Explore every episode of the podcast Retention Chronicles

In this episode of Retention Chronicles, Brynn Snyder, CEO and Co-Founder of Slate Flosser, joins Mariah Parsons, Host of Retention Chronicles and Head of Marketing at Malomo, to discuss her journey from a multi-business entrepreneur to developing a groundbreaking three-in-one flosser. Snyder shares insights into her life as a mother of five, her entrepreneurial roots, and how personal experiences in her husband's dental practice inspired the creation of Slate. The conversation covers the intricate processes behind product development, the challenges and costs associated with launching a high-quality product, and the crucial role of feedback from dental professionals. Snyder emphasizes the importance of education in marketing, the effectiveness of different acquisition channels like Meta and Google ads, and the nuanced strategies for retaining customers through email, SMS, and subscription models. She also highlights the significance of key support systems such as female founder networks and advisory boards in navigating business challenges. As the episode wraps up, Snyder discusses Slate's marketing strategies around habit-building and the limited sales events, providing listeners with a special discount code (MARIAH10) for aspiring buyers.

SLATE FLOSSER DISCOUNT CODE: MARIAH10

Episode Timestamps:

00:15 Meet Bryn Snyder: CEO and Co-Founder of Slate Flosser

00:47 Inspiring the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs

02:38 The Journey to Founding Slate

04:30 Innovating Oral Health: The Slate Product

14:51 Challenges and Triumphs in Product Development

20:28 Educating Dentists and Consumers

21:16 Finding Initial Testers

22:58 Kickstarter Insights

24:36 Marketing Strategies

28:41 Retention Marketing

33:56 Holiday Gifting Potential

36:44 Networking and Problem Solving

38:42 Promotions and New Year Resolutions

39:46 Conclusion and Discount Code

Jesse Clemmens, Co-Founder & CEO of HiTide, a Shopify solution for growing email and SMS lists through direct message automation. Jesse shares HiTide's journey from helping creators manage messages to focusing on Shopify brands, emphasizing the importance of bridging social media engagement with direct messaging for retention. He highlights that 60% of social followers engaging with posts are not yet subscribed to email or SMS lists, presenting a significant untapped market. Jesse also discusses best practices for direct messaging, emphasizing the need for timely, personalized communication to avoid spam and enhance customer relationships.

Episode Timestamps: 

• 1:51 Jesse's Background and HiTide's Origin

• Jesse introduces himself as one of the co-founders of High Tide, a solution for Shopify brands to grow their email and SMS lists.

• He explains that High Tide focuses on direct message automation, bridging the gap between social and brand-owned channels.

• Jesse shares his background, including his experience at Meta and Google, and the initial idea of helping creators organize messages.

• He describes the pivot from the Creator space to the Shopify ecosystem, emphasizing the success of their current platform.

• 8:00 The Role of Social Media in Retention

• Mariah and Jesse discuss the importance of social media in the Shopify ecosystem and the challenges of managing inboxes.

• Jesse explains the inconsistent reach of social media and the value of direct messages in reaching consumers.

• He highlights the potential of SMS as a personal and professional communication channel, with consumers signed up to fewer brand text lists.

• Jesse shares insights on the high conversion rates of SMS opt-ins and the importance of measuring the value of subscribers.

• 13:12 Best Practices for SMS and Email Marketing

• Jesse outlines the best practices for SMS and email marketing, including the importance of welcome automations and event-specific campaigns.

• He emphasizes the need for brands to understand the value of individual subscribers and measure the success of new channels.

• Jesse discusses the importance of having a well-tested program for both welcome automations and event-specific campaigns.

• He highlights the role of SMS platforms in optimizing messages and the importance of measuring the output of new channels.

• 21:07 Segmentation and Retention Strategies

• Mariah and Jesse discuss the importance of segmenting customers based on their engagement and purchase history.

• Jesse explains how High Tide helps brands fill out customer profiles and send targeted messages based on engagement data.

• He highlights the potential of re-engaging customers who have previously opted out of SMS or email lists.

• Jesse shares insights on the untapped potential of social followings and the importance of capturing serendipitous interactions.

• 30:40 Leveraging Social Media for Retention

• Mariah and Jesse discuss the potential of social media for retention, emphasizing the importance of timing and engagement.

• Jesse shares examples of how brands can use social media to alert customers about product availability and sales.

• He highlights the importance of capturing moments of engagement, such as comments and tags, to build long-lasting impressions.

• Jesse emphasizes the role of direct messages in building trust and winning lifelong customers.

• 41:29 Best Practices for Direct Messaging

• Jesse provides an overview of the best practices for direct messaging on social media platforms.

• He explains the importance of reactive messaging and the rules set by Meta to avoid spam.

• Jesse highlights the potential of direct messages to convert social followers into subscribers and the importance of following specific rules.

• He emphasizes the role of High Tide in keeping accounts safe and ensuring compliance with Meta's guidelines.

Mariah Parsons, Host of Retention Chronicles and Head of Marketing at Malomo is joined by Alyssa (Lissy) Kotter, the Founder and CEO of Lissy Skincare, a brand specializing in acne and fungal acne-safe skincare products. Lissy shares her background as an esthetician and her struggles with acne, which led her to create a line of products that cleared her skin. The brand's flagship product, the Mandelic serum, launched in 2022 and has been highly effective. Lissy discusses the challenges of developing fungal acne-safe products, the importance of customer experience, and the role of TikTok in driving sales and customer retention. She also hints at an upcoming moisturizer launch and plans for Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions.

Episode Timestamps

• 1:48 Lissy's Background and Skincare Brand

• Lissy introduces herself as the founder of Lissy Skincare, a brand focused on acne and fungal acne-safe skincare.

• Lissy explains the brand's mission to create products that are safe for acne-prone skin, pregnancy, and breastfeeding.

• Mariah asks Lissy to explain the difference between typical acne and fungal acne.

• Lissy describes typical acne as lesions that come to a head and heal, while fungal acne is an overgrowth of yeast on the skin that looks like flesh-colored bumps and does not react to typical acne treatments.

• 21:55 Lissy's Journey to Founding Lissy Skincare

• Lissy shares her background as an esthetician and her struggles with acne since middle school.

• Lissy discusses her decision to attend esthetician school to learn how to clear up her own acne and help others.

• Despite her training and using various skincare products and treatments, Lissy's acne persisted, leading to a teacher's concern about her job prospects.

• Lissy's research into fungal acne triggers and her frustration with finding fungal acne-safe products inspired her to create her own skincare line.

• 22:11 Product Development and Launch

• Lissy describes the process of developing Lissy Skincare products, starting with the Mandelic serum.

• The Mandelic serum cleared Lissy's acne and fungal acne within days, leading to the brand's launch in 2022.

• Lissy explains the importance of ensuring all products are fungal acne-safe and safe for pregnancy.

• The brand has since added three more products: a Hydrating Serum, a Vitamin C serum, and a cleanser, all of which are fungal acne-safe.

• 22:27 Customer Experience and Retention Strategies

• Mariah and Lissy discuss the importance of customer experience and retention in e-commerce.

• Lissy acknowledges the need to improve customer experience and mentions her team's efforts to provide excellent customer service.

• Lissy highlights the role of TikTok in driving sales and the challenges of not having customer emails from TikTok shop.

• The brand uses email flows, social media, and a subscription model to retain customers and encourage repeat purchases.

• 22:46 TikTok Strategy and Paid Advertising

• Lissy shares the success of TikTok shop in driving viral videos and sales for Lissy Skincare.

• Despite the saturation of TikTok shop, Lissy continues to post videos and engage with customers on the platform.

• The brand has recently started experimenting with paid advertising on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok to diversify its marketing efforts.

• Lissy emphasizes the importance of video content for selling products and sharing customer testimonials.

• 40:08 Future Plans and Final Thoughts

• Lissy teases the upcoming launch of a moisturizer on October 24, which has been in development for almost a year.

• The moisturizer is a significant product for the brand, as it is challenging to find fungal acne-safe moisturizers.

• Lissy mentions plans for Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals to attract more customers.

• Mariah wraps up the episode by congratulating Lissy on her upcoming launch and thanking her for sharing her journey and insights.

Mariah Parsons recaps the ShopTalk Fall conference in Chicago 2024, highlighting key takeaways and experiences. The conference spanned three days, with Thursday being the busiest due to the main concert by Busta Rhymes. Key themes included the importance of in-person engagement post-pandemic, the role of AI in enhancing consumer experiences, and the growing trend of duping products. Notable sessions featured insights from industry leaders like ThredUp, Lowe's, and Winky Lux. Mariah Parsons also emphasized the value of live selling, the need for brand compliance with FTC regulations, and the innovative use of tech in retail. She concluded by sharing her excitement about new products and brands discovered at the event.

Episode Timestamps:

• 0:05 Recap of ShopTalk Fall Conference

• Mariah announces this episode will be a solo recap of the ShopTalk Fall conference in Chicago.

• She highlights the excitement around the first fall conference and her recent move to Chicago.

•  4:29 Overview of ShopTalk Fall Conference Structure

• She notes the busiest day was Thursday due to the all-conference concert by Busta Rhymes.

• The conference had a main stage, showroom floor with sponsor booths, and multiple content session rooms.

• Attendees could choose from various sessions, and there were breaks for networking and wellness activities.

• 4:48 Networking and Meeting New People

• Mariah emphasizes the opportunity to meet many people in a short time at the conference

• Mariah appreciates the caliber of people brought together by ShopTalk.

• 15:23 Content Sessions and Key Takeaways

• Mariah discusses the various content sessions she attended, featuring leaders from companies like Thredup, Farm Rio, CrunchyRoll, Studs, Winky Lux, Kendra Scott, Hard Candy, Malbon Golf, David Yurman, Pandora, Tonies, Vera Bradley, Skims, Zumiez and more.

