eCommerce Podcast

Most ecommerce operators can rattle off their LTV, churn rate, and CAC without thinking. But when Jay Myers asked a room full of subscription experts at SubSummit whether anyone knew their referral rate, only one person raised their hand — and his was zero. That single overlooked metric, Jay argues, is the difference between a business that flatlines and one that grows exponentially.
In this episode of The eCommerce Podcast, host Matt Edmundson sits down with Jay Myers, co-founder of Bold Commerce, to unpack the data behind referral-driven growth — and why a tiny shift in referral rate can mean 56 times more subscribers. Jay shares the strategies that actually work, from golden ticket referrals to paid memberships, and explains why most "share and save" programmes fall flat. Whether you run a subscription box or a one-time-purchase store, this conversation is packed with ideas you can start using today.
00:00 — Introduction and Jay's background
02:56 — From archery store to 32 Shopify apps
11:14 — The launch of RePete, Bold's AI reorder agent
14:32 — The Subscription Death Curve and the metric nobody tracks
22:48 — Golden tickets and the psychology of scarcity referrals
36:40 — Practical implementation for any ecommerce brand
40:14 — Dollar credits vs discounts vs percentages
45:45 — Paid membership vs free loyalty programmes
49:21 — How to connect with Jay

Why Your Referral Rate Matters More Than LTV, Churn or CAC
[14:32] Jay's 2022 SubSummit talk, "The Subscription Death Curve," revealed a striking blind spot in ecommerce. He asked a room of subscription operators to name their most important metric. People shouted out LTV, churn, CAC, and ARPU. Then he asked how many knew their referral rate. Not a single hand went up.
The data tells a compelling story. Doubling acquisition moves the subscriber count higher, but the business still flatlines at the same point — around month 32. Reducing churn pushes the flatline further out, but it still flatlines eventually. However, increasing the referral rate from just 0.8 to 1.2 — a difference of 0.4 — results in 56 times more subscribers by month 30.
Less than 3% of the average marketing budget goes toward referral programmes
A viral coefficient above 1 is needed for true viral growth
Super-referrers need uncapped ability to keep sharing

"There is no bigger thing you can do to your business to change the long-term health of it than increasing customers who refer other customers." — Jay MyersGolden Tickets and the Psychology Behind Referrals That Actually Convert
[22:48] Most referral programmes follow the same formula — share a code, both people get a discount. Jay explains why this generic approach rarely works, and it comes down to the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
The golden ticket strategy works on a completely different principle. Instead of rewarding the sharer upfront, the approach relies on scarcity. One unique code, no immediate reward for the person sharing, and a focus on finding the ideal customer rather than casting a wide net.
Generic "share 10, get 10" codes produce low engagement because extrinsic rewards crowd out genuine enthusiasm
Scarcity-based referrals tap into intrinsic motivation — people share because the offer feels special
This strategy requires no app — Jay walks through how to run it with a CSV export and any email tool

Dollar Credits Beat Discounts — and Here's Why
[40:14] Not all incentives are created equal. Jay breaks down the psychology behind different reward structures.
Dollar credit performs best — it creates a sense of ownership ("there's £10 in your account")
Dollar discount comes second — tangible but framed as future savings rather than something already owned
Percentage discount performs worst — abstract, requires mental arithmetic, feels distant

The distinction is subtle but significant. Credits feel like money already in your pocket, which changes buying behaviour far more effectively than a promise of future savings.
Paid Memberships and the Sunk Cost Psychology That Builds Loyalty
[45:45] Jay highlights three brands that show why paid membership programmes outperform free loyalty schemes through sunk cost psychology.
Restoration Hardware — $125/year membership. Their 100,000 members account for 95% of revenue and spend 400% more than non-members
Fabletics — $50/month gives members $70 in credit. The monthly commitment fundamentally changes how members shop
Amazon Prime — almost never the cheapest option, but Prime members rarely price-shop elsewhere. The membership creates brand affinity that makes comparison redundant

When someone pays to be part of something, they behave differently. Free loyalty programmes ask nothing and, in return, tend to get very little engagement. A paid membership creates a psychological contract that drives repeat purchases and deeper brand connection.
Today's Guest
Today's guest: Jay Myers
Company: Bold Commerce
Website: boldcommerce.com
LinkedIn: Connect with Jay on LinkedIn
Episode link: https://www.ecommerce-podcast.com/the-metric-nobody-tracks-that-drives-56x-subscriber-growth

