Unboxing Ecommerce: Operations Behind Online Brands
by James Marks and Jennifer Yates
In each episode, we order a product from the same brand, meticulously analyzing both the front and back end of placing an order. We then reverse engineer the storage, logistics, and packaging details to evaluate every step of its journey right to our doorsteps. And if we return a package, we'll dive into that process as well. Welcome to Unboxing Ecommerce, the brainchild of two longtime friends and entrepreneurs, James Marks and Jennifer Yates. We met over 20 years ago while running our own brick-and-mortar businesses, and today, we're combining our expertise to dissect and understand the online shopping and shipping experience. Join us for a comprehensive, 360-degree view of ecommerce. Whether you're an industry professional, an ecomm enthusiast, or just curious about what happens behind the scenes, we've got you covered. Episodes drop every other Tuesday. Let's get to that box!
Episodes
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Rhoback with Matt Hertz
James and Jennifer are joined by their final guest, Matt Hertz, Founder and CEO of Third Person, a digital marketplace helping ecommerce brands discover and connect with the right fulfillment partners. With 15 years of experience leading ecommerce operations at companies like Rent the Runway,...
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Brightland with Kevin Lawton
James and Jennifer are joined by Kevin Lawton, founder of The New Warehouse podcast and blog, which he launched in 2019 to bring awareness to the warehousing industry. With 13 years of experience in inventory control and operations management, Kevin has been involved in multiple new distribution...
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Loop Earplugs with Hillary Hughes
This week James and Jennifer are joined by Hillary Hughes, Principal at Foster Garvey, a full-service law firm with 150 attorneys across six offices in the U.S. Hillary is a business, food & beverage, CPG, beauty & wellness, sports & entertainment, fashion & apparel, and technology attorney. She...
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1st Phorm with Derek Loftus
This week James and Jennifer are joined by Derek Loftus, Co-Founder of PopCapacity, a platform focused on adding visibility and a modern procurement experience for brands when sourcing and connecting with warehousing partners for fulfillment and storage. With expertise in e-commerce fulfillment…
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Tuckernuck with Kate Klemmer Terry
This Week on Unboxing Ecommerce James and Jennifer are joined by Kate Klemmer Terry, Chief Commercial Officer at Outerspace, a 3PL company redefining fulfillment for mid-to-high-end brands. With extensive experience in retail, logistics, and brand strategy, Kate shares her insights into the…
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Ghia with Robyn Young
This week on Unboxing Ecommerce, James and Jennifer are joined by Robyn Young, an entrepreneur, brand strategist, and founder of Young & Co, an indie creative partner for startups to scaleups. With a career spanning 18 years, Robyn combines strategic thinking with creative magic to build…
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A Year of "Get To That Box"
Let’s get to the box—and this time, it’s a big one! Jennifer and James are celebrating an entire year of Unboxing Ecommerce, and this special episode is all about reflecting on the 28 episodes so far. From humble beginnings as a one-episode experiment to reaching listeners across 37 countries…
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Momofuku Goods with Moni Kupczak Ainslie
On this episode of Unboxing Ecommerce, James and Jennifer order from Momofuku Goods with special guest, Moni Kupczak Ainslie. Moni is the Founder of Koopslie a consultancy that optimizes Faire stores for brands in CPG, beauty, fashion, and gift. By using her 360 Faire Optimization method, Moni...
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Taco Bell
On this episode of Unboxing Ecommerce, James and Jennifer take an unconventional approach by combining lunch and logistics. With no guest, they order from Taco Bell to explore how this fast-food giant exemplifies top-tier operations and ecommerce practices. From their smooth online ordering...
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Tracksmith with Blair Beckwith
On this episode of Unboxing Ecommerce, James and Jennifer order from Tracksmith with special guest, Blair Beckwith. Blair has been working in the commerce enablement space for more than a decade. He got his start building the Shopify App Store. Today, he leads growth at Mantle, a company that...
