Commerce Minded

Listen in as we celebrate the milestone of our second show with a bang, joined by the esteemed Jason Greenwood, a top voice in e-commerce for 2024. Jason shares his impressive journey through over 330 podcast appearances and his insights on the B2B commerce landscape. He generously shares stories from his recent travels across the US, tying in the personal with the professional, and the serendipity of missing the Super Bowl frenzy. 

Our dialogue takes a deep look into the specifics of B2B e-commerce platforms, the critical tools and functionalities needed for success, and the unique challenges businesses face when selecting the right technology. Jason brings to light the emerging trend of blending content with commerce and how it's transforming the B2B buying experience. Plus, don't miss out on the expansion of perspectives in the e-commerce enablement technology sector, where I discuss consulting for non-merchant clients and share my excitement for what feels like the dawn of a new era in B2B commerce.

Jason Greenwood is a major figure in the e-commerce sector and the founder of Greenwood Consulting, has been lauded as one of the top 24 e-commerce voices for 2024 by Dark Matter Commerce. With a rich background spanning over 20 years as both a merchant and a consultant, Jason's deep expertise in B2B commerce, retail tech, and trends is widely recognized. This May, his insights will reach an even broader audience as he takes the stage to speak at the B2B Online Conference in Chicago, further cementing his status as an influential thought leader in the digital commerce space. Make sure to check out Jason's The Ecommerce Edge podcast for consistent insights throughout the year.
 

In this episode:

• Jason Greenwood's expertise in B2B e-commerce evolution
• Insights from U.S. business trips and retail trends
• Digital transformation in sales processes
• Adapting legacy sales to modern online buying
• Integrating e-commerce solutions with existing business systems
• Critical B2B e-commerce platform tools and functionalities
• Content and commerce integration
• Expanding e-commerce consulting to non-merchant sectors
• Engaging with the B2B commerce community and podcast
• Reflecting on digital advancements and future B2B strategies

The Commerce Minded podcast is powered by Foster Commerce. Hosted by Foster’s Owner and CEO Stephen Callender and Director of Marketing & Business Development Elle McSharry, the show features interviews with leaders in the trenches of digital commerce who are figuring things out, experiencing triumphs, overcoming challenges, and experiencing success.

Resources:

Jason's website: https://www.greenwoodconsulting.net/

Jason's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-greenwood-digital-expert/

Jason's podcast The Ecommerce Edge on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5HbftDWo3TpYjjNYzX5imh

Speaker at the B2B Online conference in May of this year: https://b2bmarketing.wbresearch.com/speakers/jason-greenwood

Honored as an influential voice in ecommerce by Dark Matter Commerce in their Top 24 Ecommerce Voices 2024: https://www.darkmattercommerce.com/news-post/dark-matter-commerce-presents-the-top-24-ecommerce-voices-2024/

Stephen Callender on LinkedIn

Elle McSharry LinkedIn

Foster Commerce

Hello Commerce Minded friends! After a lengthy hiatus of nearly five years, we're back and better than ever. Join me, Stephen Callender and Elle McSharry from Foster Commerce as we welcome Paul Babb from Maxon to the show. Paul reveals how Maxon achieved a staggering 50% market share while maintaining that crucial human touch in client relationships.

In this episode:

• Paul’s experiences at Capital Records that led to the 3D industry
• The “Who’s That Paul” game, “Trees of Mystery”, and Starbucks around the world
• Maxon's early days, growth and market expansion
• Building community, relationships, and promoting success
• Bezos, customer satisfaction, and data
• Maxon and Nemetschek
• Strategies for marketing to creatives
• Website development challenges and future goals after Maxon
• Building successful client-company relationships

The Commerce Minded podcast is powered by Foster Commerce. Hosted by Foster’s Owner and CEO Stephen Callender and Director of Marketing & Business Development Elle McSharry, the show features interviews with leaders in the trenches of digital commerce who are figuring things out, experiencing triumphs, overcoming challenges, and experiencing success.

Resources:

Paul Babb LinkedIn

Maxon

Nemetschek

Stephen Callender on LinkedIn

Elle McSharry LinkedIn

Foster Commerce

In this final episode of his first season, instead of an interview, Stephen is reflecting on the revelations from his guests, in particular the episodes featuring Jeremy Daalder of Image Science and Lee Goldberg of Happy Cog. (If you haven’t tuned in to them already, they’re really worth a listen.)