• She highlights the theme of activities drawing conference goers and customers alike.

• The core pickleball court and Dot Digital's friendship bracelet and trucker hat booths were popular activities.

• Lowe's keynote on in-person events and ThredUp's use of AI for image search and styling were notable takeaways.

• 15:23 Consumer Engagement and Retail Innovations

• Mariah talks about the importance of asking consumers for their opinions, as seen with GE Appliances.

• She mentions Winky Lux's strategy of offering free lip gloss for customer feedback.

• Retailers enabling tech in stores, like Ulta Beauty's skin analysis and robot application of lashes, were highlighted.

• The concept of "dupe shopping" and the development of dupe score technology were discussed.

• 21:45 Tech Innovations and Future Trends

• Mariah mentions the trend of reselling and trading old items, with examples from ThredUp and TipTap.

• Live selling, especially in Asia, was discussed as a potential future trend in the US.

• The importance of staying updated with Federal Trade Commission regulations was emphasized.Mariah plans to have a detailed conversation with Kae Majmundar from Sway Tech on this topic.

• 25:43 Fun Elements and Experiences at ShopTalk

• Mariah appreciates the themed elements of the conference, such as the Mission Possible theme and live band transitions.

• She highlights the all-women keynote panel and the women-only happy hour before the Busta Rhymes concert.

• The shopping experience at the Vault, featuring both up-and-coming and established brands, was a favorite part of the conference.

• Mariah shares her excitement about discovering new brands and meeting their founders.

• 31:09 Product Discoveries and Favorites

• Mariah lists various products she discovered at the conference, including Fun Fact Co.'s Would You Rather game and Royce Chocolates.

• She mentions Devine's hair and body wash, mini Mac room's nail stickers, and Elf's Power Grip Primer and Lip Oil.

• Other products included Erzo Laszlo's deep cleansing bar, Char Charms' tumbler and straws, and Tangle Teezer's hair brush, and more

• Mariah expresses her excitement to try out these products, especially during the holiday season.

Mariah Parsons, Host of Retention Chronicles and Head of Marketing at Malomo hosts Aneto Okonkwo, Co-Founder & CEO of Remarkable AI,  an AI growth marketer for consumer brands. Aneto discusses the importance of marketing, particularly in scaling new companies, and shares insights on customer retention strategies. He highlights the effectiveness of personalized email campaigns, which can yield 50-100 times return on investment per recipient. Aneto also emphasizes the value of engaging with customers on social media and leveraging influencer marketing. Additionally, he stresses the significance of addressing customer issues promptly to enhance brand loyalty and retention. 

Episode Timestamps:

• 3:06 Challenges of Starting a New Company

• 3:55 Importance of Marketing and Customer Engagement

• 6:18 Remarkable AI's Services and Customer Engagement

• 7:14 Data Analysis and Customer Insights

• 10:25 Social Media and Community Engagement

• 14:39 Influencer Marketing and Product Seeding

• 18:34 Email Marketing and Retention Strategies

• 20:17 Expanding LTV and Cross-Selling

20:43 Seasonal Strategies and Customer Support

Mariah Parsons, Host of Retention Chronicles & Head of Marketing at Malomo, is joined by Kes Nielson, a branding expert and Founder of BRAAAND. They discuss the importance of branding in e-commerce. Kes emphasizes that branding extends beyond logos and color palettes, focusing on creating emotional connections with customers to drive long-term loyalty and revenue. She highlights that effective branding can increase revenue by 20-23% and improve customer retention. Kes also discusses the significance of branding in societal issues, citing a campaign for Fight Against Domestic Violence (FADV) that aims to raise awareness and empower victims. She stresses the importance of uniqueness and intentionality in branding strategies.

Episode Timestamps:

• 2:24 Kess's Background and Branding Philosophy

• 5:25 The Importance of Branding in Customer Experience

• 8:24 Challenges and Opportunities in Branding

• 8:39 The Role of Emotional Intelligence in Branding

• 37:08 The Impact of Branding on Societal Issues

• 43:39 Collaborations and Partnerships

• 48:19 The Future of Branding in Ecommerce

Ross Martin, President of Known Agency and General Partner of Lunch Partners, joins Mariah Parsons, Host of Retention Chronicles and Head of Marketing at Malomo, to discuss his journey in marketing. Known, an integrated agency ranked third by Ad Age combines research, creativity, and innovation, working with clients like Shake Shack and TikTok. Ross highlighted their unique approach, such as using AI to identify relevant Reddit conversations for Shake Shack. He also shared insights from Lunch Partners, emphasizing the importance of resilience and heart in founders. Ross praised Mikmak for connecting legacy brands with social commerce, showcasing the power of AI and consumer intelligence in driving business outcomes.

Episode Timestamp:

• 1:56 Ross Martin's Background and Early Career

• 5:55 Marketing Insights and Innovative Strategies

• 6:41 Known Agency's Origins and Capabilities

• 24:26 Challenges and Opportunities in the Agency World

• 26:06 Lunch Partners Venture Fund

• 31:20 Investment Thesis and Founder Traits

• 36:43 Innovative Campaigns and Collaborations

• 41:15 Ecommerce Innovations and Future Opportunities

Ted Galperin, Partner and Head of Retail at Mythology, and Mariah Parsons, Host of Retention Chronicles & Head of Marketing at Malomo, discuss crafting immersive design. Ted’s work on the American Girl store in Dallas emphasizes the challenge of fitting a large experience into a 5,000-square-foot space. Key elements include a life-size dollhouse, a premium salon, and a cafe with a doll-sized door. Galperin also highlighted the importance of nostalgia in modern retail, citing examples like Vacation Sunscreen and Olipop. He shared insights on Warby Parker's retail strategy, focusing on creating a library-like atmosphere to enhance the customer experience. Additionally, he discussed the Sonos store in Soho, which used sound-attenuated pods to showcase the product's audio quality effectively.

Episode Timestamps:

• 2:28: American Girl Store Project Overview

• 10:24: Nostalgia in Retail and Market Trends

• 19:06: Mythology's Multifaceted Approach

• 22:25: Warby Parker's Retail Experience

• 32:29: Sonos Retail Store Innovation

• 36:30: Balancing New and Returning Customers

  40:17: Retail as Marketing and Awareness Tool

Mariah Parsons, Host of Retention Chronicles and Head of Marketing at Malomo, is joined by SeaMonster Studios’ Wes Buckwalter, Creative Director and CEO, and Deneb Pulsipher, Web Developer and Accessibility Specialist. Wes shares the company's origins and evolution into a full-service agency offering branding, graphic design, and compliance. Deneb, previously a high school English teacher, transitioned into web development, focusing on accessibility for ecommerce brands. They discuss the importance of WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) and ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliance, emphasizing the need for accessible websites to retain customers and avoid lawsuits. They highlight common issues like alternative text for images and text in images, and the benefits of compliance for SEO and user experience.

Episode Timestamps: 

• 4:57 SeaMonster Studios background and evolution into web compliance and accessibility experts

• 25:33 Sea Monster Studios' Expertise and Offerings With Branding and Web Compliance

• 25:58 Challenges and Benefits of Accessibility

• 31:31 Practical Considerations for Accessibility

  43:52 Common Accessibility Issues and Solutions For Ecommerce Brands

Mariah Parsons, Head of Marketing at Malomo and Host of Retention Chronicles, and Jen Gray, SVP of Marketing at Recharge, discuss the importance of subscriptions in the Shopify ecosystem. Jen, who transitioned from big tech to Recharge, emphasizes the value of subscriptions in powering consumer routines and driving predictable revenue. They highlight the shift from a goods and services economy to a routine economy, where DTC brands focus on embedding products into daily lives. Jen shares insights on product diversification, such as Casper's transition to a sleep company, and the importance of product positioning and consumer behavior. They also discuss the benefits of subscriptions, including higher customer lifetime value (LTV) and the need for personalized, flexible subscription plans. Recharge is launching the Tomorrow Brand Challenge to support subscription growth, offering $1 million in prizes to three winners.

• 2:06 Jen Gray's Background and Initial Impressions of Working in Ecommerce

• 3:40 Core Beliefs and Consumer Behavior for Ecommerce Brands

• 5:55 Transition from Big Tech to E-Commerce

• 8:18 Product Diversification and Positioning for Subscription Brands

• 20:55 Subscriptions and Consumer Routines Are The New Economy

• 30:44 Best Practices for Subscription Success

• 37:16 The Routine Economy and Consumer Behavior

• 41:29 Recharge’s Tomorrow Brand Challenge

Chris Miller, Co-Founder & CRO of Flaunt Loyalty, and Mariah Parsons, Host of Retention Chronicles & Head of Marketing at Malomo, discuss the importance of dynamic loyalty programs for Shopify merchants. Chris highlights Flaunt Loyalty's unique service & software model, which includes designing, implementing, and managing loyalty programs to grow LTV and profits. They emphasize the need for ongoing optimization and strategic alignment with marketing campaigns. Chris shares examples like Barefaced's Mother's Day campaign, which integrated loyalty rewards into existing promotions. They also explore the balance between subscription perks and loyalty programs, stressing the importance of personalized rewards and gamification elements like badges and leaderboards to enhance customer engagement and retention.

