Store Builders Podcast
Helping business owners start their own ecommerce store
How can I take my ecommerce store to the next level?
We answer that question every episode with a little help from industry experts and successful store owners.
Hosted by Chris Lema, The Store Builders Podcast provides actionable advice for expanding your eCommerce empire.
Ryan Cowden
Ryan Cowden is a full-time podcast host and producer based in Los Angeles, California. Prior to his work as a podcaster, Ryan worked as a therapist with autistic children and spent seven years as a public school teacher. In 2018, Ryan launched his own podcast and eventually left teaching to pursue his love of podcasting and audio production. He is a podcast fanatic and doesn’t have enough hours in a week to listen to all his favorites.
Chris Lema
Chris Lema has been building ecommerce sites since 1997, back when it would take a lot of time, cost a lot of money, and still didn’t work perfectly. He's worked with WooCommerce since it was launched and helped fast-growing stores tweak it to deliver high performance. Today he is the CEO of Motivations AI.
James Sowers
James Sowers is a marketing consultant and digital product manager based in Cleveland, Ohio. He is passionate about helping other entrepreneurs build stronger, more sustainable businesses, which made him a great fit to be a co-host for our show.
Episode 60: You need Glew.io
We are living in the age of analytics. It’s easier than ever to find data about who is shopping at your store and the kind of activity occurring on your site. While the quantity of data is increasing, the quality of analysis sometimes lags behind.
Episode 59: eCommerce Segmentation
Customer segmentation is a process that allows store builders and store merchants to break down their shoppers into different segments based on factors like age, location, and other demographics. Typically, these segments are used to create more targeted and personalized messages that are more effective than one-size-fits-all newsletters.
Episode 58: The Customer Experience is Everything
Brand loyalty is a powerful force in business. The majority of shoppers prefer to shop in settings that feel familiar and safe. However, bad customer experiences can override that sense of loyalty and drive customers to new brands.
Episode 57: Creating a Return Sales Generating System
Generating return sales is one of the most cost-effective ways to improve the profitability of your business. That’s because it’s much less expensive and time-consuming to drive repeat purchases than it is to find new customers, direct them to your site, and make a sale.
Episode 56: Digging Into Bolt
Who is Bolt? What do they do? A company that began offering easy checkout and fraud protection to eCommerce sites just raised $50 million in their Series C fundraising campaign. Armed with a compelling set of features and easy compatibility with different eCommerce platforms, Bolt looks like it’s here to stay.
Episode 55: Drag & Drop eCommerce Tools
Up until now, the majority of eCommerce websites have been built by tech-savvy developers who were fluent in or familiar with some coding language. This expertise in coding provided something of a barrier to entry in the field.
Episode 54: Digging into Squarespace eCommerce
If you’ve been involved in eCommerce over the past few years, you’re aware of the major players, like Shopify, Magento, and WooCommerce. In a similar fashion, if you’ve been anywhere near the Internet in the last few years, you’re aware of the sleek, artfully designed websites created on Squarespace.
Episode 53: Fulfillment Services Beyond Amazon
When you start an eCommerce business from scratch, you tend to handle all order fulfillment in-house. Your product is often stored in your own office or garage and processed by hand.
Episode 52: Benefits of Knowing Multiple eCommerce Platforms
As you become more experienced as a store builder, you will have to make a decision about how to market yourself to potential clients. Do you advertise yourself as an expert who is a master of one eCommerce platform, or do you try to diversify yourself with a balanced set of skills that work on multiple platforms?
Episode 51: Working Capital
It’s rare for successful businesses to make it all the way to the top without some help. Even the best ideas take time to become profitable. The right injection of capital at the right time can help a good idea get off the ground or break out of a long-running plateau.