He also talks about why he continues to be such a huge fan of Craft Commerce and his thoughts on the future of Craft Commerce.

On a side note—Stephen will be talking at the Dot All Conference, the official Craft CMS conference held in Montreal, September 18-20, 2019.

Key takeaways:

• The great things about Craft Commerce for developers
• How Craft Commerce are improving their offerings
• How CraftCMS compares to Shopify
• Why Craft should promote its agencies beyond the Craft partners’ page
• The importance of email marketing for ecommerce vendors

URLs/resources/social media links:

• devMode.fm with Andrew Welch
• Mailchimp
• Klayvio

Not everyone comes into website development through the same route. Today’s guest, Josh Angell, studied music production at university and in his final year lived with a bunch of nerds (his words) who were hacking away on HTML and coerced him into it. They taught him the fundamentals of HTML and he quickly realised with these new skills he could make websites for all of the bands he was in, including friends’ bands and other projects.

Having graduated from university with first class honours, he gave himself one week to make money out of music, but failed spectacularly. However this failure paved the way for his first proper job building websites, and from there he never looked back.

Key takeaways:

• How Josh went from being a music graduate to building websites
• What he learned working at Supercool
• How having a child affected Josh’s mental health and fast forwarded his career aspirations
• How his Marketplace for Craft rivals Etsy
• Why shipping isn’t a cut and paste feature
• Why you don’t want to leave your software in older versions

Resources:

• https://marketplace.angell.io/
• https://angell.io/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshangell/
• https://www.joshangell.co.uk/

Lee Goldberg is President at Happy Cog, an award-winning, full-service digital agency which he runs with his childhood friend, Matt Weinberg. Lee shares some golden nuggets about conversion rate optimization.

Lee and Matt were close friends since they were five. They went to elementary school together, grew up in the same town, and before they graduated high school, they had already started their business.

They tried to juggle the business with their post-graduation full-time jobs, but ultimately decided “to hell with it.” With no formal business plan, they went all out, and haven’t looked back since.

Their success has been purely organic: they realized that happy clients breed more happy clients, and they’ve been holding the same philosophy since.

Today, Happy Cog offers web development, design & branding, and digital marketing services. Tune in to hear Lee’s conversion rate optimization tips and where many businesses go wrong with their sales funnels.

Key takeaways:

• Every business and industry is different, but the fundamentals of business and marketing success are the same.
• At its core, conversion rate optimization is about removing doubt at every stage.
• It is possible to compete against the big players, but only with the right strategy.
• Content is still king and one of the best ways to reach users at the top of the funnel.
• Start by fixing the leak at the bottom of the funnel and work your way up.

Resources:

• https://www.happycog.com/

Ecommerce isn’t always glamorous. It’s hard work, and at times it can be daunting. The client relationship is something that today’s guest takes seriously, and delivering value is one of his main priorities.

Mark Dunbavan is a detail-oriented developer passionate about his builds and taking care of his clients. He believes in a flexible team structure as long as it’s effective, he wears his heart on his sleeve, and he’s proud of the work he does.

Listen to hear about one of Mark’s clients, a furniture sourcer in the UK, and the kind of site he’s built for them using Craft Commerce. Mark also shares how having his first child has changed his approach to problem solving at work and overcoming the challenges of maintaining a unique and complex site.

Key takeaways:

• How having a child has affected Mark’s approach to work and problem-solving
• As long as a team works together effectively, the other details don’t matter
• Mark’s client Viaduct, a UK furniture sourcer, has an interesting business model and unique set of needs
• Shipping, tax, and variants were the most complex problems to solve for this site
• The importance of keeping sites updated, despite the difficulties

Resources:

• http://www.markdunbavan.co.uk/

On today’s episode, our guest is Roger Glenn of Mach 1 Media out of Austin, Texas. He’s working on a Craft Commerce build for a furniture store, and we lay the groundwork for the most flexible, efficient, and future-proof way to set up the site.

We start by looking at the big picture and walk through the process and steps all the way down to the nitty gritty details of how to plan and implement the site in a way that makes sense to the client as well as to shoppers.

If you’re a developer who’s developing Craft Commerce stores, you’ll find this episode useful as we explore how to handle some of the complexities of multiple variants, SKUs, and manufacturers.