Episode Timestamps:

• 2:49 Introduction of Chris Miller and Flaunt Loyalty

• 4:30 Bandwidth and Expertise in Loyalty Programs

• 10:49 Benefits of Dynamic Loyalty Programs

• 13:39 Case Study: Barefaced Loyalty Program

• 23:11 Subscriber vs. Non-Subscriber Loyalty Programs

• 26:24 Gamification in Loyalty Programs

• 43:52 Examples of Effective Loyalty Programs

• 44:07 Resources and Further Learning

Maria Hatzistefanis, CEO and Founder of Rodial, discussed her journey from beauty writing in Greece to launching her skincare brand (Rodial) with Host of Retention Chronicles, Mariah Parsons. Maria highlighted the importance of unique ingredients and targeted treatments, such as Rodial’s Snake Serum and Dragon's Blood hyaluronic acid, to stand out on shelves. Rodial's success includes availability in 35 countries and 3,000 luxury stores. Hatzistefanis emphasized the role of influencers in customer acquisition and the strategic use of paid media, particularly on Instagram and Meta. She also shared her experiences with filming on Dragon's Den and her motivational books, which aim to inspire entrepreneurs.

Episode Timestamps:

• 2:25 Maria Hatzistefanis’ Background and Career Journey

• 4:05 Inspiration from Editorial Background

• 8:22 Founding Rodial and Market Gap

• 21:13 Product Development and Market Strategy

• 28:03 Influencer Marketing and Customer Acquisition

• 36:14 Paid Media Strategy and ROI

• 43:02 Thought Leadership and Personal Projects

47:10 Final Thoughts and Closing Remarks

Mariah Parsons, Head of Marketing at Malomo and Host of Retention Chronicles and Noah Tucker, Founder & CEO of Social Snowball, discuss the evolution of affiliate marketing and its impact on e-commerce. Social Snowball, with 2,200 merchants, focuses on influencer and micro-influencer partnerships, addressing the shortcomings of legacy affiliate platforms. They highlight the importance of clear communication and incentive structures, particularly during high-traffic periods like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Noah emphasizes the need for influencers to frequently post branded content to ensure audience conversion. They also touch on the dynamic of the e-commerce influencer B2B community, noting its high school-like nature but overall supportive nature.

Episode Timestamps:

• 2:49 Noah Tucker’s Background and Entrepreneurial Journey to Starting Social Snowball

• 3:06 Challenges and Solutions in Affiliate Marketing

• 26:32 Affiliate Program Best Practices for Black Friday and Cyber Monday

• 32:35 Finding and Evaluating Influencers as a Shopify Brand

40:50 B2B Ecommerce Influencer Community and Social Media Presence

Mariah Parsons, Host of Retention Chronicles Podcast & Head of Marketing at Malomo, and Kit Henseleit, Global Operations Manager at Custom Neon, Founder at Clouding Over, discussed the unique challenges and opportunities of operating in the signage industry and the differences between B2B and B2C marketing. They emphasized the importance of creativity, flexibility, and building strong relationships with clients to deliver customized solutions. They also discussed the challenges of expanding a business globally and shared strategies for retaining customers in the hospitality industry. Additionally, they shared their experiences in scaling a custom neon sign business while balancing customer expectations and business growth, highlighting the importance of setting clear expectations and providing proactive communication.

Episode Timestamps:

• 0:05 Custom neon signage branding and e-commerce experiences with a global operations manager from Australia

• 5:19 Custom neon sign business, challenges, and best practices

• 12:23 Challenges faced while expanding a neon sign business globally, including cultural differences and customer expectations

• 19:45 Custom neon sign production and customer expectations

• 25:49 Custom neon signs for various events and campaigns, including a collaboration with Coach

•  30:41 Customer retention and repeat orders for custom products

38:02 Customer retention strategies and Black Friday planning

Mariah Parsons, Host of Retention Chronicles & Head of Marketing at Malomo, and Lindsay Baylor, Senior Director of Customer Care & DEIB at Kendra Scott, discussed the importance of leveraging technology and diversity initiatives to improve customer service at Kendra Scott. They emphasized the value of creating an online experience that is easy for new customers to adapt to, and the need for a comprehensive view of the customer journey. Mariah Parsons and Lyndsay Baylor also discussed the importance of integrating customer data from various sources to create personalized experiences, and the challenges of connecting data from online and in-store interactions. Finally, Mariah Parsons and Lyndsay Baylor discussed the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the fashion and jewelry industries, and the need for brands to be intentional and authentic in their approach to diversity and inclusion.

Episode Timestamps:

• 0:05 Adapting to pandemic-era customer needs at Kendra Scott, prioritizing omnichannel experiences

• 8:48 Tying customer data across multiple channels for improved brand experience

• 13:44 Using technology to improve customer service

• 19:39 Implementing chatbot technology and improving customer experience

• 26:19 Personalizing customer experiences through social media engagement

• 30:35 Diversity, inclusion, and representation in marketing and customer service

• 35:25 Internal and external perspectives on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the jewelry industry

39:53 Customer inclusivity and diversity in product development

Mariah Parsons, Host of Retention Chronicles, and Bob Verlaat, Co-Founder of Dore & Rose and Hears, discussed their experiences launching and scaling e-commerce brands, emphasizing the importance of having a clear vision, solid business plan, and strong support system. Mariah highlighted the value of taking calculated risks and learning from failures, while Bob stressed the need to maintain quality and customer satisfaction as the brand scales. Bob added their perspective on launching multiple brands and incorporating user-generated content in advertising. The group discussed factors to consider when launching a product, the role of artists and influencers, approaches to launching and retaining customers, and the challenges they faced in a saturated market. They emphasized the importance of problem-solving, educating consumers, providing a seamless customer experience, and scaling while maintaining passion and caring attitude.

Episode Timestamp:

• 5:55 Launching two e-commerce brands, Doreen Rose and Here's, with different approaches and industries

• 13:12 Brand collaborations and launch strategies

• 16:44 Launching a new brand in a saturated market with limited attention span

• 23:23 Using user-generated content (UGC) in ads for authenticity and engagement

• 27:29 Educating customers through product development and customer experience

• 34:17 Scaling customer service and technology for two e-commerce brands

Mariah Parsons, Head of Marketing at Malomo and Host, and Lisa Oberst, Founder of Womads, discussed the importance of sustainability and comfort in footwear design, particularly for women. They emphasized the need for quality control and good relationships with manufacturers. They also discussed various challenges and opportunities in the e-commerce industry, including networking, technology integration, and customer experience. They highlighted the significance of optimizing transactional emails for customer engagement and creating personalized customer experiences. Mariah and Lisa stressed the importance of building relationships with other entrepreneurs and marketing agency directors, and simplifying the reverse logistics process to foster long-term relationships.

Episode Timestamps

• 0:05 E-commerce brand Womads and its founder Lisa, with a focus on versatile and comfortable accessories for women

• 4:11 Shoe design and development, focusing on flexibility and comfort

• 11:04 Shoe design, manufacturing, and partnerships in Colombia

• 17:36 Entrepreneurship, manufacturing, and quality control

• 22:31 Launching a shoe brand, marketing strategies, and tech tools used for e-commerce and customer management

•  28:26 Simplifying reverse logistics for e-commerce businesses

• 32:08 Customer experience and e-commerce strategies for a women's shoe brand

• 35:56 Post-purchase experience and tech stack for a fashion brand

  41:47 Email and SMS marketing strategies for e-commerce brands

Mariah Parsons, HOM at Malomo and Host of Retention Chronicles, and Madison Lee, Co-Founder & CEO of Nemah, discussed the challenges and opportunities of transitioning from a talent agency to a e-commerce brand. Mariah and Madison explored the importance of personal branding, consumer insights, and technology in developing a private label. They emphasized the need for brands to prioritize customer experience, retention, and the delicate balance between automation and human touch in e-commerce. Mariah Parsons and Madison Lee also discussed the challenges of founding a vegan skincare brand for moms and babies, scaling a DTC skincare brand while maintaining customer trust, and educating and supporting parents through science-backed content.

• 4:38 Founding a vegan skincare brand for moms and babies

• 10:30 Branding and consumer insights for a clean skincare line

• 15:54 Scaling a DTC skincare brand for pregnant and postpartum women, focusing on customer experience and trust-building

• 22:54 Using consumer insights to inform educational content and product development for parents

• 26:59 Creating a clean beauty brand with a focus on community and science

• 31:31 Post-purchase customer experience and its importance for e-commerce brands

36:57 Customer experience and retention in e-commerce

This conversation is centered around email and SMS deliverability in e-commerce, with a focus on understanding technical aspects and predictability of email marketing results. Mariah Parsons. Head of Marketing at Malomo & Host of Retention Chronicles, and Nikita Vakhrushev, Founder of ASPEKT agency, shared their experiences with email marketing and discussed challenges such as recent deliverability rule changes and the importance of conducting audits to identify issues. Nikita added his experience in setting up deliverability audits and emphasized the need for proper technical setup and segmentation of email lists. The group emphasized the importance of prioritizing email deliverability, especially during peak seasons in ecommerce like Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM).

Episode Timestamps:

• 5:51 Email marketing strategies and deliverability issues

• 11:28 Email deliverability audit process using Klaviyo

• 16:07 Email deliverability and segmentation strategies for improved open rates

• 22:00 Email deliverability and marketing vs. transactional emails

• 26:32 Email deliverability and technical setup for e-commerce businesses

Mariah Parsons and Rachel discussed the importance of prioritizing customer experience and tailored marketing strategies to grow e-commerce brands. They emphasized the significance of celebrating milestones, launching new collections, and understanding the target audience to create effective marketing strategies. Later, Mariah and Rachel discussed digital marketing strategies, including social media marketing, influencer marketing, and the ethical implications of using AI-generated content in fashion marketing. They also explored the challenges of the apparel industry, including returns and exchanges, and the need to balance profit margins with offering lower prices to attract more customers.