With 56% of CEOs reporting zero ROI from their AI investments, Matt Edmundson takes a refreshingly honest look at the four AI tools he actually uses across his ecommerce businesses right now. In this solo Slingshot episode of the eCommerce Podcast, Matt breaks down his monthly AI spend of roughly £350 and explains exactly how each tool fits into daily operations at Aurion, from deep research sessions to product photography and building what he describes as a digital second brain. Rather than chasing every shiny new tool, Matt shares how his team culled their AI subscriptions and settled on a focused toolkit that delivers real results. He also tackles the thorny issue of team adoption and offers a practical challenge for anyone still sitting on the AI fence.
Key Points:
Claude Code and Obsidian as a Second Brain [00:05:00]
Deep Research with Perplexity [00:13:00]
Learning Smarter with Google Notebook LM [00:16:00]
Making the Tools Work Together [00:23:00]

Claude Code and Obsidian as a Second Brain [00:05:00]
Matt’s primary AI tool is Claude on the Max plan at around £150 per month, and he pairs it with Obsidian, a note-taking app that stores everything as plain markdown text files on your computer rather than locking them away in someone else’s cloud. The real magic happens when Claude Code connects to this system.
“Think of the difference between texting a plumber for advice versus having the plumber in your house with their tools.”That’s the difference between using a chatbot in a browser and running Claude Code in your computer’s terminal, where it can see your files, run commands, and make changes directly.
All company information, branding documents, playbooks, and scripts live inside one Obsidian vault
Claude reads thousands of notes and even learns and updates its own files over time
Matt describes the result as “more like having a team member who has spent six months reading every document you have ever written”
Everything stays local on your machine, which is a significant security advantage over cloud-only tools
The migration from his previous app (Craft) to Obsidian took about two days, and the system has been running for roughly three months

Deep Research with Perplexity [00:13:00]
For research tasks, Matt turns to Perplexity at around $20 per month. Unlike a standard chatbot, Perplexity provides sources with clickable links so you can verify everything it tells you.
The narrative binding episode (episode 274) came from a full-day Perplexity research session that produced a 30-page document
Matt uses the voice chat feature during his Wednesday morning walks, turning exercise time into research time
The sourced approach means you can trust and fact-check the output rather than blindly accepting AI-generated claims

Learning Smarter with Google Notebook LM [00:16:00]
Google Notebook LM, part of the Google Gemini suite at roughly $20 per month, takes a different approach to AI-assisted learning. Instead of drawing on the entire internet, it restricts its answers to the sources you upload, with a limit of up to 300.
Matt used it to study negotiation techniques, uploading both Getting to Yes and Never Split the Difference and then asking questions across both books
The audio generation feature creates 20-minute podcast-style conversations from your uploaded sources, making it easier to absorb material on the go
Because it only references what you give it, there’s far less risk of hallucinated information creeping in

Making the Tools Work Together [00:23:00]
The real value comes not from any single tool but from how they connect. Matt outlines a workflow where Perplexity handles the initial research, Claude Code turns that research into playbooks and frameworks, and those playbooks generate prompts for other tools like Nano Banana (Google Gemini’s image generation, used for product lifestyle shots).
Nano Banana has been used for product photography, including an Omega-3 bottle lifestyle shot with dolphins, though Matt still works with his photographer Lindy for key shoots
AI supplements the creative process rather than replacing it
The system stays current over time because Claude updates its own reference files as new information comes in
Team adoption has been gradual. Even the dev team were slow to pick it up. Not everyone needs the full setup, and the admin team use Claude with project files and specific prompts tailored to their roles
Matt’s challenge to listeners is simple but pointed. Pick one thing, give it a proper go for two weeks, and remember that AI is a co-pilot, not a replacement

Episode link: https://www.ecommerce-podcast.com/how-im-using-ai-in-my-ecommerce-businesses-right-now

Most ecommerce brands know everything about their customers but communicate like they know nothing. That’s the observation at the heart of this conversation with Max Beech, founder of Athenic and former product manager at Revolut and Yahoo. Max has spent years building personalisation features at scale, and he has a clear view of where ecommerce businesses consistently lose their best customers.
In this episode, Matt and Max explore why the first 14 days after a purchase are the most important — and most wasted — window in the entire customer journey. They discuss why sending a discount code on day three might be doing more harm than good, why asking your customers one simple question beats months of behavioural tracking, and how smaller brands can turn their size into a genuine competitive advantage. Max also shares a story from the Ritz Carlton that became a Harvard Business School case study, and leaves listeners with a 20-minute audit that could shift the way they think about every message they send.
Key timestamps
[03:43] The first 14 days and why silence after the sale is costing you
[09:57] Why one question beats months of data tracking
[13:02] How to be personal without needing to scale
[34:19] The Ritz Carlton giraffe and the power of being human