Key takeaways:

• How to deal with multiple large catalogues from separate manufacturers in the most efficient way possible
• Planning: have a discussion with the client and create a spreadsheet
• Looking at the way competitors are structured and the way people shop
• How to treat SKUs, dimensions, variations, attributes, and how to use channels
• How to make input on the back end easiest and the most logical for the administrators

Resources:

• Mach1Media.com

Stephen chats with Seb Dehesdin who came up with a clever multiple currency setup solution in Craft Commerce for his client’s designer clothing ecommerce site.

While Craft Commerce is a powerful platform offering businesses the ability to write the story for their brand with content and present it in a unique way for their niche, when it comes to some of the commerce-specific features merchants are asking for, there is still some room to see improvements.

Tune in to learn about the challenges of multi currency as Seb walks us through the setup, technical aspects, and customer experience flow of his solution.

Key takeaways:

• Seb’s solution is straightforward for users
• The backend setup is simple with a few minor drawbacks and workarounds
• One plugin currently exists to provide a similar solution for multi currency
• Once this feature is baked into Craft Commerce, it’s going to put them ahead of the pack
• The success and future of Commerce will be determined by how merchants start talking about it

Resources:

• BleepsandBlops.com
• @sebdehesdin
• Commerce Currency Prices by Kurious Agency

Dave Ritter has always been interested in the intersection between art and tech, and with over 10 years of ecommerce experience and a background in marketing and design, he has valuable insight to offer on the topic of choosing the right content management system for the job.

Working closely with clients throughout the iterative process of developing a successful ecommerce site and strategy, Dave knows the importance of design and brand when it comes to selling online.

Tune in to learn how Craft Commerce works for clients with an established business logic, how the intuitive backend makes it a breeze for clients to work with, and listen as Dave shares some advice for developers who may be working with Commerce for the first time.

Key takeaways:

• Craft gives you the ability to relate content with commerce
• Craft Commerce is great for clients who want software and technology to follow their business logic
• Most clients aren’t designers, but design really matters
• Clients are quick to pick up and learn the backend with Craft’s intuitive UI
• Ecommerce essentials and best practices--Dave offers some advice

Resources:

• RitterKnight.com

Today we take a sneak peek behind Snipcart developer Matt Stein’s curtain. Matt is a developer with a design background, who has recently developed the Snipcart plugin for Craft CMS. Matt talks about his motivation to create Snipcart when there were already two great ecommerce plugin options on the market currently - Commerce Pro and Commerce Lite, and gives us insight into where Snipcart sits between the two, and who should be using it.

Listen as I chat to Matt not just about his professional life as a developer, but how he achieves his work/life balance. We talk about:

Key takeaways:

• Why he chose to settle in Seattle rather than Boston after university.
• How Snipcart differs to Commerce Pro and Commerce Lite.
• Why, even though he’d been developing Snipcart since 2014, he only made it public recently.
• How he determined the cost of the plugin ($179).
• Why he’s a perpetual learner who just loves learning new things (and why his home sewn, manly reading pillow is a solid invention).
• What makes Columbus, Ohio so great.

URLs/resources/social media links:

Twitter: @mattrambles
Snipcart plugin: https://workingconcept.com/plugins/snipcart
Snipcart: https://snipcart.com
The Beer Junction: https://twitter.com/thebeerjunction

Ryan Masuga, the founder and Principal of Masuga Design, has more than a decade of experience growing and running his business. He has learned (sometimes the hard way) what it takes to be profitable.
Ryan takes his cues on business strategy from the school of Profit First. He advocates for sticking to your financial plan, and not reacting to the waves of disruption on a month-to-month basis.

Tune in for an insightful conversation about running your business finances, grading your clients, the three questions you should always ask when making decisions, and why hiring a project manager is a real game changer.

Key takeaways:

• Cut unnecessary expenses and having a real-time view of what you have in each account.
• Grade your clients and deciding who you jump for and who maybe aren’t really a fit.
• Project for profit sharing and charitable donations.
• Identify what only you can do and delegate other tasks to your team.

URLs/resources/social media links:

• Masuga
• Twitter @gomasuga @masuga
• LinkedIn
• Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine by Mike Michalowicz
• The Pumpkin Plan: A Simple Strategy to Grow a Remarkable Business in Any Field by Mike Michalowicz
• Louder Than Ten apprenticeship
• Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits by Greg Crabtree

Fred Carlsen has only been developing plugins since 2015, but in this time he has gone on to become one of the most prolific Craft CMS plugin developers in the business. Since the release of Craft 3, he’s come out with more than 25 plugins, with more on the way, averaging a new plugin every two weeks.

