Ecommerce Playbook: Numbers, Struggles & Growth

Brandon Horoho, co-founder and CMO of Montana Knife Company (MKC), joins Taylor Holiday live at Commerce Roundtable in San Diego to break down a Black Friday strategy built around product drops. MKC creates five distinct shopping events across the week, giving customers reasons to buy full-price knives as new products and inventory become available.
Brandon explains how the team plans those releases around different customer interests, gives each launch its own email and SMS push, and schedules additional drops after Cyber Monday to keep selling through the Christmas shipping cutoff.
In this episode:
Creating five Black Friday shopping events around culinary knives, pocket knives, and other product categories.

Using product availability to generate excitement without running public discounts on knives.

Why MKC sends each holiday event to its full audience instead of segmenting by customer interest.

Planning BFCM launches around real manufacturing capacity and inventory constraints.

Keeping products available for December shoppers after earlier years left the brand sold out before Christmas.

Building demand through organic content and collaborations when paid advertising options are limited.

This episode is brought to you by:
- Trybe: https://bit.ly/4xXvD08
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- Bill: https://bit.ly/4e9JQQm
Show Notes:
Q4 waits for no one. AppLovin is offering $5K ad credit when you spend $5K. Go to applovin.com/ctc to set up your first campaign

Learn more: https://commonthreadco.com

Track your brand’s performance: https://statlas.io

Work with us: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/contact

Have a question for the Ecommerce Playbook? Email podcast@commonthreadco.com

iOS 27 is raising questions about Meta ads tracking ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Tony Chopp and Steve Rekuc examine what changed, what CTC is seeing in conversion data, and which parts of your Shopify and Meta setup deserve a closer look.
CTC’s early analysis showed Meta conversion rates down roughly 15% year over year from October 8–18. That decline caught the team’s attention, but it does not establish Apple’s update as the cause. Tony and Steve explain how to investigate your conversion tracking before drawing that conclusion.
In this episode:
What iOS 27’s browser-based tracking changes target and how they differ from iOS 14.5.

How missing or incomplete conversion signals can affect attribution and ad targeting.

What to review in your Meta Pixel, Conversions API (CAPI), and Shopify data-sharing settings.

Comparing Shopify orders with purchase events in Meta Events Manager to investigate missing or duplicate events.

Why event match quality matters and what changing iOS adoption means for the timing of incrementality tests.

Start with the last 30 days of Shopify purchases and the corresponding purchase events in Meta. Tony and Steve explain what discrepancies can reveal and where to investigate before holiday spending increases.
Show Notes:
Go to https://www.universalads.com/middleman and use code UACTC to get $2,500 in matched ad credits when you spend $2,500.

Learn more: https://commonthreadco.com

Track your brand’s performance: https://statlas.io

Work with us: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/contact

Have a question for the Ecommerce Playbook? Email podcast@commonthreadco.com

Profitable ecommerce growth gets harder when repeat purchases are limited. In his Commerce Roundtable San Diego keynote, Taylor Holiday examines how Skullcandy, The Normal Brand, and Spiral Bible are growing with low customer lifetime value (LTV) and a need to make customer acquisition profitable on the first order.
Taylor walks through changes to distribution, creative production costs, and campaign planning that helped these brands find room to scale. He also shares CTC’s research on ad performance to explain why the cost of finding successful creative matters.
In this episode:
Skullcandy: TikTok Shop reached 4.3x its January level by August, while ecommerce reached 2.7x its January level. He explains how creator content can generate demand that converts across the website, Amazon, and retail.

The Normal Brand: June ad spend doubled year over year while incremental ROAS held steady. He explains how commission-based creator production increased creative volume and reduced upfront production costs, making more testing financially viable.

Spiral Bible: Coordinated marketing moments and creator production supported a 4.4x increase in ad spend from May to August, while platform ROAS improved from 1.63 to 1.91. He breaks down how the team aligned offers, creators, email, and website messaging.

Creative testing economics: In CTC’s analysis of more than 1.3 million ads, the top 5% accounted for 73% of calculated contribution value before creative production costs. He explains why that distribution changes what brands can afford to pay for each new ad.

Show Notes:
Expand beyond your own site without building a whole new operation. Find out what’s possible at https://www.mirakl.com/ctc

Learn more: https://commonthreadco.com

Track your brand’s performance: https://statlas.io

Work with us: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/contact

Have a question for the Ecommerce Playbook? Email podcast@commonthreadco.com

Black Friday ad spend can generate a different incremental return than it does during a typical sales period. Luke Austin, President of Common Thread Collective, joins Richard Gaffin to explain how incrementality testing can help you decide where your holiday budget belongs.
They discuss what CTC has observed in promotional-period tests and why your usual return on ad spend (ROAS) target may need adjusting during Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM). The goal is to understand which sales your ads generate beyond what would have happened without them, then use that information to guide spending.
From there, Luke explores where brands could reinvest if the results support a change, including offers that evolve throughout the day and a larger role for creators in promoting them. He shares examples brands have already tried and outlines his proposal for coordinating offers across larger creator networks.
In this episode:
Why Black Friday ad spend can be more or less incremental than spending during a typical sales period

Using conversion lift studies and holdout tests to measure additional sales

Applying incrementality findings to Meta and Google ad budgets and ROAS targets

Giving shoppers new reasons to buy through flash sales and changing gifts with purchase

Equipping creators with approved offers, inventory updates, and financial limits

Giving creators room to develop their own messaging while preserving essential product requirements

Show Notes:
Go to https://www.universalads.com/middleman and use code UACTC to get $2,500 in matched ad credits when you spend $2,500.

Learn more: https://commonthreadco.com

Track your brand’s performance: https://statlas.io

Work with us: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/contact

Have a question for the Ecommerce Playbook? Email podcast@commonthreadco.com

Luke Austin, President of Common Thread Collective, joins Richard Gaffin to explain how to keep shoppers engaged after your Black Friday sale goes live.
They break down the Power 30, the holiday window that accounts for 55% of Q4 website revenue in the data discussed, and the offer decisions that deserve attention throughout it. Luke shares examples of brands using VIP hours, featured-product flash sales, and changing gifts with purchase to give customers fresh reasons to visit and buy.
The conversation covers how to prepare those moments, adapt to sales and inventory, and keep each offer easy for shoppers to understand.
In this episode:
Building a holiday calendar around early access, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the shipping cutoff

Why Luke prioritizes offer strategy alongside the media plan during peak shopping days

What happened when one brand added its bestselling product line back into its holiday offer

Planning fresh offers and messages within a single day

Using inventory, margins, and minimum order values to shape gifts with purchase

Keeping a consistent promotional theme as individual offers change

Show Notes:
Q4 waits for no one. AppLovin is offering $5K ad credit when you spend $5K. Go to applovin.com/ctc to set up your first campaign

Learn more: https://commonthreadco.com

Track your brand’s performance: https://statlas.io

Work with us: https://commonthreadco.com/pages/contact

Have a question for the Ecommerce Playbook? Email podcast@commonthreadco.com