Episode Timestamps:

• 0:05 E-commerce brand growth and marketing strategies with Ivy City Co

• 3:24 Marketing strategies and roles within a company

• 9:33 Using AI in photo shoots for fashion brand, balancing efficiency with human connection

• 16:36 PR and social media strategies for a fashion brand

• 21:31 Leveraging Instagram and TikTok for a clothing brand, with a focus on content strategy and audience engagement

• 25:07 Social media presence and trustworthiness

• 30:51 Marketing strategies and customer experience for a fashion brand

• 37:33 Apparel industry returns and exchanges, with strategies to reduce them

41:50 Reducing returns in retail with a focus on product pricing and marketing

Mariah Parsons, Head of Marketing at Malomo and host of Retention Chronicles, and Zoe Khan, VP of Retention at Audien Hearing, Founder of Inevitable Agency, and host of Let’s Laugh About It Podcast, discuss the importance of prioritizing customer satisfaction and loyalty in the E-commerce industry. Zoe shared her experience in the over-the-counter hearing aid industry, highlighting the challenges and rewards of helping people change their lives through hearing aids. Mariah emphasized the significance of customer experience in any position or business, while Zoe discussed the importance of hiring the right people for customer experience roles and setting up teams for success. Later, Mariah and Zoe discussed the importance of aligning marketing and customer service to create a seamless customer experience. They also discussed the value of building genuine connections and community in the E-commerce industry, and the importance of effective communication in retaining unhappy customers.

Episode Timestamps:

• 0:05 E-commerce customer experience with Zoe Khan, VP of Retention at Audien Hearing and Founder of Inevitable Agency.

• 4:29 Time flying by in business growth.

• 10:13 Building an E-commerce community through genuine connections and learning.

• 16:11 Building an agency without pressure to sell.

• 20:42 Customer experience and its impact on retention.

• 27:06 Email marketing and customer support balance.

• 32:47 The importance of collaboration between marketing and customer experience teams. 

Mariah Parsons and Savannah Benson, VP of Customer Experience at Mixhers, discussed the evolution of customer experience strategy in e-commerce, emphasizing the importance of proactive planning, managing customer expectations, and over-communication. They also highlighted prioritizing customer needs in cross-functional meetings and creating a positive experience through rebranding and product quality. Additionally, they discussed the importance of understanding consumer behavior and preferences to innovate and stay relevant in the DTC ecommerce space, and prioritizing customer needs when solving problems and gathering customer insights.

Episode Timestamps:

• 0:05 Customer experience and consumer insights with a mix of numbers and creativity

• 5:24 Marketing and customer experience strategies for a growing company

• 11:55 Prioritizing customer needs and solving problems through industry insights and customer feedback

• 19:57 Customer feedback and insights for a growing mixer brand

• 29:42 Using customer data to predict purchases and improve brand experience

  33:39 Product returns and exchanges in the supplement industry

  39:35 Mixhers, a supplement brand, and their subscription program

Mariah Parsons and Matt Froehlich discussed the importance of networking and connection-building in the e-commerce industry, sharing their experiences from attending conferences like Shop Talk and The Whalies. They emphasized the value of meeting people outside of their normal networks and highlighted differences between events in terms of size, scope, engagement, and connection-making opportunities. They also discussed the latest trends and challenges in digital marketing, including adapting to new technologies, reevaluating a brand's tech stack, navigating brand-agency relationships, and understanding the evolving nature of social media platforms like TikTok. Finally, they discussed optimizing ad performance and financials in the industry, emphasizing the importance of planning ahead, analyzing past data, and employing efficient advertising strategies to ensure maximum ROI.

Episode Timestamps:

• 4:18 Using physical business cards vs virtual ones at conferences

• 10:05 Career path from radio to marketing agency

• 13:53 Improving marketing efficiency through tech stack optimization and financial transparency

• 18:36 Planning and optimization for peak season, focusing on efficiency and list growth

• 22:56 Evaluating and optimizing marketing technology stacks

•  26:13 New updates and trends in Shopify marketing, including Meta and Clayvo

• 31:23 Social media platforms, including TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram, and their evolving features and pressures

• 36:52 Marketing strategies for e-commerce brands on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram

Mariah Parsons and Yaw Aning discussed the importance of creating a seamless post-purchase experience for e-commerce merchants. They emphasized the need to align the experience with the brand's strategy and goals, educate customers about the brand, and set goals based on the strategy. Both speakers highlighted the importance of keeping customers updated and mapping out the customer journey to build trust and transparency.

Episode Timestamps:

• 0:05⁠ Post-purchase experience optimization for e-commerce businesses

  • Expert CEO shares 10 post-purchase lessons from 5000 Shopify brands.

  • Yaw Aning advises merchants to understand their post-purchase default settings.

• 3:55 Post-purchase experiences, brand strategy, and metrics for success

  • Understand your brand strategy to choose the right post-purchase platform.

  • Consumers prefer post-purchase experiences that educate and build the brand.

  • Develop goals based on strategy to create a cohesive experience.

• 10:13 Post-purchase experience optimization for e-commerce merchants

  • Yaw Aning suggests partnering with an agency to optimize post-purchase experience.

  • Yaw Aning: Key moments in customer journey build trust, transparency.

  • Mongoose's proactive communication best practices defuse frustration, build trust.

  • Yaw Aning highlights Soylent's post-purchase strategy, segmenting customers based on their journey stage and providing tailored content and CTAs.

  • Mobile-first design is crucial for tracking experiences, as 83% of views occur on mobile devices, and customers are often interrupted during on-the-go activities.

Mariah Parsons and Rachel Nilsson, Founder of RAGS, discussed Rachel’s experience in building her e-commerce business, emphasizing the importance of perseverance, creativity, and customer satisfaction. 

Rachel shared her journey, including managing demand, partnering with large companies like Nordstrom and Disney, and navigating the unpredictable journey of entrepreneurship. 

They also discussed the pros and cons of implementing limited edition models to increase FOMO marketing and getting creative with inventory sales.

After Rachel’s premiere on Shark Tank, she navigated through having to deal with copycats but ultimately refocusing on doing their own thing and doing it well.

This podcast is sponsored by Malomo, a leading shipment and order tracking platform for Shopify and Shopify Plus ecommerce brands. 

To see what your personalized mockup of branded order tracking and transactional email/SMS would look like, fill out this form & we’ll send your free design right to your inbox!

Episode Timestamps

• 4:37 Starting a clothing line from scratch, growing through social media and Shark Tank appearance

• 9:56 Limited edition drops, FOMO marketing, and serving customers

• 17:32 Limited edition products, inventory management, and consumer behavior

• 24:45 Challenges and successes of limited edition clothing model, with a focus on founder's personal experience and lessons learned

• 29:38 Entrepreneurship, success, and surrounding oneself with a supportive community

  33:04 Entrepreneurship, innovation, and dealing with copycats

Mariah Parsons and Jonathan Penna, Co-Founder of ORBYT Skin & Azio Beauty, discussed their experiences navigating the challenges of e-commerce during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jonathan shared his journey of transitioning from a bakery to an e-commerce business, highlighting the challenges of scaling an operation during a global health crisis. 

Mariah provided context and asked questions to delve deeper into the topic, exploring the impact of COVID-19 on the e-commerce industry and the strategies for adapting to the new normal. Later, Mariah and Jonathan discussed various strategies for building successful subscription-based businesses, including personalization, direct-to-consumer marketing, and optimizing subscription retention and growth. 

Jonathan shared their experience with onboarding AI-powered customer support tools like Sienna AI, emphasizing the importance of careful onboarding and optimizing automations.

This podcast is sponsored by Malomo, a leading shipment and order tracking platform for Shopify and Shopify Plus ecommerce brands. 

To see what your personalized mockup of branded order tracking and transactional email/SMS would look like, fill out this form & we’ll send your free design right to your inbox!

Episode Timestamps:

• 3:49 Skincare brand development and marketing strategies

• 9:10 Pre-orders and subscription model for a brand, with focus on education and UGC to drive sales

• 13:37 Marketing strategies for a skincare product with pre-orders and subscriptions

• 18:36 Implementing dynamic pricing for subscriptions, with focus on customer frustration and retention

• 23:02 Increasing subscription conversions through easy customization and control transfer to customers

• 28:44 Subscription services and customer preferences

• 34:12 AI-powered customer support tool and retail expansion

• 38:50 Strategies for expanding a subscription-based e-commerce business

Liz Krupka, Owner of Nomadd Marketing, joins Retention Chronicles to discuss email marketing and optimizing email templates

Great email marketing has to parallel a brand’s tone and great customer experience. This is what Liz and her team focus on. 

Liz and Mariah talk about how some ecommerce merchants have lost creative aspects of their marketing due to the shift towards performance marketing. The key is that these brands aren’t following what originally brought their customers to know and love their brand. So, some emails become too sales heavy, which end up turning customers away. 

Liz proposes that instead, brands focus on what drove their audience and hone in on that. Find out which emails are the most successful that appeal to their audience and optimize those rather than fully redoing their emails.

Liz also talks about email templates for ecommerce brands and how to compare templates accurately. Brands must take into account the email copy, email creative, email offerings, the seasonality, historical data, the economy, and more. 

There are also considerations brands should make when considering becoming a promotion-heavy brand vs one that does not run promotions. 

This podcast is sponsored by Malomo, a leading shipment and order tracking platform for Shopify and Shopify Plus ecommerce brands. 

To see what your personalized mockup of branded order tracking and transactional email/SMS would look like, fill out this form & we’ll send your free design right to your inbox!

