Deepa ShankarThe importance of storytelling in business
Once upon a time, when you and I were kids, industry information was passed on through industry specific journals and magazines. Industry exponents killed to be featured in these magazines. Best practices were shared across states, continents and countries. There were stories to be told. After all, it is a well-established fact that your smartest business moves are generally about learning from industry experts, customizing them to suit your specific business needs and experimenting with related ideas. These journals were where business leaders told their stories. There was and is always a need to share these stories, crafted expertly and marketed brilliantly by some wonderful story tellers. They created great content for these monthly or quarterly journals and publications and they have now evolved into podcasts today.
The podcast avatar
Every industry worth its salt has a set of podcasts that industry veterans and fledglings follow diligently to keep themselves updated and informed. Podcasts feature brilliant story tellers who share content that a player in the sector must be aware of, must think about and must act upon.
In this post, let us look at a list of 10 ecommerce podcasts, best recommended for retailers across the world.
EOFire by John Lee Dumas
EOFIRE, short for Entrepreneurs on Fire is an award winning podcast by John Lee Dumas. The series focuses on the individual journey of every entrepreneur invited to the show. Dumas’ questions range from what drives the guest to achieve their entrepreneurial success to their first ‘Ah-ha’ moments. Entrepreneurs share their successes and their mistakes as well.
For example, you can listen to how Tony Robbins helps us master the MONEY game with value bombs galore!
Tony Robbins is Iron Man in real life; at least, half of Iron Man as we know him. Robbins is a billionaire, philanthropist, business expert and best-selling author. He’s written 5 best sellers and in this podcast, he talks about the importance of having an income other than your business, especially if you run an online retail store.
Key takeaways:
EOFire motivates you, keeps you motivated and makes you realize you aren’t alone in this big, bad retail world.
Total Retail Talks by Joe Keenan and Melissa Campanelli
Total Retail Talks, as the name suggests, is a one stop shop for retail related podcasts. TRT is a series of short talks, focused on retail news and insights. Helpful, retail related content is framed in 15 minute long podcasts.
Pink Lily CEO Shares How Influencers Play a Role in Growing the Brand is one of TRT’s best podcasts where Joe Keenan talks to Tori Gerbig, co-founder and CEO of Pink Lily. Gerbig discusses how the women’s fashion brand uses social influencers and other digital tactics to grow its community of fans and customers.
Key takeaways:
You get all the information you need in 15 minutes. And Total Retail Talks is very retail specific!
Cha-Ching! by Kevin Wild
Cha Ching is a weekly eCommerce podcast hosted by Kevin Wild where he interviews merchants, app developers, and thought leaders on their experiences and successes with eCommerce.
You can start with one of Cha-Ching’s best podcasts- The Fresh Patch Story with Andrew Feld.
Andrew Feld tells Kevin about his Shark Tank experiences and his invention, The Fresh Patch while he shares his hiring practices.
Key takeaways:
Cha-Ching can help you with the basics of running a retail business. It deals with preparation stages of planning and building a retail business, hiring a suitable workforce, social media branding, rebranding etc.
The Unofficial Shopify Podcast by Kurt Elster, a Shopify Plus expert
Kurt Elster has a set goal with his podcasts. He wants to teach online retailers to scale their stores to 7 figures and beyond, and introduce strategies to improve sales and customer satisfaction.
It is highly recommended that you listen to Beef Jerky, Gaming & 100K: The JerkyXP Story where Max and Zach make money from their combined passions: video games and beef jerky. Together, they set up an online store that scored a $100,000 grant. They advertised and created sales via social media, successfully rebranded an existing jerky brand and influenced their gaming and Twitter followers into buying the jerky!
Key takeaways:
If you have a store and you are looking for improv ideas, you should totally look at the Unofficial Shopify Podcast.
eCommerceFuel by Andrew Youderian
eCommerceFuel is a series that is solely dedicated to online retail. eCommerceFuel clearly understands the distinction between online and offline retail and demarcates what applies in either sector. The podcast series is focused on helping already established online retailers grow further.
Here, you can listen to ‘Biggest Regrets in eCommerce‘ and figure out what not to do with your retail business.
Key takeaways:
If your online store is already making substantial revenue, eCommerceFuel is where you should be investing your time. You can aim to become the next big Amazon/AliBaba.
From Scratch by Jessica Harris
As the name suggests, From Scratch is aimed at retail entrepreneurs who have started afresh. Jessica Harris invites business leaders, social sector folks, artists and entrepreneurs to talk about their sources of inspiration, setbacks, helpful allies, and breakthrough moments.
Richard Branson has been a guest on From Scratch. Here’s the episode where he speaks about his entrepreneurial approach to responsible business and social change, from scratch.
Key takeaways:
From Scratch is a good choice for budding retailers to hear about the industry and make their business sustain.
Shopify Masters Podcast by Felix Thea
The mother of ecommerce podcasts is the Shopify Masters podcast. Felix Thea from Traffic and Sales, a site that helps store owners increase their footprint online, hosts this series.
Finesse the Pug is where you start with your Shopify Masters podcast. Kwaku Nornoo, founder of The Passionate Pug, a merchandise store for pug-lovers, talks to Felix about Facebook ad strategies that have been responsible for the resounding success of The Passionate Pug.
Key takeaways:
If you want to improve your visibility, create award winning products and launch a highly successful online store, please listen to Thea and his guests. You find a lot of real life experience on marketing, investment etc on this series of podcasts.
My Wife Quit Her Job Podcast by Steve Chou
The interesting name of Steve Chou’s My Wife Quit Her Job podcast has an interesting story behind it. Chou’s wife, Jennifer quit her job to look after the family. And their Bumblebee Linens was born then. Together, the couple made $100k in their first year. They share their experiences, thoughts and advice with their podcast, My Wife Quit Her Job.
How Ian Schoen Built And Sold His Design Firm and Started The Tropical MBA hosts Ian Schoen who in turn has a popular podcast and blog called Tropical MBA. He is the co-founder of Dynamite Circle, a community for entrepreneurs, and the founder of Two Tree International, a design and manufacturing firm that he sold for seven figures. Ian shares his insights on traffic, sales channels and his ultimate decision to sell his company.
Key takeaways:
The podcasts deal with real experiences from the start of the entrepreneurial journey.
Marketing Over Coffee by Christopher Penn and John Wall
The hosts introduce new marketing trends and the latest digital marketing news in the podcast. This deals with retail businesses and other related startups.
Start With Why is a podcast on Simon Sinek and his advertising agency.
Key takeaways:
MOC helps you analyze what you should be analyzing, how strategy can improve your sales and such marketing questions and their solutions.
Marketplace by Kai Ryssdal, David Brancaccio and Lizzie O’Leary
Marketplace offers great information on online retail, among other things.
You get to listen to industry spiel on online privacy and data handling in this episode on why tech companies are suddenly pushing federal online privacy law.
Key takeaways:
Markteplace deals with a comprehensive look on tech, legal and other entrepreneurial needs.
