eCommerce Conversations

Contrary to much U.S. sentiment, Molson Hart sees opportunity in China. His direct-to-consumer toy brand, Viahart, sells mostly on Amazon, though growth has slowed in recent years. China, he says, offers promise. In this our third interview (following episodes in 2022 and 2024), recorded from an X live stream, he shares his plans to sell...

Chris Wichert is an investment banker turned direct-to-consumer entrepreneur. His luxury shoe brand, Koio, launched in 2015 and quickly scaled. Then the pandemic hit. By late 2022, he says, the D2C hype and funding had collapsed. He slashed costs, stabilized cash flow, and successfully exited the company. In this episode, he shares his story of...

Host Eric Bandholz has interviewed a slew of impressive entrepreneurs on this podcast. He says Drew Fallon is among the most versatile. Drew last appeared on the show in 2022 when he had co-founded a tattoo skincare company. Before that he was an investment banker. He now runs Iris, an AI-driven financial modeling platform, while...

For years EcomFuel has surveyed its community of ecommerce merchants about their growth, margins, tactics, and more. The company released this year's findings last week. In this episode, founder Andrew Youderian recaps the report, addressing the state of ecommerce among 300 participating businesses — mostly seven, eight, and nine-figure brands. For an edited and condensed...

Molson Hart is the founder of Viahart, a D2C toy brand, and Edison, a legal technology company. He says every entrepreneur should own two businesses, where one offers more opportunities to scale, is more profitable, or diversifies risk. I'm all in on Beardbrand, my own D2C brand launched in 2014. Molson is a two-time guest...

Dave Diederen is the founder of Syntra, a Netherlands-based conversion rate optimization agency. He encourages ecommerce brands to test product pages, ads, and, well, everything.  He says merchants often prioritize their sites' aesthetics over copy and content, a big mistake. “Content and copy play a very big role in conversions, if not the biggest,” he...

Since 2013 Cherene Aubert has managed, advised, and executed ecommerce marketing campaigns. She's worked for agencies, merchants, and as a freelance consultant. Her D2C advisory firm, Growth Capital, helps scale premium, high-growth brands. Experience guides her advice. Brands are too quick to discount slow-moving products, she says. Bundles or buy-one-get-one offers are often better. Higher-priced...

Ray Hua is the director of ecommerce at Vessi, a Canada-based direct-to-consumer seller of waterproof sneakers. The brand launched in 2017 after its founders developed and patented breathable fabric that repels water. Ray joined the company in 2021. In this episode, he shares the challenges of targeting the right audience, cross-border selling, diversifying, and more....

In 2019 Nasrin Jafari was a middle school teacher in New York City. She had no ecommerce experience but was drawn to creating and building, which led her to sew and sell face masks during Covid. Fast forward to 2026, and Mixed, her direct-to-consumer fashion brand, designs and produces female apparel and accessories. Referring to...

Kaleigh Moore is a 12-year freelance writer and editor. She has contributed to Shopify, Forbes, Vogue, Adweek, and various B2B providers, among others. She's now grappling with the promise and limits of AI. She calls AI a “fire hose of information” that greatly increases efficiency. She also cautions on what it cannot do, such as...

Occasionally on the podcast host Eric Bandholz departs from interviewing guests to share his own experiences running Beardbrand, the D2C company he founded in 2012. In this episode, he addresses his favorite ecommerce tools in 2026, 18 platforms and apps essential to his business — from foundational site infrastructure to solutions for marketing, operations, creative,...