Episode Timeline:

• 2:07 Celebrity endorsements and product placements in social media

• 6:42 Marketing strategies and post-purchase experiences

• 12:26 Email marketing challenges and strategies for brands in Utah

• 17:51 Email marketing strategies and audience analysis

• 23:04 Email marketing templates and their importance in improving email performance

• 28:27 Email marketing strategies and industry benchmarks for e-commerce brands

• 32:38 Marketing strategies, tactics, and best practices for email and SMS campaigns

• 38:54 Reducing promotions to focus on loyalty programs

• 43:05 Sustainable marketing strategies for fashion brands

Joel Reichert, four-time ecommerce owner and co-founder of Copper Pearl, Maven Thread, and Woven Nook, joins Retention Chronicles to discuss selling on Amazon vs. Shopify and running ads on Amazon vs Meta

Joel started his career in ecommerce holding a financial role at a tech company and founded his first brand, Copper Pearl, in 2015. In 2.5 years, they grew the business to a 7 figure brand and sold the company in 2018.

In 2017, he founded his two current brands, Maven Thread and Woven Nook. He’s also grown these brands to be a 7 figure company.

Joel tells Mariah about how he started these ecommerce businesses with an investment of $10k and started selling on Amazon storefront. Joel explains that starting out on Amazon helped launch their product to help make their product make sense and then they transitioned into selling through their own website on Shopify. 

There are a lot of differences between Amazon ads and Meta ads, such as the barrier to entry for ecommerce beginners and the rate of tweaking needed for each platform. From Joel’s perspective, starting on Amazon is the way to go.

Joel and Mariah also discuss how customizable DTC products can be for specific cohorts of customers. Ecommerce also allows for there to be flexibility in logistics.

This podcast is sponsored by Malomo, a leading shipment and order tracking platform for Shopify and Shopify Plus ecommerce brands. 

To see what your personalized mockup of branded order tracking and transactional email/SMS would look like, fill out this form & we’ll send your free design right to your inbox!

Episode Timestamps

• 6:10 Starting and growing an e-commerce business on Amazon and Shopify, with a focus on marketing strategies and scaling through wholesale

• 12:55 Amazon advertising, starting an Amazon business, and failed ecommerce startups.

• 18:18 Starting a business, preferences for customizable products.

• 22:44 Product design, customization, and data-driven decision-making in e-commerce.

• 27:50 Textile selection, manufacturing, and industry resources for eCommerce brands.

• 32:59 Shipping rates and challenges faced by e-commerce founders.

36:43 Amazon and Shopify e-commerce, brand growth, and customer support.

Chad Fisher (Founder) and David Stober (COO) of Ambaum join Retention Chronicles to discuss when merchants should use third party apps vs. custom solutions within Shopify’s capabilities

The Ambaum team has been in the Shopify ecosystem since the early days. Chad and David share their experiences running a Shopify agency, and then expand on their experience to further discuss optimizing a Shopify store for growth. 

Mariah emphasizes the importance of considering a brand's position on the growth curve when making decisions about what technology to add to your Shopify storefront. No brand is similar, and that’s what makes Shopify such a breeding ground for creativity. The group also discusses the evolving landscape of Shopify and its implications for custom development versus using apps. 

Later, they discuss the value of attending industry events and networking with brands and agencies to build relationships that can benefit both parties.

This podcast is sponsored by Malomo, a leading shipment and order tracking platform for Shopify and Shopify Plus ecommerce brands. 

To see what your personalized mockup of branded order tracking and transactional email/SMS would look like, fill out this form & we’ll send your free design right to your inbox!

Episode Timestamps:

• 8:46 Leveraging Shopify's growth for agencies and brands, with a focus on the increasing number of things touching the platform. 

• 16:56 Shopify's future direction and its impact on merchants. 

• 21:44 Shopify's capabilities and when to use custom vs. app solutions for merchants.

• 26:45 E-commerce, marketing, and branding for merchants.

Dallas Parsons, Senior Director of Marketing at Mixhers, joins Retention Chronicles to discuss adding value to the ecommerce customer experience. 

Dallas started at Mixhers as a customer success manager, so she knows exactly what their customers care about most after her first-hand experience. She’s since transitioned into their marketing department to focus on customer retention, email marketing, designing the customer experience, implementing marketing technology, loyalty programs, & more. 

Like many ecommerce brands, Mixhers continues to focus on customer retention as customer acquisition costs (CAC) continue to rise. They chose to funnel their energy towards what was working for them - email marketing.

Dallas and her team decided to define an email marketing strategy that helped educate their customers. They did this by enabling a product quiz around which supplement would be the best for that customer based on their answers. 

At face value, some ecommerce brand operators would argue that this isn’t a smart marketing approach as it could add friction to the buying experience. But, the Mixhers team saw that it actually helped their customer’s buying experience and resulted in higher revenue. With more confidence in what product they were buying, Mixhers customers benefited largely from this addition.

Dallas tells Mariah about this decision and much more on this newest episode of Retention Chronicles.

This podcast is sponsored by Malomo, a leading shipment and order tracking platform for Shopify and Shopify Plus ecommerce brands. 

To see what your personalized mockup of branded order tracking and transactional email/SMS would look like, fill out this form & we’ll send your free design right to your inbox!

Episode Timestamps:

• 8:47 E-commerce retention strategies, including lifecycle marketing and customer acquisition costs
• 15:03 Adding value to customer journey for subscription-based supplements
• 21:16 Email and SMS marketing strategies for a supplement brand, including customer journey mapping and lifecycle marketing
• 29:45 Developing a mobile app for tracking menstrual cycle and symptoms, with goals to increase brand trust and loyalty
• 34:30 Returns and exchanges in the supplement industry, with a new product launch coming soon

Harry Willis, Director of Partnerships and Business Development at Relo, joins Retention Chronicles to discuss increasing repeat orders and subscriptions for Shopify CPG brands.

For Shopify and Shopify Plus brands, it can be difficult to know how to exactly tailor your customer experience when trying to motivate your customers to purchase more with you. Decisions like which day to target, which product to cross sell, who to show something to, and so many others are difficult to make without data and predictive analytics. 

Harry WIllis, Director of Partnerships and Business Development at Relo, explains how Shopify brands are building their customer experience with the smartest tools around and how they’re hurdling the biggest retention challenges of the year. 

For instance, one problem brands face is with increasing reorders and cross sells is that different products have different reorder times. But with product and customer tendencies, Shopify merchants are working around this with predictive analytics and making sure that their email marketing and SMS marketing is well-placed based on that order. 

This podcast is sponsored by Malomo, a leading shipment and order tracking platform for Shopify and Shopify Plus ecommerce brands. 

To see what your personalized mockup of branded order tracking and transactional email/SMS would look like, fill out this form & we’ll send your free design right to your inbox!

Episode Timestamps:

• 6:00 CPG brand retention strategies using data analysis. 

• 11:43 Personalized reorder reminders and cross-selling using Shopify data. 

• 17:07 Using Klaviyo's predictive analytics for cross-selling and replenishment. 

• 21:44 Using AI to optimize subscription marketing. 

• 27:19 Using Klaviyo and Malomo to increase repeat orders and subscriptions for DTC brands.

  32:48 CPG subscription-based brands and problem-solving.

Jay Davis, Founder of Pillow Cube, Cold Case Ice Cream, & Creatably, joins Retention Chronicles to discuss where to start when founding an ecommerce brand.

Jay has had a vast background in marketing and he focuses on one thing - what’s not going to change in 10 years, and how he can focus on that. 

Jay and Mariah talk about how easy it is to get caught up in marketing trends even if they might not be the best thing for your business. Making the (wrongful) assumption that traditional marketing of the past isn't as effective as our current age of digital marketing can lead to massive missed growth opportunities.

After founding many brands, Jay’s biggest advice to other founders of products is to know your finances and if people will want your product.

Jay shares his favorite test to run with friends and family to see if they enjoy a new product. We don’t want to spoil the details, but it’s one of those moments where you’ll reframe how you’re going about your customer testing. He also gives insight into some of his favorite customer retention plays.

Jay also discusses 2024 macroeconomics of the ecommerce industry and what founders should be cautious about. 

This podcast is sponsored by Malomo, a leading shipment and order tracking platform for Shopify and Shopify Plus ecommerce brands. 

To see what your personalized mockup of branded order tracking and transactional email/SMS would look like, fill out this form & we’ll send your free design right to your inbox!

Episode Timestamps:

• 1:46 Entrepreneurship, marketing, and business growth.

• 3:58 Viral marketing strategies and industry changes.

• 6:33 Marketing trends and social media platforms.

• 10:57 Marketing trends and the importance of connecting with people.

• 15:30 Entrepreneurship, marketing, and finance.

• 19:48 Product development and market research.

• 25:38 Entrepreneurship, business growth, and scaling.

• 31:36 Entrepreneurship, business growth, and work-life balance. 

• 38:02 Customer retention strategies and brand development. 

Summary43:12 Entrepreneurship, marketing, and customer retention.

Emerson Hammer, Director of Partnerships at Corso, joins Retention Chronicles to discuss ecommerce shipment protection in the order tracking experience.

There’s a lot of tech stack consolidation in ecommerce right now as brands are striving for efficiency to get more out of their tech. Emerson tells Noah and Mariah about how ecommerce brands should really be focusing on retention and reverse logistics. 

Emerson speaks to the .3-.5% of packages that have an issue with shipping and how brands traditionally have to eat that sunk cost, but with Malomo and Corso brands can mitigate shipping protection and costs while increasing the customer experience. 

Brands can have full control over their refund policies, but few brands actually take the opportunity to increase their revenue in the post-purchase experience, like offering a gift card instead of a full return or providing cross and upsells.

This podcast is sponsored by Malomo, a leading shipment and order tracking platform for Shopify and Shopify Plus ecommerce brands. 

To see what your personalized mockup of branded order tracking and transactional email/SMS would look like, fill out this form & we’ll send your free design right to your inbox!