The First 14 Days That Most Brands Waste
[03:43]
There’s a window after someone places their first order — roughly the first 14 days — that most brands either ignore completely or fill with exactly the wrong thing.
Some treat it as dead air. The order’s been placed, the product’s on its way, and so there is nothing to do until next time. Others jump straight into selling mode (any sound familiar?) — a 10% off code on day three, a cross-sell email on day five. But the customer hasn’t even received their order yet.
“Don’t try and sell them anything. Everyone’s been in that experience where they’ve been inside a store and that salesperson is just nagging them trying to be too salesy. It’s exactly the same experience that a lot of customers feel when they’re online.” — Max BeechThe irony is that this 14-day window is the moment of highest trust. The customer has just handed over their money. They’ve made a decision. They’re open, engaged, and paying attention. And most brands respond with either silence or a sales pitch.
Matt draws a comparison with his favourite coffee shop in Liverpool. Everything is designed to get you to the counter — beautiful decor, a glass case full of pastries, a well-designed menu board, and friendly staff who take your order with a smile. Then you pay, and everything changes. You’re directed to stand in a formless queue with no sense of order, nothing to look at, and no engagement until someone shouts your name.
“Everything is geared to getting your coffee order. And then of course they want to make you a good coffee. But at the end of the day, the experience while they deliver is rubbish.” — Matt EdmundsonThe parallel with ecommerce is hard to miss. Beautiful websites. Clever ads. Everything is engineered for that first purchase. Then the order is placed and it’s crickets.
Why One Question Beats Months of Data Tracking
[09:57]
Most ecommerce segmentation is based on what customers bought, not why they bought it. Max uses a simple example to show why that matters.
Someone buys a pair of running shoes. Standard segmentation puts them in one bucket — “bought running shoes.” They’ll get emails about running shoes, probably some socks, maybe a water bottle. But why did they buy those shoes? They might be training for a marathon. Or they might have just got a new dog and need something comfortable for walks. Two completely different customers with completely different needs, buying the exact same product.
“If you’re trying to segment customers, you’re probably putting those two people into the same bucket, whilst in reality, it needs to be a very different experience.” — Max BeechThe fix isn’t complicated. A single question in a post-purchase email — “Why did you buy this?” — gives more useful information than months of behavioural tracking. And yet most brands never ask.
Matt raises a fair concern about response rates, especially for smaller stores. Max’s answer is reassuringly practical.
You don’t need statistical significance. Reaching out to about 10 customers is usually enough to spot a trend.
It doesn’t need to be a formal survey. A WhatsApp message or a phone call to your top customers can work just as well.
With tools like Claude, you can collect free-form answers and then analyse them in bulk later for patterns you’d never spot manually.

Being Personal Without Needing to Scale
[13:02]
There’s a common objection to this kind of personalisation and it’s the belief that it doesn’t scale. Max’s response is straightforward — it doesn’t need to.
“If you stick a handwritten letter in your next product delivery, then the open rate is going to be 100%.” — Max BeechMax references Stitch Fix, the personal styling company that built a billion-dollar business on the premise that your personal stylist remembers you. Every profile update, every kept item, every returned item, every note — it was all stored and used. Their algorithm wasn’t really an algorithm at all. It was just being incredibly organised with customer data so that a human could use it at the right moment.
The same principle applies at any scale. Even without investing in software, ecommerce founders can build a better understanding of each customer by being more organised with where they store data and knowing where to look when someone reaches out.
Max also shares his own experience at Yahoo, where the finance app sat at 3.5 stars on the Android Play Store. He spent at least an hour every single day replying to every review — reading them, responding personally, feeding the insights into the product roadmap, and even going back to update reviewers when a fix had been deployed. It wasn’t scalable. He managed it for about a year. But it transformed his understanding of what customers actually wanted.
“It’s where ecom businesses have such an opportunity to be more personal and to try to find those opportunities that the bigger brands aren’t able to fulfill.” — Max BeechThe Ritz Carlton Giraffe and Why Being Human Goes Viral
[34:19]
A family stayed at the Ritz Carlton. Their child left behind a beloved stuffed giraffe called Joshi. The parents told the boy that Joshi had stayed behind for a holiday. The hotel staff found Joshi and ran with it. They photographed him by the pool, in a spa robe, driving a golf buggy, lounging with sunglasses. They created a full photo album of Joshi’s extended vacation and returned him to the family with the album.
It wasn’t efficient. It wasn’t in any brand guidelines document. But it went viral and became a Harvard Business School case study — because it was human.
“There are lots of examples where a company just allows either themselves or their customer service team to be human and to break the rules. And that’s where you can really change it.” — Max BeechThis connects directly to the advantage that smaller ecommerce businesses hold over the giants. Amazon can sell on convenience, but they don’t know their customers. Large brands with centralised customer service teams and templated responses can’t do what a founder who picks up the phone can do.
Max’s parting challenge is disarmingly simple. Go into your email platform and look at the last five messages you sent to customers. For each one, ask yourself whether it’s about what the brand wants or about what the customer needs right now.
“If the answer is mostly what I want — and it probably is — then you’ve got a really clear brief of what to fix first. It takes probably 20 minutes. Most brands will never do it.” — Max BeechThat 20 minutes might be the most valuable thing an ecommerce founder does this week.
Today’s Guest
Today’s guest: Max Beech
Company: Athenic
Website: getathenic.com
LinkedIn: Connect with Max on LinkedIn
Episode link: https://www.ecommerce-podcast.com/why-your-best-customers-leave-after-the-first-order