Fred joined Stephen for an open and honest discussion about creativity, time management, and setting priorities. From his desire to help others, how he conquered his fears, and how he is learning to practice self-preservation.

Tune in to hear from one of the true experts in plugin development, and hear about some of the exciting new plugins he is planning to push this year.

Key takeaways:

• Balancing time and energy as a creator
• Conquering imposter syndrome, and putting yourself out there
• Pricing your plugins in a way that values your efforts
• Refactoring a plugin to support multiple providers

URLs/resources/social media links:

• StraightUp Craft
• Superbig
• @sjelfull

Concierge Commerce is a new service — built on Craft Commerce Pro’s subscription feature — that promises to be a game changer for ecommerce retailers and vendors looking to connect by providing a one-stop platform to shop services and set up sales meetings. Founders Tae FitzSimons and Doug Hollinger have spent years working in the commerce world and discovered a common problem that required a solution: ecommerce retailers don’t know how or where to shop for the tech services they need when they need them. Likewise vendors are often not connecting with the right person at an organization, or even their ideal customer.

A big pain point for many retailers is there is no easy list or search service to find the vendors they need. With Concierge Commerce serving as the “counselor,” they are helping vendors talk about their products and services more articulately, and helping retailers learn to ask the right questions. But, like counselors, they are only facilitating the relationship - not giving advice or opinions.

Unlike most sites that create matrices with weighted arguments for one product or another, the Vendors on Concierge Commerce speak for themselves. Ultimately, Tae and Doug are building a roadmap toward a full service vendor selection platform where users can can search vendors and schedule meetings live on the site.

Tune in to learn how Concierge Commerce is about to become the ultimate matchmaker for vendors and ecommerce sites.

Key takeaways:

• Playing matchmaker between technology vendors and ecommerce retailers
• The questions you should be asking before you even think about looking for a new product or vendor
• Finding the solutions you need for your business, and not relying on reviews or popularity to make business decisions for your requirements
• Tapping into what your company does best so you can better articulate your products and services
• What you should be considering if your company is thinking about going headless

Resources:

• Concierge Commerce
• Shoptalk

Having that great relationship between developer and business is something that is often difficult to achieve, but today’s guests are an excellent example of what that looks like.

Eric Marthinsen of Built and Tracey Corbitt of Rochester Electronics discuss the unique challenges of building an ecommerce site selling over 350,000 SKUs and the company’s fascinating business model. They also each give some insightful advice at the end, so be sure to stick around for that.

Tune in to learn why Craft Commerce was the right choice for Rochester’s site build, what it means to look at sales and digital marketing from a technical perspective, and what to watch out for when rebuilding, re-platforming, or building a fresh site.

Key takeaways

• Craft Commerce saved the day for Rochester, giving them a better build but also making it affordable for them to have a custom site that fit their business needs
• They faced a unique challenge, with likely the highest number of SKUs in their system of any Craft site
• Rochester Electronics has a fascinating business model
• They take a technical approach to sales and digital marketing operations
• Eric and Tracey each give some valuable advice

Resources:

• Bui.lt
• AgileCommerce.com
• Rochester Electronics

Pixel & Tonic’s greatly anticipated release of Craft Commerce 2 — now with Pro and Lite editions — brings several improvements and new features that make it an even more powerful tool for building a customized ecommerce site.

Luke Holder is on the show to discuss some of these new features and give a few sneak peeks at what’s to come in future versions of Craft and Commerce. And if any developers are listening, Pixel & Tonic is hiring a new senior Commerce developer--accepting applications now.

Listen to learn about the differences between Commerce Pro and Lite as well as some of the use cases and additional features now available in both versions.

Key takeaways

• Craft CMS has three big announcements: Craft 3.1, Commerce 2, and the new Craft plugin store
• Commerce 2 has been released with a Pro and Lite version
• What’s on the horizon? More plugins and features in the works
• Craft is looking to hire another Commerce developer
• DotAll is in Montreal this year in September

Resources:

• CraftCMS.com
• PixelandTonic.com

How does brand identity inform your ecommerce approach and growth strategy?

