted their paid marketing strategy (3:08), going on to describe how storytelling changed their social and email marketing — and their definition of success (8:10). Mark explains storytelling’s impact on email conversions and how they measure the success of those email ..read more

Jennifer O’Connor of The University of Kansas Bookstore describes the bookstore industry’s evolution (4:30) and how they drive in-store traffic with social media (6:18). She details ways to overcome email segmentation challenges by using other digital marketing channels (13:40) and compete with larger retailers, who can offer larger selections and discounts (17:25). She also shares ways to integrate social media with email marketing campaigns (20:00) and lessons from their first Facebook Live event (22:30). In the final segment, O’Connor shares their six-month email marketing roadmap (24:23) a ..read more

In this episode, co-founder of the influencer marketing agency Viral Nation Joe Gagliese discusses the ins and outs of the billion-dollar influencer marketing industry. Joe sheds light on influencer marketing misconceptions and explains how a brand should determine whether influencer marketing is a good fit for them (9:10). He explains what the process of working with influencers looks like (11:30) and the challenges of working with both micro and macro-influencers (15:00). And the money — Joe describes the different payment structures you can use and how company size impacts this (19:00). He ..read more