Mobile shoppers decide to buy or leave after seeing less than a third of your product page. Adam Pearce from Blend Commerce has seen it happen across hundreds of Shopify stores and shares the fixes that consistently lift conversion rates by 30 to 50 percent.
Episode Summary
In this episode, we dig into the gap between how ecommerce sites are designed (on desktop, in boardrooms) and how they are actually experienced (on a phone, in three scrolls). Adam Pearce, co-founder of Blend Commerce and organiser of eCom Collab Club in London, shares the data-backed changes that move the needle most on mobile from a single search bar tweak to trust signals that boosted one client's average order value by 34 percent. He also covers mobile apps, on-site quizzes, heat mapping, and why knowing your North Star number matters more than any individual tactic.
Key Point Timestamps:
05:06 - The mobile experience problem
06:00 - The exposed search bar (30-50% conversion lift)
10:22 - Three thumb scrolls and mobile decision-making
19:54 - Accordion menus, sticky CTAs and product page structure
22:46 - Trust signals: the car parts example
34:43 - What consistently works across sites
43:51 - Data tracking and your North Star number
The Exposed Search Bar (06:00)
Most mobile sites bury search behind a small magnifying glass icon. Blend Commerce has spent the past couple of years running one simple test: make the search bar visible. Always. The result is a conversion rate increase of 30 to 50 percent, consistently, across sites of all sizes.
It even works for small catalogues. Working with a US crisp brand that had just eight SKUs, the team discovered that customers were searching for ingredients which told them the information existed but was not easy to find. One change opened the door to understanding how customers were actually navigating the site.
The broader principle is that people are lazy. Not in a negative sense but in the way that every one of us, given the option between effort and ease, chooses ease. Making search visible is making it easy. Making it easy makes people buy.
Three Thumb Scrolls (10:22)
Using heat-mapping tools like Microsoft Clarity, Adam's team can see how far down a mobile product page visitors actually get before they act. The number is consistent and striking: between 23 and 30 percent of the page. That is less than a third and after that point, the visitor has either bought or gone.
As Adam explains: "People will agonise about all these wonderful sections. But a lot of the time, they have kind of made their mind up already."
The practical takeaway is simple: the top 30 percent of every mobile product page is where the focus needs to go. Every element competing for space in those three scrolls has to earn its place. Everything else, style suggestions, lengthy brand story, people-also-bought, is largely unseen.
Trust Signals Below the Button (22:46)
Blend Commerce worked with a car parts brand whose About page was full of compelling reasons to buy. Their product pages had none of it. Surveying their top LTV customers revealed two things customers valued most: a 90-day returns policy and a one-year warranty. Neither was on the product page.
They added both directly below the add-to-cart button. The result was a 15 percent increase in conversion rate and a 34 percent increase in average order value from that single change.
In a three-scroll window where decisions are made fast, trust signals do the heavy lifting. The question for any brand is: what are your best customers actually worried about and is that visible in the moment they need it most?
What Consistently Works (34:43)
Beyond the headline changes, Adam shares several fixes that recur across sites. Instagram-style navigation circles, four or five top collections shown as visual thumbnails at the top of the page rather than a hamburger menu, give immediate visual signposting and work on desktop as well as mobile. Replacing swipe-indicator dots beneath product images with actual thumbnails means customers can see more content at a glance without swiping to discover it. And for categories where customers feel uncertain, supplements, beauty, food, an on-site quiz not only guides them to the right product but feeds data directly into segmented email flows.
Sticky add-to-cart buttons are non-negotiable. As Adam puts it: "Yes, needs to be visible at all times." The data does not argue with itself on that one.
Today's Guest
Today's guest: Adam Pearce
Company: Blend Commerce
Website: blendcommerce.com
LinkedIn: Connect with Adam on LinkedIn
Episode link: https://www.ecommerce-podcast.com/you-get-three-thumb-scrolls-before-they-buy-or-leave