Episode Timestamps: 

• 2:05 Ecommerce growth strategies and supply chain management.

•  6:55 Ecommerce trends and tech integrations.

• 9:06 Shipping protection and its impact on brand revenue.

• 14:10 Integrating shipping protection and customer support for e-commerce businesses. 

• 18:11 Streamlining return process for e-commerce brands.

• 22:55 Reducing friction in returns while maintaining good customer experience. 

• 26:02 Streamlining post-purchase experiences for e-commerce brands.

Please note that all numbers shown in the episode are from a staging environment and therefore not real customer data.

Liz Reyes, Co-Founder of Sols, joins Retention Chronicles to discuss recovering from a burglary by putting her customers first, establishing her ecommerce store on Shopify, starting to build on social media, & more.

When founding an ecommerce company, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered like where to host your site, what technology to add to your ecommerce platform, what to invest in, how to build out your team, and more. Luckily for listeners of Retention Chronicles, Liz and Mariah talk about Liz’s journey in setting up Sols. 

Liz walks through her decision in choosing her ecommerce platform to be Shopify, setting up their website,  shipping, warehouse logistics, and operations. 

It’s a very unfortunate situation, but Liz shares a vulnerable moment in disclosing that Sols experienced a burglary in December 2023 and how she and her team have tried their best to recover and communicate with customers about the delays in their orders. After experiencing a lot of emotions around such an event, Liz speaks to the frustration of having to take inventory and match it to orders manually.

Liz also shares about her decision to break ties with a 3PL so that Sols could enhance and own the post-purchase experience. Like many brand founders, Liz knows the importance of communicating often and accurately with customers while they wait for their orders.

Starting out on social media can be a daunting task, but Liz breaks it down but just having fun with posting on Sols’ social media and nailing down who you are as a brand and who you want to be with.

James Van Erck, Co-Founder & COO of Rebuy, joins Retention Chronicles to discuss software that generates post-purchase revenue for Shopify brands. 

With his extensive background in ecommerce, James has a lot of experience to share with Shopify brand founders, operators, and marketers. A lot of brands focus on how to acquire their customers, but enough aren’t focusing on how to retain them after they make a first purchase. This is what James, Noah, and Mariah discuss. How do ecommerce brands retain their customers? 

There are a lot of ways to increase customer retention, but James shares one of the most crucial ways, and that’s by increasing post-purchase upsells and cross sells with dynamic product recommendations. This is why the Malomo and Rebuy software work so well together, and to hear more about that, you’ll want to tune into this episode.

This podcast is sponsored by Malomo, a leading shipment and order tracking platform for Shopify and Shopify Plus ecommerce brands. 

To see what your personalized mockup of branded order tracking and transactional email/SMS would look like, fill out this form & we’ll send your free design right to your inbox!

Episode timeline: 

• 2:24 Building software for e-commerce merchants. 

• 6:36 Ecommerce strategies and retention tactics for Shopify brands. 

• 10:50 Post-purchase offers and gift card upsells. 

• 18:40 Personalized product recommendations and gift cards. 

• 23:36 Personalization platform Rebuy and its benefits for Shopify brands. 

• 27:35 Post-purchase experiences and personalized product recommendations.

Allyse Jackson, Founder & CEO of Beehive Meals, joins Retention Chronicles to discuss how she’s managed and organized operations and logistics for her ecommerce business. 

Without intending to, Allyse started her business Beehive Meals by prepping freezer meals when she was pregnant. After realizing she over prepared food for her family, she started to realize she needed to get ride of some of her prepped meals.

After delivering extra meals to friends and family, Allyse saw how well they were received and went to Facebook to see how many people would be interested in a delivery service.

After seeing a very high demand, Allyse started Beehive Meals and has learned many lessons in scaling in the food and beverage industry. Allyse shares her past and current experiences and challenges with inventory, storage, distribution, and delivery expectations in the ecommerce space.  

This podcast is sponsored by Malomo, a leading shipment and order tracking platform for Shopify and Shopify Plus ecommerce brands. 

To see what your personalized mockup of branded order tracking and transactional email/SMS would look like, fill out this form & we’ll send your free design right to your inbox!

Episode Timestamps: 

• 2:55 Entrepreneurship, crowdfunding, and meal prepping

• 7:16 Starting a meal prep business and its success

• 12:33 Starting a meal prep business

• 16:34 Managing a meal prep business during pandemic

• 21:21 Pivoting a food business during the COVID-19 pandemic

• 27:15 Navigating growth challenges in the meal prep industry

• 33:40 Expanding a meal prep business with freight model

• 39:18 Entrepreneurship, self-doubt, and networking

• 45:36 Food delivery challenges and solutions

Caitlin Elgin, Head of CRM & Lifecycle, at Fluency Firm joins Retention Chronicles to discuss evaluating Shopify transactional email and SMS by click rate. 

Caitlin, Noah, & Mariah chat about Caitlin’s background in marketing and how she’s been in the Shopify space since 2014 before they even had an integration with USPS. 

Caitlin has worked with countless brands who have upgraded their transactional emails from the ‘out-of-the-box’ Shopify experience to fully branded and personalized transactional email and SMS with Malomo. She shares a specific Shopify merchant use case where after they implemented Malomo, they doubled their click rate on transactional emails. 

You can learn more about the services Caitlin and her team offer at fluencyfirm.com or by emailing hello@fluencyfim.com. 

This podcast is sponsored by Malomo, a leading shipment and order tracking platform for Shopify and Shopify Plus ecommerce brands. 

To see what your personalized mockup of branded order tracking and transactional email/SMS would look like, fill out this form & we’ll send your free design right to your inbox!

Episode Timestamps: 

• E-commerce Enlightenment with Expert Insights. 0:04

• Email and SMS strategies for Shopify brands. 1:57

• Travel plans and e-commerce strategies. 4:32

• Using Malomo to increase click rates and engagement for transactional messages. 8:21

• Email marketing optimization for increased revenue. 12:10

• Tracking emails and driving engagement. 18:32

• Using Malomo for post-purchase emails and tracking. 23:05

• Email marketing strategies and services for business growth. 30:04

Lindsay White, Founder & CEO of The Little Milk Bar, joins Retention Chronicles to discuss scaling customers through social media and digital marketing for Shopify brands.

Lindsay and Mariah chat about Lindsay’s journey to entrepreneurship within the Shopify ecosystem and how she first started in the Etsy community selling baby leggings. She then rebranded and pivoted her business to focus on breastfeeding and the right to breastfeed in public. 

When Lindsay started selling on Etsy, Instagram was new and she started to see that brands were using free advertising to scale their brand organically. She eventually learned that after starting her company, The Little Milk Bar, that Etsy was a great platform to start her business, but she soon transitioned her business to Squarespace and then Shopify.

Mariah and Lindsay talk about the benefits and drawbacks of different ecommerce hosting platforms, such as the restrictions of listing on Etsy and outgrowing Squarespace but not needing in-house graphic designers.

Lindsay shares about her experience in growing on Instagram in that it’s not easy to grow on social media because you must post multiple times a day, but it is worth-while in that if you’re targeting the right audience and have great content, you’ll be able to stand out in the noise. 

Given the stereotype around breastfeeding, Lindsay and her team at The Little Milk Bar was successful in getting Instagram to change their posting policies around breastfeeding, which was no easy feat. With that, they have been able to support many new and current mothers with their confidence in breastfeeding.

Anatoliy Labinskiy, a 4-time Two Comma Club winner and founder of GSM Growth, joins Retention Chronicles to discuss how to understand TikTok metrics and grow your sales with TikTok advertising. 

Anatoliy tells Mariah and Noah about one of the biggest growth tools in ecommerce right now- TikTok shop. New products and brands are becoming relevant everyday on TikTok, and that’s just from organic media. 

Anatoliy and his team have mastered the paid media side of TikTok and are here to share tactical takeaways all brands can implement. Tiktok is a great platform to bring eyeballs to your brand and after that brands can hit up retargeting ads to capture the attention of potential buyers. 

But, TikTok has less consistent growth than Meta, and so you have to know the right approach and metrics to track. Anatoliy walks through how to ensure you're remaining profitable on TikTok.

Anatoliy also addresses the concerns of some that the platform will decrease in popularity or cease to exist. 

This podcast is sponsored by Malomo, a leading shipment and order tracking platform for Shopify and Shopify Plus ecommerce brands. 

To see what your personalized mockup of branded order tracking and transactional email/SMS would look like, fill out this form & we’ll send your free design right to your inbox!

Episode Timestamps:

• E-commerce marketing strategies and personal life updates. 3:32

• TikTok as a retention channel for e-commerce brands. 6:49

• TikTok advertising success stories. 11:36

• TikTok marketing strategies and profit margins. 16:11

• TikTok ad campaign optimization using A/B testing. 20:33

• TikTok advertising strategies and budget management. 30:00

• TikTok ad optimization strategies. 35:35

• TikTok metrics to track. 42:01

Georgia Grace Edwards (Co-Founder/CEO) and Charlotte Massey (Co-Founder/COO) of Gnara join Retention Chronicles Season 5 to discuss founding their brand with their patented GoFly technology.

Georgia Grace and Charlotte patented their GoFly technology to create a new industry for women’s pants. In addition to the familiar zipper fly that allows you to take your pants on and off, a second zipper extends from beneath the first zipper to the back of the waistband. 

The founder pair grew up in the great outdoors, and having experienced first hand the issue of not being able to easily use the restroom in nature, they started researching the history of women’s pants while in undergrad. 

From there, they completed both incubator and accelerator programs to establish their minimum viable product (MVP) where they could start selling products. 