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Magic Spoon with Maggie Barnett, Esq
On this episode of Unboxing Ecommerce, James and Jennifer order from Magic Spoon with special guest, Maggie Barnett, Esq. Maggie is the COO of ShipHero, overseeing operational, legal, managerial, and administrative procedures. She also founded ShipHero Fulfillment (LVK) in 2019, growing it to…
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Hugimals World with Christina Vanacore
On this episode of Unboxing Ecommerce, James and Jennifer order from Hugimals World with special guest, Christina Vanacore. Christina is a Certified Launch and Business Strategist, who provides launch strategy, identifies hidden opportunities for growth, and helps increase revenue and profits...
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Vida Bars with Luisa Salcedo
On this episode of Unboxing Ecommerce, James and Jennifer order from Vida Bars with special guest, Luisa Salcedo. Luisa is a seasoned Fractional COO with over a decade of experience in Operations. She specializes in helping purpose-driven CEOs by implementing operational strategies that eliminate...
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Milk Makeup with Tyler DeLarm
On this episode of Unboxing Ecommerce, James and Jennifer order from Milk Makeup with special guest, Tyler DeLarm. Tyler, Head of Demand Generation at Undigital, is a seasoned business leader and marketing consultant with a reputation for guiding successful teams with optimistic kindness. His...
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Outlier with Nima Elyassi-Rad
Welcome to Season Two! On this episode of Unboxing Ecommerce, James and Jennifer order from Outlier NYC ("Outlier") with special guest, Nima Elyassi-Rad. Nima is a technology executive and investor. He currently serves as VP of GTM at Shippo. Previously, he founded a soccer brand, spent time as a...
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Psycho Bunny with Aaron Schwartz
On this last episode of Season One, James and Jennifer order from Psycho Bunny with special guest, Aaron Schwartz. Aaron is the cofounder of Orita.ai and has previously served as President at Loop Returns. He also co-founded Passport Shipping and Modify Watches. Based in the Bay Area, Aaron grew…
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Alter Eco with Ashley Zager
This week James and Jennifer order from Alter Eco with special guest, Ashley Zager. Ashley cut her teeth in CPG taking The New Primal from a part-time, online beef jerky company to managing 25 skus processed at 7 different co-manufacturers. Since then, at Siddhi Capital she has acted as the VP of...
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Anthropologie with Monique Benoit
This week James and Jennifer order from Anthropologie with special guest, Monique Benoit, a Senior Merchant leading BIPOC Brand Development at Ulta Beauty and fellow podcast host of Scaling Emerging Beauty Podcast. Monique has worked with emerging brands to bring them to market and has a drive to...
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Skratch Labs with Amanda Hofman
This week James and Jennifer order from Skratch Labs with special guest, Amanda Hofman, the Co-Founder and CEO of Go To Market. Go To Market is a woman-owned branded merchandise business looking to revolutionize the way the world handles swag. Before Go To Market, Amanda was the Founder and CEO…
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Dieux with Mary Wiegand
This week James and Jennifer order from Dieux with special guest, Mary Wiegand, the Founder and CEO of Boon, LLC. Mary brings over 16 years of demand planning experience across a multitude of retail product types and selling channels. She has created an innovative, non-traditional business model...
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Bed Bath and Beyond with Michelle Hsiao
This week James and Jennifer order from Bed, Bath, and Beyond with special guest, Michelle Hsiao, the CEO and Founder of Revenue Growth Advisors. Michelle brings a wealth of experience to the table, having previously led merchandising teams at prestigious companies like Boscov’s, Macy’s, and Gugu...
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Cometeer Coffee with Cody Berenson
James, Jennifer, and their guest Cody Berenson (Siddhi Capital) order Cometeer Coffee and are captured by its specialness. Why Cometeer Coffee? A Food/Beverage Operator thought this disruptive product delivered in an unconventional way would present an interesting exploration into supply chain,...
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Summer Fridays with Jeff Kaiden
James, Jennifer, and their guest Jeff Kaiden (Capacity, LLC) order Summer Fridays' hero product and then some. Research included these sources: Summer Fridays: https://summerfridays.com/pages/about Today Show:...