Could a simple pre-approved loan quietly destroy your ecommerce business? Fractional CFO Rob te Braake from Insight Matters reveals how platform loans from Shopify and Stripe are creating a death spiral for seven and eight-figure brands — and one of his clients might not survive the year because of it.
Episode Summary
In this episode, we explore the financial blind spots that catch ecommerce founders off guard. Rob te Braake, who works with seven and eight-figure online brands as a fractional CFO, breaks down the three numbers every ecommerce owner should know in their sleep: gross margin (and why he walks away from anything below 60%), CAC to LTV ratio, and working capital cycle. We dig into the dangerous convenience of platform loans, why the repayment structure can quietly eat your margins alive, and how to build a simple sales forecast that gives you the confidence to make bigger decisions. Matt also shares his own £38 million lesson from when a supplier pricing change halved his business overnight.
Key Point Timestamps:
05:53 - Why Finance Is an Expensive Afterthought
08:54 - The Three Numbers You Need to Know
31:25 - The Death Spiral of Platform Loans
48:48 - The Sales Forecast That Changes Everything
Why Finance Is an Expensive Afterthought (05:53)
Most ecommerce founders are brilliant at marketing or product. Finance tends to come last. Rob explains why this is such a costly mistake.
"It's perceived as less sexy. And I think that's not justified," Rob admits. "Marketing is more sexy. It's the nice images. It's selling the dream." But he quickly reframes the conversation: "You run the business to make a living, to build up personal wealth, to build up family wealth. So money should be much more central to the decisions on how you run the business."
The episode draws a useful comparison to stepping on the weighing scales — most of us avoid it because the number might be uncomfortable. But that discomfort is precisely why we need to look. What gets measured gets managed, and the same applies to your business finances.
The Three Numbers You Should Know in Your Sleep (08:54)
Rob boils the financial health of an ecommerce business down to three critical numbers:
Gross Margin (Per Product Group) — Your net revenue minus cost of goods sold. Rob's threshold is clear: "If the gross margin is less than 60%, I'm out." His target breakdown is 40% COGS, 30% overhead and marketing, 30% profit. If you're running B2C on paid traffic with a 20% margin, "I think you're in a very tough spot."
CAC to LTV Ratio — Customer acquisition cost versus lifetime value. The conventional wisdom says 3:1 is good. Rob prefers 4:1. But the real insight is that this ratio depends entirely on your gross margin and product type.
Working Capital Cycle — How long from buying inventory to becoming cash-flow positive on that batch? Rob shares a client example where a seasonal Australian business must order from a European supplier six months before selling season, making it extraordinarily capital intensive. Sometimes the solution isn't better margins — it's renegotiating when you pay.
The Death Spiral of Platform Loans (31:25)
This is where the conversation gets uncomfortable. Shopify, Stripe, and QuickBooks all offer pre-approved loans with seductive simplicity.
"If anybody offers you money with such convenience, just click here and you get it," Rob warns, "you know there is a catch." The catch is interest rates around 20%, combined with repayment structures that take a percentage of all future sales.
Rob describes seeing businesses take a $20K loan one year, need $40K the next because they haven't recovered, then $80K the year after. "That's why I call it the death spiral, because you get stuck into taking out ever bigger loans. The more the company grows, the more you have to borrow. And the less you're going to end up with yourself."
One of his eight-figure clients is now in serious trouble because of exactly this pattern — strong gross margins, but financing costs so high the business may not survive the year.
The Sales Forecast That Changes Everything (48:48)
Rob's top tip is deceptively simple: build a sales forecast in a spreadsheet — not with AI.
"The thinking behind it is critical," he explains. "Thinking about what you plan to sell, in what period of the year and why, and how that cascades down to your purchasing and your cash flow. It is an eye opener. You're going to be wrong and that's fine, but just the thought process and ideally iterating that every month."
The value isn't in the accuracy — it's in the thinking. The "what if" questions that emerge when you manually work through the numbers are where the real insights live. If you hand that process to AI, you get numbers without understanding.
Today's Guest
Today's guest: Rob te Braake
Company: Insight Matters
Website: https://financeinsightmatters.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-te-braake/
Episode link: https://www.ecommerce-podcast.com/the-20k-loan-that-turned-into-an-ecommerce-death-spiral