After learning the legal and manufacturing sides of a patent, they began operating as a service where they would install their zipper technology in one’s favorite active pants. But, after seeing the market for this technology, they grew Gnara into what it is today by working with designers and investigating the history of women’s apparel and sizing.

Georgia Grace and Charlotte also speak to deciphering between utility and design patents. They attribute a lot of their learning to in-person trade shows where other founders shared their successes and challenges but acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected those events. 

This podcast is sponsored by Malomo, a leading shipment and order tracking platform for Shopify and Shopify Plus ecommerce brands. 

To see what your custom mockup of branded order tracking and transactional email/SMS would look like, fill out this form & we’ll send your custom design right to your inbox!

Episode Timestamps:

• Outdoor gear company Gnara’s origins and founders' backgrounds. 1:42

• Outdoor adventures, entrepreneurship, and gender equality. 3:10

• Entrepreneurship backgrounds and career paths. 6:29

• Entrepreneurship, business growth, and accelerator programs. 9:01

• Remote work and entrepreneurship. 16:35

• Innovative pants with hidden compartments for hygiene products. 18:54

• Designing and implementing functional clothing with zippers. 22:54

• Clothing design, sizing, and patents. 27:14

• IP law and its impact on accessibility. 35:41

• Entrepreneurship, e-commerce, and collaborations. 37:33

• The impact of the pandemic on the outdoor industry's largest trade show. 41:27

• Learning and problem-solving strategies for brand operators. 45:20

• Entrepreneurship, business growth, and collaboration. 47:59

RC Williams, Co-Founder of Rejuvia and 1-800-D2C, joins Retention Chronicles Season 5 to discuss streamlining and evaluating technology for D2C brands.

RC tells Mariah about how he and his mother started Rejuvia four years ago and how they dove into the business headfirst. After running the business for a while, they tracked what was working for them and they’ve fine-tuned their business strategy.

He details how brands that are just starting out shouldn’t load heavy on technology, they should keep it light early and then add on different technology as they grow. He warns brands against enabling a tech stack just because a competitor has a certain software. 

With the brands he interviews in his ‘Under the Hood’ series, RC shares the learnings he’s receiving from founders and recognizes that behind every successful brand there lies hurdles they’ve overcome.

RC also discusses how he rules out personal bias with 1-800-D2C, his technology recommendation platform. He says that with the privacy changes, a lot of brands are looking to third party tools to provide analytics as well as smart AI tools to increase efficiency of smaller teams.

This podcast is sponsored by Malomo, a leading shipment and order tracking platform for Shopify and Shopify Plus ecommerce brands. 

To see what your custom mockup of branded order tracking and transactional email/SMS would look like, fill out this form & we’ll send your custom design right to your inbox!

Episode Timestamps:

• Taking over a platform for DTC brands to find valuable tools and apps. 1:39

• Founding a brand and choosing a tech stack with unbiased recommendations. 3:10

• Staying up-to-date with new tools and updates in the DTC space. 8:21

• DTC brand operation, paid media, and retention. 13:28

• Growing a brand through tech stack and product development. 20:16

• Tech stack configuration, data analytics, and privacy updates. 23:55

• AI tools and under-the-hood interviews with founders. 31:25

• E-commerce growth and operational efficiency. 37:19

Jenny Nuccio, Founder & CEO of Imani Collective, joins Retention Chronicles for the first episode of Season 5 to discuss social entrepreneurship for nonprofits and for-profits.

Jenny has always been passionate about developing the communities she is a part of and focusing on giving back to them. After living in Kenya for many years, she and her pioneer team at Imani Collective began building their nonprofit to create opportunity through trainings and jobs. 

She realized that they had to create a marketplace for their vision so that the trainings they were providing would lead to sustainable jobs, so Jenny and her team founded the for-profit side of their company, Imani Kids. 

Tasked with running a nonprofit and a for-profit, Jenny learned the similarities and differences between being an executive director and a CEO. With those learnings, she decided to bring all their companies together under one umbrella and create their holding company, Imani Collective.

Constantly asking herself how to build a sustainable nonprofit and for-profit business, Jenny asked herself how their company would run without her and how their ethical impact could continue its legacy in the best way possible. 

Jenny also walks through how she developed Imani Kids, their ecommerce company, by using local Kenyan material and organically growing their social media profile over time. She’s learned to reduce her ad spending to focus on retention over acquisition and how to leverage organic content and word-of-mouth marketing with their brand ambassador program. 

This podcast is sponsored by Malomo, a leading shipment and order tracking platform for Shopify and Shopify Plus ecommerce brands. 

To see what your custom mockup of branded order tracking and transactional email/SMS would look like, fill out this form & we’ll send your custom design right to your inbox!

Episode Timestamps:

• Founding and growth of Imani Collective, a social enterprise in Kenya. 1:26

• Transitioning a nonprofit to a for-profit social enterprise. 7:03

• Nonprofit vs for-profit business models. 14:41

• Nonprofit sustainability and impact with industry insights. 19:19

• Building a successful brand for kids with Imani kids co-founder. 24:42

• Starting a social enterprise and brand development. 27:59

• Marketing to parents through social media and PR. 33:02

• Brand ambassador programs and their success. 38:49

• Social entrepreneurship and brand development with Imani Collective. 44:13

Jules Weldon and Stacey Pierce, Co-Founders of OME Gear, join Retention Chronicles for the final episode of Season 4 to discuss the struggles and successes of building a multi-use product. 

Jules and Stace took their product vision and turned it into a 5-in-1 innovation that their customers rave about. But, it hasn’t been an easy journey to get there. They chose their dreams over their belongings and sold their house to back their business, betting on themselves and their determination to succeed. 

The leap has been well worth it, as their customers love OME Gear’s The Wanderer. Whether it’s emailing Stace and Jules directly, sharing across social media, or organic word-of-mouth marketing, the quality of product really shows at OME Gear. 

But, it’s not only products that glow, but also services. Jules & Stace personally email each customer after purchase to familiarize and introduce themselves. That’s relationship building at the next level, and the team of co-founders makes sure that as they grow, they don’t want to lose that level of connection with their customers. They’ve created and continue to create a loyal consumer base with their personal post-purchase experience.

Stace, Jules, & Mariah also discuss posting on social media and how difficult it really is to keep up with and create content for. They make sure to share both their success stories and struggles as female founders so that they can pave the road and fill potholes for founders who come next. 

This podcast is sponsored by Malomo, a leading shipment and order tracking platform for Shopify and Shopify Plus ecommerce brands. 

To see what your custom mockup of branded order tracking and transactional email/SMS would look like, fill out this form & we’ll send your custom design right to your inbox!

Episode Timestamps:

• Transforming products and taking ideas to market. 1:23

• Minimalism, sustainability, and multi-use products. 8:26

• Using a product called "Wanderer" for convenient transportation. 11:30

• Using customers as brand ambassadors for a new product. 17:12

• Building a successful outdoor gear brand. 21:57

• Branding, social media, and customer connection. 28:26

• Podcasting, entrepreneurship, and vulnerability. 34:29

• Social media strategy and kindness online. 40:22

• Customer experience and marketing strategies for a product-based business. 44:27

• Entrepreneurship, vulnerability, and problem-solving. 51:29

John Gross, Founder & CEO of Fat Earth Media, and Rose Eppensteiner, Senior Manager of Lifecycle Marketing at Fat Earth Media, join Retention Chronicles to discuss founding an agency to work with mission driven brands to help with paid media, lifecycle marketing, and marketing creative. 

Making a pivot in his career from environmental sciences to marketing, John started by taking out ad space in Craigslist advertising his Google Ads consultancy. But, he didn’t just want to focus on media buying, he wanted to invest in lifecycle marketing. So, he built Fat Earth to serve mission driven brands and help with their marketing strategy. 

John and Rose don’t just detail why lifecycle marketing is important, but also how it’s related to retention, and how to make lifetime value (LTV) higher than customer acquisition cost (CAC). Not only do they tell Mariah and Noah about how Shopify & Shopify Plus brands can achieve their goals year-round, but especially during the holidays. 

Fat Earth Media makes sure that their clients are set up for success by creating strategic content planning to look at monthly and quarterly campaigns. Segmentation is a critical piece for Shopify/Shopify Plus brands’ success, and making sure their email and SMS sends make sense is a big step in strategy planning. To do this, all teams have to be aligned and connected. 

Another area of expertise they focus on is design. An easy trap to fall into is to confuse complexity and effectiveness. A creative director may love an email, but if no one is clicking on it, it might be the best route to take. The Fat Earth Media team redesigns assets to make them better from every possible angle. 

For our holiday tips portion of the podcast, the Fat Earth Media team shares that they advise their brands to assume the consumer is very smart and don’t try to trick or be inauthentic for the extra dollar. Consumers will shop with the brands they like and trust, and the brands who know and follow that will win. 

This podcast is sponsored by Malomo, a leading shipment and order tracking platform for Shopify and Shopify Plus ecommerce brands. 

To see what your custom mockup of branded order tracking and transactional email/SMS would look like, fill out this form & we’ll send your custom design right to your inbox!

Episode Timestamps:

• Lifecycle marketing and retention with industry experts. 0:04

• Personal lives, adventures, and remote work culture. 1:39

• Personal updates, background of Flat Earth founder, and current focus. 7:18

• Career change and marketing strategy. 9:22

• Marketing strategy and Google ads. 13:55

• Marketing agency's mission-driven approach and impact on clients. 18:26

• Marketing career paths and agency start-up. 22:15

• Marketing agency growth and lifecycle marketing. 27:47

• Retention marketing strategies for existing customers. 33:35

• Email marketing planning and design for retention. 38:44

• DTC brand marketing strategies for the holiday season. 45:30

Ryan Gresh, Founder & CEO of The Feel Good Lab, joins Retention Chronicles to discuss his journey in creating a natural pain relief cream to help their customers feel good and soothe chronic pain.