For Jim Coudal of Field Notes, it’s about putting the brand first and then figuring out how to “make the ecommerce piece of it work to show the brand in its best light.” Noah Bernsohn of One Design Company joins the conversation as well to help shed some light on why Craft Commerce was the best fit for the Field Notes site.

Listen to learn how Jim’s focus and consistency around knowing the Field Notes brand identity creates a clear sense of who they are and what they’re willing to do (and not do), and how they reconcile those boundaries and limits with growth and sales.

Key takeaways

• The original audience for Field Notes were other design nerds
• Field Notes wanted something specific and unique for their site, so they chose Craft Commerce
• Field Notes puts brand first
• One Design Company also built the Craft site

Resources:

• FieldNotesBrand.com
• One Design Company

What are the unique challenges of creating a social enterprise with a subscription box model on an ecommerce platform?

For CAUSEBOX co-founder Brett McCollum it’s about providing the most value to customers while maximizing positive impact and sharing the stories of amazing brands. On the tech side of things, it’s making sure the tech is serving a purpose, which, at the end of the day, is about creating the best product experience possible.

Listen to hear the story of how CAUSEBOX got started and what it means to approach business from a perspective of not assuming anything and asking questions every step of the way.

Key takeaways

• CAUSEBOX co-founders Brett and Matt have been creating businesses together since college
• Selling a subscription service comes with a different set of challenges
• One of their major focus areas is delivering really great products that are actually giving back
• On the tech side of things, the goal is creating the best product experience for customers

Resources:

• Causebox.com

Down in the Southern Hemisphere, there’s a web developer with a penchant for building Craft plugins and a keen eye for design. Josh Crawford of Verbb talks about spending his Christmas in Tasmania, how he got into web development, and the future of Verbb and its plugins.

With a number of incredible plugins out there, Josh is not only prolific, but he really sets the bar with his attention to detail and emphasis on user experience. In the world of plugins, when organizations are relying on your work, there’s a big responsibility to the client to produce a reliable, polished product.

Listen to learn about Josh’s plugin development process, how his design background influences his style and approach to user experience, and the importance of working smartly and sustainably.

Key takeaways

• Josh is the owner and lead developer at Verbb creating incredible plugins
• A design background has influenced Josh’s plugin style and UX focus
• Pixel & Tonic have set a high standard in care, quality and attention to detail with Craft
• Work-life balance can be a struggle when you say yes to too many things

Resources:

• Verbb
• S. Group
• It Doesn’t Have to be Crazy at Work

He’s contributed some great tools to the community, including the Commerce Widgets plugin, and he’s the co-founder of Shape, a web design studio based in Manchester, United Kingdom.

Jason Mayo joins Stephen to chat about Commerce 2’s new subscription feature, the implications of plugins that come out of projects, and the importance of prioritizing physical activity for health.

Listen to hear what Jason has learned using subscriptions in Commerce 2 and how the data provided by the Commerce Widgets plugin is helpful for both clients and agencies in understanding and shaping the ecommerce process flow.

Key takeaways

• Cycling to work is Jason’s way of staying physically fit and boosting mentality, especially during stressful or high volume work times
• Jason met co-founder Andy at university, and they have been working together at Shape eight years
• The Commerce Widgets plugin tracks stats and conversions, providing useful data
• There’s a bit of a learning curve with Commerce 2’s new subscription feature

Resources:

• Shape

What’s the deal with GDPR and what does it mean for how ecommerce sites handle abandoned cart emails? Craft Commerce developer Pete Eveleigh, technical director of Moresoda, shares some valuable insights on the topic.

It’s a fun conversation, and Pete talks about some of the amazing work and Craft Commerce builds Moresoda is currently doing and a few exciting things in the works.

Listen to learn how the flexibility, simplicity, and intuitiveness of Craft Commerce makes it great for both clients and developers to work with it, and why GDPR compliance isn’t quite as complicated as it sounds if you’re upfront and honest on your site and in your communication.

Key takeaways

• Craft Commerce ticks all of the boxes for Pete and Moresoda because it’s flexible, intuitive, and simple--yet incredibly powerful
• Working with Craft Commerce is a great experience for both developers and clients
• GDPR compliance and abandoned cart emails don’t have to be super complicated--as long as you’re honest and upfront with your customers

Resources:

• Moresoda
• Climate Action Hub
• Tileflair
• http://twitter.com/foamcow