Ecommerce: The Hammersley Brothers Ecommerce Podcast

This week on the Hammersley Brothers eCommerce Podcast, we’re tackling a topic we haven’t covered before — but one that can have a massive impact on the growth of your business:

Hiring the wrong person, team member, or agency.

In eCommerce, the wrong hire doesn’t just cost you money. It can slow momentum, create bad energy in the business, pull you out of sync with the market, and in some cases, set you back for years.

In this episode, we talk through:

Why hiring the wrong people can be so damaging

The hidden cost of bringing “C players” into your business

Our own mistakes when it comes to hiring and choosing partners

How to spot the warning signs before it’s too late

What to look for when building the right team around your brand

Whether you’re hiring internally, working with freelancers, or choosing an agency, this episode will help you avoid one of the biggest mistakes eCommerce brands make.

 

P.S. Whenever you’re ready... here are 3 ways Ian and I can help you grow your ecommerce business:

 

1. Talk to us. Book a call with us and let's talk about accelerating your growth - https://go.hammersleybrothers.com/scheduleuk-ant

 

2. Grab a copy of our book - https://gohigh.hammersleybrothers.com/get-the-book

3. Join the Ultimate Guide To Ecommerce Facebook group and connect with e-commerce owners who are scaling too - https://www.facebook.com/groups/924567391291786

This week on the podcast, we’re breaking down one of the biggest reasons ecommerce brands struggle to scale with ads.

It’s not always a traffic problem.

It’s usually a revenue per visitor problem.

Most store owners focus on traffic or conversion rate, but revenue per visitor is the metric that really drives ROAS, profitability, and growth.

 

In this episode:

What revenue per visitor actually means

How it directly impacts your ROAS and ad performance

Why is the conversion rate alone is misleading

The relationship between AOV, conversion rate, and revenue per visitor

Why your ads might not be the real problem

The easiest lever to improve revenue per visitor quickly

Real examples of how improving this metric changes everything

Why most ecommerce stores are under-optimised

Fix this one number, and your entire store performs differently.

 

P.S. Whenever you’re ready... here are 3 ways Ian and I can help you grow your ecommerce business:

 

1. Talk to us. Book a call with us and let's talk about accelerating your growth - https://go.hammersleybrothers.com/scheduleuk-ant

 

2. Grab a copy of our book - https://gohigh.hammersleybrothers.com/get-the-book

3. Join the Ultimate Guide To Ecommerce Facebook group and connect with e-commerce owners who are scaling too - https://www.facebook.com/groups/924567391291786

Buying an ecommerce business can look straightforward on the surface.
The revenue looks good. The brand looks decent. The seller talks about “huge potential”.

But this is where people get caught out.

What matters is not what the business looks like from the outside. It’s what is really going on underneath. The numbers. The margins. The customer behaviour. The cash flow. The operational risks you inherit the moment the deal is done.
 

In this podcast episode, Mark and Ian break down the biggest mistakes people make when buying an ecommerce business, the red flags that are easy to miss, and what you should actually be looking at before you hand over any money.
 

Because if you get this wrong, you’re not buying an opportunity. You’re buying a pile of problems.

In this podcast episode:
 

Why the stated profit is often not the real profit

The hidden costs that only show up once you take over

How supplier risk can destroy your margins overnight

Why are there no repeat customers? It is a massive warning sign

The difference between having customers and just having orders

How to tell whether a business is under-optimised or just weak

Why margin and lifetime customer value matter far more than top-line revenue

What actually creates a moat in ecommerce

Why reselling other people’s products is often riskier than it looks

The danger of trend-driven and fad products

How stock, lead times, and cash flow quietly kill ecommerce businesses

The key questions you should be asking before you buy

If you’re even considering buying an ecommerce business, watch this first.

 

P.S. Whenever you’re ready... here are 3 ways Ian and I can help you grow your ecommerce business:
 
 
 
1. Talk to us. Book a call with us and let's talk about accelerating your growth - https://go.hammersleybrothers.com/scheduleuk-ant
 
 
 
2. Grab a copy of our book - https://gohigh.hammersleybrothers.com/get-the-book
 
 
3. Join the Ultimate Guide To Ecommerce Facebook group and connect with e-commerce owners who are scaling too - https://www.facebook.com/groups/924567391291786

In our latest podcast episode, we unpack five distinct areas that ecommerce brands should focus on right now.

Why now? Because market conditions are shifting quickly, demand is less predictable, and AI is changing both the cost and complexity of execution.

Pre-developing weather-related campaigns

Brands can no longer afford to wait and react. The businesses winning right now are planning weather-led campaigns in advance so they can move as conditions change.

Planning for the impact of major events on demand

Big events this year, such as the World Cup or elections, can significantly skew consumer demand. We talk about why those moments need to be factored into planning early, not treated as an afterthought.

Understanding whether performance is brand-led or market-led

Categories are moving unevenly at the moment. Some are growing, some are flat, and some are down. It is critical to understand whether your performance is a reflection of your strategy or the broader market.

Reviewing AI for front-end work to lower costs

AI is now creating real opportunities to reduce costs in front-end marketing and production work. We look at where it can genuinely improve efficiency right now.

Why taking ads in-house is easier now than it was a year ago

AI has simplified campaign management to the point where bringing ads in-house is now far more realistic for many brands than it was even 12 months ago.

This is a timely episode for marketers thinking about how to respond to changing demand, improve efficiency, and build a more adaptable marketing model for the year ahead.

 

P.S. Whenever you’re ready... here are 3 ways Ian and I can help you grow your ecommerce business:

 

 

1. Talk to us. Book a call with us and let's talk about accelerating your growth - https://go.hammersleybrothers.com/scheduleuk-ant

 

2. Grab a copy of our book - https://gohigh.hammersleybrothers.com/get-the-book

3. Join the Ultimate Guide To Ecommerce Facebook group and connect with e-commerce owners who are scaling too - https://www.facebook.com/groups/924567391291786

Most ecommerce businesses are not worth investing in.

 

Not because they are bad businesses.

 

But because they are structurally broken.

 

In this episode, Mark and Ian break down what actually makes an ecommerce business investable and why only a small percentage truly stands out.

 

They cover:

Why do only 1 in 10 ecommerce businesses have real scale potential?

The difference between a lifestyle business and a scalable asset

What “structurally broken” actually means in ecommerce

The three key levers every serious investor looks at

How to spot an unoptimised business with huge upside

Why high margins and repeat purchases change everything

The role of conversion rate, average order value, and lifetime value

Why boring problem-solving products often outperform trendy brands

How to think about market size and long-term growth potential

This is not a theory.

These are the exact lenses used to evaluate real ecommerce businesses doing millions.

If you are building a brand, this episode will show you what makes it valuable and what holds most businesses back.

 

P.S. Whenever you’re ready... here are 3 ways Ian and I can help you grow your ecommerce business:

 

 

1. Talk to us. Book a call with us and let's talk about accelerating your growth - https://go.hammersleybrothers.com/scheduleuk-ant

 

2. Grab a copy of our book - https://gohigh.hammersleybrothers.com/get-the-book

3. Join the Ultimate Guide To Ecommerce Facebook group and connect with e-commerce owners who are scaling too - https://www.facebook.com/groups/924567391291786