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Temu
James and Jennifer wrap their heads around Temu. Why Temu? We wanted to understand how this Chinese app came out of nowhwere and its influence on American shoppers. Research included these sources: Temu: https://www.temu.com/about-temu.html Time: https://time.com/6243738/temu-app-complaints/…
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Rooted
James and Jennifer order from Rooted and admire the iterations. Why Rooted? Perishable items add complexity to shipping that would be fun to explore. Research included these sources: Rooted: https://heyrooted.com/pages/our-story Rooted’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CCqzCQsD_oN/…
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Warby Parker
James and Jennifer order from Warby Parker and feel trusted. Why Warby Parker? Counterpoint to Sunglass Hut (Oakley, Ray-Bans, LensCrafters, Pearle Vision) dominance. Research included these sources: Warby Parker: https://www.warbyparker.com/history The Business Model Analyst:...
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The Future of Reverse Logistics
James and Jennifer go off-format to discuss Returns with a panel of experts at Manifest Las Vegas. Special guests Jeff Wolpov (SVP, Ryder Ecommerce), Jonathan Poma (CEO, Loop), and Kyle Bertin (CEO, Two Boxes). Recorded, edited, and mastered by Matt and Alex, Podcaster Studios, Las Vegas...
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Bloomingdale's / Macy's with Maia Benson
James and Jennifer order from Bloomingdale's and guest Maia Benson (ex-Shopify) gets free shipping from Bangalore, India. Why Bloomingdale's / Macy's? Our first guest ever Maia Benson talks about nostalgia, experiencing something “special”, and the desire to tap a certain use case in her online...
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Urban Outfitters
James and Jennifer order from Urban Outfitters and James falls apart. Why Urban Outfitters? They are a sophisticated family of demographic-oriented businesses. Research included these sources: URBN: https://www.urbn.com/home Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_Outfitters Financial…
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Powell's City of Books
Community and connection come up more than once as James and Jennifer consider Powell's e-tail backend like an archaeological dig into the past. Once they get their packages, they go absolutely bananas over the branded packing slip, supporting their theory that Powell's might just care more about...
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Netflix.shop
James and Jennifer order from netflix.shop. Jennifer is not impressed with the shopping experience, surprising James, who didn't have the same visceral reaction. They talk about localization and get a bit emotional as they embrace the moniker MLP. In the end, they are kind of delighted with the...
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Bombas
James and Jennifer order from Bombas and receive their first-ever package without a packing slip. They get emo over workers in ecomm, about dry, healthy feet, and about their orders generating goodness in multiples. There's a lot of love and heart-feels in this episode. Research included these...
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Stance
James and Jennifer talk about a recent dog-sitting adventure and a Mattress Factory mystery before they order socks from Stance. They get into Stance's ties to skateboarding, Rihanna, and artists then go deep into their packages' journeys, pixels, QR codes, and bare-bones packing slips. They...
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Fenty Beauty
James and Jennifer order refillable lipstick (and mascara for Jennifer) from Fenty Beauty to analyze the shopping experience, then reverse engineer the storage, logistics, and packaging details to understand their order's journey. Research on Fenty Beauty included these sources:...
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Patagonia
James and Jennifer order a base-layer garment from Patagonia to analyze the shopping experience, then reverse engineer the storage, logistics, and packaging details to understand their garments' journey. Research on Patagonia included these sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patagonia,_Inc....
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Unboxing Ecommerce Trailer
Unboxing Ecommerce is coming soon to your favorite podcast places. Episodes drop every other Tuesday starting November 7th. James and Jennifer order products from brands to analyze the shopping experience, then reverse engineer the storage, logistics, and packaging details to understand their...
About this show
In each episode, we order a product from the same brand, meticulously analyzing both the front and back end of placing an order. We then reverse engineer the storage, logistics, and packaging details to evaluate every step of its journey right to our doorsteps. And if we return a package, we'll dive into that process as well.
Welcome to Unboxing Ecommerce, the brainchild of two longtime friends and entrepreneurs, James Marks and Jennifer Yates. We met over 20 years ago while running our own brick-and-mortar businesses, and today, we're combining our expertise to dissect and understand the online shopping and shipping experience.
Join us for a comprehensive, 360-degree view of ecommerce. Whether you're an industry professional, an ecomm enthusiast, or just curious about what happens behind the scenes, we've got you covered.
Episodes drop every other Tuesday. Let's get to that box!
Hosted by
James Marks and Jennifer Yates
Categories