If you’ve ever experienced searing pain, you know that the one thing you want is for that pain to be gone. But, common over the counter medicines, such as NSAIDs, are bad for your GI health if taken for long periods of time. That’s why Ryan and his father founded The Feel Good Lab to help people find hope through their products. 

One of the things Ryan wanted to guarantee with their customers was that their solution had credibility and was FDA backed. 

On the business side of things, Ryan talks about how the AOV is low for their pain relief cream because it’s a commoditized product, which can be hard to break even on. Which is why customer retention and the lifetime value of their business is so essential. Where The Feel Good Lab team wins is with their LTV and credibility with their customers. Their customers fall in love with the brand, and come back time and time again for that reason. 

But not only do they fall in love with The Feel Good Lab brand, but the educational resources they provide. They educate their customers on the best way to use their products, such as right after a steaming shower because the product will absorb better. 

Ryan also tells Mariah about how they make their packaging standout because none of their competitors were using clean, white packaging. 

Knowing one’s ideal customer profile (ICP) is essential for accurate and successful marketing. Ryan dives deep into the 3 ICPs their 3 products market best with. It’s an interesting dynamic between the age groups and goals of their three customer profiles that you won’t want to miss out on. 

This podcast is sponsored by Malomo, a leading shipment and order tracking platform for Shopify and Shopify Plus ecommerce brands. 

To see what your custom mockup of branded order tracking and transactional email/SMS would look like, fill out this form & we’ll send your custom design right to your inbox!

Episode Timestamps:

• Chronic pain relief and the importance of hope. 1:13

• Branding and marketing strategies for a direct-to-consumer wellness brand. 5:44

• Building a successful brand through customer service and authenticity. 10:11

• Customer service, product development, and branding. 16:12

• Product development and packaging design. 19:47

• Pain relief and natural remedies. 22:24

• Wellness, pain management, and education. 28:36

• Targeting different customer personas for a health and wellness brand. 33:43

• Social media marketing for a wellness brand. 38:18

• Marketing strategies for a health and wellness company. 42:39

Blake Imperl, former VP of Marketing at Carro and current VP of Marketing at Digioh, joins Retention Chronicles for episode 21 of season 4. Noah, Mariah, & Blake kick off the episode with Blake’s birthday running tradition, starting his career consulting for digital marketing, and working with paid media across multiple brands to drive $13 million in email & SMS retention marketing. 

Now of course, we recognize the ecommerce community is probably very familiar with Blake Imperl, but if you’re not, we highly recommend you tune in to hear his opinions around how the Shopify & Shopify Plus ecosystem works and is constantly changing. 

Blake shares how the Shopify & Shopify Plus ecosystem is currently seeking more of an emphasis on retention because now it’s difficult to be profitable whereas before, brands could make up the difference on the backend. Blake provides examples of how Carro helps brands increase LTV (lifetime value) and AOV (average order volume) while lowering CAC (customer acquisition cost) by getting in front of customers in a more efficient way. 

Humanizing the shopping experience so there’s a deep connection with customers brings an element to DTC brands that retailers don’t often experience, and there’s a lot that goes into it. It might be a difficult thing to measure, but it’s worth pursuing. Blake shares how showing up in the social feed and having something interesting to say captivates a lot of attention, and it’s valuable attention. 

We’re in the thick of the holiday season, so Blake shares his BFCM brand must-haves. He recommends brands set up their transactional emails and SMS marketing campaigns in a smart way. Don’t risk it all, SMS automations are expensive, so be intentional with your segmentation and design and don’t bombard your customers. Every unsubscribe in 2023 is lost revenue in 2024. 

This podcast is sponsored by Malomo, a leading shipment and order tracking platform for Shopify and Shopify Plus ecommerce brands. 

To see what your custom mockup of branded order tracking and transactional email/SMS would look like, fill out this form & we’ll send your custom design right to your inbox!

Episode Timestamps:

Running, ultra-marathons, and personal limits: 4:07

Career path and e-commerce experience: 7:25

Unconventional career path in marketing and partnerships: 13:27

Applying b2c marketing strategies to b2b marketing: 16:29

Humanizing B2B content through authenticity and emotion: 22:01

Leveraging collaborative commerce platform to increase sales and reduce costs: 25:12

Using marketplace to drive sales and growth: 30:05

Using marketplaces to test new products and increase revenue: 32:55

E-commerce marketing strategies and customer retention: 40:25

Black Friday and Cyber Monday marketing strategies: 43:53

LinkedIn strategy and content creation: 49:16

Anthony Ciavirella, Co-Founder of Manmade joins Retention Chronicles for episode 20 of season 4. Anthony and his three other co-founders started Manmade, a leading men’s essentials brand, after starting his career in banking. After a 10-month journey to designing the perfect boxer-brief, Manmade has over 120k orders with 400,000 boxers sold to 90k customers in 2 years. 

For all our Shopify brands out there, do you have a sole-founder team or do you have a team of co-founders? Anthony details how their founding team of 4 is able to move at 4x speed with their collaboration. 

Does exponential growth come from great product, great marketing, or both? Anthony shares his opinion on developing an incredible product alongside great marketing. With product development, it’s not so much about getting everything right the first time, because you most likely won’t, but it’s about listening to your customer feedback and iterating to make the best product you possibly can. 

Content marketing is foundational to the Manmade team- Anthony and his team strive to bring customers along for the journey as they’re learning. The Manmade team believes that ecommerce shoppers like seeing the faces of founders, and they’ve fully embraced that marketing strategy. Also included in their marketing is a ton of attention to organic social growth. Meta is the driver of where Manmade gets new acquisitions, whether it’s through lots of PR and interviews, radio, newspaper articles, or social media. Gorilla marketing is their jam.

Retention marketing is strong at Manmade, 35% come back in 3 months, 50% come back after 12 months. They credit that to their intentional site and post-purchase touchpoints. Listen today to hear more about the details!

This podcast is sponsored by Malomo, a leading shipment and order tracking platform for Shopify and Shopify Plus ecommerce brands. 

To see what your custom mockup of branded order tracking and transactional email/SMS would look like, fill out this form & we’ll send your custom design right to your inbox!

Episode Timestamps:

Ecommerce brand retention strategies with industry leaders: 0:04

Founding a men's essentials brand with four finance professionals turned entrepreneurs: 1:21

Entrepreneurship, business ideas, and competitive pricing strategies: 6:05

Product quality, marketing, and iteration in business: 11:16

Branding, packaging, and marketing strategies for a men's underwear line: 15:59

Customer acquisition costs, retention, and post-purchase education for a men's apparel brand: 22:18

DTC underwear brand's use of authenticity and transparency in marketing: 26:47

Pinterest marketing for gift-giving season: 34:18

Retention strategies for an underwear brand: 37:36

Building a direct-to-consumer brand with a focus on customer experience: 42:54
Entrepreneurship, business growth, and overcoming challenges: 48:08

Nikki Tooman, Founder & CEO of Sticky Digital joins Retention Chronicles and if hearing Noah and Nikki discuss Shoptalk 2022 isn’t enough incentive to listen in, then hearing Nikki’s perspective of the Shopify brand and partner ecosystem sure is! Nikki has been in the Shopify ecosystem since Shopify has been in the game, and learned the core of the ecosystem at one of the biggest agencies at the time. 

For all our Shopify brands out there, do you know exactly what technology you should be using for your specific storefront? Nikki knows it all and shares it all so you’ll have to listen to hear all of her shoutouts, but we’ll break it down for you real quick- Loop, Recharge, Yotpo, Klaviyo, Okendo/Junip, Gorgias are table stakes for Nikki and her team. 

Retention marketing (email, SMS) and conversion rate optimization (CRO) is her jam - she and her team at Sticky Digital excel working with Shopify brands. 

What do you think the goal of partnerships is? Generating revenue, getting better discounts, relationship building? You’ll have to listen to hear what Nikki says about the industry and how to truly map a good partnership. 

BFCM (Black Friday/Cyber Monday) is in full-swing for the ecommerce community and Nikki shares her BFCM tips for Shopify brands: 1) Start your efforts early, 2.) We need to figure out retention stuff set up today & 3.) Post-purchase survey for first time purchasers. 

Did you know that 20% of your website traffic hits the order tracking experience? Turn all of that customer engagement into customer loyalty. Malomo helps you get ahead of shipping issues, brand your order tracking experience, and reconvert shoppers while they wait for their package to arrive. 

To see what your custom mockup of branded order tracking and transactional email/SMS would look like, fill out this form & we’ll send your custom design right to your inbox!

On this week of Retention Chronicles, we’re joined by Garret Akerson, Co-Founder of Kindred Bravely. Garret tells Mariah about how they started Kindred Bravely as a fully remote company in 2015, testing their product by giving it to family and friends, gathering social proof in early stages, running social proof ads, selling on Amazon and Shopify, being customer experienced focused, having their customer care team be responsible for social media replies, launching in Target, having a clear message for ads and website experience, educating the market on correct intimates measurements, reducing returns with product education, the DTC space shifting in terms of who is charging for shipping & more.

On this episode of Retention Chronicles, we’re joined by Joe Vancena, CEO & Co-Founder of Status. Noah, Mariah, & Joe talk about having the confidence to start a business, discovering product market fit, asking why there is a consumer gap rather than discovering what the consumer gap is, how data scrambling policies make personalization harder, what’s working in retention this year, why consumers check out as guests, how Shopify is a word-of-mouth environment for apps, how Shopify brands can couple rewards and returns programs during BFCM & more.